Jackson's son says, "My parents read and wrote constantly, and we would often hear long, passionate literary discussions with guests in the evenings. As children, we were engaged in complex mealtime conversations, and we were exposed to a vast amount of random information, nuggets of wisdom, puzzles, songs, jokes, riddles, and wordplay. Some fragments of those dinner-table conversations found their way into the two humorous novels and many short stories that Shirley wrote about our family." See

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/04/this-week-in-fiction-shirley-jackson.html

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2014/04/this-week-in-fiction-shirley-jackson.html

Thanks, Matt, for this link. I have long been a fan of Jackson. I just subscribed to The New Yorker on my Nook, so I'll be able to read this newly-found story.

                                                                                  Rose