Happy Birthday to Two Women Writers

Today is the birthday of Emily Post, who notably wrote ""Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use." Ah, Emily, where have you gone? Our nation turns its lonely, etiquette-starved eyes to you. (With apologies to Paul Simon). Would that you were still here to write a whole new book about e-mail etiquette, so that you could tell people it's not okay to ignore e-mails people send them, and worse still to send an e-mail BACK to the person who sent it to you with a note saying "I thought you'd like this." Of course I would, you fool, I sent it to YOU."

  Also born today, in 1994, was my niece Cashie (Mary Katherine), pictured here with her handsome father, my brother. Cashie is a writer, too, who is writing a book, but also enjoys writing stories and poetry. In one of her poems she reflected on the joys of "writing poetry and stories in a journal in my Three Seasons Room, while watching the rain; Looking into my back yard with falling leaves from the trees and the comforting smell of a bonfire."

That's a lovely image, Mary Katherine. Happy Birthday to you.