I was trying to think yesterday whether I've ever read a story where the usual teen-age (give or take) male dweeb -- shy, introverted, socially clueless -- after finding it necessary or desirable to live as a girl or young woman for a time, discovers that having done so allows him to fit in more confidently as his male self, able to be more assertive, recognize social cues and better understand other people's reactions and behavior.

Curious: the spellcheck on this site turned up last night in Imperial English. It has objected to neighborhood, aluminum, color, vise (the clamping tool), endeavor and paralyze so far, so it's fairly simple to spot a trend here.

I can't find anything under 'my account' to toggle it, so I'm guessing it's that way throughout the site right now. Is there a way to change it back for U.S. users?

Eric

Another science fiction question, though this one at least has some TG content.

I own the Ace Double Novel from the 1950s containing Cosmic Checkmate, by Charles DeVet and Katherine McLean. That's Ace's title -- they were always changing titles, probably in hopes of tricking potential buyers who'd already read the stories -- for an expansion of a magazine story or novella called "The Second Game", written by DeVet.

The "complete novels" in Ace's Doubles were often relatively short works; this was one such, coming in around 120 pages. An expanded edition, Second Game (no "the"), was issued in paperback in 1981, which is why I'm writing. Has anyone here read the later version?

The Dollar Tree chain of stores in the U.S. and Canada brings in remaindered books on occasion which they sell (like nearly everything they carry) for a dollar. One I found there a couple of weeks ago might be of interest to folks on the site.

Title is Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright and a Spy Saved the American Revolution, by Joel Richard Paul (2009, Riverside/Penguin).

It's what amounts to a triple biography of American Silas Deane, French author Caron de Beaumarchais (Barber of Seville, Marriage of Figaro -- the successful plays upon which Rossini and Mozart based the operas), and the Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont, who had relatively little to do with the whole thing but was too good a subject to pass up.

Thought it might be useful to mention that the current (5/28/12) issue of Sports Illustrated has a six-page article with the above title. (It doesn't seem to be available on their website to non-subscribers, but many public libraries subscribe and may also have computer access to it.)

The following story, the first seven paragraphs of which are shown here, comes from the Sporting News (then a baseball-only newspaper) of December 4, 1924.

WHEN PETTIGREW LOST HIS GIRLISH FIGURE

A Little Story of a Veteran Minor Leaguer