Arts & CultureBooksSpring Literary Review 2020 issue
The Catholic Book Club: From contemporary poetry to a study of Mary Magdalene
James T. KeaneApril 24, 2020
(Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash)
The Catholic Book Club passed another happy milestone this past fall, when our Facebook discussion group gained its 4,000th member (our weekly Catholic Book Club newsletter has also grown, and now has almost 11,000 subscribers), proving that the written word stubbornly retains its allure even amid new platforms and methods of communication. After three years of sharing our thoughts on different books from a broad variety of genres, we have run the gamut from novels to historical biographies to sociological studies to memoirs to short story collections to poetry.
St. Peter's B-Listby Mary Ann B. Miller (editor)
Ave Maria Press. 288p, $15.95
The Magdalene in the Reformation by Margaret Arnold
312p, $29.95
De gustibus non est disputandum, as the Romans were wont to say (we might render it "different strokes for different folks"). We have found that different genres and authors inspire different readers and broad variations in discussion, another reason to mix it up a bit in terms of genres and styles.
Our two most recent selections have been no exception. Our fall 2019 selection was a poetry anthology, St. Peter's B-List: Contemporary Poems Inspired by the Saints, edited by Mary Ann B. Miller, and our winter 2020 selection was an academic text on a fairly specific topic: The Magdalene in the Reformation, by Margaret Arnold. In both cases, our conversation was spurred and informed by the literary and cultural insights of the Catholic Book Club moderator, Kevin Spinale, S.J., who wrote interpretive essays to introduce the books to the readers and to further the discussion.
De gustibus non est disputandum, as the Romans were wont to say (we might render it "different strokes for different folks").
St. Peter's B-List: Contemporary Poems Inspired by the Saints
"Perhaps some regard 'poetry'—the word or form is a put-off—as a nasty little inaccessible form of writing to be avoided," wrote Father Spinale in his introductory essay to St. Peter's B-list. "Perhaps many members of the Book Club still have scars from reading Alexander Pope or feel revulsion after having to stomach some lumpy, middle-aged English teacher passionately screaming, 'Seize the day!' while telling you what Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' really means."
Part of the problem, according to Father Spinale, is that "English teachers excel at telling their students what poems mean—perhaps this is why we rarely read poetry. Perhaps we think we need someone to tell us what it means." But he did not find that to be the case with St. Peter's B-List: "The poetry in this collection is very different. We can read it without anyone telling us anything. The experiences of the poets penetrate our own and expand them; these poets make our experiences richer—inflected in a different key."
Poets in the volume include such well-known Catholic writers as the late Brian Doyle, Mary Karr, Dana Gioia, Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, Paul Mariani and Kate Daniels but also many less familiar names. Of the 70 poems in the anthology, Father Spinale wrote: "Many are extraordinarily funny. Many are heart-wrenching and render the reader silent. All are Catholic. All of them, I think, can contribute to prayer."
"I think for me the most powerful aspect of this book was not necessarily always the poems written by others (although I appreciated the imagery and reflections found in many of them)," wrote reader Mary Virginia Bunker.
"I think for me the most powerful aspect of this book was not necessarily always the poems written by others (although I appreciated the imagery and reflections found in many of them)," wrote reader Mary Virginia Bunker:
I found that reading the poetry in the book provided me with a personal challenge to try and articulate my own feelings, emotions and experiences/memories related to some of the saints that have deeply impacted my own spiritual journey and practices. I found that reading the book inspired me to do some of my own journaling (free-form verse, personal prayer, reflections, narrative and questions) and artwork around the qualities and stories of the saints that have touched me and people I have loved.
The online conversation on our C.B.C. Facebook page also benefited from conversation with some of the poets in the volume, including Angela Alaimo O'Donnell. "It is fascinating to see the ways in which what we bring to a poem shapes (in some measure) what we see in it. This is why poetry is so multiple in its meanings. A poem has as many readings as there are readers," she wrote.
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell: "It is fascinating to see the ways in which what we bring to a poem shapes (in some measure) what we see in it. This is why poetry is so multiple in its meanings. A poem has as many readings as there are readers."
The Magdalene in the Reformation
Throughout 20 centuries of Christianity, the story of Mary Magdalene has been a convoluted one—as well as one that has often shown the worst patriarchal and sexist elements at work within church pieties and teaching. The first apostle to see the risen Lord—known, in fact, because of this as the apostola apostolorum—she nevertheless found her reputation over the centuries slowly turned to that of a prostitute or a woman possessed, in large part because interpreters of Scripture made an amalgam of several women mentioned in the New Testament and presented them all as the Magdalene.
In his introductory essay for our discussion of this book, Father Spinale asked if readers had a pre-existing devotion to Mary Magdalene and what their understanding of the saint was before they read this book. A surprising number of readers said they had long held her in high esteem. "Never have I associated her with prostitution or possession. She may at times, in my mind, have been a compilation of the various Marys mentioned in Scripture, but for the most part, I considered her a woman with a mission," wrote Sally Meyers. "She was 'ahead of her time,' unappreciated in a male-dominated culture both then and now. Her belief, her love and her strength drew me to her."
"The reformers understood in Mary an intimacy with Christ and a mission that they can replicate in their own lives," Father Spinale wrote. "Such an intimacy licenses public witness to Jesus Christ on the part of lay men and women."
"Mary Magdalene's character draws others to her and clearly excites connections and comparisons among those who contemplate her witness to the risen Christ," Father Spinale wrote. "The reformers understood in Mary an intimacy with Christ and a mission that they can replicate in their own lives. Such an intimacy licenses public witness to Jesus Christ on the part of lay men and women," he continued. "For early modern Catholics, such an intimacy is afforded one who empties oneself in contrition for sin and enacts love in the all-consuming, often contemplative and unitive way that Mary loves Jesus."
Margaret Arnold's words in The Magdalene in the Reformation support his contention, as she notes the many ways in which Mary Magdalene allowed people to access the entire story of salvation history, including often in pairs with other saints. "Over the centuries, Mary was made to speak not only her good news but also her whole story, a chronicle of sin and redemption that contains within it humanity's fall and salvation," Arnold writes. She continues:
There's something about Mary Magdalene
Kevin Spinale
Unpacking 'St. Peter's B-List': Poems on faith, laughter, guilt, anguish and hope
Her progress from sinner to penitent, from prodigal to ascetic, from witness to missionary, describes the arc of the church's founding narrative. The varying emphases that can be found in different versions of her story point to the preoccupations of those who gave her voice, to the questions that interested, inspired, and infuriated them.
Further, because the different images of Mary Magdalene inspired other women to argue for authority, to show holiness, to argue for a closer intimacy with Christ, "[a]n army of eloquent Magdalenes has carried the message of the Gospel through the centuries," Arnold concludes, "despite facing violence, oppression, insult, and mockery. The church owes them its life."
To offer the broadest possible range of quality books with spiritual and intellectual heft, we are always interested in suggestions for what to choose next. Are you interested in reading and discussing with us? Join the Catholic Book Club at americamagazine.org/catholic-book-club or on Facebook at facebook.com/groups/americacbc. Happy reading!
This article also appeared in print, under the headline "Contemporary poetry to a study of Mary Magdalene," in the Spring Literary Review 2020, issue.
More: Literature / Books / Saints / Poetry / History
James T. Keane is a senior editor of America.
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Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Markets: Getting it right the first time?
Published: Thursday, April 03 rd, 2014
By Naomi Rosenthal
The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) continues to evolve rapidly, and the majority of global corporations now undertake CSR activities. The term was coined in the 1950s, including in Bowen's groundbreaking work "Social Responsibility of Businessmen."[1] Bowen's work marked a turning point, as it highlighted the fundamental requirement that companies pursue activities in an ethical manner in order to maintain their social license to operate. This notion underscores how we at Clarmondial, and many experts globally define CSR today:
CSR encompasses the legal requirement for companies to adhere to social and environmental governance practices, and the opportunities for excelling beyond these basic requirements in order to gain a competitive advantage through improved understanding of the risks and opportunities of ESG considerations.
Critically, however, the notion raised by Bowen was groundbreaking for its time. After all, it was a time where colonialism was still rife and most transnational corporations sought to maximize profits in the short run.
