COOL ANIMAL PAGES

     Each month the people on this website showcase different animal sites. They also sell “cool animal books and posters.” These are especially suited to kids and teens and a good place for older people to find gifts for cool kids and teens who love animals. Or, come to think of it, for cool grownups who love animals.

     The site also gives the following quote by Winston Churchill: "I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

http://www.coolanimalpages.com/

SEND E-MAIL IN YOUR OWN HANDWRITING

     Miss Manners still thinks you should send invitations and thank-you notes in your own handwriting. What about an e-mail in your own handwriting? I don’t think Miss Manners would shout “Hurrah!” but she might hide a discreet giggle behind her gloved fingers. See what it’s all about at:

http://www.fontifier.com/

     They have a number of other uses for this handwriting software, including “create fonts as a fun and educational activity for children.” And “create fonts of runes and other secret writing systems.” Which makes me think of children at the age when they like secret codes, secret societies, and, as mentioned above, secret writing systems. (I was ten or eleven when I created a secret alphabet for our “secret club,” if that’s any help to you. Our secret club, as I recall, went swimmingly until we ran into a major obstacle: we couldn’t think of any secrets.)

     Fontifier is a good gift for a child at a secretive age, or for an adult who likes to fool around with software. It costs all of $9.