I love your idea of rebranding Generation Xers to "Generation Just-Get-On-With-It-Before-it’s-too-Late." I, myself, am of the Silent Era ( pre-GenX ), and feel more like the "Get-Off-Your-Ass-and-Make-a-Difference-While-You-Still-Have-Breath" Era. Regarding word puzzles, I find British crosswords impossibly difficult. I can complete the most challenging NYT puzzles, but they require only knowledge and virtually no creative thinking. Also, I find Brit puzzles to be quite "culture bound". Do you find that so of ours as well?
LOL Sharron - I love YOUR rebranding of the Silent Era! Absolutely perfect.
Is it only British crosswords which are deliberately cryptic? Surely not! I’ve never tried the full-fat NYT one - perhaps I should! Re culture bound - hmmm, yes, I guess they are, but I suppose that’s true of every nation’s puzzles, because they reflect the history and current affairs and culture of that nation. I get very frustrated with Connections and the NYT mini crossword when the solutions include US TV presenters or sports teams or geography! Struggled with Connections this morning with - apologies if this is a spoiler - a geographical set of four…. Still, I always learn something!
Light bulbs and coffee machines. They truly take you for granted don’t they? Happens so often. All that invisible extra work we do. Sigh. Another lovely read. Hugs from afar. 🤗🤗
The ONLY excuse they had for not replacing those bulbs was that they were teeny tiny funny little ones which required a screwdriver to get into the housing, and which had those weird prongs to attach them with. They’d taken one look and just decided to wait for me to get back to work! 🤣
Thank you so much for reading, Beth! Hugs right back (but from exactly the same distance!)! 😘
I loved the whole letter - but really made notes about the audiobook. I like Emilia Fox's voice and voice is crucial for me. If I don't relate to the voice, I'll ditch the book. Often, I don't like female narrators.
I remember listening to one of Amor Towles' books, The Didomenico Fragment, and it was read by John Lithgow. His voice grates on me despite that as an actor I quite like him. I was sooooo close to ditching the book. It just squeaked in by a smidge of persistence.
Thanks, Prue! I absolutely love Emilia Fox - she’s terrific in everything I’ve seen or heard her in, and her voice (or indeed voices, in the case of the audiobook - all of those characters certainly kept her on her toes!) is just lovely.
One of the first audiobooks I had downloaded was read by the author, and I just couldn’t get on with their voice at all, although I really wanted to ‘read’ the book. I found a different edition in the end, read by one of my favourite voiceover people. I felt rather guilty for betraying the writer in that way!
Thank you for your kind words. All will be well - I’ve just slowed my pace for a bit. Hoping to get some answers soon, but in the meantime I’m conserving energy (which, frustratingly, includes writing and screen time). It won’t be forever! xxx
The coffee maker story reminds me of the time my roommates and I called in a service technician to help us with a new answering machine (remember those!?) that we couldn't get working. It didn't take him long to find a solution. "You have to plug it in." 😂
Ooooh, thanks, Elizabeth! I’d felt so foolish having to rewind that part multiple times in order to understand it - and then I found it tremendously funny! It’s a superb book, though - that little glitch only added to my enjoyment of it!
LOL re answering machine! Also reminds me of when the monitor for our door-entry camera wasn’t working. I had to call in the (offsite!) managing agents for the office building to investigate, and it turned out I’d accidentally turned the contrast control right down when I’d been straightening the monitor! 🤣
My hat's off to you, Rebecca, for doing what seem to me, difficult crosswords! My late mum used to do NYT crosswords in pen, multiple times a day in her last years. Crossword puzzles, anagrams, and Scrabble were 3 of her favorite pursuits! I never considered myself a baby boomer, but I guess I am! I see aging creeping up on me, and some of it doesn't phase me, other parts are not so much fun. Lack of mental sharpness is the most obvious (and kinda sad) for me. Sending you lots of hugs and best well wishes, American style. ❤️
Crosswords in pen - I love the bold approach! Although I do the same (I find I can’t get a bold enough mark in pencil) I DO keep a roll of correction tape handy, and use it around as often as I use the pen! 🤣 Don’t tell, will you?!
‘Baby boomer’ has always sounded so glamorous to me, and my parents are of the immediate postwar generation, so they count amongst their number! Apparently Jim and I are the same generation as each other despite our immense* age gap.
Hugs back! And thank you! I promise you’ll see me in the comments soon. xxx
*okay, so our age gap isn’t actually ‘immense’, but it’s enough for me to believe I can kid him that I’m ‘a trophy wife’. 😉 And HE’S kind enough to let me!
I LOVE that you have correction tape handy! Go, RH!!! No one needs to know. 😂 Baby boomer as glamorous? That's a good one! Maybe I could be glamorous one day . . . 😄 Rebecca, the Trophy Wife, written and photographed by her Jim, the kindest husband of them all. That has a great ring to it, don't you think? ❤️
I’m so glad you enjoyed The Man in the Brown Suit! X
It was a riproaring yarn - proper crime-adventuring! (I’ll admit right here to my girl crush on Anne Beddingfeld…..) 😍🤣
I love your idea of rebranding Generation Xers to "Generation Just-Get-On-With-It-Before-it’s-too-Late." I, myself, am of the Silent Era ( pre-GenX ), and feel more like the "Get-Off-Your-Ass-and-Make-a-Difference-While-You-Still-Have-Breath" Era. Regarding word puzzles, I find British crosswords impossibly difficult. I can complete the most challenging NYT puzzles, but they require only knowledge and virtually no creative thinking. Also, I find Brit puzzles to be quite "culture bound". Do you find that so of ours as well?
