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A Call to China
Benny Moon: Racing the Medicine Wheel
Benny Moon Eats Dirt
Clown William
Clown William and the Lincoln County War
Clown William and the Wind of Vengeance
Indian Country
Island Whispers
Medicine Hat Moments
Ms. Mulligan and the Enchanted Ice Cream
Mystery Muffin & Soda Pop Slooth: The Legend of Mr. Creepy
Mystery Muffin & Soda Pop Slooth: The Ghost of Crippler's Creek
Path of the Half Moon
WWCC Heroes
IE Snaps!
2019 Holiday Gift Guide - Give the Gift of Reading!
Shop Barnes & Noble
Shop IndieBound
Book 3 in the award-winning series! For Western, History, and Action fans.
Book 2 in the series follows William, our unique hero.
A gunslinger with Tourette's and a quick draw . . .
Award-winning paranormal historical fiction. For thriller and history lovers.
Pulse-pounding action for military thriller fans. Great for guys!
Book clubs take note! Award-winning historical fiction for fans of family and culture.
Sweet vacation romance for anyone who loves love! Great for the women you love.
Great for teens! Fantasy and romance collide in this island of magical creatures.
Your tweens and middle-graders will love this award-winning magical adventure!
Book 1 in middle grade mystery series for all the young sleuths on your list!
Book 2 is great for boys and girls ages 8-12 who like ghost stories with a twist!
Fun picture book about friendship and inner strength for ages 2-6.
For boys who love animals and motorcycles! Or any kid struggling with today's challenges. Book 1 in series.
Book 2 in the series takes Benny on a Vision Quest and into the racing finals. For kids ages 8-12.
These animal spirit cards are for the nature lovers on your list. Native American wisdom for every day.
Congrats to IE Authors Megan Wong, Jeffrey Meyer, and Robin Elno for placing in the 2019 NextGen Indie Awards
IngramElliott Publishing is proud to announce that three of our titles have been named as Finalists in the 2019 NextGen Indie Book Awards! The Next Generation Indie Book Awards is the largest international book awards program for indie authors and independent publishers. In its thirteenth year of operation, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards was established to recognize and honor the most exceptional independently published books in over 70 different categories.
We congratulate our winning authors!
Island Whispers, by Megan Wong, was a finalist in the Young Author category (written by under age 25).
Island Whispers is a YA Fantasy set on a magical island where an angel, demon, vampire, and merperson fight to save their world.
A Call to China by Jeffrey Meyer, was a finalist in the overall design category.
This beautiful debut novel is also Silver Winner in the 2018 Benjamin Franklin Book Award and Finalist in the 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards for historical fiction.
Clown William by Robin Elno, was a finalist in the novella category (17-40k words).
The Clown William series is also a Silver Winner in the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards and Winner/Finalist in the 2019 National Indie Excellence Awards for Best First Book, Best Series, and Western Fiction, respectively.
Author Megan Wong loves creating worlds filled with magic and sharing stories that need to be told. She is currently an undergraduate student majoring in psychology with a minor in creative writing at North Carolina State University.
Connect with the author on Facebook @islandwhispersmw and follow her blog.
A professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for thirty-five years, the author, Jeffrey Meyer, taught Asian religions in the Religious Studies department, with a focus on Buddhism and Daoism. He is married with three grown children, currently living in Davidson, North Carolina. A Call to China is his first novel.
Follow Jeffrey Meyer's Blog on Goodreads.
Robin Elno is a retired army colonel, semiretired psychiatrist, and full-time author. He lives in San Antonio, Texas, where he is an active member of the San Antonio Writers' Guild. Elno's novels are often set against true historical backdrops like the Wild West. Follow the author at amazon.com.
Clown William and the Lincoln County War is now available and Clown William and the Wind of Vengeance, book three in the series is coming soon.
Author Vince Bailey greets fans at Arizona StoryFest& Authors Showcase
Award-winning author Vince Bailey recently participated in a unique event hosted by Arizona radio station KJZZ. The Arizona StoryFest and Authors Showcase is designed to help patrons relax, learn, shop, and play. The event features some of Arizona's top talent at the Authors Showcase & Reading Stage, where experienced storytellers entertain audiences on the main stage. The event also featured an Author's Workshop hosted by the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at ASU.
