"Reading about hearing aids reminds me of my hearing crisis," says Tina Soong, of Covington.
"I was a premature baby with a hearing impairment. A tutor taught me lip reading before I started school in China.
"Then I came to the USA as a graduate student. I found Chinese lip reading does not work with English.
"I tried hard to learn English lip reading. It worked well.
"Then COVID came! Everyone wears a mask!"
Not the same
"Recently, my husband and I discussed the passing of my beloved cat, Boudin," says Catherine Altazan, of Port Allen.
"When I shared how terribly I missed my cat, especially at night when she liked to cuddle, my sympathetic husband offered to cuddle with me.
"After considering his offer, I responded, 'Thank you. But can you also purr?'
"To which he responded, 'Well, no, but I can probably snore.'"
Having a ball
Our story of legendary peanut vendors at New Orleans Pelicans baseball games brought this recollection by Joseph Perrault:
"I went to many games at Pelican Stadium when 'Evolution' and 'Ding Ding' worked there.
"Evolution would climb the net behind home plate to get foul balls stuck in it.
"I think they both worked high school football games at City Park Stadium.
"Only two of many true New Orleans characters."
Death notice
Steve Baumgartner adds to our tales of snakes as pets:
"I was on the Purdue University football team ('69-72). A player had a pet snake. He would put it in his car and take it out for a walk (crawl).
"On one of these forays, the snake crawled up underneath the back seat. He figured it would come out on his own, so he left it there overnight.
"The next morning he checked: no snake. He realized he had left the rear window open, and figured the snake had escaped.
"Summer school was over, so he left his car on campus to hang out with some buddies for a week of R&R before fall football practice.
"On his return, he went to use his car. The snake was still in the car, passed away!
"When we saw him driving he had all the windows down, with a can of Glade on the dashboard!"
Drinking religiously
Photographer Leatus Still says his funniest wedding moment was when "the preacher kept referring to the Book of Genesis as the Book of Guinness (beer). Guests snickered the whole time."
Oh brother!
Yogi Naquin, of Bayou Blue, says, "Talking about turning back odometers: In the early '70s, my brother Mark had a brand-new Chevy Vega.
"He told me when I drove it not to put too many miles on it.
"After I wrote down the mileage, I would pick up a couple of friends, park the car, and disconnect the odometer.
"I wouldn't put too many miles on it. After a while, I would connect it back.
"Poor Mark never caught on."
Near death experience
Here's one for our "Odd Expressions" file, from Mariano Hinojosa, of Baton Rouge:
"My Cajun friend, Victor Ritter from Iota, recounted the following barroom incident:
"'One night an irate woman walked into a bar looking for her no-count husband. She had a shotgun and waved it all over the room. Man, if that shotgun had fired, it would have killed everyone old enough to die.'"
Close shave
"In 1969, I went in for thyroid surgery," says Nancy Van Den Akker, of New Orleans.
"The night before, a nurse came in and declared she had to shave me in preparation.
"I asked, 'Exactly how does the doctor intend to reach my thyroid?'
"Turned out it was for my roommate. Always double check!"