LOL Sharron - I love YOUR rebranding of the Silent Era! Absolutely perfect.
Is it only British crosswords which are deliberately cryptic? Surely not! I’ve never tried the full-fat NYT one - perhaps I should! Re culture bound - hmmm, yes, I guess they are, but I suppose that’s true of every nation’s puzzles, because they reflect the history and current affairs and culture of that nation. I get very frustrated with Connections and the NYT mini crossword when the solutions include US TV presenters or sports teams or geography! Struggled with Connections this morning with - apologies if this is a spoiler - a geographical set of four…. Still, I always learn something!
Light bulbs and coffee machines. They truly take you for granted don’t they? Happens so often. All that invisible extra work we do. Sigh. Another lovely read. Hugs from afar. 🤗🤗
The ONLY excuse they had for not replacing those bulbs was that they were teeny tiny funny little ones which required a screwdriver to get into the housing, and which had those weird prongs to attach them with. They’d taken one look and just decided to wait for me to get back to work! 🤣
Thank you so much for reading, Beth! Hugs right back (but from exactly the same distance!)! 😘
I loved the whole letter - but really made notes about the audiobook. I like Emilia Fox's voice and voice is crucial for me. If I don't relate to the voice, I'll ditch the book. Often, I don't like female narrators.
I remember listening to one of Amor Towles' books, The Didomenico Fragment, and it was read by John Lithgow. His voice grates on me despite that as an actor I quite like him. I was sooooo close to ditching the book. It just squeaked in by a smidge of persistence.
Hope your energies are refreshing.
XXXX
Thanks, Prue! I absolutely love Emilia Fox - she’s terrific in everything I’ve seen or heard her in, and her voice (or indeed voices, in the case of the audiobook - all of those characters certainly kept her on her toes!) is just lovely.
One of the first audiobooks I had downloaded was read by the author, and I just couldn’t get on with their voice at all, although I really wanted to ‘read’ the book. I found a different edition in the end, read by one of my favourite voiceover people. I felt rather guilty for betraying the writer in that way!
Thank you for your kind words. All will be well - I’ve just slowed my pace for a bit. Hoping to get some answers soon, but in the meantime I’m conserving energy (which, frustratingly, includes writing and screen time). It won’t be forever! xxx
A fun read, Rebecca, and I especially loved the eye/ear/keyhole situation. Emphasis in an audio recording is like punctuation in a written piece. Turns out, there's a whole Reddit thread about this sort of thing: https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/comments/1at737j/correct_word_emphasis_is_important/
The coffee maker story reminds me of the time my roommates and I called in a service technician to help us with a new answering machine (remember those!?) that we couldn't get working. It didn't take him long to find a solution. "You have to plug it in." 😂
Ooooh, thanks, Elizabeth! I’d felt so foolish having to rewind that part multiple times in order to understand it - and then I found it tremendously funny! It’s a superb book, though - that little glitch only added to my enjoyment of it!
LOL re answering machine! Also reminds me of when the monitor for our door-entry camera wasn’t working. I had to call in the (offsite!) managing agents for the office building to investigate, and it turned out I’d accidentally turned the contrast control right down when I’d been straightening the monitor! 🤣
We are not alone!
(Seems this applies to all the ways our topics meandered with this one.)
My hat's off to you, Rebecca, for doing what seem to me, difficult crosswords! My late mum used to do NYT crosswords in pen, multiple times a day in her last years. Crossword puzzles, anagrams, and Scrabble were 3 of her favorite pursuits! I never considered myself a baby boomer, but I guess I am! I see aging creeping up on me, and some of it doesn't phase me, other parts are not so much fun. Lack of mental sharpness is the most obvious (and kinda sad) for me. Sending you lots of hugs and best well wishes, American style. ❤️
Crosswords in pen - I love the bold approach! Although I do the same (I find I can’t get a bold enough mark in pencil) I DO keep a roll of correction tape handy, and use it around as often as I use the pen! 🤣 Don’t tell, will you?!
‘Baby boomer’ has always sounded so glamorous to me, and my parents are of the immediate postwar generation, so they count amongst their number! Apparently Jim and I are the same generation as each other despite our immense* age gap.
Hugs back! And thank you! I promise you’ll see me in the comments soon. xxx
*okay, so our age gap isn’t actually ‘immense’, but it’s enough for me to believe I can kid him that I’m ‘a trophy wife’. 😉 And HE’S kind enough to let me!
I LOVE that you have correction tape handy! Go, RH!!! No one needs to know. 😂 Baby boomer as glamorous? That's a good one! Maybe I could be glamorous one day . . . 😄 Rebecca, the Trophy Wife, written and photographed by her Jim, the kindest husband of them all. That has a great ring to it, don't you think? ❤️
HA!!!!! 🤣