Rain It is a dark, cloudy Spring day as I write this. The sky is gray, the wind is cold, and the rain has been falling steadily since last night. Still, my spirits aren't dampened by the damp weather. As I went out and felt the cool raindrops on my face earlier I couldn't help but smile. The birds were singing their praises to God in spite of the wet weather, so I felt no reason why I should frown because of it. The air, in fact, was so fresh and pure that I stood there for several minutes breathing it in deeply. It brought back wonderful memories of my childhood. Even as a child I knew how wonderful the grass, trees, and asphalt smelled after a good cleansing rain. Looking around me, I could see the trees beginning to bud once again. I could see my tulips raising their heads up through the ground, preparing to bless us with their beauty for another year. I could see the birds beginning to build nests for their new families to come. All around me was life, beauty, and glory. Whoever said rainy days are sad should have been with me to experience this one. As I went back in to dry off I couldn't help but see that even these so called "sad, rainy" days have a lot of good in them. Life is like that too. We get a lot of rain on us in this life, but if we open our eyes and hearts we can see that there is good in it as well. Having two handicapped sons has been difficult for me at times, but my two boys have brought endless joy and love into my life as well. Losing my mother to Cancer so early in my life was very painful, but it helped me to grow in love and to see that life and love never end. They just change. When life rains on you, don't hide your head. Turn your face up to the sky instead. You may get wet, but at least your eyes will be open to see the beauty and goodness that God gives us in bad weather as well as fair. © Joseph J. Mazzella

Thank-you, Kath. I had no idea that I was that far behind. I try to check my mail everyday but sometimes I cant. Karie On Fri, 18 May 2001 17:48:19 -0700, FOLKLORE-L@rootsweb.com wrote: > Karie you are bouncing. > kath > If you dont stand for something, you'll fall for anything....... _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/

Happy dancing with you Kath! Give him a big ole hug for me (if he hasn't outgrown that). Mikey turned 6 last month and he still likes a hug every now and then. Mary Munchkin ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kath" <mzmouser@home.com> LOL~! Damion is here~! :-) John didn't tell me he was coming. Surprise~! We thought he had outgrown us. ( He's 7 now.) Last time he wasn't happy to be here. (not much fun with the Oldsters) <G> John called his mom and asked her to ask him if he would like to visit and he said yes. :-) Damion is like my grandson, but we aren't related. His mom and Caleb were engaged about, gosh, 4 years ago, and that's how we met. {{{{{{{{{Damion}}}}}}}}}} He was kind of a lost little guy, and of course I snarfed him up~! anyhoo, he's here~! Woo-Hoo~! kath

Welcome back Lala & Congratulations on the weight loss. Sure wish I could do it. What's your secret? Mary in Michigan ----- Original Message ----- From: <Laural92040@aol.com> Hi everyone !! Got my computer fixed finally. Really I got a new one!! I am going on vacation on Monday and will be gone for the week gonna go see Ronnie. Ive lost a hundred and thirty pounds !! I FEEL LIKE IN WALKING ON AIR.! Its wonderful not to hurt any more.\ so how's everyone doing? how's the grans?\ ill be going to Pam's tonight ill check in on you all again miss you guys lala

haha my mommy lives in Escondido ill have to check out this cat. ty missi > HERE KITTY KITTY > > L.C. ("Library Cat") has been a fixture at the Escondido (Calif.) Public > Library for seven years. The kitty is "beloved by all who visit," the > library says. Not so, says Richard R. Espinosa, 47, of nearby San > Marcos. When he came in with his 50-pound assistance dog, Kimba, the cat > "suddenly and without provocation began hitting and clawing Kimba," he > said in a legal claim against the city. The cat was not injured, but > Espinosa's $1.5 million claim, which he wrote himself because four > lawyers refused to take his case, says the altercation caused him > "significant lasting, extreme and severe mental anguish and emotional > distress including, but not limited to, terror, humiliation, shame, > embarrassment, mortification, chagrin, depression, panic, anxiety, > flashbacks, nightmares, loss of sleep [and] loss of full enjoyment of > life." (San Diego Union-Tribune) ...Mainly because it was proved in > public that his dog is a wuss. >

welcome sally missi > >Welcome to Folklore Sallymell~! :-) > > > >Kath > > Washington State > >

