Shopping Tips and Guidance by Mandy Claire

A very brief dispatch from "The Gods Are Bored." We have a potential buyer for our farm in Appalachia -- the owner of the adjoining property, who would be buying it as an investment and would be looking for vacation renters. I have asked the bored Goddess Cloacina, who is in that neighborhood just now, to shed Her brilliance on this transaction.

If the purchase is made, a property that was split up in the 1930s by my great-grandfather would all be in one person's ownership again. Not a family member, but a neighbor in good standing since 1987.

Please toss a coin in a charity fountain with a prayer to Cloacina on my behalf. The person who may buy my land would let me tread upon it in a most liberal way.

FROM ANNE
THE MERLIN OF BEDFORD COUNTY

PS - Thirty, count 'em, 30 copies of The Great Gatsby! I love you all!