Did you see the story in the newspaper the other day about Spain being the honored country for Memphis in May next year? It’s such a good choice I wondered why it hadn’t been chosen before, especially since we’ve honored some countries twice.

Here’s another good choice we haven’t tapped: Greece. Great food, colorful dress, good dances, rich history. And can’t you just see Miss Piggy dressed up like a Greek goddess? Someone told me once the U.S. didn’t have the greatest relations with Greece. But I bet that after they got all dressed up and welcomed the world for the Olympics, they wouldn’t say no to a little contingent from the land of Elvis. Barbecue gyros anyone?

What other countries should MIM honor?
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The book club I’m in decided to take a hiatus from required reading this summer so all of us could knock out some of the books on our To Be Read shelves. I’m not sure how you define “summer reading” — I don’t really read a certain type of book in the summer, I just read a lot more of them.

Here are my favorites (so far): “The Kite Runner” — I read it again because I couldn’t get Amir and Hassan out of my head. “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” — a wonderful story of friendship and misunderstanding in the foot-binding days of old China. “To Kill a Mockingbird” — I read it in high school, but didn’t really appreciate it. Even without the lessons on racism and tolerance, it’s a great book — a wonderful character study. Scout, Jem and Atticus will stay with me for awhile. As will Owen Meany. John Irving’s “A Prayer for Owen Meany” is often mentioned as a reader favorite. It’s long, and I wasn’t sure what it was about until more than a third of the way into it, but I’m so glad I stayed with it.
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How does this happen? A mother in Lauderdale County leaves her 15-month-old in the car while she runs into a neighbor’s house to drop something off. She leaves the AC on, but turns off the car — most of us know that stays cool for about a minute before it starts blowing hot air. The mom says she left the child alone only 15-20 minutes, but when she came back, he was drenched in sweat and unresponsive. He later died. Read the story here.

This is crazy, unforgivable and completely preventable. What do we have to do to make people understand you NEVER leave a kid in the car unattended?
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I’ve been talking about getting my master’s for awhile and got serious about it this year. The scariest part? Taking the GRE. Remember all that math you had to do in high school that you haven’t used since then? I mean, really, when have you had to know how to calculate the volume of a cylinder?

Well, apparently I overcompensated for my math fear when I was studying — I ended up scoring better on that section than I did on the verbal. (And me, a journalist!) So I did better than I thought I would and got in this online master’s program at the University of Missouri. It’s designed for people like me — mid-career journalists who don’t want to leave their day jobs to go back to school.

It’ll be one class at a time, but at least I’m finally starting. Any tips for juggling classes, kids, husband, work and “me” time? Do I still get “me” time?
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While I was having my hair cut this morning, talk turned to hair color. I’m a bit overdue on covering my gray, but I’m about to go to the beach and don’t want the color to fade or turn brassy. So I’ll wait. Then I’ll do it myself.

I’ve had it done at the salon before, but it doesn’t seem to last any longer than it does when I do the box thing, which is a whole lot cheaper. And except for those first 4-5 days — my sister calls it “freak week” — the color looks pretty natural. I just can’t see spending $60-$80 or more every two months on hair color when $10 does just fine. Maybe if I had highlights or layers of color… But I’d rather buy a new pair of shoes — or two.

Where do you get your hair color — the box or the salon? Can you tell the difference?