Full dark
~ Stephen King
I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger...' writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up '1922', the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerising tales from Stephen King, linked by the theme of retribution. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife Arlette proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness. In 'Big Driver', a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger is along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face to face with another stranger: the one inside herself. 'Fair Extension', the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil not only saves Harry Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment. When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It's a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends 'A Good Marriage'. Like DIFFERENT SEASONS and FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT, which generated such enduring hit films as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, FULL DARK, NO STARS proves Stephen King a master of the long story form.

Full dark
~ Stephen King
I believe there is another man inside every man, a stranger...' writes Wilfred Leland James in the early pages of the riveting confession that makes up '1922', the first in this pitch-black quartet of mesmerising tales from Stephen King, linked by the theme of retribution. For James, that stranger is awakened when his wife Arlette proposes selling off the family homestead and moving to Omaha, setting in motion a gruesome train of murder and madness. In 'Big Driver', a cozy-mystery writer named Tess encounters the stranger is along a back road in Massachusetts when she takes a shortcut home after a book-club engagement. Violated and left for dead, Tess plots a revenge that will bring her face to face with another stranger: the one inside herself. 'Fair Extension', the shortest of these tales, is perhaps the nastiest and certainly the funniest. Making a deal with the devil not only saves Harry Streeter from a fatal cancer but provides rich recompense for a lifetime of resentment. When her husband of more than twenty years is away on one of his business trips, Darcy Anderson looks for batteries in the garage. Her toe knocks up against a box under a worktable and she discovers the stranger inside her husband. It's a horrifying discovery, rendered with bristling intensity, and it definitively ends 'A Good Marriage'. Like DIFFERENT SEASONS and FOUR PAST MIDNIGHT, which generated such enduring hit films as The Shawshank Redemption and Stand by Me, FULL DARK, NO STARS proves Stephen King a master of the long story form.

This lorry full of tortoises collided with a van full of terrapins.
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It was a turtle disaster.

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though chequered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

Kevin Spacey explains how success is not a physical element that can be measured but an emotional elelment, only relative to the individual. Enjoy!!

"Let us not bankrupt our todays by paying interest on the regrets of yesterday and by borrowing in advance the troubles of tomorrow."

- Ralph W. Sockman

Zainul at How-to Geek writes ...

Delivering a presentation is not just about giving good slides, it is also about making sure that our presentation finishes by the time our audience wants to have their tea break—so practicing how long to speak for each slide is essential for a proper presentation.

and goes on to explain how to rehearse the timing of the presentation, even how to set up the slide show to run by itself.

Useful information for when you have a presentation that needs no flexibility. Thank you How-to Geek!

"If we are basically positive in attitude, expecting and envisioning pleasure, satisfaction and happiness, we will attract and create people, situations, and events which conform to our positive expectations."


Shakti Gawain

Jay O'Callahan writes:

When my own children were young they would ask me at dinner to "tell when you were bad, Daddy." Recalling small things that happened to me as a boy allowed them to have fun but also to see that I, too, was small and worried and hurt and naughty. Suddenly, I was no longer just "Daddy" but a friend sharing a world they knew.

When my son was a third grader, he used to come home each day telling ordinary stories about his teacher. "Mr. McCurdy is making Portuguese bread again tonight. It's an egg bread and sticky. He had to answer the phone last night just when both hands were covered with a sticky mess. . ." Or, "Mr. McCurdy doesn't like New York City. His wife has to hold on to him on the sidewalk there 'cause he gets terribly dizzy."

We are all human - and stories remind us of our humanity, our sense of fun and wonder and struggle. The stories you begin to collect can be personal, folk, adventure, mystery. It depends on you, your students, your interests and theirs. But tell them, tell them, tell them.

in an article 16 Storytelling Tips for the Tellerwhich is not only hugely valuable for storytellers, for speakers using stories, but also for improving public speaking itself.