Monday Meanderings - 10.17.2016

So much for Fall. Back in the 90's at present. Sort of confusing. Just a few short mornings ago, I needed the snuggly to be comfortable. Now the A/C is running by the time I get out of bed.

The little Vietnamese lady is back, combing the yard for pecans. Slim pickings this year, so she is welcome to gather what she can find. Her English has not improved much, but she has mastered "Thank You." That goes a long way in today's society.

I had a brief hospital stay a couple of weeks ago and ended up in a room that can only be described as a suite. In addition to the normal hospital-type room, there was an adjoining room with a sleeper sofa, table, TV and chairs. Here, I'll show you.

When I inquired about the room, a nurse told me this was "The Lady Bird Johnson Suite." Turns out she didn't mean that specific room, but several years ago Lady Bird was hospitalized there and they literally had to make a door between two rooms to accommodate the Secret Service, family and visiting dignitaries, so the hospital built a suite to handle such situations in the future. That was certainly needed for my visit.

My current book at the Learning Ally studio is a historical narrative concerning Lizzie Borden and the axe murders of her father and step-mother, and the subsequent investigation and her trial back in the late 1890's. I knew little about this event beyond the children's rhyme, "Lizzie Bordon took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one."

Lizzie was indicted and tried for those murders, but found "Not Guilty" because the prosecution could not provide one iota of evidence that linked her to the crime. According to this book, at least, scholars who have studied the case feel that in all likelihood Lizzie did it, and the lack of evidence could be ascribed to mistakes and faulty investigation by the authorities rather than "the perfect crime" on Lizzie's part. And, by the way, it took far fewer than 81 whacks.

I get to read such interesting books.