re: #274 MandyManners

How did I get roped in on that?

Perhaps he knew my mother’s family. Her mother, my dearest Ma, was famous for her pre-emptive punishments. Matron of a large and quarrelsome family, she would, on occasion, reach across the table and backhand one of her children without warning or provocation, following it up with a “You know g*ddamned well what you did, and so do I.” She figured that each of them had done something of which she did not know, and was determined to maintain the appearance of omniscience, lest the troublesome brood rise up and over-throw her.