The Evil Eye

Re: “Four to Score” by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie has temporarily moved in with Morelli until her apartment gets fixed. She tells people she is renting a room in his house, but Joe’s Grandma Bella doesn’t believe Stephanie and says she will put ‘the eye’ on her for fibbing. ‘The Eye’ is like an old Italian curse. When Grandma Bella puts ‘the eye’ on people supposedly bad things happen: men’s hair fall out, women get their periods non-stop, etc.

The rumors are flying around the burg that Stephanie is pregnant and she and Joe are getting married. Not going to happen, but she admits to having those kind of feelings for him. She settles on being ‘enamored’ with him, rather than being in love with him.

And so it goes. I finished this book today - another good one from Janet Evanovich. Although I thought there was more swearing than necessary, and there were a couple of bloody parts that I could have done without.

As always, a lot of laugh-out-loud comedy provided by Ms. Plum and Lula.

You can buy the book here:

Something’s Burning

Re: “Four to Score” by Janet Evanovich

Where there’s smoke, there’s Stephanie!

One day Stephanie goes out to her car (she’s parked in an outside parking lot) and it reeks of gasoline. In fact there are puddles of gas all around her car. She needs to go someplace so she calls up Lula to ask for a ride. While in the parking lot Stephanie and Lula run into Maxine Nowicki’s mother, who is a chain-smoker. Didn’t anyone ever tell her not to toss a lighted cigarette into an area where there is gasoline?

KABOOM - up go both cars. Stephanie’s mother says this tendency to blow up cars does NOT come from her side of the family.

On another day Stephanie is driving back home only to see lots of fire trucks, emergency vehicles and police cars filling her parking lot. Part of her building is on fire! Turns out it’s her apartment and someone has thrown a firebomb into her bedroom. Rex, her hamster has been rescued and is fine, but now Stephanie needs a safe place to stay.

So she decides to stay with Joe Morelli.



(photo courtesy of FreeFoto.com)

Sally Sweet, the Transvestite

Re: “Four to Score” by Janet Evanovich

Stephanie goes to meet Salvatore (Sally) Sweet in the hopes that he can decipher the message she has from Maxine Nowicki.

He is a lead guitar player for a group called the Lovelies. He says when he was younger, he and Spock from Star Trek used to send messages to each other in code every day. (No further explanation is given so we are left to use our imaginations about that one!) In any event, it is very easy for him to figure out the message.

Sally, as he likes to be called, is a transvestite. So how many of us have had the chance to meet someone like him? Not many, I’d gather. Although I have known a transsexual. Here's the story:

Many, many years ago I joined a dating service. They matched me with a guy named “John”, whom I briefly dated. John had all these rules about what he wanted out of a relationship (like you couldn’t want to own a house, etc). Plus I thought he was sort of a cold fish - he didn’t like holding hands or kissing. He seemed to be confused about life. Later the dating service told me they hooked him up with just about all the women registered with the agency and none of them had worked out for him.

So several years later I picked up our local newspaper and was stunned to read a feature story on “Mary”. She used to be “John” - yep, it was the guy I dated! I thought the face looked familiar!

At the time the article was written, Mary worked at a local social service agency. The story detailed Mary’s decision to change from John and mentioned enough detail about his/her life that I knew it was the guy I dated all those years ago.

Was I freaked out? Yes! I try not to pass judgement because I believe that is supposed to be left to a higher power. Plus my parents taught me to treat people fairly. Still, I must admit I don’t understand.

In any event I’m glad that John/Mary got his/her life straightened out and hope she is happy now.

****
From the dictionary:
Transvestite: “a person and especially a male who adopts the dress and often the behavior typical of the opposite sex.”

Transsexual: “a person who strongly identifies with the opposite sex and may seek to live as a member of this sex especially by undergoing surgery and hormone therapy to obtain the necessary physical appearance.”

Transgender: “of, relating to, or being a person who identifies with a gender identity that differs from the one which corresponds to the person's sex at birth.”

****

(Sorry if this post offends anyone. I just wanted to share this strange story.)

“Four to Score” by Janet Evanovich

My summer with bounty hunter Stephanie Plum continues with “Four to Score”.

Stephanie has been asked to find Maxine Nowicki, who was arrested for stealing her ex-boyfriend’s car. Maxine never showed for her court appearance and now she is classified as a felon.

Stephanie first tries talking with the boyfriend, Eddie Kuntz. Eddie thinks he is God’s gift to women and starts hitting on Stephanie. But she manages to get all the scoop on Maxine’s potential whereabouts, including her family, friends and work addresses.

Even so, Eddie winds up getting invited to dinner at Stephanie’s parent’s house in the burg. (Seems Eddie lost Stephanie’s business card and tried to look her up in the phone book. She wasn’t listed so he called her parent’s number. Grandma Mazur answered the phone, and need I say more?)

Turns out that Eddie gets a note from Maxine via ‘airmail’ - it was attached to a rock thrown through his window. It contains a cryptic message that neither Stephanie or Eddie can decipher. Stephanie decides to let some of her elderly neighbors in her apartment building take a crack at the message. After all, they do crossword puzzles most of the time so they should be able to solve this.

Unfortunately none of them can, but one neighbor refers Stephanie to her nephew who is supposed to be a whiz at solving puzzles. His name is Salvatore Sweet, aka Sally Sweet.