It's been a bad week, Helen . . . .

My friend Helen and I have been done several back-and-forths this week, correcting errors in factual information we had exchanged.  I won't go into details, but I will state emphatically one more time that a journalist should get it right and when in error, correct it.

Helen spent some time as a journalist, so she appreciates my passion for accurate information.  We both erred on details, small factoids but still important, and we have both retracted the mistakes and made them right.

Well, almost all of them, anyway.

Let me explain.

I went to a terrorist meeting last night.

No, this was not a clandestine gathering aimed at undoing Idaho's recently enacted education reform, which I personally believe will will eventually send an inordinate number of our students to reform schools cuz that laptop just cannot guide them through the niceties of life, along with the "correct factoids" that it offers for their education.

Okay, off from that.

This terrorist meeting may have been an indirect protest of sorts.  Many there, except for Bill and the dog and cat, were educators, AND they were exerting their freedom to still read books.  Can ya believe it?

Not one laptop was discussed last night.

These terrorists are teachers, mostly retired,  who formed a book club.  They call themselves "refined" too, and that may come mainly from the hostess Kathy's lovely theme-oriented settings for their monthly meetings.

Kathy was a home economics teacher.  Wonder how those folks are gonna teach how to boil an egg with a laptop.  (Slap thy face, Marianne!).

Anyway, the group meets in Kathy's sun room.  This meeting's decor featured an Easter touch.  Did you hear that they're spring eggs now---no longer Easter eggs.

As a journalist, I should have made that clear to the ladies when they were looking at Kathy's plastic "spring" eggs and wondering why they had tiny holes poked in each end.  Instead, I threw out some wisecrack about a sperm or something like that.

Well, last night also featured an Italian theme---with the food that is.  I don't know why these terrorists didn't drop their usual label and dress up as gangsters.  Maybe next year. 

We enjoyed pasta and chicken, kool aid,  various Italian salads, mini bread, mozzarella sticks and sauce,  and then a "to die for" ice-cream dessert filled with flavor of two liqueurs. Yum. Yum.

Oops, that reminds me, and this is where Helen and all my readers come in.  I talked "yum, yum" lemon-filled Oreos a few days ago.  Kathy even commented on my blog.

So, I decided to take what was left of the package (yes, I did hide it from myself in the cupboard).  Kathy brought the cookies to the table and passed them around.

Within seconds, one of the terrorists noted, "These aren't lemon."  That comment kinda rolled off from me for a minute.  Then, someone else looked at the package and then the whole group agreed they were not lemon-filled Oreos.

"Well, they're yellow," I said, "and they DO call them 'spring' cookies." 

I had to agree, upon taking another cookie, the lemon was just my willful imagination.  I wanted them to be lemon, so my brain and my tongue originally told me they were lemon. 

After being set straight by a whole table of terrorists, including a home economics teacher, I realized my error.

So, today I am once more retracting a fact.

Just like owning up to that photo I submitted to Sandpoint Magazine a couple of years ago not really being Sarah Palin's house (an error that will follow me to my grave), I must tell all who have been going to the grocery store, looking for lemon-filled Oreos------that I'm assuming you're not gonna find 'em.

Note the "ASS-U-ME."  I'll take the wrap if anyone does find some lemon-filled Oreos, and I'll be glad to take down the information on where to find them.

In the meantime, those Oreos with yellow frosting inside are still pretty darned tasty---and that's an indisputable fact.

Oh yeah, the terrorists did mention titles of three books last night in between all the other chatter.  To Kill a Mockingbird and Oogie got the most commentary, while Pocket Girdles got tabled until the next meeting. 

My challenge to the terrorists:  for that meeting I dare you to dress up in girdles with pocket ammunition flaps and come packing your Uzies!