My mother, Arlene Geyer Sibra, was old school all the way. When I was a kid, I heard all manner of old sayings come from her, everything from Bible quotes to the Farmer's Almanac. I thought some of it was just nuts, like something out of the science fiction comic books that I loved so much – for example; she had all sorts of theories about the moon and its position in the sky causing this or that. If the crescent moon was tipped up straight, it was like a ladle dumping out water, which meant it would be a long rainy season. I would roll my eyes. Yeah, right. But I loved how weird it all was.

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