Anna, all of these rang a bell with me. Do you know, when I was a child, I watched my father take hold of a chicken by its head, then swing it around until the body separated from the head--and the body did run around in ragged circles for a couple of minutes. Ah, youth--I only felt a
slight revulsion then--now it would make me sick.

One of our shut-out Brits says he feels like he has been
"sent to Coventry". What is that--gaol? Speaking of British sayings (?): my mother used the phrase "carrying coals to Newcastle".