Home Monthly Health Update What's in Your Medicine Cabinet?
Many people save old prescriptions thinking, "I may need this again sometime." This practice can be very dangerous. Medications have expiration dates and may not be as effective after they expire. You can help by correctly disposing of unused medication. The best way to dispose of unwanted medications is to take them to a Medication Take Back site.
The 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 6.4 million Americans abused controlled prescription drugs. Most of the abused prescription drugs came from the home medicine cabinet of family and friends.
National Prescription Drug Take Back Day provides an opportunity for Americans to prevent drug addiction and overdose deaths. Bring your unused and expired medications to the CT Medication Disposal Sites. You can find a site near you on the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection website by searching "Local Drug Collection Boxes." These collection sites are available year round.
If there is not a site near you dispose of the medication by partially dissolving pills or capsules in a small amount of liquid. Pour liquid medication into unused kitty litter, salt or coffee grounds to make it unusable. Then tape the container closed and discard in your trash can.
Find a Medication Take Back site near you!


Christmas is Coming-When decorating,don't Forget your Ipad, and don't forget the Ipad owner in your life!
Many people are beginning to discover how easy and inexpensive it is to buy cases for the sell your Ipad lovers in their lives. In fact, there are even Christmas themed cases for Ipads available in stores. So, if you want to get an Ipad case for Christmas or a Christmas case for your Ipad, you're in luck. There are all kinds of different Ipad cases out there for every person on your shopping list. All you have to do is look for them.
Exercise Caution-Make Sure That Ipad Case is Tough!
Wherever you go to do your Christmas shopping, you can find that sell your Ipad case for either yourself or that Ipad owner in your life. For instance, all the major computer stores now carry Ipad cases. Heck even the big box stores carry Ipad cases for a variety of prices, from pricey to cheap. However, not just any sell your Ipad case will do-It's important to remember that Ipads are a bit more vulnerable to dropping and those dreaded spills than other computers are. So, it's also important to remember that Ipad cases protect the computer from either getting spilled on or dropped. That's why you need to consider how tough that case is. Sturdy and durable are the key words here. The Ipad case was created for two reasons-one, to protect the Ipad and two, to provide a stand so you can use the Ipad in the same way you use a regular computer, with either the touchscreen keyboard or a separate wireless one you can buy. Since the introduction of the Ipad case, a cottage industry has sprung up with computer companies offering their own versions of the Ipad case. Needless to say, that's good news for Ipad owners and those thinking about getting one, since there is a limitless supply out there.
That's no joke. The Ipad case has gone from the original in plastic to all kinds of cases in all kinds of materials-from aluminum to leather. It's gone from famine to feast almost. You can buy one that is like a folder for your Ipad just as well as the original magnetic one. As was said before, there are even seasonal Ipad cases for Christmas, if you're looking to add some cheer to your Ipad for the Christmas season. A variety of websites sell those cases in addition to the brick and mortar stores, from the mainstream shopping sites to craft sites where most of the merchandise is home made. There are even Ipad cases manufactured by various fashion designers, if you want to have a more fancy look. So, the sky is the limit. Be aware that functionality is just as important as looks and you will be certain to get that perfect sell your Ipad case for those people on your Christmas shopping list. Happy shopping!
James is a smart phone blogger and sell your iPad.
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Tech Thursday: Free educational apps for kids heading back to school
DENVER – Got homework? There's an app for that.
More kids than ever have smartphones, tablets and computers and there's a wealth of free, educational apps that can help them at school.
Here are some popular apps that kids may be interested in downloading before they head back to the classroom:
myHomework
myHomework works a lot like an old-school organizer/planner and takes a lot of the effort out of staying on top of schoolwork. The app allows you to keep track of assignments and due dates and will send a reminder so you don't forget.
Every kid's dream: An app that will solve math problems using just a photo. Some parents and teachers might be concerned that the app allows kids to sidestep the important process of learning how to solve equations, but the app includes step-by-step solving instructions. Perfect for those take-home problems you can't figure out.
Arguably the simplest and most robust free language learning app, Duolingo offers lessons in about two dozen different languages (and they just launched a Japanese course earlier this year). With cartoon-style graphics and simple exercises, the app makes language learning fun and nearly effortless.
Flash cards are a staple of many classrooms and Quizlet works like digital flashcards. Students can choose from millions of existing "study sets" or create their own. The app keeps track of progress and sends reminders to study up.
Evernote is one of the most popular note-taking apps available. Its features allow more than just jotting down a few lines of text – users can include photos, files, clips from web sites, and it's all searchable. Everything also is synced between devices.
Bonus: Vroom
For kids who aren't quite ready for school, Vroom aims to build up the brains of young children during one of the most important periods of brain development. The app gives parents and caregivers topics and tips to talk about with kids.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


It has been awarded to the sole framework supplier listed below on an all Wales basis.
This framework offers customers a quick, easy and compliant access to a range of high quality media planning and buying services that offer customers value for money and added value in the services being provided.
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The New Year's Eve initiative focused on keeping the public safe from those who engage in the dangerous behavior of driving under the influence (DUI), speeding and reckless driving.
Milwaukee, WI – Sheriff Richard Schmidt is launching MCSO Mobile, a phone app which will provide convenient options for the public.
This past weekend's Operation Drive Sober initiative from Friday at 4:00 p.m. through 6:00 a.m. Monday, resulted in the arrest of 11 drunken drivers. The average PBT test results were .15.
Today, at about 2:15 p.m., deputies responded to a call of a sick driver on the I-41/US-45 northbound to I-94 westbound ramp to Highway 100 in the zoo interchange. The vehicle, a silver Dodge Ram, was in the right distress lane and the passenger was outside saying the driver was not breathing.


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14 Famous Black and White Photos That Come to Life When Colorized
The miniseries America in Color looks back at classic photos from the 1920s through 1960s, with each episode dedicated to a different decade.
Courtesy of Smithsonian Channel
The series premieres Sunday, July 2, at 8pm ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel.
The Chrysler Building gets its eagles at the 61st floor.
The Art Deco skyscraper was the first manmade structure taller than 1,000 feet. It was completed in 1930.
Texas Guinan dances at the 300 Club.
A legendary party girl, Mary Louise Cecilia "Texas" Guinan ran one of the most famous speakeasies in New York City. She was arrested several times for her troubles.
Courtesy of the Albert L. Bresnik family
Amelia Earhart sets off for her final flight.
Earhart's longtime photographer, Al Bresnik, snapped this photo at the Burbank Airport on June 1st, 1937.
Everett Collection Historical / Alamy Stock Photo
A black porter works in a Pullman car.
Pullman train cars were one of the few places where an African-American man could find work following the great depression. The line of work is credited by some for creating the black middle class in America.
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters celebrates their 11th anniversary in 1936.
This union was the first African-American labor organization to receive national recognition. Its founders went on to become leaders of the Civil Rights movement.
The Golden Gate bridge opens.
The first vehicles drove across the world's longest suspension bridge on May 28, 1937.
World War II ends.
American sailors celebrate in the streets in 1945.
Rosa Parks is finger-printed.
She was arrested after refusing to give up her bus seat on December 1, 1955.
Rosa Parks sits for her mug shot.
Her arrest led to the announcement of the Montgomery bus boycott, which lasted for over a year.
Governor Orval Faubus fights desegregation of schools.
He defied the Supreme Court when he ordered the Arkansas National Guardsman to block black students from entering Little Rock Central High School.
The Little Rock Nine pose for a portrait.
The students found themselves at the center of a cultural crisis when they tried to enroll in a previously all-white high school.
A mob lies in wait for Freedom Riders in Alabama.
When some southern cities refused to comply with Supreme Court decisions desegregating public buses, activists rode on interstate buses—and were met with firebombs and slashed tires from waiting members of the KKK.
Martin Luther King, Jr. sits in an Alabama jail cell.
He was already a nationally famous activist when a judge upheld the ruling (and sentence) of his 1963 arrest for protesting without permits in Birmingham, requiring him to serve three more days.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated.
Witnesses pointed toward the shooter from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
The 30 Most Naked Dresses in History
Kaitlin Menza Kaitlin Menza is a freelance features writer.
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This first set of pictures was taken while walking in the section from Point Bunsbury to the Barham River mouth. Next time, I will experiment with the larger ball.
During the school term, it can be hard to arrange to hang out with Sethy sometimes as it depends on both my health and other commitments. On school holidays, it is so much easier. Just find a day where it is sunny.
It was a cloudy day. I had offered to watch Seth for an afternoon so we decided to go to Serendip. The theory was that it was waterbug season and the ponding site could keep him distracted for hours.
Part of my artistic journey at Apollo Bay was to experiment with the Lenka app for black and white photography. I'm quite fond of this app… however you can't zoom in. Additionally, it wasn't always the best conditions to have the DSLR out.
We had just made a quick visit to the property. My parents wanted to look at something in Ballarat so kindly dropped Seth and I off and Lake Wendoree. We did have plans to go to the playground but, er, one of us got distracted.


Oyster Cottage is situated in the lovely town of Southwold. It has traditional features along with a modern twist of interiors. It would suit anyone wishing to be centrally based in this Suffolk town.
A fresh new look makes this pretty-as-a-pearl, centrally-located cottage lovelier than ever. Built in the 17th century but boasting every modern comfort and convenience, it's pet-friendly and has a private garden too.
Original beams – recycled from old boats by the French Huguenots who built the cottage – and a clean, calming colour scheme promote sweet dreams in the two bedrooms here. Both on the first floor and with double beds, one has an ensuite cloakroom with wc and washbasin, while the cottage's main shower room is on the ground floor.
Always the heart of any home, the kitchen here is truly central to everything that's going on, with double doors opening onto the courtyard garden as well as easy access to the beamed sitting room – a real stroke of architectural genius. Cooks can chatter companionably while working their magic with the electric oven, hob and microwave, there's a Lavazza Pod machine for coffee-lovers and even a Nutribullet for the health-conscious… and all meals can be enjoyed at the rustic dining suite indoors, or in fair weather around the wooden table outside. That summer essential, a barbecue, is provided, too.
A secure, private courtyard garden presents somewhere peaceful in which to soak up the sun or escape the crowds… complete with furniture, a barbecue and bench seating, it's an enviable extension to your living space here.
A woodburner within the pretty inglenook fireplace sets the scene for romantic winter nights, while WiFi keeps you connected to the outside world – all you need is your log-in info and you can enjoy Netflix entertainment via the wall-mounted Smart TV too. A dishwasher and washing machine make light work of any household chores, roadside parking is available a short walk away… and on the subject of 'walkies', one well-behaved dog is welcome to join in the holiday fun, as long as they remain downstairs. Typical of its age, the winding staircase here might make Oyster Cottage unsuitable for the very young or those with mobility concerns, but an occasional, unexpected guest can be accommodated, courtesy of the sofa bed in the sitting room!