Industry as a whole did not give this early work much notice. It was not until the mid 1980s and early 1990s that companies began to really consider how their environmental and social governance might influence their bottom line. This realization came largely through a number of corporate scandals, including the Nestlé baby milk formula scandal, the Nike child labor campaigns and major Shell Oil disasters including the Brent Spar oil platform and speculation surrounding their involvement in the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa in 1995. While early reactions to these events were purely motivated by public relations, and avoiding false press, it formed the origin of a movement towards understanding the responsibility of a company to behave ethically. Indeed, it is no surprise that Shell has been credited as the first major company to complete a CSR report, in 1998.[2]
This growing concern led to an industry movement to better appreciate companies' responsibilities with respect to their social contract, and to understand and address material social and environmental issues. This has led to the creation of a multitude of standards, reporting guidelines, supply chain codes of conduct, business associations, policy frameworks, employee associations, and international watchdogs. All this to address the many fundamental questions that consumers, governments and business leaders face, including:
How can corporations develop profitably while still adhering to basic social and environmental practices?
To whom are corporations accountable?
What types of environmental and social issues must they consider?
Whose responsibility is it to monitor these actions and what can be done when the behavior of corporations violates basic ethical considerations?
Over time, the notion, also referred to by now as corporate responsibility, social responsibility, or environmental and social governance considerations, has grown to encompass much more than public relations – CSR is the political economy of companies.
Despite the growing importance of CSR, the concept continues to be more widely used in large consumer facing companies from developed economies. There are several reasons why Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), companies within the B2B (business to business) sector and companies from emerging economies are less likely to report on their CSR activities. For example, these companies are less likely to be targets of civil society anti-corporation backlash campaigns. They are also less likely to have the resources to undertake and prioritize complex and additional analysis and reporting, including in-depth supply chain analyses and to conduct voluntary reporting. They may also believe that their small scale is likely to have a small impact, which does not justify such an investment.
Nevertheless, research has shown that there is a growing trend towards CSR activities in emerging economies, and the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) publication Fast Growth and Big Impacts: How Emerging Market Multinationals are advancing sustainable development argues that due to their proximity to pressing Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) issues, many larger corporations from emerging economies actually have improved environmental and social governance compared with their developed economy peers. This publication highlights an important point: companies that are at the forefront of these issues can use their proximity to have a greater impact where it is most needed, and similarly harness the associated economic opportunities. For this reason there are a number of international initiatives to support CSR within SMEs, companies in emerging markets and companies within the B2B sector. Such initiatives are particularly important as they support the companies that are generally considered the driving force of emerging market economies.
CSR is likely to continue to grow and evolve in the future, and building successful companies through 'doing well by doing good' in emerging markets will be an interesting challenge, in particular amongst SMEs. Fostering this type of corporate development presents a great opportunity within the impact and development aid arenas, and a space that we are excited to be a part of. Some ways that we see this could be supported even further include:
Access to concessional financing or other financial incentives for organisations that are properly considering and accounting for material issues. For example lower-interest debt, tax incentives, fast-track business administration processes or tariff reductions.
Grant facilities to assist in materiality evaluations within specific localized sectors, and support to identify profitable opportunities, including technology-matchmaking.
Stakeholder engagement opportunities, such as opportunities for investors who consider social and environmental considerations to connect with leading SMEs within this space.
Recognition of best practices and development of case studies that guide SMEs.
Improved regulatory frameworks, requiring compliance, such as 'report or explain' requirements for stock exchanges.
Accounting firms developing mechanisms to incorporate ESG considerations into reporting practices for SMEs.
Capacity building programs for CSR within emerging markets (an example of this includes the Global CSR Retreat, which Naomi developed at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD).
As the sector continues to evolve we are excited to see new and interesting ways to work with partners to support SMEs in emerging economies that want to make CSR integral to the success of their business.
[1] See for example "Corporate Social Responsibility, Evolution of a Definitional Construct" by Archie B. Caroll
[2] http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=2682


Slack wins $1,000 teaching scholarship
by K.C. Jaehnig
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Melissa D. Slack of Arcola (736 Dogwood Drive.), a junior at Southern Illinois University Carbondale majoring in education, has won a $1,000 scholarship through a program aimed at producing math and science teachers.
Co-sponsored by SIUC's College of Education and Human Services and its College of Science with funding from the Boeing Foundation, the Teaching Excellence in Mathematics and Science initiative each year presents scholarships to as many as 20 aspiring teachers with grade-point averages of at least 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.
"These students represent some of the best and brightest students at SIUC and represent a positive future for our schools," said project director Trudi L. Volk.
Slack, the daughter of Chris D. and Cindy L. Slack, plans to teach elementary school science.
Strengthening the undergraduate scholarship program is among the goals of Southern at 150: Building Excellence Through Commitment, the blueprint the University is following as it approaches its 150th anniversary in 2019.


Tickets for UFC 94: ST-PIERRE VS. PENN 2 priced at $750, $500, $300, $200, $100 and $50, not including applicable service charges, go on sale Sunday, Nov. 16 at 10 a.m. at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith's Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino). Ticket sales are limited to ten (10) per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (702) 474-4000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.ufc.com, www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.
UFC® Fight Club™ members will have the opportunity to purchase tickets to this event Thursday, November 13 at 10 a.m. PT via the website ufc.com. A special Internet ticket pre-sale will be available to UFC newsletter subscribers Saturday, November 15 starting at 10am PT. To access this presale, users must register for the UFC newsletter through ufc.com.
UFC 94: ST-PIERRE VS. PENN 2 will be available live on pay-per-view at 10 p.m. EST/7 p.m. PST on iN DEMAND, DIRECTV, DISH Network, TVN, Bell ExpressVu, Shaw Communications and Viewer's Choice Canada for a suggested retail price of $44.95 for standard definition or high-definition broadcasts (where available).
One of the sport's most dynamic athletes, Georges St-Pierre (17-2) will be prepared to go five rounds to defend his UFC welterweight championship. The Montreal, Canada native has won his last four fights and nine out of his last 10. Most recently, the popular champ defeated number one contender Jon Fitch in a five round war, and at 27, he is in the prime of his brilliant fighting career and looking to send Penn back to the 155-pound weight class.
"I'm very honored to fight BJ Penn and very excited because it's the fight that everybody wants to see, including myself," said St-Pierre. "It will be one of the most anticipated fights in UFC history, and I'm glad and humbled to be a part of it."
The welterweight division is old hat for Hilo, Hawaii's BJ Penn (14-4-1). The current UFC lightweight champion earned the welterweight title in 2004 with a submission victory over UFC legend Matt Hughes. But Penn has been even more untouchable since moving back to the lightweight division. The Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt has won his last three fights against three world-class foes in Jens Pulver, Joe Stevenson and Sean Sherk. But the only thing on Penn's mind right now is a return to the welterweight division for a healthy dose of revenge.
"For that fight, I was at a point in my career where I didn't prepare as well as I should have," Penn said. "During the second and third round I realized that I ran into someone that wanted it more than I did…Now, I'm very prepared to go five rounds."
About The Ultimate Fighting Championship
The Ultimate Fighting Championship is the world's leading professional mixed martial arts organization and offers the premier series of MMA sports events. Owned and operated by Zuffa, LLC, and headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., UFC produces over twelve live pay-per-view events annually that are distributed residentially through North American cable and satellite providers including iNDEMAND Networks, DIRECTV, DISH Network, TVN Entertainment, Shaw Pay-Per-View, Bell ExpressVU, Viewers Choice, SaskTel Max™ and via the Internet worldwide on Yahoo! Sports, and commercially through Joe Hand Promotions in the U.S. and Canadastar in Canada. In addition to its North American distribution, UFC programming is distributed in over 100 countries and territories throughout the world. For more information, or current UFC fight news, visit ufc.com or uk.ufc.com or ufcespanol.com.
Ultimate Fighting Championship, Ultimate Fighting, UFC, The Ultimate Fighter®, Submission®, As Real As It Gets®, Zuffa™, The Octagon™ and the eight-sided competition mat and cage design are registered trademarks, trademarks, trade dress or service marks owned exclusively by Zuffa, LLC in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks referenced herein may be the property of Zuffa, LLC or other respective owners.
Lesnar on ESPN's E:60
The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs Team Mir - Episode Nine Recap


Why Are There So Many Tornadoes Right Now?
This has been a spring of angry weather across the U.S. as heat, flooding, and hail pummel the eastern half of the country. But along with the garden variety suffering, devastating tornadoes have also spread across the U.S. from Texas to Pennsylvania.
Twisters have ripped through communities across the U.S., killing at least three in Missouri last week, injuring nearly 100 on Monday in Ohio, and upending thousands of people's lives. On Thursday, nearly 78 million Americans still faced increased odds of tornadoes touching down, according to the Storm Prediction Center, including major metro areas like New York, Washington, D.C., and Nashville.
