Six degrees of separation in real life

Wow, what a story Helen shared today on her blog — Six Degrees of Separation: Real Life Edition.  I've been in awe about how people blogging about books have become friends without ever having met face to face.  Like my meeting with Donna, who became my best friend.  A quarter of a century ago we joined Oprah's book club when we read Oprah's very first book choice.  That was in 1996.  What are the chances we'd ever have met?  Almost zilch.  Donna lived in St. Louis, I lived in Chattanooga, and nothing would likely have ever gotten us together.  Except we were both readers.  I've met several others from that Oprah discussion group, gone to visit in the homes of a few, met others passing through my town on their way south, etc.  Meeting other readers has enriched my life:

• Though I've never met her in person, I've talked to Margreet in the Netherlands by phone and "looked around her neighborhood" via Google maps.
• Jenn was living in Europe when we "met"; years later, she and her husband and son visited me in Tennessee on their way home to St. Louis from Florida.  Now they live in Phoenix, and I live in St Louis.
• Francesca and her family stopped for lunch with me and others on this list on their way south.
• Jelani visited me from California and sang at my church.
• I visited Kathryn at her home in Connecticut.
• I met Annette during her stopover at the Atlanta airport; she now lives in Oregon.
• I visited with Nancy at a restaurant at the beach.
• Donna and I stayed overnight with Maggie's family in Maryland when we met her in person.
• I flew to Connecticut to visit Mary Grace and her family in 2001.
• Stephanie was driving through my town with her family and and stopped for a short visit.
• When my mother died, several of our close-knit, online book group sent flowers together.
• And I also "know" Rosemary and Madge and Marg in Australia and a few more whose names I'm probably missing here.

Sunday Salon ~ Phillis Wheatley

BOOKS

I ran across Phillis Wheatley this week, in my reading of America's Women by Gail Collins (2003).  A few years ago, I read My Name Is Phillis Wheatley: A Story of Slavery and Freedom by Afua Cooper (2009) and wrote a short teaser from that book (click on the book's title to read it).  Gail Collins, covering 400 years of the history of American women, devoted almost a page and a half to Phillis Wheatley:  born in Senegal, enslaved at age seven or eight, purchased in Boston by John Wheatley as a personal servant for his wife, taught by their daughter to read English, writing poetry by the time she was thirteen.  Phillis was an exceptional person.  John Wheatley freed her, when they returned from England.

Small slave house door on Gorée Island, through which slaves departed Senegal

"Her work began appearing in New England newspapers, and she became a regional celebrity. ... Treated more as a daughter than a servant by the Wheatley family, Phillis became known for her poise and conversation as well as her writing.  In Britain, the Countess of Huntingdon admired one of her poems, and arranged the publication of a book by 'a very Extraordinary female Slave.'  The high point of Phillis Wheatley's life came in 1773, when she traveled to England, where she was taken up by the literary celebrities of the day and invited to be presented at court. ... she was the first American writer to achieve international fame" (p. 77).

Notice that it says Phillis Wheatley was "the first American writer to achieve international fame" — not the first African-American writer.  Benjamin Franklin read her work, and George Washington invited her to visit him during the Revolutionary War.  "None of her three children lived past infancy, and she was working as a servant in a cheap tavern when she died at the age of thirty-one" (p. 78).  What a loss.

My friend Jelani, looking over the Atlantic from that Gorée doorway in 2003

WORDS
The New Yorker gives a brief history of the hashtag, manicule, diple, pilcrow, and ampersand in The Ancient Roots of Punctuation.

This pointing hand is a manicle. The word manicle comes from the Latin maniculum, meaning "little hand."  The writer would draw a little hand in the margin of a manuscript to point out something important.  This manicle points out the fact that Bonnie's Books reportedly had 601 pageviews on August 29th.  I haven't had that many (that I was aware of) since the 749 pageviews on April 16, 2012.  I have no idea what prompted these larger-than-usual numbers.

The pilcrow symbol is related to the cent sign on the right.  Can you see a similarity?  Read the New Yorker article to learn about the hashtag (also called hash mark, octothorpe, and number sign, which is what I call it when I write that I live in apartment #515).

The Sunday Salon's Facebook page has links to other blogs.

Meeting book buddies

Jelani visiting the Sahara

Today's Armchair BEA topic:  Share a positive "real life" experience with books, either by way of your own partnerships in your community, a book signing you went to, or possibly even a get together with fellow book bloggers.  Tell us all about it!

I've been meeting other book lovers for years (click blue links to read more about them).  While discussing Oprah's books in the 1990s, a group of us coalesced and called ourselves the Book Buddies.

Francesca

One August Sunday in 1998, several buddies came to Chattanooga — Jelani from California, Francesca and her family from Michigan, and Donna from St. Louis — so we could all meet each other.  We converged on my church, where I preached and Jelani provided the special music.  He has a beautiful voice!  And then we ate lunch around a big table and talked for a couple of hours or so.

Donna (above left) and I then drove up the east coast to visit three other buddies — Maggie (above right), Meg, and Nancy.  Maggie took in two strangers overnight, though we had all been getting acquainted online for more than two years.  All the people I've met are as wonderful in person as they are online.

Let's see, I dined with June @ Spatter when she was in Chattanooga with her friend (now my friend) Carla in 2008.  In the meantime, Carla has moved here, was at my New Year's Day party, and we ran into each other on Monday while having lunch with other friends.  Moving right along ... I met Susan @ Patchwork Reflections on an extremely hot day in 2007 at the Mudpie, a little restaurant on the North Shore.

Jenn and Bonnie

Jenn dropped by my house on the last day of 2010, with her husband and youngest child.  They were on their way to St. Louis from Atlanta, and Chattanooga just happens to be on that route.

Stephanie

Stephanie @ Confessions of a Bookaholic had her husband and all three of their kids with her, when they stopped in Chattanooga for a visit.  They were on their way home from a vacation.

Marylyn

This is Marylyn, who is a Marine as well as a book lover.  She had this pink scooter while stationed in South Korea.  When she's home on leave, she sometimes drives up from Georgia to visit family — and me! — in Chattanooga.  She's part of my online Book Buddies group.

Margreet

If phone calls count as "meeting," I have talked to Margreet in the Netherlands several times.  I also talked to the famous Dewey of Dewey's 24-Hour Readathon.  I've met more bloggers, but that's all I can think of, at the moment.

Annette

UPDATES
(as my memory brings others to mind):

A few years ago, I drove to Atlanta with Donna (above) to meet Annette.  We had a good visit that day, before Annette flew home to California.  She and most of these I've pictured in this post are now Facebook friends, so we have gotten to know each other well over the years.  (That includes lots of book friends I have never met face to face.)  Sorry, Annette, but it took our FB exchange to remind me! 

Margie

And now I need to add Margie from Southern California and Hawaii.  I've talked to her by phone as well.

Even after Madge left the first comment on this post, I forgot to add her to this list.  We have also been in touch by phone and, as you can see by her picture below, Madge has a great sense of humor.  The English part of the sign says, "No Turning over, Please."  So it looks like Madge is "climbing" over, instead.

Madge in Japan