Serendipity and the Internet

how to write plane letter for girlfriend--You learn how to write a letter with practice. You should probably start with a pen-pal, preferably one from another country. Add sweet nothings and it will be a nice letter for a girlfriend. Above all things, correct spelling is important.

superstition "cow's tongue"--Getting licked by a cow brings three months of bad luck.

I remember, as a very young child, visiting my great-grandmother "Mamo Carothers" (also known as Mamo piano, because she had a piano, to distinguish her from Mamo marbles, who had marbles), and she was cooking a cow tongue on a small saucepan on the stove. I got a look at it, and it was frightening.

pentecostal service--I think that Leif Enger gives the best literary expression (or perhaps the only literary expression) of a pentecostal service I've seen:

"I heard an urgent voice say, approximately, bahm, toballah, sacoombaraffay; straight off a different voice raised up to translate: 'I am among you tonight, my children,' it said, amid blooming amens. Cracking the door we saw the Reverend Johnny Latt reach out to touch a man on the forehead. ... The reverend's eyes were shut, and as his fingers touched Mr. Layton's bright scalp Mr. Layton fell backward without utterance, slipping between the ineffectual arms of the younger Latt brother, who'd crept up behind to make the catch. The impact had no visible effect on Mr. Layton, who lay at peace in a room littered with supine Methodists. Reverend Johnny opened his eyes and peered around for others in range."

There's much more, and it's quite well done.

adios kansas--A perversion of Dorothy's "We aren't in Kansas anymore, Toto." It's one thing to realize that you aren't at home anymore; it's another to stop fighting to get back there.