Bits and Pieces

Support the Free Medical Clinic Supply Drives

2012-02-08T16:36:00.002-06:00

You have probably heard that song “Another Day in Paradise.” I am fairly certain it rose up the musical pop charts when it was released. The author, musician Phil Collins wanted to draw attention to the problem of homelessness. I think the lyrics say it all…people are on the street, they ask for help. Other people ignore them. Some are embarrassed, some are angry and others think this is the way that life goes. Having worked with nonprofit organizations for more than twenty years, I have always been on the side of watching out for the underserved. Whatever mission my organization supported, I was right in line with it giving my time and energy, and sometimes my money too. When I moved to Columbia, the recession just about kicked into full gear. I was trying to figure out how to make all the adjustments I needed and start a new job in support of libraries and literacy. The entire time I have been here, it has not been easy. I have watched people lose their jobs and try to feed their families. The idea of getting sick can be catastrophic. I know my medications are expensive and I have insurance. Imagine what it’s like with nothing.

As a part of the Leadership Columbia Class of 2012, the class has chosen as its service project to support the Free Medical Clinic on Harden Street and its mission of providing quality healthcare, at no cost, to residents of the community who cannot pay for such services and who have no health insurance. We are working on the existing building by providing a covered walkway and inside refurbishment, as well as coordinating a community supply drive campaign throughout February and March to collect items needed by the Clinic on a recurrent basis. For every item we can have donated, such as toilet paper, paper towel or copy paper, that is less money that is taken from providing patient care. If you live in and around the Columbia/Midlands area, be on the look out for supply drive locations.

Supply Donation Locations & Dates: All locations 9am to 3pm

Saturday, February 11^th

Walgreens: 9001 Two Notch Road, Columbia, SC 29223

Walgreens: 4467 Devine Street, Columbia, SC 29205

Office Depot: 252 Harbison Blvd, Columbia, SC 29212

Saturday, February 18^th

Walgreens: Village at Sandhills, 175 Forum Drive, Columbia, SC 29229

Walgreens: 3501 Forest Drive, Columbia, SC 29204

Sunday, February 19^th

Walmart: 1180 Dutch Fork Road, Irmo, SC 29063

Saturday, February 25^th

Walgreens: 1941 Blossom Street, Columbia, SC 29205

Walgreens: 4520 Hardscrabble Road, Columbia, SC 29229

Chick-fil-A: 2299 Augusta Road, West Columbia, SC 29169

Items Needed

Lexmark T650, HP05A, HP27x Printer Toner Cartridges

Brother TN 420, Brother TN350 Fax Machine Toner Cartidges and Drum

Extra Large Paper Lunch Bags

Paper Towels

Toilet Tissue

Letter Sized Copy Paper

Legal Sized Copy Paper

Binder Clips (All Sizes)

Disposable Rubber Gloves (Medium & Large)

Hand Soap

Hand Sanitizer

Facial Tissue

Highlighters (yellow, green, pink)

Pens (black, blue)

File Folders

Letter Sized Note Tablets

Printer Ink Cartridges: HP 57, HP 56

Paper Clips (large, regular)

Staples

Office tape

Packing tape

Gift cards: Walgreens, Office Depot, Walmart

Please also help us spread the word. There are Saturday supply drop offs going on all month as well as other special events. You can keep up to date with all the events through the blog: http://freemedicalcliniclifesaver.wordpress.com and Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BeaLifeSaver.

James Kennedy & the art of Teen Video making in SC

2011-10-15T12:38:00.000-05:00

We were lucky enough to bring James Kennedy from Chicago (which in itself is cool enough) to South Carolina as the presenter for our teen exchange. The Teen Exchange brings together librarians or staff who work with or have an interest in working with teens and young adults. We've done some great programs in recent years--Teen Spaces with Kim Bolan Cullin and Collection and other cool stuff with Erin Downey Howerton. That was where I learned about James and the 90-second Newbery. (www.jameskennedy.com)

We have spend some time developing a rotating group of technology so that libraries across the state can borrow movie making and editing equipment. It is a great way to build skills and develop creative approaches for marketing and highlighting programs in the libraries. We have encouraged the teen librarians and their teen advisory board members or teen/preteen patrons to develop short films for contests that have been recently sponsored by the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP or what we often call Summer Reading program) and ALA, the American Library Association. If you think that kids aren't super talented, it is amazing what they can do in a day. Take a peek here. The first is the runner up video for the ALA contest and the second is the SC winner.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXeoYdb31vk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szcdTRZLIIw

James Kennedy has developed the 90-second Newbery film festival. If you are a book person, teacher/librarian, or have kids you probably are pretty familiar with the Newbery awards. They are the best in juvenile fiction as determined by a committee of professionals each year. I have to say that although I absolutely loved this past year's winner, Moon over Manifest (and wasn't really sure until I read it), there have been some less than interesting winners in the many many years of the awards. I was given one in the late 70s when I was devouring books. It was a journal. I didn't really understand the style and it was super boring to me. I am sure it was a great book. If I was to go back and read it as an adult, I might even like it now; I certainly always appreciate them. But every winner will not always be for everyone, and that's ok. However, making it into a 90 second film, as James says, can make anything seem silly. Those that came had a very creative day where they looked at the books, made choices about how to write the script. For example, Hatchet written in the style of Twitter with hashtags. The Underneath was done as a puppet show. Lots of mashups, cross overs and adaptations to styles like reality or talk shows. Some of them were able to complete their films, others are still in progress. The afternoon focused on James' book "The Order of the Odd-Fish." He showed all the fan art and tributes to this unique fantasy book. It reminded me of Comic Con. He's done it as a program for ALA for the past few years and our own librarians also got a chance to recreate a sort of fighting scene. Super creative. I'll have some pictures. Mostly I think everyone got to envision themselves using the technology to highlight books and create programs that appeal to teens. Eli Neuberger from Ann Arbor just talked during the Ebook summit this week about how we as libraries MUST start to highlight and focus on things that are not just books. This is the perfect time for these kinds of creative, skill building programs. Keep your eyes open. I feel a 90-second Newbery Film Festival in Columbia SC will happen.

Banned Books Week Sept 24-Oct

2011-09-24T13:49:00.000-05:00

Banned Books Week 2011 has begun – a week that celebrates the freedom to read while drawing attention to the harms that censorship does to our society and our individual freedoms. We hope that during this week you will read one of your favorite banned/challenged book and think of the ideas the books contain—ideas that bother some people so much they want to prevent you and others from reading it.

During the week, the OIF Blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page will highlight some of the many events taking place during Banned Books Week, and will spotlight some of the videos featured on the Banned Books Week YouTube channel as part of the Banned Books Virtual Read-Out! Check back regularly for more information. You also should check the new Banned Books Week website—geared toward the general public—for events in your local area.
Happy reading!

About Banned & Challenged Books

What's the difference between a challenge and a banning?

A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. Due to the commitment of librarians, teachers, parents, students and other concerned citizens, most challenges are unsuccessful and most materials are retained in the school curriculum or library collection.

http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/aboutbannedbooks/index.cfm

Banned Books Week Sept 24-Oct 1, 2011

2011-09-24T13:47:00.000-05:00

http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=2724
Banned Books Week 2011 has begun – a week that celebrates the freedom to read while drawing attention to the harms that censorship does to our society and our individual freedoms. We hope that during this week you will read one of your favorite banned/challenged book and think of the ideas the books contain—ideas that bother some people so much they want to prevent you and others from reading it.
During the week, the OIF Blog, Twitter feed, and Facebook page will highlight some of the many events taking place during Banned Books Week, and will spotlight some of the videos featured on the Banned Books Week YouTube channel as part of the Banned Books Virtual Read-Out! Check back regularly for more information. You also should check the new Banned Books Week website—geared toward the general public—for events in your local area.
Happy reading!

Support Denise for ALA/ALSC's Newbery Medal Selection Committee

2011-03-17T19:58:00.004-05:00

I would appreciate your vote to serve on ALA/ALSC's Newbery Medal Selection Committee.

Here is the bio on the ballot.

Denise R. Lyons

Current Position:
Director of Library Development; 2010; South Carolina State Library

Columbia; SC; 29211; USA

Previous Positions:
Library Development Consultant, South Carolina State Library, 2008‐2010
Communications Coordinator, Dallas Public Library, 2008
Librarian/Assistant Manager, Dallas Public Library, 2004‐08

Degrees and Certificates:
University of Washington, Evans School of Public Affairs, Certificate Program/Cascade Executive Program, 2010
University of South Carolina, MLIS, 2004
DePaul University, MS in Public Services Management and Nonprofit Administration, 2000
Boston University, BS, Journalism, 1992

ALA and/or ALA‐APA Activities:
PLA Leadership Committee Task Force 2010‐11
Member of ALA, ALSC, PLA, YALSA

Offices held in the ALA/APA, state, & regional library associations, and other associations (include DATES):
South Carolina Library Association, Youth Services Section, 2008‐present
CE Forum 2010‐present
CSLP representative 2010‐present

Honors and Awards (library and non‐library, including DATES):
PLA Leadership Development Committee Fellow 2010
Library Journal’s Movers and Shakers 2010
Dallas County KinCare Network Honor 2007
City of Dallas Wall of Honor June 2007
2005 University of South Carolina School of Library and Information Science Wayne S. Yenawine Distinguished Student Award
2005 Inductee into Beta Phi Mu
William Trafton III Outstanding Student Leadership Award Nominee, 2004
The Outstanding Achievement & Student Triumph (TOAST) Award (USC) 2004
Public Allies Tomorrow's Leaders Today Award Recipient 2000

Major Accomplishments:
As the Director of Library Development, Denise oversees the team for outreach and public library support of the SC State Library. Prior she was a Consultant focusing on youth/YA services, early childhood and family literacy, Small Business outreach, workforce development and management. Denise created the South Carolina Day by Day Family Literacy Activity Calendar, a tool to support early literacy skills in the home and classroom. The online version, www.daybydaysc.org is the online companion tool for interactive learning. Both have received state and national recognition. Denise is the Youth/Young Adult Services staff person for the State Library, serving as the representative to the CSLP, coordinating all education and program for those who work with children and teens statewide, and created a series of new educational brochures and reading lists. She coordinates several projects for family and early literacy initiatives, including serving on the steering committee for Literacy 2030, a statewide effort is instrumental on committees and initiatives that support literacy and partnership through some such as First Steps and Head Start.

Publications:
“Public Library as Innovator: Statewide Partnership for Economic Development.” Presented at PLA, March 2010, Portland, OR.
“Literacy at West Lee Elementary: Beating the Odds.” Teacher Librarian, February 2006.
“Female Leadership Characteristics in Young Adult Fiction.” University of South Carolina Graduate School Oral Research Competition, Spring 2004 and "Want To Be A Leader, Be A Reader.” Poster Session at I‐COMM/Carolina Showcase, Spring 2004.

Links for further information:
Project website: https://daybydaysc.org

Member of ALA since:
2003

About the Newbery Medal for Children's Literature

2011-03-17T16:51:00.003-05:00

THe John Newbery Medal
from www.ala.org

In 1921 Frederic G.Melcher had the Newbery Medal designed by René Paul Chambellan. The bronze medal has the winner's name and the date engraved on the back. The American Library Association Executive Board in 1922 delegated to the Children's Librarians' Section the responsibility for selecting the book to receive the Newbery Medal.

The inscription on the Newbery Medal still reads "Children's Librarians' Section," although the section has changed its name four times and its membership now includes both school and public library children's librarians in contrast to the years 1922-58, when the section, under three different names, included only public library children's librarians. Today the Medal is administered by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of ALA.

How the Newbery Medal Came to Be

The Newbery Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association for the most distinguished American children's book published the previous year. On June 22, 1921, Frederic G. Melcher proposed the award to the American Library Association meeting of the Children's Librarians' Section and suggested that it be named for the eighteenth-century English bookseller John Newbery. The idea was enthusiastically accepted by the children's librarians, and Melcher's official proposal was approved by the ALA Executive Board in 1922. In Melcher's formal agreement with the board, the purpose of the Newbery Medal was stated as follows: "To encourage original creative work in the field of books for children. To emphasize to the public that contributions to the literature for children deserve similar recognition to poetry, plays, or novels. To give those librarians, who make it their life work to serve children's reading interests, an opportunity to encourage good writing in this field."

The Newbery Award thus became the first children's book award in the world. Its terms, as well as its long history, continue to make it the best known and most discussed children's book award in this country.

From the beginning of the awarding of the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, committees could, and usually did, cite other books as worthy of attention. Such books were referred to as Newbery or Caldecott "runners-up." In 1971 the term "runners-up" was changed to "honor books." The new terminology was made retroactive so that all former runners-up are now referred to as Newbery or Caldecott Honor Books

Roman Punch (from W.W. Norton)

2010-10-14T12:07:00.002-05:00

I'm going to credit W.W. Norton and their link: http://wwnorton.tumblr.com/post/1313872086/roman-punch
I loved it so I had to share.

Roman Punch
There was a time — when turtle soup was a luxury dish and whiskey was an acceptable pick-me-up — when garnishing an icy-cold drink with a dollop of meringue seemed perfectly normal. And why not? The meringue floats on the surface like a regal, mysterious iceberg. As you mix it in, the sugar and whites add a touch of cream to what’s otherwise a sweet, boozy punch.

Although this one does not, many Roman punch recipes instruct you to freeze the mixture before serving, presumably so it gets nice and slushy before receiving its meringue cap.

Roman punch was served as an intermezzo at society parties and at the White House during Rutherford B. Hayes’s presidency. Hayes and his wife, who was known as “Lemonade Lucy,” were temperance advocates, and to get around their strictures — the rumor was — someone in the kitchen devised the spiked sorbet, which was served to guests. By 1922, the drink was declared passé by Emily Post.

2 cups lemonade
Juice of 2 oranges
8 ounces Champagne
8 ounces rum
2 large egg whites
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

1.Stir together the lemonade, orange juice, Champagne, and rum in a punch bowl. Chill
2.When ready to serve, make the meringue: whip the egg whites in a medium bowl until they hold soft peaks, then gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar. Pile into a serving bowl.
3.Fill punch cups with ice, ladle over the punch, and top each with a dollop of meringue. Serve with cocktail stirrers.
New York Times, August 17, 1879

From The Essential New York Times Cookbook by Amanda Hesser

New Design

2010-10-11T16:55:00.003-05:00

I have a new design. Doesn't this feel sort of earthy and free? I really liked the one called "travel" which looks like an old pied a terre in paris or something, complete with torn vintage wallpaper and cracks in the cement.

Of course all this means is that I want my own pied a terre with torn wallpaper and cracks in the cement. I am so tired of sharing walls with people not of my choosing. I went to college at 17 and have lived in dorms or apartments since. I'm not going to fess to my age but let's just say I have over two decades of irritating neighbors, inconveniently placed trash bins, fighting over parking spaces, appliances that break etc. etc.

I have 3 houses picked out here. If I could find the time to get my act together and go see the mortgage broker and fix my credit report, I might be able to do something about it. Will I get my birthday/Christmas wish??

In the meantime, read this:

Kate Whouley is the author of Cottage for Sale, Must Be Moved, a true, sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant account of one woman's quest to move a vacation cottage across Cape Cod.

A Small Showing of Commercialism: Wonderful home for sale

2010-09-27T20:47:00.002-05:00

WONDERFUL HOME in a good neighborhood in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Well taken care of with lots of extras and beautiful interior
http://tinyurl.com/908beechwood

908 BEECHWOOD ST NE
Grand Rapids 49505
Kent County Michigan

Residential Listing MLS: 10038914
$ 89,900 Current/Active
Single family Bungalow
Bedrooms: 3 Baths: 1

School District: Grand Rapids
Directions: Plainfield, south of Three Mile to Beechwood, East to home.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year Built: 1955
Lot Size: 50x100
Gas/Forced air
Central air
Public Water
Public Sewer
1,670 sq feet
Garage: 1 stall/Un-attached
Vinyl Siding
Full Basement
Features: Encl Porch
Appliances: Fan-Ceiling , Refrg , Range , Dishwasher , Disposal

Please contact Mrs. K. Burns at quina24@gmail.com

Just a hint of magic--good summer reading

2010-06-18T14:45:00.006-05:00

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
**Highly recommend listening on audio
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
The Garden Angel: A Novel by Mindy Friddle
Illumination Night by Alice Hoffman
Thief Eyes by Janni Lee Simner
East by Edith Pattou
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
Hannah's Winter by Kierin Meehan
The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood

Coconut Chiffon Cake with Coconut-Cranberry Sorbet

2010-05-10T21:57:00.002-05:00

Coconut Chiffon Cake with Coconut-Cranberry Sorbet

Active Time: 20 Minutes
Total Time: 1 Hour 25 Minutes
Yield: Makes 10 servings
A delicate light-textured cake. To measure the flour accurately, sift some flour into a bowl. Spoon the sifted flour into a 1 cup measure so cup is overflowing. Stand the edge of a ruler on top of

RECIPE INGREDIENTS
1 cup flaked sweetened coconut (about 3 ounces)
2 cups sugar
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
7 large egg yolks
7 large egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Fresh cranberries (optional)
Fresh mint (optional)

Other necessary recipes:
Coconut-Cranberry Sorbet

DIRECTIONS
Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Blend coconut and 1/4 cup sugar in processor until coconut is finely chopped.

Whisk flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl to blend. Make well in center of dry ingredients. Add coconut milk, oil, lemon juice and vanilla to well; then yolks. Whisk all ingredients until very smooth. Fold coconut mixture from processor into yolk mixture. Using electric mixer, beat whites and cream of tartar in another large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in remaining 1 cup sugar; beat until whites are stiff but not dry. Fold large spoonful of whites into yolk mixture to lighten. Fold in remaining whites in 3 additions.

Transfer batter to 10x4-inch angel food cake pan. Bake cake until golden on top and tester (slender wooden skewer) comes out clean, about 1 hour 5 minutes. Place narrow-neck bottle into center tube of cake pan. Stand bottle upright so cake hangs upside down. Cool cake completely. Cut around cake pan and center tube to loosen cake. Remove cake from pan; place on platter. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and store at room temperature.)

Cut cake into wedges; place on plates. Spoon sorbet alongside. Garnish with fresh cranberries and mint, if desired.

Recipe created exclusively for Cooking.com by Selma Elaine Brown.

Sunny Citrus Chiffon Cake

2010-05-10T21:41:00.002-05:00

Sunny Citrus Chiffon Cake

Active Time: 45 Minutes
Total Time: 2 Hours
Yield: 12 servings
Flavored with orange, lemon and lime, this big, beautiful cake is a fitting ending to a celebration. Just three egg yolks give the cake a golden hue and a texture richer than angel food.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS
For the Cake:
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar divided
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 large egg whites at room temperature (see Tip)
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 large large egg yolks
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur
2 tablespoons freshly grated orange zest
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons freshly grated lime zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Citrus Glaze:
1 large orange scrubbed
1 lemon scrubbed
1 lime scrubbed
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Tip: To bring an egg to room temperature: Either set it out on the counter for 15 minutes or submerge it (in the shell) in a bowl of lukewarm (not hot) water for 5 minutes.

DIRECTIONS
FOR THE CAKE:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift flour, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, baking powder and salt into a small bowl; set aside.

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer just until soft peaks form. Beat in the remaining 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time, until the whites are shiny and form soft peaks.

Whisk together egg yolks, orange liqueur, orange, lemon and lime zests, lemon and lime juices, and vanilla in a small bowl. Pour over the egg whites and fold together with a rubber spatula.

Resift the reserved dry ingredients over the beaten egg whites in four parts, folding in gently after each addition. Spoon the batter into an ungreased 10-inch angel food cake pan with a removable bottom. Smooth the top and run a knife or spatula through the batter to remove any air bubbles. Bake until the top is golden and a long skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Invert the pan over the neck of a bottle and let cool completely.

FOR THE CITRUS GLAZE:
Use a citrus zester to remove long threads of zest from the orange, lemon and lime; set aside. Squeeze 4 teaspoons of juice from each of the fruits. Whisk the juices into the confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl to make a smooth glaze.

Loosen the edges of the cake with a knife and invert onto a cake plate. Spoon the glaze over the top, allowing it to drip down the sides. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the julienned zest. Let the cake stand at least 30 minutes for the glaze to set.

© EatingWell Magazine.

Thai Iced Tea

2010-02-17T15:05:00.002-06:00

My favorite Thai restaurant serves an iced Thai tea that is literally addictive.
I wanted to see what I could create at home.

I've purchased Celestial Seasonings Decaf Sweet Coconut Thai Chai. They have 3 other kinds too. I boil a few bags in hot water and get it as strong as possible. Add sugar until it melts. Taste and make sure it is sweet. Then purchase Turtle Mountain So Delicious Coconut Milk creamer. Our local whole foods/natural food store has it. Let the tea cool and poor over ice until most of the way full, then add creamer. Stir and enjoy!

There are many debates if you try and look on the internet for a recipe. Sweetened condensed milk or coconut milk? Sugar or sweetener?

I like this explanation.
http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/recipes/Thai_Tea.htm

There are two styles of Thai iced tea: with or without milk. Tea with milk is called cha yen. Tea without milk is called cha dum yen.

You will see small coffee/tea shops sprinkled all over Thailand. However, unlike in the US or Europe, Thai people like their iced tea on the go and take it with them in a small plastic bag with a straw sticking out. Very few people sit at the shop and drink it leisurely. In fact, many shops have no place to sit.

Cold Thai Tea - Cha Yen Thai Tea is a real favorite in Thailand. When you buy Thai Tea on the street, you normally get it in a small plastic bag with a straw. Since it's very easy to make it just like you find in Thailand, you can avoid paying $3.50 to Starbucks.

Cha Yen Thai Tea
1-2 tablespoons Thai tea
1 tablespoon sweet condensed milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon milk
1 cup hot water

Add sugar and sweet condensed milk to a glass or cup. Put one tablespoon of Thai tea to a tea sock. Place the tea sock directly above the glass. Pour hot water into the tea sock. Set the tea sock aside. Stir until the sugar and sweet condensed milk are dissolved. Add ice and top the tea with milk.

If you like it hot, reduce the sugar and sweet condensed milk by half. Drink hot.

Cha Dum Yen - Cha Dum Yen
1-2 tablespoons Thai tea
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup hot water

Add sugar to a glass or cup. Put one tablespoon of Thai tea to a tea sock. Place the tea sock directly above the glass. Pour hot water into the tea sock. Set the tea sock aside. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved. Add ice.

If you like it hot, reduce the sugar by half. Drink hot.

Time's 100 Best Novels...but I respectfully disagree

2010-01-29T23:18:00.002-06:00

Here's the list of what they say. I'm working on mine.