The outbreak of twisters over the past two weeks has already put U.S. tornado numbers well above average for this time of year. And the same pattern that has helped spawn so many tornadoes could still be with us through the end of the week. Though they didn't see exactly where each tornado would touch down, researchers have been eyeing this pattern weeks ahead of time thanks to an area of strong thunderstorms thousands of miles away in the tropical Pacific.
May is prime time for tornadoes to hit the U.S. as storms come rumbling out of the Rockies and warm, moist air gets sucked up out of the Gulf of Mexico. But even by May standards, the number and especially the geographical extent of where tornadoes have touched down has been notable.
"We've had one of the most active stretches on recent record," John Allen, a tornado researcher at Central Michigan University, told Earther. "Thirteen days is pretty impressive."
Indeed, the U.S. has seen roughly 600 tornadoes reported since the start of May with most of them coming in the last two weeks of the month. Some of those reports are duplicates, and it will take the National Weather Service some time to sort out a likely lower official final count. But regardless, scientifically speaking, there have been a crap ton of tornadoes.
Harold Brooks, a senior scientist at the National Severe Storms Laboratory, told Earther that while the final tornado count is still a ways away, the late April 2011 and May 2003 outbreaks are likely good analogs. He said the former was bigger overall while the latter had a more active peak day, but they're a rough "a comparison of apple varieties."
There is some research suggesting that these types of tornado outbreaks could become more common as climate change destabilizes the atmosphere. Signs that the rapid warming in the Arctic is messing with the jet stream are also a cause for concern. But attributing individual tornado outbreaks—let alone individual twisters—to climate change is still largely in the realm of highly speculative research. That's not to say climate change doesn't play a role in severe weather outbreaks like this one, but rather that scientists still have a lot to learn to firm up those connections. But there are clear indications that natural climate shifts did help shape this outbreak that researchers have been watching for weeks.
One has been an abnormally warm, moist mass of air in the Gulf of Mexico that was just kind of sitting around like a pile of tinder. But Allen said, "you needed something else to spur [severe weather] system development."
That something else is what's going on in the tropical Pacific. One factor is El Niño, a climate phenomenon characterized by a blob of warm water in the eastern tropical Pacific, that's been clinging on for dear life since February. Normally El Niño slows down the onset of severe weather season, and this year's late May burst of activity fits with that pattern. But there's another climate phenomenon in the region Allen also pointed to as being key to this May's tornado drama: the Madden Julien Oscillation (MJO).
The MJO is an area of thunderstorms that meanders over the western Pacific and Indian oceans. Earlier this month, it became very active over the Indian Ocean. Think of the jet stream as a rope; that increase in thunderstorm activity was like the snap of a wrist sending waves of energy rippling down the rope. And that added energy is the real oomph needed to kick severe weather into high gear across the U.S.
"This was the poster child example," Brooks said of the conditions priming the big tornado outbreak.
Allen is part of a team of researchers working on what they call extended range tornado activity forecasts, and their forecast picked all this up three weeks ago.
"We're dealing with a board full of knobs, and they're all weighted in different directions," he said. "We had a pretty good handle that there was going to be sustained activity as early as April."
This type of forecasting effort is both a cool science project and one that can have very real benefits for disaster managers who could use it to position supplies or get line crews ready so power doesn't stay out for long after storms. (Unfortunately, the forecasts are not granular enough to help people avoid tornados altogether.) Some research does indicate that climate change will make conditions for severe weather and tornadoes more common, giving this type of 2-3 week forecast even more value.
It also could help people in the eastern half of the country breathe a sigh of relief: The next two weeks are expected to simmer down, at least a bit.
EartherExtreme Weather


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"Sappu has many friends. One of them plays football. His father died prematurely, so now he sells vegetables as a street vendor. Neither could he leave football nor his friendship with Sappu. Also, those three friends who spent day and night looking for a dog. 11 stories about friendship, about watching a film together, traveling together, teasing each other, and also of mourning together. These stories would keep reminding you of your childhood friends…and you were also like Sappu in your childhood, weren't you? So, this book would not only re-acquaint you with your friends but also yourself. So many stories of your childhood and your friends would come back to you… In these stories, you would find children from all socio-economic classes and religions. People, market, home, school, train- these stories have everything. Swayam Prakash ji received Sahitya Academy Award for the previous collection of these stories. These stories are illustrated by the famous artist Allen Shaw. From his window in Berlin, he could picture Sappu and his friends and illustrate them. If he can meet him…why can't you?"
The Complete Novels of Sherlock Holmes Paperback (ISBN-13  :  978-8175994317) DELIVERY FREE AUSTRALIA AND NEWZELAND
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There's the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life and our duty is to unravel it and isolate it and expose every inch of it."Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective 221B Baker Street London.
This is where begins a historical partnership between Dr. Watson—the archetypal gentleman from the Victorian era—and the eccentric, legendary sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. Join them as they gather clues, ranging from bloodstains and footprints to cigarette ash and wedding rings and arrive at unusual and surprising conclusions. This book is a collection of the four novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Sign of the Four (1890), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) and The Valley of Fear (1915). Featuring the timeless detective Sherlock Holmes, these novels have been successfully engrossing readers for more than a century now.
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Civilization is a race between education and catastrophe.' —H.G. Wells
This is an unsparing dissection of the current education system by someone who has managed to wade through it, comparatively unscathed.
Unbroken and unshaken by a system that believes largely in the status-quo, writer Sid Sanghvi lays bare the truths about learning and the paradoxes in the 'system' of education. He challenges age-old notions about how information is imparted, and argues that learning without any understanding of how to learn, is the root of the problem.
The book takes a dispassionate look at the rights and wrongs perpetuated by the education system, both knowingly and unknowingly. There was a time when teachers kept a record of all the educating they had done: '911,527 blows with a rod, 124,010 blows with a cane, 20,989 taps with a ruler, 136,715 blows with the hand, 10,235 blows to the mouth, 7,905 boxes on the ear, and 1,118,800 blows on the head,' wrote one teacher in his personal diary.
Cut to the present, with the inefficiencies of the current education system exposed by the emergence of Covid-19, there could not be a better time for the incumbents to get a much needed reality check. But fear not, in tandem with attempting to lay bare the flaws of primary and secondary education, this book offers a roadmap for how one may successfully navigate the current system to maximize their probability of success.
This is a simple guide to our education system: its past, its present and a roadmap for its future.
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The Non-serious Guide To Bengali Food paperback(ISBN-13  :  978-9354891908)
Humorous, quirky and clever, The Non-Serious Guide to Bengali Food by the author and creator of the immensely popular page and property, The Bong Sense, is your answer to everything you've ever wondered about Bengali cuisine.
Inside this guide, you'll learn, among other things, "the ancient art of cooking a fish", find the answers to questions like "what is a full-blown bengali feast like?" and find out all you need to know about the "mighty roshogolla". From the obsession with fish to firm opinions on biryani, the book also delves into the historical and geographical background of popular Bengali cuisine.
Greenlights: Raucous stories and outlaw wisdom from the Academy Award-winning actor paperback(ISBN-13  :  978-1472280848)FREE DELIVERY RUSSIA
Greenlights: Raucous stories and outlaw wisdom from the Academy Award-winning actor paperback(ISBN-13  :  978-1472280848)
From the Academy Award®-winning actor, an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.
I've been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.
Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life's challenges – how to get relative with the inevitable – you can enjoy a state of success I call 'catching greenlights.'
So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.
Hopefully, it's medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot's license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.
It's a love letter. To life.
It's also a guide to catching more greenlights-and to realising that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.
Sangeeta Bala Padam Part – 1 (Hardcover) -ISBN-13  :  978-8179508770)FREE DELIVERY UAE.SAUDI ARABIA
Sangeeta Bala Padam Part – 1 (Hardcover) -ISBN-13  :  978-8179508770)
This Book will be very useful for the Begineers Of Karnatic Music (Vocal & Instrumental).This Book is dedicated to St. Purandaradasar Who is the Father of Karnatic Music.Present this book Sangeetha Bala Padam, Part -1 Consisting of Saralivarisai, Simple Shlokaas set to tune and songs up to Geetham Level.
THE STRANGER IN THE MIRROR Hardcover(ISBN-13  :  978-9390547999) FREE post USA.UK.CANADA
THE STRANGER IN THE MIRROR Hardcover(ISBN-13  :  978-9390547999)
The Stranger in the Mirror is the memoir of the legendary producer-director, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. Co-written by noted marketer-author, Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta, this book chronicles the richly experiential, multi-faceted life of one of India's most celebrated and feted directors who has made critically acclaimed films like Rang De Basanti, Delhi-6 and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.
