The Library

[PatH]

The Library Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us. We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not). Let the book talk begin here!

*Suggestion Box for Future Discussions
*SeniorLearn's Archives  
 

[PatH]

Sally, I have that problem too.  I can't use any scented products whatever, and sitting next to someone wearing a lot of scent gives me problems, breathing and other.  I've had to change seats in airplanes and concerts.  What a pain.

Jean, that email almost certainly didn't come from Amazon, but was a spam imitation, like the bogus notifications from banks and Facebook.

[BarbStAubrey]

I do not know if it is true of all older folks who use a strong scent but the few I know are no longer able to shower on their own and only shower with help - they cannot afford home care so they depend on a visit from a family member that could be coming in from out of town so a real shower is a semi-monthly affair - to feel less vulnerable to body odors, each day they slush themselves with toilet water - many of us do not like the results of that habit but we can learn to smile inwardly and realize someone is trying hard to keep their dignity in tact. 

[ursamajor]

Barb, what a good, compassionate comment.  This is something that had not occurred to me, and I am one of those who really dislike perfume.  My husband is allergic so I have smelled like Dial soap for sixty years whether I liked it or not.

[LarryHanna]

It is not only you ladies who don't care for scents on either women or men if they are strong. 

[JeanneP]

I am down to tinted moisturizer, little cheek and lip gloss. Night out I will do my eyes a little.  To many years of having to look perfect. I still dress up if going to stores,malls etc. thing is now can look nice in good slacks,tops. Always skirts and jackets when working. So many suits still in closet .
How I loved hats when living still in UK .brought a trunk full here in the late 50s gloves also. Hat for every outfit. Now only for weddings.  Miss them though. Liked men in hats also. ( not ball game caps) hate to see them.

[JeanneP]

I still will not go into any church or place of religion without head covered.  On campus the young will go in shorts.

[mabel1015j]

For a while last yr i had a spat of time when no deodorant worked very well. One day i looked at my bureau and there was a container of Dr Scholl's foot powder......huuuuuummmm, i thought, it works on my shoe odor, i wonder? It was perfect! And ever since i have been powdering my underarms with it and have never had a problem since. Takes a very little bit of powder, so it's probably much more cost effective than deodorant and has no heavy odor.......i wish i had known about it when i was a teenager and young adult!!!

I am considering buying Amazon Prime for my grandson for his birthday to use on his ipad. Those of you who have Prime and have an ipad, does the streaming work on the ipad? I looked at some reviews that said it wasn't so good, but they were all posted 18 months or more ago.


Jean

[Winchesterlady]

Jean -- I have Amazon Prime and order many books that I can read either on my Kindle or my iPad.  They are downloaded very quickly and I haven't had any problems.

[MaryPage]

Have never worn makeup.  Ever in my life.  Found out when I was 18 that I am highly allergic and break out into a burning red rash.  Even the very best lines of cosmetics hypoallergic lines;  am allergic to them.  Now my dermatologist and her nurse assistant are telling me every year when I go in for a full body scan that I have the best looking skin for my age (84) they have ever seen.  This doctor asked me a bunch of questions and decided it was due to my staying out of the sun ( have never, ever sunbathed or sat out in the sun, either) and not using makeup.  It is all down to my being allergic, because I have a sun allergy, too, that makes me break out into a dreadfully stinging rash.  If I had not been allergic, I would have used makeup and would have sunbathed.  So I guess I just got lucky.

[mabel1015j]

Winchesterlady - have you ever tried to stream videos to your ipad?

[Octavia]

First, many thanks to Ginny, Frybabe, PatH, Barb and anyone else I might have missed who welcomed me back. I appreciate it, and I'd like to see Carolyn back too.
I read of a new book by Tim Winton(name escapes me) and I thought how proud Gumtree would be of her fellow West Australian. As she said, 'how could I not read all his books, we're practically neighbours.'
Cloudstreet is one of my favourite books, along with Dirt Music.
Barb, I think you're mixing 2 books together. The author in Sophia's Secret was only an author and historian. The Rose Garden has a tearoom in it, set in Cornwall.
I'm wanting to read The Shadowy Horses(I think that's the right title)because it's about the vanished 9th Roman Legion.
I love books, poetry and language first, and then archaeology. So many incredible fossils are being discovered here in Australia. We never knew these creatures existed here.