Thanks to our friends at Green Pieces Press, for highlighting Vince's book to their Literary International Network in conjunction with the event!
Vince Bailey at Arizona StoryFest featuring his novel Path of the Half Moon.
Vince Bailey, recent First Place Winner of the Paranormal Fiction category at the Chanticleer International Book Awards, hosted fans and passers by at his booth.
Path of the Half Moon is a truly unique and edgy novel. It's the first in a series following the story's hero, young Curtis Jefferson. This paranormal historical fiction tale is set in a remote detention facility for wayward boys in the early sixties. Curtis is an African American youth whose character and physical endurance are tested by a murderous inmate and a century-old Apache curse.
The novel presents an edgy and thrilling escape from the ordinary, and is being recognized for it's strong thematic elements, including the blurry edges between reality and the supernatural.
Vince is currently working on the second novel in the Curtis Jefferson series, Courses of the Cursed. Learn more and follow the author at www.vincebaileyauthor.com and on Twitter @vincebailey20.
IngramElliott Publishing honored with four winning titles by the 13th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards
IngramElliott Publishing is proud to announce that four of our titles have been named as Finalists or Winners in the 13th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards! The National Indie Excellence® Awards (NIEA) celebrates indie publishing and is proud to be a champion of independent presses "going the extra mile" to produce books of excellence in every aspect.
IngramElliott Publishing truly appreciates the NIEA recognition for these amazing titles and we congratulate our winning authors!
Clown William and the Lincoln County War, the second book in the award-winning Clown William series, is the Winner of the Western Fiction Category.
Clown William, the first book in the award-winning Clown William series, is a Finalist in the Western Fiction Category.
Earlier this month, the Clown William series won the Bronze Medal for Best Fiction Series in the 2019 IPPY Awards and book one in the series, Clown William, was the 2018 IPPY Silver Award winner for Best First Book/Fiction. Set in the late 1800s, this fresh twist on the Western features an unlikely gunslinger with Tourette Syndrome.
A Call to China was named a Finalist in the Historical Fiction Category.
A Call to China is the coming of age of the two daughters, one without family in rural China, the other with her mother in urban America. What begins as Olivia's adolescent fantasy to find her sister becomes a death-bed promise to her mother.
This beautifully-written novel was also the Silver Winner in the 2018 IPPY Awards for historical fiction.
Ms. Mulligan and the Enchanted Ice Cream was named a Finalist in the Juvenile Fiction Category.
A touch of magic was all it took to turn twelve-year-old Tabby into the twenty-five-year old Ms. Mulligan . . .
. . . can Tabby and her friends solve the mystery before it's too late to turn back?
This magical middle-grade novel was also the Silver & Bronze Winner in the 2018 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards for pre-teen fiction mystery and preteen fiction e-Book, as well as a Finalist in the 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Learn more at www.msmulligan.com.
Mooning over another win for Path of the Half Moon
Vince Bailey is on a roll! Vince's debut novel, Path of the Half Moon, was the winner of the Arizona Authors' Association Literary Award and now this supernatural book series is the First in Category Winner in the 2018 Chanticleer International Book Awards Best Paranormal and Supernatural Fiction Books Contest.
After being named a Semi-Finalist in the contest, Vince was invited to attend the 2019 Chanticleer Authors Conference in Bellingham, Washington. This unique and progressive conference was jammed packed with featured sessions and workshops on the business, marketing, and technologies of publishing and of being an author.
Vince enjoyed his time at the conference and was thrilled to walk away with a First In Category win for Paranormal Fiction, truly a great honor. Vince said, "I think it was a great forum for Path, and attending the program provided a great learning event for me, especially in terms of media marketing."
The awards ceremony began in the evening with the banquet catered by the Hotel Bellwether, and sixteen presenters recognized all of the CIBA Semi-Finalists who were in attendance before announcing his or her division's First Place Category winners for each of the sixteen divisions.
