Category Archives: Mysteries

2026, books, Mysteries, Stories, Uncategorized, Words

Connections

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Over the weekend I finished No Two Persons by Erica Baumeister.   It’s for my “other” book club.   The author refers to it as a connected collection of short stories, but it really didn’t feel that way.   Alice is the first character we meet – she is an author – and in the rest of the stories we meet those who read her book.  Even though it was clear that it wasn’t a novel in the traditional sense, it felt like much more involved than a random group of short stories.

Even towards the beginning it seemed that the various people in the book were connected in more ways than just being readers.  I was keeping track of them in my head and when I got finished, I realized I really wanted to see those connections on paper.  So I pulled out my markers and post-it notes and made a chart.  Nothing fancy, but it did the job.   The two smaller post-it notes are fairly minor characters but since they both touched more than one life in the book, they got added.  Miranda got two lines because she had a “give back” connection to Alice.  I can’t say more without it being a big old spoiler alert.

Language in the book was wonderful; I really felt like I got to know each of the main characters and what was motivating them.  None of the individuals felt stereotypical – Baumeister did a good job of making them real to me. 

It was a pretty quick read because I was really drawn in from the beginning and I’m recommending it highly.  5 stars.  Absolutely sure this will make the Top Ten list this year.

Do you like charts?  Have a favorite kind?  Pi charts?  Venn diagrams?  Bar charts?   Scatter charts?  Remember the last time you MADE a chart?

2026, Automotive, Business, Family, Mysteries

Forwards / Backwards

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When YA and I out together, I drive 99.9% of the time.  She likes to keep her car pristine which means driving it as little as possible; I get nervous being in the passenger seat when she drives.   So, me doing the driving is better for both of us.

Of course YA doesn’t think that being the passenger relieves her of the duty to backseat drive.  She wants to me move to another lane is the traffic is too slow for her.  She wants me to move back to the right lane sooner if our exit is coming up.  She wants to make sure I’m going at least the speed limit at all times.  She thinks I leave too much space between us and the car in front of us.  For those of you who have met YA, you know she is not shy about sharing my “failings” with me.  Ignoring her or “I am aware” are my usual modi operandi.

Parking is often an issue for her.  She is forever instructing me to back into parking spots so we can pull straight out when we leave.  Since I detest backing into parking spots (can’t even remember the last time I did), I always decline.  I’m pretty sure that the time it takes for me to back in is longer than the time to back out into the parking lot.  YA is adamant that it would save time.  I told her once that I didn’t want to stress myself out to do something would only save a nano-second.  She quickly replied that all those nano-seconds over a lifetime might add up.  Pretty fast thinking on her part but how would I ever know if it had added up?  I doubt on my deathbed and I’ll get a sign that I had 25 more minutes because of the times I backed in.

I was thinking of this last week when I was at the Dunkin drive-though very early.  The only three cars in the lot were parked in the very farthest corner from the building and all were backed in.  My first thought was that you must really be glad to be done with work if you need to roar out of your parking spot head-first at the end of your shift.  Made me laugh a little.  Second thought was that management “suggested” it to employees so that it would be clear that employees weren’t hogging the good customer spots.  This was the case in a few malls that I’ve worked at over the years.  Third thought was that it was a coincidence; you all know I’m not that great about coincidence.   But I’m not going to ask.

What about you?  Pull in or back in?  Any good parking stories? 

2026, books, Media, Mysteries, Uncategorized

Pre-Beginners

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I’ve got six different books started right now and between them, I’ve encountered a preface, a foreword, and introduction and a prologue.  Two of the books had a preface AND a foreword.  The foreword to one of these books was really grinding on me – basically laying out each short story ahead of time.  (I was listening on Libby in the car so couldn’t mess with fast forwarding.)  It occurred to me that I don’t really know the difference between all these “can we hurry up and get to the book” blockades.  So I looked them up:

Preface.  An introduction to a book, typically stating its subject, scope, or aims.  Written by the author, a preface is about the book: the history of the inspiration, what inspired it and how the writing of the book transpired.  Much more common in non-fiction books and usually includes acknowledgements.

