Don't forget, though, that Stretch Junior is alive and well on Matthew's bookcase - very near Brewster the Rooster hand puppet!

Nice piece. My heart goes out to those who are personally impacted by the loss of Ambassador Holbrooke. Those of us who only knew him as a public figure will never be able to comprehend that aspect of his passing though we can certainly appreciate that the world could have used his talents a while longer. Thank you for sharing him with us.

I'm there with you - got to ride in a Tesla today and was just as impressed as you were!

I am trying so hard to follow the arguments here and am failing utterly; perhaps some of the rest of you can help. Maybe it's partly because even people who voted the same did so for different reasons because of differing concerns but if everyone can stop the name calling for a bit, I'd actually be interested in some more detail.

We've seen expansion of so-called 'Sin Taxes', yes, and while some have said this creates an inequality for the poor, others (who seem to otherwise not want to see taxes increased) have said go for it. With the divided (and seemingly self-contradictory) views, I say take those off the table for the purpose of this conversation; besides, they mostly don't affect me anyway.

Gas taxes have certainly been hiked over the years, but those are all allocated toward transportation line items, so we're not talking about those either.

State sales tax hasn't increased in more than 20 years (1983). So exactly what State taxes are you paying that are more than they used to be? I am probably paying increased property taxes today, but not really by that much and those actually would have gone down if I-1098 had passed.

I've seen and heard a lot of concerns over increased State taxes, so I'm just wondering which increases are so much on people's minds that they have such a significant distrust in the people they elected. I try to pay attention, but clearly I'm missing something.

Please point to where you have seen such information; I believe it is likely you have this woman confused with someone else. Not quite as experienced as she and her family thought she was or as prepared as she could have (or should have) been, but plenty sound mentally, from all I've read, and certainly did the best she could with what she had.

I love how you meet new people wherever you go!

I have a new idea. all you do is travel to other countries and have cab drivers tell you where to eat and you write about the experience. Sounds like a wonderful evening!

Amidst that tragedy, the one really good thing I remember from that time was the way everyone in the United States - with the support of the rest of the world - came together. For a few brief weeks, we were all truly united as one.

I believe now as I believed then that this coming together with compassion and love in the face of fear and anger and hatred is what will make the difference between victoriously living good and happy lives or continuing down the rat-hole of tearing each other apart, shred by shred.

Having just re-read (and then seen) Merchant of Venice with our almost-14-yr-old, we found there to be some fascinating nuances in the play. For good for ill, each of the characters and the various degrees of humanity they represent are excellent material to reflect upon and discuss with others, young and old alike.

My thinking is that everyone should see Merchant of Venice in as many different productions to see as many different interpretations as possible. Kudos to Berrier for providing such an incredible opportunity!

Having just joined the rest of the family in celebrating his birthday, I can say that Joe is still going strong. 99 years and still kicking warrants a lot of respect even in itself, never mind that he drove himself to two parties this week (one 100-mile round trip he to Enumclaw after first searching for the directions on the internet!) in addition to the family gathering yesterday. But as he says - when you're used to flying a big airplane, driving a car is a piece of cake! Happy Birthday, Grandy!