When the marbles are so lost that there is no hope of recovery

I am writing Tudor crack. Oh. Dear. God.

I have decided to give Henry VIII a bad day.

( See, the title ‘King of England, Ireland, and France’ has been sold on the black market, making your claim to it null and void.” )

Did you know there's a book called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

Chicago is the US's most stressful city

Or so Yahoo says. Funny, I lived there a whole year and never noticed. Then again, my commute was on the train, not the motorway.

Crowding, poor air quality, a high 11% unemployment rate and free-falling home values have created a cocktail of constant worry affecting many in the Windy City.

Crowding? Oxford Sreet during summer; that's crowding. And I never got black dust under my nails (and in my eyes; and in my nose) just from taking a walk while I lived in Chicago. In London? Stick around for one day and you'll never be able to keep your nails clean. The unemployment deal would freak me out if I weren't so inured to the word already that I'm past freaking out and waiting for the day when the politicians will stop saying that they're going to fix the economy and actually do it. On the free-falling home values, it's bad if you're selling, but wonderful if you're buying. That's how my cousin managed to buy a house. So that goes both ways. I don't suppose that affects flats, does it? Cause I don't want a house. Way too much trouble. Unless it's in Wales. Where home values are not only not dropping, but they're skyrocketing because it's so darn pretty.