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Vancouver Island North Explorer Guide
Wave Magazine
Happy Birthday Regional District of Mount Waddington
Chynna Deese, 24, in a number of pictures shared by family and friends since her death on July 15, 2019. (Screenshot/Black Press Media)
Chynna Deese, victim in northern B.C. homicide, remembered as 'beautiful, free soul'
Chynna Deese, of North Carolina, is one of three victims in a string of killings in northern B.C.
Family and friends are remembering Chynna Deese, one of three victims in the string of shocking killings in northern B.C., as a lover of travel and adventure who was taken much too soon.
Tributes to Deese, 24, of Charlotte, N.C., have been flowing into a GoFundMe account setup by a family friend a few days after since police identified her and her boyfriend, Lucas Fowler, as the two victims who were shot along the Alaska Highway, 50 kilometres south of Liard Hot Springs.
READ MORE: 'Struggling to understand': Family, UBC pay tribute to lecturer killed in northern B.C.
"She was a daughter, sister, girlfriend and friends," the page reads, adding that she was "a bright, welcoming and infectious soul."
RCMP have declared Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky as suspects in the couple's death.
The fundraising page was created to help the Deese family cover expenses for a funeral and memorial. As of Thursday morning, $8,800 had been raised. While Deese's family has remained quiet to the public through the BC RCMP investigation, which has now stretched nationwide, friends are shedding light online to who the North Carolina woman was.
READ MORE: Northern B.C. homicides unsettle isolated Tahltan village
"My heart is truly broken for the family of Chynna and Lucas," Michelle Allen wrote. "My heart also goes out to all the friends who held them both so dear. Chynna was such a beautiful person inside and out and made a mark on my entire family. The Moore's were truly blessed to have met her."
According to Lucas Fowler's father, Stephen, the two met while travelling. He said the pair became inseparable, describing his son as a "fun-loving guy with a heart of gold," and Deese as a "beautiful young lady" and the couple as a "great pair."
"It's a love story that's ended tragically. It's the worst ever love story," Stephen said.
Deese and Fowler met in Croatia while both were travelling the world in 2o17.
Photos of Deese shared on the GoFundMe page show her playing pool with friends, as well as graduation photos taken at Appalachian State University and numerous others of her time travelling with Fowler. According to a Facebook post from the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, Deese was a member during her time at the state school.
"She was such a kind and adventurous soul and we have been honored to call her our sister," the statement reads.
"She was always so friendly and kind every time I was with her," Don Gies wrote on the fundraising page, who said he was fraternity brothers with one of Deese's siblings, British.
McLeod and Schmegelsky remain on the run from police in connection to the killings of Deese and Fowler, as well as University of B.C. lecturer Leonard Dyck. Their last known whereabouts were a remote area of northern Manitoba, called Gillam, on Monday evening. The police's efforts to capture the two men have captivated international attention.
The suspects have been charged with second-degree murder in Dyck's death, but have not been charged for the deaths of Deese and Fowler as of Thursday morning.
READ MORE: Port Alberni teens charged with second degree murder, remain at large
Canadians also took to the GoFundMe page, voicing their condolences.
"My heart is broken for these families," a person who called themselves D Webber wrote. "I am saddened that this happened in the country I live in and these young amazing people were here visiting. My deepest condolences.
"Please accept my deepest condolences on the loss of your beautiful daughter," wrote Jackie P. "I am a Canadian citizen and I am so deeply saddened by what happened. God Bless you all.
A couple, named Braden and Shaelee, said they were finishing their own road trip through B.C. when they heard of Deese's death.
"… Read of this news while we were at our last campsite. We cannot let the fear of this persons actions haunt us, but instead we will focus on the love these two shared, and the lust for life and travel that we share with them," they wrote.
"May they rest in peace, be forever together, may your families find closure and peace, and may the suspect be taken out of the public, brought to justice and face the severe consequences. Sending all the love and positive energy your way."
Ex-lifeguard Eddie Spaghetti pleads guilty to child pornography
More than 37,000 kids now immunized against measles after B.C.'s catch-up program
North Island Bantam Eagles ice Clippers, clinch Tier 2 league banner
"We will enjoy the moment for now, but… it's back to work on Tuesday"
Upgrades to Port Hardy arena hinge on grant funding
The district is waiting on grant approval from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure program.
Bradshaw's Photo Highlight: North Island beauty
"don't forget to look up and observe the beauty of the whole North Island"
LETTER: Miles put on the car causes North Island driver to reflect
"Up here in Port McNeill we are so blessed with nature's tranquillity all around us"
VIDEO: Comox Valley Chiefs smash North Island Eagles, clinch Peewee Tier 3 league banner
The Eagles got off to a slow start in the first period while the Chiefs were skating hard.
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© 2020, North Island Gazette and Black Press Group Ltd.


