Oh, yes, I had German in high school . . . really, I was quite proficient . . . although, of course, it's such a GUTTURAL kind of language -- don't you think? -- that one wonders how they EVER sing it. And then, the verbs! . . . but I had Latin verbs about the same time, you know . . . and really, isn't it surprising how some of those foreign languages seem to RUN to verbs, if you get what I mean? It seems it was the Germans who invented the Superman . . . and I suppose we must be grateful to them for that, no matter what they may have done with him after they invented him. . . . I used to be quite taken with the Superman, you know. . . . Really, I didn't recognize how dangerous he might become. . . . I didn't know he was German at all when we took him up. . . . Have you read anything about the Blond Beast? I felt rather attracted toward him for a long time myself . . . until lately. . . . But the attraction passed. . . . I'm not brunette, you know, at all. . . . Likely that's why I lost interest in him. . . . Aren't affinities between people of different complexion simply WONDERFUL! It makes me wonder if the Eugenists can be right after all! Fothergil Finch says that's where the Eugenists fall down. . . . He says they don't take account of Affinities at all. Sometimes one finds it very puzzling -- doesn't one? -- the way these modern causes and movements seem to contradict one another! But if one is in tune with the Cosmic All these little inconsistencies don't matter. The Cosmic All! . . . WHAT would we do without it? How do you suppose people ever got along a generation or two ago before the Cosmos and all that sort of thing was discovered? I've often thought about it . . . and of what life must have been like in those days! As Emerson . . . or WAS it Emerson? . . . says in one of his poems: "Better a year of Europe than a cycle of Cathay!" That's what Fothy Finch says he always feels about Brooklyn . . . though I WILL say this for Brooklyn -- the first girl I saw with courage enough to wear one of those ankle watches on the street lived in Brooklyn. But don't you think Brooklyn people are rather LIKE that . . . go to the latest things in dress, you know, in an EXTREME sort of way, so that people won't suspect they live in Brooklyn? THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS ISN'T the Christmas festival just simply WONDERFUL? For days beforehand I feel so uplifted -- so well, OTHER-WORLDLY -- if you know what I mean. Isn't it just dreadful that any MATERIAL considerations have to spoil such a sacred time? It does seem to me that somehow we might free ourselves of WORLDLINESS and GREEDINESS and just rise to the spiritual significance of the day. If only we could! And what a blessing it would be to the poor, tired shop girls if we could! Though, of course, they, the shop girls, I mean, must be upheld even in their weariest moments by the thought that they are helping on the beautiful impulse of giving!