Path of the Half Moon is a truly unique and edgy novel--the first in a series following the story's hero, young Curtis Jefferson. Path of the Half Moon is a paranormal historical fiction tale set in a remote detention facility for wayward boys in the early sixties. Curtis is an African American youth whose character and physical endurance are tested by a murderous inmate and a century-old Apache curse. The novel presents an edgy and thrilling escape from the ordinary, and is being recognized for it's strong thematic elements, including the blurry edges between reality and the supernatural.
Vince is currently working on the second novel in the Curtis Jefferson series, Courses of the Cursed. Learn more and follow the author at www.vincebaileyauthor.com and on Twitter @vincebailey20.
Congratulations to our author, Vince, on his win!
Clown William Strikes It Rich Again with a Bronze IPPY Win for Best Fiction Series
Last summer, Clown William's unique title character, William - an 1870's gunslinger with Tourette's and a quick draw - took home the Silver Medal for Best First Book at the 22nd Annual IPPY Awards in New York City.
Now William's back at it, bringing home the Bronze Medal for Best Fiction Series in the 2019 IPPY Awards, which honored books one and two in the series: Clown William & Clown William and the Lincoln County War.
Author Robin Elno should be very proud of his efforts -- the quality of this year's entries was truly outstanding, which means the competition was extremely tough. You can see all this year's winner's on the website of the Independent Publisher Book Awards.
The author, Robin Elno, is a retired army colonel, semiretired psychiatrist, and full-time author. He lives in San Antonio, Texas, and is an active member of the San Antonio Writers' Guild.
Robin drew inspiration for William from a series of books and articles on the impact of neurological conditions on physical abilities. In his research, the author learned people with Tourette Syndrome can target point five times faster than average.
"The inspiration for Clown William came from an Oliver Sacks article (author of "Awakenings"). The speed and accuracy of those who have this condition inspired the creation of the character William and his subsequent adventures," says the author Robin Elno. "What might appear a handicap can also be an advantage. Nature puts things in balance. Our comic book heroes have strengths that rise out of a difference from ordinary people. So does William. I hope readers feel empowered by how William learns to accept the good and the bad."
Winner of the Arizona Authors' Association Literary Award and the 2018 and 2019 IPPY Awards, the Clown William series follows William's incredible journey from "clown" to "friend" to "hero."
Clown William and Clown William and the Lincoln County War are now available in print and e-Book. Book three in the series - Clown William and the Wind of Vengeance is coming soon.
Award-winning author Vince Bailey connects with readers at B&N
Author Vince Bailey was welcomed warmly by readers and fans at a recent author event, held at Barnes & Noble Arrowhead in his hometown of Peoria, Arizona. Vince met with readers and passers by and signed copies of his paranormal historical fiction novel, Path of the Half Moon. Path was recently named an official SEMI-FINALIST for the PARANORMAL Book Awards for Supernatural Fiction, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs) and is the previous winner of the Arizona Authors' Association Literary Award.
Vince Bailey's award-winning Path of the Half Moon is a paranormal historical fiction tale set in a remote detention facility for wayward boys in the early sixties. Curtis is an African American youth whose character and physical endurance are tested by a murderous inmate and a century-old Apache curse.
Vince Bailey grew up in Central Arizona and his experiences there contribute significantly to the nostalgic aspect of his fiction writing. Path of the Half Moon is his debut novel, and Vince also pens a column for a nationally distributed trade periodical. Mr. Bailey currently resides in Peoria, Arizona with his wife, Rita. He's currently working on the next book in the Path of the Half Moon series.
Connect with Vince Bailey at:
www.vincebaileyauthor.com
www.facebook.com/vincebaileyazauthor
www.twitter.com/vincebailey20
Read more about Path of the Half Moon and shop Path merchandise. IngramElliott and Vince send many thanks to Barnes and Noble Arrowhead for supporting local authors in their store!
#indiepublishing #barnesandnoble #localauthors #pathofthehalfmoon #ingramelliottpublishing
Path of the Half Moon named Official Semi-Finalist in 2018 CIBA Awards!
We're excited to announce that Vince Bailey's debut paranormal historical fiction novel, Path of the Half Moon, has been named an official SEMI-FINALIST for the PARANORMAL Book Awards for Supernatural Fiction, a division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (CIBAs). The Paranormal Book Awards recognize emerging talent and outstanding works in the genre of Paranormal and Supernatural Fiction. The Paranormal Book Awards is a genre division of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The #CIBAs).