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by admin | October 28, 2016 · 12:00 am
First Chapter Reveal – Killer Pursuit by Jeff Gunhus
Title: KILLER PURSUIT
Author: Jeff Gunhus
Publisher: Seven Guns Press
When a high-society call girl is murdered in her Georgetown home, investigators find two cameras hidden in the walls of her bedroom. One has its memory erased, presumably by the murderer. The second is connected to the Internet through an encrypted connection…and no-one knows who's on the other end.
Special Agent Allison McNeil is asked by beleaguered FBI Director Clarence Mason to run an off-the-record investigation of the murder because of the murder's similarity to a case she worked a year earlier. Allison knows the most direct path to apprehending the killer is to find the videos, but the rumors that the victim's client list may have included Mason's political enemies has her worried about the director's motives. As she starts her investigation, she quickly discovers that she's not the only one pursuing the videos. In fact, the most aggressive person racing against her might be the murderer himself.
Killer Pursuit is available at Amazon.
Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads.
First Chapter:
Allison McNeil tensed when she spotted the first shadow dart through the mist and take cover behind a tree. In the early-morning light it took her a while to pick out all six members of the Hostage Rescue Team approaching the cabin, but within a minute she could clearly see the tactical team converging on their target.
The small building stood on a rise, up from the swampy, flood-prone land around it. Wood-slated walls tilted precariously inward, twisting the windows into deformed rectangles. Moss and dead leaves covered the roof. The place smelled and looked like decay, well on its way to inevitable reclamation by the weeds and vines choking the cabin to a miserable death.
And, if Allison was right, the place deserved what it got. Hell, if she was right, she had half a mind to take a match to the place after everything was done.
She hunkered down behind a fallen tree, her head barely clearing the top to see the building and the team closing in. A trickle of sweat started at the base of her neck and went the length of her spine. She adjusted the Kevlar vest, under her light windbreaker emblazoned with large yellow letters. FBI. It felt ridiculous to wear the windbreaker when it was in the '80s before daybreak with the Louisiana humidity hovering at about a thousand percent, but if it meant that the hotheads with assault rifles could more easily identify her as a friendly, then she was happy to have it.
Garret Morrison shifted his weight next to her, stretching out a leg and rubbing his knee. She gave him a sideways look.
"You all right?" she whispered.
He scowled at her. They both knew she didn't give a damn about him. The comment was intended as a dig at the fifty-three-year-old Garret who prided himself on being in better shape than the agents beneath him. Even though he ran the Behavioral Analysis Unit, home of the FBI's fabled profilers who spent more time in the heads of the criminals they chased than in the field, he required an aggressive physical program for his people. Everything about Morrison is a throwback to the old male-dominated Bureau. A slicked-back head of hair with just the right amount of grey to lend him gravitas without making him look old, a square jaw out of a mountaineering magazine, cold steel-blue eyes that seemed to look through people instead of at them. Unless they were trained on an attractive female, in which case his eyes gave their full attention to the area below the chin and above the waistline.
"Worry about yourself," Garret grumbled. He turned to Doug Browning, a junior agent who followed Garret around like a little puppy. "Jesus, Doug. Not so close."
Allison turned back to the cabin and raised her binoculars, not bothering to hide the smile on her lips. Garret was a legend in the Bureau for his work hunting America's worst criminals, but Allison's own legend had grown since her work on the Arnie Milhouse case a year earlier. While that case had given her credibility, she knew she was just as likely to be referred to as the woman who'd broken Garret Morrison's nose when he'd made one too many unwanted advances while she was a trainee. And, while she wanted to be known for her work, she didn't mind that piece of fame following her around.
"Alpha team in position," said a voice through the small speaker in her ear. She noticed Garret put a finger to the side of his head and nod. He looked over at her.
"You better be right about this," he whispered.
Allison shook her head. For all his brilliance—and, regardless of how she felt personally about him, she recognized that he was brilliant—Garret's transparency could border on the inane. What he was really saying was that if the lunatic Allison's research had tracked to this location wasn't holed up in this backwoods cabin, if the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team had been activated and deployed for no reason, then the blame would drop on her like a bag of bricks. If Sam Kraw was in there, Allison knew it would be Garret standing in front of the cameras taking credit for the HRT mission and the capture of America's most wanted fugitive.
She pushed the thought away. As long as they caught the bastard and ended his multi-year killing spree in the Southeast, she didn't give a damn who got the credit.
Allison moved her binoculars. The tactical team was in place around the cabin, peering through scopes with infrared capabilities. If there was someone hiding in the shadows of a window or doorway, they wouldn't be hiding for long.
On some signal unseen by Allison, the men began a steady, crouched advance to the building. She realized she was holding her breath so she blew out her air slowly between pinched lips.
"Relax, McNeil," Garret muttered. "You're making me nervous."
The two members of the tactical squad approaching from the front reached the deck that wrapped around the front of the building. As they strode across it, the old wood floorboards groaned. The men froze. The seconds stretched out. Allison became suddenly aware of the hum of insects in the air around her. The dampness of her own skin. The sound of a bird calling in the distance. All of her senses were wired tight. An entire year of her life was wrapped up in the next few seconds. And if she'd got it wrong, Garret would have the ammo he'd been looking for to get her out of his unit once and for all. But she wasn't worried about herself. What really bothered her was the chance that she had it right, that this was Kraw's hideout, but that somehow they'd spooked him and he'd already slipped away. If that had happened, he'd be hundreds of miles away by tomorrow, scouting for his next victim as he traveled.
Movement in the cabin. Just a flutter. Like a bird trapped in a cage. Only her intuition told her it was more than a bird. It had been an arm. A human arm. Sam Kraw.
Based on the lack of movement from the tactical team, she realized no one else had seen it.
"I've got movement," she whispered into her mic. "Window to the right of the front door. An arm."
"I didn't see anything," Garret whispered.
Allison ignored him. The men around the cabin responded immediately, reorienting to the front door. Guns pointed at the window.
One of the men produced a miniram, a high impact, brute force breaching tool. Coordinating with his partner, he crouched next to the door while the other man readied a flash-bang grenade.
There was a pause, as if someone had pressed a button on a TV remote. Everyone was in place. The air seemed to still as if the world knew something was about to happen. Allison had her binoculars trained on the window where she'd seen the movement. If Kraw was inside, then the nightmare was almost over. She'd know in a few seconds whether that was the case or not.
But in that second, she saw the movement again.
Only this time, she knew something was wrong.
It was a man's arm, she saw it clearly this time. But it was too stiff. The color was off. And, attached at the shoulder, she saw a coil of wire.
A mannequin arm on a spring.
Meant to make them think someone was inside.
It was a trap.
Jeff Gunhus is the USA TODAY bestselling author of thriller and horror novels for adults and the middle grade/YA series, The Templar Chronicles. The first book, Jack Templar Monster Hunter, was written in an effort to get his reluctant reader eleven-year-old son excited about reading. It worked and a new series was born. His books for adults have reached the Top 30 on Amazon, have been recognized as Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Finalists and reached the USA TODAY bestseller list.
After his experience with his son, he is passionate about helping parents reach young reluctant readers and is active in child literacy issues. As a father of five, he leads an active life in Maryland with his wife Nicole by trying to constantly keep up with their kids. In rare moments of quiet, he can be found in the back of the City Dock Cafe in Annapolis working on his next novel or on JeffGunhus.com.
His latest book is the thriller, Killer Pursuit.
Visit Jeff Gunhus' website.
Connect with Jeff on Facebook and Twitter.
First Chapter Reveal: Girl Within Girl by S.P. Aruna
Title: Girl Within Girl: An Erotic Thriller (Book 1: Unraveling)
Author: S.P. Aruna
Publisher: BookBaby
Genre: Erotic Thriller
Katrina is never alone. She is bound to others inside her, tighter than any Siamese twins could ever be: Cherry, the freewheeling photojournalist, Anisa, the covert spy-assassin, and others as yet unknown, all sharing her body and mind as she goes about her work in a psychiatric hospital. But she is starting to unravel, and her sole hope is the handsome Dr. Sean Paisley, the only one who can make her whole again.
Girl Within Girl is a dark erotic thriller that wanders through a sensual maze of mind control and torture.
Girl Within Girl is available at Amazon.
That morning, April 11, 2016, could very well have been a turning point in my life, the morning I awoke and didn't know where I was, and even more frightening, who I was.
In my bed, I was rising out of a foggy void that separated dreams from drowsy wakefulness, when, in a flash of alarm, I bolted upright to sit up, frantically looking around me. I could almost hear the whirring of the cogs in my head as my mind searched its recesses for the answers. My surroundings slowly focused into a scene of familiarity: my Hemnes six-drawer dresser, my Morvik wardrobe with the full-length mirror, the Gaugin print hanging on the white stucco wall just beside it; the cream-colored low-pile carpeting covering the floor up to my bathroom door, and the window to my left adorned with the lace curtains I had bought at Jack's Second Hand Furniture.
My name is Katrina. I'm in my apartment. I think it's a Monday.
I got out of bed and stepped over to the full-length mirror with a curious urge to examine myself. The first thing I noticed was my dirty blonde hair flowing in waves to my shoulders. With my not-too-wide forehead I have no quarrel with, but my bushy eyebrows get away from being too distracting only because of the fair hair. My eyes though, I hate them, cold and grey, even spooky, making me look away for a moment.
But then I had to look again. My sharp nose, like a bird's beak, pointed at me from the reflection. Nondescript lips told me that I was plain. My pointed chin only bolstered that impression.
Yet my body wasn't too bad: softly sloping shoulders, my breasts the shape of delicate bowls, a waist that flared into wide hips, and legs that were shaped into long perfect curves. And why shouldn't my body be so ideal, after all I'm only…I'm only…shit…twenty-three…twenty-four?
My surname is Novak. In Czech that means, "The New One." That's what somebody told me once.
I turned abruptly and went into my kitchenette, hoping that a cup of coffee could bring me to a more functional state. While brewing it, I fell into an instinctual routine mode, somehow intuiting that I had to be at work by nine.
I'm a nurse at a psychiatric hospital.
That's not exactly a pleasant job, I agree. Even the building I work in, the Gottlieb Memorial Institute, is spooky in its Gothic, horror castle type architecture: roughly hewn grey stone capped by roofs that slanted at ridiculously sharp angles; and yes, I mean more than one roof, each corner having its own tower-like extension melding into the main one, each pointing like spikes into the sky. Inside is not much better; with the reception room painted a drab grey, and the corridors leading to those unfortunate souls interned within enveloped in white ceramic tile and neon strip lights. The place was noisy as well: shrieks and moans always serving as a background clamor which we staff regularly ignored. But still, I like my job because it fills me with the satisfaction that I'm doing something meaningful.
Entering the hospital, I faced the day with stoic acquiescence.
Sometime in the afternoon, at the nurse's station on the third floor, I encountered Dr. Babcock. Tall, balding, a long face highlighted by a pencil thin silver mustache, his scholarly spectacles giving him a fatherly look, his lips severe, I felt an inexplicable attraction to him, as if pleasing him was a priority. "Yes, Dr. Babcock?"
"I think it's time we transfer Mrs. Wheaton to the Sleep Room."
"Yes Doctor."
If there was a place in the hospital that I loathed more than the Electro-Shock Room, it was the Sleep Room, and as I wheeled Mrs. Wheaton, already out of it to the point of drooling, her head rocking back and forth with every slight turn of the gurney, an icy shudder zipped through me. With one hand on the gurney, I opened the door. Inside were eight other patients, comatose as zombies, some having been unconscious for three months or more. After depositing her there, I spent the rest of the day engaged in my usual duties of administering drugs, taking care of bedpans. and shuffling patients to and fro.
But then, while I was in the female staff dressing room, something strange happened to me. I lost track of time and felt myself a participant inside a sexual fantasy. I was naked upon a bed… my breasts were tingling as if they had just been bitten and suckled, and a hairy brute of a man was looming over me, snarling and growling and even shouting at me, and I could feel a pleasurable hammering in the middle of my body, and even though it hurt, it was giving me an incomparable gratification. A sharp sensation pierced me, stole my breath, and caused me to wake up gasping, where I found myself back in the hospital changing room, my loins embarrassingly moist.
"Tough day, I bet," said one of the nurses who was also coming off-shift, a bleach-blonde called Sheila.
I was ashamed to be so discombobulated in front of her, so my only response was, "Yeah." I really didn't want to talk to her. In fact, I hardly ever want to talk to anybody.
People describe me as distant, shy, aloof… I am what I am: a cautious, sensitive person who avoids contact with others at all costs. I don't know what made me so; I just accept my nature as it is.
"So where were you last week?" she asked.
Where was I? Wasn't I here?
"At St. Lukes?" she proposed. "I heard that you rotate between here and there."
Do I? "Yes, St. Luke's'," I said, only because I didn't want to prolong the conversation.
After that, I made haste to get dressed, anxious to head back home. Before I left, though, I checked my duty roster from last week. There was nothing unusual about it – it documented that I was here. Silly woman must have been confused.
Back in my apartment, I was still disturbed by these events. First, that strange reverie I had, so sudden, so unexpected…and yet, it was somehow familiar. Pain and pleasure, a sweet feeling of submission, a breath-taking fascination at being dominated…now where did that come from? And Sheila's impression that I had been absent last week was disturbing to say the least, and that too still continued to hound me.
After a shower and a chamomile tea, I finally felt relaxed. Then the phone rang. The only phone in the apartment is on the wall of my kitchenette, where fortunately I was sitting nearby at the foldable metal card table. I got up and reached for the receiver. "Hello?"
"Tick-tock… tick-tock… tick-tock."
Half French, half Khmer (Cambodian), I'm a woman whose head is filled with fantasies and intriguing stories, and who wants to share them with others.
S.P. Aruna's latest book is the erotic thriller, Girl Within Girl: An Erotic Thriller: Book 1: Unraveling.
Visit the author on Facebook.
by admin | October 27, 2016 · 6:57 pm
First Chapter Reveal: Killer Pursuit by Jeff Gunhus
John Sibley Williams Talks About Newest Book, Disinheritance
John Sibley Williams is the editor of two Northwest poetry anthologies and the author of nine collections, including Controlled Hallucinations (2013) and Disinheritance (2016). A five-time Pushcart nominee and winner of the Philip Booth Award, American Literary Review Poetry Contest, Nancy D. Hargrove Editors' Prize, and Vallum Award for Poetry, John serves as editor of The Inflectionist Review and works as a literary agent. Previous publishing credits include: The Midwest Quarterly, december, Third Coast, Baltimore Review, Nimrod International Journal, Hotel Amerika, Rio Grande Review, Inkwell, Cider Press Review, Bryant Literary Review, RHINO, and various anthologies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Visit John Sibley Williams' website.