»§«:*´`³¤³´´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§« Consciousness: That annoying time between naps. »§«:*´`³¤³´´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´´`*:»§«:*´`³¤³´`*:»§«

We are heading out to traipse a bit. :-) Going to the pond store and such. be back in a bit. love, kath -/\/\----------------------------------------------------------------- \ / TODAY'S VERSE from HEARTLIGHT -- http://www.heartlight.org/ --\/------------------------------------------------------------------ May 19, 2001 VERSE: Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. -- 1 Peter 5:6-7 http://www.StudyLight.org/desk/?query=1+Peter+5:6-7 THOUGHT: You've probably had a similar experience to this one. Someone asks you how you're doing. At first, they seem interested, but as you begin to share the burdens of your heart, you begin to realize that they aren't really listening and aren't really interested; they're just being polite. Most people have so many burdens they simply don't know what to do with more. Our Father in heaven, however, says "Cast all your anxieties on me. You can share all of them with me, because I genuinely care for you." PRAYER: Father, I have been blessed in so many ways. Thank you so very much. I do have some really burdensome things, however, that trouble me. Please do with the following concerns what is best for each of the people involved and what brings you the most glory. (Please share your burdens and concerns with the Lord.) I thank you for listening to my words and my heart. In Jesus' name. Amen. http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/todaysverse.cgi?day=20010519

