Smoking Jackets or Sex Jackets?

Back in the olden days of Hollywood glamour in the 1930's, a man looked truly sexy wearing a smoking jacket. He may or may not have actually smoked while wearing the jacket, but somehow, that lovely satin frock with pockets, a self-belt, and tapered lapels had a sophisticated look that made women of the time drool.

Unfortunately, the jacket had a terrible name—and the name stuck. I mean, no one had to wear a smoking jacket in order to smoke. And, of course, people wearing smoking jackets could indulge in other activities other than smoking—-seduction, for instance. If truth be told, men wearing smoking jackets probably spent more time seducing than smoking. Wearing a smoking jacket in the movies in the 30's was as close to being naked as a proper gentleman could be. Think Clark Gable. Think Spencer Tracy. Think Hugh Hefner.

We should bring back the smoking jacket. I like the idea of men wearing these elegant garments, don’t you? All we would have to do is change the name. Get rid of the “smoking” and substitute something more health-conscious, something more ecologically appropriate, something more—-manly. How about—-sex jacket?

Let’s face it. If there were a “sex" jacket on the market, wouldn’t men buy it? The term "sex jacket" might simply mean that only sexy men wear such jackets. Or it might mean that if a man wears such a jacket he will become sexy! Either way he wins.

So, folks, let me introduce the new sex jacket. I’m sure you can order yours from Amazon.com. Now, the difficult part is convincing my husband to wear one.

What do you think? Should we bring back the smoking (or rather "sex") jacket?

(photos by gray la gran and Holly Cullen @ www.flickr.com)

Eight Objective Things for "Subjective Soup"

Well, here are some very objective lists for this subjective gal, thanks to my pal Lola at Lola’s Diner, who tagged me (that’s blogger talk for “I had to do it, so now I’m going to make you do it too! Ha! Ha!). Well, making lists is one of my great obsessions, so here goes:

Eight Things I Am Looking Forward To:
The end of the recession (depression)
The end of the Entrecard debacle
My brother’s first blog, which he promised to start
My sister’s first grandchild, due in August
Becoming more financially self-reliant (see TV shows list--#7)
The day my husband becomes a gourmet cook (ha!)
Politicians who are more interested in solving problems and working together than in getting re-elected
A combination laptop computer, Kindle, and cellphone.


Eight Things I Did Yesterday:
Arose at 7:00 a.m.
Sipped my latte while watching CBS’s Sunday Morning
Posted on my other blog Communication Exchange
Tried unsuccessfully to Skype with my brother
Went to my first bloggers’ get-together and met four marvelous gals!
Updated my blog post with photo and video from the get-together
Talked with my sister on the phone
Did 100 push-ups

Eight Things I Wish I Could Do:
Take a railroad trip across the Canadian Rockies and then cruise the coast of Alaska
Get my novel The Sound of Murder accepted for publication
Act again in community theatre—particularly in a musical
Make money online without selling my soul
Find a fellow writing buddy near my home
Go to NYC with my sibs and see Broadway shows
Convince my hubby to take up ballroom dancing
Run a marathon

Eight Television Shows I Love to Watch:
Amazing Race
Big Brother
Dancing With the Stars
Days of Our Lives
Lie to Me
Millionaire Matchmaker
The Suze Orman Show
What Not to Wear

There you have my lists, Lola! Anyone who likes to make lists is welcome to grab these and start listing away! What about you? What is in your list?