Connect with John on Facebook.
Find out more about John at Goodreads.
Our guest today is John Sibley Williams, author of the new poetry collection Disinheritance.
What made you decide to become a published author?
I'm lucky to have been passionate about books since childhood. Perhaps it's in part due to my mother reading novel after novel over her pregnant belly every day. Perhaps it's in part due to my own restlessness, my need to make things, and my love of words. But I began writing short stories in middle school, and I continued in that genre until my early twenties. A handful of those stories found publication in literary magazines, which was eye-opening and oddly humbling.
I was 21 when I wrote my first poem. Before that, I had never enjoyed reading poetry and had certainly never considered writing one. It was summer in New York and I was sitting by a lake with my feet dragging through the current caused by small boats when suddenly, without my knowing what I was doing, I began writing something that obviously wasn't a story. What was it? Impressions. Colors. Emotions. Strange images. I didn't have any paper, so I used a marker to write a series of phrases on my arm. Then they poured onto my leg. Then I realized I needed paper. I ran back to the car, took out a little notebook, and spent hours emptying myself of visions and fears and joys I don't think I even knew I had. That was 17 years ago. Since that surreal and confusing moment by that little city lake, I've written poetry almost every day.
Would you consider your latest book, Disinheritance, to be a one of a kind? How so?
Well, I suppose every book is one of a kind. But in my case, Disinheritance is a bit different than my previous collections. Most of my work is not overly narrative or overly personal, so it was an exciting challenge to write from a part of my heart still raw and healing.
Disinheritance is a collection of tender, lyrical poems exploring the various voices of grief, including those of the broken, the healing, the son-become-father, and the dead. These poems acknowledge loss while celebrating the uncertainty of a world in constant revision. Though many are based on personal experiences, the poems speak to larger, universal human concerns about how to approach mortality and what role we play in each other's' lives.
Although I'm sure countless other poets have written on similar themes, Disinheritance is definitely unique to my own body of work.
Where is your writing sanctuary?
I don't really have a specific location or time of day. Ideas and phrases and images emerge at the oddest times, so I've taken to carrying a pocket notebook everywhere I go. During my daily work commute. In the hospital visiting an ailing friend. While walking my dog. Even in the middle of a live concert or film. Though I tend to write best when outside, inspiration can come from anything. At its core, I think creativity is all about curiosity and how one chooses to communicate with the world. As adults, we're programmed to think linearly, reactively, and, dare I say it, boringly. But if we retain a bit of that childhood innocence, that unabated curiosity, then we can find metaphors in everything. Why look at the night sky and think "sky, moon, stars"? Why can't the sky be a river? Why can't the stars be that part of our hearts we leave open to love?
My process (and my "sanctuary") is a bit different with every poem. Some pour forth as if on their own, leaving me the easier task of revising for sound and clarity. Other poems take serious effort, time, and struggle. But generally my approach is to have one or two notebooks filled with phrases and images splayed out before me. Whenever I feel stuck, I reread my old notes and see if any fit the poem I'm working on. Interestingly, that approach tends to yield results that even surprise me.
Not to sound coy, but I believe everything is a storehouse of inspiration. It all depends on the author's curiosity and on retaining an open mind. From other books and current events, from overheard conversations and history, from memories and mythology and the way a bridge sways against the sky and my son's hand brushing against mine. And I'm heavily inspired by the landscape itself, from weather patterns and bridges and rivers and animals and cityscapes. And sometimes ideas seem to materialize from the ether, as if they never existed until that moment.
But I think most of my ideas stem from how things interact with other things. Be it people in love or coyotes sniffing a deer carcass or clouds darkening the sky or trains shooting through the night, warming the rails. The effects one thing has on every other thing are astounding, ever-changing, and so very inspiring.
What is one thing you learned about your book after it was published?
Although it's not a new lesson as I've been writing for decades, still I am always surprised and enthused by the reactions readers have when first encountering a poem that speaks to them. We have all read poems or novels that truly moved us, that made us reconsider ourselves, that illuminated the beauty and power of language. It has been indescribably rewarding to know my work has touched others in that way. When a total stranger who perhaps stumbled across your book or had it recommended to her contacts you out of the blue to say how much it inspired her, that is a potent feeling. When you're giving a reading and you can see that glow in the audience's eyes, that is unforgettable. Even after around 50 or so readings across the country, I am touched every single time someone goes out of their way to express their thoughts on my work. That's what it's all about. Trying to use language that lifts up off the page and resonates with people.
Did any real life experiences find their way into your book?
Disinheritance was inspired by a few pivotal moments that occurred within a few months of each other, namely the illness and passing of my mother, a terrible miscarriage, and my wife and I's struggles to move forward and redefine the landscape of "family". To explore grief more fully, I adopted the voice of our miscarried child, along with the hypothetical boy he might have grown up to be. I adopted my mother's voice and my father's and my wife's and my own.
Aside from writing, what's your passion?
I sort of feel like I'm always writing. Even when at work, when driving, hiking, reading, listening to music. Inspiration can come from anything, so wherever I go I carry a pocket notebook and pen, just in case. But apart from writing, most of my time these days is spent raising my wife and I's newborn twins. Fatherhood is a full time job, as is writing, so my various other passions have taken a back seat for the time being. Before that, I spent most of my non-writing time reading, watching films, exploring the gorgeous mountains and rivers and deserts of Oregon, and supporting my local literary scene by attending various readings and literary conferences.
I have just completed a new book, Skin Memory, which I'm currently pitching to publishers and submitting to book awards. Skin Memory is a collection of free verse and prose poems that tackle some of the same themes in Disinheritance, including family, grief, and American culture, while adding a slightly harder edge, risking a bit more personally and creatively, and exploring in a deeper way those fears and joys that haunt me.
First Chapter Reveal: On Top of the World (Until the Bell Chimes)
Title: ON TOP OF THE WORLD (UNTIL THE BELL CHIMES)
Author: David Lamb
Publisher: Woolly Mammoth Books
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Contemporary Romance/Multicultural/Humor/Satire
2016 BEST FICTION-Pacific Book Awards. FROM THE FUNNY AND NATURALLY BRILLIANT DAVID LAMB, award-winning playwright of the New York Times celebrated play, Platanos Y Collard Greens, comes a modern spin on Dickens' classic tale that perfectly combines humor and romance in a story re-imagined for our digital, consumerist age. This version of Scrooge and Belle is familiar, yet unlike any you've come across before. Scrooge, or rather Scrooje, is music's biggest superstar, with one hundred million albums sold, fifteen million devoted YouTube subscribers, two and a half million Facebook likes, and twenty-five million fanatical Twitter followers known as Scroojites. Belle, is a legal shark who gulps down her opposition voraciously and whose beauty and stunning figure causes traffic accidents as she zips through the sidewalks of Manhattan stylishly adorned and taking no prisoners. They never imagined being music's most powerful couple, but that's exactly what happened when Belle fell head over heels and gave the Coke-bottle glasses wearing, plaid and stripe attired, scrawny, biggest nerd on her college campus the ultimate makeover, turning him into a fashion impresario whose style sets trends from Milan to NY Fashion Week and who can be seen courtside at the NBA Finals sporting a perfectly-fitted cashmere suit. Then it happens. Belle realizes too late that she's created a chart-topping monster as Scrooje's ego explodes and he starts acting a fool. Now, it's been three years since they ve spoken. But tonight at Hollywood s biggest red carpet event, with the whole world watching, they'll be given a second chance. Will Scrooje listen to the ghostly-advice of Marley, his best friend since the fourth grade, who at the time of his untimely drowning at his Brazilian poolside birthday bash was as big a star as Scrooje? Will Scrooje finally do right by his number one artist, Cratchit, a genius comedian, who Scrooje invariably rip offs every chance he gets? And with twenty-five million viewers tuned in will Scrooje finally shed his ego, jeopardize his image and declare his love for Belle, the one he betrayed and let slip away? Second chances don't often come around. Will Belle even give him a chance? Mixing heart, soul, bling and romance in a fresh, original satire about race, class and celebrity worship Lamb establishes himself as one of the most talented and amazing writers today. And leaves no doubt that the Pacific Book Awards chose wisely when they selected On Top Of The World as the year's Best Fiction.
Purchase Information:
Amazon | iTunes | B&N
Life's a Beach; I'm just playing in the sand. I had to thank Lil Wayne for that one. It was my motto. I had it inscribed on the door of my office underneath my crown.
Why did I have a crown?
Because I'm musical royalty. That's why I'd insisted the government carve my face on Mt. Rushmore. People said I was crazy spending $5 million suing to make it happen. But hey, a king must get his due.
Look, I know the Revolution of 1776 liberated America from the grip of kings. But I was a new kind of king, one who'd created an empire no poor boy had any business ever dreaming of. Yes, Fitty netted $100 million when Coca-Cola gobbled up Vitaminwater, whoop-de-damn-do. And yes, Jigga sold Rocawear to Iconix for $204 million, big damn deal. Peanuts. I had my eyes on the man Forbes proclaimed the richest human being who ever walked the earth—my own handsome ancestor (and one day, DNA tests will prove this), Mansa Musa, the emperor of Mali whose face adorns history's most famous map, the Catalan Atlas, where he's pictured seated regally and holding a big-ass gold nugget. The man Forbes estimated to be worth $400 billion.
Now, this wasn't to say my wealth was in Mansa Musa's neighborhood (truth be told, I was still trying to reach Diddy's financial zip code), but no one could deny what I'd achieved. Musical royalty; forty million albums sold; a $100 million concert tour; the hottest-selling clothing lines; and my sneaker sales were on the road to making Air Jordan's look like chump change.
This was my destiny.
From the moment of my birth, I was enamored with my own distinction. How do you think I was so motivated to beat those millions of others racing for the prize? I guess the blame for what some deride as my massive ego goes to the boisterous celebrations sweeping the country the year I was born. Two hundred and some odd years after the Thirteen Colonies declared independence; I happily broke free from nine months of solitary confinement in my mother's belly. It was 1984, and once I escaped, I couldn't wait to get the party started. From the first slap on my bare behind to my first scream that soon followed, I absorbed America's Olympic celebrations like a sponge. I decided right then and there I wanted my name to live forever.
Okay, so that sounds a little much, but just imagine if you'd grown up a little Black boy named after a Charles Dickens' character. Your ego might be a little warped, too.
So please, before you judge, hear the whole story. Before I was headlining concerts, people had no idea how to pronounce my name; and even today, most believe it's my nom de plume, completely unaware that it's my family's legacy, the result of an overseer's bitter attempt at vengeance. How else could I end up with a name like "Scrooʝe?"
Yes, today Dickens is one of the world's most beloved writers. But that wasn't always the case. Back in the 1840s, a young Charles Dickens decided to, as the English say, "take a trip across the pond" to see what life was like in America.
When he published his travel memoir, American Notes, nine months later, the excrement hit the fan.
Dickens had unmasked the brutality of what the good folks of the South called "the peculiar institution," thereby helping spur Britain's expansion of abolition with the passing of the Indian Slavery Act of 1843, and pissing off slaveholders that Dickens had opened his big fat mouth in the first place.
As fate would have it, in this overheated atmosphere, my great-great-great-grandfather was born on a plantation run by Virginia's cruelest overseer. Who, according to the family history my grandma passed down to me, was so angry when he learned Dickens had printed one of his runaway slave ads in American Notes, that his face turned red as an apple while he cursed like a sailor. He then promptly ordered "ten Nigras whipped" because Dickens had the gall not to recognize how kind such a fine gentlemen as himself was to the slaves. Not one to take insults lightly, the overseer started a petition to have Dickens' books banned from the States then tried to sue him for libel. A year and a half later, after having failed on both fronts, he vowed to extract his revenge by naming the next slave born on the plantation after Ebenezer Scrooge. And just to be sure to pour a little extra salt on the wound, he decided to change the order of the names because as he said, "Nigras get everything ass backwards."
So that was how my great-great-great-grandfather came to be named Scrooge Ebenezer.
Miraculously, despite enduring indescribable brutality on the plantation, Scrooge Ebenezer ultimately triumphed. During Reconstruction, he became one of the first Black congressmen. Since that time, all of his male descendants have been named "Scrooge." As the decades passed and times changed, my father decided to give the spelling some Ebonics flair.
Now you have to understand, my father (in his youth) had been the embodiment of cool, so much so that he'd once run a marathon at high noon in August in Arizona—without so much as breaking a sweat, all while delivering up-to-the-minute analysis of the race as he ran. Naturally, a man whose magnetism was so strong that college debutantes patiently waited in line to ask to be his high school prom date, wanted to bestow some of his overflowing charisma on his firstborn son. So when Dad came up with his Ebonics-inspired translation, he proudly proclaimed: "Now if that ain't cool, I don't know what is."
Unfortunately for me, it was the first time in my father's life his cool barometer was off. All of the fallout from Dad's ill-timed miscalculation fell upon my scrawny shoulders (or more accurately, upon my young ears). On a daily basis, my classmates took unbridled delight in twisting my name into unflattering caricatures.
"Screwed-yuh," was at the top of the list, but there were plenty of others. "Screw-gee poop" and "Scrooʝenezer" were popular. But "Ebonsneezer" was the hardest to shake because it had a revival every allergy season when I would have sneezing fits so loud and powerful, I felt like I could blow the windows off their hinges. Even my teachers, who weren't trying to make fun of me, struggled with the pronunciation, mangling my name so many times I lost track. I would cringe every time Mr. Manigold came to my name when he checked attendance. "Scroogie Ebon-eye-zer" was the closest he ever came to getting it right, and that was only after a half-dozen other mess-ups.
As a little boy, I'd lie awake wondering why my father couldn't have just kept the original spelling. I promised myself that if it were my destiny to be named after a Victorian character then one day the whole world would know my name.
I kept my promise.
Wish my pops were here to see what I've done. Sometimes onstage—even with twenty-two thousand people screaming my name—I'd feel all alone and retreat inside the music, letting the rhythmic bass lines invade my soul until I was one with it. Then everything would stop, and I could sense my heart pulsating on the downbeat. I'd close my eyes and imagine I was three years old again, laughing as my father spun me in the air, telling me I could achieve anything.