Today is Saturday, May 19th, the 139th day of 2001. There are 226 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On May 19th, 1935, T.E. Lawrence, also known as "Lawrence of Arabia," died in England from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash. On this date: In 1536, Anne Boleyn, the second wife of England's King Henry the Eighth, was beheaded after being convicted of adultery. In 1643, delegates from four New England colonies met in Boston to form a confederation. In 1906, the Federated Boys' Clubs, forerunner of the Boys' Clubs of America, were organized. In 1921, Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national quotas for immigrants. In 1943, in an address to the US Congress, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill pledged his country's full support in the war against Japan. In 1958, the United States and Canada formally established the North American Air Defense Command. In 1964, the State Department disclosed that 40 hidden microphones had been found in the US embassy in Moscow. In 1967, the Soviet Union ratified a treaty with the United States and Britain banning nuclear weapons from outer space. In 1992, the 27th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting Congress from giving itself mid-term pay raises, went into effect. In 1994, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died in New York at age 64. Ten years ago: Martial-law courts in Kuwait began trying people accused of collaborating with Iraqi occupation forces, sentencing one man to life in prison for wearing a Saddam Hussein T-shirt. (The trials came under international criticism, and were halted.) Five years ago: Space shuttle "Endeavour" and its crew rocketed into orbit and quickly began preparing for the release of an inflatable antenna. One year ago: China and the European Union reached a market-opening trade deal, clearing Beijing's largest remaining hurdle to joining the World Trade Organization. Masked gunmen launched a coup in Fiji that toppled Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, the country's first ethnic Indian premier. Today's Birthdays: PBS newscaster Jim Lehrer is 67. TV personality David Hartman is 66. Actor James Fox is 62. Actress Nancy Kwan is 62. Singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury is 61. Author-director Nora Ephron is 60. Rock singer-composer Pete Townshend (The Who) is 56. Rock musician Phil Rudd (AC-DC) is 55. Concert pianist David Helfgott is 54. Rock singer-musician Dusty Hill (ZZ Top) is 52. Singer-actress Grace Jones is 49. Baseball catcher Rick Cerone is 47. Actor Steven Ford is 45. Rock musician Iain Harvie (Del Amitri) is 39. Rock singer Jenny Berggren (Ace of Base) is 29. Actor Eric Lloyd is 15. "There could be no honor in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat." -- T.E. Lawrence, English soldier and author (1888-1935). (Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Irises Look Like a Rainbow and Smell Like Dessert by Joe Sherinski When my son was just a little fella he used to tell me that the irises out in my garden smelled like angel food cake. You know, I think he's right. They smell like a confectioner's best creation. On the reverse side of the spectrum, I'll mention the bloom of the ginkgo tree that reeks like a circus elephant inhabiting your yard. Ah, the yin and yang of nature. I'll take a little more yin and a lot less yang, please. The yin is the glorious growth of the bearded iris. Nature spends a little more time crafting these beauties that are as varied in color and texture as a big box of chocolates. Some look like they're glazed with sugar, some look like an artist has painstakingly brushed perfect borders around the petals, and some look like a tailor employed his best sartorial efforts to produce a divine frill. Did you know that irises come in all colors, except a true, clear stoplight red? These diversified flowers are definitely a 'go' in my book. Irises in general vary in height from a few inches to several feet. Different irises thrive in all kinds of conditions -- wet soil, dry soil, acidic soil and alkaline soil. Most enjoy the company of the sun but some prefer a shady spot. For bearded irises, my favorite flowers of all, the perfect soil is fairly rich, and neutral or slightly alkaline. As is the case with many plants, they're easy to grow but difficult to grow well. That shouldn't dissuade you from trying, though. I happen to live in the same area as one the greatest iris growers and hybridizers in the country who would tell you the same thing. The Quest for the Mythical Iris This guy is a bona fide iris nut who gets his jollies every spring when the fruits of his labor burst forth in a short lived -- but magnificent show. As they bloom, he rates the best ones, culls out the inferior blooms, and begins hybridizing the best for the perfect iris. The quest for the mythical perfect iris is his inspiration. It sounds a little crazy, but sometimes to be truly excellent in one facet of gardening whether it be growing gorgeous roses, perfecting the art of bonsai, or in this case, growing bearded irises you have to concentrate all of your efforts toward that particular endeavor. It's sort of like life. For this man it is not work. It is a fascination with a species of plant which has won him two Dykes Medals -- the award given to the best iris growers in the world. You see, when iris growers get together in a convention sometimes things get competitive and somebody's bound to come away with their feelings hurt. The iris producer I know has come back twice with a medal around his neck after letting his iris put some serious hurt on some other's feelings. Not too shabby. Needless to say, whenever he saunters into an assembly hall with a handful of his best bearded irises the judges swoon and the judged sweat. The scrutiny these irises undergo makes the cutthroat nature of sorority hazing seem like mere child's play. One can only imagine the intense examination an iris might have to endure. Tighten up that frill! Puny Beard! Insufficient falls! Just Three Basic Rules There's no need to sweat when you grow irises. If you follow these three guidelines you might grow some that are worthy of favorable judgment. a.. Don't overcrowd bearded irises. Lack of air circulation can lead to fungus and rot. b.. Don't over-water bearded irises. Wet environments can foster fungus and rot. c.. Don't over-feed bearded irises. Big lush foliage can become soft and borers love to eat leaves that are easier to chew. If you don't do the three 'overs,' your irises can become real showstoppers. Of course bearded irises aren't the only variety -- they just happen to be my favorite. There are many other kinds like median, Spuria, Siberian, Japanese, dwarf, Pacific Coast, Louisiana, and wild irises that have different growth requirements. The American Iris Society If you're interested in growing irises contact The American Iris Society. (This year's Dykes Medal winner is on their home page right now.)The Society produces a guide for growing irises that costs a few bucks. It contains information that is invaluable toward the pursuits of nurturing natural perfection. Before you work on producing a kaleidoscope of colors you first have to work on the old gray matter a little bit. Knowledge is power and gardening knowledge is -- you guessed it -- GardenPower!