(photo by sleepy terry @ www.flickr.com)

I Confess I Stole It On Saturday

Here’s a Stolen Saturday idea that I got from Anji at Anji Patchwork. You might want to try this yourself because it might just give you a whole new perspective on yourself! Here are my responses:

Your rock star name (first pet, current car): Rosie Civic

Your gangsta name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe): Pistachio Pump

Your Native American name (favorite color, favorite animal): Turquoise Bear

Your soap opera name (middle name, city of your birth): Ann Lincoln

Your Star Wars name (first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name): Rocpa

Your Superhero name (2nd favorite color, favorite drink): Purple Coffee

Your NASCAR name (the first names of your grandfathers): Clarence Herman

Your Dancer name (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy): Chantilly Butterfingers

Your TV Weather anchor name (your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with same letter): Hays Honolulu

Your Spy name (your favorite season/holiday flower): Spring Poinsettia

Your Cartoon name (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now): Raisin Sweatpants

Your Hippie name (what you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree): Bagel Magnolia

Your Movie (or porn) star name (most recent pet, first street where you lived): Coquette Worthington

Don’t you love it? Thanks, Anji!

(photo by The Matthew Cook @ www.flickr.com)

Low Tolerance For Pain

Last night my husband and I got in an argument (not something we do very often). The cause of it was his statement that I have a "low tolerance for pain." I felt like he had said, "You're just a sissy!"

I countered by asking him if he had given birth to two children without the aid of anesthesia or if he had put up with excruciating migraines for days, weeks, even months at a time as I have done. He apologized.

However, I know he still believes that my tolerance for pain is low. Well, why wouldn't he think that? I seem to catch every germ that blows my direction and I have undergone numerous surgeries and broken appendages. He, on the other hand, remains blissfully untouched by disease and accident. He has a high tolerance for pain because he doesn't ever really experience it.

What about you? Is your tolerance for pain low or high?

(photo by iamsin @ www.flickr.com)

I'm a Coffee Nut (or Should I Say Bean)

Here's a photograph of the four bags of different coffee beans I presently have in my cupboard. You can see I have two different types of Starbucks beans (French Roast and Espresso), one Dunkin' Donuts, and a Meijer's store brand. I can never seem to find a kind of coffee bean I really like. I'm always trying new ones.

I grind my own beans. That's my grinder to the right of the sacks of beans. You can see my Mr. Coffee and my espresso maker in the background. You could probably say that I am a coffee nut. I like to experiment with different aspects of coffee brewing--different amounts of water, different amounts of beans, different lengths of bean grinding time, and, of course, different types of beans. Also, I have discussed in a previous post about my search to find the pefect milk foam for lattes.

So far, I haven't found the perfect mix that would create what I would consider the perfect cup of coffee. Yet, I continue to search.

What about you? Are you a coffee nut too? To what lengths do you go for the perfect cuppa?

Come Join the Party! Communication Exchange is One Year Old!

You're invited to a party! If you have time, drop by my other blog Communication Exchange for its one year anniversary today. No balloons! No cake! Just a lot of joy and amazement that my little blog has reached this milestone and has brought me (and I hope others) so much enjoyment.

I guess I must really enjoy blogging because I gave birth to another blog "child" in less than a year after Communication Exchange made its first appearance. I certainly didn't do that with my real life children (they are thirteen years apart). Well, at least now Communication Exchange and Subjective Soup will be able to grow up together and hopefully have more in common as siblings.

How about you, fellow bloggers, are your blogs like your children? Is creating a blog somewhat like giving birth? Do you forget all those labor pains as you watch your blog babies grow and succeed? If you're not a blogger, what do you lavish your motherly (or fatherly) love upon?

(photo by annette1366 @ www.flickr.com)

Editors, Writers, and Helpful Friends: Advice Wanted on My Murder Mystery

As I mentioned in a recent post, I submitted a manuscript that I wrote back in November during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to a publisher. She replied after several months with some criticism and a suggestion that I revise and resubmit. I am now in the process of revising.

The editor’s main suggestions were that I remove unneeded parentheses and paragraphs with lists, and also to make the characters less stereotypical. I believe I have made good progress on the parentheses and paragraph list problems. The stereotypical characters issue, I am not so sure.

Therefore, dear readers, if you would be interested in assisting me with this project, I would love to get your feedback on the first chapter of The Sound of Murder which you can read here on my private Scribd account. Most of the main characters appear in this chapter; four additional main characters are introduced in later chapters.