And it felt beautiful.
David Lamb is a native New Yorker, born and raised, bitten with the writing bug since he was in elementary school and had handwriting nobody could decipher. Like Charles Dickens, David grew up a poor boy in the big city who found that the pen really is mightier than the sword. In middle school Lamb's hero was David Lampel whose velvet voice could be heard reporting the news over David's grandmother's radio. Whenever he heard him on the radio, David would substitute Lamb for Lampel and pretend he was delivering the news. Sure that he was destined to be a famous reporter David was happy to go to a high school with a journalism program. Like most kids, by the time he finished high school he had a whole new career in mind. After high school he went to Hunter College and majored in Economics because he wanted to be cool like that college kid who came to speak at his last year of high school. He was an Economics major, he was dressed sharp and above-all the girls thought he was the man! So like any unreasonable high school boy fueled by overactive hormones David figured if he majored in Economics they'd think he was cool. After finishing college David went on to law school at NYU, but all the time writing was still his heart. While working as a lawyer by day, at night he transformed into a writer and eventually wrote and produced the award-winning hit off-Broadway romantic comedy Platanos Y Collard Greens. Being a writer and having the chance make people laugh out loud while challenging them to think about the world around them, and inspire each of us to believe in the power of love and our own ability to overcome life's challenges is a great gift that David truly enjoys and thanks you for allowing him to share with you in On Top Of The World (Until The Bell Chimes).
First Chapter Reveal: On Top of the World by David Lamb
Purchase Information: Amazon | iTunes | B&N
A Bookish Conversation with Mark Connelly, author of 'Wanna-be's'
Mark Connelly was born in Philadelphia and grew up in New Jersey. He received a BA in English from Carroll College in Wisconsin and an MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His books include The Diminished Self: Orwell and the Loss of Freedom, Orwell and Gissing, Deadly Closets: The Fiction of Charles Jackson, and The IRA on Film and Television. His fiction has appeared in The Ledge, Indiana Review, Cream City Review, Milwaukee Magazine, and Home Planet News. In 2014 he received an Editor's Choice Award in The Carve's Raymond Carver Short Story Contest; in 2015 he received Third Place in Red Savina Review's Albert Camus Prize for Short Fiction. His novella Fifteen Minutes received the Clay Reynolds Novella Prize and was published by Texas Review Press in 2005.
Mark's latest book is the literary fiction/humor/satire, Wanna-be's.
Connect with Mark on Facebook and Twitter.
I began writing in high school and have published a dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction. I write both for myself and as a teacher and scholar. I enjoy sharing my thoughts, observations, and experiences. A day without writing is a day wasted.
Would you consider your latest book, Wanna-be's, to be a one of a kind? How so?
Definitely. I created a man of our times, Winfield Payton, as an aspirational figure bumbling through a series of politically-incorrect misadventures. We live in a world of wanna-be's who appear on reality shows, post selfies, and pontificate on YouTube. Winfield is trying to hustle his way to fame and wealth, sleeping with a cougar to secure investment capital, pretending to be a mobster to influence African investors, and playing dumb when things get too tough. I think people will see a lot of themselves in Winfield if they are honest.
My second-floor study in a converted brewery. The walls are three feet thick, so I never hear the traffic.
What do you believe a writer should not do as far as getting his or her book published?
Assume he or she will be recognized as a genius. A book is a work of art when you write it. It is a work of art when someone reads it. In between it is a commodity that has to be realistically marketed and sold. Don't expect to be seen as the next James Joyce or the next J. K. Rowling. Approach a publisher with a target audience in mind. Try to establish credibility by getting parts of it published. Enter contests to win awards. Even honorable mentions demonstrate that people see merit in your work.
Great books, good ideas, and the unexpected charm, wit, and insight of everyday people.
The week after Wanna-be's appeared on Amazon, I got a five-star review that promoted the book better than I ever could. The reviewer said Wanna-be's could be an HBO series, and that's how I conceived it – with each chapter being a self-contained episode.
Why do you love to write satire?
I have a slow mind. I can never come up with the perfect thing to say off the top of my head. I have to draft and revise my quips and comebacks. So I take all the affronts and failures of daily life, exaggerate them, and create characters who can say all the things I wish I could. I also love to criticize, expose, and poke fun at the hypocrisy and idiocy of the talking heads I see on cable television.
You're concocting a recipe for a best selling book. What's the first ingredient?
A compelling character
What's one fun fact about your book people should know?
Dr. Veraswami bears the name of a character in George Orwell's first novel Burmese Days.
I briefly worked as the sole white employee of a black contracting company. So like Winfield, I was a "chicklet" or token white who would go "undercover" when needed to meet potential clients, vendors, and investors without tipping them off the company was minority owned.
More books, both fiction and non-fiction. I write for work and write for fun, so something is always on my desk needing attention. My most important project is a novel called Newman's Choice. Three chapters have already been published, so I am anxious to finish it.
First Chapter Reveal: Friend of the Devil by Mark Spivak
Title: Friend of the Devil
Author: Mark Spivak
Publisher: Black Opal Books
Genre: Culinary Thriller
In 1990 some critics believe that America's most celebrated chef, Joseph Soderini di Avenzano, sold his soul to the Devil to achieve culinary greatness. Whether he is actually Bocuse or Beelzebub, Avenzano is approaching the 25th anniversary of his glittering Palm Beach restaurant, Chateau de la Mer, patterned after the Michelin-starred palaces of Europe.
Journalist David Fox arrives in Palm Beach to interview the chef for a story on the restaurant's silver jubilee. He quickly becomes involved with Chateau de la Mer's hostess, unwittingly transforming himself into a romantic rival of Avenzano. The chef invites Fox to winter in Florida and write his authorized biography. David gradually becomes sucked into the restaurant's vortex: shipments of cocaine coming up from the Caribbean; the Mafia connections and unexplained murder of the chef's original partner; the chef's ravenous ex-wives, swirling in the background like a hidden coven. As his lover plots the demise of the chef, Fox tries to sort out hallucination and reality while Avenzano treats him like a feline's catnip-stuffed toy.
Friend of the Devil is available at Amazon.
Pick up your copy at Barnes & Noble.
Discuss this book at PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads
"The man's here."
The old Black woman delivered her pronouncement into the darkness of a back room—half in amusement, half in disgust. She then walked back across the front room of the cabin, her feet creaking on the wooden floor, to the place where the young man sat. A pot-bellied stove, streaked with soot, crackled in the opposite corner.
"He be wit you in a minute."
The white youth seemed strangely comfortable in this shack outside Clarksdale in rural Mississippi. The year was 1947, at the height of Jim Crow, at a time when the races never mingled.
The young man had concocted an elaborate cover story and, with the confidence of his age, he believed he could explain himself if the wrong people found him here.
"What you say your name is?" the woman asked.
"Joseph."
The woman laughed. "You a crazy-assed white boy, Joseph."
"Yes, ma'am," he replied in a deep baritone, guttural and booming. "That may well be."
The old Black man shuffled out of the back room, moving slowly and deliberately. He was clad in overalls, and his silver hair framed a deeply lined and creased face. He glanced at Joseph and shook his head.
"Let's go out on the porch, boy."
They walked outside to the dilapidated wooden deck surrounding the front of the shack, and the old man settled in a rocking chair. He motioned for Joseph to sit beside him and regarded him with the same amusement his wife had displayed.
"You a long way from home, ain't you?"
"I don't really have a home, sir."
"Everybody got a home." The old man chuckled. "Some folks just don't know where it is."
"Maybe so." Joseph shifted in his chair as he listened to the night sounds coming from the distance: crickets, the far-off howl of wolves, wind rustling the trees. Highway 61 and Highway 49 were out there, intersecting at the Crossroads. "So tell me, did you know Robert Johnson?"
"Heard him sing once or twice, but that was a long time ago."
"What was he like?"
"Crazy-assed, like you." The old man chuckled again. "Knew his time was short, and couldn't be bothered."
"Played the gittar pretty good. But it was that voice." The old man paused. "It stuck witchoo. Couldn't git it outta your head. It wasn't pretty." He shook his head. "Naw. Wasn't pretty. Not at all."
"I know exactly what you mean."
Joseph had heard the voice, listening to scratchy old records on a friend's Victrola. They were the only known recordings of Robert Johnson, the studio sessions done a few years before his death. The old man was right. The voice was plaintive and haunting, something you would always remember once you heard it. "That must have been amazing—hearing him in person."
"Wasn't no fun, to tell you true. After the first couple times, I never went back." He shook his head again. "Seems to me that life is hard enough sometimes without lookin' for his kinda problems."
"Probably so."
The old man looked at Joseph closely. "What you need that kinda trouble for, boy?"
"I want to be a success. I want to leave my mark on the world."
"Where's your gittar?"
"I don't play, sir. That's not what this is about. I want to be somebody." Joseph paused. "I'm not sure what I want to do. I've done some kitchen work, and I like it. I've been thinking maybe I'll open a restaurant someday."
"Shoot!" The old man exploded in laughter. "You want to open a restaurant, boy, you don't need to be goin' out there in the dead of night, lookin' for trouble. Just fry yourself up a mess of chicken and be done with it."
"Sure," said Joseph, laughing in spite of himself.
There was a long silence, and the old man looked at him expectantly. Joseph reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a small manila envelope, and handed it over.
"Well, I'll be," the old man said as he counted the money. His eyes widened and his eyebrows arched. "There's four hunnerd here. I done told you two hunnerd."
"I want you to have it. I think it's fair."
"That's a lot of money, boy. You don't need to be doin' that."
"I'm not here as a tourist, sir." It was Joseph's turn to stare at the old man. "It took me a long time to find you. I don't want the movie set or the amusement park. I want the real thing."
"Careful what you wish for, now."
"Will you be going out with me?"
"Shoot, no." The old man shook his head. "These old legs couldn't take me out there and back. And you wouldn't want me, anyway. You don't want some old man who got spooked at the sound of Johnson's voice. It's my son that's goin' with you."
"It got to be him, 'cause it got to be somebody who don't take this stuff seriously. Somebody who ain't gonna wake up in the middle of the night thirty years from now, thinkin' 'bout it." He reached over and patted Joseph on the shoulder. "Gotta be somebody with a pure heart. Somebody the man can't touch."
"I'll git him for you." The man paused and looked at Joseph. "You know, Johnson was no more than thirty when he died."
"He was twenty-seven, actually."
"How old you be?"
"I just turned twenty-two."
"And that don't spook you none?"
"No, sir."
"You know what you should be spooked 'bout? If you had any sense, that is?"
"What's that, sir?"
"How you gonna feel if you live to be as old as me? What you think gonna be in your head then?"
"I guess I'll have to take that chance."
"It's your funeral either way, I 'spose." He rose unsteadily and walked to the edge of the porch. "Willy," he called. "William Earl, you git out here. It be showtime."
After a moment, a young Black man emerged from behind the shack, grinning broadly. He wore overalls like his father and radiated an aura of good humor that put Joseph immediately at ease. He looked no older than Joseph, but seemed to engulf everyone around him in boyish enthusiasm.
"You wanna open yourself a restaurant," the old man told Joseph, "this here is the boy you want. He can cook up anythin', anytime, just the way you like it. He'll make you a success." He turned to his son. "You ready, boy?"
"Yes, sir, born ready."
"All right then. You be careful out there." He looked carefully at Joseph. "Good luck to you. I hope you git what you came for."
"Thank you, sir."
"Let's go, baby." Willy grinned, motioning for Joseph to follow him. "We got business."
by admin | October 7, 2016 · 1:15 pm
One of Windsor Book Blast!
Title: One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging
Author: Beth M. Caruso
Publisher: Ladyslipper Press
Alice, a young woman prone to intuitive insights and loyalty to the only family she has ever known, leaves England for the rigid colony of the Massachusetts Bay in 1635 in hopes of reuniting with them again. Finally settling in Windsor, Connecticut, she encounters the rich American wilderness and its inhabitants, her own healing abilities, and the blinding fears of Puritan leaders which collide and set the stage for America's first witch hanging, her own, on May 26, 1647.
This event and Alice's ties to her beloved family are catalysts that influence Connecticut's Governor John Winthrop Jr. to halt witchcraft hangings in much later years. Paradoxically, these same ties and the memory of the incidents that led to her accusation become a secret and destructive force behind Cotton Mather's written commentary on the Salem witch trials of 1692, provoking further witchcraft hysteria in Massachusetts forty-five years after her death.
The author uses extensive historical research combined with literary inventions, to bring forth a shocking and passionate narrative theory explaining this tragic and important episode in American history.
NEW WINDSOR, BERKSHIRE,
ENGLAND, 1615
The infant was soon to enter the world. Alsie's increased labor pains and a sudden wave of panic made a swift announcement of her baby's imminent arrival. Gwendolyn, the midwife, motioned with a wise smile and nod to Alsie's cousin. Mrs. Mary Merwin Tinker and her daughters were to make the final preparations for the newborn. The lines embedded under Gwendolyn's eyes, eyes still bright after many years of life, were a testament to her wisdom and experience.
"Girls. It's time. Quickly…Sarah, bring the rest of Gwendolyn's supplies to the bedside table. She'll need the string and knives shortly. Little Mary, come and support Alsie's back. You too, Ellen. Assist Mary. Margaret, make sure the linens are warmed and everything else is ready for the babe! We must all give our support to cousin now," spoke Mrs. Mary Tinker, their mother.
"Yes ma'am," they replied in unison as some sisters hurried about making sure everything was in place for the birth, and the remaining sisters stayed at Alsie's side to comfort her.
Despite the excitement inside, a branch softly and hypnotically continued to hit the leaded glass window of the thatched cottage in a steady cadence. Alsie had already been in a trance for the past hour, the trance a woman's body and soul become held in toward the end of labor.
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Beth M. Caruso grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and spent her childhood writing puppet shows and witches' cookbooks. She became interested in French Literature and Hispanic Studies, receiving a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cincinnati. She later obtained Masters degrees in Nursing and Public Health.
Working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, she helped to improve the public health of local Karen hill tribes. She also had the privilege to care for hundreds of babies and their mothers as a labor and delivery nurse.
Largely influenced by an apprenticeship with herbalist and wildcrafter, Will Endres, in North Carolina, she surrounds herself with plants through gardening and native species conservation.
Her latest passion is to discover and convey important stories of women in American history. One of Windsor is her debut novel. She lives in New England with her awesome husband, amazing children, loyal puppy, and cuddly cats. .


