Don Edwards

Our cat had no problems with "the vet"... it was the "going to", i.e. getting the critter into the carrier and retaining our hearing and sanity while he yowled his demands to be let out, that was the problem.

For some reason, the expression "not that simple" is bouncing around inside my head... My guess is that some settings enlarge one thing and shrink something else. Possibly on the same person.

And I've driven through the intersection of Woodcock and Kitchen Dick.

1. Grace has told Sam that she knows about magic marks, and that she (somehow) got powers without needing a magic mark. If Sam thinks about things a minute, he'll know that Grace knows someone who has or had a mark. Either that, or she's had some conversations with Immortals. 2. Similar to what? There has been no comment on what power Sam has.

A majority of US states have provisions in their state constitutions doing that - for all legislation. So not only can they not combine issues on ballot referenda, they cannot combine issues in acts of the state legislature. Also, typically, the subject of the legislation must be stated in the title of the bill. It can be taken oddly though. The Washington state supreme court ruled that cutting three taxes and limiting the legislature's ability to raise taxes was more than one issue. The people who sponsored that initiative (which had passed by a wide margin) then sponsored another initiative that just cut two taxes, which (after it also passed by a wide margin) was ruled to be two separate issues and not adequately described as "an initiative to cut taxes". So then they sponsored a third initiative which changed one word of state law...

Hm... Grace could write two notes. 1) Sam: I'm pretty confident that your secret won't bother Sarah. She has secrets of her own that are different but relevant. 2) Sarah: Sam has a secret which he thinks will be a problem when you find out. It won't. But give him time. Now I'm trying to decide if it would be better (and, separately, more amusing) if she delivers them correctly, or if she mixes them up.

Actually, since Nanase says she's going to go get Sarah's clothes, it seems reasonable to assume that Sarah still hasn't gotten her clothes back yet - let alone gotten any of them on.

Roswell, N.M. Boy does THAT explain a lot!

Sam still has to spend lots of time presenting as female. He'd probably buy those products during that time, as it's rather unusual for a male his age to be buying them. Unless, of course, he has an immediate need and forgot to bring some... but then Grace is hardly more of a threat to him because of that than anyone else. Alternatively... if he has an immediate need and forgot to bring some, he could have been looking for Grace in hopes that he could get one from her, and is avoiding this other girl who is with Grace at the moment. (Or just didn't want to interrupt.)

If the discussion of the financial side of paleontology in the book Boundary (Flint/Spoor) is a useful guide, $6M would be somewhat above average for an archaeologist's non-teaching budget... for life.

It does seem like Elliot is the only one who's even considered that other Immortals could mark people, and that was only to think of asking them to help transgender people, not to wonder if they've been marking others the way Pandora had. However, Noah's reaction to the idea of an Immortal marking someone without asking or telling them makes it seem like such behavior is very much outside the norm. Noah's information is - at best - second-hand through Adrian, who had no communication with his mother for most of Noah's life. And I got the impression that such extended separations are not unusual. Noah may not know what is really normal among immortals. Marking someone definitely qualifies as empowering them. Is there any obligation to guide those whom one empowers? Pandora never got in trouble (that we saw) for neglecting to ask people's permission before marking them or even tell them they're marked. And she had done it often enough to know, or at least to think, that people usually discover their mark-powers pretty quickly.

As for making Camdin "less hot", in my opinion he wouldn't be hot if you doused him in gasoline and threw a lit match at him. Which I wouldn't approve of, but would sympathize with the desire.

And if you go to an underground cheese store, you might encounter a wandering muenster.

Regarding the author's comments: Don't worry, Dan, I don't think you're old.

I did once make an 18" piece of yarn from a cat's fur - from just one brushing. (Part Maine Coon without guard hairs. Pretty much the dictionary definition of a soft & fluffy cat.)