-/\/\----------------------------------------------------------------- \ / TODAY'S VERSE from HEARTLIGHT -- http://www.heartlight.org/ --\/------------------------------------------------------------------ May 19, 2001 VERSE: Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. -- 1 Peter 5:6-7 http://www.StudyLight.org/desk/?query=1+Peter+5:6-7 THOUGHT: You've probably had a similar experience to this one. Someone asks you how you're doing. At first, they seem interested, but as you begin to share the burdens of your heart, you begin to realize that they aren't really listening and aren't really interested; they're just being polite. Most people have so many burdens they simply don't know what to do with more. Our Father in heaven, however, says "Cast all your anxieties on me. You can share all of them with me, because I genuinely care for you." PRAYER: Father, I have been blessed in so many ways. Thank you so very much. I do have some really burdensome things, however, that trouble me. Please do with the following concerns what is best for each of the people involved and what brings you the most glory. (Please share your burdens and concerns with the Lord.) I thank you for listening to my words and my heart. In Jesus' name. Amen. http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/todaysverse.cgi?day=20010519 /--- COME MEET HEARTLIGHT ---------------------------------\ Join us live and in person in Austin, Texas for 3 days of praise, worship and technology! Hear Phil Ware, Paul Faulkner, Ken Young and Hallal and more! June 8-10 \------------- http://www.heartlight.org/conference2001 ---/ TODAY'S VERSE from HEARTLIGHT /\/\ ===============================================================\ /=== http://www.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/todaysverse.cgi \/ Today's Verse is written by Phil Ware <phil@heartlight.org> and is part of HEARTLIGHT Magazine, the leading Christian living e-zine on the Web. Visit HEARTLIGHT on the web for even more articles, plus music, devotionals and more for your Christian walk! http://www.heartlight.org ABOUT HEARTLIGHT: Heartlight, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) religious non-profit organization. Donations are welcome and tax-deductible! Find out how to help! http://www.heartlight.org/support STAFF: Paul Lee, Co-editor/Webmaster, webminister@heartlight.org Phil Ware, Co-editor, phil@heartlight.org Frank Cloutier, Executive Director, frank@heartlight.org Jeff Garrison, Site Developer, jeff@heartlight.org Ben Steed, Boards Administrator, ben@heartlight.org HOW DO I SUBSCRIBE? It's FREE! To subscribe send a blank email to: join-todaysverse@lists.heartlight.org

I get a kick out of these and hoped you might too. :-) LOL~! I'm gonna see how many times I can work this into a conversation today. <ROTFL~!> :-) kath Word of the Day for Friday May 18, 2001: connubial \kuh-NOO-bee-ul; -NYOO-\, adjective: Of or pertaining to marriage, or the marriage state; conjugal; nuptial. Wed as teenagers in Chicago, my parents' connubial collaboration had a second result: me and, seven years after my birth, a spectacularly beautiful sequel, my sister, Marcia. --Larry Gelbart, Laughing Matters Given Tina's dismissive attitude toward marriage and the tumult of her relationships with men, it would also be fascinating to know more than we do about the emotional texture and tone of her parents' thirty years of connubial life. --Patricia Albers, [1]Shadows, Fire, Snow: The Life of Tina Modotti But no such happy marriage could now teach the admiring multitude what connubial felicity really was. --Jane Austen, [2]Pride and Prejudice _________________________________________________________ Connubial comes from Latin conubialis, from conubium, "marriage, intermarriage," from con-, "with, together" + nubere, "to veil, to marry." It is related to nubile, "of an age suitable for marriage; hence, sexually mature and attractive."

with June just around the corner......... <G> kath Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, "Why is the bride dressed in white?" "Because white is the color of happiness and today is the happiest day of her life," her mother tried to explain, keeping it simple. The child thought about this for a moment, then said, "So, why's the groom wearing black?"

with June just around the corner......... <G> kath Attending a wedding for the first time, a little girl whispered to her mother, "Why is the bride dressed in white?" "Because white is the color of happiness and today is the happiest day of her life," her mother tried to explain, keeping it simple. The child thought about this for a moment, then said, "So, why's the groom wearing black?"

THE NEW SCHOOL PRAYER This is an actual poem written by a teenager in Arizona. This is so true! Now I sit me down in school Where praying is against the rule For this great nation under God Finds mention of Him very odd. If Scripture now the class recites, It violates the Bill of Rights. And anytime my head I bow Becomes a Federal matter now. Our hair can be purple, orange or green, That's no offense; it's a freedom scene. The law is specific, the law is precise. Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice. For praying in a public hall Might offend someone with no faith at all. In silence alone we must meditate, God's name is prohibited by the state. We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks, And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks. They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible. To quote the Good Book makes me liable. We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen, And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King. It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong, We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong. We can get our condoms and birth controls, Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles. But the Ten Commandments are not allowed, No word of God must reach this crowd. It's scary here I must confess, When chaos reigns the school's a mess. So, Lord, this silent plea I make: Should I be shot; My soul please take! Amen If you aren't ashamed to do this, please pass this on. Jesus said, " if you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you before my Father."