Foreword.   The foreword, which logically come before the book is normally written by someone other than the author – another author, a friend, mentor or a subject expert.  A foreword might contain a short biography of the author, and salient points about the book.  Apparently getting a well-known author to write your foreword is a real score.

Introduction.  This is the playground of the author and is normally all about the book: a clue to what the author thinks the reader needs to know ahead of time, anything from character introduction to emphasis on themes… you name it.

Prologue.  This is part of the book, almost exclusively fiction, that takes place before the main action of the book.  A good prologue sets the scene for the rest of the book, I guess since this is actually part of the story, these don’t bug me too much.

Knowing the difference doesn’t really change my mind about their status but it made me feel a bit better knowing.

Do you read all the prefaces/forewords/introductions in a book?  What about the acknowledgements at the end?

2026, Mysteries, Travel, Uncategorized

I Can’t Go Up There

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My fear of heights doesn’t make any sense.  I’ve been up in the St. Louis Arch at least 12 times; I can walk through the viewing area with no issues and can actually look out the windows which are 630 feet above the hard hard ground.  I’ve been up in a hot air balloon twice.  I’ve even flown in an open air bi-plane.  None of these experiences bothered me.

But last week I was faced by one of my fear-of-heights nemeses – a glass elevator.  Four times I year I drop off cards for one of my charities.  All the elevators in the building are glass elevators – I checked the first time I went there.  I am only going to the second floor but every time I’m standing in front of those elevator doors, I’m wondering if maybe there are stairs someplace in the building to get me to the next level.

These aren’t the only glass elevators I’ve had trouble with.  Once, in Singapore, the hotel had two kinds of elevators.  The normal kind that went up to the 25th floor and then glass-enclosed kind that you had to take to get from the 25th to the 60th floor.  It was a glorious view of the cityscape but when I discovered that the hotel had put me up on the 50th floor (this was considered an upgrade because most folks LIKE the higher floors), I asked them to move me to a different room, preferably on the 3rd or 4th floor.  It did at least make me feel better when the front desk staff told me that this is not an uncommon request.  Phew! 

When I have no other option than to deal with glass elevators, my usual modus operandi is to stand facing the doors (which are rarely glass)… as close to the doors as I can get.  If I’m alone, then basically nose-to-door; if there are other folks, I try to keep at least a foot back so they don’t have me carted away in a pretty wrap-a-round sweater.  And I can guarantee that I am ALWAYS the first off that elevator.  I’d rather ride the escalators at the Mall of America than do glass elevators (which they also have at MOA).

So I really don’t understand why some heights don’t bother me and some heights REALLY bother me.  I’m guessing at my age I’ll probably never figure it out.

Would you rather ride in a glass elevator or hold a big snake?

2026, Family, home, Mysteries, pets

Foamy Mystery

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Every rescue dog comes with its own set of baggage to sort through.  Freya loves to chew – probably some from anxiety but more likely from being caged most of her life and now finding a whole new world of tactile sensations.

Even though I pick up the toys most nights, by 9 a.m. she has most of them out of the bin and every one is missing something – an ear, a fin, a flipper.  Once she finds a way in, then she goes all in looking for the squeaker so the white toy stuffing goes all over.  Our living room right now looks like a stuffy toy abattoir.  Even the hard rubber toys are no match for her little shark teeth.

Unfortunately, it’s not just toys.  We realized right away that pretty much anything is fair game.  It took YA a bit longer to come to terms with this – she’s lost a shoe, a slipper and a pair of shorts.  We’ve taken to limiting her smorgasbord a bit right now by putting up gates to keep her in a smaller area and by keeping a very close eye on her.

