Dear Smiley: I have a possible answer for Morgan Landry, who asked in Tuesday's column why his grandfather was in the outhouse he was using for target practice, when "You have a toilet in your house."
I grew up in Indiana, and my grandmother also had an outhouse and indoor plumbing.
When she needed a break from her loving family (i.e. the grandkids), she would go to the outhouse for some "peace and quiet." We were told not to bother her there.
GREG MYERS
Covington
Inquiring Minds Dept.
Dear Smiley: OK, now I’m curious (regarding Tuesday's column on selling an outhouse).
How much does a used outhouse sell for? And no, I’m not going to Google it!
VICKI RODICK FRAME
Kenner
Dear Vicki: I don't even know what a new one costs.
Placebo effect?
Dear Smiley: About 71 years ago, my freshman college roommate came back from an overseas summer vacation thin, tanned and fit.
She told me it was the effects of drinking a foreign "snake wine" with a snake in the bottle.
She brought back a bottle to share with me. We sipped about an ounce every night and felt better and stronger.
One day when the wine was running low, we tried to transfer the snake into a new bottle of wine and found out it was plastic.
We stared in disbelief at first, and then burst out laughing.
TINA SOONG
Covington
Feeling sheepish
Dear Smiley: In the 1950s, upstate New York had some "kiddie adventure" places. Storyland featured costumed characters from nursery rhymes and classic Disney cartoons, like Cinderella and Snow White.
Since it was a mere two-hour drive from Brooklyn, my parents took my sister and me to Storyland when I was 8 and she was 5.
Walking around, we noticed a flock of sheep grazing in a fenced yard.
Then we came across Little Bo Peep talking with a small group of kids. She really did look like the pictures in our storybooks, right down to the wooden hooked staff.
My sister ran up to her, tugged on her dress and breathlessly said, "Little Bo Peep, Little Bo Peep, I know where your sheep are."
I don't recall Little Bo Peep's response, but she must have been nonplussed.
MARLENE PEDESCLAUX
Marrero
Reptile whisperer
Dear Smiley: Granddaughter Zelda, 9, is fortunate to live on the same street as both sets of grandparents.
Zelda tells me stories of her adventures with her other grandmother, Connie McDonald.
Connie has a one-eyed cat named Uno. Uno recently brought two ribbon snakes into the house. Connie covered each snake with a cooking pot.
Zelda came home from school shortly thereafter. She knew ribbon snakes were nonvenomous, so she lifted a pot and grabbed the first snake behind the head.
It was her first time to touch a snake, but she says she wasn’t scared. It had a cat claw embedded in its flesh, so she removed the claw and released the snake into the compost heap.
Then she grabbed the other snake from under the pot and released it near its brother. Connie and I are glad we have a brave young lady nearby to rescue us from invading snakes.
GAIL STEPHENSON
Baton Rouge
Rhyme crime
Dear Smiley: Limericks were popular when I was in grade school. We actually studied them.
The ones we studied in grade school obviously had very nonbawdy themes:
"There once was a lady named Lynn
who was so exceedingly thin
that when she essayed
to drink lemonade
down the straw she slid in."
ERNIE GREMILLION
Baton Rouge