That's her! An amazing life, and one in which she managed to wield a lot of power and influence, and yet one that's almost completely hidden from the history books.

I love the story of how that biography came to be, basically with a doctoral student doing a boring dissertation on that period of British history and finding all these letters about Georgiana and becoming more and more fascinated until she abandoned her dissertation to write the biography. It also made me want to write a biography of Diane de Poitiers.

They are making the book into a movie with Keira Knightly (I think) playing the Duchess of Devonshire.

Thanks all. It is not so bad really, I just am not always so good at simplifying things done to a 6 year old level.

msbelle, I've heard great things about a French book by Tahar Ben Jelloun (Moroccan author, living in France) on the subject. It looks like it has been translated into English: Racism Explained to My Daughter.

On personal finance blogs; I'll have to dredge them up for you.

You know, I just realized that I could, like, watch the IRS website and see what they say after Bush signs the bill.

t facepalm

So, don't worry about the links, but thank you!

I will need to start supplimenting it with African history too, though.

Unsurprisingly my parents have the goods there too. On my trip to Kenya I wanted to pick up some Kenyan books for the kid of a friend of mine, and found myself staring at books I'd owned as a kid. Suddenly it was a recreating-old-times shopping binge, and NSM with the gifting.

They are making the book into a movie with Keira Knightly (I think) playing the Duchess of Devonshire.

Keira Knightley? Bah. I actually think she's a fine actress, but she's too young and not the right body type. Kate Winslet, OTOH, would be just about perfect.

Shrift, I take it back; everything I had read was prior to the Senate signing on to the bill.

Liz Pulliam Weston's column says what your accountant friend said: [link]

Dang.

What does slave mean? Why would they do that?

Ooh, poor noodle indeed.

I saw that there was the Obama thing (he went to All-Star Fitness? I used to walk past there every morning!) and considered going (I mean, hey, I'm unemployed, make use of it!) but....realized I didn't actually care that much. I mean, he's awesome and all, but...I didn't really want to go stand in line for a few hours to try to get in to hear him make some random speech. Meh.

Ugh. I'm likely to not GET a refund. I probably owe money. I always owe money. Can't I just refuse the check, not deposit it or something? I was just going to use it toward paying down bills, anyway. I don't need a freakin' loan.

JZ, I vote for what Kat said. It's about as polite a way of saying what I think you want to say.

And I know you didn't ask for validation, but it's perfectly legit to have such strong feelings about certain issues that you can't discuss them rationally. And then to put necessary boundaries on your discussion of them for that reason. I have my own issues where I feel that way, and I have no doubt that others here do, too.

Allyson, put it into an ING account and earn money on it before you have to pay it back to them.

I mean, he's awesome and all, but...I didn't really want to go stand in line for a few hours to try to get in to hear him make some random speech. Meh.

I went to the inauguration in 97, I guess, and that was just barely worth doing, I confess.