[MaryPage]

Octavia, have you read THE BAT by Jo Nesbo?  I just finished it.  It is set in Sydney.

[ginny]

Here is the result of our Opinion Poll #2:

Question:    How important to you is the setting in a book?

Very important: influences my desire to read the book    - 2 (10%)
Important: I like learning about new places    - 12 (60%)
Somewhat important: I'm vaguely influenced    - 2 (10%)
Neutral: I don't care where the book is set    - 4 (20%)
Other    - 0 (0%)

Total Voters: 18

Our new opinion poll is now up on the top of this  page, and it concerns the literary prizes some books win. Every year when the prizes are awarded we have lots of talk about them,  in a couple of our discussions, let's find out how important such prizes are to YOU in your reading?

[Winchesterlady]

Jean -- I'm sorry ... I should have known you were talking about streaming videos and not downloading books.  Yes, I watch YouTube and Netflix on the iPad and it works great.  The only time I  might have a problem is if our internet service is running slow, which rarely happens.

[FlaJean]

I stream on my iPad also.  In fact if I turn on my Apple TV box I can AirPlay and stream right onto my large TV from my iPad---very convenient.

[JoanP]

if I turn on my Apple TV box I can AirPlay and stream right onto my large TV from my iPad

  FlaJean, how does that work...what's an Apple TV box?

[pedln]

JoanP, I'm glad  you asked that.  I'd like to know too.  A short while ago someone at BestBuy told me about wireless routers that could be used in the streaming process.

[Steph]

I have routers, and would love to know about the streaming myself.

[Winchesterlady]

We have a wireless router and we use it for connecting to the Internet with all our devices -- computers, Kindle, iPad, printer, Apple TV, etc.  We live in the country and are surrounded by trees. There is no Internet service available to us through cable TV or FIOS for example.  We use a Verizon MiFi that is referred to as a hotspot. We were lucky enough to get it when there was no limit on data usage.

The Apple TV box cost us about $99. With it, you can purchase or "rent" movies through iTunes, or set up a monthly subscription for Netflix.  There are hundreds of movies and TV programs available through Netflix. The Apple TV box is a one time payment. Netflix costs $7.95 a month.  I love it.

[Frybabe]

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/streaming-media

Steph, if you watch a program on your computer from PBS, CBS, YouTube, Vimeo and others you are seeing streaming video in action. There are devices, like my Roku, that you can hook up to your TV to get streaming video and music. You need to have the device connected to your internet router, whether hard wired or via WiFi. I cut back on my cable programs and bought the Roku and Amazon Prime. It is saving me a lot of money per year, and while the programs and movies are not the newest, many of them are only a season or two old. Many are free, for many others there is a charge. Some channels are subscription (like Prime, Netflix and Blockbuster), lots are free.

[mabel1015j]

Thanks for your answers. I think i'll go ahead w/ Prime for his birthday. You folks are always so helpful!

[ginny]

Winchesterlady, I have been looking at those Verizon wifi things, the hot spots and they have many kinds. We're like you, on satellite only with lots of trees, but I CAN and do get Verizon  for the ipad. I have been wondering about the little hotspots, which one do you recommend, there are a lot of them.

A lot of people seem dissatisfied, that's why I ask. Here in  SC we have 30 days to return anything, no questions asked, so I doubt (and I would ask first) if the 2 year contract would bind me as it seems to bind the others, unless I let it run over 30 days of course.

It needs to work.

(By the way, do you know about the Winchester House? I had read about it with my adult learners years ago, it was in one of their reading cards which I can no longer recall the name of the series...I bet some of you know. So when we went out west, we went to tour it, absolutely fascinating).