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html

The Complete List
In Alphabetical Order
PRINT

A - B
The Adventures of Augie March
Saul Bellow

All the King's Men
Robert Penn Warren

American Pastoral
Philip Roth

An American Tragedy
Theodore Dreiser

Animal Farm
George Orwell

Appointment in Samarra
John O'Hara

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume

The Assistant
Bernard Malamud

At Swim-Two-Birds
Flann O'Brien

Atonement
Ian McEwan

Beloved
Toni Morrison

The Berlin Stories
Christopher Isherwood

The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler

The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood

Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy

Brideshead Revisited
Evelyn Waugh

The Bridge of San Luis Rey
Thornton Wilder

C - D
Call It Sleep
Henry Roth

Catch-22
Joseph Heller

The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger

A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess

The Confessions of Nat Turner
William Styron

The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen

The Crying of Lot 49
Thomas Pynchon

A Dance to the Music of Time
Anthony Powell

The Day of the Locust
Nathanael West

Death Comes for the Archbishop
Willa Cather

A Death in the Family
James Agee

The Death of the Heart
Elizabeth Bowen

Deliverance
James Dickey

Dog Soldiers
Robert Stone

F - G
Falconer
John Cheever

The French Lieutenant's Woman
John Fowles

The Golden Notebook
Doris Lessing

Go Tell it on the Mountain
James Baldwin

Gone With the Wind
Margaret Mitchell

The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck

Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon

The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald

H - I
A Handful of Dust
Evelyn Waugh

The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter
Carson McCullers

The Heart of the Matter
Graham Greene

Herzog
Saul Bellow

Housekeeping
Marilynne Robinson

A House for Mr. Biswas
V.S. Naipaul

I, Claudius
Robert Graves

Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace

Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison

L - N
Light in August
William Faulkner

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
C.S. Lewis

Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov

Lord of the Flies
William Golding

The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien

Loving
Henry Green

Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis

The Man Who Loved Children
Christina Stead

Midnight's Children
Salman Rushdie

Money
Martin Amis

The Moviegoer
Walker Percy

Mrs. Dalloway
Virginia Woolf

Naked Lunch
William Burroughs

Native Son
Richard Wright

Neuromancer
William Gibson

Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro

1984
George Orwell

O - R
On the Road
Jack Kerouac

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ken Kesey

The Painted Bird
Jerzy Kosinski

Pale Fire
Vladimir Nabokov

A Passage to India
E.M. Forster

Play It As It Lays
Joan Didion

Portnoy's Complaint
Philip Roth

Possession
A.S. Byatt

The Power and the Glory
Graham Greene

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Muriel Spark

Rabbit, Run
John Updike

Ragtime
E.L. Doctorow

The Recognitions
William Gaddis

Red Harvest
Dashiell Hammett

Revolutionary Road
Richard Yates

S - T
The Sheltering Sky
Paul Bowles

Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut

Snow Crash
Neal Stephenson

The Sot-Weed Factor
John Barth

The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner

The Sportswriter
Richard Ford

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
John le Carre

The Sun Also Rises
Ernest Hemingway

Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston

Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee

To the Lighthouse
Virginia Woolf

Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller

U - W
Ubik
Philip K. Dick

Under the Net
Iris Murdoch

Under the Volcano
Malcolm Lowry

Watchmen
Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons

White Noise
Don DeLillo

White Teeth
Zadie Smith

Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys

Losing Spenser

2010-01-19T22:39:00.005-06:00

This link is really good...provides an appreciation for Robert B. Parker. Parker was like an old friend. I felt like he'd been around for so long--his books, the TV show, the movies. I even got to meet him once. Plus he reminds me so much of Boston, a place I love. So take a minute and read on...

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/tag/robert-b-parker

Robert B. Parker, the crime writer best known for his Spenser detective series, died today at the age of 77. Fittingly for a writer who published several books a year — many of which routinely made best-sellers lists — Parker is said to have died at his desk...

Recipe Fun

2010-01-10T13:05:00.003-06:00

I'm a huge Mark Bittman fan. His books are great and easy to use. His articles are always interesting. I've been making a lot of potato leek soup lately. My recipe fav is from the NY Times cookbook using the Vichyssoise recipe but not chilling it. While I was searching to see if it was online, I found this Bittman recipe and sounded so good, I decided to post instead.

Grilled White-and-Sweet-Potato Salad
Mark Bittman
Yield 4 to 6 servings

Time About 40 minutes

Ingredients
2 large waxy (new) potatoes, about 1 pound
1 or 2 sweet potatoes, about 1 pound
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
1 tablespoon sherry or other vinegar, or to taste
1 bunch scallions, both white and green parts, chopped

Method
1. Start a gas or charcoal grill, or heat the oven to 450 degrees. Peel potatoes and cut them into slices 1/2-inch thick. Toss them with half the olive oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Grill potatoes over direct but not-too-hot heat, turning them as they brown. Or roast them on nonstick baking sheet, turning once or twice.
2. Potatoes will cook in about 10 to 15 minutes; remove them as they become tender. When they are done and fairly cool, toss them with remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust seasoning and serve. Or the salad can be covered and refrigerated; bring to room temperature before serving.

Christmas Cooking Cheer!

2009-12-13T23:46:00.002-06:00

From the Food Network

Easy:
White Peppermint Snowballs
(Sandra Lee)

Ingredients
1 package (18-ounce) refrigerated sugar cookie dough, room temperature (recommended: Pillsbury)
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract (recommended: McCormick)
1/3 cup crushed peppermint candies, plus more for garnishing
1 cup powdered sugar, divided
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut the cookie dough into 8 pieces. In bowl of electric mixer, on medium speed thoroughly combine the dough pieces, peppermint extract, 1/3 cup crushed peppermint candies, and 1/2 cup of the powdered sugar.

Roll the dough into 1-inch diameter balls. Arrange, 2 inches apart, on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake until set, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on cooling racks.

Add 1/2 cup of the remaining powdered sugar to a small bowl. While the cookies are still warm, roll them in the sugar. Sprinkle with crushed peppermint candies and serve.

As the cookies cool, they will flatten slightly.

INTERMEDIATE

Panettone Bread Pudding (Ina Garten)

Ingredients
1 Italian panettone, about 1.2 pounds
Unsalted butter, for greasing the dish
3 extra-large whole eggs
8 extra-large egg yolks
5 cups half-and-half
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons pure almond extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup sliced almonds
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Trim the dark brown outer crust from the panettone. Cut the rest of the loaf in 1-inch cubes and place on a sheet pan in a single layer. Toast the panettone for 10 minutes, until lightly browned.

Grease a 9 by 12 by 2-inch baking dish with the butter. Place the panettone cubes in the baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, half-and-half, vanilla and almond extracts and sugar. Pour this custard mixture over the panettone. Set aside for 10 minutes so the bread soaks up the custard. Scatter the sliced almonds over the top of the pudding.

Place the baking dish into a larger pan and add very hot tap water to the larger pan until it's halfway up the side of the baking dish. Cover the larger pan with aluminum foil, tenting the foil so it doesn't touch the pudding. Cut a few holes in the foil to allow steam to escape. Bake the pudding for 45 minutes. Uncover and bake for 40 to 45 more minutes, until the custard is set and the top of the pudding is light golden brown. Allow to cool for 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Time to Cook~Thanks to Bon Appetit!

2009-11-03T20:29:00.000-06:00

Bon Appetit
Find original information at: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2009/05/oven_baked_chicken_breasts_with_lemony_mustard_arugula_salad

Oven-Baked Chicken Breasts with Lemon-Mustard Arugula Salad
The New Fried Chicken: Before a revolution breaks out, we want to assure you that we still think real fried chicken—soaked in buttermilk and fried in peanut oil till it's crispy—is the gold standard. But there's no denying that, in the past 20 years, two factors have had a huge influence on how we cook: speed and healthfulness. Oven-baked chicken satisfies both counts, offering a crispy, tasty coating and moist meat with less fat and fewer calories. Plus, it's quick enough to make on a Tuesday night. Add a light, bright arugula salad and you've got dinner.

Ingredients
marinade
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 chicken breast halves with skin and bones (about 4 pounds)
coating
1 1/3 cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter, melted
salad
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 5-ounce package arugula
1 ounces Parmesan cheese, shaved with vegetable peeler into strips
Preparation
marinade
Whisk first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Add chicken; turn to coat. Cover and chill overnight, turning occasionally.
coating
Mix first 10 ingredients in another large bowl. Place 1 wire rack on each of 2 rimmed baking sheets. Remove 1 chicken breast from bowl. Turn chicken breast in coating mixture. Transfer to rack, skin side up. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts, arranging 3 breasts on each rack. Let stand 30 minutes.
Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 450°F. Drizzle 1/2 tablespoon melted butter over each breast. Place 1 baking sheet on top rack and second sheet on bottom rack.
Bake chicken 20 minutes. Reverse baking sheets. Bake until coating is browned and instant-read thermometer registers 160°F when inserted into thickest part of breast, about 20 minutes longer.
salad
Meanwhile, whisk first 5 ingredients in small bowl. Gradually whisk in oil. Season dressing to taste with pepper.
Place arugula and Parmesan in large bowl. Add some of dressing; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Place 1 chicken breast on each plate. Divide salad among plates and serve.

Backlash: Women Bullying Women at Work (from the NY Times)

2009-11-01T20:33:00.002-06:00

Link to original article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/business/10women.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Backlash: Women Bullying Women at Work

YELLING, scheming and sabotaging: all are tell-tale signs that a bully is at work, laying traps for employees at every pass.

During this downturn, as stress levels rise, workplace researchers say, bullies are likely to sharpen their elbows and ratchet up their attacks.

It’s probably no surprise that most of these bullies are men, as a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group, makes clear. But a good 40 percent of bullies are women. And at least the male bullies take an egalitarian approach, mowing down men and women pretty much in equal measure. The women appear to prefer their own kind, choosing other women as targets more than 70 percent of the time.
In the name of Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, what is going on here?

Just the mention of women treating other women badly on the job seemingly shakes the women’s movement to its core. It is what Peggy Klaus, an executive coach in Berkeley, Calif., has called “the pink elephant” in the room. How can women break through the glass ceiling if they are ducking verbal blows from other women in cubicles, hallways and conference rooms?

Women don’t like to talk about it because it is “so antithetical to the way that we are supposed to behave to other women,” Ms. Klaus said. “We are supposed to be the nurturers and the supporters.”
Ask women about run-ins with other women at work and some will point out that people of both sexes can misbehave. Others will nod in instant recognition and recount examples of how women — more so than men — have mistreated them.

“I’ve been sabotaged so many times in the workplace by other women, I finally left the corporate world and started my own business,” said Roxy Westphal, who runs the promotional products company Roxy Ventures Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz. She still recalls the sting of an interview she had with a woman 30 years ago that “turned into a one-person firing squad” and led her to leave the building in tears.

Jean Kondek, who recently retired after a 30-year career in advertising, recalled her anger when an administrator in a small agency called a meeting to dress her down in front of co-workers for not following agency procedure in a client emergency.
But Ms. Kondek said she had the last word. “I said, ‘Would everyone please leave?’ ” She added, “and then I told her, ‘This is not how you handle that.’ ”

Many women who are still in the work force were hesitant to speak out publicly for fear of making matters worse or of jeopardizing their careers. A private accountant in California said she recently joined a company and was immediately frozen out by two women working there. One even pushed her in the cafeteria during an argument, the accountant said. “It’s as if we’re back in high school,” she said.

A senior executive said she had “finally broken the glass ceiling” only to have another woman gun for her job by telling management, “I can’t work for her, she’s passive-aggressive.”

The strategy worked: The executive said she soon lost the job to her accuser.
ONE reason women choose other women as targets “is probably some idea that they can find a less confrontative person or someone less likely to respond to aggression with aggression,” said Gary Namie, research director for the Workplace Bullying Institute, which ordered the study in 2007.
But another dynamic may be at work. After five decades of striving for equality, women make up more than 50 percent of management, professional and related occupations, says Catalyst, the nonprofit research group. And yet, its 2008 census found, only 15.7 percent of Fortune 500 officers and 15.2 percent of directors were women.
Leadership specialists wonder, are women being “overly aggressive” because there are too few opportunities for advancement? Or is it stereotyping and women are only perceived as being overly aggressive? Is there a double standard at work?

Research on gender stereotyping from Catalyst suggests that no matter how women choose to lead, they are perceived as “never just right.” What’s more, the group found, women must work twice as hard as men to achieve the same level of recognition and prove they can lead.

“If women business leaders act consistent with gender stereotypes, they are considered too soft,” the group found in a 2007 study. “If they go against gender stereotypes, they are considered too tough.”

“Women are trying to figure out the magical keys to the kingdom,” said Laura Steck, president of the Growth and Leadership Center in Sunnyvale, Calif., and an executive leadership coach.

Women feel they have to be aggressive to be promoted, she said, and then they keep it up. Then, suddenly, they see the need to be collegial and collaborative instead of competitive.

Cleo Lepori-Costello, a vice president at a Silicon Valley software company, came to the center for training. She got off to a bumpy start when she stormed into her new role “like a bull in a china shop,” Ms. Steck said.

In gathering feedback about Ms. Lepori-Costello, Ms. Steck heard comments like: “Cleo is good at getting things done but may have come on too strong in the beginning. She didn’t read the different cultural unspoken rules like she could have.”

So Ms. Steck and Kent Kaufman, another coach at the center, began a one-year, once-a-week individual coaching program. It included role-playing and monthly group discussions with other female executives who acknowledged that they also had major blind spots about being politic at work. (The group was once nicknamed the Bully Broads.)

When she came to the center, Ms. Lepori-Costello said, she thought her colleagues were not initially open to her ideas. Through coaching and conflict role-playing, she came to realize that her behavior was perhaps “too much overkill” and that she was not always attending to all the people around her.

Joel H. Neuman, a researcher at the State University of New York at New Paltz, says most aggressive behavior at work is influenced by a number of factors associated with the bullies, victims and the situations in which they work. “This would include issues related to frustration, personality traits, perceptions of unfair treatment, and an assortment of stresses and strains associated with today’s leaner and ‘meaner’ work settings,” he said.

Mr. Neuman and his colleague Loraleigh Keashly of Wayne State University have developed a questionnaire to identify the full range of behaviors that can constitute bullying, which could help companies uncover problems that largely go unreported.
Bullying involves verbal or psychological forms of aggressive (hostile) behavior that persists for six months or longer. Their 29 questions include: Over the last 12 months, have you regularly: been glared at in a hostile manner, been given the silent treatment, been treated in a rude or disrespectful manner, or had others fail to deny false rumors about you?
The Workplace Bullying Institute says that 37 percent of workers have been bullied. Yet many employers ignore the problem, which hits the bottom line in turnover, health care and productivity costs, the institute says. Litigation is rare, the institute says, because there is no directly applicable law to cite and the costs are high.
Two Canadian researchers recently set out to examine the bullying that pits women against women. They found that some women may sabotage one another because they feel that helping their female co-workers could jeopardize their own careers.

One of the researchers, Grace Lau, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Waterloo, said the goal was to encourage women to help one another. She said: “How? One way we predicted would be to remind women that they are members of the same group.”

“We believe that a sense of pride in women’s accomplishments is important in getting women to help one another,” Ms. Lau said. “To have this sense of pride, women need to be aware of their shared identity as women.”

In the workplace, however, it is unlikely that women will constantly think of themselves as members of one group, she said. They will more likely see themselves as individuals, as they are judged by their performance.

“As a result, women may not feel a need to help one another,” she said. “They may even feel that in order to get ahead, they need to bully their co-workers by withholding information like promotion opportunities, and that women are easier to bully than men because women are supposedly less tough than men.”

WHAT better place to be a bully than in a prison? Even so, that is exactly where Televerde, a company in Phoenix that specializes in generating sales leads and market insight for high-tech companies, set up shop. About 13 years ago, the company created four call centers in the Arizona state prison in Perryville, employing 250 inmates (out of 3,000).

Through immersion training, mentoring and working with real-world clients, these women can overcome their difficult circumstances, said Donna Kent, senior vice president at Televerde. “Often, they will win over bullies and we see the whole thing transform. That’s what gives us inspiration and our clients inspiration.”
TODAY, about half of Televerde’s corporate office is made up of “graduates” from Perryville, including Michelle Cirocco, the director of sales operations. She has seen how women treat one another in other settings and she thinks the root cause is that women are taught to fight with one another for attention at an early age.
“We’re competing with our sisters for dad’s attention, or for our brother’s attention,” Ms. Cirocco said. “And then we go on in school and we’re competing for our teachers’ attention. We’re competing to be on the sports team or the cheer squad.”

To be sure, the Televerde experience is not for every inmate, and those who are in it still must work hard to maintain a highly competitive position.

“As we get into the corporate world,” Ms. Cirocco added, “we’re taught or we’re led to believe that we don’t get ahead because of men. But, we really don’t get ahead because of ourselves. Instead of building each other up and showcasing each other, we’re constantly tearing each other down.”

Televerde reversed that attitude in Perryville, Ms. Cirocco said, by encouraging women to work for a common cause, much like the environment envisioned by the Canadian researchers.

“It becomes a very nurturing environment,” Ms. Cirocco said. “You have all these women who become your friends, and you are personally invested in their success. Everyone wants everyone to get out, to go on to have a good healthy life.”
If the level of support found at Televerde were found elsewhere, Ms. Klaus said, it would solve a lot of problems.

“The time has come,” she said, “for us to really deal with this relationship that women have to women, because it truly is preventing us from being as successful in the workplace as we want to be and should be.

“We’ve got enough obstacles; we don’t need to pile on any more.”

Support Family Literacy!

2009-10-21T20:46:00.002-05:00

The South Carolina Day by Day Family Literacy Calendar is designed to be a tool that families, caregivers, educators and librarians can use at home and in the classroom to further develop early literacy skills that help young children become prepared for school or do better in school.

The Calendar is a project of the South Carolina State Library, working in partnership with many agencies and organizations, and primarily funded by a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Order your calendar at http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/sc-day-by-day-calendar

New Moon!

2009-10-21T20:36:00.001-05:00

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b149746_new_moon_one_month_away_taylor_gets.html?utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories

Get Smart about Antibiotics

2009-10-12T14:10:00.003-05:00

Just want to put a plug in here for a group I'm working with on a local campaign. They of course are the national campaign.

http://www.cdc.gov/getsmart
If you live in South Carolina, all public libraries have at least one copy of a WONDERFUL book that goes along with the campaign: "The Little Elephant with the Big Earache" by Charlotte Cowan. Libraries are doing related progrmaming across the state. It's all good info about how to find information helpful to your family in times of sickness, flu and colds.

Okra and Friends

2009-08-31T21:17:00.002-05:00

Living in the south, you can pretty much fry everything. Add that to the fact that under the "vegetables" list, you'll find things like macaroni & cheese. So I wanted to do something totally strange--not fry the okra!

Okra is fuzzy in case you didn't know. Which is weird. So here in my recipe for simple some simple veg, as the Scottish say.

Take a low 9x13 pan. Coat the bottom with light virgin olive oil. Use no more than a couple tablespoons.

I don't know about amounts. I bought the vegetables in packages this time. So I'm going to guess between a half to a full pound of
*Okra
*Yellow squash

Wash and cut the okra into round pieces. Toss away the tips. Wash and cut the squash into yellow rounds and/or half moons. Toss them in a bowl and then softly layer in the pan. Use crumbled goat cheese and sprinkle throughout the vegetables. Use fresh dill, chop and sprinkle throughout the vegetables. Take a few tablespoons of a olive oil vinagrette around the edge of the dish.

Bake at 350. Let the veg roast slowly. About 45mins-1 hr.

You can serve aside fish or mix with fresh fettucine and diced cooked chicken breast. Feel free to use a little sea salt and ground black pepper.

The Sunscreen Speech--original column by Mary Schmich

2009-06-26T10:53:00.000-05:00

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

(copyright Mary Schmich and the Chicago Tribune, 1997)

South Carolina Farmer's Markets

2009-06-16T15:06:00.002-05:00

Eat fresh! Eat Local!
http://agriculture.sc.gov/lists/LocationByCounty.aspx?ListID=4

Abbeville County
Abbeville Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Rhonda Matthews
Address: P.O. Box 640Abbeville, SC 29620
Hours of Operation: Fridays, 7am-Noon
Seasons of Operation: OPEN AIR/SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: rhonda@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-446-2276

Due West Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Joanne Johnk
Address: Hwy. 184 & Beulah StreetDue West, SC 29639
Hours of Operation: Saturdays: 8:00 am to noon
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: duewestfarms@yahoo.com
Phone: 864-379-3481
Web Site: http://www.duewestfarmers.org

Aiken County
Aiken County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air/Covered
Contact: Paul Widener
Address: Williamsburg Street Aiken, SC 29801
Hours of Operation: Mondays and Saturdays, 7:30 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: Aiken33back@aol.com
Phone: 803-646-5779

Allendale County
Allendale County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Roy Hollingsworth
Address: Corner of Bay St. & US Hwy 301 Allendale, SC 29810
Hours of Operation: Fridays, 3 pm to 6 pm
Seasons of Operation: OPEN AIR/SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-584-4207

Anderson County
Anderson County Farmers Market
Contact: Brandon Grace
Address: Murray Avenue & Tribble Street Anderson, SC 29624
Hours of Operation: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10 a.m. – untilSaturdays, 8 a.m.-until
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: bgrace@andersoncountysc.org
Phone: 864-231-1924

Belton Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air/Covered
Contact: Charles Campbell
Address: N. Main Street & Blake Street Belton, SC 29627
Hours of Operation: Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays6:00 a.m. until sold out
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 864-338-8188

Pendelton Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Lynne and Bill Parker
Alternate Contact: Lauren McGarry
Address: On the Village GreenPendelton, SC 29670
Hours of Operation: Thursday, 4:00 pm - 6:30 pmSaturday, 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Seasons of Operation: June-October
Progams Accepted: WIC
Email: lynne@pendletongraphics.com
Phone: 800-862-1795, 864-324-4901, 864-933-5232
Web Site: lmcgarry@nctv.com

Barnwell County
The Downtown Blackville Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Jeanne Johnson
Address: Intersection of Lartiage & Main Street2618 Baltic RoadBlackville, SC 29817
Hours of Operation: Friday, 2:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Seasons of Operation: Operate- June to October
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: jcjohn@bellsouth.net
Phone: 803-266-2463

Beaufort County
Habersham Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air/Covered
Contact: Patrick Kelly
Address: 13 Market St.Beaufort, SC 29906
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 2:00pm - 6:00pm
Seasons of Operation: Year Round
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: pkelly@habershamsc.com
Phone: 843-846-1000
Web Site: http://www.habershamfarmersmarket.com

Pigeon Point Farmers Market
Contact: York Glover
Address: 1512 Pigeon Point Rd.Beaufort, SC
Hours of Operation: 3 pm - 7 pm
Seasons of Operation: May 12 - August 25
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: yglover@clemson.edu
Phone: 843-470-3655

Port Royal Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Kit Bruce
Address: 1615 Ribaut RoadPort Royal, SC 29935
Hours of Operation: 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: April 25 - November 21
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: kitbruce@charter.net
Phone: 843-470-0699
Web Site: http://www.portroyalfarmersmarket.com

The Farmers Market of Bluffton
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Deborah Boyd
Address: 40 Calhoun StreetBluffton, SC 29910
Hours of Operation: 2 to 6 pmApril 23- November 19
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: blufftonmarket@aol.com
Phone: 843-290-6831
Web Site: www.farmersmarketbluffton.com

The Mall at Shelter
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Cheryl Jackson
Address: 24 Shelter Cove LaneHilton Head, SC 29928
Hours of Operation: 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: May 14 - August 27
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 843-686-3090

Berkeley County
Goose Creek Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Angela Martin
Alternate Contact: Barbara Nimocks
Address: 512 St. James Avenue (Hwy. 176)Goose Creek, SC
Hours of Operation: April 16 - September 24 2:30pm-6:30pm
Email: bnimocks@cityofgoosecreek.com
Phone: 843-569-4242
Moncks Corner Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Danny Mims
Address: Gulledge & Heatley Streets Moncks Corner, SC 29461
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 843-257-2727

Calhoun County
Calhoun County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Charles Davis
Address: Independence Street St. Matthews, SC 29135
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8:00 a.m. until sold out
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: (803) 874-2354 ext 117

Charleston County
Charleston Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Sarah Cothran
Address: Marion Square King & Calhoun Streets Charleston, SC 29401
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: farmersmarket@ci.charleston.sc.us
Phone: 843-724-7309

James Island Presbyterian Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 West shore Road Columbia SC, 29206 (803) 782-3840
Address: Ft. Johnson & Folly Rd. 1632 Ft. Johnson Rd. Charleston, SC 29412
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 843-795-3111

Metanoia/Chicora Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Bill Stanfield
Address: 2005 Reynolds Avenue North Charleston, SC 29405
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays, 3pm - dark
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: bill@pushingforward.org
Phone: 843-529-3014
Web Site: www.pushingforward.org

Mount Pleasant Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Ashley McKenzie
Address: Moultrie Middle School Coleman Boulevard and Simmons Street Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
Hours of Operation: Tuesdays, 3 p.m. - dark
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (April-October)
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: amckenzie@townofmountpleasant.com
Phone: 843-884-8517
Web Site: http://www.townofmountpleasant.com/index.cfm?section=11&page=6

MUSC Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Annie Lovering
Address: 171 Ashley Avenue (in horseshoe)Charleston, SC 29401
Hours of Operation: Fridays 7:00 am-3:00 pm
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 843-792-1245