She is however quite stealthy and if your attention is elsewhere, she can get around you quite nicely.  On Saturday I spent some time on the phone with one of my BFFs from Madison.  I had been upstairs before the call and when I came down, I neglected to put up the gate at the bottom of the stairs.  A few minutes into my call, I looked up and saw Freya chewing what looked like a big chunk of yellow foam.  At first I figured she had gutted a stuffy but most toys these days are white fiber fill; I also didn’t see any stuffy carcasses nearby.  When I took it from her and headed toward the trash, I noticed more yellow foam on the landing.  I had reconfigured the dog bed situation upstairs so I thought that maybe Freya didn’t like my renovation. 

When I got off the phone, I went to check it out.  No trail of yellow foam to the landing. No cover to whatever the item had been.  Both upstairs dog beds were intact.  In fact, everything upstairs was intact.  I even checked rooms with closed doors.  I moved the gate to YA’s room and looked around in there.  Bupkiss.  I even did a slow-pan video of her room and sent it to her (she’s out of town for work) and she says it looks fine.  We haven’t replaced bathroom rug yet.  All my pillows are fine.  Downstairs everything in order.  Piano bench fine, dining room chairs fine, breakfast room dog kennel fine (I checked this twice).  Not one bit of yellow foam anywhere else.

At this point I have given up looking for whatever it was in its past life.  I’m figuring that in three months or so I’ll be looking for something, won’t be able to find it and a lightbulb will go off.  Maybe.

Have you lost anything lately that you think you might find… eventually?  Any mysteries in your life this week? 

2026, education, Family, home, Mysteries, Uncategorized

To Wrinkle or Not to Wrinkle…

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When I was growing up, ironing was as art form.   In my family, EVERYTHING got ironed, from my dad’s work shirts, to shirts and dresses, towels and sheets.  I don’t remember underwear getting the once over, but I could just be suppressing that memory.  My mother had me ironing pretty early – starting when I was in first grade – and she instructed me in the correct way to do every kind of garment/fabric.  When my dad’s ship came in, Nonny’s first luxury was to send out the laundry to be ironed.  She still washed and dried everything but then it went into a bag to get picked up by the ironing person twice a week.  I can still see the ironed items (in garment bags) hanging in the front closet after they were returned in pristine shape.

I do have an iron, but it gets lonely in the closet.  The only thing I’ve ironed in the last year was the quilt that I inherited from Nonny (well, inherited is probably the wrong word.  “helped myself to” is more like it).  And the only reason I ironed it was that I was adding sticky fabric tape to several places where the fabric had basically disintegrated over the years.  YA probably uses the iron and ironing board maybe once a quarter.

When I went off to college, Nonny did send a little travel iron with me.  Snort.  The very first things that I quit ironing were my sheets.  They stretch out on your bed and you sleep on them, for goodness sakes.  Sheets were quickly followed by just about everything else. I never looked back.

With this in mind, I’m not sure what the heck I was looking at on YouTube a few days ago, but for some reason, a few posts came up about how to fold a fitted sheet.  Then I made the fatal error of clicking on one.  Now my feed is full of folks seriously showing me how to fold a fitted sheet — all of them basically the same method – sticking the two lower corners into the top upper corners, then folding into thirds or fourths and then folding again.  It LOOKS easy, but I remember trying this years ago and it’s not that simple.  And if you’re dealing with slippery sheets, of which I have several sets for the summer, the method doesn’t really work at all.  I did find a YouTube of how I do it…

I don’t actually chuck it into the closet.  After I’ve wadded it up, I then put the folded top sheet and the pillow cases on top and then gently slide the whole pile onto the shelf.  I’m not a savage.

Toward the end of her life, I know for a fact that Nonny was still ironing some of her clothing, but she had abandoned ironing the sheets, thank goodness.  Whenever I would visit and help her with laundry, she would have us do the two-person fold.  I’m now sure what she was doing on her own.  I hope she was wadding the fitted sheet into a ball, but somehow I doubt it!

Do you fold fitted sheets?  What method do you use?  Do you use a top sheet?  Linen closet or drawers?