I am particularly interested in your take on the characters. Do they seem like stereotypes? If so, how? Their dialogue? Their physical description? Their behavior? What? Any suggestions you might have I would value. Let me have it. I can take it. Thanks in advance!

(photo by Lint_2008 @ www.flickr.com)

Debate Coach Evaluates Entrecard Paid Ad Controversy

My many years as a debate coach trained me to analyze controversial issues by looking at both sides. Let’s take a look at the controversy recently raging about Entrecard’s new paid advertising initiative and consider the arguments both for and against. (If you are not a member of Entrecard, I apologize for boring you with this post and promise that my next post will not deal with Entrecard).

Resolution: Entrecard should implement a system of paid advertisements on members’ widgets.

AFFIRMATIVE
1. Entrecard has no source of income.
2. Entrecard has a right to make money.
3. Entrecard is a privately owned site and its owner has the right to do with it what he wants.
4. Allowing third party paid ads on member widgets has the potential to produce much revenue.
5. Members will be able to make money with paid ads on their widgets by selling EC credits back to Entrecard.

NEGATIVE
1. Entrecard has been able to function quite effectively until now without paid ads.
2. Entrecard demeans the value of regular EC ads by alternating them with paid ads.
3. Recent proliferation of paid ads makes Entrecard members’ duties increasingly difficult.
4. Entrecard could create revenue in other ways without placing paid ads on members’ widgets, such as selling ads on its own website
5. Entrecard members who joined for friendship and not to make money will leave Entrecard in large numbers.

These are just some of the arguments I have seen presented by various Entrecard bloggers. I am reserving judgment for a while until I see how the Entrecard credit buy-back plan actually works. I love Entrecard and I want it to be successful for its owners and its members. As a debate coach, I firmly believe that respectful debate is always enlightening and I am happy to hear your thoughts on the Entrecard paid ad controversy.

TMJ and Why I Didn't Speak at Easter Dinner

For the third time in less than a year, my jaw froze. I have what my doctor has labeled TMJ or temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ has its own organization which you can check out here at their website). I was eating a small piece of chicken on Saturday and all of a sudden I experienced searing pain in my left jaw. I knew immediately what it was. The first time it happened I had no idea what it was. This time, I knew and was prepared. Heating pads, ice packs, pain killers, tranquilizers, muscle relaxants and just total rest for my jaw were called for. That meant no chewing and certainly no talking for several days.

So, come Sunday at my sister's Easter dinner, I was not the life of the party. My relatives soon realized that asking me a question was a waste of time because I would try to respond using a make-shift form of sign language. They also soon realized that they could tease me relentlessly and I couldn't defend myself. Luckily my sweet baby sister Chris, who knows me probably better than anyone (barring my husband), took it upon herself to answer questions for me.

My son Alex chided me for chewing gum too much. My nephew Nick noted that not being able to speak was a great test of my nonverbal communication skills. My brother Ken was pleased that not speaking did not affect my ability to produce a cake of which he ate four pieces. My brother-in-law Peter and my other nephew Ben wisely stayed out of the discussion. My husband Milt also remained commentless (but being a husband who's wife can't talk--what do you suppose he was thinking?). Hmmm.

The women--my sister, my mother, and Nick's adorable and very pregnant wife Kristin were sympathetic. Now, why do suppose that was?

My jaw is somewhat better today. I managed to eat my regular morning bagel even though I had to first cut it in dozens of small pieces. Then one at a time I put a tiny piece in my mouth and sucked on it until it was mushy and I could swallow it. TMJ! Here's hoping you never experience it!

Have you ever had TMJ? Have you ever had to communicate when you couldn't speak?

