Thanks Daisy - I found it and put the correction upstream .

so good

While driving from DC to PA, we stopped for dinner somewhere in western Maryland. The only place we found to eat was a Sheetz, which is a gas station/convenience store with an automated ordering system -- there are touch-screen computers set up, and you pick from a ton of different kinds of sandwiches, salad, pizza, or burrito, and then there are a bunch of different options for exactly what you want on it, and you submit the order and it goes to someone behind the counter, who makes it. Kind of novel, anyway, since none of us had ever seen one before, but it turns out they're all over this area. I kind of liked being able to pick stuff that way, instead of having to stand on my toes to see over the counter to point at stuff, like I usually do at delis and Chipotles and places like that. Anyway, there was a store across the street that seemed to sell everything in the world printed or embroidered with the Confederate flag. A pickup truck drove by and honked its horn, which played "Dixie."

Where's the Ground Zero Terror Mosque? 39 Experts Explain!

Re: the NYT article, H and I sat down and discussed it, and decided this is what we wanted to do. Both kids were on their own by then, so it was only us day to day to consider. It was not a simple transition, and the most difficult thing was H being used to whipping out the plastic on a whim. I finally had to back off that one and tend to my own knitting. My mantra was, and still is in essential: "bowl, spoon, cup, walls, roof, floor, shoes, warm in winter, cool in summer." It's a constant goal, and I far from achieve it, may in fact never do. But I've learned to barter goods and services, to make decisions about choices rather than having ALL the things, and being mindful of the payment things require. A houseful of Meissen china is no doubt beautiful, but I hate dusting and can't afford to pay someone to do it for me. Plus, ownership equals psychic weight and responsibility. My choices more frequently tend to freedom rather than weight and responsibility. We're still working on it. The process is continually being refined.

I talked to my friend (the daughter-in-law of the defriender-in-question.) She said that her mother-in-law is a bully, and that she thinks that she can get away with saying anything to anyone, and that she's glad that I said what I said to her.

She also said that she has misgivings about letting her daughter spend too much unsupervised time with that grandmother as she grows up.

And our classmate from H.S. whose husband was killed in the Twin Towers is mainly concerned about watching Weeds tonight, so I'm gonna call it a day.

Thanks for being excellent, Buffistas.

ETA: Scola, snerk.

amyth, I'm sorry about the dust-up, but it's good to know we got your back, as well as RL folks. Sounds like you have less to worry about than you might have expected, and I'm glad for that.

Congratulations to Gris and spouse!

Amyth, why aren't we friends on the Book of Face? I am Robin Fogelson on there, of course. Any and all Buffistas, feel free to friend me if you are so inclined.

I'm pretty sure those "in the shadow" quotes are actually wrong. I could be misremembering somewhat, but the summer I worked in that neighborhood, I did most of my navigating by using the WTC as a landmark. I have no sense of direction, and the streets there aren't part of the grid, but I figured out that, if I got lost, I could generally find my way back to the office by facing the WTC and then figuring out where I was based on where it was. There were a few blocks where that didn't work, though, because there were some other buildings in the way, and I'm pretty sure that block was one of them. For those, I had to use the Woolworth Tower. (Which has some other name now that I can never remember.)

You did really well with it, I think, Amy.

Hil, you seem to have driven Gilbert & Sullivan out of my head in favor of Comden & Green now that you've mentioned the Woolworth Tower.