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more devices to learn 

to use that I'll need help with

gee thanks

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another book

I bought for myself

holiday surprise

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Last year, for the holidays (which include our mid-winter birthdays), my wife and I bought each other books. Actually, I bought them all, so I only bought authors we both like. This was not difficult. I bought murder mysteries by Elly Griffiths, Colin Cotterill, and several others. This year, we decided to do it separately. She was too busy to tell me what she wanted, except that she wanted a Kindle, so I picked some safe options. I bought her the new novel by Jamie Lee Moyer, "Brightfall," which is a retelling of the myth about Robin Hood and Maid Marian. I also bought her two books by Becky Chambers. We had read one by her last year, an entertaining science fiction novel called something like "a visit to a small and angry planet," so this year, I bought the two sequels: "a closed and common orbit" and "something of a spaceborn few." Of course, the first of these didn't show up, so she couldn't read the second one either. I emailed the bookseller about the missing book and they blew me off. Why do you put somebody like that in customer service? (I realize that it is probably a family business, and that was most likely the bad-tempered spouse.) Anyway I emailed back to say how displeased I was, and another person refunded my money. So I didn't put their store on my blacklist, and I won't tell you who they are. I ordered another copy from someone else. Which is still not here yet. She got me a collection by Algernon Blackwood, a recent novel by Tim Powers, and one by Gene Wolfe. And I get to borrow her Kindle.

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the perfect gift
for someone else's kids
earworm

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So a friend's grandmother, who is not quite as sharp as she once was, was asked by a neighbor if she liked cucumbers. When she said yes, the neighbor gave her five of them. Alas, the grandmother doesn't actually like cucumbers at all. I can think of several possible reasons for her to say yes under these circumstances, but the world may never know which was the most important. In fact, I guarantee it won't. Anyway, this is how I scored two cucumbers, though my garden stopped producing them a couple of weeks ago. Cucumber slices are pretty good on sandwiches, and will go nicely with the sweet peppers that our garden is still producing.

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A perfect present for me

This year, my wife put me in charge of choosing and buying presents from her to me. It made sense, for several reasons. I would get to it sooner and it would avoid problems connected with her misunderstanding what I wanted. So I got to would a little late, but I got my Hanukkah present yesterday, one day after the last day of Hanukkah. It was My Crowd, by Charles Addams. This book is a coffee table book of cartoons, most of which were from the New Yorker, reproduced at large size. most of these were actually printed at a size larger than the artist intended (most of his published cartoons that I have seen or reproduced at a size smaller than he intended). Consequently, they look best held at arm's length, which is less than ideal. if you hold the book closer, you see individual brushstrokes creating faces and other elements of the cartoons. On the plus side, I noticed quite a few details in these pictures that I had not seen when I looked at these cartoons in other places (for instance, the CD accompanying the book containing all of the cartoons from the New Yorker, from 1925 through 2004, which I strongly recommend). these details included small faces peering down at the action and architectural details of the Addams family's incredible house. There was one cartoon that I have never seen before, but unfortunately it is not one of his best. I am an Addams family completist; if I was not, I might have been disappointed with this book. If you don't have very many of his books, and especially if your vision isn't that great, this one is a good choice.

I don't have anywhere near all of his books. I have a really big fat white hardback, I forget the name. I have three of those little mustard colored paperbacks, which reproduce the cartoons at a very small size, and which I think were reprints of larger editions. Even though I want to have all of his books, I have made no serious effort to complete my collection. By contrast, I think I have everything by Walt Kelly except a few of the comics from the 40s, the Pogo songbook, and songs of the Pogo. I think those were two different books, but I am no singer and just wasn't very interested. I think I have everything connected with the Far Side, except for the animated TV movie (I don't know if one can get that anywhere; I couldn't find it on YouTube). I think I have all of the Sylvia books by Nicole Hollander. I know I don't have all of the pearls before swine books, Calvin and Hobbes, or the Tom tomorrow books. I need to work on that.

Ultraviolet's guide to nonsexist gifts

http://act.weareultraviolet.org/signup/giftguide/?akid=249.13977.MFFJr7&rd=1&t=1