meganiwish

Pop quiz being unexpected, yes, I can see that. Quiz in Britain is always questions for fun. Did you used to make those foldy paper things when you were a kid? The kids I taught did, as did we. They called them Colour changers. I think water hyacinth would be a better name. Maybe REM just had very weird childhoods. Wen used to get a lot of power cuts when i was little, and would play games where you remember a river with every letter of the alphabet, then a country, etc. Wondered if named by a poet was similar

Thinking of the word 'quiz' (which I'm guessing means for you in this context the same as 'test' would for us), I wonder if you can help me. What does 'pop quiz' mean? When I was a girl there was a TV programme called Pop Quiz here, which involved answering questions on pop music. I guess that's not what it means to you. I ask because it's at the beginning of REM's Imitation of Life. Also, do you know what 'water hyacinth' and 'named by a poet' mean. Are they games that American children play? I wondered if water hyacinth is that folded paper thing children make that you can open and close with fingers and thumbs to reveal choices.

No, I'm afraid I haven't read any Louise Erdrich, but I will look some out. Of course, when I talk about what young people should read, like anyone my age I mean what I think they should read, which equally means what I've read. One of my favourite modern authors is Joanne Harris (Chocolat, Blackberry Wine etc) but I also like John Grisham, who I think has a Harper Lee quality to his writing. And Audrey Niffeneger has such a way with making you love the characters and suspension of disbelief. It's quite magical. I'd love to be a writer like that, but I can't come close. I'm a better reader than I am writer, and no-one wants to know about that

Yes Scout, that's right, real name Jean Louise. Doesn't Atticus leave you wondering where all the real gentlemen have gone. Can be a real man without being coarse or rough. I lasts read it last year, introducing my daughter to it. Modern British education doesn't make them read any of the books they should. I find people get too hung up on the trial and Alabama prejuidice. Of course, it has a big part, but there's no suggestion in the book that the people are anything but decent people, Bob Ewell excepted. I've always seen it as a book about the loss of childhood innocence, innocence being the mockingbird of the title. I think a key moment is when Mr Dolphus Raymond tells Dill he's right to cry about the injustice. 'Because you're children and you can understand it...Let him get a little older and he won't get sick and cry.' Lovely book.

I suppose Southerners with pretensions of grandeur like to be known as hillwilliams lol. I've been to a few of those places: Lousiana, Texas, Kentucky, Tennesee, Arizona. I gave Alabama a miss. My boyfriend and I were both a bit hippy/goth lookingat the time and didn't think it would be wise on advice we were given. So I only know it form To Kill a Mockingbird. What a rip of. I read it, and never once did they explain how to kill one lol.

Love your Essex girl joke. Yes, we do blond too. In the eighties, Essex girls were known for weaaring white stillettos. These days I think fake tan is their trademark. Years ago, I stood with a colleague watching my daughter and her best friend get into her best friend's dad's 1960s Ford Zephyr. My colleague, a girl from Essex, said, "I'd feel like a princess being driven in that car." I said, "You can take the girl out of Essex, but you can't take Essex out of the girl.". Is there anywhere in the states like that?