2026, animals, Fantasy, home, Mysteries, pets

Detente?

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When YA and I started our search for a dog, the #1 trait that I was worried about was “does this dog have a strong chase instinct”?  For eleven years, Guinevere chased Nimue.  It was just her instinct to chase, especially when startled.  Any time the cat surprised her (like jumping off the bed when Guinevere was snoozing nearby), the dog would lunge out of her sleep.  As soon as she lunged, the cat would run.  The minute the cat ran, Guinevere would chase; she couldn’t help herself.  Unfortunately this ended with the cat getting injured a couple of times early on.  After that YA and I set up a couple of serious gates that allowed escape routes for the cat in the two places where the trouble was happening.  That solved their problem – it was a pain for YA and me.  We did not want to have this problem repeated with a new dog.

While Freya does chase squirrels and rabbits in the yard, she’s not shown any interest in chasing the cat.  In fact, she is afraid of the cat. If Nimue is on the back porch when I open the door to let the dog in, Freya freezes on the back steps until I shoo the kitty back into the kitchen.  If the cat is on the steps to go upstairs, Freya will stay at the bottom of the steps until Nimue has gone all the way up.  And the only way I’ve been able to get Freya on the bed when Nimue is already in residence is with a bunch of treats; as soon as the treats are gone, the dog is gone.

Nimue is loving this.  After all those years, she is definitely enjoying having the upper paw.  She will turn and give the dog the stink eye.  There has been some hissing and I’ve even caught her chasing Freya a couple of times.

It’s been three months and I’m starting to see the very first signs of an eventual détente.  Freya is a little braver about coming in or up when she sees the cat.  The cat is ignoring more.  And a few times it seems clear that Freya would like to play with Nimue.  She follows behind, doing some sniffing and then plopping into that classic “Wanna play?” pose with the butt in the air.  Then yesterday morning, when Freya came into the kitchen, Nimue was sitting on top of the kennel.  Fraya approached slowly, nose stretched out.  Nimue didn’t exactly stretch to meet, but she didn’t back off and for a few moments they were nose to nose.  Then Nimue moved back a bit to lay on the blanket, out of Freya’s reach. 

I didn’t realize how much I was longing for this until I saw it.  All my other dogs and cats have gotten along well until Guinevere came along to rock the boat.  I do miss her but I don’t miss the chaos.  Now I’m eager to see how long it takes for Nimue and Freya to settle into, if not friendship, or even companionship, but détente.

Tell me about someone you’ve had to learn to deal with.

2026, animals, Automotive, Family, Mysteries, pets, Uncategorized

Random Chatting

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I’m pretty sure that if you asked YA if she would want anything about me changed, the top of the list would be “stop talking to strangers”.

I admit to this freely.  No big, long conversations; most of my talks to strangers are one-off comments, usually having to do with whatever situation I find myself in with strangers.  Lots of “beautiful dog” or “cute dog” or “does your dog like to say hi” or “does your dog like to be petted”.  YA was mortified about a month ago when I rolled down the car window to call out to someone that their Irish Setter was gorgeous.  I have a friend in Wisconsin who can start a friendship with anybody she meets; I’ve been with her when she got name/phone/address with a stranger we met at the zoo.  I’ve told YA she should be lucky she’s got me.  This has never mollified her.

Waiting on line for the State Fair Park `n Ride buses is the exception to my short yakking with strangers.  We’re all there for the same reason.  We all have stories to tell about various parking/bus situations.  It’s always interesting to find out where people are from (we met someone from San Diego this year) and there’s usually good information to be had about foods and entertainment.  YA has to admit that even she has taken part in these bus-line conversations.

So I felt completely exonerated yesterday morning while Freya and I were walking along in Tangletown.  I woman drove by, slowed down, rolled down her window and called out “beautiful dog” before driving away.  I felt like I had met one of my people!

Do you still say “rolled down the window” or “I typed my answer”?  Better yet, do you talk to strangers when you’re out and about?