[ginny]

SRA!!! I just remembered the name of the cards, and whoopeee are they expensive! I just looked them up to see if that even was right, and wow. I had no idea they were that high. The school district had started up this remedial set of courses to offer the GED.  But they were really good. That's been 34 years so I guess I am not totally gone mentally, then.

[Winchesterlady]

Ginny -- I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you. We originally had a Verizon MiFi  with a 3 GB/month download limit. It worked fine, but I think you would easily go over that limit if you were using it to watch movies, in other words streaming data.  You could get other plans which allowed for a larger download limit for different prices per month.

At the time, my husband had a Verizon cell phone which had "unlimited" data download.  I don't think they offer that anymore. Anyway, what we did was turn that phone into a hotspot and bought a new phone for my husband to use in its place.

So, I would say that we really like the Verizon hotspot that we use and it works very well.....but, if we didn't have the unlimited data download, we would be paying quite a bit more. You're fortunate to have the 30-day return policy. If I were you, I would go to the Verizon store and explain what you want to use it for to see what they suggest. We have never had any trouble with our's.  I also have to admit though that I have two sons living close by who help us out with all of this new technology!

My husband just reminded me that we are in an area that offers 4G service, so that is what we are using with our hotspot.  If your area only offers 3G service, the download speed is slower so it is not as good for streaming videos. That is something you could check on at the Verizon store.  I hope this has helped....I'm afraid I might not be expressing all the current terms correctly.

I googled "Winchester House", and I had never heard of it. It sounds interesting, but we are in Virginia.

[ginny]

Make sense to me thank you so much. I had a feeling there was more to it, it looks so good!

[JeanneP]

I have no problem with the skin on my face. Did not sunbath either.   Did not get much sun in UK. However the rest of me. Legs arms. I have a allergy to sunlight.  Fine in winter but not right now. Hard to stop the light from touching.
Good idea on the Dr. Scholls foot powder.  Will try it.  I don't  need it  to often but I know it makes my feet feel cool.

[Octavia]

I haven't read The Bat, MaryPage. I sort of avoid mysteries as I live alone and have a very vivid imagination. All the little night noises turn into burglars. It doesn't help that the cane toads bumble around all night, knocking things over. My fears aren't unfounded, a house in this street had an attempted break in last week, and this is a small street.
Yesterday, my youngest came over from WA and I didn't stir all night. Bliss!
At our farm up north, we left everything unlocked, the car keys stayed in the vehicles. The boys slept on the front lawn in sleeping bags, if they felt like it.
Now we've lost our innocence
I have 4G Wireless for my Laptop, it's the only connection I can get. Yet my neighbours either side can get any service they want. I'm always baffled by this.

[ginny]

Good heavens. I went to the Winchester House website to see if I could get a photo of it and the dramatic ad  nearly blew me out of the room, they really have gotten...er..... When we went thru it was kind of fey and cute, tho they did push the macabre a bit, in the guide and her sort of spooky dialogue, but everybody laughed.

  I guess that's on the back burner now. Poor woman. I always felt sorry for her, obviously bonkers. I always see myself in these things, for some reason. We all have our little ways, right? But she was obviously in need of help.  Here's an old postcard. This is not a village, it's the house.

[Steph]

I use Brighthouse in Florida and Morris Broadband here. I can get both cut off when I am not there. In Florida, I even have my housephone connected to it.. I love the discs and use them for NetFlix..

[pedln]

That's a house?  Winchester?  Wow!  I'm putting it on my bucket list, should I ever get to San Jose.  Fascinating.

The wireless discussion has likewise been fascinating, albeit somewhat confusing.  Are we getting to the point where there are just too many choices and too many decisions to make regarding technology.  I've been looking  cell phones that offer captions, iPads, etc, and it seems like you need a degree in technology in order to choose wisely.

That being said, they caught me.  I'm now a scofflaw!!