(photo by macca @ www.flickr.com)

Mom Predicts Brown Fat Benefits

A good year before the present economic downturn, my 88-year-old mother, who has a mild dementia, fretted continually about the safety of her money. She kept telling us that her money (and our money) wasn't safe and we should take it out of our investments and banks and hide it under our beds. Of course, at the time, we laughed. Now, we wonder if Mom might not be psychic.

So, yesterday, when I went to visit Mom, she was all in a tither about brown fat. She had seen several stories about it on television and she is convinced she has it. (The New York Times has a comprehensive article about brown fat here.)

Mom: It's the good fat--the fat babies have. It's right behind their necks.

Me: Their necks?

Mom: Yes, here (she points to a spot on the back of her neck).

Me: Mom, are you worried about this brown fat?

Mom: Oh, no! I told you, it's good fat. The bad fat is yellow or white. This is brown fat. It's good just like brown bread or brown rice.

Me: Hmmm.

Mom: I think I've always had it and that's why I've lived so long. I remember when I used to work in my garden so hard but I never lost any weight.

Me: Yes, I remember that.

Mom: Well, it was probably all that brown fat on me. It kept me warm when I was out working in the garden.

Me: Well, maybe.

She was very insistent and excited about brown fat. I had heard something about brown fat on the news but didn't pay it much attention. However, given my mother's ability to predict things, maybe I should.

Have you heard about brown fat? What do you think?

(cartoon by beneneuman at www.flickr.com)

Bunnies, Poms, and Zombie Chickens

The Easter Bunny is coming. If my daughter were still seven or eight I would dress her up in a cute little frock. But, she's an adult and prefers dark jeans and t-shirts. So, I substitute our Pomeranian Coquette. Here is our darling dog all spiffed up for Easter wearing little pink bows. Doesn't she look sweet?

That takes care of bunnies and Poms. Now to the Zombie chickens. My pal Lola over at Lola's Diner has bestowed the Zombie Chicken award on Subjective Soup. Thanks, Lola! When I first saw something called "Zombie Chicken" coming from "Lola's Diner" I figured it was some new spicy casserole, probably made with fresh vegetables from Lola's Victory Garden. Not so. According to the "rules of Zombie Chicken":

"The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…"

That sounds ominous. Let me pass this award on quickly before I incur the ZC's wrath. Hey, since my post today is all about animals (oh my!), I'm going to send this award on to five of my favorite animal blogs. These blogs have given me many smiles and lots of good advice for my little pup Coquette.

1. Tom's Cats

2. Small Dog Stuff

3. Rebel and Suzy Speak

4. Cats Who Twitter

5. The Cat/Dog Log

What do you say? Zombie Chicken for dinner tonight?

The Generosity of Bloggers

Bloggers are, without a doubt, the most generous of people. The more experienced ones help the newbies learn the ropes of blogging. Each post on each blog out there represents a little gift from the heart of one blogger to the entire community. So when I received SIX (count 'em!) awards from my blogger friend Clara at Coming Back to Life, I felt blessed by her remarkable generosity. I love Clara's blog for her uplifting messages and her persistence.

Clara says that the only award of the six that has any stipulations is the Generosity Award. The rules of this award are:

1. Show generosity towards others in the blogging community by giving a small gift of appreciation. This can be free advertising, a card in the mail, or anything else your imagination takes you.

2. Send this award to at least five others. If you wish to send the award to more than that feel free. Generosity has no limits.

3. Link back to the person who sent you this award.

4. Copy the rules as well as the award into your post.

5. Enjoy yourself and have fun!

Okay, Clara. These are great rules and I will try my best to follow them. Clara says she will be sending me and her other recipients (Tammy at Crazy Mom With 4 Boys, Ida at Losing Myself, and Rita at Following 31) a small gift in the mail. Yay! I love getting treats in the mail.