North Charleston/Hanahan Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air/Covered
Contact: Belinda Swindler
Address: 4800 Park CircleNorth Charleston, SC
Hours of Operation: Thursdays, 2 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: spearson77@hotmail.com
Phone: 843-745-1028

Ralph H. Johnson Medical Center Farmers Market
Contact: Nancy Gannon
Address: 109 Bee StreetCharleston, SC 29401
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays 8 am-2 pmApril-December
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: nancy.gannon@va.gov
Phone: 843-789-7607

Cherokee County
Gaffney Station Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Alana West
Address: Corner of Frederick St. and Granard St.Gaffney, SC 29342
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays 4-7 pmSaturdays 7-12 pm
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (May - October)
Phone: 863-489-3141 ext. 115

Chesterfield County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Sam Bass
Address: Downtown on Front Street Cheraw, SC 29520
Hours of Operation: Tuesdays and Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 1 p.m./Thursdays, 1 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 843-320-9760

Jefferson Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: C.P. Simpson
Address: Highway 151 Jefferson, SC 29718
Hours of Operation: Daily during watermelon season
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Phone: 803-658-3251
Pageland Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Mack Nicholson
Address: Highway 601, north of city Pageland, SC 29727
Hours of Operation: Open 7 days a week Retail and Wholesale Market
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Phone: 803-672-5257

Clarendon County
Manning Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Jan McNair
Address: S.C. Highway 261 East Manning, SC 29102
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m./Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-473-5566

Colleton County
Walterboro Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Marilyn Peters
Address: P.O. Box 1086Walterboro, SC 29488
Hours of Operation: Tuesday 2-6, Saturdays 8-12
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (May-October)
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: mptrs@clemson.edu
Phone: (843) 549-2595 ext 115

Dillon County
Dillon County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Grady Sampson
Address: Highway 301 Dillon, SC 29536
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (May through November)
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 843-774-8218

Dorchester County
Summerville Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Walter Limehouse
Address: North Main Street @ Railroad Crossing Summerville, SC 29483
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL(First Saturday in April - Saturday before Thanksgiving in November)
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: lime1212@bellsouth.net
Phone: 843-873-3640

Florence County
Lake City Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air/Covered
Contact: Sherri Moore
Address: 111 Henry Street Lake City, SC 29560
Hours of Operation: April - NovemberFriday (4 PM - 7 PM) and Saturday (9 AM - 1 PM)
Email: sherri@nationalbeanmarketmuseum.org
Phone: 854-598-1074
Web Site: sherri@nationalbeanmarketmuseum.org

Pee Dee State Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air/Covered
Contact: Tre Coleman
Address: 2513 West Lucas Street Florence, SC 29501
Seasons of Operation: YEAR-ROUND
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: tcoleman@scda.sc.gov
Phone: 843-665-5154
Fax: 843-655-5263

Georgetown County
Georgetown County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Jammie Mau
Alternate Contact: Jamie Man
Address: Moving to a new location- address not decided yet.
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (June-August)
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: drob812@gmail.com
Phone: 843-545-9451

Pawley's Island Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Jamie Mau
Address: Parkersville Park Duncan Ave.Pawleys Island SC
Hours of Operation: Wed. 3:00 pm -3:00 pm
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: jmau@GeorgetownCountySC.Org
Phone: 843-651-7373

Greenville County
Carolina First Saturday Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Morgan Cox
Address: South Main @ McBee Avenue & Court Street Downtown Greenville Greenville, SC 29603
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 am to Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (May to November)
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: coxm@greatergreenville.com
Phone: 864-467-5784
Web Site: www.saturdaymarketlive.com

Fountain Inn Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Bill Welch
Address: 102 Depot StreetFountain Inn, SC 29644
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: May - October
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: welchandsonfarm@yahoo.com
Phone: 864-275-8801

Greenville State Farmers Market
Contact: Jack Watson
Address: 1354 Rutherford RoadGreenville, SC 29609
Hours of Operation: 8:00 am-6:00 pmMonday to Saturdays
Seasons of Operation: YEAR-ROUNDCovered facilities
Email: gmarket@scda.sc.gov
Phone: 864-244-4023
Fax: 864-244-4024

Greenwood County
Greenwood Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Newton Odell
Address: 123 Oakridge Dr.Greenwood, SC 29549
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays & Saturdays, 7 a.m. - Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONALMid June - Mid October
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 864-223-6305

Hampton County
Yemassee Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Jessica Loring
Address: Yemassee, S. C. 29945
Hours of Operation: Fridays 8:00 am to 1:00 pm
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: joring@oakcanyon.com
Phone: 707-321-2711

Hampton County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Roger Winn
Address: 500 Jackson Avenue EastHampton, SC 29924
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays & Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONALMay 15- December 31
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: pegsparker@gmail.com
Phone: 803-942-2324

Horry County
Downtown Conway Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Blake Lanford
Address: 1949 Industrial Park RoadConway, SC 29526
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (June 6 to October 31)
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: blakel@clemson.edu
Phone: 843-365-6715 Ext. 115

Myrtle's Market (Myrtle Beach Farmers Market)
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Neal Williamson
Address: 10th Avenue & Oak Street Myrtle Beach, SC 29578
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: Seasonal (April 15th to October 29th)
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 843-457-5618
Web Site: www.cityofmyrtlebeach.com

St. Michael Catholic Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Donna Bryan
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 West Shore Road Columbia, SC 29206 (803-782-3840)
Address: 542 Cypress Avenue Garden City, SC
Hours of Operation: Fridays, 8:30 a.m. to Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-782-3840

Jasper County
Jasper County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Honey Johnson
Address: 9935 South Jacob Smart Blv. (Hwy. 17 S.)Ridgeland, SC 29936
Hours of Operation: Friday only- 1-6:00pm
Seasons of Operation: Starts April 24
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: sjadrni@clemson.edu
Phone: 843-549-2595 X113
Web Site: http://www.jaspercountysc.org/secondary

Kershaw County
Kershaw County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Michael Simmons
Alternate Contact: donaf@exchange.clemson.edu
Address: West Dekalb Street & Church Street Camden, SC 29020
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONALApril - December
Email: simmonsmarketman@hotmail.com
Phone: 803-432-9071
Web Site: www.kcfarmersmarket.org

Lancaster County
Lancaster County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Don Gowan
Address: 3 miles E. of city on Highway 9 PO Box 446 Lancaster, SC 29721
Hours of Operation: Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays, 6:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (May-October)
Progams Accepted: WIC
Phone: 803-288-0202

Laurens County
Laurens Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Jonathan Irick
Address: Historic Downtown LaurensLaurens, SC 29360
Hours of Operation: July to SeptemberSaturdays 8 am-12 pm
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Email: mail@mainstreetlaurens.org
Phone: 864-984-2119

Lexington's Old Mill Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Heidi Black
Address: 711 East Main StreetLexington, SC 29072
Hours of Operation: 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Seasons of Operation: Every 3rd Thursday
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-957-3602

Marion County
Marion County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Irene Coleman
Address: Highway 76 Mullins, SC 29574
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m./Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 843-464-9694

Marlboro County
Marlboro County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Grady Sampson
Address: P.O. Box 80Bennettsville, SC 29512
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m./Tuesdays & Thursdays 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (May to December)
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: gsampso@clemson.edu
Phone: 843-479-6851

Newberry County
Grow Newberry Main Street Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Kristen Lindsay
Address: Memorial SquareMain Street Newberry, SC 29108
Hours of Operation: June 13, 2009 - August 8, 20099:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Email: grownewberry@bellsouth.net
Phone: 803-276-9423

Oconee County
Seneca Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Howard Hillar
Address: Main Street Seneca, SC 29678
Hours of Operation: Tuesdays, Thursdays & Saturdays, 7 a.m. - Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 864-638-5889, ext 115

Walhalla Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Howard Hillar
Address: Church Street Walhalla, SC 29691
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays & Fridays, 7 a.m. - Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 864-638-5889

Orangeburg County
Elloree Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air/Covered
Contact: John Singh
Address: Cleveland & Railroad Ave. Elloree, SC 29431
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays & Saturdays, 8 a.m. - Noon
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-897-2821

Orangeburg Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Molly Smith
Alternate Contact: Margie Roberts
Address: Hwy. 301 SouthOrangeburg, SC 29115
Hours of Operation: Tuesday - SaturdayApril - December8AM - 1PM
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-378-0249

Richland County
1800 St. Julian Place
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Donna Bryan
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 1800 St. Julian PlaceColumbia, SC
Hours of Operation: Thursdays, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-782-3840

2600 Bull Street Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Donna Bryan
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 2600 Bull St.Columbia, SC
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays, 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-782-3840

All-Local Farmers Market-1
Contact: Amanda McClain
Address: Gervais & Vine Patio in the VistaColumbia, SC 29225
Hours of Operation: 2nd & 4th Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 12 noon
Email: stateplate@gmail.com
Web Site: localharvest.org

All-Local Farmers Market-2
Contact: Amanda McClain
Address: ROSEWOOD MarketRosewood Drive at Maple StreetColumbia, SC
Hours of Operation: 2nd and 4th Saturdays, 8 a.m. - Noon
Email: stateplate@gmail.com
Web Site: www.localharvest.org

Ashland United Methodist Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 West Shore Road Columbia, SC 29206 (803-782-3840)
Address: 2600 Ashland Road (Between St. Andrews and Bush River Rd./picnic area behind church) Columbia, SC 29210
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. - Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-798-5350

Blythewood Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: John Perry
Alternate Contact: Louise Chavous
Address: In Front of Town Hall171 Langford Rd.Blythewood, S.C. 29016
Hours of Operation: Every 3rd Saturday 8:00 am to 12:00 pm
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (May to October)
Email: perryj@townofblythewood.com
Phone: 803-754-0501

Brookland Baptist Church
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Joseph J. James
Alternate Contact: Cal Kohn
Address: 1066 Sunset Blvd.West Columbia, SC 29169
Seasons of Operation: April - November Saturdays 11-5:00pm
Email: jjjames@bellsouth.net
Phone: 803-463-1588

Columbia State Farmers Market
Contact: David Tompkins
Address: 1001 Bluff Road Columbia, S.C. 29201
Hours of Operation: 6AM-9PM Mon - Sat / 1PM-6PM Sun
Seasons of Operation: Yearly
Product List: Wholesale & Retail SalesHorticultural & Plant MaterialsSpecial Events & Promotions
Email: dtompkin@scda.sc.gov
Phone: 803-734-2506
Fax: 803-737-4667

Ebenezer Lutheran Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 1310 Richland Street Columbia, SC 29201
Hours of Operation: Thursdays, 8 a.m. – Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-765-9430

Grace United Methodist Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 410 Harbison Blvd Columbia, SC 29212
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. - Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-732-1899

Healthy Carolina Farmers Market
Contact: Holly Harring
Address: Greene St. (USC campus in front of the Russell House)
Hours of Operation: June 9, 23 (10:00am-2:00pm)July 14, 28 (10:00am-2:00pm)
Product List: Features fresh produce, breads, and specialty goods
Email: harrinha@mailbox.sc.edu
Phone: 803-777-0597
Web Site: http://www.sc.edu/healthycarolina

Main Street Marketplace
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Alicia Morgan
Address: Corner of Hampton Street & Main Street Columbia, SC 29201
Hours of Operation: Every Friday in May & June from 10 AM - 2 PM
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (Early Spring & Early Fall)
Email: alicia@cartertodd.com
Phone: 803-779-4005
Web Site: http://www.citycentercolumbia.sc

Northeast Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Alan Lattanzi
Address: Lake Carolina Town Center100 Long Pointe LaneColumbia, SC 29229
Hours of Operation: Thursday afternoon 3:00 - 7:00 PM
Seasons of Operation: Seasonal May-November
Email: lattanzi@bellsouth.net
Phone: 803-432-0150

Riverbanks Garden Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Amanda Segura
Address: Riverbanks Botanical Garden Parking Lot1300 Botanical ParkwayWest Columbia, SC 29169
Hours of Operation: Wednesdays 2PM-7PM
Seasons of Operation: Season of operation: April - October
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: asegura@riverbanks.org
Phone: 803-978-1131
Web Site: www.riverbanks.org

Sandhill Farmers Market
Contact: Judy Gaskins
Address: Clemson Research and Education Center900 Clemson Road (across from Village at Sandhill in Northeast Columbia)Columbia, SC
Hours of Operation: Tuesdays, 3:30 p.m. - 7 p.m.(or sold out)April 21, 2009 - November 24, 2009
Email: jgaskin@clemson.edu
Phone: 803-788-5700, ext. 42
Fax: 803-736-4418

Shandon United Methodist Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Donna Bryan
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 3407 Devine Street Columbia, SC 29205
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. – Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-256-8383

Tree of Life Congregation Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 6719 N. Trenholm Rd. Columbia, SC 29206
Hours of Operation: Thursday, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-787-2182

Trinity Episcopal Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Donna Bryan
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 1100 Sumter Street Columbia, SC 29201
Hours of Operation: Sundays, 8:30 a.m. to Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: WIC
Phone: 803-771-7300

Unitarian Universal Fellowship Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Donna Bryan
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 2701 Heyward Street Columbia, SC 29205
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8:00 a.m. - Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-799-0845

Virginia Wingard United Methodist Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Donna Bryan
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 1500 Broad River Road Columbia, SC 29210
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. – Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-782-3840

Washington Street United Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 1401 Bull Street Columbia, SC 29201
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m. –Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-256-2417

Wesley Memorial United Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Donna Bryan
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 2501 Heyward Street Columbia, SC 29205
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 a.m.– Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-771-4540

Whaley Street United Methodist Church Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Donna Bryan
Alternate Contact: Donna Bryan 6222 Westshore Road, Columbia SC 29206 (803 782 3840)
Address: 517 Whaley Street Columbia, SC 29201
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 am – Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: WIC
Phone: 803-799-4104

Saluda County
Saluda County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Phil Perry
Address: City Hall Parking Lot Main Street Ridge Spring, SC 29129
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 8 am to Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: prperry@clemson.edu
Phone: 864-445-8117

Spartanburg County
Hub City Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Ali Revan
Address: Magnolia Street Train Depot298 Magnolia StreetSpartanburg, SC 29302
Hours of Operation: Saturday, 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.Wednesday, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (May - October)
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: ali@hubcityfm.org
Phone: 864-585-0905
Web Site: www.hubcityfm.org

Inman Farmers Market
Contact: Ali Revan
Address: 45 Park Road (at the Armory)Inman, SC 29349
Hours of Operation: Thursdays 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Seasons of Operation: June 25 thru mid September
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Email: jallen@hubcityfm.org
Phone: 864-585-0905
Web Site: http://www.hubcityfm.org

Sumter County
South Sumter Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air/Covered
Contact: Wygelia E. Palmer
Address: 327 Manning AvenueSumter, SC 29151
Hours of Operation: Monday thru Saturday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: YEAR-ROUND
Progams Accepted: WIC
Email: wpalmer@sumter-sc.com
Phone: 803-436-2575

Sumter County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Dorothy Rinehart
Address: 700 West Liberty StreetSumter, SC 29153
Hours of Operation: Mondays to Saturdays, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (April-October)
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-468-1590

Union County
Union Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Mike Loveless
Address: North Mountain StreetUnion, SC 29379
Hours of Operation: Daily, 8 a.m. until sold out
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL (April-October)
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 864-427-6259

Williamsburg County
Williamsburg County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Rosalind Gamble
Address: East Main StreetKingstree, SC 29556
Hours of Operation: Thursdays & Saturdays, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 843-382-8248

York County
Springs Farm Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Ronald Edwards
Address: 1002 Springfield ParkwayFort Mill, SC 29715
Hours of Operation: April to SeptemberMonday - Saturday, 7 am - 7 pmSundays, 1:00 pm - 7 pm
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Product List: Pre-picked or pick-your-own strawberries, peaches & other local produce- home made ice cream.
Email: ron@springsfarm.com
Phone: 803-371-6044
Web Site: www.springsfarm.com

York County Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: JB Woods
Address: Elizabeth Lane & Black Street-Municipal Parking LotRock Hill, SC 29745
Hours of Operation: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, & Saturdays, 6 a.m. – Noon
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Progams Accepted: EBT, Senior Checks, WIC
Phone: 803-684-7189

York Downtown Farmers Market
Facility Type: Open-Air
Contact: Signa Curry
Address: 10 Smith St.York, SC 29745
Hours of Operation: Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.April-October (includes Christmas season market weekend prior to Thanksgiving through Christmas Eve.)
Seasons of Operation: SEASONAL
Product List: FREE 10X10 vendor space, all items must be homegrown, homemade, or handmade.
Progams Accepted: Senior Checks, WIC
Email: signamarie@gmail.com
Phone: 704-299-2322
Web Site: www.yorkfarmersmarket.blogspot.com

Summer Reading and More

2009-06-12T14:18:00.003-05:00

If you have children, your first stop after their last day of school should be to the local public library. Nearly every library has some kind of Summer Reading Program: most states belong to the Collaborative Summer Reading Program. The art this year is fun and festive celebrating the theme "Be Creative!" There are libraries who have special programs for very young kids, teens and even adults. Summer Reading helps to keep children up at the same reading level all summer as to not lose what they've been learning all year. It also serves as a way to spend time together as a family, enjoying the special programs at the library. For many of our families whose belts are tightening as a result of the economy, the library is becoming absolutely essential from the access to books and music, computer and internet access, and special educational and fun programs. So head on over to your library...and make sure you thank your librarian for all they do. Libraries change lives!

Postage Stamp to celebrate 50 Years of The Snowy Day

2009-05-26T10:03:00.004-05:00

I just got this in my email

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2009

For further information: 718-965-1266

THE SNOWY DAY by Ezra Jack Keats
50th Anniversary in 2012

Help Create a U.S. Postage Stamp to Celebrate!The U.S. Postage Stamp Citizen's Advisory Committee, the group that decides what subjects are chosen for our country's commemorative postage stamps, is considering celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the publishing of THE SNOWY DAY by Ezra Jack Keats. This book is not just an American classic beloved by generations of children and parents around the world; it is also the book that broke the color barrier in mainstream American children's book publishing.It takes three years for the subject of a postage stamp to be considered, accepted and developed.

The fiftieth anniversary of THE SNOWY DAY is in 2012. Help us gather signatures to send to the Citizen's Advisory Committee to let them know how welcome this stamp would be to families and educators across the country. Help us show the world that Ezra's character Peter, playing in the snow, a character they recognize and treasure, is as valued here as it is abroad.To support the creation of THE SNOWY DAY 50th Anniversary Commemorative Stamp visit the website of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation (http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/) and add your name to the Support the Stamp list.

Tell your friends, your students, your teachers and your parents to add their names to our petition. Names will not be used for any other reason than for THE SNOWY DAY Stamp Petition, nor will they be shared or sold to any other entity. Help make 2012 a celebration of American children in all their diversity!The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation funds literacy and arts programming in public schools, public libraries, parks, museums and universities across the country to enhance the joy of learning and teaching for all generations of learners.

Ezra Jack Keats Foundation

450 14th Street Brooklyn, New York 11215

www.ezra-jack-keats.org

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1102570223947&s=2014&e=001r2DVyEirJPwubCZ9o6amDR17aayCpk6MN4wb9OgVZ2l0t41C0OO8cS-9Wp0hkK7kwxOQjJ_T9dG2KKBF-kTtCKwgcHcsRAnZDDg1nfECrAcqtt-eCi-QP1BX0k7325RF

I'd recommend: Jen Robinson's Book Page

2009-05-14T22:36:00.001-05:00

http://jkrbooks.typepad.com/

Great books, recommendations, children's lit, reviews etc.

here's a sample from the enewsletter. Subscribe...it's great.

Welcome to the Jen Robinson's Book Page Growing Bookworms Newsletter!

Here are recent book reviews and literacy and reading updates from Jen Robinson's Book Page. You can find all of my posts by clicking on the link above to visit my blog directly. I hope you find something in this content that will help you to inspire the children in your life to love books. Thanks for reading, and for growing bookworms! -- Jen

Growing Bookworms Newsletter: Children's Book Week Edition
Books Read in April
Heart of a Shepherd: Rosanne Parry
Dreamdark: Silksinger: Laini Taylor
Unwind: Neal Shusterman
Children's Literacy Round-Up: May 4
Children's Literacy Round-Up: May 11
New Booklights Post about Rick Riordan Signing
Friday Afternoon Visits: May 1
Thursday Afternoon Visits: May 7
Search Jen Robinson's Book Page

2010 Hans Christian Andersen Awards

2009-05-14T22:35:00.000-05:00

United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) announces USNominees for 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Awards

The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) – the USNational Section of The International Board on Books for Young People(IBBY) – is proud to announce that author Walter Dean Myers andillustrator Eric Carle are the United States nominees for the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Awards.The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are presented every two years by IBBYto an author and an illustrator, nominated by any IBBY National Section,whose complete works have made an important and lasting contribution tochildren's literature worldwide. The Hans Christian Andersen Awards areamong the most distinguished awards for children's books internationally,and are sometimes referred to as the "Nobel Prize" of children'sliterature.IBBY National Sections from 33 countries have made their nominations,submitting 29 authors and 27 illustrators as candidates for the 2010 HansChristian Andersen Awards. For the complete list of nominees, visit http://www.ibby.org/index.php?id=962. An international jury from eleven countries on four continents will selectthe final winners, which will be announced at a press conference at theBologna Children's Bookfair on Monday, March 22, 2010.

The US member ofthe current Hans Christian Andersen International Jury is Ernest Bond ofSalisbury University, Maryland.Dr. Amy McClure, Professor of Education at Ohio Wesleyan University inDelaware, Ohio , Chair of the committee that selected USBBY's nominees forthe award, said "Our committee chose Walter Dean Myers and Eric Carle as the US nominees for the 2010 Hans Christian Andersen Awards because eachis an American cultural and literary icon. Walter Dean Myers is a versatile writer whose work has been praised for its candid voice,memorable characters, and gritty realism. He has a unique understanding ofyoung people and the challenges they face negotiating contemporaryrealities. Eric Carle’s picture books are known and loved all over theworld. His brightly colored collage illustrations are deceptively simpleyet intellectually complex in their portrayal of universal themes thatresonate with young children. This honor is perfectly timed as 2009 is the40th anniversary of the publication of Mr. Carle’s timeless classic, TheVery Hungry Caterpillar”.

Past USBBY nominees who have won the Hans Christian Andersen Medal areMeindert DeJong (Author, 1962), Maurice Sendak (Illustrator, 1970), ScottO'Dell (Author, 1972), Paula Fox (Author, 1978), Virginia Hamilton(Author, 1992), and Katherine Paterson (Author, 1998).For more information, or to become a member of USBBY, visit www.usbby.org,or contact the 2009 President of USBBY, John Mason, atPresident@usbby.org.

In It to Limit

2009-04-20T07:12:00.000-05:00

In It to Limit

Cape of Good Hope

2009-04-20T07:11:00.000-05:00

Cape of Good Hope

If I was in a band....

2009-02-21T17:28:00.007-06:00

There's a fun thing on facebook that's going around. There are three steps to make your "debut" CD.
1-- Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
2 -- Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
3- - Go to flickr's "explore the last seven days" http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ (I've amended this thanks to friend's suggestion to find the third photo in the creative commons so as not to break copyright). Then I use picnik.com to add the info to the photo and voila!
I've had so much fun that I kept doing it over and over.
So here are some of my albums!

HELP SAVE LIBRARIES

2009-02-06T18:56:00.002-06:00

From ALA...
Please, we need everyone to make calls to ALL YOUR Senators IMMEDIATELY to protect $200 million for libraries and community colleges to deploy broadband services in the original language of the Senate stimulus bill, H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. We have just been advised that Senators Kent Conrad (ND-D) and Lindsey Graham (SC-R) are expected to introduce Senate Amendment 501 which would strip funding for libraries and broadband and put it into additional funding the FDIC. If introduced, the vote could take place this afternoon.

The message is: keep the $200 million for libraries and broadband in H.R. 1 - defeat amendment 501. Libraries provide information on jobs, employment skills, and all other types of job-seeking information. More people are using libraries during these difficult times and the demand for broadband is greater than ever.

If you are in South Carolina, check http://capwiz.com/ala/sc/home for your contacts. If you are in another state, contact www.congress.org for your elected officials' contacts.