With a sturdy body and seamless heavy base, Prestige induction pressure cooker is the perfect product for any modern kitchen. It takes up less space than any gas oven operated pressure cooker, and functions even better than most. Try one out for yourself!
Universal induction base easily fits on all induction and gas ovens.
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Anti-bulge base for better induction heating.
Metallic safety plug with new weight valve.
Self-locating pivot for better accessibility.
Prestige is undoubtedly the best brand when it comes to kitchen utensils such as induction cookers.


These remind me of Steve Wright jokes... whatever happened to him?
Men are like Slinkies... not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.
Every teenager should get a high school education. Even if they already know everything.
The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Everytable had an argument going.
You know when you're sitting on a chair and you lean back so you're just on two legs then you lean too far and you almost fall over but at the last second, you catch yourself? I feel like that all the time.
According to a recent survey, men say the first thing they notice about a woman are their eyes. And women say the first thing they notice about men is they're a bunch of liars.
All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays noattention to criticism.
Doctors can be frustrating. You wait a month-and-a-half for an appointment, and he says, "I wish you'd come to me sooner."
I read about all these terrorists—most of them came here legally, but they hung around on these expired visas, some for as long as 10 to 15 years. Now, compare that to Blockbuster; you are two days late with a video and those people are all over you. Let's put Blockbuster in charge of immigration.