Path of the Half Moon, also winner of the Arizona Authors' Association Literary Awards, is a paranormal historical fiction tale set in a remote detention facility for wayward boys in the early sixties. Curtis is an African American youth whose character and physical endurance are tested by a murderous inmate and a century-old Apache curse. It's available in print and e-book wherever books are sold.
Meet the Author at Barnes & Noble!
Meet Author Vince Bailey
Saturday March 2, 2019 at 11 a.m.
Barnes & Noble Arrowhead
7685 West Bell Road
#CAC19 #SeriousAuthors #PARANORMALBookAwards #CIBAs
Clown William honored at the IPPY Awards Ceremony in NYC
IngramElliott at the IPPY Awards
The Independent Publisher Book Awards hosted the winners of the 22nd Annual, 2018 "IPPY" Awards on May 29th in New York City, celebrating their incredible work with 300 medalists and guests. Click here to view more pictures from the Copacabana ceremony. The IE team was there to represent our winning author, Robin Elno, and his unique Western novel, Clown William. Clown William won a silver IPPY for Best First Novel and is being well-received around the globe!
We're excited to announce that the second book in the Clown William series is coming soon! Clown William and the Lincoln County War follows William, the reluctant gunslinger with Tourette's, as he escorts the lady Emily over the mountains and into Lincoln, New Mexico. There, he finds her brother John in a battle for survival in the infamous Lincoln county War. The sheriff and his posse of hired killers, secure under the protection of the courts and the governor, have a stranglehold on the town. Eastern newspapers called Lincoln "the most dangerous street in America." And that was before William arrived.
Winner of the Arizona Authors' Association Literary Award and the 2018 IPPY Award, Clown William is the first in a series that follows William's incredible journey from "clown" to "friend" to "hero."
You can read more about Clown William at IngramElliott. The book is available now at most major retailers and Clown William and the Lincoln County War is coming soon.
The author, Robin Elno, is a retired army colonel, semiretired psychiatrist, and full-time author. He lives in San Antonio, Texas, and is an active member of the San Antonio Writers' Guild. Robin drew inspiration for William from a series of books and articles on the impact of neurological conditions on physical abilities. In his research, the author learned people with Tourette Syndrome can target point five times faster than average.
Clown William featured in IPPY Winner section at BookExpo
Clown William, Silver Winner in the 2018 IPPY Awards for Best First Book (Fiction) will be featured in a special IPPY Winners section at the 2018 BookExpo New Title Showcase in New York during this week's BookExpo event at the Javits Center. New Title Showcase is located in booth 1675 and will have a prominent banner above the booth reading NEW TITLE SHOWCASE so it's easy for attendees to find.
Clown William will be displayed along with other IPPY Award Winning titles at the 2018 BookExpo - the #1 book and author event in the industry.
IngramElliott will also be attending the IPPY Awards ceremony, held on May 29th at the legendary Copacabana Nightclub in Times Square for the 2018 Independent Publisher Book Awards Ceremony, celebrating our winning title!
#TheBookCon
#BookExpo
@IPPYmag
@IPAwards
Author Platform
IngramElliott
IPPY
NIEA
Uncommon Publishing
©2015-2020 IngramElliott, Inc.


Directors, have you wondered why your chorus sometimes seems out-of-sync or ragged? This choppiness might be something you're demonstrating with your gesture, even though you might not be aware of it. This is due to something called mirror neurons.
Mirror neurons are the brain cells that pick up on social and emotional cues from other humans. If someone is hurt or upset, we can usually tell just by looking at their face or body language. This is not new information to us. What is interesting to note is that viewing someone hurt or upset can trigger a similar response a in our own brains, causing us to feel, at the very least, empathetic.
Dr. Jeremy Manternach demonstrates the lip-rounding condition.
How does this apply to chorus directors? Several studies measured the effects of nonverbal conductor gestures on singers. In one study by Dr. Jeremy Manternach now of the University of Iowa, participants sang one phrase of song several times while watching videos of a prerecorded director. The baseline director videos showed the director with a neutral expression, while other videos showed the director with an identical expression but with rounded lips on two words. The research showed that participants rounded their lips significantly more during the rounded conductor conditions than in the neutral positions. Participants unconsciously mimicked the director.