New Web site sets up health family trees

2009-01-15T09:06:00.000-06:00

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090113/LIFE07/901130369/1079/rss04

WASHINGTON - It happens all the time: Filling out that clipboard at the doctor's office, you can't remember what cancer killed Aunt Sally or when Dad had his heart attack.

A good family health history is far more important than a gene test in predicting your future medical needs, but it's underused. On Tuesday, the government begins offering a free new service to try to change that - helping people compile one at home, e-mail it to relatives who can fill in the gaps, and even pop it straight into their doctors' computers.
(see link above for full article)

Set up yours at: https://familyhistory.hhs.gov/fhh-web/home.action

Happy Belated Birthday Pippi!

2009-01-07T08:30:00.003-06:00

I grew up with Pippi and I just loved her. What a spirit and imagination!

Often referred to as Sweden's best-known author, Astrid Lindgren gained international fame for her children's books, particularly those about Pippi Longstocking. Astrid Lindgren was born on November 14, 1907. When she died in 2002, Lindgren's burial ceremony was televised in Sweden, and her death was headline news internationally. Lindgren's first book was published in 1944, but it was her second book, Pippi Longstocking, that brought her international acclaim.

http://childrensbooks.about.com/b/2008/11/14/its-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-birth-of-astrid-lindgren.htm

Learn Your Alphabet!

2008-11-25T14:52:00.003-06:00

I LOVE these Alphabet cards. I found them at a small boutique store in Savannah, GA. They are by a company called eeboo and are found at various retailers. Lovely and fun illustrations, great for framing and they offer various other kinds as well as sizes. A perfect gift for someone learning their letters or to use with your children at home or school.

http://www.eeboo.com/startpage.php?cat=80

about eeBoo
eeBoo is about producing beautiful, useful and well-made products for children.
Using only the original art of well-known and well-loved children's book illustrators we create vibrantly original toys and gifts that hopefully children will affectionately remember.

Good Link

2008-11-25T14:50:00.001-06:00

Writing On The Walls Of The Nation's Library
by Andrea Seabrook
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96049292

A few Top 10's--library style

2008-11-13T16:25:00.001-06:00

These are great links to reread so I'm going to post them..

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/resources/selectedarticles/12wayslibraries.cfm

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/resources/selectedarticles/top10reasons.cfm

http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/resources/selectedarticles/10reasonswhy.cfm

Nine Truths That Can Set You on the Path to Financial Freedom

2008-11-10T16:24:00.000-06:00

Nine Truths That Can Set You on the Path to Financial Freedom
(from: http://beginnersinvest.about.com/cs/personalfinance1/a/blwealthy.htm)

#1: Change the Way You Think About Money
The general population has a love / hate relationship with wealth. They resent those who have it, but spend their entire lives attempting to get it for themselves. The reason a vast majority of people never accumulate a substantial nest egg is because they don't understand the nature of money or how it works.
Cash, like a person, is a living thing. When you wake up in the morning and go to work, you are selling a product - yourself (or more specifically, your labor). When you realize that every morning your assets wake up and have the same potential to work as you do, you unlock a powerful key in your life. Each dollar you save is like an employee. Over the course of time, the goal is to make your employees work hard, and eventually, they will make enough money to hire more workers (cash). When you have become truly successful, you no longer have to sell your own labor, but can live off of the labor of your assets.

#2: Develop an Understanding of the Power of Small Amounts
The biggest mistake most people make is that they think they have to start with an entire Napoleon-like army. They suffer from the "not enough" mentality; namely that if they aren't making $1,000 or $5,000 investments at a time, they will never become rich. What these people don't realize is that entire armies are built one soldier at a time; so too is their financial arsenal.
A friend of mine once knew a woman who worked as a dishwasher and made her purses out of used liquid detergent bottles. This woman invested and saved everything she had despite it never being more than a few dollars at a time. Now, her portfolio is worth millions upon millions of dollars, all of which was built upon small investments. I am not suggesting you become this frugal, but the lesson is still a valuable one. Do not despise the day of small beginnings!

#3: With Each Dollar You Save, You Are Buying Yourself Freedom
When you put it in these terms, you see how spending $20 here and $40 there can make a huge difference in the long run. Since money has the ability to work in your place, the more of it you employ, the faster and larger it will grow. Along with more money comes more freedom - the freedom to stay home with your kids, the freedom to retire and travel around the world, or the freedom to quit your job. If you have any source of income, it is possible for you to start building wealth today. It may only be $5 or $10 at a time, but each of those investments is a stone in the foundation of your financial freedom.

#4: You Are Responsible for Where You Are in Your Life
Years ago, a friend told me she didn't want to invest in stocks because she "didn't want to wait ten years to be rich..." she would rather enjoy her money now. The folly with this school of thinking is that the odds are, you are going to be alive in ten years. The question is whether or not you will be better off when you arrive there. Where you are right now is the sum total of the decisions you have made in the past. Why not set the stage for your life in the future right now?

#5: Instead of Buying the Product... Buy the Stock!
Someone once asked me why they weren't wealthy. They always felt like they were putting money aside, yet never seemed to get any further ahead. The answer is simple. I told them to stop buying the products companies sell and start buying the company itself! A survey of America's affluent (those who make over $225,000 a year or own $3,000,000 in assets) revealed that 27-30% of all the income the wealthy earned went into investments and savings. That isn't a result of being rich, that is why they are rich. When the pain of getting out of the bondage of financial slavery is greater than the pain of changing your spending habits, you will become rich. Either change, or be content to live as you are.

#6: Study and Admire Success and Those Who Have Achieved It... Then Emulate It
A very wise investor once said to pick the traits you admire and dislike the most about your heroes, then do everything in your power to develop the traits you like and reject the ones you don't. Mold yourself into who you want to become. You'll find that by investing in yourself first, money will begin to flow into your life. Success and wealth beget success and wealth. You have to purchase your way into that cycle, and you do so by building your army one soldier at a time and putting your money to work for you.

#7: Realize that More Money is Not the Answer
More money is not going to solve your problem. Money is a magnifying glass; it will accelerate and bring to light your true habits. If you are not capable of handling a job paying $18,000 a year, the worst possible thing that could happen to you is for you to earn six figures. It would destroy you. I have met too many people earning $100,000 a year who are living from paycheck to paycheck and don't understand why it is happening. The problem isn't the size of their checkbook, it is the way in which they were taught to use money.

#8: Unless Your Parents Were Wealthy, Don't Do What They Did
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If your parents were not living the life you want to live then don't do what they did! You must break away from the mentality of past generations if you want to have a different lifestyle than they had.
To achieve the financial freedom and success that your family may or may not have had, you have to do two things. First, make a firm commitment to get out of debt. To find out which debts should be paid off before you invest and those that are acceptable, read Pay Off Your Debt or Invest?. Second, make saving and investing the highest financial priority in your life; one technique is to pay yourself first.
Purchasing equity is vital to your financial success as an individual whether you are in need of cash income or desire long-term appreciation in stock value. Nowhere else can your money do as much for you as when you use it to invest in a business that has wonderful long-term prospects.

#9: Don't Worry
The miracle of life is that it doesn't matter so much where you are, it matters where you are going. Once you have made the choice to take control back of your life by building up your net worth, don't give a second thought to the "what ifs". Every moment that goes by, you are growing closer and closer to your ultimate goal - control and freedom.
Every dollar that passes through your hands is a seed to your financial future. Rest assured, if you are diligent and responsible, financial prosperity is an inevitability. The day will come when you make your last payment on your car, your house, or whatever else it is you owe. Until then, enjoy the process.

Congratulations President Obama!

2008-11-04T22:35:00.002-06:00

I am so proud of all those who came out to vote. Look at SC and what happened. One day this state can be blue! Never think your vote doesn't matter!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032553/

VOTE!

2008-11-04T10:31:00.002-06:00

The new READ poster...bloody good!

2008-10-27T09:54:00.001-05:00

I'm so on this!

Get ready for the December release of the new Twilight movie, based on Stephenie Meyer’s novel, with this ALA celebrity READ poster that shows the Twilight stars, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. The story is about a teen who risks everything when she falls in love with a vampire (“I know what you are. You’re impossibly fast. And strong. Your skin is pale white and ice cold”). NEW! From ALA Graphics.

http://www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog&_pn=product_detail&_op=2616

First Lines to draw you in……

2008-10-21T13:34:00.004-05:00

There was a great post on a Young Adult Library List Serv about the best first lines of a book to draw the reader in. I'm posting it here because the YALSA group has come up with some good ones. Hopefully they'll make you want to read more!

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
“12th Day of September [1290]. I am commanded to write an account of my days: I am bit by fleas and plagued by family. That is all there is to say.”

Feed by M.T. Anderson
“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.”

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
“My sister Cass ran away the morning of my sixteenth birthday. She left my present, wrapped and sitting outside my bedroom door, and stuck a note for my parents under the coffee-maker. None of us heard her leave.”

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
“They murdered him.”

When She Hollers by Cynthia Voigt
“She put the survival knife down on the table. It pointed across at him. She couldn’t breathe.”

Godless by Pete Hautman
“Getting punched in the face is a singular experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a little too cocky, obnoxious, or insensitive.”

Shattering Glass by Gail Giles
“Simon Glass was easy to hate. I never knew exactly why, there was too much to pick from. I guess, really, we each hated him for a different reason, but we didn’t realize it until the day we killed him.”

Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan
“Henry got up early on the day that changed his life.”

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

Inside Out by Terry Trueman
“All I want is a maple bar, but I don’t think these kids with the guns care about what I want.”

Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
“It was a wild, windy, southwestern spring when the idea of killing [him] occurred to them.”

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
“They say [he] was born in a dump. They say his stomach was a cereal box and his heart a sofa spring.”

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
“It was a dark and stormy night.”

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
“Once upon a time there was a pair of pants.”

Life in the Fat Lane by Cherie Bennett
"Which would you rather be, fat or dead?"

Spy Goddess: Live & Let Shop by Michael P. Spradlin
“The car I rode in the night I got arrested was really clean. Spotless, almost.”

Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters by Gail Giles
"Things had been getting a little better until I got a letter from my dead sister. That more or less ruined my day."

Rules for Life by Darlene Ryan
"I knew my father had had sex the minute I walked into the kitchen."

The Earth, My Butt, & Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Macklin
"Froggy Welsh the Fourth is trying to get up my shirt."

The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan
"The afternoon Marnie came to Torcurra, the villagers were whipping the devils out of a mad boy."

Cuba 15 by Nancy Osa
"What can be funny about having to stand up in front of everyone you know, in a ruffly dress the color of Pepto-Bismol, and proclaim your womanhood?"

It's Kind of Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
"It's so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself."

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
"It was a pleasure to burn."

Heroes by Robert Cormier
"My name is Francis Joseph Cassavant and I have just returned to Frenchtown in Monument and the war is over and I have no face."

Born to Rock by Gordan Korman
"The thing about a cavity search is this: it has nothing to do with the dentist."

Mercy on these Teenage Chimps by Gary Soto
"I, Ronaldo Gonzales, better known as Ronnie, was like any other boy until I turned thirteen and woke up as a chimpanzee."

Absolutely, Positively Not by David Larochelle
“Everybody has at least one ugly secret, and mine is as ugly as they come. I square dance. With my mother.”

The Standardized Test Debate (again!)

2008-10-15T09:59:00.003-05:00

Schools Cancel GMAT Scores
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122109733923122015.html?mod=

From the article:
"The business-school council recently announced that it would require those taking the GMAT to undergo a "palm vein" scan, which takes an infrared picture of the blood coursing through their hands. Officials said it was designed to wipe out "proxy" test taking, in which applicants hire high-scoring imposters to take the exam for them. Previously, the administrator had used digital fingerprinting. Five years ago, federal authorities broke up a ring of six fraudsters who took more than 590 exams, including GMATs, for customers who paid at least $3,000."

I thought this was from The Onion. I half expected it to say, "students need to show their ID, give a vial of blood, and prepared to sit under infrared lights so that experts in another room can actually determine if the student is taking the test or if the student is a fake." Or maybe, "scientists in Germany have now determined they can create an official standarized test taking faux who can morph into your look a la something from "Alias" and take the test for you, all without detection. But U.S. officials deny the claim stating they are working on something similar, made from corn which is more ecologically safe." The craziness!

Ok people, how about we just get rid of these ridiculous tests which do not actually determine anything relevant to how a student will perform in graduate school, or college for that matter. Research has shown them to be not fair across gender and ethnic backgrounds. Plus what about for those who can't afford the help of someone like Michelle Hernandez ("For $40K, Consultant Gets Kids Ivy-League Ready" at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95034319). The stress on young people is mounting as family members continue to impress upon them how important it is to get into the right school so they can get the right job. This doesn't even begin to address the inequalities of those who can't afford the "right" school or any school for that matter. Besides, whose to say what's "right" anyway. Whatever happened to the higher power of learning, just for the sake of knowledge?

Oh the Irony

2008-10-10T10:45:00.002-05:00

I was doing some research on somethign the other day and stumbled acorss this: The Best Places to Launch a Career from Business Week magazine. It looked like it was published around mid-September, but even then, it probably had been in the works for a while. The reason? At least seven were banks or financial services, five are insurance (AIG not being one of them), and several others came out with their quarterly reports indicating poor performance. So...I find it a bit ironic that the best place to launch your career is Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch or Wachovia.

Want to see the slide show, visit this link.
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/09/0904_first_jobs/index.htm

This is the link for the full report.
http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/career_launch_2008/index.asp

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

2008-10-06T15:37:00.003-05:00

I always encourage you to read the book first, even though the movie has just come out...(to rave reviews I hear)!

(FYI--Leviathan's Boy Meets Boy was pretty good too)

Synopsis
It all starts when Nick asks Norah to be his girlfriend for five minutes. He only needs five minutes to avoid his ex-girlfriend, who’s just walked in to his band’s show. With a new guy. And then, with one kiss, Nick and Norah are off on an adventure set against the backdrop of New York City—and smack in the middle of all the joy, anxiety, confusion, and excitement of a first date.This he said/she said romance told by YA stars Rachel Cohn and David Levithan is a sexy, funny roller coaster of a story about one date over one very long night, with two teenagers, both recovering from broken hearts, who are just trying to figure out who they want to be—and where the next great band is playing.Told in alternating chapters, teeming with music references, humor, angst, and endearing side characters, this is a love story you’ll wish were your very own. Working together for the first time, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have combined forces to create a book that is sure to grab readers of all ages and never let them go.

Publishers Weekly
This compulsively readable novel takes place in less than 24 hours. At a New York club one night, Nick convinces a stranger to pose as his girlfriend in order to fool Tris, the girl who broke his heart. He does not guess (though readers may) that kissing Norah will lead to a long, complicated evening, and a new chance for love. Levithan (Boy Meets Boy) and Cohn (Gingerbread) reveal the clever construction of the book in an authors' note: they sent chapters back and forth, he writing as Nick, she as Norah. The novel has that pumped-up feeling of a story passed among friends who each add a section, spontaneously incorporating unforeseen elements. Levithan again creates outrageous characters and witty wordplay (a "Playboygirl Bunny" bouncer asks Nick, "How long have the two of you been the two of you?"), and Cohn brings to life another rich punk rock girl. The two see a secret show on the Lower East Side, pig out in a Russian diner, and get caught making out in an ice room at the Times Square Marriott, all the time wondering if they can let go of their past loves and risk another heartbreak. Much of the novel's energy comes from the rapid-fire repartee between the two leads, plus perhaps the most vivid character, Tris-Nick's Id-driven ex and a classmate of Norah's, who ends up giving Nick advice and Norah kissing lessons. Readers will likely enjoy the ride, even if it is obvious where these two are headed.

Public libraries are good for the community

2008-10-02T14:47:00.005-05:00

This is an editorial that ran in an Oregon newspaper and can be found online at http://archive.mailtribune.com/archive/2007/0123/local/stories
/guest_library_column.htm.
If you aren't writing similar editorials, letters to your elected officials or voicing comments in support of local public libraries, you should be. Here's why...

Public libraries are good for the community
By Margaret Jakubcin

There are 10 reasons you need your public library (even if you've never set foot inside one).
If you are a reader and a book lover, you probably already use the library, love the library and cannot imagine life without a library. But even if you are not a library user, even if the extraordinary access libraries provide to books, movies, music, cultural programming, information, databases, and the world wide Web has never tempted you through the library door, you still need the library.

Here are 10 reasons why:

1. Public libraries are good for the economy. Studies have shown that public libraries have an economic impact that greatly exceeds their cost, returning somewhere between $4 to $6 to the local economy for every $1 invested. A healthy library system is indicative of a healthy community. A community without a library is unattractive to businesses and individuals looking to locate to a new area.

2. Libraries are a cornerstone of democracy. Free speech, intellectual freedom, and open access to information are essential to a free nation. Public libraries protect the right of every citizen, regardless of race, age, gender, or economic status, to have access to any information that is vital to his/her life. Without libraries, a significant number of Americans would not have access to books or the Internet.

3. Libraries play an important role in helping young children develop reading skills. Early childhood literacy and exposure to a book-rich environment are significant predictors of a child's success in school and in life. The Internet has yet to come anywhere near filling this need.

4. Public libraries provide support to schools and students. School libraries are currently endangered in Oregon, where there are now only 433 school librarians to serve 1,290 schools. As school budgets have continued to dwindle, public libraries have increasingly stepped in to fill the gap, recognizing that today's students are tomorrow's workers, leaders, and decision makers.

5. Libraries are forward- thinking, and play an important role at the cutting edge of information technology. Libraries provide Internet access to many who cannot afford it, or who live in areas where access is unavailable or slow. Librarians are trained to help Internet users winnow out irrelevant information, find specialized Internet resources, and determine the reliability, authority and safety of the information retrieved. In addition, American librarians are lobbying to maintain "net neutrality" to ensure that Internet resources remain available to everyone — not just to those who can afford to pay for them.

6. Libraries are repositories of the accumulated understanding of mankind. We live in a time when the information-of-the-moment is constantly at our fingertips, but it is important to remember that information is not knowledge. Libraries house, protect, and share materials which support a thoughtful and in-depth understanding of the world.

7. Public libraries are a bargain. The average annual cost to fund an Oregon library is only abut $42 per capita. That is less than the average cost of two hardcover books, a couple month's subscription to Netflix, or a year's subscription to only one or two magazines. It is, of course, a fraction of what it costs to obtain home access to the Internet.

8. Libraries provide a neutral community gathering place for the free exchange of ideas, culture, and entertainment. Libraries promote a sense of belonging and interpersonal connection in a society that is increasingly "virtual."

9. A vital and attractive library helps define a community, encourages civic pride, and invests residents with a sense of ownership.

10. Libraries are the heart and soul of a community and reflect the value residents place on literacy, education, culture, and freedom.

For more information on the value of public libraries, answers to frequently asked questions about the libraries, and information regarding the current Jackson County Library funding crisis, visit www.jcls.org/infoblog.

Margaret Jakubcin is west region manager for Jackson County Library Services

It's Wicked...Vote For Your Local Library!!

2008-10-01T14:04:00.002-05:00

Great American theater started in a library.

Gregory Maguire is a born storyteller. He hails from a family of journalists, poets and professional writers. So it’s no surprise his parents sent him to a magical place where stories come to life every day: the local library.

There, he found the inspiration for his life’s work: writing fantasy, fairy tales and science fiction.
His 1995 bestseller, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West forms the basis of the award-winning Broadway musical, Wicked. His career started in the library.

Public libraries continue to help people of all ages discover their calling. The investment you make in your local library helps them develop their talents and realize their dreams. It also brings in additional tax dollars, raises property values and creates new jobs. In fact, studies have shown that: for every $1 spent on the library, a community sees an average of $4 in return.

Who knows what Wicked success story is at your library, right now?
(http://www.oclc.org/advocacy/pdfs/maguirewicked.pdf)

MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD...VOTE FOR LIBRARIES!

On the Political Trail

2008-09-10T21:57:00.003-05:00

Although I'm pretty happy about the Obama/Biden ticket, is there anyone wittier than Jon Stewart (Stewart/Colbert 2008!).

Check this out:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/33504/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-fri-sep-5-2008?c=385:492

You really have to see this Daily Show clip from last week, after John McCain's acceptance speech. Jon Stewart absolutely destroys McCain's attempt to claim that he'd bring change, and lines him up with Bush better than anyone else has done so far. Hilarious. Watch it, and then pass it along to all your friends. Thanks to Moveon.org!

Good Bye Dallas...

2008-09-02T23:12:00.000-05:00

From the Peep on the Street

2008-08-20T13:22:00.003-05:00

(I was searching online for something and read this. Thought it was hilarious. Two thumbs up to Andy wherever you are...)

THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR... but first I needed to get some Flip Flops and clean underwear. Mom always says "Don't get caught in the Apocalypse with dirty underwear." So I hit my neighborhood Target.

You know Target has really come along way since I was a kid. I remember when it was un-cool to go to Target, we called it" La Tarshea`" (misspelled) so that it would sound fancy and okay that we shopped there because it was funny. But now you can hold your head high as you walk past the guy begging for money and say "Not today lad, ever since George Bush has been in office I can barely afford my Flip Flops and clean underwear."As I made my way past the concession stand that sells Icee's, Super Pretzels and what has to be some of the best Pop-Corn ever made.

I noticed the Easter section, now I don't have kids and I'm Catholic so I'm not religious, but I do know a little about what Easter is all about. As I stood there looking at all the candy, stuffed animals and other crap. I wondered when did NASCAR have anything to do with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, I actually picked up this huge can full of all kinds of goodies and toys. On the side of this tin-can was a picture from number 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. giving a big thumbs up, didn't his father get killed racing. I never hear about him rising from the dead three days later. I can understand hiding the eggs, getting all dressed up and eating a great meal; it makes up for sitting in church for two hours and having your Catholic guilt rejuvenated.... I'm kidding... I don't go to church. I'm kidding, no I'm not.... Yes I am. But really, Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we would buy commercialized junk with "High School Musical" on it.

So I picked up the Bible and found that I was wrong and from the Book of Hershey's I found this passage:

And Jesus looked down from the cross and saw his mother the Virgin Mary holding a brightly colored basket, "Mother come forth and give me a Peep? Mary reached into the basket and pushed aside the plastic green grass and pulled out a chocolate rabbit, "Forgive me son for I have eaten the last Peep, it's been a bad day and you know I'm a nervous eater, but I give upon you my last chocolate covered peanut butter bunny. Jesus then twitched his nose and said "Look again mother, look into the basket and tell me what you have found." In the "Bratz" themed basket, Mary found not one Peep, but many Peeps. "TA-DA!" Jesus went on to say. "On this day I say unto you, do not eat all the Peeps in one sitting for they will surly make your stomach hurt." "Okay." Mary said; but Jesus could not understand her for her mouth was full of the yellow sugar covered marshmallow treat. Amen!

Now you know why Catholics' use Peeps in the Communion ceremony.

I guess it just rubbed me the wrong way; I won't go as far as to boycott Target because it's still pretty close to the house and they do have some pretty good sales on Flip Flops and clean underwear.

Happy Easter.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/target-store-dallas (Thanks Andy v.funny)

Larger Than Life

2008-08-12T17:34:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure many of you have the June 2007 issue of Art & Antiques magazine sitting around but I was fortunate enough to have had several magazines donated to the project I'm working on and there it was...

on the cover...
a GIANT
ORANGE
BADMINTON
SHUTTLECOCK!

Art or craziness?

Have you ever seen the giant button in Philadelphia on Penn's campus? The same two artists. Meet artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Brugon and they are the team behind badminton and the button. By the way, you can see the shuttlecock at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri or online at http://oldenburgvanbruggen.com/shuttlecocks.htm.

Check out the Bat Column (pictured) in Chicago.

They have some other amazing pieces as well. Be sure to visit their site at http://www.oldenburgvanbruggen.com/lsp.htm. The pieces are larger than life!

Desiderata

2008-08-12T08:11:00.002-05:00

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

(by Max Ehrmann)

Voluntourism Trips

2008-08-06T11:46:00.001-05:00

From Daily Candy, very cool.

You got a heart of gold — and a second helping of wanderlust. Do good with your good time when you take a vacation that lets you raise money, raise awareness, and even raise walls. Don’t worry: You’ll still have fun.