‘And Now They’re Rubble’ The Bamiyan Buddhas are gone. But they won’t be forgotten by those lucky enough to have seen them, says a traveler who did. March 20 I have the clearest memory of the Bamiyan Buddhas, even though it is almost 30 years since I trekked across Afghanistan from Kabul to see them. I was new in Asia then, and doing what newcomers always do seeking the greatest monument or natural wonder a country has to offer. So I went to Bamiyan to see the Buddhas, Afghanistan’s greatest monument, just as I had gone to Paris and visited the Eiffel Tower, and Cairo for the Pyramids. THE BAMIYAN BUDDHAS were the biggest Buddhas in the world, carved into a cliff face, with the largest one a standing figure nearly 175 feet tall. They were 1,500 years old, but because they were recessed into the cliff, which protected them from the alternating boiling hot, freezing cold weather, they were almost perfectly preserved. The draperies of the robes looked as if they had been cut out of the rock the previous week. And now they’re rubble. I can’t get inside the mind of someone who would have them destroyed, but I know whose mind it is. Mullah Omar, the reclusive charlatan who leads the fanatical Taliban which controls most of Afghanistan, claims he knows the Muslim Holy Book, the Koran, better than any other Muslim today. Never mind that he seems to know it in a way no other Muslim but he and his illiterate followers know it. That he alone among contemporary Muslim leaders has laid waste his country’s pre-Islamic heritage when virtually all other Muslim countries go to great lengths to preserve theirs. If other Muslims followed the Omar principle, there would be no Sphinx or Tutankhamen’s golden statuary in Egypt, none of the exquisite and historically important sculpture of Persepolis in Iran, nor of Babylon and Nineveh in Iraq, none of the myriad antiquities in Turkey, no Borobudur, the vast Buddhist temple in Indonesia. For me, one of the real ironies is that possibly the greatest artistic treasure in Pakistan is the astonishing emaciated Buddha in the Lahore museum. The highly polished stone sculpture is of the seated, fasting Buddha. It is older than the Bamiyan Buddhas, and features in much of the country’s tourist literature. Pakistan is the Taliban’s major arms-supplier and supporter without its wholehearted support, the Taliban will crumble. Yet Pakistan backs these vandals, whose poisonous influence in northern Pakistan is spreading southwards, and imposing its mad rules on the already underprivileged women of that country. The museums of Pakistan are filled with beautiful Buddhist sculpture from the Gandhara period. You watch the spread of Taliban inspired fundamentalism and ask yourself why Pakistan is doing this to itself. Does its illustrious Buddhist past have any future? And does Mullah Omar know his Koran? The Prophet Mohammed preached tolerance, and historically Islam has a far better record of tolerance to other religions than its competitors. When Christian medieval Europe persecuted its Jews, it was to the Islamic world, from North Africa to Turkey, that they fled and established themselves. Many of the greatest texts of ancient Greece were preserved not in Christian Europe, which banished them as pagan, but in the Islamic world. Mullah Omar of course is not a tolerant man as the crumbled ruins of Bamiyan now attest, but it is hard to see how he could misinterpret the Koranic precept on religious diversity, as handed down by the Prophet, To you be your way. And to me, mine. Anyway, enough of the man who has just expelled the BBC from Kabul because they dared to call the Taliban primitive. In the course of world’s history he is a minor vandal. There’s hardly any stained glass left in England because Protestant fanatics, using much the same argument about idolatry, smashed most of it. There are virtually no ancient synagogues in Europe, hardly any metalwork and manuscripts from pre-Colombian America (blame the Catholic Spaniards), just a little bit of Dresden, not much of Hawaii’s rich religious art (blame missionaries), and of course, every day we pay obeisance to one of the great vandal nations of the twentieth century, China. I was in Tibet a a couple of years ago. A country which once had six thousand monasteries, all of them richly painted with murals dating back a thousand years, hung with magnificent banners, filled with some of Asia’s greatest metal sculpture, is now virtually in ruins. There are maybe six hundred functioning monasteries left, there’s broken sculpture by the roadside, the shattered walls of great religious buildings are sinking back into the earth, and Tibetan refugees tell of great religious images being melted down by the ton. The persecution of Tibet and the destruction of its culture goes on today but hey, the Chinese aren’t the Taliban. We get our cheap underpants and watches and radios and computers from China, so we can’t call them primitive. I’m lucky. I saw the Bamiyan Buddhas. You sat, say, half a mile from the cliff face, looking across a garden landscape dotted with poplar trees. In the early morning, the Buddhas would be lost in their dark recesses, but as the sun rose and moved across the sky they gradually lit up, and it seemed they were actually moving out of the shadow into the light. A wondrous and deeply moving spectacle but for Mullah Omar, they were only stones. © 2001 Newsweek, Inc.