This is a powerful position for chorus directors to be in, as it has a lot of implications for the conducting gesture. Effective gestures can turn ideas into music. Ineffective gestures can disrupt the singers' storytelling. One way you can detect your effectiveness as a director is to film yourself from the front and honestly watch what you are nonverbally asking your group (watch with the sound off). If you are ever confused by a gesture (or shoulders or knees or lips, etc.) then adjust accordingly. Generally speaking, the clearer and simpler the gesture, the better an ensemble responds.
For more information about mirror neurons check out these videos: 1 , 2 and 3. For research on the effect of gesture on choral sound, check out the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing.
Join in the conversation in our Barbershop Chorus Directors group on Facebook. As always, feel free to reach out to the BHS Education Team for further resources and assistance at chapters@barbershop.org or 800.876.SING.


THANK YOU ELEPHANT CIRCLE COMMUNITY!
We asked and you gave so generously.
We set our sights on raising $5000 and, thanks to your generous support, WE DID IT!
We raised more than $5K and funded 10 Birthworkers of Color all over the United States. Three applicants received $600, four applicants received $300 and - in the spirit of meeting immediate needs - we gave $400 to a birthworker who went to extraordinary lengths to support a family and found themselves stuck, without the funds to travel back to their own family.
Folks donated from $5 to $500, with 5 individuals giving more than $400 and two organizations, The Colorado Breastfeeding Coalition and the Queer and Transgender Midwives Association, supporting birthworkers generously at $1200 and $500 apiece.
We plan to move from a rolling application process to two-three rounds of funding per year. Please keep an eye out this spring for information about the next round of applications! Open to all who identify as a person of color and a birthworker. Awards generally range from $200-$500 each.
Since 2009, Elephant Circle has funded Birthworkers of Color on their journey to serve parents and families. Until recently, applying for these funds had been primarily word of mouth and we funded about 6-12 people a year. Though exact amounts have varied across the years, we have consistently met our organizational priority that the money we spend supporting Birthworkers of Color is the second biggest line item in our budget (the first is paying the folks who work directly for Elephant Circle). This practice both represents and feeds what this priority means to us in the work we do as a birth justice organization - this fund is one of our ongoing, long-term, grassroots contributions to equity in birth in the US.
In the fall of 2018, a single Facebook post about our scholarship generated nearly 200 requests for applications in 36 hours. The need was real and urgent! We received nearly 100 completed applications. We funded 10 birthworkers this time and we plan to open applications a few times a year to fund as many folx as possible. Stay tuned for the next round!


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Acts of Faith Perspective
Perspective Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events
What churches must do right now to stop being part of the sexual harassment problem
Sunlight filters through the stained glass windows inside the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. June 20, 2017. ( Eva HAMBACHEVA HAMBACH/AFP/Getty Images)
By Rev. Amy Butler
We're less than two weeks from the special election in Alabama that will determine whether a man accused of sexual assault of minors will be elected to the United States Senate. At the same time that the heirs of the religious right are tripping over their own hypocrisy and white evangelicals remain conflicted on whether to vote for a morally bankrupt candidate, we now are hearing stories about Matt Lauer and Garrison Keillor joining the growing list of powerful men losing their jobs over sexual misconduct allegations. Despite dire warnings of the immorality of a secular Hollywood and the media, it would appear that corporate America is more willing to show moral leadership than the church. This is not merely ironic. The church's silence and inaction are sins.
The other night I was hosting a Pastor's Table, a small dinner party at my home with a diverse group of congregation members. As we sat around the table, one of the men in the group brought up the subject of sexual harassment allegations we're seeing all over the media. He asked what he could do.
As a woman sitting at that table, I appreciated his questions. But it quickly became apparent that those questions were not the most pressing issues on our minds.
Each woman started sharing her story. "I remember the first time I saw a male teacher looking down my shirt. When I complained, I was told to button more buttons."
"The first time a man exposed himself to me, I was at a neighborhood pool. I was 7."
[Roy Moore allegations prompt reflections on fundamentalist culture in which some Christian men date teens]
"In my all-girl's elementary school, I had to stay after school some days when my mom was working late. I hated it because the janitor would push me up against the counter and touch my body. When I reported it, I was told just to stay away from him."
