Война и мир

What the northerners did not know, nor did T., was that a humble hut three miles west of the town now sheltered the little princess.... Armies moved with the lofty goal of taking cities but no one paid attention to a modest country family with a new grandchild.

I have not given Grandmère any cute baby fixes for a while, so I thought I should share these short passages from today's storytelling.

Š. quickly decided she enjoyed life without fussy courtiers around and found the freedom to get dirty incredibly liberating. This was a three-year-old’s paradise so long as one ignored the occasional tantrum and had no knowledge that one had become an orphan.

Of the three claimants to the throne for which this child was ostensibly destined, one cousin would probably force her to marry his son, the other cousin would have her killed (as he had done with her mother), and her aunt? Neither of those actions, but what?

I have been talking about five armies moving about but as I pause I realize there were really six organized military bodies, though two more just joined the fighting today. How did Tolstoy write War and Peace without spreadsheets and genealogy programs?

The "find" function in documents is also very helpful. Good for questions like "have I introduced this character yet?" and "what have I said about this town?" and "are her/his physical characteristics defined yet?"

I suppose this would be as good a moment as any to tell those who have not heard it about my adventure at my grandparent's farm. I was three, the same age as the little princess. I saw some bantam chicks and thought they were too cute for words. I wanted to play with them, I suppose, but their mother had different ideas. I have no memory of any of this but my mother told me the story. Mother hen went after me. It explains something. I have an uncontrollable phobia of beaks and claws. Over the decades I have come to appreciate and love birds. Just so they don't get too close. Watching them, putting out seed, learning to identify them, etc.--all wonderful. But do I need to tell y'all that when my parents got me a parakeet to help me overcome this it was not a success? Imagine my relief when mom said he flew away while she was cleaning his cage (which I didn't buy for a minute). I actually worried about the bird but I was glad he was gone.

OK, Mimi , David, and baby lovers everywhere, here are Clara and Olivia on Monday.


I'm going to return to the war for the throne.

--the BB