Though it may seem natural for an autobiography to have a primary narrator, what makes this book truly unique is its many narrators. It is this multi-dimensional, multi-character narration that will enable readers to delve deep and truly understand what it means to be as unselfish as Mehra, a man who gleefully steps back and lets the experts do their job.
Peppered with anecdotes from Mehra's life—from the chai-biscuit college days to the popping of the proverbial champagne—it implores readers to pay attention to understand who is narrating, because the plot may have just shifted a little bit, just like his movies. At the end, what really stands out is how effortless the journey has actually been. And herein lies the greatest paradox because there is no lack of perseverance in this journey. The miraculous manner in which things fall into place naturally, like pieces of a pre-ordained puzzle with the universe acting as the 'sutradhar', is the fulcrum around which the joy of this remarkable journey is built.


Home / History / The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America
The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America
Download The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America written by Brian P. Levack in PDF format. This book is under the category History and bearing the isbn/isbn13 number 0199578168; 0198723636/9780199578160/ 9780198723639. You may reffer the table below for additional details of the book.
The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America quantity
SKU: dc513ea4fbda Category: History Tags: 9780198723639, 9780199578160
Brian P. Levack
Oxford University Press; 1st edition
9780199578160/ 9780198723639
The essays in this Handbook; titled 'The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe and Colonial America';(PDF) are written by leading scholars working in the rapidly developing field of witchcraft studies; explore the historical literature regarding witch beliefs and witch trials in Europe and colonial America between the early fifteenth and early eighteenth centuries. During these years witches were thought to be evil people who used magical power to inflict physical harm or misfortune on their neighbours. Witches were also believed to have made pacts with the devil and sometimes to have worshipped him at nocturnal assemblies known as sabbaths. These beliefs provided the basis for defining witchcraft as a secular and ecclesiastical crime and prosecuting tens of thousands of women and men for this offence. The trials resulted in as many as fifty thousand executions.
These essays study the rise and fall of witchcraft prosecutions in the various kingdoms and territories of Europe and in English; Spanish; and Portuguese colonies in the Americas. They also relate these prosecutions to the Catholic and Protestant reformations; the introduction of new forms of criminal procedure; medical and scientific thought; the process of state-building; profound social and economic change; early modern patterns of gender relations; and the wave of demonic possessions that occurred in Europe at the same time. The essays survey the current state of knowledge in the field; explore the academic controversies that have arisen regarding witch beliefs and witch trials; propose new ways of studying the subject; and identify areas for future research.
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Voyage of Discovery: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy (4th Edition)
Give Me Liberty! An American History (Seagull Fifth Edition) Vol. 1 by Eric Foner
Louise Brigham and the Early History of Sustainable Furniture Design
The West: A Narrative History; Volume 1: To 1660 (3rd Edition)


Home » For a Muse of Fire
For a Muse of Fire
By Heidi Heilig
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Ages 13 And Up, Grades 8 And Up
A young woman with a dangerous power she barely understands. A smuggler with secrets of his own. A country torn between a merciless colonial army, a terrifying tyrant, and a feared rebel leader.
The first book in acclaimed author Heidi Heilig's Shadow Players trilogy blends traditional storytelling with ephemera for a lush, page-turning tale of escape and rebellion.
In a starred review, School Library Journal called For a Muse of Fire "[A] must-have story with an inclusive cast, high stakes, and an intense cliff-hanger."
"Be prepared to stay up late with this one."—NPR.org
Jetta's family is famed as the most talented troupe of shadow players in the land. With Jetta behind the scrim, their puppets seem to move without string or stick—a trade secret, they say. In truth, Jetta can see the souls of the recently departed and bind them to the puppets with her blood.
But ever since the colonizing army conquered their country the old ways are forbidden, so Jetta must never show, never tell. Her skill and fame are her family's way to earn a spot aboard the royal ship to Aquitan, where shadow plays are the latest rage, and where rumor has it the Mad King has a spring that cures his ills.
Because seeing spirits is not the only thing that plagues Jetta.
But as rebellion seethes and as Jetta meets a young smuggler, she will face truths and decisions that she never imagined—and safety will never seem so far away.
Heidi Heilig creates a vivid, rich world inspired by Southeast Asian cultures and French colonialism. Her characters are equally complex and nuanced, including the bipolar heroine.
Told from Jetta's first-person point-of-view, as well as chapters written as play scripts and ephemera such as telegrams and letters, For a Muse of Fire is an engrossing journey that weaves magic, simmering romance, and the deep bonds of family with the high stakes of epic adventure.
Kirkus said, "Readers will be rewarded with vividly drawn settings reminiscent of Hawaii and Southeast Asia, exciting action scenes, and a complex protagonist. . . . compelling."
Six of Crows 01
Girls Made of Snow and Glass


Collin County Judge Chris Hill warns 'agitators' to avoid illegal activity during protests over the death of Marvin Scott III
He and other elected officials have received complaints from residents about how law enforcement handled a recent protest.
Renee White presses a photo of Marvin Scott III on the windows of the Collin County Courthouse while demanding the officers present arrest the officers involved in Scott's in-custody death after a press conference on April 28, 2021.(Shelby Tauber / Special Contributor)
By Chloe Bennett
2:13 PM on May 17, 2021 CDT
Collin County Judge Chris Hill sent constituents a letter last week denouncing a recent protest in which he said demonstrators blocked a Plano intersection.
The event was one of the near-daily protests that have taken place since March, when Marvin Scott III died in custody at the Collin County Jail.
Scott, 26, died of "fatal acute stress response in an individual with previously diagnosed schizophrenia during restraint struggle with law enforcement," according to the county medical examiner.
Since his death, organizers around the county have called for further repercussions for the detention officers who were involved. Seven were fired and one resigned, and one was reinstated through the civil service process.
In his letter, Hill said protesters who "cross the line into illegal activity" are at risk of arrest. According to state law, a person commits an offense by knowingly obstructing a public road, highway or street or disobeying a "reasonable request or order to move."
"The individuals who engaged in this behavior knowingly and volitionally disregarded the law and endangered others to further their own objectives," Hill wrote. "Like a school yard bully who torments others for his own amusement or profit, these agitators intentionally provoked conflict so that more people will pay them attention."
During the May 2 protest at Preston Road and State Highway 121, near the border of Plano and Frisco, a man angrily confronted the protesters and now faces a misdemeanor assault charge for his actions, which were captured on a video that went viral.
Hill and other elected officials have received complaints from residents about how law enforcement handled the event. During a May 3 Collin County Commissioners Court meeting, a speaker complained about how law enforcement handled the angry motorist and asked for more police protection for protesters.
During a Plano City Council meeting last week, speakers said they are worried the city's response was not assertive enough and could encourage activists or provocateurs to riot and cause extensive damage and chaos.
Hill said in his letter that although he supports peaceful protests, he offers "no sympathy and no support for those who break the law, those who abuse others, those who create conflict and destruction, and those who terrorize our communities."
Police should arrest officers in Marvin Scott's death, protect protesters, speakers tell Collin County officials
By Chloe Bennett and Brandi Addison
On May 5, civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing Scott's family, wrote Hill a letter that said protesters will consent to arrest if they believe it will help ensure an equal justice system.
"Peaceful protesters understand that in an act of civil disobedience, such as blocking a roadway, they're willing to submit themselves to arrest," he said.
"They're highlighting the fact that we can arrest protesters, so we can also, hopefully, arrest counter-protesters, and we can arrest state agents, like the seven officers involved with Marvin Scott III," he added.
Special contributors Brandi Addison and Teri Webster contributed to this report.
Chloe Bennett, Special Contributor. Chloe Bennett is a freelance journalist covering Garland and Mesquite. Originally from Carrollton, she graduated from the University of San Francisco in 2019. You can find her previous work in several outlets, including KUT public radio, Dallas Innovates, and the Plano Star Courier.
chloebwrites@gmail.com


Kings Re-Sign Two Forwards
James Wilson Monday, July 11, 2022 Los Angeles Kings
The Kings are re-signing forwards Carl Grundstrom and Lias Andersson.
How Swede it is! 🇸🇪
We've signed @CarlGrundstrom & @liasandersson to contract extensions.
— LA Kings (@LAKings) July 11, 2022
Grundstrom is being re-signed to a two-year, $1.3 million AAV contract extension, while Andersson is receiving a one-year extension, worth $700K.