One by one the stories tumbled out, and every single woman at that table of church members had a story to tell. We were intergenerational, interracial and from every background, and yet our stories echoed with familiarity around the table. It was abundantly clear that sexual harassment and abuse of women is part of everyday life for many of us. And if it happens in all the places we women recounted around the table that night, you can bet it's happening in the church.
The church as an institution is varied in its expression, of course, and there is no unified voice that speaks on any issue. But as the stories keep coming out, I continue to be concerned about what we're hearing from the church these days. Some ministers are publicly supporting Roy Moore. Others just aren't really saying anything. And maybe that's the worst response of all.
[Some Alabama evangelicals see Roy Moore as a man of Christian values. Others are torn.]
For the sake of argument, let's just make the assumption that most Christians agree that Jesus wouldn't appreciate the sexual exploitation or abuse of women. So why would the church, an institution claiming to represent the values of Jesus, ever be silent on such a clear-cut issue?
We're silent because we're guilty, implicated by thousands of years of institutional and personal abuse of women, almost an entire existence of keeping women subverted and victimized. I don't think we even know how deep and inbred this sin of the church actually is. But like most things, the church will be dragged kicking and screaming into the conversation. Because women, like all the women around my dinner table last week, will start telling their stories. And we will not stop.
So I'd like to propose that the church begin taking some necessary steps to enter a conversation we should have been leading long ago.
First, it's time to start talking about misogyny, sexual harassment, sexual assault and sexism in general — at church, from the pulpit. Each Sunday our pews are filled with victims of sexual assault and of the constant, wearing, culturally inbred experience of sexual harassment. And these issues belong right up there with racism, homophobia and oppression of the poor (other issues the church doesn't speak up about enough).
Then, take it a step further and LISTEN TO WOMEN. Provide dinner tables and classrooms and online platforms for us to tell our stories, like the latest Twitter hashtag #churchtoo. Honor our stories as holy when we tell them. Believe us, if only for the simple fact that countless similar stories surely inspire some credibility — where there's smoke there's fire, as they say.
Research shows that though the U.S. population is fairly evenly split between men and women, it's women who form the majority in our pews. It's also a generally accepted statistic that one in four women has experienced sexual assault or harassment. But let's recall this only reflects the women who report their experiences. If you take the sample at my dinner party, for example, the true statistic is surely closer to four in four. And, of course, women are not the only victims of sexually inappropriate behavior and assault.
So basically everybody, or at the very least most of the people in our pews, are victims of sexual violence. If the church is not talking about these issues from the pulpit, in small groups, with our children, in staff situations, then we join the list of predatory forces in the world. Our silence makes us complicit.
[A Trump-like politician in Brazil could win the support of a powerful religious group: evangelicals]
And what if we consider the alarming reality that most churches do not have clear policies and procedures around issues of sexual harassment? That's a second step the church can immediately take. Let's begin by asking ourselves these questions: Does our congregation have a sexual harassment policy? Do our leaders know how to identify inappropriate or threatening behavior? Do they know clearly what actions can and should be taken in response to reporting such behavior? Are there automatic safeguards in place to keep those identified as sexual harassers or predators out of congregational leadership and other places where they can continue to engage in their behavior? If you answered "no" to any of these questions, then your church has some serious work to do.
And third, every single church should offer tangible help to victims of sexual violence. Perhaps there are pastoral staff members available for conversations, or training programs for church leaders, or support groups for victims. At the very least, we can place signs in each public restroom offering resources for people who need help. Make sure your congregational leadership and members know that women are valued in the community of Christ and that sexual harassment, abuse or denigration of anyone is unacceptable in the church. Then put legs to that claim by offering resources to help.
We know that healthy, loving communities of any kind can be instrumental in making our world a kinder, safer place. But so far, the church has too often been last in line to provide that kind of community for women. This is a shameful reality we must confront, especially in these days when the institutional church is steadily and rightly losing credibility and influence. If the church can't get itself to start protecting the very people who sit in the pews each Sunday, then it might be time to throw in the towel and let someone else take a shot at representing the love of Jesus to the world around us.