Hands Up Holidays takes you to Peru to teach English or Spanish (eres genial!) and repair buildings, and to Kenya for bird monitoring and tree planting. DailyCandy’s favorite trip is the Yucatan Explorer: You assist the elderly, but the biking, snorkeling, and kayaking sound more like fun than work. We love the site because it lets you search for trips by comfort level — meaning your benevolent bones won’t have to make do with a tent.

Forgo the jungle for the sea on an Earthwatch expedition. Voluntourists do scientific field research or conservation work in one of 40 countries. Help preserve dolphins while living in a teensy Greek village; travel to the Bering Sea to study declining seal, sea lion, and otter populations; or band too-cute penguins in South Africa.

Trek Amfar’s physically challenging fund-raisers generate money for the group’s research programs and global initiatives. In order to go you must raise at least $10,000. (Dad? Can you do me a favor?) Past excursions have gone to China, Vietnam, and Namibia. This year, it’s a twelve-day hike over Northern Thailand’s Old Elephant Trail through breathtaking countryside.

Who says giving back can’t be glam? The Ritz-Carlton Give Back Getaways let you be do-gooder by day, pampered guest by night. Guard turtles in Cancun, build homes in Jakarta, help save the wetlands in Marina del Rey. Afterward? A well-deserved sleep at the Ritz (if you wish).
And a satisfaction that money can’t buy.

For more voluntour opportunities all over the world, go to voluntourism.org.

A Bit of Wisdom

2008-08-03T22:19:00.002-05:00

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best.
Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
Give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
Live in the faith that the whole world is on your side as long as you are true to the best that it is in you!
--Christian D. Larson

Countdown!

2008-07-23T19:31:00.001-05:00

August 2, 2008

Something More

2008-07-19T00:21:00.003-05:00

Monday, hard to wake up
Fill my coffee cup, I'm out the door
The freeway's standing still today
It's gonna make me late, and that's for sure
I'm running out of gas and out of time
Never gonna make it there by nine

There's gotta be something more
Gotta be more than this
I need a little less hard time
I need a little more bliss
I'm gonna take my chances
Taking a chance I might
Find what I'm looking for
There's gotta be something more

Five years and there's no doubt
That I'm burnt out, I've had enough
So now boss man, here's my two weeks
I'll make it short and sweet, so listen up
I could work my life away, but why?
I got things to do before die

There's gotta be something more
Gotta be more than this
I need a little less hard time
I need a little more bliss
I'm gonna take my chances
Taking a chance I might
Find what I'm looking for
There's gotta be something more

Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate
I believe that happiness is something we create
You best believe that I'm not gonna wait
'Cause there's gotta be something more

I get home 7:30 the house is dirty, but it can wait
Cause right now I need some downtime
To drink some red wine and celebrate
Armageddon could be knocking at my door
But I ain't gonna answer that's for sure.

There's gotta be something more
Gotta be more than this
I need a little less hard time
I need a little more bliss
I'm gonna take my chances
Taking a chance I might
Find what I'm looking for
There's gotta be something more

There's gotta be something...Gotta be something more

Lyrics by Sugarland

ALASKA!

2008-07-07T22:00:00.002-05:00

Spells & Magic...words

2008-06-18T02:20:00.002-05:00

Highly Recommended...

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

Two gifted sisters draw on their talents to belatedly forge a bond and find their ways in life in Allen's easygoing debut novel. Thirty-four-year-old Claire Waverley manifests her talent in cooking; using edible flowers, Claire creates dishes that affect the eater in curious ways. But not all Waverley women embrace their gifts; some, including Claire's mother, escape the family's eccentric reputation by running away. She abandoned Claire and her sister when they were young. Consequently, Claire has remained close to home, unwilling to open up to new people or experiences. Claire's younger sister, Sydney, however, followed in their mother's footsteps 10 years ago and left for New York, and after a string of abusive, roustabout boyfriends, returns to Bascom, N.C., with her five-year-old daughter, Bay. As Sydney reacquaints herself with old friends and rivals, she discovers her own Waverley magic. Claire, in turn, begins to open up to her sister and in the process learns how to welcome other possibilities.

From Booklist

Take a pinch of marigold to stimulate affection, add a dash of snapdragon to repel evil influences, finish with a generous helping of rose petals to encourage love, then stand back and let nature take its course. It may be the recipe for Claire Waverley's successful catering business, but when it comes to working its magic on her own love life, she seems to be immune to the charms found only in the plants that have always grown behind the Waverley mansion. Like generations of Waverley women before her, Claire has accepted her family's mysterious gifts, while her estranged sister, Sydney, could not run away from them fast enough. Knowing it's just a matter of time before her abusive boyfriend finally kills her, however, Sydney escapes with her young daughter back home to the only place she knows she'll be safe. Spellbindingly charming, Allen's impressively accomplished debut novel will bewitch fans of Alice Hoffman and Laura Esquivel, as her entrancing brand of magic realism nimbly blends the evanescent desires of hopeless romantics with the inherent wariness of those who have been hurt once too often.

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Practical Magic starts out as a tale of Gillian and Sally Owens, two orphaned girls whose aunts are witches--of a mild sort. For the past two centuries, Owens women have been blamed for all that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town, ever since their ancestor arrived, rich, independent, and soon accused of theft: "And then one day, a farmer winged a crow in his cornfield, a creature who'd been stealing from him shamelessly for months. When Maria Owens appeared the very next morning with her arm in a sling and her white hand wound up in a white bandage, people felt certain they knew the reason why." The aunts are daily ostracized by the same upstanding citizens who sneak to their house at night for magical love cures. To the sisters they are for the most part benevolently absent, though their bell, book, and candle routine makes life a torment for Gillian, beautiful and blonde and lazy, and Sally, who's all too responsible. But when one of the aunts' cures works too well, ending as a curse, the dangers of real love become all too clear. In Hoffman's world being bewitched, bothered, and bewildered is no mere metaphor--and neither is desire. The elbows of one enamored man pucker a linoleum counter, another walks around with singed cuffs. It's difficult to catch the author's power in brief quotes. She needs space and increment to build her exquisite variations of vision and reality, her matter-of-fact announcements of the preternatural. Practical Magic again and again makes one recall the thrill of hearing at bedtime, "Now will I a tale unfold..." (Kerry Fried)

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers WeeklyHer 11th novel is Hoffman's best since Illumination Night. Again a scrim of magic lies gently over her fictional world, in which lilacs bloom riotously in July, a lovesick boy's elbows sizzle on a diner countertop and a toad expectorates a silver ring. The real and the magical worlds are almost seamlessly mixed here, the humor is sharper than in previous books, the characters' eccentricities grow credibly out of their past experiences and the poignant lessons they learn reverberate against the reader's heartstrings, stroked by Hoffman's lyrical prose. The Owens women have been witches for several generations. Orphaned Sally and Gillian Owens, raised by their spinster aunts in a spooky old house, grow up observing desperate women buying love potions in the kitchen and vow never to commit their hearts to passion. Fate, of course, intervenes. Steady, conscientious Sally marries, has two daughters and is widowed early. Impulsive, seductive Gillian goes through three divorces before she arrives at Sally's house with a dead body in her car. Meanwhile, Sally's daughters, replicas of their mother and their aunt, experience their own sexual awakenings. The inevitability of love and the torment and bliss of men and women gripped by desire is Hoffman's theme here...The dialogue is always on target, particularly the squabbling between siblings, and, as usual, weather plays a portentous role. Readers will relish this magical tale. (PW)

How READ Posters Get Made

2008-06-11T17:18:00.002-05:00

From: http://www.ilovelibraries.org/news/topstories/readposters.cfm

In addition to the hundreds of celebrity suggestions from librarians, teachers, readers and fans, ALA Graphics staff seeks out celebrities from a wide range of occupations: movie and TV stars, comedians, athletes, musicians, innovators, heroic figures and the like. We try to find highly recognizable–and therefore popular–celebrities. We also consider a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds to reach the diverse populations libraries serve.

We track all suggestions to monitor their popularity among library staff, students, and patrons, and if demand for a celebrity emerges, we add the name to the list. We discuss possible celebrities with an informal group of librarians. With all of this information at hand, we select iconic celebrities who we feel will best encourage reading, literacy, and life-long learning among children, teens, and adults alike.

The second part of the process can be considerably more difficult–contacting representatives for each celebrity and getting them to sign on. It may surprise you to know that not all the personalities we contact want to participate, as many are contacted so frequently for celebrity appearances. We often receive suggestions for celebrities that we have contacted on numerous occasions, but can’t persuade to participate.

A celebrity who signs on for the READ campaign can choose to hold any book of his or her choice. Some choose a recent read, others a childhood favorite, or something that has inspired them in their life. The professional photoshoots most often happen in Los Angeles or New York, where the celebrities and their photographers tend to be. None of our celebrity subjects are compensated for lending their image to the campaign.

To suggest your favorite celebrity, send an e-mail to graphicsmarketing@ala.org with “READ Poster Suggestion” in the subject line. We’re also getting a LISTEN campaign underway. Who would you like to see featured on a LISTEN poster?

And, did you know that you can make your own READ posters using the ALA’s READ CDs? Ask your librarian or teacher to invest in this fun idea! It's available at the ALA Store.
Here is a list of every celebrity who has posed for a READ (or LISTEN) poster so far:

1985 Bette Midler;Bill Cosby;Mikhail Baryshnikov;Sting

1986 George Burns;Goldie Hawn

1987 David Bowie;Diahann Carrol;Paul Newman

1988 Michael J. Fox;Oprah;Phil Collins;Ruben Blades

1989 Isiah Thomas;Steve Martin;William Hurt

1990 Bo Jackson;Glenn Close;Kirk Cameron

1991 Denzel Washington;Harrison Ford;REM

1992 Alec Baldwin;Jimmy Smits;Michael Chang;Michael Keaton;Whoopi Goldberg

1993 Graham Greene;Jackie Joyner-Kersee;Kristi Yamaguchi;Roseanne Arnold;Sean Connery

1994 Edward James Olmos;Elvis;Marlee Matlin;Michael Bolton;Spike Lee

1995 Branford Marsalis;Geena Davis;Little Women;Matt Dillon;Shaquille O'Neil
1996 Antonio Banderas;Barbara Walters;Courtney Cox;Danny Glover;Dr. Quinn Cast;Lawrence Bros.;Mel Gibson;Michelle Pfeiffer;Morgan Freeman;Tim Allen

1997 Bill Gates;Bill Nye;Brandy (Norwood);Cindy Crawford;Fabio;Hercules;Jay Leno;LL Cool J;Nicolas Cage;Oprah;Power Rangers;Rob Schneider;Rosie O'Donnell;Xena (Lucy Lawless)

1998 Emeril Lagasse;Grant Hill;Kim Basinger;Muammad Ali;Olsen Twins

1999Ani DiFrancoMelissa EtheridgeMichelle KwanMonicaRebecca Lobo

2000 Christina RicciEnrique IglesiasRegis PhilbinStephen HawkingTara Dakides

2001 Britney Spears;Chamique Holdsclaw;Coolio;Dr. Ruth;Elijah Wood/Lord of the Rings;Ian McKellen/Lord of the Rings;Kristine Lilly;Liv Tyler/Lord of the Rings;Marion Jones;Mike Mussina;Susan Sarandon;Tim Robbins;Weird Al;Yo-Yo Ma

2002 Firefighte;rIndigo Girls;LeVar Burton;Salma Hayek;Serena Williams;Tony Hawk

2003 Bernie Mac;Jason Kidd;Julia Stiles;Landon Donovan;Matt Kenseth;Missy Elliott

2004 Jeff Corwin;Orlando Bloom;Renée Fleming;Rick Bayless;Trace Adkins

2005 Aishwarya Rai;Anthony Hopkins;Colin Farrell;Ethan Hawke;George Lopez;Ice Cube;Jamie Kennedy;Johnny Damon;Keira Knightly;Margaret Cho;Mat Hoffman

2006 Alan Rickman;Ben Roethlisberger;Cedric the Entertainer;Dakota Fanning;Danica PatrickJohn Leguizamo;Kelly Ripa;New York Rangers;Sasha Cohen

2007 Cesar Millan;Corbin Bleu;Ewan McGregor;Hilary Swank;Los Lonely Boys;Sendhil Ramamurthy;William H. Macy

2008 Abigail Breslin;Common;Eva Mendes;Kareem Abdul-Jabbar;Rachael Ray;Steve Carell/Get Smart;The Wayans;Tim Gunn

The 10 Brainiest Places to Retire

2008-06-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/105195/The-10-Brainiest-Places-to-Retire
What makes the difference? A city with a large local university might offer a colorful slate of arts or educational events nearly every evening. Some suburbs have found a way to create unique learning opportunities for residents, who still have an easy route into the neighboring metropolis.

The brainiest places to retire:
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Berkeley, Calif.
Boulder, Colo.
Brookline, Mass.
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Hoboken, N.J.
Lake Oswego, Ore.
Reston, Va.
Upper St. Clair, Pa.
West Lafayette, Ind.

Congratulations Detroit Red Wings!

2008-06-04T22:38:00.004-05:00

Welcome to Hockeytown!!

Sleeper Films

2008-05-13T21:44:00.001-05:00

Looking for something to watch. Here's a few sleeper films you might want to check out...

200 Cigarettes
A Map of the World
Akeelah and the Bee
Beautiful Girls
Bee Season
Bend it Like Beckham
Big Night
Casa de los Babys
Chariots of Fire
Clueless
Cookie’s Fortune
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Dead Again
Everyone Says I Love You
Garden State
High Fidelity
Hi-Life
How to make an American quilt
I Love You, I Love you not
In America
Junebug
Kissing Jessica Stein
Life as a House
Little Manhattan
Little Voice
Lovely & Amazing
Mean Girls
Millions
Monsoon Wedding
Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
Murphy’s Romance
Music from another Room
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Napoleon Dynamite
October Sky
Party Girl
Pieces of April
Polish Wedding
Saved!
Saving Grace
Shine
Shopgirl
Short Cuts
Sideways
Simon Birch
Singles
Sleep with Me
The Anniversary Party
The Good Girl
The Good Mother
The Ice Storm
The Matchmaker
The Namesake
The Secret of Roan Inish
The Waterdance
The Witches
To Gillian on her 37th Birthday
Waking Ned Devine

What if Firefighters Ran the World?

2008-04-21T22:05:00.003-05:00

I just have to say that this is my new favorite commerical: "What if Firefighters Ran the World?" I'm not sure if it is so funny because it's so real?
Having worked in government and also as a voter, I think this is the best.
Take a few minutes and watch this. Maybe if more people do, our meetings will be shorter!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO6DORwBzuA

Keaton Simons

2008-04-04T23:20:00.002-05:00

This is a great new artist: http://www.keatonsimons.com

When considering the roll call of rock’s most influential icons, those rare artists that pose a triple threat are the ones that consistently stand out, musicians that seize the spotlight through their singing, songwriting and instrumental prowess. That hallowed breed of musician has become increasingly less common in popular music, so it’s especially worth noting that Keaton Simons also qualifies as a triple threat, given that his multifaceted talents have garnered him a presence on radio, television, film and the concert circuit. It’s an especially auspicious distinction for an artist who is only now on the cusp of releasing his debut album, the prophetically titled tour de force, Can You Hear Me, on CBS Records.The many career accomplishments he’s racked up in such a relatively short time attest to both his aptitude and his attitude.

In fact, music seemed to be in his genes. He was singing from the time he started talking… even before his first birthday! By the time he was two, he was entertaining his classmates in daycare. At age twelve he was already adept on guitar, and by fourteen he had decided to make music his career. That obsession carried over to college, earning him a degree in Ethnomusicology – the study of World Music – at The Evergreen State College in Washington State. Absorbing a varied array of classic influences – Hendrix, Dylan, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Robert Johnson among them – he immersed himself in all forms of music, from Rock to Jazz, Blues to Bluegrass and melded them into a mix that’s timely and timeless. Keaton played in various bands before college but his studies at Evergreen taught him about theory and technique.

“I was always afraid that if I learned a real regimen, I would lose my soul and spontaneity,” he recalls. “But when I actually started to study music and composition I began to realize that learning the discipline would actually enhance my ability.”Meanwhile, Keaton was also learning some real life lessons. A family friend, bassist Gordon Edwards of the famous funk band Stuff, invited him to come to New York and sit in on some sessions. Eventually, Keaton met Tre “Slimkid” Hardson of the alternative L.A. rap group The Pharcyde. He signed on as their musical director, while contributing guitar, songwriting and arranging to Hardson’s subsequent solo album. From there he expanded his musical apprenticeship and began working with other notable hip-hop acts, including the Black Eyed Peas, Medusa and Snoop Dogg, with whom he performed on The Tonight Show. Despite extensive roadwork and a growing professional pedigree, Keaton started getting restless and chose to focus on ways to move his own career forward.

Indeed, Can You Hear Me lives up to all expectations. Produced by Dave Bianco, the album mines the classic singer/songwriter traditions spawned by greats like Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, John Hiatt and other artists known for their soulful sway. Keaton’s tasteful fretwork, masterful songwriting and searing vocals bring an honesty and integrity that’s instantly embracing, a warm emotional center core that reaches from the tangled vulnerability of opening track “Without Your Skin” and the lean, sensual drift of “To Me” to the spry suggestion of the title track and the playful intrigue of “Misfits.” “Nobody Knows” proves instantly infectious, its sinewy rhythms wrapping around an irresistible refrain, while “Masterpiece” lives up to its title through a suggestive sway certain to put its listeners in a romantic mood. “I wanted to get back to honest, straight-forward expression; a purity and dynamic that relied on the strength of the songs and not the added embellishment of the arrangements,” Keaton insists. “I think this album represents who I am as an artist and captures the sound of my live performances authentically.” As he views his prospects going forward, Keaton maintains his main ambition is to continue to focus on his live performances, and draw more and more fans to his shows. “I’ve been doing this awhile, but I believe there’s so much left for me to accomplish,” he reflects.
(info from his website)

All About the T's

2008-03-28T23:51:00.004-05:00

I love t-shirts, and I love music.
A couple years back, I was going through boxes at my parents house and found a box of t-shirts, mostly from concerts. I wiped a nostalgic tear from my eye as I saw my personal music history in cotton...Eric Clapton--I think it was the second time a blues tour in LA, Depeche Mode in Philadephia, Madonna with Lone Justice, The Eagles with Melissa Etheridge at Tiger Stadium (and Bob Seger made a surprise guest appearance), & REM at the Palace when my sister and I got to meet the band! My other sister took my David Bowie shirt from my '87 Europe trip and made it into a costume for Halloween. There were plenty of "new wave" shirts: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Erasure, Duran Duran, and INXS. Plenty of others: Sting, Jimmy Buffett, Phish, Rolling Stones, The Smithereens, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison, Barenaked Ladies, Elton John, Yes, Chicago, the Grateful Dead's last show at Soldier Field, Dave Matthews Band too many times to count, and even, yes believe it, Barry Manilow. So when Daily Candy's email came today, I thought this was great news. Here's what DC said...

"Check out Rotter and Friends at rotterandfriends.com.
Rotter, a New York-based artist and music obsessive, started the company to showcase musicians underrepresented in the T-shirt world. The current collection features her trippy, hand-drawn tributes to Linda Ronstadt, Roky Erickson, Willie Nelson, and (honorary Shakespearean rock star) Falstaff — the latter done by guest artist Ron Paolillo, a.k.a. Welcome Back, Kotter’s Horshack.

For fall, Rotter will pay homage to Link Wray, Judee Sill, and Bob Seger. If the shirts whet your appetite for the musically obscure, check out the Fun section of the site, where buddy Zach Cowie (Turquoise Wisdom, Small Town Talk) handpicks mixes for your listening pleasure.
All of which should have your spirits — and your wardrobe — rising from the ashes."

I'd also like to plug Threadless at http://www.threadless.com/product/917/I_Listen_To_Bands. Yes, I was that person...in my late teens into the new wave scene. My old boss used to call them "wear black, act bored." Ask my siblings about the dancing guy at the wedding in "So I Married An Axe Murderer." Although my music taste really spanned all genres, when it came to going dancing, I wanted the new wave songs. I thought my music made me too cool for school. So when I saw this t-shirt, it seemed to say it all.

Concert ticket for your favorite band: $75
Concert t-shirt you'll never wear: $25
Memories of all those concerts: Priceless

6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon

2008-03-25T21:35:00.003-05:00

I can't remember when I first heard of "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon."
I know we talked about it around the time I was in college/post college.
I heard that it was created as a drinking game at Cornell during a snowstorm--which is close but it was actually Albright College in PA--and yes, created as a drinking game by 3 college friends during a snowstorm.

In a Premiere interview for the film "The River Wild," Kevin Bacon commented that he's worked with everybody in Hollywood or someone who's worked with them. About the same time, there was a newsgroup thread entitled "Kevin Bacon is the Center of the Universe" followed by "the game." The game "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" was created by three students at Albright College, who were snowed in and watching "Footloose" followed by "Quicksilver" when they began to discuss how many movies Bacon had been in and how many people they could connect to him. They wrote Jon Stewart with their theory of "Kevin Bacon was the center of the entertainment universe" and explaining the game, and the world took it from there!

While Bacon didn't like it at first, he embraced it and eventually wrote the introduction to the book, approved of the game and even played it up on a VISA commerical and on TV's "Will and Grace." In 2007, Bacon started a charitable organization named SixDegrees.org.

For some flashback fun, check out the Oracle of Bacon: http://oracleofbacon.org/how.html
Every couple of weeks the Oracle downloads several database files from one of the Internet Movie Database's FTP sites containing around 1,250,000 actors and actresses, around 850,000 movies and TV shows, and around 150,000 nicknames.

The Oracle builds a big map of actors and movies and stores it in a 115 MB database.
The server handles three different types of requests:
Find the link from Actor A to Actor B.
How good a "center" is a given actor?
Who are all the people with an Actor A number of N?

There are several CGI programs -- one for each of the above types of queries -- that run on the UVA Computer Science department web server, which all connect to the database server using TCP.
The database server uses a breadth-first search to find the shortest path between pairs of actors.

SO...if you want to connect Jackie Chan to Kevin Bacon, which was one of the more difficult ones way back when (and I remember having to use "The Cannonball Run") but now it seems pretty easy...
The Oracle says: kevin bacon has a Chan, Jackie (I) number of 2.
Kevin Bacon was in Big Picture, The (1989) with John Cleese
John Cleese was in Around the World in 80 Days (2004) with Jackie Chan (I)

Want to waste even more time?
Check out these links...

http://www-distance.syr.edu/bacon.html
http://www.thekevinbacongame.com/
http://www.geocities.com/theeac/bacon.html

Irish Language

2008-03-22T22:05:00.003-05:00

Go n-eírí an bóthar leat.
May the road rise with you.

Although St. Patrick's Day has passed, the Irish language is facinating. There are so many parts of the language connecting to history that people don't even realize. There is a great, detailed overview at:
http://www.irishlanguage.net/irish/history.asp

I took Gaelic for a semester at Harvard. It was very difficult. Those in the class who had studied German had an easier time. Truly what I remember most is "God be with you". Friends of mine took Scottish Gaelic when we were studying at the University of Edinburgh but I couldn't take it because it didn't meet my graduation requirements. You can get Irish Gaelic CDs from the library. To find books, you have to use speciality bookstores or the library. There is a great one in Cambridge, Mass.

This is a blessing that I like:
May the blessing of the rain be on you—the soft sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit so that all the little flowers may spring up,
and shed their sweetness on the air.
May the blessing of the great rains be on you,
may they beat upon your spiritand wash it fair and clean,
and leave there many a shining pool
where the blue of heaven shines,and sometimes a star.

Here are some phrases. Some of these I actually remember from class and tapes.

Irish phrases: Meeting People
Dia duit: Hello. (Literally: God to you.)
Dia's Muire duit: Reply to hello.(Literally: God and Mary to you.)
*They do this with the Saints too, especially St. Patrick
Cén t-ainm atá ort?: What is your name?
Éamonn atá orm: Éamonn is my name.
Conas tá tú? How are you?
Tá mé go maith: I am good.
Go raibh maith agat: Thank you.
Tá fáilte romhat: You're welcome.
Go n'éirí an t-ádh leat: Good luck.