Dangerous Woman

The irony is, the street renoavation prompted the trike purchase. It's my favorite ride.

[ginny]

Pedln,  is that you? I think you should raise some kind of protest and BE dangerous.   A trike is  a lot different from a two wheel bike with kids knocking people down with it.

[Tomereader1]

Is this "Winchester House" the basis for the book/movie "Rose Red"?

[ginny]

Oh for  heaven's sake! No, it's not, apparently there are two of them!!

 Or are there?  

History of Rose Red

According to information revealed at various points in the miniseries, Rose Red was built in 1906 by wealthy oilman John Rimbauer for his wife, Ellen. Rimbauer used much of his wealth to build the mansion, which was in the Tudor-Gothic style and situated on 40 acres (160,000 m2) of woodland in the heart of Seattle on the site of a Native American burial ground. The house was rumored to be cursed even as it was being constructed; three construction workers were killed on the site, and a construction foreman was murdered by a co-worker.

While honeymooning in Africa, Ellen Rimbauer fell ill (from an unspecified sexually transmitted disease given to her by her husband, most likely herpes[1]) and made the acquaintance of Sukeena, a local tribeswoman. The two women became very close while Sukeena nursed Ellen back to health, and Sukeena accompanied the Rimbauers back to the newly-completed Rose Red. The Rimbauers had two children, Adam and April (born with a withered arm), but Ellen quickly became unhappy with her marriage to her philandering and neglectful husband. Deaths and mysterious disappearances became more commonplace at the house. One of John Rimbauer's friends died of a bee sting in the solarium, while his business partner (whom Rimbauer had cheated out of his share of the oil company's profits) hanged himself in front of Rimbauer's children. Six-year-old April also disappeared in the house, and Sukeena was tortured by the police after being suspected of her murder. John Rimbauer appeared to commit suicide by throwing himself from an upper window (although viewers of the miniseries later learn that he was murdered by Ellen and Sukeena).

Ellen and Sukeena continued to live in the house after John Rimbauer's death. After a spiritualist seance, Ellen came to believe that if she continued to build and expand the house, she would never die (echoing the story of the Winchester Mystery House). Ellen used nearly all of her dead husband's fortune to continually add to the home over the next several decades, enlarging it significantly. The mysterious disappearances continued to occur, however, and both Ellen Rimbauer and Sukeena eventually disappeared in Rose Red.

Apparently Rose Red was demolished in 2001, or was it? There should be some photo of it, right? Youtube has a big movie on "it," but it's Thornewood instead.

The grandest Seattle estate is long gone, but its haunted mystery remains. Rose Red was demolished in 2001, taking with it dozens of souls. Discover the mystery and tragedy at http://www.roseredmystery.com

 But there are no photos of Rose Red, for apparently a good reason!

Thornewood Castle was used in the movie for Rose Red: http://www.thornewoodcastle.com/movie.htm

The REASON I can't find a photograph of it is History Link says it never existed!!

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=4001[/color]

HistoryLink.org Essay 4001

This essay contains selected email queries received by HistoryLink concerning Rose Red, an ABC-TV mini-series which aired in January 2002 and was based on a story concept by Stephen King and a related Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life At Rose Red (New York: Hyperion Books, 2001), in fact written by Ridley Pearson. These works of fiction claimed to tell the tale of an actual haunted Seattle mansion. The cachet of verisimilitude was reinforced by a seemingly legitimate "Beaumont University" website, which included a link to HistoryLink and generated numerous emails from visitors seeking "the truth about Rose Red." This sampling of queries sent to HistoryLink offers a case study in the power of media to mislead in the name of entertainment -- or worse.

The Haunting of HistoryLink

In the winter of 2001, HistoryLink staff historian Alan Stein noticed that our site had begun receiving referrals from a new website, www.beaumontuniversity.net. He backtracked and found a credible looking academic site -- except that all of its available content was devoted to one Dr. Joyce Reardon's investigation of a haunted mansion in Seattle called Rose Red. Everything else on the Beaumont University site was "under construction," and the only functioning external "link to the beyond" led to HistoryLink.