The Rev. Amy Butler is the senior minister at the Riverside Church, a New York City congregation known for its public pulpit and social justice legacy.
He was 12. He had just moved to America. Then his Sikh father was murdered.
Church denies First Communion to fashion-loving girl because she wanted to wear a suit
Could this rabbi be a first in Congress?
Riverside Church congregants call for reinstatement of first female minister after her exit following a sex shop visit
Deluge in Louisiana delayed but not denied as Barry's perplexing precipitation finally delivers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Home » Rendez-vous » Rendez-vous April 1998 – Tire grip with gum!
Rendez-vous April 1998 – Tire grip with gum!
Recent warm temperatures (this is written in February after all) made us all think about spring. You know, that time of year when the tulips and Porsches bloom. Of course by the time you read this me may be buried in snow and we'll all be figuring ways to turbo charge our snow blowers but I digress..
Most of you know that I'm "into" tires. Of our annual Porsche related expenses, tires are at the top of the list. I'm always looking for the best traction and wear. Something that adheres to Mt-Tremblant's particular surface is high on my list.
Did you know that many if not most of the world's inventions came about by accident. How about 3M and those wonderful post-it-notes? The 3M guys were trying to make a better glue. Their failure turned out to be a lot more useful than just another adhesive.
Something similar happened to me last month while I was walking in a shopping mall. Suddenly my right foot was stuck to the polished floor. Lifting hard resulted in a "snaaaaaaaaack" sound and then 'konk-ouch" which was when my knee hit my face.
Now an ordinary person might have said *!#$!!%^! and muttered a few words describing the cretin who left bubble gum on the floor. I said "ouch!" and then I said $#@!%*&!! and also &^(#@!!! (the former being in French the latter in English as is the law here).
As fate would have it, a watering hole was nearby and since it was past 5 (in England) I sipped a beer while trying to get the $#@!! bubble gum off my shoe. I was really surprised at how tenacious the stuff was. It stuck to my rubber soles like glue.
"Eureka" I shouted. By now people in the bar were looking at me nervously and moving farther away. Scientific Philistines I suppose, or maybe they're not used to people yelling Greek words. Still the ones closest to me began to sidle away, like I was a nut or something.
Obviously I had discovered a marvelous traction enhancing substance! Distracted, I wandered out into the mall. Then I rushed back in to pay for my beer. Obviously the bar-keep didn't share my enthusiasm for discovery. Of all the names he used to call me back, "inventor" was missing.
I began testing the "stick-tion" on various surfaces. I already knew it stuck to rubber and to that drab cement with polished gravel they use on mall floors. When I tried it on a wooden bench I realized I'd made a mistake. I couldn't get it off. I needed this-particular-kind of gum. This was the mother-of-all-sticky-gums. I upended a coffee cup over the spot (to protect my sample from harm) and set off to buy a more. How hard could it be? Pink gum is pink gum right?
I was astounded at how many kinds of bubble gum you can buy. Not knowing which one I had , I bought two of everything. Twenty minutes and exactly $32.14 later (I'm saving my receipts 'cuz I'm sure this qualifies as a tax write off) I had my stock. I also had a lot of kids following me, like I was the Pied Piper or something.
Rushing back to the bench, I saw to my horror a very large (hmm, how can I put this?) "Weight-Watcher Challenged" woman was sitting on my experiment! Did she remove the cup I wondered? Now, under normal circumstances I'm not a forward person. Tracking a breakthrough my usual reticence had to take a back seat. "Pardon me madam, but you are sitting on my sample." "Huh"? "Yes, somewhere under there (point) is a scientific breakthrough which rivals the invention of mass hysteresis"! Bonk! I guess she misunderstood me, and figured this was some bizarre pick-up line or something. She didn't have to whack me with her purse though.
As she struggled to stand (no mean feat considering she was moving several billion kilo-calories against gravity) I observed with scientific detachment that the protective cup was no longer in place and that in addition to her considerable bulk, she was struggling with the tractive power of bubble gum which had a tenacious hold not only of the wooden bench but her faux-fur coat.