So, Clara, you got me thinking about what generous gift I could give and to whom. I remember reading on someone's blog (I can't remember whose, but I am sure one of you will--please let me know and I will credit this blogger) about how she (he?) was working to purge her library of her over-supply of books. This is always a problem for me too, as I buy more books than I can store. Certainly, joining BookCrossing recently has provided an outlet for some of these extra books that I am now able to release into the wild for other book lovers to hopefully find, but I still have far more books than I can possibly release this way. So, I am thinking that my little gift to my selected bloggers will be to offer them a choice of one of my used books and I will mail it to them. How does that sound?

First, I'd like to pass these six awards (including the Generosity Award) to these amazingly generous bloggers:

1. Lin at Duck and Wheel with Strings-- a very supportive and generous friend in time of need who plans to attend our first-ever blogger get-together later this month.

2. Jude at Mature Not Senile--a fellow Baby Boomer who has seen more than her share of tragedy this year but still finds time to show generosity to others.

3. Kelly at 30 Something and Searching--a young blogger who is enthusiastically and generously planning her grandmother's 90th birthday party.

4. Susan of West of Mars--a seasoned author who is very generous with her assistance to new authors.

Here is my list of ten used (and some are very used) books in my library. You four recipients, let me know which one of these ten books you would like me to send you. First come, first serve.

1. Cold Pursuit (Carla Neggers)--a prominent ambassador is killed in Washington, D.C. Hours later, his stepdaughter vanishes in the mountains of New England.

2. Blue Heaven (C. J. Box)--a twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother are on the run in the Idaho woods, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder.

3. The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don't (Ken Fisher)--this investment guru debunks conventional market myths that many investment decisions are based upon.

4. Mind, Self, & Society (George Herbert Mead), v. 1--the treatise that contains the heart of Mead's position on social psychology.

5. The Rational Guide to Google Blogger (Wei-Meng Lee)--quick guide to getting started with Google Blogger.

6. Blogging for Dummies (Brad Hill)--the plain-English guide to blogging.

7. Jewelry Making for Fun and Profit (Lynda S. Musante and Maria Given Nerius)--jewelry making how-to's and home-business basics.

8. A Rhetoric for the Social Sciences: A Guide to Academic and Professional Communication (Kristine Hansen)--describes and illustrates the kinds of writing social science majors will do in college and later in their careers.

9. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Web Page & Blog (Paul McFedries)--6th. ed.--easy-to-follow steps for setting up and maintaining a web page or blog (includes cd-rom).

10. Sarcasm and Other Mixed Messages: The Ambiguous Ways People Use Language (Patricia Rockwell)--as if you'd really want to read an entire book on sarcasm.

Take your pick! If none of these appeal to you--award recipients--let me know what you might like and I will go scrounging around in my stock and see if I can find something more to your liking.

Thank you for your generosity! There are so many generous bloggers out there, it's hard to select just a few!

Fellow Writers, Where Do I Go From Here?

I could use your advice. In November, I joined NaNoWriMo, the “you can write a book in a month” support group that encourages people who haven’t done so, to write a novel in record time by emphasizing quantity over quality. I managed to complete their intensive 30-day program and then spent several more weeks polishing and revising my first attempt at fiction. In December, I queried several publishers and one asked me to submit my story. I did so not expecting much. After waiting over three months to hear from the publisher, I received this brief note the other day:

“Ms. Rockwell,
I’m writing regarding your story, Sound of Murder. In its present form, we won’t be contracting this manuscript. The writing is good and the story is just on the edge of great but there are many issues that need work. Your use of parenthesis is distracting and slows the readers’ progress. Your characters feel a little too “stereotypical.” You have many paragraphs that feel like shopping lists telling us what is happening instead of showing us with actions from the characters.

Should you wish to revise and resubmit, we would be happy to look at this manuscript again. Thank you for your submission.”