This past season Grundstrom scored nine goals and six assists for 15 points in 54 games. All career highs for the twenty-four year old.
Andersson only played 20 games for the Kings this season, scoring 1 goal and 1 assist. The former seventh overall pick of the 2017 Draft will get another shot in Los Angeles this coming season.
This marks the third re-signing of restricted free agents for the Kings this offseason, with the team locking up Adrian Kempe last week.
Photo Credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports


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Shame on you!
HndRkyaBong34
Jerry Jones and the Dallas organization for letting this loser Greg Hardy play in the NFL.. You are a pathetic organization for turning a blind eye to such a despicable Person....
Sorry, I just had to put it out there....What a loser...
Last edited by HndRkyaBong34; 11-09-2015, 07:46 PM.
I think his signing and a few other underhanded things that Jones has done is why they are having such "bad luck" this season. I still think he had something to do with La'el Collins not being drafted. I think it will come out in time that it was a false report and the Cowboys were behind it. I think that Jones had a behind the scenes, illegal deal with Peterson's agent and that is why he appeared to be so abnormally confident allowing Murray to go to the Eagles, a division rival, without having a Plan B, Plac C or any plan of any kind. I think Jones thought his illegal Peterson deal was as good as done and he was going to have the last laugh. JMO
AquaXI
Dallas ConBoys!
The happiness of the Dolphin is to exist.... Jacques Cousteau.


R e s e a r c h
T h e B O A C L a b r a d o r s i g h t i n g of J u n e 2 9, 1 9 5 4
Martin SHOUGH & Wim VAN UTRECHT
Similar reports - "The Dark Blob Catalogue"
Case #19
Antofagasta, Chile - October 1978
The earliest source we located for this radar/visual incident is an article in the July-August 1979 issue of the British Flying Saucer Review (FSR Vol. 25, No. 4, p. iii). In essence, this item is an English translation of a Spanish account published in June 1979 (exact date unknown) by the Chilean newspaper La Tercera. Here's the translated text of this news article as it was published in FSR:
Chilean Air force Squadron Leader Capt. Danilo Catalan Farias, Flight Instructor of area F.5.E at the Cerro Moreno Base at Antofagasta, who affirmed having seen a gigantic UFO, has now added further details about the sighting he had while on a flying mission.
Capt. Catalan has been flying combat aircraft for 11 years, and has a brilliant service record. He says: "We were about to conduct a flying class, and took off normally round about 12.00 noon near the coast of Antofagasta in a south-westerly direction, and going through all the routine procedures, when ground control called to warn that a UFO had appeared on their radar. In this area there is traffic whose 'fly-over' permission usually arrives later, so we are quite used to referring to these as 'UFOs' or 'unidentified aircraft.' When we received the communication, my companion in another plane was ordered to seperate from us and head north. We calculated the object was doing a good speed, about 0.92 mach. which is near the speed of sound. As my companion to the north could not overtake the object, I, who was a bit more to the south, was ordered to pursue. I accelerated to 1.3 (above the speed of sound) at a height of 37,000 feet, then on the radar I had it at 20 miles distance, and its blip was a bit bigger than a normal plane's. I continued accelerating and at some 10 miles to the south I made visual contact, but suddenly there it was – only 2 miles away. I looked and saw a cloudy form.
"A pilot, at two miles distance is accustomed to identify a plane perfectly, even at 10 miles weather conditions permitting. I began relaying to ground control what I was seeing. I was very excited as this was an unexpected experience. I was unable to define what type of apparatus this was. I tried positioning myself parallel to it and so was able to make out some kind of black triangle with two small tails. When I came to within a mile and a half of it (which was quite near) the UFO veered off and accelerated violently.
"This manoeuvre was observed on radar by ground control. I calculated that it deviated at a speed more than 3 times that of sound. At this moment I thought this must be something unreal. I used to be a disbeliever – not now."
More details about this case were found in two separate interviews with retired Chilean Air Force General Hernan GABRIELLI ROJAS, the pilot of the second F-5 plane involved in the incident. The first interview with the general was conducted in December 2002; The second in August 2003. The original transcripts are in Spanish and were published respectively in Inexplicata (January 2, 2003) and in Revista TOC - Tecnología, OVNIs y Ciencia (August 31, 2003). The quotes below are from an English translation published at ufoevidence.org.
Excerpt from the December 2002 interview with Gen. GABRIELLI ROJAS:
RETIRED CHILEAN GENERAL DISCUSSES HIS ENCOUNTER WITH A GIANT UFO
SOURCE: Ovnivisión (Chile) [Ovnivisión is a long-time UFO research group - WVU]
SANTIAGO DE CHILE.- In an interview with Terra.cl. ["Terra.cl." or Terra Chile is an Internet multinational company with headquarters in Spain - WVU], retired general Hernan Gabrielli Rojas mentioned that he had squared off against a gigantic UFO while engaging in a training flight in the skies of northern Chile.
According to the military man, the object was the size of 10 or 15 aircraft carriers, and its presence was picked up by the radars aboard two F-5 jet fighters as well as the Cerro Moreno airport in Antofagasta.
- What do you remember about your contact with the UFO?
Over 20 years have gone by (this was in 1978). I was a captain and was flying a mission with two F-5 fighters. It was noon and I was flying with captain Danilo Catalán - we were both flight instructors. Accompanying us was Fernando Gomez, an avionics tech, and another trainee. The F-5 is radar-equipped, and a line appeared from side to side - in other words, a trace throughout the bottom side of the screen. A trace for a surface ship, a cruiser, is approximately one centimeter long, but this line went from one side [of the screen] to another. I assumed the radar scope had failed, and told Danilo Catalán, but his radar also "failed". I then advised the ground radar at Antofagasta and they also picked up the line. We were engaged with these details when we looked toward the east: we were flying from north to south in the vicinity of Mejillones, and saw a deformed cigar-shaped object. Deformed, like a plaintain banana. It was swathed in smoke.
- What was the object's size?
It was large and must have been some 15 to 20 miles away. It moved in the same direction as us. We had no missiles, guns or anything. As you can imagine, the fright was more or less considerable. We could see a large thing surrounded in smoke, and from which a vapor issued. All of this situation must have lasted some five minues. We approached the UFO but it was motionless. It neither approached nor retreated - it merely sailed parallel to us. It was quite impressive, because it was truly something strange, and something could be seen in concealment behind the smoke.
- What happened later?
The object then disappeared toward Easter Island at an impressive rate of speed. The sky cleared and the lines on the radar vanished. However, there had been an object physically flying there. It's not a yarn, let me tell you. It's my only experience with UFOs.
Excerpt from the August 2003 interview with Gen. GABRIELLI ROJAS:
FORMER AIR FORCE COMMANDER DISCUSSES UFOs
[Interview conducted by Alejandro Guillier; transcription by Rodrigo Cuadra Salazar]
Alejandro Guillier (journalist): UFOs, well...nothing better than to ask a war pilot about the experiences he's had if he's seen anything, but it turns out that I've heard talk about there being a military pilot in Antofagasta who toward the late Seventies -- '78 -- had been flying and ran into a very strange thing. It also turns out that the pilot became a general, retired general Hernan Gabrielli, and we're going to talk to him about this rather interesting experience. How do you do, general? Good morning.
Hernan Gabrielli Rojas (General-Ret.): Hello, Alejandro. Good morning to you.
Alejandro Guillier: This occurred in '78, according to one version, but what is the story about your running into a UFO while flying a warplane?
Hernan Gabrielli: We were two F-5s, dual training craft, and we were returning to base after completing our mission, Cerro Moreno, noon. From Mejillones to Antofagasta, at an altitude of some 35,000 feet - 40,000 feet. I suddenly detected a radar fault and saw a line that ran side to side on the scope, and my student, Danilo Catalán, also detected the same, and curiously enough it was the ground radar, which has a large screen, that also indicated a radar fault. At that time we looked toward [the part of the sky indicated on the radar screen] and we saw that UFO.
Alejandro Guillier: What was it exactly? What was it you managed to see? Can it be described?
Hernan Gabrielli: It was visualized as a smoke-covered, half- deformed banana, very large, in other words, very large in plain sight. We were between 15 or 20 miles away. It was tremendously large and surrounded by a fumarole which moved in our very same direction and at the same speed as our aircraft.
Alejandro Guiller: ...and you felt tempted to check it out.