Here is some history from http://www.irishlanguage.net/
The Irish Language Movement
The Irish language was the most widely spoken language on the island of Ireland until the 19th century. The first Bible in Irish was translated by William Bedell, Church of Ireland Bishop of Kilmore in the 17th century.

A combination of the introduction of a primary education system (the 'National Schools'), in which Irish was prohibited and only English taught by order of the British Government in Ireland, and the Great Famine (An Drochshaol) which hit a disportionately high number of Irish language speakers (who lived in the poorer areas heavily hit by famine deaths and emigration), hastened its rapid decline. Irish political leaders, such as Daniel O'Connell (Dónall Ó Conaill), too were critical of the language, seeing it as 'backward', with English the language of the future. Contemporary reports spoke of Irish-speaking parents actively discouraging their children from speaking the language, and encouraging the use of English instead. This practice continued long after independence, as the stigma of speaking Irish remained very strong.

Some, however, thought differently. The initial moves to save the language were championed by Irish Protestants, such as the linguist and clergyman William Neilson, in the end of the eighteenth century; the major push occurred with the foundation by Douglas Hyde, the son of a Church of Ireland rector, of the Gaelic League (known in Irish as Conradh na Gaeilge) which started the Gaelic Revival. Leading supporters of Conradh included Pádraig Mac Piarais and Éamon de Valera. The revival of interest in the language coincided with other cultural revivals, such as the foundation of the Gaelic Athletic Association and the growth in the performance of plays about Ireland in English, by such luminaries as William Butler Yeats, J.M. Synge, Sean O'Casey and Lady Gregory, with their launch of the Abbey Theatre.

Even though the Abbey Theatre playwrights wrote in English (and indeed some disliked Irish) the Irish language affected them, as it did all Irish English speakers. The version of English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English bears striking similarities in some grammatical idioms with Irish. Some have speculated that even after the vast majority of Irish people stopped speaking Irish, they perhaps subconsciously used its grammatical flair in the manner in which they spoke English. This fluency is reflected in the writings of Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and more recently in the writings of Seamus Heaney, Paul Durkan, Dermot Bolger and many others. (It may also in part explain the appeal in Britain of Irish-born broadcasters like Terry Wogan, Eamonn Andrews, Graham Norton, Desmond Lynam, etc.)

Independent Ireland & the language
The independent Irish state from 1922 (The Irish Free State 1922-37; Éire from 1937, also known since 1949 as the Republic of Ireland) launched a major push to promote the Irish language, with some of its leaders hoping that the state would become predominantly Irish-speaking within a generation. In fact, many of these initiatives, notably compulsory Irish at school and the requirement that one must know Irish to be employed in the civil service, proved counter-productive with generations of school-children alienated by what was often heavily-handed attempts at indoctrination, which created a cultural backlash. Demands that children learn seventeenth century Irish poetry, or study the life of Peig Sayers (a Gaelic speaker from the Blasket Islands) whose accounts of her life, as recounted in Irish language books, though fascinating, were taught in a poor manner, left a cultural legacy of negative reactions among generations, all too many of whom deliberately refused to use the language once they left school.

In an effort to address the half-committed attitude of Irish language use by the State, the Official Languages Act was passed in 2003. This act ensures that every publication made by a governmental body must be published in both official languages, Irish and English. In addition, the office of Official Languages Commissioner has been set up to act as an ombudsman with regard to equal treatment in both languages.

Tim Gunn's Fantastical Verbal Dictionary

2008-03-14T23:02:00.003-05:00

With the fourth season of Project Runway just having ended, there was a run of past episodes including the reunion shows. Of course my favorite montages always feature Tim Gunn. The reuinion show for season three had a special tribute to Tim Gunn's verbal skills. There are a few that I couldn't even spell!
I bet he scored perfect on the SAT verbal portion. Here are just a few of his top $10 words...

mitigate: to make less severe
faux bois: fake wood
consternation: horror that confounds the faculties, dismay
sturm und drang: storm and stress
caucus: meeting of persons belonging to a party
ambivalent-uncertainty or fluctuation
misapprehension-misunderstand
egregious-extraordinary in some bad way
placate-to appease or pacify
anemic-lacking power, vigor, vitality, or colorfulness

Check out more at http://www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway//index.php.

The Power of Libraries

2008-02-21T12:17:00.001-06:00

I think you will find this interesting. Remember to vote FOR local library services!

As economy struggles, more people rely on libraries
Published: February 19, 2008
By Terry Date Staff writer
SALEM (NH)— Librarians have long thought that the demand for library services leaps when the economy limps.
It's not just books that the belt-tightening public wants more of in tough times, but museum passes, children's programs and Internet access.
That's been the case at the Kelley Library in Salem over the past year, coinciding with the economic slowdown, according to Director Eleanor Strang. She said Salem, a border town highly dependent on the Massachusetts economy, is an early indicator of library trends elsewhere in New Hampshire.
"We see it first," she said of the increased library use in tough economic times.
Reference librarian Deb Berlin expects more people will use the library's high-speed Internet access, seeking work online after dumping Internet access at home to save money.
The library's nine public Internet computer stations have seen an 11 percent increase in usage in the last year, with bookings of 30 or 60 minutes rising from 6,341 to 7.041.
One afternoon last week, the stations were full.
Joe Pacheco, 37, of Salem sat at one of the computers researching natural medicine. He has used the stations to look for jobs in tough times, and has witnessed others doing the same.
Why? "It's free," he said.
Also at Kelley, book and CD reservations jumped by 11 percent in 2007, from 9,618 to 10,642. Interlibrary loan requests jumped 24 percent. Story-time attendance for children rose 15 percent. And museum pass requests increased 2 percent.
"I think that is a good bellwether of people wanting to save money, because the passes will get you in for free or discounted admission," Strang said.
The anticipation of greater library usage during tough times has some town library trustees and advocates defending spending requests to meet the demand.
Sandown library trustee Tina Owens did this recently at the town deliberative session.
Derry Public Library Assistant Director Jack Robillard has noticed more people coming in and asking for help navigating computers in their job searches. The library may include this observation in its budget narrative, he said.
"We were just talking about this the other day," he said.
In Windham, patronage at the Nesmith Library has consistently risen each year, with book, DVD and other borrowings rising consistently between 2001, at 111,480, and 2007, at 181,349.
Nesmith Library Director Carl Heidenblad doesn't attribute that increase to tough times, but he has heard librarians in Massachusetts say their business picks up during tougher economic times.
"It makes sense, when times are good, people don't mind one-click shopping at Amazon, but when times get tighter it makes good sense to come to the library to borrow books or DVDs," he said.
Strang remembers how out-of-work men in the early 1990s gathered in the reference section and exchanged newspaper classified sections looking for work during the region's recession.
"Library use skyrocketed in the early 1990s because of the profound recession we were in," she said.
In fact, Strang said that 1992, a low point in the economic downturn in this area, was the first year Salem's circulation eclipsed the 300,000 mark. It would be another 12 years before the library broke 300,000 again.

October Road: I'm Late to the Party

2008-02-14T00:44:00.002-06:00

"October Road" on ABC

About the Show
Can you ever really go home again? That's the question that confronts acclaimed novelist Nick Garrett when he returns home after being away for ten years. Once back home on October Road, he quickly discovers that the circle of friends whose teenaged lives he wrote about have since settled into blue collar careers and started families.

Nick became a New York literary success by writing about those early years, and he had Hollywood heavyweights lining up for roles. With his editor putting pressure on him for a follow-up, he finds himself at a crossroads... and with serious writer's block. Then comes an offer to teach a one-day course at Dufresne College, the small liberal arts school in his hometown of Knights Ridge, Massachusetts. Hoping to tap back into that which initially inspired him, he decides to head back. Nick has had no contact with his family or the close-knit group of friends he said goodbye to shortly after high school graduation. He burned that connection when he used them as characters in his successful novel and, in the process, cast their lives in a less than flattering light. Consequently, the hometown response to his return is less than festive.

Nick's friends include best friend Eddie Latekka, who is disappointed that Nick abandoned their dream of starting a business together; there's also the good-hearted and straightforward Owen Rowan, whose family life appears the picture of perfection; the well-meaning but sometimes obnoxious Ikey; and Physical Phil, a lovable recluse since 9/11 who has adapted to living his life indoors. Before he left town, Nick told his high school girlfriend, Hannah Daniels, that he'd be back in six weeks. Now ten years later, the jilted but never-married Hannah has decided to forget Nick's unfulfilled promise and moved on with her life. She is a single mom raising her nine-year-old son, the bright and charming Sam. Hannah is involved with Ray "Big Cat" Cataldo, the former high school bully whose mission in life has been to bestow misery on the lives of Nick and his friends. Nick makes a new friend when he meets Aubrey, a pretty college student and fledgling writer whose Bohemian style intrigues him. While he sorts things out, he moves into his childhood home with his father, a widower affectionately referred to as The Commander. Nick realizes he has several reasons for staying in Knights Ridge. He wants to apologize to everyone for whatever broken promises he may have made, and to make up for how he portrayed them in his book. He also sees coincidences indicating that Hannah's son, Sam, might be his.Although Nick doesn't regret fulfilling his mother's dying wish of experiencing life outside of Knights Ridge, he finds himself oddly wanting to tie up loose ends at home, but realizes the path ahead of him is a rocky one. In spite of any love bruised or lost between his friends and family, Nick embraces the familiarity of his former life and struggles to be included again among those he let down.

I'm loving the fact that October Road also has some wonderful actors...I love Bryan Greenberg (s Nick Garrett) and it's great to see Tom Berenger as The Commander with his great Bahstin accent and you'll recognize character actor Brad William Henke who you may remember from "Must Love Dogs." Laura Prepon, from that 70s show, is Hannah Daniels and other cast members who have various parts in movies, TV and on stage include Warren Christie as Ray "Big Cat" Cataldo, Texas Native Evan Jones as Ikey, Jay Paulson as Physical Phil, Slade Pearce as Sam Daniels, Geoff Stults as Eddie Latekka and Odette Yustman as Aubrey.

But the BEST thing about this show...the music! It's like a show for the music geek in all of us. Each episode has a lot of indie type songwriter songs weaving in and out between commercials but there is also a "hot button" song for each episode.

Here are a few favorites!

Kiss: "Rock and Roll All Night"
Bay City Rollers: "Saturday Night"
Meatloaf - "Paradise By The Dashboard Lights"
Three Dog Night - "Shambala"
Poison - "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
Jackson Browne - "The Pretender"
Goo Goo Dolls - "Name"
Liz Phair - "Why Can't I?"
Boston - "Amanda"
Hootie & the Blowfish - "Hannah Jane"

So set your TIVO or your VCR and get ready to lip synch along with Nick and his pals!

This Day in History: Frisbees!

2008-01-23T22:40:00.000-06:00

Thank you History Channel! If you would like to test your history knowledge, the History Channel has a game on their site so see how well you do...
http://www.history.com/genericContent.do?id=56082

and...

Toy company Wham-O produces first Frisbees
January 23, 1957

On this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs--now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.
The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling "Frisbie!" as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the "Flying Saucer" that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the "Pluto Platter"--an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

In 1958, a year after the toy's first release, Wham-O--the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle--changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company. A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc's surface--called the Rings--to stabilize flight. By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million units of its famous toy by 1977.

High school students in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball, in 1967. In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets; there are now hundreds of courses in the U.S., with millions of devotees. There is also Freestyle Frisbee, with choreographed routines set to music and multiple discs in play, and various Frisbee competitions for both humans and dogs--the best natural Frisbee players.

Today, at least 60 manufacturers produce the flying discs--generally made out of plastic and measuring roughly 20-25 centimeters (8-10 inches) in diameter with a curved lip. The official Frisbee is owned by Mattel Toy Manufacturers, who bought the toy from Wham-O in 1994.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do

ALA's Notable Books Council announces 2008 top picks

2008-01-19T09:39:00.000-06:00

PHILADELPHIA - The Notable Books Council of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division American Library Association (ALA), today released its 2008 list of outstanding books for the general reader. The titles are selected for their significant contribution to the expansion of knowledge and for the pleasure they can provide to adult readers.
Since 1944, the goal of the Notable Books Council has been to make available to the nation's readers a list of 25 very good, very readable, and at times very important fiction, nonfiction and poetry books for the adult reader. The Council consists of members selected from the membership of RUSA's Collection Development and Evaluation Section (CODES).

This is "The List for America's Readers:"
FICTION
--Bloom, Amy, Away, Random House
--Carlson, Ron, Five Skies, Penguin-Viking
--Chabon, Michael, The Yiddish Policeman's Union, HarperCollins
--Clarke, Brock, An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, Algonquin
--Clinch, John, Finn: a novel, Random House
--Englander, Nathan, The Ministry of Special Cases, Knopf
--Holthe, Tess Uriza, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, Crown
--Jones, Lloyd, Mister Pip, Dell
--McEwan, Ian, On Chesil Beach, Nan A. Talese
--Malouf, David, Complete Stories, Pantheon
--Pettersen, Per, Out Stealing Horses, Graywolf
--Trevor, William, Cheating at Canasta, Penguin/Viking

NONFICTION
--Ackerman, Diane, The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, W.W. Norton
--Angier, Natalie, The Canon, Houghton Mifflin
--Ayres, Ian, Super Crunchers, Bantam Books
--Godwin, Peter, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, Little Brown
--Groopman, Jerome, How Doctors Think, Houghton Mifflin Company
--Howell, Georgina, Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations; FSG
--Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe, S & S
--Kingsolver, Barbara, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, HarperCollins
--Margonelli, Lisa, Oil on the Brain, Doubleday-Nan Talese
--Weisman, Alan, The World Without Us, St. Martins

POETRY
--Bosselaar, Laure-Anne, A New Hunger, Ausable Press
--Kennedy, X.J., In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus, Johns Hopkins

This list will be available on the Notable Books Web page on the RUSA/ALA Web site(http://www.ala.org/rusa/notable.html) with annotations at a later date.

Did You Know?

2008-01-15T18:09:00.000-06:00

The Social Security online site is a very user friendly tool. Besides the regular forms and bits of information, you can also see some trivia! Check out... http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/ssa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=341

What are the most popular names given to babies?

Answer:
Every year, SSA's Office of the Actuary does a study of the most popular names given to applicants who were born in the current year.

The top ten boys names in 2006 are:
Jacob, Michael, Joshua, Ethan, Matthew, Daniel, Christopher, Andrew, Anthony, and William.

The top ten girls names for 2006 are:
Emily, Emma, Madison, Isabella, Ava, Abigail, Olivia, Hannah, Sophia, and Samantha.

The most popular names of twins born in 2006 are:
Jacob and Joshua; Matthew and Michael; Daniel and David; Ella and Emma; Isaac and Isaiah; Madison and Morgan; Landon and Logan; Taylor and Tyler; Brandon and Bryan; and Christian and Christopher.

You can actually even see the Popularity of a Name. How they explain it is "To see how the popularity of a name has changed over time, enter the name and, optionally, the sex and number of years. Please note that the name you select must be in the top 1000 most popular names in order for the name to appear in the table produced by your request."

You can also see Popular Names by Birth Year (any year after 1879). So in 1960, you would find that David and Mary topped the list while 1970 and 1980 had Michael and Jennifer at the top of the list. By 1990, Michael was still the most popular boy's name while Jessica took the top spot for girls names. Michael was the most popular name from 1954 to 1998 except for one year, 1960 when David took the lead. Jennifer was the most girls popular name from 1970-1984. Thinking about how many Jennifer's you know, does this surprise you?

You can also see by state. In 2006 in Texas, Emma and Mia took the top spots. Michigan had Ava and Emma; South Carolina had Madison and Emma and New Mexico had Isabella and Alyssa. For boys, Alaska had James while Arizona had Angel; Michigan had Jacob, South Carolina had William; and Massachusetts had Matthew.

There is even a game!
Is there a trend to name children after cities? Just a few years ago, the name "London" was not in the top 1000 baby names, but in 2006 the rank was 353 (for girls). Similarly, the name "Paris" has become popular. These 2 examples are European cities that have become popular baby names in the United States.
But what about U. S. cities?
Play the City Name Quiz!
From the list of United States cities with populations of 100,000 or more (as provided by the U. S. Census Bureau), we have drawn those names that are in the top 1000 names for births in 2006.
Can you guess 5 of them?

I had three correct: Dallas, Austin and Madison. There are 20 possible correct answers and let me tell you that not all of them are of the modern variety (i.e. Dakota, Georgia if you were to use states).
You try...http://www.socialsecurity.gov/cgi-bin/citynames.cgi

Just a little fun from the Office of Social Security!

The Art Thief

2008-01-12T22:51:00.000-06:00

Don't miss this chance to read "The Art Thief" by Noah Charney. I'm listening to it on audio right now and the lilt of Simon Vance's voice is captivating. Slow and steady, the story is coming to life with the beauty of his British accent that makes me not want to turn off the CD!

(Can I also tell you that I'm totally taken in by the reference to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft, tragic, which happened during my junior year at BU in Boston. Check this out...

In March 1990, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, was robbed by two unknown men. The thieves removed works of art whose value has been estimated as high as $300 million. These include: Vermeer, The Concert; Rembrandt, A Lady and Gentleman in Black; Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; Rembrandt, Self-Portrait; Govaert Flinck, Landscape with Obelisk; Manet, Chez Tortoni.

and http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/arttheft/northamerica/us/isabella/isabella.htm)

Here is the synopsis...

Rome: In the small Baroque church of Santa Giuliana, a magnificent Caravaggio altarpiece disappears without a trace in the middle of the night.

Paris: In the basement vault of the Malevich Society, curator Geneviéve Delacloche is shocked to discover the disappearance of the Society's greatest treasure, White-on-White by Suprematist painter Kasimir Malevich.

London: At the National Gallery of Modern Art, the museum's latest acquisition is stolen just hours after it was purchased for more than six million pounds.

In The Art Thief, three thefts are simultaneously investigated in three cities, but these apparently isolated crimes have much more in common than anyone imagines. In Rome, the police enlist the help of renowned art investigator Gabriel Coffin when tracking down the stolen masterpiece. In Paris, Geneviéve Delacloche is aided by Police Inspector Jean-Jacques Bizot, who finds a trail of bizarre clues and puzzles that leads him ever deeper into a baffling conspiracy. In London, Inspector Harry Wickenden of Scotland Yard oversees the museum's attempts to ransom back its stolen painting, only to have the masterpiece's recovery deepen the mystery even further. A dizzying array of forgeries, overpaintings, and double-crosses unfolds as the story races through auction houses, museums, and private galleries -- and the secret places where priceless works of art are made available to collectors who will stop at nothing to satisfy their hearts' desires. Full of fascinating art-historical detail, crackling dialogue, and a brain-teasing plot, Noah Charney's debut novel is a sophisticated, stylishthriller, as irresistible and multifaceted as a great work of art.

Read more...
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9781433203732&z=y

Ben Schott

2008-01-07T23:10:00.000-06:00

If you happened to see CBS Sunday Morning then you probably heard about Ben Schott. They called him the Indiana Jones of the library, looking up tomes instead of tombs. He is the master of the miscellaneous.
http://www.benschott.com/en/index2.html

"If you haven't a clue... Ben Schott is your man. He's the king of carefully marshalled facts, published in quaintly antiquarian form to enormous success. Decca Aitkenhead presses him for a few details that don't appear in the books." Read more of the article at http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/referenceandlanguages/story/0,,1640631,00.html#article_continue.

Ever wonder how to say 'I love you' in Hindi? Whether blondes win more often than brunettes in the Miss America pageant? The answers lie in Schott's Original Miscellany. Part encyclopedia, part anthology, part lexicon, the book is a collection of inconsequential tidbits that you never knew, never thought to ask, but will love knowing. As hilarious as it is addictive."
Newsweek (USA)
Curious? See more at...http://www.miscellanies.info/author.asp

Now Mr. Schott is writing almanacs filled with the best of the last, as in the last year. If you are interested be sure to "check them out." Maybe at your library!

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen

2007-12-21T15:29:00.001-06:00

With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie Powell recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and saved her soul.
Julie Powell is 30 years old, living in a tiny apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that's going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother's worn, dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes -- in the span of one year.
At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crepes, she realizes there's more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye.
And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her outer-borough kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life's ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance.

To the Big Screen!

Norah Ephron adapts Julie Powell's autobiographical book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen with this Columbia Pictures production starring Amy Adams as an amateur chef that decides to cook every recipe in a cookbook from acclaimed celebrity chef Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) in order to chronicle it in a blog over the course of a year. Streep's Devil Wears Prada co-star Stanley Tucci reteams with the actress as Child's husband.

Best of TV You're Not Watching

2007-11-11T14:24:00.000-06:00

It was a very busy fall. There were some shows you probably missed. I know I had a long queue in my Tivo. Before the football season ends, make sure you check some of these out. I've sat down to watch them and really enjoying them.

Life--on USA
Damien Lewis stars as a former police officer who, after years of false imprisonment, returns to the force with a decidedly different philosophy. You can see how the prison years give Det. Charlie Crewes a whole different insight. He's working on cases with his new partner, who also has some demons, but is secretly trying to solve the case of the person who framed him.

Aliens in America--CW
A Wisconsin mom arranges to host a foreign exchange student, believing the visitor will help her shy son become more popular. When the student turns out to be a Muslim teenager from Pakistan, her plans go awry - and everyone is likely to learn a little lesson about life. If you are missing the Gilmore Girls cast, you'll find former GG'er Luke playing the dad.

Dirty Sexy Money--ABC
At first, I couldn't figure out where this was going but it totally grows on you. When idealistic attorney Nick George's (Peter Krause) father dies, he ends up taking his father's clients, the Darlings, led by patriarch Tripp (Donald Sutherland). It's not always easy for Nick handling both legal and sometimes illegal matters. The Darling family is downright hilarious!

Big Shots--ABC
Big Shots is a drama about four friends who are up and coming executives. However there are plenty of things to also laugh about. Dylan McDermott is Duncan is a cosmetics CEO trying to outgrow his playboy image. His pal Brody is a crisis manager who spends more time placating a demanding wife. Karl is the "geek" CEO whose wife and former mistress become best friends, and Michael Vartan--who couldn't be any cuter playing the business Golden Boy--is the newly appointed "Wal-Mart" type CEO who is trying to deal with a broken marriage and a new company.

Gossip Girl--CW
It's like teen people "lite" , with cocktails, I'll admit it. But this show based on the popular Young Adult novel series is chock full of beautiful, wealthy and angst ridden upper East side Manhattanites and it's as addicting as chocolate.

Pushing Daisies-ABC
This romantic drama shows us the strange world of a man, Ned, who can bring dead people back to life through the power of his touch. The people he touches, however, can only stay alive for one minute, and if they don't die again, someone else nearby will die. Ned decides to use his ability to solve crime. Fanciful and clever!

Criminal Minds--CBS
The Behaviorial Analysis Unit is composed of an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds and anticipate their next moves before they strike again. Joe Mantagna is the newest addition replacing my fav Mandy Patinkin but I think he'll bring some interesting twists to the show.

Shark--CBS
Sebastian Stark, a charismatic, supremely self-confident defense attorney who, after a shocking outcome in one of his cases and a personal epiphany, brings his cutthroat tactics to the prosecutor's office as the head of the Los Angeles District Attorney's High Profile Crime Unit. James Woods is perfect leading a group of new DAs including the latest addition, the brother in law from Ugly Betty.

House--Fox
Dr. Gregory House puts bad bedside manner to shame. As an infectious disease specialist with a knack for diagnostics, he fights the worst of all maladies with a team of various specialists, some who are too caring for their own good and others too irreverent. He'd prefer not to deal with patients at all but as he deals with his constant physical pain, his unconventional thinking and flawless instincts have afforded him a great deal of respect. It's THE best show on television right now.

Men In Trees--ABC
After breaking off her engagement when she learns of her fiance's infidelity, Marin Frist, a relationship expert, finds herself living in Elmo, Alaska, surrounded by men and attracted to one in particular. She now has to forget everything she has learned about men and gain new knowledge about love and relationships. This show is remarkably fresh and makes you want to head up to the great white north.

