April 2009 – Page 3

First look. Wolf pack ready to grin and bare it for “New Moon”

Step aside, aloof vampires with all your undead issues. The wolf pack is ready to howl.

Unlike cold-blooded neck biters, these poster guys for animal magnetism are hot. So hot that their temperature runs a steady 108 degrees, as anyone who has read Stephenie Meyer's series of gothic romances knows.

MEET THE WOLF PACK: Birth and brawn combined

That gives them a great excuse to doff their shirts on-screen and expose the physiques they've been pumping up for playing werewolves in The Twilight Saga:New Moon, the sequel to last year's supernatural sensation, due Nov. 20.

Today’s must-read … Sea of Poppies

Sea of Poppies

By Amitav Ghosh
Diaspora, myth and a fascinating language mashup propel the Rubik's cube of plots in Ghosh's picaresque epic of the voyage of the Ibis, a ship transporting Indian girmitiyas (coolies) to Mauritius in 1838. The first two-thirds of the book chronicles how the crew and the human cargo come to the vessel, now owned by rising opium merchant Benjamin Burnham. Mulatto second mate Zachary Reid, a 20-year-old of Lord Jim–like innocence, is passing for white and doesn't realize his secret is known to the gomusta (overseer) of the coolies, Baboo Nob Kissin, an educated Falstaffian figure who believes Zachary is the key to realizing his lifelong mission. Among the human cargo, there are three fugitives in disguise, two on the run from a vengeful family and one hoping to escape from Benjamin. Also on board is a formerly high caste raj who was brought down by Benjamin and is now on his way to a penal colony. The cast is marvellous and the plot majestically serpentine, but the real hero is the English language, which has rarely felt so alive and vibrant.

Available now at Amazon

Ages 9-11, ages 9+, books into movies, Holes, Louis Sachar

Watch and Read – Holes by Louis Sachar

Hole by Louis Sachar

"If you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy." Such is the reigning philosophy at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention facility where there is no lake, and there are no happy campers.

HTML clipboard"It's a strange story, but strangely compelling and lovely too."

achieve

Thought for the Day

"You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can."

President Jimmy Carter Jr.

Happiness

Happiness is a decision

Success and Happiness is a feeling every human being on this planet desires in their heart of hearts. And yet most of us look for happiness in all the wrong places and end up causing ourselves more suffering.

This is because we are looking outside of ourselves for some thing or some one to bring us that feeling.

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Pulitzer Prize

2009 Pulitzer winners in journalism and arts

The 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists:

JOURNALISM:

Public Service: The Las Vegas Sun.

Breaking News Reporting: The New York Times staff.

Investigative Reporting: David Barstow of The New York Times.

Explanatory Reporting: Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart of the Los Angeles Times.

Local Reporting: Jim Schaefer, M.L. Elrick and staff of the Detroit Free Press; and Ryan Gabrielson and Paul Giblin of the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Ariz.

National Reporting: St. Petersburg Times staff.

International Reporting: The New York Times Staff.

Feature Writing: Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times.

Commentary: Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post.

Criticism: Holland Cotter of The New York Times.

Editorial Writing: Mark Mahoney of The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y.

Editorial Cartooning: Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Breaking News Photography: Patrick Farrell of The Miami Herald.

Feature Photography: Damon Winter of The New York Times.

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ARTS:

Fiction: "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout.

Drama: "Ruined" by Lynn Nottage.

History: "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family" by Annette Gordon-Reed.

Biography: "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House" by Jon Meacham.

Poetry: "The Shadow of Sirius" by W. S. Merwin.

General Nonfiction: "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II" by Douglas A. Blackmon.

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MUSIC:

Double Sextet by Steve Reich, premiered March 26, 2008 in Richmond, VA (Boosey & Hawkes).

joy, life

Thought for the Day

"Joy is how the universe reminds you that you're alive."

Marc Rosenbush

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areas?
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* Superior Study Habits…
and that’s just for starters!
Dr. Brina Rubin’s LearningMind Software
Mental performance enhancement training for students…
What a concept! Learning Mind

Public speaking

How do you know when you’ve prepared enough for a really important presentation?

Every now and then you will have a really important presentation and you might invest a lot of time into it, more than usual. You want to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. So, how do you know when you’ve practiced enough? When do you know you’re good enough? >>>

cooking, kitchen myths

Kitchen myths

We've all heard of urban legends, those plausible sounding but false stories that circulate so widely on email and news groups, such as the old lady who microwaved her cat or the Nieman-Marcus $250 cookie recipe.

There are several web sites devoted to researching and exposing these fake stories.

The same sort of thing happens in the world of food and cooking, although on a much smaller scale.

This page is my answer >>>

Public speaking

Clean the Wax from Your Words – Using Effective Language for Public Speaking

In ancient days, Roman sculptors sometimes sought to conceal surface cracks in a statue with the aid of melted beeswax. A buyer, deceived into believing that he was purchasing a flawless piece of marble, would place such a statue proudly in his atrium. A few weeks later the beeswax would dry out, crumble away, and leave the original cracks exposed. This trickery became so prevalent, reputable sculptors began to guarantee their works as sine cera — which means, in Latin, without wax.

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