WHAT IF?

For those of you who enjoy History - which I don't, but I did wine and dine with someone who's an enthusiast - Peter recommends the What If? books by Robert Cowley. There are two so far in the series, and they play out scenarios of how a turn of events in past milestones could have substantially affected people and things in the society thereafter, including our own culture and time. They call them "counterfactuals," divided into essays in chronological order in both texts.

"What if Sennacherib had pressed the siege of Jerusalem in 701 B.C.? Then the nascent, monotheistic Jewish religion might never have taken hold among the people of Judah--and the daughter religions of Christianity and Islam would never have been born." Ponder that.

By the way, since Gossip Girl has mass-commodified signing off with "XOXO," how am I supposed to end my entries and letters and emails now? Just to set the record straight, I've had the screename "wi5hxoxo" since the 90s. The 90s!!!

xoxo (stubbornly),
Claire