feste_sylvain

Not too many people know this, but marriageable age in New Hampshire is fourteen for females with parental consent. Now that my elder is thirteen, we can have her married off to an eligible bachelor from a good family, and thus strengthen our social and economic ties to the community within the year.

We had thought that having her apply to Philips Exeter would put her in the eye of quite a few good families, but it turns out that many of those families are turning their backs on tradition. It used to be that the best catches were from the best schools, but the families of interest have been scouting out athletic girls from the inner city this year. Something about "the New Eugenics". It is true that there have been a disturbing number of genetic defects in the higher social strata in the last few years. But that doesn't help me any.

Fortunately for us, not all of the families of interest are following this new trend. I brought it up as a topic of conversation at my mother-in-law's club, and was able to spot several patriarchs who will have nothing to do with this "fad". And one of them has a fifteen-year-old son who will be sixteen, New Hampshire's marriageable age for males with parental consent, one month before my elder turns fourteen.

The kid has a bit of a temper, but that is typical among the prep school lacrosse team. I'm sure my daughter will have no appreciable problem with him. And if she does, I know where we can dispose of him.

It was just one machine after the other. First, the dishwasher threatened legal action against the clothes washer for intruding on its union-guaranteed responsibilities. Then the snow-blower did its level best to bury the car. The car responded by shoving the snow-blower into the path of an oncoming plow. Is that irony or just iron?

After joining the all-metal ballet on the interstate (which is actually wholly contained in one state), the car dumped its stress on the automatic door, which buckled under the weight of DMV regulations. From there, it was the computers insisting that they all be converted to CP/M and SNOBOL.

Fortunately, I was able to convince the whirlpooler to play nice with the brazen stairmaster. That left only the lever and the pulley, but they're pretty basic.