Maybe many of you would find this note discouraging. Not me. As I have written on my other blog Communication Exchange, I handle rejection well. With my experiences publishing numerous articles in scholarly journals, serving as a peer reviewer for other scholars’ submitted articles, editing a state journal, and working for two years as an editorial assistant for the top-ranked journal in the field of Communication, I see the words “revise and resubmit” in this note and I respond positively. I know that in academic publishing at least, most submissions that ultimately get published start with a “revise and resubmit.” I recall maybe only one or two submissions in my two years working as an editorial assistant for that top journal that actually were accepted for publication without any revisions. The vast majority of editors of academic publications force authors through a sometimes rather lengthy revision process, with editors and reviewers reading and re-reading a manuscript several times before it is accepted. I have been on both ends of this process.

As an academic author, when I received a letter from an editor asking me to “revise and resubmit” a manuscript, I always considered it a mental challenge—some what like a solving a puzzle. What can I do, I would ask myself, to make this manuscript acceptable to the editor and the reviewers? I would first look to see if there were any issues that the editor and reviewers agreed upon. I would note those issues as the most important. If there was disagreement, I would ask why? Possibly, one reviewer didn’t see a particular issue as a problem because it wasn’t. Could I make the same case? I would usually list all the concerns that I would have to address if I intended to resubmit the article and then think long and hard about whether I would be able make the revisions necessary and whether I wanted to make the revisions necessary. Some times I decided in favor of revising and some times not. Some times, I changed focus and decided to try a different approach and submit the manuscript to a different type of journal. Some times I decided to forget it and put the manuscript away (at least for that moment). However, in most cases, I decided to revise and resubmit the article. And, in most instances, I eventually got the article published—though often times with major changes and after a great deal of work.

When I revised an academic article, there were a variety of issues that had to be addressed. The easiest concerns were usually those involving writing. Writing mistakes can be fixed. Much harder to fix are issues involving theoretical conception, research design, and data analysis. If the editor and/or reviewers and I disagreed on any of these three issues, the solution would be much more difficult. For example, if an experiment is incorrectly designed, it is very hard to re-design it once you have already collected all the data. It really means starting all over again. If, however, there is a problem in the data analysis, this can often be corrected using a different statistical test.

I mention all of this as background, so that you see my dilemma when I received this review (note?) about my novel. Not having ever submitted (or written for that matter) fiction before, I’m not sure how similar fiction publishers are to academic publishers in their reviews. This review certainly isn't similar to academic reviews in length. Most academic reviews tend to run several, single-spaced, typewritten pages. This review of my several hundred-page novel is just a few sentences long. I really was hoping for a longer review that I could use as a guideline to help me with the revision. Even so, the publisher does give me three very specific issues that she believes are problems with my book:

1. overuse of parenthesis
2. stereotypical characters
3. shopping list paragraphs

As I consider these three, I believe that I will work on #1 and #3 first as they will be the easiest to identify and fix. The second one—stereotypical characters--will be much harder to address. What makes the characters stereotypical? The note says they are “a little too stereotypical.” I don’t want to go overboard in revising, to the point that the characters become unidentifiable. As you can see, I am eager to get started on my revision.

Now, where do you come in? I know many of you bloggers and blog readers are writers yourselves and may have experienced what I am experiencing with this review of my novel. Some of you write fiction; some of you even write novels. Some of you have had your work published and know all about publishers of fiction. I’d love to get your feedback about the note I received from this publisher. Do you think I am reading it correctly? Or, is my experience in academia making me see this review through rose-colored glasses? Any advice or suggestions you can give me, particularly that which is based on your own experience with publishing fiction would be greatly appreciated!

In return, I would be more than happy to assist you with your academic articles! What do you say?

(photo by -RR- @ www.flickr.com)

Ten Facts About Me and The Blogs That Inspired Them

Lola at Lola’s Diner offers generous portions of her unique observations and sometimes even free dessert! For example, today she plopped an “Honest Scrap” award on my plate when I stopped by for my daily repast. Thanks, Lola! No wonder you have such satisfied customers at your little eatery!