Women's Murder Club--ABC
Based on the James Patterson novel series, the Women's Murder Club tells the story of four friends from different walks of life who come together to form a unique murder investigation team. Their jobs as a homicide detective, a medical examiner, a newspaper reporter and an assistant district attorney give them a formidable range of skills, and friendship to sustain them through tough times. TV welcomes back Angie Harmon.

Bones--Fox
This series is based on stories from real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperence Brennan--played by Emily Deschanel, Zooey's sister, who works at the Jeffersonian Institute and writes novels as a sideline, has an uncanny ability to read clues left behind in a victim's bones. Her partner from the FBI is former Buffy and Angel star David Boreanaz, as Special Agent Booth, who is all grown up and does a great job in this role.

Chuck--NBC
After Chuck got kicked out of Stanford, he is meandering through life as a computer tech at a Best-Buy type superstore called BuyMore when he is sent an email from a former college buddy. As a last save before he died, Chuck inherits the email which makes him now the recipient of a database of government secrets in his brain. Chuck is a now an unwilling participant as a special agent to the CIA and NSA. Zachary Levi is great as Chuck and his other cast mates are just as funny, including his sister's boyfriend he calls "Awesome" and the high strung assistant manager at the BuyMore.

Numb3rs--CBS
We all use math every day ... Inspired by actual cases and experiences, Numb3rs depicts the confluence of police work and mathematics in solving crime. An FBI agent recruits his mathematical genius brother to help solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles from a very different perspective. Numb3rs stars David Krumholtz as Charlie Eppes, Rob Morrow as Don Eppes, Judd Hirsch as their father.

Not on now, but hopefully they'll start up again:
The Closer--Kyra Sedgwick is fantastic in her very smart and bumbling sort of way
Saving Grace--Holly Hunter is rough around the edges but she is really good and the cast is solid
Burn Notice--CIA spy got burned and now lives in Miami as he is trying to find out who put him there
Side Order of Life--LA thirtysomethings battle--with humor--growing up

Don't Dismiss All of Oprah's Choices

2007-11-03T22:49:00.000-05:00

It had gotten to be almost the thing to do to purposefully not read the Oprah book selections. However I want to plug a few of them and you can check out more reviews on Amazon or BN. While they are often exceedingly depressing, they are also remarkably poignant. You might want to go back and reread a few...

Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
A sprawling saga about five generations of a family from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Fall on Your Knees is the impressive first fiction from Canadian playwright and actor Ann-Marie MacDonald. This epic tale of family history, family secrets, and music centers on four sisters and their relationships with each other and with their father. Set in the coal-mining communities of Nova Scotia in the early part of this century, the story also shifts to the battlefields of World War I and the jazz scene of New York City in the 1920s.

Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman**
When March Murray travels East with her teenage daughter to attend the funeral of the beloved housekeeper who looked after her when she was growing up, March's past comes rushing up to meet her. The present is quickly dominated by the lurking presence of her former lover, Hollis, who has patiently awaited her long overdue return. The tale is populated by those for whom love brings more sorrow than happiness: a woman afraid to commit to a relationship, a husband in love with someone other than his wife, two young people who fall for each other only to find they are close relatives, and the self-destructing love of Hollis and March. While love has the power to transform those who fall under its spell--devotion to an old racehorse turns March's daughter, a sullen teenager, into a strong young woman--the love March herself suffers robs her of nearly all sense and goodness. Hoffman deftly weaves her characters' stories against a vivid New England landscape where the past always has a grip on the present. And the listener is left at the end both satisfied and longing to hear more.

Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts
A funny thing happens to Novalee Nation on her way to Bakersfield, California. Her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens, abandons her in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart and takes off on his own, leaving her with just 10 dollars and the clothes on her back. Not that hard luck is anything new to Novalee, who is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight--and superstitious about sevens.... For most people, sevens were lucky. But not for her," Billie Letts writes. "She'd had a bad history with them, starting with her seventh birthday, the day Momma Nell ran away with a baseball umpire named Fred..."Still, finding herself alone and penniless in Sequoyah, Oklahoma is enough to make even someone as inured to ill fortune as Novalee want to give up and die. Fortunately, the Wal-Mart parking lot is the Sequoyah equivalent of a town square, and within hours Novalee has met three people who will change her life: Sister Thelma Husband, a kindly eccentric; Benny Goodluck, a young Native American boy; and Moses Whitecotton, an elderly African American photographer. For the next two months, Novalee surreptitiously makes her home in the Wal-Mart, sleeping there at night, exploring the town by day. When she goes into labor and delivers her baby there, however, Novalee learns that sometimes it's not so bad to depend on the kindness of strangers--especially if one of them happens to be Sam Walton, the superchain's founder.Where the Heart Is oddly mixes heart-warming vignettes and surprising, brutal violence. Novalee's story is juxtaposed with occasional chapters chronicling Willy Jack's downward spiral into prison, disappointment, and degradation. And even in Sequoyah, sudden storms, domestic violence, kidnapping, and deadly fires punctuate Novalee's progress from homeless, unwed teen mom to successful, happy member of the community. This is not a subtle book; there's never any doubt that our heroine will make a home for herself and her baby or that Willy Jack will get what he deserves for abandoning them. Still, Billie Letts has created several memorable characters, and there's always room for another novel that celebrates the life-affirming qualities of reading, the importance of education, and the power of love to change lives.

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates
Everyone knows the Mulvaneys: Dad the successful businessman, Mike the football star, Marianne the cheerleader, Patrick the brain, Judd the runt, and Mom dedicated to running the family. But after what sometime narrator Judd calls the events of Valentine's Day 1976, this ideal family falls apart and is not reunited until 1993. The novel explores this disintegration with an eye to the nature of changing relationships and recovering from the fractures that occur. Through vivid imagery of a calm upstate New York landscape that any moment can be transformed by a blinding blizzard into a near-death experience, Oates demonstrates how faith and hope can help us endure. At another level, the process of becoming the Mulvaneys again investigates the philosophical and spiritual aspects of a family's survival and restoration.

**I highly recommend anything written by Alice Hoffman. Her stories are really something, they unfold with an uncanny grace.

Check out the The New York Times Book Review by David Gates: "We Were the Mulvaneys works not simply because of its meticulous details and gestures.... What keeps us coming back to Oates Country is something stronger and spookier: her uncanny gift of making the page a window, with something on the other side that we'd swear was life itself."

A Few Favorite Reads

2007-11-01T00:08:00.000-05:00

There is NEVER enough time and ALWAYS too many books to read. Here are a few selections that I really enjoyed. All can be found at a local library or you can follow the link to a bookstore.

Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable by Mark Dunn
The Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes: A Novel by Cathy Holton
A Girl Could Stand Up by Leslie Marshall
Peter and the Starcatchers by Ridley Pearson and Greg Call
Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
Shoe Addicts Anonymous by Beth Harbison
Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Commercial Tunes

2007-09-30T22:48:00.000-05:00

In June, I mentioned a great singer-songwriter named Ingrid Michaelson. Well she has done it again and this time, she is the voice of the new Old Navy commercial. Such a sweet song called "The Way I Am." I'm totally loving it! Here are the lyrics from her site (www.ingridmichaelson.com) and she has some video links there too. I think she is definitely on her way!

If you were falling, then I would catch you.
You need a light, I'd find a match.
Cuz I love the way you say good morning.
And you take me the way I am.
If you are chilly, here take my sweater.
Your head is aching, I'll make it better.
Cuz I love the way you call me baby.
And you take me the way I am.
I'd buy you Rogaine if you start losing all your hair.
Sew on patches to all you tear.
Cuz I love you more than I could ever promise.
And you take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.
You take me the way I am.

My mom also pointed out another sweet commercial song, this one from JC Penney (sense a theme here...TV and shopping!). The band is Forever Thursday which is really Melanie Hornsnell and producer Elliot Wheeler. There are lyrics and a video link on their myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/foreverthursdaymusic. Although Australian, Melanie has a 1950s style sweetness and bounce to her song.

HP used The Kinks' song "Picture Book" for their campaign for digital photography products back in mid-2004 (Wow...has it been that long?). "Picture Book" is from the Kinks' 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. The campaign won "Campaign of the Year" in the February 7, 2005 issue of Adweek magazine.

My dad a field day with the Wiseguys' song "Start the Commotion" from a Mitsubishi ad a while back. Mitsubishi is all about making bands famous...they gave some mainstream notoriety to Groove Armada and their song "I See You Baby" but I have a song of theirs on a Pottery Barn CD that I like better because its more mellow. I'm also a fan of the Dirty Vegas song "As Days Go By" (and you'll find a funny video on utube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKUlY9S_OW0) and the import single offers a cool acoustic version. I'm sad to say that I don't know which car it is for but Mitsubishi also has an that has a great song by Telepopmusik called "Just Breathe." If you are a fan of Kanye West (I'm not) they use his song "Stronger." Art of the mix has a whole list of Mitsubishi advertisement songs at http://www.artofthemix.org/FindAMix/getcontents.asp?strmixid=35408.

I don't even want to go about the Gap ads...they are so cute. Patrick Wilson and Claire Danes doing the "I can do better" theme in the ad for the boyfriend trouser, the Gap ad for khaki's featuring "Jump, Jive and Wail," and of course, the holiday Gap ads using "Sleigh Ride" and (especially the combo with "Cool It Now"). Fantastic.

Finally, the new Ipod Nano commercial features "1234" by Feist, who is Canadian Leslie Feist. On September 28th, you may have caught her on World Cafe, NPR's daily interview and in-studio performance broadcast (http://worldcafe.org) or you can check out her page (http://www.listentofeist.com) and hear "1234" at http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1156010133/bclid756025629/bctid751384420.

Soundtracks

2007-09-28T15:36:00.000-05:00

This is the kind of post that could go on forever but I'm going to just take a minute now here to highlight a few favorite motion picture soundtracks, after having just borrowed "The Last Kiss". Zach Braff thinks him a connoisseur of music and this one is good. It's not great, but good.

Here's some of my favs:

“Thirtysomething”
1. Main Title (Extended Version)
2. Begging For Sex, Part 2
3. Michael And Hope's New Baby
4. Another Country (Nancy's Illness)
5. Post Op
6. It Must Be Love - Rickie Lee Jones
7. Nancy And Elliot Take A Train
8. Michael's Dilemma
9. Elyn's Wedding
10. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Ray Charles
11. Life Class (Nancy's Museum Fantasy)
12. Second Look
13. Hot Butter (Miles Comes To Dinner)
14. Melissa And Men
15. The Go Between
16. Gary's Funeral
17. The Water Is Wide - Karla Bonoff
18. Main Title (Air Version)

“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”
1. Skylark - K. D. Lang
2. Too Marvelous For Words - Joe Williams
3. Autumn Leaves - Paula Cole
4. Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear To Tread) - Rosemary Clooney
5. Dream - Brad Mehldau
6. Days Of Wine And Roses - Cassandra Wilson
7. That Old Black Magic - Kevin Spacey
8. Come Rain Or Come Shine - Alison Eastwood
9. Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive - Clint Eastwood
10. This Time The Dream's On Me - Alison Krauss
11. Laura - Kevin Mahogany
12. Midnight Sun - Diana Krall
13. I'm An Old Cowhand (From The Rio Grande) - Joshua Redman
14. I Wanna Be Around - Tony Bennett

“Marie Antoinette”
1. "Hong Kong Garden" - Siouxsie & The Banshees
2. "Aphrodisiac" - Bow Wow Wow
3. "What Ever Happened" - The Strokes
4. "Pulling Our Weight" - The Radio Dept.
5. "Ceremony" - New Order
6. "Natural's Not In It" - Gang Of Four
7. "I Want Candy (Kevin Shields Remix)" - Bow Wow Wow
8. "Kings Of The Wild Frontier" - Adam & The Ants
9. "Concerto in G" * - Antonio Vivaldi / Reitzell
10. "The Melody Of A Fallen Tree" - Windsor For The Derby
11. "I Don't Like It Like This" - The Radio Dept.
12. "Plainsong" - The Cure
Disc: 2
1. "Intro Versailles"* - Reitzell / Beggs
2. "Jynweythek Ylow" - Aphex Twin
3. "Opus 17" - Dustin O'Halloran
4. "Il Secondo Giorno (Instrumental)" - Air
5. "Keen On Boys" - The Radio Dept.
6. "Opus 23" *- Dustin O'Halloran
7. "Les Baricades Misterieuses"* - Francois Couperin / Reitzell
8. "Fools Rush In (Kevin Shields Remix) - Bow Wow Wow
9. "Avril 14th" - Aphex Twin
10. "K. 213" * - Domenico Scarlatti / Reitzell
11. "Tommib Help Buss" - Squarepusher
12. "Tristes Apprets.." - Jean Philippe Rameau /W. Christie
13. "Opus 36" *- Dustin O'Halloran
14. "All Cat's Are Grey" - The Cure

“Grey’s Anatomy” (v.1)
1. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
2. Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
3. Maria Taylor - Song Beneath The Song
4. Tegan and Sara - Where Does The Good Go
5. Mike Doughty - Looking At The World From The Bottom Of A Well
6. Get Set Go - Wait
7. The Eames Era - Could Be Anything
8. Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes
9. Joe Purdy - The City
10. Medeski, Martin & Wood - End of the World Party
11. Ben Lee - Catch My Disease (Live Version)
12. The Ditty Bops - There's A Girl
13. The Radio - Whatever Gets You Through Today
14. Inara George - Fools In Love
15. Psapp - Cosy In The Rocket

“200 Cigarettes”
1. Cruel To Be Kind - Nick Lowe
2. In The Flesh - Blondie
3. Just What I Needed - The Cars
4. Save It For Later - Harvey Danger
5. Our Lips Are Sealed - Go-Go's
6. I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow
7. I Don't Care - The Ramones
8. Boogie Wonderland - Girls Against Boys
9. Ladies Night - Kool & The Gang
10. It's Different For Girls - Joe Jackson
11. Nowhere Girl - B-Movie
12. More Than This - Roxy Music
13. Romeo & Juliet - Dire Straits
14. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding - Elvis Costello And The Attractions
15. Blondie Medley: Rapture, Maria, No Exit (The Loud Allstar Rock Remix Featuring Coolio & The Loud AllStars - Havoc And Prodigy Of Mobb Deep, Inspectah Deck & U-God Of Wu-Tang Clan) - Blondie

“Grosse Pointe Blank”
1. Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes
2. Rudie Can't Fail - Clash
3. Mirror In The Bathroom - English Beat
4. Under Pressure - David Bowie, Queen
5. I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash
6. Live & Let Die - Guns N' Roses
7. We Care A Lot - Faith No More
8. Pressure Drop - Specials
9. Absolute Beginners - Jam
10. Armagideon Time - Clash
11. El Matador - Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
12. Let My Love Open The Door (E. Cola Mix) - Pete Townshend
13. Blister 2000 - Violent Femmes

What to Read Next!

2007-09-19T22:32:00.000-05:00

Looking for something to read? Check out one of these novels!

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
In her first novel, Sarah Addison Allen has written a tender, bewitching book told with captivating invention, peopled with characters to care about, and filled with the irresistible magic of dreams come true.

The women of the Waverley family -- whether they like it or not -- are heirs to an unusual legacy, one that grows in a fenced plot behind their Queen Anne home on Pendland Street in Bascom, North Carolina. There, an apple tree bearing fruit of magical properties looms over a garden filled with herbs and edible flowers that possess the power to affect in curious ways anyone who eats them.

For nearly a decade, 34-year-old Claire Waverley, at peace with her family inheritance, has lived in the house alone, embracing the spirit of the grandmother who raised her, ruing her mother's unfortunate destiny and seemingly unconcerned about the fate of her rebellious sister, Sydney, who freed herself long ago from their small town's constraints. Using her grandmother's mystical culinary traditions, Claire has built a successful catering business -- and a carefully controlled, utterly predictable life -- upon the family's peculiar gift for making life-altering delicacies: lilac jelly to engender humility, for instance, or rose geranium wine to call up fond memories. Garden Spells reveals what happens when Sydney returns to Bascom with her young daughter, turning Claire's routine existence upside down. With Sydney's homecoming, the magic that the quiet caterer has measured into recipes to shape the thoughts and moods of others begins to influence Claire's own emotions in terrifying and delightful ways.

As the sisters reconnect and learn to support one another, each finds romance where she least expects it, while Sydney's child, Bay, discovers both the safe home she has longed for and her own surprising gifts. With the help of their elderly cousin Evanelle, endowed with her own uncanny skills, the Waverley women redeem the past, embrace the present, and take a joyful leap into the future.

"Garden Spells didn't start out as a magical novel," writes Sarah Addison Allen. "It was supposed to be a simple story about two sisters reconnecting after many years. But then the apple tree started throwing apples and the story took on a life of its own…and my life hasn't been the same since."

Combine two parts Alice Hoffman and one part Rebecca Wells with a splash of Sue Monk Kidd, and you have Garden Spells! A great read for anyone who loves cooking, southern fiction, or just a great love story.--Angel Ramandt, Baltimore, MD

Garden Spells is a magical escape into a world gentled by caring and ancient ways. A sweet story that adds hope to the world. --Patty Rogala, Birmingham, AL

The Love Wife by Gish Jen
This is a generous, funny, explosive novel about the new "half-half" American family. You've got Carnegie Wong, second-generation Chinese American warm heart and funny guy, his WASP wife, Jane, whom his mother calls "Blondie," and their two adopted Asian daughters, and half-half bio son. And here is Mama Wong, Carnegie's no-holds-barred mother, who, eternally opposed to his marriage, has arranged from her grave for a mainland Chinese relation to come look after the kids. Is this woman, as Carnegie claims, a nanny? Or is she, as Blondie fears, something else?

What happens as Carnegie and Blondie try to incorporate the ambiguous new arrival into their already complicated lives is touchingly, brilliantly, intricately told. Powerfully evoking the contemporary American family in all its fragility and strength, Gish Jen has given us her most exuberant and accomplished novel.

This novel has a robust, lived-in quality that makes you miss it when it's over.

Michiko Kakutani - The New York Times
“The Love Wife, is also a big story: a story about families and identity and race and the American Dream, a story about how one generation deals with the expectations and the hopes of an earlier generation, a story about how sons and daughters make choices that define themselves against their parents. It is a story that works a minor-key variation on many of the themes that Ms. Jen has sounded in her earlier fiction, yet a story that also represents her most ambitious and emotionally ample work yet.”

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult refuses to tiptoe around volatile issues. Nineteen Minutes recounts a deadly high school shooting rampage, its causes, and its aftermath.

Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens — until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever.

In flashbacks, we witness the deepening alienation of teen killer Peter Houghton, a helpless victim who sinks steadily into the execution mode of his combat video games. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families. Standing in literal judgment over this teen killer is Alex Cormier, the judge who presides over his trial trying hard to balance her professional duties with her relationship with her daughter.

The topic is a hard one but Picoult does a great job at making the story compelling. You feel for the characters, reliving the heartbreak of high school. You learn about how a small town can barely survive such tragedy and you watch families crumble. You also learn how they can also start over again.

Away by Amy Bloom
Panoramic in scope, Away is the epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent, an accidental heroine. When her family is destroyed in a Russian pogrom, Lillian comes to America alone, determined to make her way in a new land. When word comes that her daughter, Sophie, might still be alive, Lillian embarks on an odyssey that takes her from the world of the Yiddish theater on New York’s Lower East Side, to Seattle’s Jazz District, and up to Alaska, along the fabled Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. All of the qualities readers love in Amy Bloom’s work–her humor and wit, her elegant and irreverent language, her unflinching understanding of passion and the human heart–come together in the embrace of this brilliant novel, which is at once heartbreaking, romantic, and completely unforgettable.

“This beautiful, effulgent book sped me forward word by word, out of the room I was in and into Amy Bloom’s world. This is a wonderful novel, a cosmos that transcends its time period and grabs us without compromise. Lillian’s astonishing journey, driven by a mother’s love, will be with me for a long, long time.”
–Ron Carlson, author of The Speed of Light

A Great Author (and Librarian!) Passes--Salute to Madeleine L'Engle

2007-09-18T23:40:00.000-05:00

Madeleine L'Engle Camp Franklin, 88, of Goshen, CT and New York City, died Thursday, September 6th. Born November 29, 1918, in New York City, to Charles Camp and Madeleine Barnett Camp, she was educated in Switzerland and South Carolina, before graduating from Smith College. She was the author of over 60 books, including the award-winning A Wrinkle in Time.
She is survived by her two daughters, Josephine Jones of Goshen, CT and Maria Rooney and her husband John of Mystic, CT; her five grandchildren, and five greatgrandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Hugh Franklin, and her son, Bion Barnett Franklin.

She was a warm, loving and fun mother, grandmother and friend, who will be missed by many. Her influence will live on in her family and many friends, and in her books which have brought countless delight to all who have read them.

There will be a service on Saturday, September 15th, 2pm, at the Church of Christ, Goshen, CT, and a later public memorial service around her birthday, the actual date to be decided, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City.

In lieu of flowers, a memorial gift may be made to Crosswicks Foundation, Ltd, 924 West End Ave, apt 95, New York, New York, 10025. This is just an option, and we encourage you to honor her memory in any way you choose.
Read a banned book!

HISTORY

Madeleine was born on November 29th, 1918, and spent her formative years in New York City. Instead of her school work, she found that she would much rather be writing stories, poems and journals for herself, which was reflected in her grades (not the best). However, she was not discouraged.
At age 12, she moved to the French Alps with her parents and went to an English boarding school where, thankfully, her passion for writing continued to grow. She flourished during her high school years back in the United States at Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, vacationing with her mother in a rambling old beach cottage on a beautiful stretch of Florida Beach.
She went to Smith College and studied English with some wonderful teachers as she read the classics and continued her own creative writing. She graduated with honors and moved into a Greenwich Village apartment in New York. She worked in the theater, where Equity union pay and a flexible schedule afforded her the time to write! She published her first two novels during these years--A Small Rain and Ilsa--before meeting Hugh Franklin, her future husband, when she was an understudy in Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard. They married during The Joyous Season.
She had a baby girl and kept on writing, eventually moving to Connecticut to raise the family away from the city in a small dairy farm village with more cows than people. They bought a dead general store, and brought it to life for 9 years. They moved back to the city with three children, and Hugh revitalized his professional acting career. The family has kept the country house, Crosswicks, and continues to spend summers there.
As the years passed and the children grew, Madeleine continued to write and Hugh to act, and they to enjoy each other and life. Madeleine began her association with the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where she has been the librarian and maintained an office for more than thirty years. After Hugh's death in 1986, it was her writing and lecturing that kept her going. She has now lived through the 20th century and into the 21st and has written over 60 books and keeps writing. She enjoys being with her friends, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren.

Bibliography: Publication Date
18 Washington Square South: A Comedy in One Act, 1944
The Small Rain, 1945
Ilsa, 1946
And Both Were Young, 1949
Camilla Dickinson, 1951
A Winter's Love, 1957
Meet the Austins, 1960
A Wrinkle in Time, 1962
The Moon By Night, 1963
The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas, 1964
The Arm of the Starfish, 1965
Camilla, 1965
The Love Letters, 1966
A Journey With Jonah (a play), 1967
The Young Unicorns, 1968
Dance in the Desert, 1969
Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems, 1969
The Other Side of the Sun, 1971
A Circle of Quiet, 1972
A Wind in the Door, 1973
Everyday Prayers, 1974
Prayers for Sunday, 1974
The Risk of Birth, 1974
The Summer of the Great Grandmother, 1974
Dragons in the Waters, 1976
The Irrational Season, 1977
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, 1978
The Weather of the Heart, 1978
Ladder of Angels, 1979
The Anti-Muffins, 1980
A Ring of Endless Light, 1980
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, 1980
A Severed Wasp, 1982
The Sphinx at Dawn, 1982
And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings, 1983
A House Like a Lotus, 1984
Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children's Literature, 1985 (with Avery Brooke)
Many Waters, 1986
A Stone for a Pillow: Journeys with Jacob, 1986
A Cry Like a Bell, 1987
Two-Part Invention, 1988
An Acceptable Time, 1989
Sold Into Egypt: Joseph's Journey into Human Being, 1989
The Glorious Impossible, 1990
Certain Women, 1992
The Rock That is Higher, 1993
Anytime Prayers, 1994
Troubling a Star, 1994
Glimpses of Grace, 1996 (with Carole Chase)
A Live Coal in the Sea, 1996
Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols, 1996
Wintersong, 1996 (with Luci Shaw)
Bright Evening Star, 1997
Friends for the Journey, 1997 (with Luci Shaw)
Mothers and Daughters, 1997 (with Maria Rooney)
Miracle on 10th Street, 1998
A Full House, 1999
Mothers and Sons, 1999 (with Maria Rooney)
Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends, 1999 (with Luci Shaw)
The Other Dog, 2001
Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life, 2001 (with Carole Chase)
The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle, 2005

No more racism!

