As they inspect the message, Happy B-day Netta, the bakery clerk places four plastic figures around the edges of the cake. The figures have fifties hairstyles and clothing, and they are in rock 'n roll dancing poses.

She was thinkin I might find things turned around and changed about so till I wouldn’t hardly know the country, but still she wouldn’t argufy me out of makin the trip.

Eliza and Charles had to show him how the perfected blue-dyed yarn could be colored green by scalding in yellow dye made out of rabbit-brush blossoms or wild greasewood; black dye could be made from logwood and copperas vitriol; dark brown from the walnuts Brother Hamblin was raising in Santa Clara; olive green from the creosote leaves, and 'shit-brindle' from wild sage.

Advance orders for the newest installment, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which won't be in U.S. stores until September, have reached 920,000, though impatient Potterphiles are ordering it from Britain via Amazon.com.