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Wife: What are you doing? It's midnight. Me: Phil used the voice. (Everyone in house joins in dancing.)

It's funny how they never take their "messages" to mean that. God only chooses the president when it's their guy, etc.

It does depend from place to place, but there's apparently a carve-out in the job stats for teachers since there's an expectation that their job continues in the fall if on 9-10 month contracts.

So the "unearned confidence of a white man" is completely wrong when I come from several generations of teachers, am married to one, with several friends in teaching locally, and talking about how it is here in the U.S., not Canada? No, here they are not considered laid off or counted in jobs stats.

I think the ease of discovery of books in drug stores, grocery stores, etc made it easier for anyone to find something. I remember buying Lake Wobegon Days in a Publix in Florida when it first hit paperback. Now, there are few options and mostly hard to find in the real world by chance.

Last month, the manager stopped as I was browsing. When asked, I pointed out that other people read books. There used to be options here, but they've driven me to Amazon. Or driving 45 miles to Barnes & Noble or occasional indies down in Louisville. He was aghast. But corporate dictates selection.

Same with Richard Osman's fourth novel. I'd gotten the first two there in particular. I bought Carter Beats the Devil there forever ago. Nope, nothing like that now. Patterson is like bookshelf kudzu. At one point, they had 22 distinct books of his. Choked out anything else.

What's weird is, they've stopped bothering with NYT bestsellers or even USA Today. It's just these three styles. Sometimes, manly man thrillers like Lee Child. That's it. It was a few years back, I went to get a Daniel Silva novel in paperback, had gotten several there before. Nope, never showed.

...from fun mysteries to sci-fi to private eyes to general fiction, even a decent selection of nonfiction, even movie & tv tie-ins from time to time. Now, it's all Colleen Hoover, James Patterson, Sarah Maas, and romantasy. There's very little I'd read week to week.

Out here in the boonies, the main place to get or browse new books has been Walmart. (CVS and Walgreen's too to a much smaller extent.) In the last four years or so, they've severely shrunken their books section. It's maybe 1/3 to maybe 1/4 what it was. I remember being able to get a wide range...

I missed this. Congratulations! Can't wait to read it.

We splurged on a fan for my wife's office because the HVAC likes to stop working regularly in the campus library. But that lives in her office. I suppose they have a small room with a fridge and a sink, but no seating or lounges or such.

Honestly, it is.

Agreed. Would write that in a heartbeat.

Far as I know? Have not seen those.

Which had the more satisfying finale? QED, drops mic.

Yeah, kind of stunned.

What cracks me up is, they made the first because they were convinced the market demanded it. Each successive film had to cut its budget and thoroughly replace actors with cheaper ones.

Well said.

Coming from a long line of teachers here, married to one, and know several with twelve month contracts thanks to summer school. Nonetheless, even those with ten month contracts are not factored into job stats like this as being laid off.