"Let me help you, you're stuck". Whack! I felt like the little old man on Laugh-In (a comedy show which was popular around the time 911's were invented). I presume she had once again misinterpreted my intentions. I knew that science involved some hard knocks, but I swear she was carrying bowling balls in her purse. While pretending (not hard under the circumstances) to collapse from the blow, I managed to stretch an arm on the bench and rescue the gum. I also rescued about 2.5 square inches of synthetic leopard skin. Fortunately, she didn't notice and as she lumbered down the mall, I was able to scientifically observe that nature had never made a leopard "that" large.
Knowing that time was short (she was headed towards the mall security office) I paid a passing kid five bucks and using his snow cone I was able the freeze the gum sufficiently to facilitate its removal.
Safely at home, I set to the task of seeing exactly what kind of bubble gum I had. This turned out to be more difficult than I had thought. Setting aside gums which were obviously the wrong color (purple, slime green, blue, black, orange , silver, and brown) I still had fourteen different kinds of pink gum. Not only that, but the exact color wasn't obvious unless you chewed it first. Well, I chewed and chawed sniffing the test piece and comparing it to my sample. I was halfway tempted to simply taste the piece I had recovered from the mall but good sense overcame scientific frenzy.
I found a match at sample number eight. Good thing, my jaw was aching by this time and all the stuff started to look and smell the same. Carefully setting aside the original, I started experimenting with the gum. How much chewing it took, how sticky it got and how much adhesion it really had. My fish scale was really handy for the last part.
As expected, getting it to stick to the tire was easy, chew, apply and press firmly. After covering about 1.5 square inches I realized that: a) I needed more gum; b) I couldn't chew that much gum; and c) I was going to be sick real soon.
I backed the car up so that the gum was under the tire. Wow! One small square of gum and I had to use quite a bit of power to get the car to move. I stopped and looking back, the gum was stretched between the garage floor and the tire. Wow! Incredible stick. Thus encouraged I started to plan.
Consider the magnitude of my problem. The surface area of four tires on a 993 is around TWO-THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED SQUARE INCHES.! In metric that would be about 2 x 10 to the seventh fig Newtons or something. Considering that each piece of bubble gum would cover only about 1.5 square inches, that meant I needed 1,666 pieces of gum to coat the surfaces of all four tires and that isn't even counting the spare!
Now, where I live, bubble gum costs $0.65 for a package of six pieces. That works out to about 11 cents per piece. Add on taxes and its 15 cents each. For 1,666 pieces that's two hundred and fifty bucks worth of gum.
Assuming I could stand to buy that much gum ) how was I going to chew it?
I began eyeing Louise' new food processor! Halfway to the invention of artificial spit, she caught me and sent me back to the garage. Funny how some women can be so enthusiastic about tracking a Porsche and be so possessive about their cooking stuff!
Alas, my experiment is halted. Not for lack of funding. Lack of volunteers to share the moment of triumph. I rounded up all the kids in the neighborhood. "Hey guys and gals, all you have to do is chew sixteen hundred pieces of gum this afternoon, what-do-ya-say?" "Uhhm how long will this take?" "Lessee, there are about ten of you, say about six hours or so if you chew fast." They gave up after only a few hundred pieces. Modern kids have no stamina, too much Nintendo I suppose.
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text:
Q: Convert String to code in Java
Possible Duplicate:
How do I invoke a java method when given the method name as a string?
How do I programmatically compile and instantiate a Java class?

I have a function:
fun1() {
  System.out.print("hello");
}

I want to read a string from either the user or a file, and if the string "fun1()" appears, I'd call fun1.
I don't want to do this with a switch statement, because I have a lot of functions.
There is any way to call a function using strings?

A: You could use reflection here:
Method method = MyClass.class.getDeclaredMethod("fun1", new Class[] {});
method.invoke(this, null);

Consider first, however, if you can avoid using reflection then do. Reflection bring with it a number of disadvantages such as being difficult to debug and rendering automatic refactoring tools such as those in Eclipse effectively useless.
Rethink your design; you can probably solve the problem better with cleaner decomposition of classes, better polymorphism, etc.

A: You can achieve this using Java Reflection

A: you can do this using reflection. but the method you provided is not java. the return type is missing. why do you want to do this? here is a link, in case you go this route: invoking a static method using reflections

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