Lecturing Brooks Was As Useful As Lecturing

My Final Word: Don't Follow Your Dreams . . . Chase Them. With A Stick, Or A Shovel, Or Whatever You Have Handy. Get That [bleep]ing Dream!

There Is Nothing About A Bad Situation That Fourteen Hyper Cheerleaders Can't Worsen.

It Was As If The News Itself Wanted To Reassure Me. Even Jack The Ripper Himself Had Reappeared As Part Of The Greeting Committee.

We Heard Her Come Halfway Up The Stairs, Where She Must Have Seen The Bedroom Light On. Again, The Normal Parent Reaction Would Have Been To Say Something Like, "you Had Better Come Out This Moment Or I Am Releasing The Tiger!" But Debbie Was Not A Normal Parent, So We Heard Her Gigle And Creep Away, Saying, "shhh! Rachel! Come With Mommy! Stuart Is Busy!

It Rang And It Rand And It Rang. I Looked At The Screen One Last Time, Then At Stuart, And Then I Reached My Arm Back And Threw The Phone As Hard As I Could (sadly, Not That Far), And It Vanished Into The Snow. The Eight-year-olds, Who Were Truly Fascinated With Our Every Move At This Point, Chased After It. 'lost It,' I Said. 'whoops.