2007-09-12T15:18:00.000-05:00

A friend alerted me to the incident in Jena, Louisiana. Please take a minute to familiarize yourself with the situation at: http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml.
It is a sad day in our country when we are faced with such racism living alive and well. The signs say it all "No Justice, No Peace."

Visit http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/
You'll see...

Justice for the Jena 6
The lives of six young black men are being ruined by Jim Crow justice in Jena, Louisiana.
The District Attorney has refused to protect the rights of Jena's Black population and has turned the police and courts into instruments of intimidation and oppression. We can help turn things around by making it a political liability for the authorities of Jena to continue the racist status quo, and by forcing the Governor of Louisiana to intervene.
Today is only the first step. Please join us.

You can sign the online petition or cut and paste the information below.

Dear friend,
I just learned about a case of segregation-era oppression happeningtoday in Jena, Louisiana. I signed onto ColorOfChange.org's campaignfor justice in Jena, and wanted to invite you to do the same. http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936

Last fall in Jena, the day after two Black high school students satbeneath the "white tree" on their campus, nooses were hung from thetree. When the superintendent dismissed the nooses as a "prank," moreBlack students sat under the tree in protest. The District Attorney then came to the school accompanied by the town's police and demandedthat the students end their protest, telling them, "I can be your bestfriend or your worst enemy... I can take away your lives with a strokeof my pen." A series of white-on-black incidents of violence followed, and the DAdid nothing. But when a white student was beaten up in a schoolyardfight, the DA responded by charging six black students with attemptedmurder and conspiracy to commit murder. It's a story that reads like one from the Jim Crow era, when judges,lawyers and all-white juries used the justice system to keep blacks in"their place." But it's happening today. The families of these young men are fighting back, but the story has gotten minimal press.Together, we can make sure their story is told and that the Governorof Louisiana intervenes and provides justice for the Jena 6. It startsnow. Please join me: http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936

The noose-hanging incident and the DA's visit to the school set thestage for everything that followed. Racial tension escalated over thenext couple of months, and on November 30, the main academic building ofJena High School was burned down in an unsolved fire. Later the sameweekend, a black student was beaten up by white students at a party.The next day, black students at a convenience store were threatened by ayoung white man with a shotgun. They wrestled the gun from him and ranaway. While no charges were filed against the white man, the students were later arrested for the theft of the gun. That Monday at school, a white student, who had been a vocal supporterof the students who hung the nooses, taunted the black student who wasbeaten up at the off-campus party and allegedly called several blackstudents "nigger." After lunch, he was knocked down, punched andkicked by black students. He was taken to the hospital, but wasreleased and was well enough to go to a social event that evening. Six Black Jena High students, Robert Bailey (17), Theo Shaw (17),Carwin Jones (18), Bryant Purvis (17), Mychal Bell (16) and anunidentified minor, were expelled from school, arrested and chargedwith second-degree attempted murder. The first trial ended last month, and Mychal Bell, who has been in prison since December, wasconvicted of aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravatedbattery (both felonies) by an all-white jury in a trial where his public defender called no witnesses. During his trial, Mychal'sparents were ordered not to speak to the media and the courtprohibited protests from taking place near the courtroom or where thejudge could see them. Mychal is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31st, and could go to jailfor 22 years. Theo Shaw's trial is next. He will finally make bailthis week.The Jena Six are lucky to have parents and loved ones who are fightingtooth and nail to free them. They have been threatened but they arestanding strong. We know that if the families have to go it alone,their sons will be a long time coming home. But if we act now, we canmake a difference. Join me in demanding that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco getinvolved to make sure that justice is served for Mychal Bell, and that DA Reed Walters drop the charges against the 5 boys who have not yet gone to trial.http://www.colorofchange.org/jena/?id=2241-345936
Thanks.

The Loss of a Great Dame

2007-09-10T20:49:00.000-05:00

The world has lost a true leader and a real inspiration to both young women and friends to the environment.

Body Shop founder Anita Roddick dies

Anita Roddick, founder of beauty retailer The Body Shop and one of Britain's best known businesswomen, has died at the age of 64 after suffering a major brain haemorrhage.Roddick founded The Body Shop in Brighton in 1976, selling toiletries made from natural ingredients, and her brand became a byword for socially and environmentally responsible business.
The daughter of Italian immigrants, Roddick saw her business mushroom into an empire of more than 2,000 stores serving more than 77 million customers in 51 different markets. She sold her stake in The Body Shop to France's L'Oreal last year.
"Anita Roddick was admitted to St Richard's Hospital in Chichester, close to her home, yesterday evening when she collapsed after complaining of a sudden headache," her family said.
"Mrs Roddick was admitted to the hospital's Intensive Care Unit and her husband Gordon and two daughters, Sam and Justine, were with her when she died," it said.
A multi-millionaire, Roddick campaigned against human rights abuses and was an environmental activist.
The mission statement of The Body Shop was: "To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change."
Roddick said it was her mother's frugality during World War Two that inspired her to campaign for environmental issues and question retail conventions.
"We reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could. The foundation of The Body Shop's environmental activism was born out of ideas like these," she wrote on her Web site.
"The Body Shop is not, and nor was ever, a one-woman-show - it's a global operation with thousands of people working towards common goals and sharing common values," she said.
Roddick revealed earlier this year that she was suffering from liver damage after contracting the Hepatitis C virus more than 35 years ago and soon began campaigning for support for sufferers of the potentially deadly disease.
She developed Hepatitis C from infected blood given to her during the birth of her youngest daughter, Sam, in 1971.

from: http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4197926a10.html

Body Shop founder Anita Roddick dies
By D'ARCY DORAN, Associated Press Writer
Anita Roddick, founder of the international Body Shop cosmetics chain, died Monday night after suffering a major brain hemorrhage, her family said. She was 64.
Roddick, who died at a hospital in Chichester, had revealed in February that she contracted hepatitis C through a blood transfusion while giving birth to a daughter in 1971. She made the announcement after being named head of the British charity Hepatitis C Trust.
The business woman was lauded as the "Queen of Green" for trailblazing business practices that sought to be environmentally friendly and won her renown in her native England and around the world.
"Businesses have the power to do good," she wrote on the Web site of the company, which was bought last year by the French company L'Oreal Group.
Roddick opened her first Body Shop outlet in 1976 in Brighton, southern England, before fair trade and eco-friendly businesses were fashionable.
She said her business ethics were inspired in part by women's beauty rituals that she discovered while traveling in developing countries and lessons from closer to home that her mother passed on from life during the hard years of World War II.
"Why waste a container when you can refill it? And why buy more of something than you can use? We behaved as she did in the Second World War, we reused everything, we refilled everything and we recycled all we could," Roddick wrote.
The Body Shop opposed product testing on animals and tried to encourage development by purchasing materials from small communities in the Third World. It also invested in a wind farm in Wales as part of its campaign to support renewable energy, and it set up its own human rights award.
The company has grown into a global phenomenon with nearly 2,000 stores in 50 countries and remains independently run despite being owned by L'Oreal Group.
In recognition of Roddick's contribution to business and charity, Queen Elizabeth II made her a dame, the female equivalent of a knight, in 2003.
Greenpeace executive director John Sauven called Roddick an "incredible woman" who would be "sorely missed."
"She was so ahead of her time when it came to issues of how business could be done in different ways, not just profit motivated but taking into account environmental issues," Sauven said.
"When you look at it today, and how every company claims to be green, she was living this decades ago," he added.
Roddick, the daughter of Italian immigrants, said she opened her Brighton store with only modest hopes.
"I started the Body Shop simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas," she wrote. "I had no training or experience ... ."
Roddick and her husband stepped down as co-chairmen of the company in 2002, but she continued to contribute as a consultant.
She joked that the Body Shop's trademark green color scheme came by accident because it was the only color that could cover the mold on the walls of her first shop.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070910/ap_on_re_eu/obit_roddick

National Library Card Sign Up Month

2007-09-05T23:57:00.000-05:00

Don't miss your chance to take advantage of National Library Card Sign Up Month!
All month long libraries will have lots of great programs to highlight the advantages of being a library card member.
Be sure to check out your local library!

Texas: Band not State

2007-08-13T23:36:00.000-05:00

Texas are a pop music band from Glasgow, Scotland. They were founded by Johnny McElhone (formerly of the bands Altered Images and Hipsway) in 1986 and had their performing debut in March 1988 at Scotland's University of Dundee. They took their name from the 1984 Wim Wenders movie Paris, Texas. Their musical sound went from blues rock on their debut album Southside via the blue-eyed soul of White on Blonde to the disco pop of Red Book.

History
Texas scored a UK hit in 1989 with their debut single "I Don't Want a Lover." This was taken from their debut album Southside, which went on to sell two million copies worldwide.

Ellen DeGeneres had approached the band, and Sharleen Spiteri and Ally McErlaine flew to the U.S. to re-record a song from the third album, "So Called Friend," which went on to become the theme song to DeGeneres' US sitcom Ellen.

In 1997 Texas came back with "Say What You Want"; this became their biggest hit single yet, peaking at #3. The album White on Blonde followed, entering at #1, where it would return a year later. Other hit singles from the album were "Halo," "Black Eyed Boy," and "Put Your Arms Around Me"; a reworking of "Say What You Want" with Method Man was released alongside album track "Insane."

The band's fifth album, The Hush, was released in 1999 with the lead-off single "In Our Lifetime" which was a huge hit in the UK reaching number 4 and was included in the "Notting Hill" Soundtrack.

In 2000, a greatest-hits album was released that included three new songs (In Demand, "Inner Smile," and "Guitar Song"). The video for "In Demand" featured actor Alan Rickman, and in the video for the anthemic follow-up single, co-written by Gregg Alexander, Spiteri dressed up as Elvis Presley. "Inner Smile" was a big hit in Europe and was later featured prominently in the 2002 feature film Bend It Like Beckham. The song "Like Lovers (Holding On)" is featured during the ending credits of the animated feature film Titan A.E.

In September 2002, Spiteri gave birth to her daughter Mysty Kyd. However, this did not prevent her from working on another album. In the television show The Office, fictional character David Brent claims that Texas used to open for his band, "Foregone Conclusion," before he gave up music to manage the Slough office of Wernham Hogg, a paper supply firm.

The band returned in mid-2005 with the single "Getaway," which entered the UK Top 10, the video for which was shot by Christopher Doyle and directed by Tim Royes. The single "Can't Resist" and album Red Book followed in the autumn.

Albums
Southside, Heaven, Ricks Road, White On Blonde, The Hush, Greatest Hits, Careful What you Wish For, Red Book

Don’t Miss the Songs:
Inner Smile and Fool for Love

Book Review: Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand

2007-08-08T17:10:00.000-05:00

SUMMER READING...don't miss it!
Synopsis:

It's summer on Nantucket, and as the season begins, three women arrive at the local airport, observed by Josh, a local boy, home from college. Burdened with small children, unwieldy straw hats, and some obvious emotional issues, the women--two sisters and one friend--make their way to the sisters' tiny cottage, inherited from an aunt. They're all trying to escape from something: Melanie, after seven failed in-vitro attempts, discovered her husband's infidelity and then her own pregnancy; Brenda embarked on a passionate affair with an older student that got her fired from her prestigious job as a professor in New York; and her sister Vickie, mother to two small boys, has been diagnosed with cancer. Soon Josh is part of the chaotic household, acting as babysitter, confidant, and, eventually, something more, while the women confront their pasts and map out their futures.

This sixth book by the author of The Blue Bistro may not be the best piece of literature ever written, but the cover says it all...showing female legs, standing together, at the beach. It is a quick read with the main divergents. The three female characters each have a chance to tell their story as they struggle to find some peace in their chaotic life. The fourth main character is a young man who is dripping with the possibility of a bright future that only a 20 year college student can demonstrate. Looking for a beach read? Make sure you toss this one into your book bag.

Resume Site

2007-08-08T17:04:00.000-05:00

I got an email from someone who is graduating soon with a little note on the bottom.
"I'm graduating in a few months..."
and it listed a URL for emurse.

Emurse is an online resume site. Very easy to use. I'd recommend you check it out!

Lake Superior

2007-08-05T21:51:00.000-05:00

Lake Superior Changes Mystify Scientists

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070803/ap_on_sc/
superior_puzzle&printer=1;_ylt=AnRnlahDbmGXRtXNqnN9SJlxieAA

Deep enough to hold the combined water in all the other Great Lakes and with a surface area as large as South Carolina, Lake Superior's size has lent it an aura of invulnerability. But the mighty Superior is losing water and getting warmer, worrying those who live near its shores, scientists and companies that rely on the lake for business.

The changes to the lake could be signs of climate change, although scientists aren't sure.
Superior's level is at its lowest point in eight decades and will set a record this fall if, as expected, it dips three more inches. Meanwhile, the average water temperature has surged 4.5 degrees since 1979, significantly above the 2.7-degree rise in the region's air temperature during the same period.

That's no small deal for a freshwater sea that was created from glacial melt as the Ice Age ended and remains chilly in all seasons.

A weather buoy on the western side recently recorded an "amazing" 75 degrees, "as warm a surface temperature as we've ever seen in this lake," said Jay Austin, assistant professor at the University of Minnesota at Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory.

Water levels also have receded on the other Great Lakes since the late 1990s. But the suddenness and severity of Superior's changes worry many in the region. Shorelines are dozens of yards wider than usual, giving sunbathers wider beaches but also exposing mucky bottomlands and rotting vegetation.

On a recent day, Dan Arsenault, a 32-year-old lifelong resident of Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, watched his two young daughters play in mud on the southeastern coast where water was waist deep only a few years ago. A floatation rope that previously designated the swimming area now rests on moist ground.
"This is the lowest I've ever seen it," said Arsenault.

Superior still has a lot of water. Its average depth is 483 feet and it reaches 1,332 feet at the deepest point. Erie, the shallowest Great Lake, is 210 feet at its deepest and averages only 62 feet. Lake Michigan averages 279 feet and is 925 feet at its deepest.

Yet along Superior's shores, boats can't reach many mooring sites and marina operators are begging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge shallow harbors. Ferry service between Grand Portage, Minn., and Isle Royale National Park was scaled back because one of the company's boats couldn't dock.

Sally Zabelka has turned away boaters wanting to dock at Chippewa Landing marina in the eastern Upper Peninsula, where not long ago 27-foot vessels easily made their way up the channel from the lake's Brimley Bay. "In essence, our dock is useless this year," she said.
Another worry: As the bay heats up, the perch, walleye and smallmouth bass that have lured anglers to her campground and tackle shop are migrating to cooler waters in the open lake.
Low water has cost the shipping industry millions of dollars. Vessels are carrying lighter loads of iron ore and coal to avoid running aground in shallow channels.

Puffing on a pipe in a Grand Marais pub, retiree Ted Sietsema voiced a suspicion not uncommon in the villages along Superior's southern shoreline: The government is diverting the water to places with more people and political influence — along Lakes Huron and Michigan and even the Sun Belt, via the Mississippi River.

"Don't give me that global warming stuff," Sietsema said. "That water is going west. That big aquifer out there is empty but they can still water the desert. It's got to be coming from somewhere."

That theory doesn't hold water, said Scott Thieme, hydraulics and hydrology chief with the Corps of Engineers district office in Detroit. Water does exit Lake Superior through locks, power plants and gates on the St. Marys River, but in amounts strictly regulated under a 1909 pact with Canada.

The actual forces at work, while mysterious, are not the stuff of spy novels, he said.
Precipitation has tapered off across the upper Great Lakes since the 1970s and is nearly 6 inches below normal in the Superior watershed the past year. Water evaporation rates are up sharply because mild winters have shrunk the winter ice cap — just as climate change computer models predict for the next half-century.

Yet those models also envision more precipitation as global warming sets in, said Brent Lofgren, a physical scientist with the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor. Instead there's drought, suggesting other factors.

Cynthia Sellinger, the lab's deputy director, said she suspects a contributing factor could be residual effects of El Nino, the warming of equatorial Pacific waters that produced warmer winters in the late 1990s, just as the lakes began receding.

Austin, the Minnesota-Duluth professor, said he's concerned about the effects the warmer water could have.

"It's just not clear what the ultimate result will be as we turn the knob up," he said. "It could be great for fisheries or fisheries could crash."

Mulder Tribute

2007-08-04T09:16:00.000-05:00

I had a total flashback. Today is one of those mornings that reminded me of Chicago Summer. There was this radio show I used to listen to (Eric & Kathy) and they were playing a song called "David Duchovny" sort of a tribute/joke song written by Bree Sharp. I never even watched X files but Gillian Anderson is a hometown girl (Grand Rapids native!) so I thought I'd do a little post here.

I'd to upload the music but since i don't know how right now I'll just guide you to the link at: http://duchovny.net/multimedia/radio.htm. The radio show transcript is after the lyrics. I hear there is a new X files movie coming out sometime so who knows, maybe there's a revival coming our way...

David Duchovny by Bree Sharp

It's Sunday night
I am curled up in my room.
The TV light
Fills my heart like a balloon.
I hold it in as best I can.
I know I'm just another fan.
Still can't help feeling i could
Love a secret agent man...
And I can't Wait any more
for Him to discover me
I got it bad for David Duchovny
David Duchovny
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
My friends all tell me
Girl, you know it's just a show.
But deep within his eyes
I see me wrapped up like a bow.
Watching the skies for a sign.
The FBI is on my mind.
Waiting for the day
When my lucky stars align
In the form of David Duchovny
Floating above me
In the alien light
Of the spaceship of love
David Duchovny
Hovering above me
American Heathcliff
Brooding and comic
David Duchovny
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
So smug and so smart
He's abducted my heart
And I'm falling apart
From those looks I receive
From those eyes I can't leave
You could say I'm naive
But he told me to believe (ooooooooh)
My bags are packed,
I am ready for my flight.
To put an end to
Daydream days and sleepless nights
Sitting like a mindless clone.
Wishing he would tap my phone
Just to hear the whisper
- the man, the myth, the monotone...
And I'll say David Duchovny
Why won't you love me
Why won't you love me
David Duchovny
David Duchovny
I want you to love me
To kiss and to hug me
Debrief and debug me
David Duchovny
I know you can love me
I'm sweet and I'm cuddly
I'm gonna kill Scully!
David Duchovny
Why won't you love me,
Why won't you love me,
Why won't you love me....(repeat and fade)

Eric & Kathy Show
Chicago Radio Station Interview
June 1999
On the set of Return to Me
Swanny: Hi Mr. Duchovny, I John Swanson, Swanny, from the Eric and Kathy show, howya doin'?
DD: Good.
Swanny: It's David Duchovny Why Won't You Love Me? on Eric and Kathy.
Eric: David?
DD: Hello.
Eric: Hi David, how are you?
DD: I fine, who is this, Eric or Kathy?
Kathy: It's actually both.
Eric: Wow. How are ya? We've been playing your song all week, "David Duchovny Why Won't You Love Me?" and it's a pleasure to finally speak to you.
DD: Sure, that's what Swanny told me here, that you've been playing that song.
Kathy: You've heard the song, haven't you?
DD: Yeah, a friend of mine brought it to my attention about nine months ago.
Zwecker: This is Bill Zwecker of the Chicago Sun-Times, David. How are you?
DD: (with his usual wit) How many people you got over there?
Eric: (joking) It's like a studio full of people.
Kathy: We're just having a party.
DD: Sounds like you're doing a good job.
Eric: What do you think of the song?
DD: When I heard it I thought it was a really good tune, and I was embarrassed by the lyrics. But I never thought it would be a public thing, so right now it's just even more embarrassing than when I first heard it.
Kathy: Hey David, what did Téa think of the song?
DD: It was actually a friend of hers that brought it to me and her first reaction was "I wish I had written a song for you."
Eric and Kathy: Awwwwwww. . .
DD: But then, of course she's not musical at all, so. . .
Kathy: That's sweet.
Eric: That's nice. So have you had a chance to meet Bree Sharp, the woman that sings it?
DD: No I haven't.
Eric: Really, uh, would ya?
DD: Would I meet her?
Eric: Yeah.
DD: You mean like, would I be scared to meet her?
Eric: I don't know. Would ya?
Kathy: I would.
DD: I think it's kinda a funny song. I like the tune.
Kathy: And it's got a good beat.
DD: It does. It has a good beat, you can dance to it, I give it an 85.
Eric: There you go. Quite a tribute. How are things going on the movie there? Bonnie Hunt is fantastic.
DD: Bonnie's the best, yeah, a Chicago native.
Eric: Things are going well for ya?
DD: I think they're going really well. You know you can never tell with a movie until it's all done but there's a good feeling here.
Kathy: Hey, we should wish you an early happy Father's Day.
DD: Is that this Sunday?
Kathy: Yeah.
Eric: How's the baby?
DD: The baby's great, thank you. She's doing great. She's spent more time in Chicago than in any other place in the world.
Eric: Oh that's great.
Kathy: Well wasn't she born just before you came to Chicago?
DD: Exactly. That's what I'm saying.
Kathy: Wow.
Eric: Pretty soon she's gonna be a native Chicagoan and demanding pizza left and right.
Kathy: Yeah.
DD: I know. When do you become a native Chicagoan? How long do you have to be here?
Eric: Oh, about three weeks.
Kathy: No, you have to survive a winter, Dave.
DD: Oh, well then she's not going to make it.
DD: Neither am I.
Eric: Well, David, we appreciate you taking a couple moments out of your busy schedule. Best wishes to you and Téa and the family and good luck with the movie and we can't wait to see it.
DD: Thank you very much.
Eric: Thank you. Take care, and goodbye.
Kathy: Thank you.
DD: I'll give you back to Swanny here.
Eric: Thank you. Sorry about that if he's frightening you.
DD: He's a little scary with the White Sox jacket on, he looks like a normal person.
Kathy: Oh, no.
Eric: Thank you, David.
DD: Alright, bye.
+

Time On Earth

2007-07-11T14:01:00.000-05:00

Time On Earth by Crowded House

The pop-rock band from Australia has come together for their first studio recording in fourteen years. Crowded House's latest album features founding members Neil Finn and Nick Seymour along with former member Mark Hart and new drummer Matt Sherrod. Time On Earth weaves together a range of moods from touching, introspective ballads to upbeat, Beatlesque rock 'n' roll. The fourteen tracks also feature the guitar work of Johnny Marr and include the song "Silent House," which Finn co-wrote with Dixie Chicks.

Book Suggestion: Friday Night Knitting Club

2007-06-06T10:08:00.000-05:00

Friday Night Knitting Club
by Kate Jacobs

As a single mom in her late 30s, Georgia has her hands full juggling the demands of running the Walker & Daughter knitting store with the challenges of raising her spunky teen daughter, Dakota. Georgia’s regular customers gather once a week to work on their latest projects and chat – and occasionally clash – about love, life, and everything else.

The members of the Friday Night Knitting Club are as varied as the skeins of yarn in the shop’s bins. There’s Peri, a pre-law student turned handbag designer; Anita, a silver-haired uptown matron; Darwin, a somewhat aloof grad student; K.C., an out-of-work editor looking for inspiration, and Lucie, a petite television producer with a few surprises up her sleeve. But soon their quiet Friday nights are shaken up: James, Georgia’s ex, wants to play a larger role in Dakota’s life – and possibly Georgia’s as well. Cat, a former high school friend, uneasily renews her bond with Georgia. And when the unthinkable happens, all of Georgia’s customers are forced to realize they’ve created not just a knitting club, but a sisterhood.