text:
Q: Branch cut of a complex function I try to understand what branch cut I have for a certain complex function:
$$\begin{align}
 \lambda(L,k)= \sqrt{k^2+i\frac{x}{L}}
\end{align} $$
where $k, L$ are complex numbers and $x\in \mathbb{R}_+$ constant.
Now I am note sure where this function is defined. I know that the branch cut for the complex root function
$$\sqrt{\cdot}\colon \mathbb{C}\setminus (-\infty,0)\to \mathbb{C}, z\to \sqrt{z} $$
is $(-\infty,0)$, but in my case i am confused to have 2 different complex values and I think the branch cut must be somewhat shifted...(?)
Thank you for your help!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Crickets are all you'll hear from Hog Creek Homestead from the middle of July to the middle of August! It's fair time here. This is crunch time for us.
I will say that this is THEE best muffin I have ever made! HANDS DOWN!
Hot Water Bath Canning: It's easy if you have the Right Equipment!
A little history and list of must haves for Hot Water Bath Canning!


We invite contributions from readers of their own works dealing with important educational topics (particularly those related to US-NIS exchange) or pointers to useful network accessible resources elsewhere.
Russian electronic journal, devoted to the problems of Russian history. Information about historical conferences and links to the Russian and foreign historical resources on Internet are also available on this site.
"Impact of Perestroika and Glasnost on Soviet Education: A Historical Perspective for Follow-On Research"
Offered by Chuck Sweeney, this composition was prepared for presentation at the Russian Academy of Education at the Baltic Academy of St. Petersburg, Moscow State Pedagogical University, July, 1993.
"Reform Under Conditions of a Free Market Economy: A Jeffersonian Educational Vision for Russia"
Offered by Chuck Sweeney and written for presentation at the Russian Academy of Education, Institute of Theoretical Pedagogics and International Research in Education, and International Association--Education and the Future Conference on Adult and Continuing Education Under Conditions of a Free Market Economy, in Moscow and St. Petersburg during July 1994.


text:
Press Release August 26, 2017
Series of Photographs sales from the Museum of Modern Art to Benefit the Acquisitions fund for the museum's Department of Photography
Christie's announces Photographs from The Museum of Modern Art, a selection of over 400 photographs to be sold at Christie's New York starting with four highlights in the October 10th Photographs Day Sale. A subsequent series of online auctions will be held in October, concurrently with the live Day Sale, and in December 2017, as well as January and April 2018. The online sales are carefully curated to encompass several important themes and genres of the medium, including Pictorialism into Modernism, Women in Photography, and several sales on individual photographers will be featured.
The works offered include iconic photographs by many of the most well-known names from the early 20th century to the post-war period, including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Man Ray, Edward Weston, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Walker Evans, to name a few. The selection is led by two unique Rayograph works by Man Ray from 1923 and 1928, to be offered in the live auction in New York on October 10. All proceeds from the sales will go into an acquisitions fund for the Museum's Department of Photography.
Highlights will be previewed during a multi-city tour, with exhibitions in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York starting in September 2017. Cataloguing and complete details of the sales will be available on Christies.com in September 2017.
Darius Himes, International Head of Photographs, Christie's, remarks: "Christie's is honored to offer for sale a selection of photographs from The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1940, the Museum became the first in the country to form a Department of Photography. Many of the artists represented in this series of live and online auctions will be deeply familiar to any student of photography, and are beloved on an international scale. These auctions represent a unique opportunity to support the Museum and own a piece of photographic history."
Tour Dates and Locations:
Los Angeles: Highlights Exhibition, September 5–9
San Francisco: Highlights Exhibition, September 19–23
New York: Auction Preview, October 5–9
Upcoming Auctions:
October 5–11/12, 2017
MoMA: Pictorialism into Modernism
MoMA: Henri Cartier-Bresson
MoMA: Women in Photography
MoMA: Garry Winogrand
MoMA: Bill Brandt
MoMA: Walker Evans
MoMA: Tracing Photography's History
Hindman's Palm Beach Jewelry will feature 116 lots with vibrant statement…
In 1931 when Mexican muralist Diego Rivera visited San Francisco with his wife…
Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles
In the new special exhibition, Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles,…
Ottilie W. Roederstein: A Swiss Woman Artist Rediscovered
She was one of the leading female painters of her generation and the most…
Sanford Biggers mines African American history and traditions in a wide variety…


Feds: CT union membership dips slightly | HartfordBusiness.com . New to the site? Click here to register.
UTAS workers striking over pay and healthcare costs in October.
Union membership and representation in Connecticut fell slightly in 2018, mirroring modest declines recorded nationally, according to federal officials.
The state last year had 268,000 union members, down about 3.5 percent compared to 2017, and 280,000 workers whose jobs are covered by a union or employee association contract, which were also down 5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said in a report published Friday.
Of more than 1.6 million total workers, union membership in the state fell from 16.9 percent in 2017 to 16 percent in 2018, BEA said. Connecticut ranked sixth in the nation in union membership by percentage, and led all New England states by that measure.
Nationally, union membership fell to record lows last year, with participation falling 0.2 percentage points to 10.5 percent, federal officials said. The U.S. had 14.7 million wage and salary workers belonging to unions in 2018.
That represents a steep drop since federal officials began collecting the national union data in 1983, when there were 17.7 million union workers and the union membership rate was 20.1 percent, BEA said.


With Congress caving in to the Bush administration's assault on the Bill of Rights, Nat Hentoff argues that ordinary Americans will have to act to safeguard their Constitutional protections.
The chief value of Attorney General John Ashcroft's anticlimactic appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Dec. 6, was his naked public contempt for the First Amendment right to dissent, coming as it did after Ashcroft had repeatedly promised that the domestic campaign against terrorism would not threaten Constitutional rights.
So much for the hearing. True, some senators asked pertinent questions, but many key developments were never addressed. Ashcroft left as he came — utterly confident in the overwhelming public support for his and the president's shredding of the Constitution.
However, this support is based largely on the public's chronic lack of knowledge of their own constitutional rights, let alone those of non-citizens. At the hearing, the senators could and should have started to show the American populace that citizens as well as non-citizens are candidates for the Bush-Ashcroft dragnet and its assault on the Bill of Rights.
For example, the attorney general was not asked about his resurrection of long-abandoned FBI practices — practices which were set aside because they were shown to be attacks on the First and Fourth amendments.
From 1956 to 1971, under an initiative known as COINTELPRO, the FBI infiltrated and disrupted political and religious groups supposedly linked to communism. Among them: anti-war and civil rights organizations, and other liberal groups dissenting from various government policies and operations.
But, as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have reported, that war against us has begun again as our protections against such activities are being eroded. Recent Justice Department orders suspend regulations — insisted upon by the Church committee — requiring the FBI to show probable cause before moving to monitor domestic political and religious groups. Today, the standards are likely to return to what they were during the days of the COINTELPRO operations.
The senators should also have confronted Ashcroft with the facts of the anti-terrorism bill he championed — The USA Patriot Act — which radically lowers standards for electronic surveillance of telephones, emails and other computer activities and which will effect untold numbers of citizens under the bill's broad and vague definitions of terrorist activities, including "support" of terrorism.
Now, the attorney general has already said that criticism of his policies gives ammunition to America's enemies, and most of Congress is clearly in fear of being targeted as disloyal and unpatriotic in the approaching 2002 elections. As a result, the only way we have to get enough members of Congress to bring back the Bill of Rights is to exert our own sustained pressure on them — as was done in the 1960's — with teach-ins on campuses and at town meetings; newspaper ads; marches and virtual online gatherings. Similar efforts back then changed the direction of the nation, even when the majority of Americans did not at first support either the anti-war or civil rights movements. The same can be accomplished today.
Ashcroft speaks of "phantoms of lost liberty." They are not phantoms to those already detained under the anti-terrorism campaign authorized by the bill.


