A friend writes to suggest that "Fish on a Train" might be a good sequel to "Snakes on a Plane." We are currently very much at the mercy of Amtrak. The plan--see below--always had in it the potential for... well... difficulties. My daughter's chum decided to drive from L.A. to Vancouver, with his parents. They stopped here for a day, collected E., made it across the border. E. got a weekend in Vancouver. The L.A. people had decided to drop the car at Seattle airport and fly home. E. hitched a ride back as far as Pike's Place Market, bought a salmon that had been still swimming this morning (or so the man said), made her way to the Amtrak station...whence she called to say that her train is delayed. Her original e.t.a. was 5:50, which was close for people coming over to eat at seven-ish, but do-able. Now we may be eating on Spanish time. Or there might have to be a plan B. I've ordered a second and third Rennie Airth from the library. Rennie is a man's name. I assumed that Charles Rennie Mackintosh had been given a family ancestor's name, but maybe not. Did you know that Charles was fourth of eleven children? Learn something every day. Finally today, I have a bit more energy. Take that, you tsetse fly/monosodium glutamate imaginary bugs you. My idea is to unimagine you, defeat you, set about building a new, improved immune system with some of Seattle's Dadly-est fish. If, of course, said fish arrives in time to be eaten. Carry on, David Ritchie, Portland, Oregon------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html