Happy Birthday, J99! I hope you have a great day.  I wish I was 36 again.  My older sister has been 29 for 10 years!

     I was hoping the dvds would be complete and unedited.  I have already purchased 3 sets but now I am re-thinking about whether I will buy anymore.  :-

  Last night I was reading the 1897 newspaper account of my great-grandfather's death, and he was described as "one of the oldest and most esteemed members of our community" -- and he had barely reached 40!  (A bad cold turned to pneumonia.)  Granted, the article refers to my great-grandfather as one of the city's founding citizens 20 years earlier, but the account emphasizes his longevity, not his relative youth (by our standards).

     My husband works on his genealogy.  One female relative was described as an elderly spinster.  The census listed her age as 46. :-

     Flora is such a joy.  Many of the characters in Dark Shadows had no joie de vivre.  They were all morose and without humor.  Flora is such a breath of fresh air in the stuffy atmosphere in Collinwood.  Everyone needs an Aunt Flora in their lives.  I have only seen these episodes one other time so I am enjoying Joan Bennetts protrayal of Flora very much.

     I didn't have a problem with the age difference between Daniel and Ben.  My husband and I like to watch documentaries and dramas about the revolutionary and civil wars.  It seems like alot of men died of natural causes by the age of 45 to 55.  There were no treatments for hyper-tension or high cholesterol.  Life spans have increased dramatically due to antibiotics alone.  Women were more likely to die in childbirth, too.  Those were very hard times.  Daniel seems to have a heart condition and who knows what else.  Mental illness tends to run in families.  Millicent seemed a little off before Barnabas' attack and completely unhinged afterward so maybe that explains why Daniel is mentally disturbed or has early senile dementia.

     I see we are posting your birthday messages a little early so I guess its okay for you to start partying a little early too[shadow=#333399, left]Happy Birthday Josette![/shadow]

I like Kate Jackson and James Storm in their roles. However, I dislike the music they usually play whenever Daphne pops up. I liked it at first, but after the first million times it gets on my nerves.

     The music that is used for Daphne sounds more like the music they use in those 50's outer space movies.  It has become tiresome and annoying.  I think they could have come up with some other romantic but ethereal melody for the ghost of Daphne instead of "it came from outer space" music.