Of course, Lola sometimes makes us work for our treats. For this award, we have to list ten honest things about ourselves and pass the Honest Scrap award on to other blogs which we believe have “brilliant content or design.” Okay, that will be easy because there are lots of blogs like that out there. So, as I honestly list each of my ten facts, I will mention the blog that inspired me to recall it. I honor all ten of you today with the Honest Scrap Award.

Here goes. Ten honest facts about me:

1. As an unabashed lover of reality television, I am panting with anticipation for the next season of my favorite reality show—Big Brother. In the meantime, I get my daily BB fix at Big Brother Insider .

2. I have slept for many years on a contour pillow—you know, the ones with the middle scooped out. I hate those big fluffy pillows. I’d rather go pillow-less than use one of those monsters. Of course, the contour pillows are much better for my spine too as I learned at Better Spines

3. I find the sexiest thing about a man is his dancing ability (witness my obsession with Dancing with the Stars), but the SECOND sexiest thing about a man, is his cooking ability! That’s probably why I like Sense and Sensibility, a single dad’s account of his struggles as he learns to cook.

4. I would rather have a screwdriver thrust in my eyeball than have to deal with computer tech support over the phone. This always makes me feel just like my fellow blogger does at Cranial Soup .

5. For my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, I worked for two years researching their family histories, and presented them with a bound copy of the results. I was able to trace my Dad’s relatives back to William the Conqueror, but did a much more thorough job on my Mom’s family. I know this would make Carol, the genealogy expert at iPentimento, very proud!

6. I have a very loud voice—or so my family tells me. This makes it hard for me to argue with my husband quietly at a low decibel level--one of the prerequisites of a good marriage according to Happiness in Marriage. I'm working on it. I don't like being a "loud-mouth"!

7. The Modern Mom has a great cartoon that takes me back to my childhood and reminds me of why I was always careful to wear clean underwear every day. It was my grandmother, however, who kept reminding me about the importance of clean underwear, not my mother.

8. Yummy as Can Be has photos of shrimp that remind me of crawfish. When I went for the interview for the job I eventually got teaching at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, my future boss MADE me eat a crawfish! That was the first and last crawfish I ever ate.

9. A Pinch of Thought asks readers if they have ever kept a paper journal. I kept a diary when I was a teenager (nothing very exciting was in it) and I tried keeping one recently, but I couldn’t get into it. I guess blogging is enough journaling for me.

10. 1993 Honda Civic always intrigues me because I own a Honda Civic (although it’s not a 1993 model). My very first car was a Ford Cortina and when its fan belt broke I fixed it myself with a coat hanger. Don't ask me how. I couldn't do it today.

Anyway, there are my ten honest facts (a bit long-winded) and the ten bloggers who inspired me to remember those facts! There are so many wonderful blogs out there that it is extremely hard to choose favorites. I picked these ten because they helped me comprise my list of honest facts about myself. Thanks, guys! Please stop by their blogs and maybe you too will find out something about yourself. Also, don’t forget to drop by Lola’s Diner. You may find me there snacking on a piece of pie.

No April Fooling! I Love My Readers!

Whether you are an Entrecard member and drop your virtual business card before you leave or just a regular reader who has found me the old-fashioned way (not sure what the old-fashioned way is to find a blog, but however you found me), I am super happy to have you here!

While you’re here, take a taste of my subjective soup or add a spice or two of your own (I love comments!). If you enjoy my cooking, you might want to visit my other blog Communication Exchange for some friendly talk about talk.

Here are the names of the ten Entrecard bloggers who visited Subjective Soup most often during the month of March. Thank you! Thank you!

Dropper # of drops

Life's A Pizza Pie 31
Anything Goes W/ Pahn 31
The Junk Drawer 31
The Way I See It 31
Big Boys Have Toys Too 31
Eating in New Zealand 30
The Modern Historian 30
Traders' Hub 30
Back to School for Grownups 30
Lola's Diner 30

Thank you!

(photo by leolucaescobar @ www.flickr.com)