The stories of Rose Red, its builders John and Ellen Rimbauer, and the gruesome fates of its unhappy tenants were all news to us. Why had we never heard about this sinister fin-de-siecle mansion at 7th Avenue and Spring Street? A little late-night digging on Google quickly unearthed Stephen King as the creator of Rose Red and a forthcoming book and ABC-TV mini-series....

We do not know why the producers of the Beaumont site linked to us, but we like to think that they used HistoryLink for research to adorn this fictional story with historically accurate details....Our content stresses that the Rose Red mansion, the story, and its characters are entirely fictional...


Some were embarrassed (or annoyed) at being duped by the story, and a few were angry at us for debunking Rose Red. A small number were frankly shocked at our ineptitude in overlooking the existence of a giant man-eating, metastasizing mansion located just five blocks from our downtown Seattle office.

Stephen King made it up.

[ginny]

The novel's genesis came as part of a $200,000 promotional marketing campaign for Stephen King's Rose Red television miniseries.[1] Marketing of the film presented the movie as based on actual events.

In 2000, two years before the Rose Red miniseries aired, the producers contracted with author Ridley Pearson to write a tie-in novel, to be titled The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red, under the pseudonym "Dr. Joyce Reardon" (one of the main characters of the miniseries). The novel presented itself as nonfiction, and claimed to be the actual diary of Ellen Rimbauer (wife of the builder of Rose Red). The work was originally intended to be an architectural book featuring photos and drawings of the fictional Rose Red house with the supernatural elements subtly woven into the text and photos, but Pearson (building on several references to a diary in King's script for the miniseries) wrote it as Ellen Rimbauer's diary instead.

You have to wonder how all the people who tried to go "see" the house felt when they found this out. If they did.

[FlaJean]

We have a router and the Apple TV box (one time price  $99) is hooked up to our computer (similar to a Roku).  However with the Apple box I can watch videos from YouTube, Vimeo and others stream on the TV by touching an AirPlay icon that shows up at the bottom of the video on my iPad (all wirelessly).  That's the way I saw the 1st episode of Endeavor from the PBS web site.  I love my iPad!

We stream a lot of programs from Netflix.  I recently watched several good Masterpiece programs that way (Pride and Prejudice and several others that Netflix has picked up).  Netflix has a lot of junk but you can find some interesting programs and documentaries and we have found it well worth the $8 a month.

[Tomereader1]

Wheee, Ginny.  That's a lot of information, and thank you for it.  I never knew it was all a figment of Stephen King's imagination.  I read the book, Diary of Ellen Rimbauer, and saw the mini-series on TV, scary but I enjoyed it.  You are wonderful to look this up for us.  Does the Winchester House have any "ghosts" or scary stories?

[Tomereader1]

I realize this is not the "proper" place for it, but since there are many more visitors to this forum, I thought I would put a warning here.

I received an E-Mail from my Discover Card account this morning.  It did go to the Spam folder, but I looked at it there, and even though it had the correct name, and last 4 digits of the acct. number, something about the logo didn't look quite right.  It mention that the Discover "home page" would be changing August 31st, and I could log into it now.  WEll, I am a big spam watcher.  Seemed funny to me, so I called the phone # on the back of my card, and first person I got, did not know anything about it, i.e. whether or not they had sent an email detailing changes.  So they connected me to "Security" and I read it to the lady, and she gave me an email address to "Forward" it to:  emailwatch@discover.com so they could check the validity of it.  Now, it may be real, but my Discover notices do not usually get sent to my Spam folder.  This is just a "heads up" in case any of you have a Discover Card.  BE CAREFUL.

[PatH]

Quick thinking, Tomereader.  Usually that sort of spam has something about it that doesn't quite look right.

[ginny]

Tome, apparently the Winchester House (http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/) is full of ghost stories,  some I had never heard, it's something else.