2026, books, education, History, Movies, Mysteries

Rebel with a Clause

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A couple of weeks back, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to go see the world-premiere of Rebel with a Clause at the Main Cinema downtown.  I’d never heard of this but my friend is a writer, super funny and super curious and super intelligent so without so much as even “bing-ing” it, I bought ticket online and that Sunday, off we went. 

Explaining it doesn’t even begin to do it justice, so here is the trailer:

It was SO funny, mostly because the idea of her quest is funny and a lot of the folks in the clips were hilarious but also because the audience was also hysterical.  The movie is split up into chapters.  For example, The Comma was a bunch of clips about comma questions.  In fact, when “Commas” came up on the screen, there was a huge reaction/laugh/groan from the audience.  Clearly grammar and usage hit a spot for many people and the audience obviously knew what those hot spots are!  This happened several times.

I have never been what you would call a stickler for grammar but for most of my adult life I’ve lamented about the sad state of English.  Even having studied Shakespeare and Chaucer and knowing that English has evolved, I stood my ground.  And then I had one of those life-changing reads.  The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson (what a great title too).  He was so effective in mapping out the path of our language that by the final page, I was completely converted.  The grammar that we were taught in school really is just arbitrary made-up rules and communicating is what’s important, not whether we’re splitting infinitives or not.  (And I’m really hawking his book – interesting and funny.)

This doesn’t mean that I have thrown grammar to the wind.  I still like to speak well and I certainly appreciate it when someone uses the subjunctive correctly.  I also still cringe when people mis-use reflexive pronouns, which seems to be more often than not these days.  But overall, I’m trying to let all that go.

Ellen Jovin clearly comes down on the side of not holding people’s feet to the fire over their use of grammar even though she really knows her topic.  (This is not a spoiler alert by the way.)  Turns out that in addition to setting up her Grammar Table, eventually, in all 50 states, she also wrote a book about the experience.  I have it on hold at the library. 

So…. (VS acknowledges she is using the ellipses incorrectly) I’m highly recommending both Mother Tongue and Rebel with a Clause.  And, if you’re here in the Twin Cities, the movie will be showing again at The Main Cinema on September 21 and September 24.  Highly recommended!!

Do you remember learning grammar in school?  Any grammar rule/s that you feel warmly about? 

2026, Art, Gatherings, Mysteries, State Fair, Uncategorized

Eye Catching

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For years I wore my State Fair t-shirts to work in August – a different one each day up until opening day.  But then, for some reason, I never wore any of them TO the Fair.  I’m not sure why and I’ll admit I never really thought it was weird.  I have a nice number of flowy, tunic-like tops (you Blevins folks have probably seen all of them) and I usually wore those during fair days.

Then this year, I had several dirty projects the first week of August and didn’t wear any of my fair shirts.  This made me think about my pattern and I decided to wear fair shirt to the fair.  Radical I know.

On Saturday, I wore my newest fair shirt (above) in addition to a pair of earrings I found last year at a little shop in the Grandstand:

I don’t think I’ve ever unintentionally drawn so much attention to myself.  From the time we got in line for the Park `n Ride bus until we got back to the parking lot (about 8 hours), 13 people commented on my shirt, 2 on the earrings.  All positive comments.  And after a few of the remarks, I started to realize that a lot of folks were noticing the shirt, even if they didn’t say anything.  It was weird and surprising since only two people had said anything about the shirt I wore on Thursday.  And one of them was at the Star Tribune booth; the shirt was a Steve Sachs design…

I met a gal later in the afternoon wearing the same shirt and we had a quick conversation about the shirt and she said she had experienced the same thing I had.  I suppose the colorful corn dogs on the black background make it stand out more than most fair t-shirt designs.  The great irony is that I don’t even eat corn dogs!  Haven’t even tried the vegan one at the fair yet!

Wonder if I’ll get a lot of comments when I wear the corn design shirt with the dangly ear of corn earrings?

Do you have any items of clothing that have gotten remarks?