Hernan Gabrielli: We approached it carefully and...but those were good instructions. We were heading back from Attack 1, which is a combat tactic involving gun cameras, no cannon, missiles or anything else. So we approached it with caution. Unfortunately the UFO did not go away toward a single minute, so we arrived in an instant.
Alejandro Guillier: But I understand that you had to ascend.
Hernan Gabrielli: No...
Alejandro Guillier: In order to approach, what was your position? Going upward..
Hernan Gabrielli: No...we shared the same altitude, between 30,000 and 35,000 feet.
Alejandro Gabrielli: But F-5s are swift airplanes. When you got near it scurried way so...
Hernan Gabrielli: Of course. It's a fighter that covers 10 nautical miles a minute, in other words, 20 kilometers a minute. That is the normal speed for that aircraft.
Alejandro Guillier: And this object you saw, how soon did it vanish? At what speed?
Hernan Gabrielli: Unimaginable, in other words, thousands of nautical miles a minute, because it toward the west suddenly and the screen cleared up. In other words, all three radar screens--the ground radar, mine and Danilo's -- were operating normally; it wasn't just a visual experience but a physical one as well, a material one, that materialized on the screen. Now, if you ask me what it is, where it comes from, don't ask me. I haven't the slightest idea.
Translation (C) 2003 Scott Corrales Institute of Hispanic Ufology
Comment - The visual characteristics of the phenomenon ("a plaintain banana" according to Gen. GABRIELLI ROJAS; a "cloudy form" in the shape of "a black triangle with two small tails" according to Capt. CATALÁN FARIAS) bears a strong resemblence to Capt. HAROLD's description of the object seen over Labrador (a "delta-wing appearance" that "started to flatten down, stretching out, until it was now like a giant telephone receiver lying on its back in the sky". There are also similarities with the 1956 Billings case, in which an object resembling a "cartoonist's version of a dog-bone" was seen, and with the 1992 Heathrow case that mentions a black "inverted boomerang shape".
An object "swathed in smoke" or with "vapour issuing from it" is not unlike the image of a mirage affected by a turbulent air stream. Smoke/vapour is also mentioned in the following cases: 1952 Ennis, 1972 Kempsey, 1976 Lisbon and 1978 Okayama.
The sighting took place when the planes were flying on a North-South course over the Atacama Desert. The pilots were looking to the East, i.e. towards the Andes mountain range with peaks between 4,000 and 4,500 m (16,400 ft) at a distance of roughly 250 km (155 miles) from the Chilean coast. Possibly this is where to look for a target for a mirage.
The "unimaginable fast" disappearance at "thousands of nautical miles a minute" reminds of other dark blob reports in which the phenomena are said to have disappeared at fantastic speeds, and here too there are some descriptive elements that create doubt as to whether or not the phenomenon was actually seen to move from one part in the sky to another. According to Capt. CATALÁN FARIAS the object "veered off and accelerated violently" deviating "at a speed more than 3 times that of sound", a manoeuvre that was reportedly confirmed by ground control radar, but apparently neither pilots nor ground personel noticed a sonic boom. Gen. GABRIELLI ROJAS reported that the object "vanished toward the west", "towards Easter Island". Since the object was first seen in the East where it "was motionless" and "neither approached nor retreated" but "merely sailed parallel to us", this would mean that before shooting off to the west it crossed the path of his F-5. It is not told if this occurred in front of the airplane or behind. If the object was a mirage, we could speculate that a sudden upward movement or an increase in size of the mirage image created the impression of an object suddenly moving towards the plane. But if Gen. GABRIELLI ROJAS' description of the object disappearing in a westward direction is correct, this would require a second mirage shrinking in size on the other side of the plane. Possible targets for a westward mirage would be Isla San Ambrosio and Isla San Félix, respectively 920 km (572 miles) and 950 km (590 miles) from the Chilean coast (Easter Island itself being some 2.485 miles from the coast and therefore too far away for a candidate mirage target).
A clear discrepancy is noted with regard to the radar images. Screen-wide "lines" appearing on both the F-5 radars and the ground radar at Cerro Moreno Airport are mentioned by Gen. GABRIELLI ROJAS, but Capt. CATALÁN FARIAS describes the image on his screen as "a blip (...) a bit bigger than a normal plane's". Could these unusual radar registrations have been caused by a strong temperature inversion rather than a physical object, as we suggested in the 1976 Lisbon case?
In summary there are too many uncertanties to construct solid arguments for any theory. As Don LEDGER put it in a message at UFO Roundup Vol 8, No. 2:
Interesting speculation, but I wonder if something that appears as a mirage to the jets (...) would also affect the ground radar, assuming that the ground radar actually did pick up a 'line' target in the same direction as did the aircraft.
Unfortunately there is really not enough info here to make a good decision as to whether or not the sighting could be a result of natural causes. Had all the details been recorded at the time (sightings directions, tracks of the aircraft, exact direction of the "object" from the aircraft, exact direction of the supposed coincident target from the ground, grand radar distance, etc.) a decision probably could have been made.
The authors look forward to receiving additional reports and/or comments which may help assess the soundness of the mirage theory for this particular type of UAP sightings (to contact us, see our e-mail address on the contact page).


Home » Parents » Parental disapproval contributes to racial, ethnic differences in prescription drug misuse by teens
Parental disapproval contributes to racial, ethnic differences in prescription drug misuse by teens
Parents' attitudes toward substance use may help to explain observed racial/ethnic variations in prescription drug misuse among teens, reports a study in the May Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, the official journal of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
"Our findings add support to growing evidence that parents continue to remain a vital part of adolescents' decision-making, particularly regarding potentially risky behaviors," according to the new research by Brigid M. Conn, MA, and Amy K. Marks, PhD, of Suffolk University, Boston.
Parent Disapproval Linked to Lower Rate of Drug Misuse
The researchers analyzed data on prescription drug misuse from a national survey of more than 18,000 adolescents. "Misuse and abuse of prescription drugs is one of the fastest growing drug epidemics in the United States," the researchers write.
As in previous studies, Caucasian teens had the highest rates of prescription drug misuse. For example, 3.4 percent of Caucasian adolescents misused tranquilizers, compared to 2.9 percent of Hispanic and 0.9 percent of African American youth.
In contrast to previous studies, teens from higher-income families had lower rates of prescription drug misuse. Rates were also higher in older adolescents, and in girls compared to boys.
The teens were also asked about their parents' and peers' attitudes toward specific types of substance use. Parental disapproval was associated with lower rates of prescription drug misuse—although this effect varied by race/ethnicity. Even though Caucasian teens had the highest rates of prescription drug misuse, those whose parents strongly disproved of all types of substance use were at lower risk than teens in the two minority groups.
Strong parental disapproval of alcohol use was linked to lower rates of prescription drug misuse in African American teens, while parental disapproval of marijuana use was a stronger factor for Hispanic teens. Dr. Marks comments, "No matter what the ethnic/racial background of the family, parents' disapproving attitudes about misusing substances in general—whether alcohol, marijuana, or tobacco—play a strong role in protecting their adolescents from misusing prescription medicine."
Step toward Understanding 'Culture-Specific' Factors in Substance Abuse
Caucasian teens whose close friends disapproved of substance use had lower rates of prescription drug misuse, although peer attitudes had little impact for African American or Hispanic teens. Dr. Marks adds, "Parents can also help their adolescents navigate toward friends with shared substance use disapproval attitudes."
The study confirms racial/ethnic variations in substance use by adolescents. It also provides initial evidence that disapproval by "important socialization agents"—especially parents—has a significant effect on prescription drug misuse.
That result may provide clues as to how the racial/ethnic variations arise. Past studies of substance use in teens have typically used race as an "explanation" for observed differences.
More recently, researchers are focusing on values and other "culture-specific factors" that may explain risk behaviors, rather than generalizing across groups. "We're already working on new studies to understand some of the unique socializing factors or agents which seem to be protective for Hispanic and African American adolescents, beyond parental disapproval," says Dr Marks.
She adds, "As we learn more about what kinds of socializing messages matter most to which cultural groups, clinicians, teachers, social workers, and parents alike can help keep steering their adolescents in meaningful ways to make healthy behavioral choices when it comes to prescription drugs."
Source: www.medicalxpress.com May 2014


McKee Garden to feature 25-foot Seward Johnson sculpture
Seward Johnson's 'Embracing Peace,' which captures an iconic moment announcing the end of World War II, will be part of a show McKee Botanical Garden.
