For those of you unfamiliar with a Magic 8-Ball, it’s a toy. More specifically, it’s a hollow, plastic ball that looks like an oversized, black and white 8-ball from the game of billiards. Inside, a white, plastic cube floats in a dark blue “mystery” liquid. Each of the white cube’s 20 faces is printed with an affirmative, negative or non-committal statement printed on it in raised letters. There is a transparent window on the bottom of the 8-ball through which these messages can be read. To use the ball, it must be held with the window initially facing down. After "asking the ball" a yes-or-no question, the user then turns the ball so that the window faces up, setting in motion the liquid and cube inside. When the cube floats to the top and one of its faces is pressed against the window, the raised letters displace the blue liquid to reveal the message as white letters on a blue background.
Without further ado, here’s this week’s slate of questions and the unedited responses from my trusty, ol’ 8-Ball.
Q: Will this summer be hotter than last summer?
A: My sources say no.
Q: Will temperatures top 100 degrees in July?
A: Yes.
Q: How about in August?
A: Yes.
Q: Will this summer be dryer than last summer?
A: Absolutely!
Q: Will the Alabama Gulf Coast be hit by a hurricane during this year’s hurricane season?
A: Ask again later.
Q: Will Conecuh County receive any significant hurricane damage?
A: Definitely.
Q: Will the economic situation for Southwest Alabama improve in the next six months?
A: My sources say no.
Q: What about over the next year?
A: Maybe.
Q: Should readers take this week’s Magic 8-Ball answers seriously?
A: Ask again later.
Well, I guess that’s enough questions for my trusty, old 8-Ball this week. Those of you in the reading audience with questions that you’d like me to ask my 8-Ball are invited to e-mail them to me at courantsports@earthlink.net. I’ll give them a spin and report the results later.
Amazon.com released its popular Best Books of June list this week, and a number of best-sellers made this month’s list. Books on the list included “Before I Go to Sleep” by S.J. Watson, “Sister” by Rosamund Lupton, “Ten Thousand Saints” by Eleanor Henderson, “Robopocalypse” by Daniel H. Wilson, “Dreams of Joy” by Lisa See, “State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett, “The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris” by David McCullough, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” by Ranson Riggs, “Missing on Superstition Mountain” by Elise Broach and “Tumford the Terrible” by Nancy Tillman.
In the end, if you’re looking for a good book to read while you’re inside hiding from the summer heat, you probably won’t go wrong with any of the books above.
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