AdamSmith

Shortbread 2 sticks unsalted butter, cold 3/4 cup powdered sugar 1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1/4 cup cornstarch 1/4 tsp salt Sift dry ingredients together. Cut into butter. Press into 9-inch pie pan or shortbread mold. Bake at 325 deg 45 minutes. Top should be light golden brown and still slightly springy to the touch. If the preacher is coming add chopped nuts or stem ginger (yum) or candied citrus peel (yuck).

Agree that when I read this story on cnn.com, it seemed to peter out without deciding what point it wanted to make. Did remind me of a scene in some story I can't recall now of 2 thieves stealing a vial of some powder they thought to be drugs, one of them inhaling it, and it turning out to be something radioactive. He came to a Bad End needless to say.

Norman Rockwell painting bought for record $46m price at Sotheby's auctionArtist's Saying Grace sells for more than its double estimate and sets new record for American art Associated Press in New York theguardian.com, Wednesday 4 December 2013 14.02 EST Saying Grace was one of three works by The Saturday Evening Post illustrator sold in New York Wednesday. (AP Photo/Sotheby's, File) Photograph: Uncredited/AP A Norman Rockwell painting titled Saying Grace sold Wednesday at a New York City auction for $46m, the highest price ever paid at auction for an American painting, Sotheby's said. The painting had a pre-sale estimate of $15-20m. The $46m price includes a premium. The buyer wasn't disclosed. In 2006, the same auction house sold Rockwell's Breaking Home Ties for more than $15m, then a record. Another Rockwell painting, The Gossips, sold Wednesday for just under $8.5m, while a third, Walking to Church, fetched a little more than $3.2m. For nearly two decades, all three had been on loan at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which has the world's largest collection of original Rockwell art, and is located in the artist's hometown. Rockwell was paid $3,500 for Saying Grace. It appeared on the cover of the magazine's Thanksgiving issue in 1951 and was voted Post readers' favorite cover in a 1955 poll. The idea for the illustration came from a reader who saw a Mennonite family praying in a restaurant. Rockwell's son, Jarvis, was among the models the artist used for the drawing. The illustrator, who created his first cover for the Post in 1916, is celebrated for his reflections of small town America and portraits of famous figures. Rockwell spent 47 years at the magazine and produced 321 covers. He died in 1978. The Gossips, which was a cover illustration for the 6 March, 1948, issue, depicts a montage of the artist's neighbors, wife Mary and Rockwell himself finger-wagging and yammering on the phone. Walking to Church appeared on the cover of the 4 April, 1953, issue and shows a family dressed in their Sunday best walking along a city street. Rockwell based it on a painting by Johann Vermeer. The trio, along with four other Rockwell works, were being sold by the family of Kenneth Stuart, Rockwell's longtime art director at the magazine. The sale comes years after a legal fight among Stuart's three sons. Rockwell and Stuart worked together at the magazine for 18 years. Laurie Norton Moffatt, director at the Rockwell museum, has expressed hope that the three Rockwells will eventually be returned. "We cared for them like children … We hope they come back some day. We believe that's where they belong," she said. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/dec/04/norman-rockwell-painting-sells-record-auction

Then you are like to have spent a heap of time waiting on folk who said they would do something directly.

Just came across this Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English. What I was trolling the Internet for was the proper Southern usage of "directly." None of the other so-called Southern sites I found got it right, but this one nails it as gramma and her kin used it. When they agreed to do something directly, the word contained enough ambiguity to sound like assent, while on almost no account ever turning out to mean right away. directly (also dreckly, toreckly) adverb In a little while, before long, as soon as is convenient, later (often used to put off or delay a request); immediately. This term is subject to variable interpretation; see 1996 citation. 1939 Hall Coll. (Deep Creek NC) "They're not a-going [to] let [the bear] cross the Smoky," I said, "He'll turn back down directly." 1939 Hall Coll. (Smokemont NC) We was looking round and about for them, and directly we found them right in the top, laying up on a limb. 1956 Hall Coll. (Cosby TN) "If you don't speak to me," [the ghost] said, "I'll shoot you dreckly." 1965 Dict Queen's English 17 "I'll do that to-reckly." 1969 GSMNP-25:2:8 I could show you directly, but it's hard to tell you because I did have pillars laid up till I could tell you. 1976 Weals It's Owin' = soon, before long. "Directly school will be starting." 1986 Helton Around Home 377 = later. 1996 Montgomery Coll. The usual sense is "in a little while, soon," indicating a definite intention or purpose, but sometimes the term conveys "after a while" if a person wishes to procrastinate; depending on the context, it may mean "at once, immediately." http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/engl/dictionary/dictionary.html#d

Fox News: Obamas Train Guard Dog To Maul White Children; Attack Word Is "Treyvon"