McKee Garden to feature 25-foot Seward Johnson sculpture Seward Johnson's 'Embracing Peace,' which captures an iconic moment announcing the end of World War II, will be part of a show McKee Botanical Garden. Check out this story on tcpalm.com: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/specialty-publications/your-news/indian-river-county/2018/12/03/iconic-seward-johnson-statue-go-display-mckee-garden/2113519002/
Connie Cotherman, YourNews contributor Published 8:46 a.m. ET Dec. 3, 2018
'Embracing Peace' by Seward Johnson(Photo: Contributed by McKee Botanical Garden)
VERO BEACH -- McKee Botanical Garden will install on Dec. 11 the dramatic "Embracing Peace" bronze sculpture of a sailor and a nurse, by renowned artist Seward Johnson.
The sculpture, which is 25-feet tall and weighs over 15 tons, will arrive on a flatbed semi-trailer and then be hoisted into the Royal Palm Grove of the Garden by a crane.
Visitors and McKee members will be able to admire the artwork beginning Dec. 12. This is the first sculpture to be displayed throughout the Garden during this year's exhibition which also includes 20 bronze sculptures from Seward Johnson's Celebrating the Familiar series, which begins Jan. 5, 2019 and runs through April 28.
"Embracing Peace," the centerpiece of this exhibition, is Johnson's most renowned sculpture, which honors the moment in New York City on V-J Day, August 14, 1945, that captured the jubilance of Americans when the end of World War II was announced.
This artwork honors the memory of the past, reminding us of the sacrifice of a nation, and awakening younger generations to the heroic stories of the preceding generations.
The sculpture has been featured in various cities across the United States from Florida to California, as well as in Times Square, NYC, Rome, and Civitavecchia, Italy. A casting of the sculpture has also been on display in Normandy, France, and is currently at the Bastogne War Museum in Belgium.
Often associated with his works of art, Johnson's passion for detail features an uncanny realism and spontaneity of the original pose. He is well known for recreating lifetimes in vividly realistic bronze.
"We are so excited about having this iconic sculpture in the Garden and hope the community will visit us to admire its incredible stature and detail, which honors the service and sacrifice of the veterans of World War II," said executive director Christine Hobart.
Following an early career as a painter, Johnson, 88, turned his talents to the medium of sculpture, both life-size and monumental. Since that time, more than 450 of his life-size bronze figures have been featured in private collections and museums throughout the world.
This project is sponsored in part by the Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and the State of Florida.
Read or Share this story: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/specialty-publications/your-news/indian-river-county/2018/12/03/iconic-seward-johnson-statue-go-display-mckee-garden/2113519002/


Ekin Cheng On What Chan Ho Nam, His Iconic Young And Dangerous Character, Would Be Up To In 2019
The 52-year-old actor-singer will be holding his first full-fledged concert in Singapore in 21 years this December.
By Jonathan Fam
Updated 28 Nov 2019 22:10
It's not every day that you get a star who serenades the media at a press conference. Usually, the star shows up, answers some questions from the host and then goes on to have more in-depth interviews with the journos. So it's such a pleasant surprise to 8days.sg when Ekin Cheng decides to sing not one, but two of his biggest Cantonese hits 'Love You Only In My Lifetime' and 'Age Of Friendship' when the 52-year-old was in town on Monday (Nov 26) to promote his upcoming Along concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium next month.
Ekin with Chan Kwong Wing
If this display of showmanship — he's accompanied on guitar by his long-time collaborator, music composer Chan Kwong Wing — is to let us know that Ekin can sing and sing live at that, well, then consider it mission accomplished. Now we can't wait for his December 28 gig, which he says will be "like a movie" and will weave in iconic movie scenes as "a lot of [his] music comes from films".
Along With Ekin will be the star's first full-fledged concert in Singapore in 21 years. His 1998 concert at the Indoor Stadium wasn't the last time he performed here though. That would be the 45-minute showcase he gave at the now defunct Clarke Quay club Lunar in 2009, a good decade ago, when he was here to promote The Storm Warriors, the sequel to his classic wuxia movie The Storm Riders.
It's easy to forget that Ekin first found fame when he took part in TVB's International Chinese New Talent Singing Championship in 1986. But he would go on to achieve a lot more success, first as a TV actor then as a movie star. Talk about Ekin to anyone above the age of 25 and it's his iconic role as Chan Ho Nam, the gangster who was the epitome of cool and brotherhood in the Young And Dangerous films of the '90s, that they'll bring up and start swooning over.
Ekin with his wife Yoyo Mung
For the past six years, Ekin has been married to Hongkong actress Yoyo Mung, 46. The couple famously don't want children. When a journo during our group interview asks Ekin if he and Yoyo intend to have kids since his pal Jordan Chan is a father, the actor immediately blurts out "[He's] so stupid" before bursting out in laughter. He's joking of course. Well at least about Jordan being stupid. "For me and my wife, we have the same way of thinking," he adds. "There's a lot of things in this world that we cannot control. And we don't think we have the ability to take care of our next generation. So that's our opinion and they [Jordan and his wife Cherrie Ying] have their opinion."
Poster boy
While many things have changed over the two decades since his last Indoor Stadium gig, there are some things that haven't. Like his trademark long, layered locks. In fact, the man responsible for the star's iconic hairstyle is here at the press con held at the Grand Hyatt Singapore and Ekin happily introduces him to everyone. Also at the press con are some 20 members of his devoted fan club, all of whom are dressed in orange windbreakers emblazoned with their idol's name.
Another thing that didn't change? Ekin's still not fluent in Mandarin. In fact, he would have preferred to do this interview in Cantonese. "It's okay, I'll try my best to answer your questions well in Mandarin," he says when a journo expresses her inability to fully comprehend Cantonese at the start of our 15-minute group chat. And so Ekin would go on to reply us in his trademark Cantonese-accented Mandarin, that may be hard to decipher, but also completes the whole Ekin Cheng experience.
8 DAYS: The last time you had a concert at the Indoor Stadium was in 1998. So why is 2019 the year to make a comeback?
EKIN CHENG: I think since my last performance here 10 years ago, I also slowed down music-wise. A decade later, I didn't really have the confidence to hold a concert in Hongkong but when I did, I realised that the whole world is different already. Right now, the only thing that you can't take away is live performances. When it comes to music, a lot of it you can find easily online. But not live performances. And that's how it started to take shape until now. Also, I feel a lot more mature now on stage. You can say that before this I was still trying things out. Before this tour, I went on a concert tour with my [Young And Dangerous] brothers, like Jordan Chan, and we thought of how we could change the formula of a concert and that's how we came up this.
Ekin and Yoyo on their wedding day in 2013
Will your wife be accompanying you for your Singapore gig?
Oh I don't know…. Maybe? I've not asked her. She usually only decides at the last minute anyway.
Since your concert is on December 28, you reckon you'll be spending New Year's here?
Oh, we'll be back home in Hongkong for New Year. So [actually] I don't think she will come. Plus Christmas will be over by then. And you know there are a lot of things going on in Hongkong now, so we won't be celebrating anything. We just want to spend it quietly and peacefully.
What sort of wife is she?
She's very suitable for me. She's like a guy. I trust her to do her own things. I think when two people are together, the most important thing is for them to be themselves. A lot of people when they get married, they'll say, "Oh, we changed a lot for each other". But I'm me and she is she. She does her own things. Like when I work, she very seldom offers her opinions 'cos she knows that me and my team have been working together even before I knew her. So she won't interfere. She also goes her own holidays. That's her own personality. That's what I like about her. Her independence.
Do you all have disagreements?
I usually give in first. If you're smart person, you' do that (laughs). Isn't that right? If you want things to [blow over] fast, you should do that. Life is short, you shouldn't waste time on unnecessary things.
Ekin as Chan Ho Nam in 1996's Young and Dangerous
There's no doubt that the character audiences associate you with most after all these years is Young and Dangerous' Chan Ho Nam. What do you think Chan Ho Nam would be up to in 2019?
I think he would have quit the underworld (laughs). It would have happened long ago 'cos the world is even messier now. He would have left already.
Where would he go?
I think he would have gone to a very faraway place. He wanted to do that in the first movie but he stayed on 'cos of certain things. So yeah, I think he would have gone to some underdeveloped country.
The Young And Dangerous brothers (left:) Jerry Lamb, Chin Ka Lok, Michael Tse, Ekin and Jordan Chan
One of your most famous songs 'Age of Friendship is about undying friendship. Now that you're 52, has your view on friendship changed?
No. Like with my Young and Dangerous brothers… we have respect for each other. It's not a one-sided thing. It's a [friendship] where everyone reciprocates.
Who among your Young and Dangerous gang are you closest to?
