And time for

Could be worse - having a slightly unusual name, with a totally untypical spelling has made for many interesting variations - and none the same as mine. People always comment on the spelling, and I actually tell them the truth - my mom found it in a diaper service booklet while still in the hospital after I was born. We were stuck there for a couple of weeks - her for sure that long, me almost as long (can you say penicillin poisoning during the 56 hour labor and delivery). So, I was unnamed for 2 weeks as they couldn't agree on a name, nor find one that met the naming conventions for Jewish kids (as in my real names are my Hebrew names, then finding English names w/ same meaning - not just similar sound, and being named for someone not alive, etc). It does give folks a chuckle when I tell them "mom found it in a diaper service booklet." The funny thing - mom's 1st cousin had a child about 2 months later, and has the same name - but spelled more typically as Cheryl's daughter - my mom was soooo angry I don't think she spoke to her cousin for a while, and then never, ever got over being annoyed.

Ellice

"ellice" wrote

The thing that annoys me most about my spellling is the occasional phone caller or store clerk who has misread it as DWAYNE!!! I am actually quite rude to people who call me Dwayne, since I am quite sure I don't look like any Dwayne I have ever met.

Dawne

One would think that Lucille wasn't a particularly difficult name to spell but it's misspelled on my birth certificate. My mother, who was born in Brooklyn so it wasn't a language problem, always said she was going to have it changed to the correct spelling but she never did and now it certainly doesn't seem important.

I can totally understand that. I hate really, completely wrong versions of my name. I think your spelling of Dawne is really nice. I've had clerks, etc. just not paying attention call me "Elsie" - which I completely hate. Ohterwise it ranges from Ellis to El-lice (long i), to El-lickee? " The worst being at a conference - introduced as Elaine with a really wrong version of my last name as well. And then the moderator actually corrected me after I corrected it. Go figure.

Ellice

My maiden name is Latvian and no one can pronounce it, so I happily married into a common last name. Of course, now I have to deal with the fact that there's another Linda W in town - whose birthday is one day different than mine (same year and everything) - and we go to the same doctors! Plus I have another Linda W's phone number posted for the times people call asking for singing lessons - they certainly don't want them from me LOL!

Linda

Try having a totally unfamiliar name like Olwyn. Pronounced oll-win. Then I married a man who had an unusual last name. As newlyweds we lived in Montreal Que., on the French side, and I learned to answer to anything that seemed even vaguely similar. Spelling?? I gave in and had cards printed.

Oddly enough, when I went back to my home village a few years later, I found several little girls with my maiden name.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Olwyn is - or was - quite a normal Welsh name.

Joyce >> My maiden name is Latvian and no one can pronounce it, so I happily

But (1) I come from Northeast England, and (2) I always understood the Welsh spell it with an e rather than a y. (hence the cards) No-one in our county had ever heard of it, and neither have most North Americans.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Just finished - last night - Murder is binding by Lorna Barrett. I really liked it. It's the first in a new series, set in a booktown, and this was a murder mystery.

Last week I read Murder with Peacocks by Donna Andrews, which I also really liked, and it's also a murder mystery. (Looks like a pattern evolving here, doesn't it?) This one was funnier than the other one, as there were times when I laughed so hard I cried.

On the shelf waiting to see what I get to first are three books by authors I haven't read anything by yet; Sister Carol Anne O'Marie, M.C.Beaton and ......Monica Ferris. (No, I really haven't read her before.)

These are all books that I have bought, and I blame it all on the enabling of a friend who pointed me in the direction of an online bookstore, that doesn't charge postage. The friend is a fellow librarian.

At the library where I work, we don't charge any late fees, but we do ask that if the book is completely lost, it's paid for. Patrons are automatically blocked from borrowing when the third notice is sent out, with the bill for the book, but if they show up at the library and want to check out a book, we usually let them. We are a bit more lenient than the computer, after all.

Arnhild

My daughter Lauren's first birth certificate had her name as Erin Shaft, a bastardization of our last name. I got it corrected immediately.

One would think that Anne is a simple to pronounce name but one would be wrong. I've lost count of the people who call me 'Ann eeeeeeeee' as in Annie Oakley when they see it spelled.

When I went to my library's online catalog to place a hold on the peacocks book, some of her titles looked familiar. Since my memory is awful, I'll just reread it

I like MC Beaton's Agatha Raisin and Hamish MacBeth series. BBC America had a run of Hamish MacBeth shows; does anyone know if Agatha was translated to the big or little screens?

Agatha Raisin was on BBC Radio 4 a couple of years ago with Penelope Keith playing Agatha, it's available as a "talking book" at

Anne of Green Gables was always very proud that she was "Anne, with an 'e' "

And doesn't PEI revel in it! LOL

It has been a boon for a little island - the Japanese come all the way to the Maritimes to visit PEI and see Anne's house ! Did you know that many Japanese weddings take place there, bringing all their entourages, very lucrative. I read the books as a child, mine were those my aunt had previously read.

I read them all, too. It seems so strange that a fictional person and her home and life are such attractions all these years later. I remember going to the home, and thinking "How weird" because Anne didn't live there because she didn't exist.

Of course..I guess there is the Mouse and Cinderella's Castle down here. I would rather have PEI!

Of course, Anne never had a house!! It was all fiction. So the PEI authorities found a house of the right era, painted the gables green, and called it Anne's House. Wonderful for the tourist trade. Jim.

Yes, it takes a stretch. I actually enjoyed going round Lucy Maude Montgomerys house more, a step back in time.

Thanks for the link. I googled for more information about Penelope Keith and found that she was known for snobby, opinionated characters which would make her perfect for Agatha Raisin.