What would I say when someone finds out I'm Buddhist and then asks, "What do Buddhists believe?" There are certainly some common guidelines in Buddhism, but really the question points to an interesting quality of Buddhist thought and practice -- that Buddhism, while sharing an active and caring community, is really an individual quest. It is a journey that causes the person to face herself without flinching, to rely on his or her own strengths and insights. The Buddha is, after all, a kind of signpost that points, a roadmap for the trip. But this seems to me to still be only half the picture. The individual's quest remains interdependent with others, so that from the person's search and trek comes the move from the individual to the community, from the one person's liberation to the liberation of all. It is nothing that has to be followed like a checklist, but rather the unconditional love and compassion arises as a natural byproduct of the journey. While Buddhism is not known for being "evangelical" in the most minor sense of the word, perhaps in some ways it is. When a person has begun to absorb the teachings, to walk the walk, the changes brought about are often quite stunning. These are noticed by those around the person, both family members and friends, strangers and those we influence without even being aware of it. As such, as Gandhi said, our life becomes the message. If the kindness we show on the journey is passed on, the compassion we feel resonates with that of another, then whether or not the person has ever heard of Buddhism or knows of your connection to it, the Dharma is alive.

It was to have been the world's largest statue - a 500-foot Buddha on a giant throne, visible for hundreds of miles across the dusty Indian plains. But the designers of the towering Maitreya Buddha - soon to be built in the holy city of Bodhgaya - received a nasty shock last week when the Chinese revealed that they are to construct their own monster Buddha, which will be nine feet higher. In a gloating announcement, China's state-run news agency, Xinhua, said the Buddha will be built in the south-east of the country at Jiuhua mountain. 'It will be the largest statue of Bodhisattava in the world when completed,' the agency added. The news has horrified Indian planners. They have been toiling away on their project since 1984, when a now dead Tibetan lama conceived the vision of building a giant statue at Bodhgaya. The northern Indian town in Bihar is where Buddha gained enlightenment 2,500 years ago. It has been a place of Buddhist pilgrimage for centuries. British engineers who have spent the past 18 months working on the Maitreya Buddha were yesterday coming to terms with the news. 'If they want to knock up a statue as quickly as possible, that's something for them,' said Chris Cotton of British firm Mott McDonald last night. 'We are looking to design a Buddha that will last a thousand years. Ours will be superior in terms of materials and quality. We don't understand totally what they are planning to do yet.' McDonald is one of several British companies that have been involved in designing the epic Buddha, due to be unveiled in 2005.

THIS WEEK'S HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to Donald E. Campbell, for decades the only doctor in Stockbridge, Mass. A classic small-town physician, Campbell not only took care of every aspect of medical care for everyone in town (and sometimes their pets), he even had to develop his own x-ray films and process his own lab work. You may never have heard his name, but you've probably seen his picture: he was the model for one of Norman Rockwell's most famous paintings, "Before the Shot". The painting, made for a 1958 cover of the Saturday Evening Post magazine, shows Campbell preparing an injection for a young boy who is carefully studying the doctor's diploma. Dr. Campbell died at home in Stockbridge May 14. He was 95. (This week's most-suggested honoree: "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" author Douglas Adams, dead May 11 in California of a heart attack at 49.)

HERE KITTY KITTY L.C. ("Library Cat") has been a fixture at the Escondido (Calif.) Public Library for seven years. The kitty is "beloved by all who visit," the library says. Not so, says Richard R. Espinosa, 47, of nearby San Marcos. When he came in with his 50-pound assistance dog, Kimba, the cat "suddenly and without provocation began hitting and clawing Kimba," he said in a legal claim against the city. The cat was not injured, but Espinosa's $1.5 million claim, which he wrote himself because four lawyers refused to take his case, says the altercation caused him "significant lasting, extreme and severe mental anguish and emotional distress including, but not limited to, terror, humiliation, shame, embarrassment, mortification, chagrin, depression, panic, anxiety, flashbacks, nightmares, loss of sleep [and] loss of full enjoyment of life." (San Diego Union-Tribune) ...Mainly because it was proved in public that his dog is a wuss.