Actually… we're all just as close 'cos we're always together. And our tempers are equally bad (guffaws). We're like the [five Chinese elements] Gold, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. We work well together. It's very interesting. Like sometimes, I wouldn't get along with this person but somehow when we all get together, it won't go wrong.
(Pauses)… If he has the worst temper, all the more I cannot say (laughs)
Catch Ekin Cheng in his Along with Ekin concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Dec 28, 8pm. Tickets go $108 to $228. For more details go to www.sportshub.com.sg.
Photos: AC Orange
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Take another Little Piece of His Heart
The sermon title might sound familiar to you. It's a paraphrase from a song first recorded by Erma Franklin (Aretha's older sister) in 1967. The song really gained a following when Janis Joplin recorded it in 1968. You, however, might know it from the Faith Hill version of 1993 or by the 2005 version of Melissa Etheridge or the 2006 recording by Beverly Knight.
What does a line from "Piece of My Heart" have to do with our text? The energy, the passion, and the guttural emotion heard in that song are found in this text. You should hear, feel, experience, see, know that when our text says Jesus had compassion it comes with all the force, depth, and emotion conveyed by that song. And even if you don't know that song, you can still know what I mean when I say, "Take another little piece of His heart."
We need to take just a little piece of Jesus' heart to bring us to see how wretched, fallen, and sinful we are when we dare to act like He doesn't care. When we do that, we're out of touch with the Lord Scripture calls on us to cast our cares on "because He cares for you." We've got to be out of step with the Lord Scripture says leads us through the valley of the shadow of death when we are convinced we're alone and stuck there. We've got to be out of tune with the Lord Scripture hymns as having "delivered my soul from the depths of the grave" when we feel and fear we're at the mercy of merciless death.
Look at our text. See Jesus having compassion on His overworked apostles. It's worth thinking about that this is the only time Mark calls the 12 apostles.' The Holy Spirit wants that noted. They've just returned from their first mission apart from Jesus, and like kids home from camp they're bursting with stories. They "reported to Jesus all they had done and taught." They told of casting out that demon, healing that sick person. How they taught here and taught that. Remember they had gone out two by two, so they were sharing with each other these things for the first time too.
Evidently news of what they had been doing followed them back to Jesus and people were coming and going, so much so that our text reports, "They did not even have a chance to eat." They "were running on empty;" they were in hurry to get things done; they rushed and rushed till life was no fun. You've been there; you've done that. And when what you're doing is for someone else, when you know it is in service to the Lord, you don't feel right about calling stop. So Jesus did it for the apostles. "Come with Me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."
Jesus had compassion for the physical needs of the apostles. This is the only place in the Gospels where the idea of physical rest occurs. The fact that the need to rest from work shows up just this once tells you it's not nearly as big of a theme as our world makes it. The fact that Jesus suggests it shows you that He has compassion when we're physically stressed. Take another little piece of such a heart.
But what's this? The physically stressed disciples go away with Jesus only to find the crowds waiting from them at the retreat center. Mark doesn't tell you but John does "many followed because they saw the signs which Jesus did on those who were diseased." They're miracle mongers! They seek Jesus for physical relief! And yet what does the text say, "He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd."
There's a lesson here. Jesus does care for your physical needs but He cares more for your spiritual. Yes, He came into this world to bear your griefs and carry your sorrows, but first and foremost He came to keep the Law that can only and always accuse you and He came to pay for your sins against that Law. He didn't enter your flesh and blood, so that your flesh and blood would never suffer. If He did, He was a failure, wasn't He? God the Son took on your flesh and blood to redeem you from all sin, from Death, and from the power of the Devil. As great as His is compassion for physical afflictions, He has exponentially more compassion for spiritual afflictions.
Take another big piece of His heart this time because this is going to hurt. First let's look at the word compassion.' In English it's rather a sweet word. In Greek, it's not. I've told you many times it means to be moved in the nobler organs. The spleen is the noun form of this verb. In the Gospels it's only used of Jesus or of a character in a parable representing Him. It is a blunt, forceful word. It's Janis Joplin offering up another piece of her heart. It's Dusty Springfield insisting to "come on take it." Here's what the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says about the word, "This rather rough term seems none too well adapted to express Christian virtue or the divine dealings" (VII, 549).
Compassion isn't a syrupy term but a stout one. Add to this that spiritual needs trump physical ones, and you have the compassionate all loving Lord, piercing His own mother with a sword; Job, the apple of God's eye, treated like a rotted core; Joseph for whose sake the Lord favored so many others languishing in prison for more than a decade. And we have you. Health problems, family troubles, job difficulties, life unraveled. But the Lord does nothing. You pray like Mary did at the foot of cross, like Job on his ash heap, like Joseph in prison. You pray for this thorn of Satan to be taken out of your flesh, but not only isn't it removed: it festers, gets infected, and hurts all the more.
Behold the compassion of your Lord! Behold the compassion of the Lord who endured the hellish Passion for the sake of sinners. I think 17th century protestant pastor John Donne misses this mystery. He asks in wonder, "Was not Thy Passion enough, but Thou must have compassion" (Sermon CXV"? He's right; the Scriptures clearly say the One who suffered for us and our salvation is the same one who has compassion. But in the depths of physical suffering don't you think, "If Thou was willing to take on my Passion where is Thy compassion now?" I do.
Remember, Jesus' compassion is rough, forceful and focused on eternal spiritual things not fleeting earthly. If our Lord dealt with us a cruel torturer, we could plead and beg and might get Him to relent or remove our physical suffering. But we're in the hands of divine surgeon who has only good intentions in mind. The kinder and more faithful a human surgeon is the more he will go on cutting no matter how much physical pain this will lead to. If a surgeon gives in to our pleadings before the operation is completed, all the pain up to that point would be useless and all the pain that is to follow would be pointless (Grief Observed, 50).
So take another little piece of His heart; bite down on it the way they do in Westerns when a bullet is being removed. Bite down on your Baptism where earthly water gives you eternal blessings. Bite down on your Absolution where in the words spoken by a man on earth you hear the God of heaven forgive you. Bite down on the Body and Blood of Jesus given and shed for you on earth to give you heavenly life. Repent and return to the cross where you see earthly suffering has eternal benefits. Repent of acting like your Good Shepherd doesn't care, and repent of acting like a shepherdless sheep.
Sheep without a shepherd are scattered by wolves, storms, physical afflictions. You're not a shepherdless sheep. Every single Sunday the Good Shepherd calls you to hear and feed on His Words and Sacraments. Every Sunday He calls you to this sheepfold. When you stay away, when you sleep in, when you have better things to do, you're acting like a shepherdless sheep. And beware, be warned, you can easily get use to that. The worst thing is that shepherdless sheep almost always feel that they're still sheep. Even though they're don't hear the voice of the Good Shepherd as Jesus says all His sheep do, they still think they're sheep. But it doesn't matter what they think or what I think; it matters what the Good Shepherd thinks.
Jesus thinks you need teaching. Don't act like a sheep without a shepherd and shun the teaching of the Good Shepherd. When Jesus sees the crowd that we know is looking for physical things, He says their real problem is they are like sheep without a shepherd and then how does He remedy that problem? Heal them? Feed them? No "He began teaching them many things." He had Bible class for them.
Take another little piece of His heart and see that Jesus has so much compassion for you that He refuses to leave you like sheep without a shepherd and so sends an under-shepherd to teach you. Teach me what? The Holy Spirit just says "many things." What's that? Go to the Epistles; go to those whom Jesus opened their minds to teach them all things about Himself. Go to Holy Scripture which is God's lamp and light to you. The many things Jesus taught them were things like you heard in the Epistle: He abolished in His flesh the Law with its commandments and regulations. He has made peace between you and God through His cross.
You are not shepherdless sheep: you are called, gathered, and enlightened here each and every Sunday by God's Words and His Sacraments. And you're not afflicted. Jesus saying they were like shepherdless sheep didn't come out of thin air. Several times in the Old Testament this idea comes up. One place is Zechariah 10:2. It says, "The people wander like sheep; they are afflicted because there is no shepherd." Well you have a Shepherd in Jesus Christ; therefore, you aren't afflicted.
How's that? Of course I am afflicted; I've got this, that, and this going on and it hurts. But compared to the heavenly weight of glory Paul says such afflictions are only light and momentary. And with even just a little piece of Jesus' heart the one that for you was overwhelmed unto death, pierced by a spear, and filled the font with water and the chalice with Blood it's not affliction at all; it's surgery. Amen
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost (20120729); Mark 6: 30-34