text:
Credit: Marco Borggreve
Elgar: Cello Concerto | Wiener Symphoniker
Tchaikovsky: Rococo Variations (Les Films Jack Fébus)
J. S. Bach: Sarabande from Cello Suite No.3 (Les Films Jack Fébus)
Sollima: Lamentatio
Shostakovich: Sonata for Cello and Piano, excerpt
(BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme)
Tchaikovsky: Nocturne
Tchaikovsky: Pezzo capriccioso, excerpt
Franck: Sonata in A major (excerpt)
(BBC New Generation Artist scheme)
About News Recordings
Since winning the Cello First Prize and Gold Medal at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 at the age of 22, Narek Hakhnazaryan has performed with most major orchestras and in recital and chamber music across the globe at many of the world's most prestigious festivals. Hakhnazaryan is a compelling artist, a true virtuoso with an innate musicality and an exceptional talent for connecting with his audience. He has been described as "dazzlingly brilliant" (The Strad) and "nothing short of magnificent" (San Francisco Chronicle) and of his LAPO debut, the LA Times said "His command of the instrument is extraordinary".
Highlights of Hakhnazaryan's 20/21 season include debuts with the Vienna Radio Orchestra in the opening concert of their season at the Musikverein, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra at their Madrid residency, Staatskapelle Weimar and a residency with the Finnish Radio Symphony. He will tour Germany with Trifonov and Dogadin, and in various different chamber combinations with artists such as Lugansky and Debargues he will perform in major venues across Europe including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wigmore, Cologne Philharmonie and Madrid Auditorio. With Daniil Trifonov he will perform in recital several times in the USA, including at Carnegie Hall.
Hakhnazaryan has enjoyed a truly global career since his rise to fame in 2011 and has played with orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio, Berlin Konzerthaus, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, NHK Symphony orchestras, and with conductors such as Gergiev, Koopman, Alsop, Lintu, Sokhiev, Robertson, Honeck, Noseda and Netopil. He has toured Spain with the WDR Symphony/Saraste, the US with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra/Neemi Järvi and Japan with the Czech Philharmonic/Bělohlávek. A former BBC New Generation Artist, he has performed with all the BBC orchestras and made a sensational debut at the BBC Proms. In 2017 the Vienna Konzerthaus invited Hakhnazaryan to be a "Great Talent" and during the two seasons that followed he performed there regularly in recital, chamber music and with orchestra, most notably with the Vienna Symphony and Hrůša.
In Summer 2019 he performed in recital at the Verbier and Rheingau Festivals with Daniil Trifonov, and in the 18/19 season was enjoyed a 4-concert residency at London's Wigmore Hall. In North America he performs regularly in recital, most recently in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto and in past seasons has performed at Carnegie Hall and Jordan Hall (Boston). In 2017 he toured SE Asia, performing the complete Bach cello solo suites in Taipei, Seoul, Tokyo and Kyoto. An eager chamber musician, Hakhnazaryan has performed at most major festivals world-wide and in major halls across Europe with various chamber partners. With the ZEN Trio, he has toured the US and China, has released a recording on Deutsche Grammophon and upcoming plans include concerts in London and Barcelona.
Mentored by the late Rostropovich, Hakhnazaryan received an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music in 2011 where he studied with Lawrence Lesser. Prior to this he studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov and at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan. Hakhnazaryan has received scholarships from the Rostropovich Foundation and the New Names Foundation, and his prizes include First Prize in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia and First Place in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. As First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Hakhnazaryan made his debut in Washington, DC and at Carnegie Hall.
Narek Hakhnazaryan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians: his father is a violinist, his mother a pianist, and he performs regularly with his brother, the conductor Tigran Akhnazarian. In September 2017 he was awarded the title of "Honored Artist of Armenia" by the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan. Hakhnazaryan plays the 1707 Joseph Guarneri cello and F.X. Tourte and Benoit Rolland bows.
2020/21 season / 656 words. Not to be altered without permission.
Concerto repertoire
Symphony No.2, Requiem for a Poet
Triple Concerto
Cello Concerto in B-flat Major
Double Concerto
Tout un monde lointain…
Concerto in B minor, Op.104
Concerto in E minor, Op.85
Concerto No. 1 in C Major
Concerto No. 2 in D Major
Cello Concerto in D minor
Lutosławski
Cello Concerto
Concerto-Rhapsody in D minor for Cello and Orchestra
Sinfonia Concertante for Cello and Orchestra, Op.125
Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op.33
Concerto in A minor, Op.129
Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op.107
Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op.33
Notturno for Cello and Strings
Double Concerto for 2 Celli
Yves Abel
Tigran Akhnazaryan
Nikolai Alexeev
Darrell Ang
Rune Bergmann
Lionel Bringuier
Michalis Economou
Vladimir Fedoseyev
Daniel Giglberger
Andrew Gourlay
Joji Hattori
Tomáš Hanus
Nicholas Hersh
Johannes Hiemetsberger
Paavo Järvi
Michail Jurowski
Pavel Kogan
Hannu Lintu
Jun Märkl
Wayne Marshall
Ryan McAdams
Tito Muñoz
Michal Nesterowicz
Tomas Netopil
Gianandrea Noseda
Rafael Payare
Andris Poga
Vladimir Spivakov
Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Aziz Shokhakimov
Alexander Sidnev
Sergey Smbatyan
Tugan Sokhiev
Dalia Stasevska
Francis Steiner
John Storgårds
Ken Takaseki
Mikhail Tatarnikov
Juraj Valčuha
Christian Vasquez
Stefan Vladar
Petr Vronský
Duncan Ward
Hugh Wolff
Xian Zhang
His playing was like a perfectly honed signature, every flourish and curl executed with elegant ease.
Narek Hakhnazaryan displayed his outstanding musicianship with a technically impeccable and distinctive account of Haydn's First Cello Concerto
Armenian-born Hakhnazaryan is the real deal. His articulation was clear even in the score's wildest dashing and darting … he maintained tonal purity in the many soft, high notes that give so much character to the work.
The Z.E.N. Trio
Intermusica represents Narek Hakhnazaryan	worldwide
Leyla Güneş
lgunes@intermusica.co.uk
Alice McDonough
Assistant Artist Manager
amcdonough@intermusica.co.uk


Tomopteris n. (Zool.) A genus of transparent marine annelids which swim actively at the surface of the sea. They have deeply divided or forked finlike organs (parapodia). This genus is the type of the order, or suborder, Gymnocopa.


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text:
Preview: Korea U-20s vs Senegal U-20s
Peter Hampshire June 07, 2019 read ( words)
After sneaking through their round of 16 clash with rivals Japan, South Korea's latest batch of young prospects head into a quarter final against surprise package Senegal, who have defied more-fancied opposition to comfortably ease their way into the last eight. Conceding just once on their journey so far, Senegal's young Lions are the only side to beat Colombia in the tournament so far and saw off host nation Poland and minnows Tahiti on their way to topping Group A.
South Korea 1-0 Japan
Billed as a grudge match, Korea didn't enjoy the ease of passage they have been granted in previous rounds and were made to work for their victory by the narrowest of margins. Asan Mugunghwa's Oh Se-hun, whose return to Ulsan Hyundai may now be eagerly awaited by fans at the Munsu, stole victory with his 84th-minute header in front of over 10,000 spectators in Poland's Lublin Arena. After riding their luck in the first half the interval presumably came as a relief to Chung Jung-yong and his fellow coaching staff. Opting for an unchanged side and formation to the one that defeated Argentina so impressively, Chung's side seem to have found a settled side to give them a real chance of doing something special. Consistency is hard to achieve at this age bracket and Korea certainly got their share of luck needed to win any international tournament.
The quarter-finals are set 🔒
Which teams do you think will make up the last 4⃣?#U20WC pic.twitter.com/7VDIvzbYdm
— FIFA.com (@FIFAcom) 4 June 2019
Senegal 2-1 Nigeria
After topping Group A Senegal defeated Nigeria in the round of 16 thanks to two goals inside 10 minutes late in the first half. Amadou Sagna fired off a warning shot early on seeing an instinctive half-volley saved before centre forward Youssouph Badji should really have done better from Alpha Dionkou's cross from the right. Sagna, who netted the fastest goal in U-20 World Cup history in his hat-trick against Tahiti, opened the scoring cutting inside to curl a fine effort inside the far post. Failing to heed the earlier warning of Dionkou's earlier ball into the box, the full back once more laid it on a plate for his strike force with Ibrahima Niane tapping home at the back stick deep into first-half injury time. With keeper Dialy Ndiaye to thank for one fine save in particular Senegal saw out the second half after their opponents struck a deflected free kick early on.
The two nations first team's met in a friendly fixture just a week before last year's Russia World Cup. Not ideal preparation for their opener against Sweden, Shin Tae-yong's side fell to a 2-0 defeat to Senegal who remain under the leadership of former Birmingham City midfielder Aliou Cisse. An own goal from Jeonbuk Hyundai's Kim Shin-wook put the Lions in front in Austria before Pape Moussa Konate tucked home a late penalty.
To get a more in depth look at Senegal's prospects, we spoke to Zach Lowy, who has been keeping his eye on the tournament:
Senegal were always a really talented side but I don't think anyone expected them to do this well. For me the person to look out for and their most impressive performer so far is the talented midfielder Dion Lopy. He's complimented well by both Ibrahima Niane and Amadou Sagna who will wreak havoc on the wings as well. With their strength out wide in mind, they are expected to line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
#Senegal's Amadou Sagna scored the fastest goal in U20 World Cup history as his hat-trick beat Tahiti 3-0.
Sagna found the net after just 9.6 seconds to surpass the previous best-mark set by #Nigeria's Monday Odiaka in 1985.
He then added goals in the 29th & 50th mins.#U20WC pic.twitter.com/O8O8RJSGdS
— Oluwashina Okeleji (@oluwashina) 25 May 2019
Who To Watch - Ibrahima Niane
(image via senego.com)
Making a name for himself at newly-promoted Metz in France, 20-year-old Niane has forced his way into the side after four years at the club. Used primarily as an impact sub, the striker has bagged two goals in the competition so far to add his 10 in the domestic season. Notably bagging the decisive goal to knock Thierry Henry's Monaco out of the club in his last game in charge. Niane could put himself in the shop window for a big move should he continue to play well in Poland.
Senegal have shown they possess one of the sturdiest performances to fire themselves into the quarter finals and Korea will need their creative forces of Lee Kang-in and Cho Young-wook to remain on form if they are to break them down. Runners-up in the U-20 African Cup of Nations this year, the side know how to reach the latter reaches of the competition. Should you believe in such advantages, Korea may benefit from having already played in the Miejski Stadium of Bielsko-Biala. Both sides will have studied each other's progression carefully and may cancel each other out as the nerves of a quarter final hit.
South Korea 0 -0 Senegal (Korea to win on Penalties)
TAGS KFA KNT KNT Men Korean National Football Team


text:
Fact No. 122. (Published on 5/11/2005)
Glassware formed by placing a blob of molten glass in a metal mold, then pressing it with a metal plunger or "follower" to form the inside shape. The resultant piece, termed "mold-pressed," has an interior form independent of the exterior, in contrast to mold-blown glass, whose interior corresponds to the outer form. The process of pressing glass was first mechanized in the United States between 1820 and 1830.
Source: Glass: A Pocket Dictionary of Terms Commonly Used to Describe Glass and Glassmaking compiled by David Whitehouse of The Corning Museum of Glass.
Pressed Glass - c. 1824 (picture)
Pressed cake platter (picture)
The Pleasures of Pressed Glass by Jennifer McKendry
Wheaton Village Pressed Glass Collection
German Pressed Glass
Standard Encyclopedia of Pressed Glass 1860-1930 (on Amazon.com)
Glass: A Pocket Dictionary of Terms Commonly Used to Describe Glass and Glassmaking Compiled by David Whitehouse (at the Corning Museum Shop Online)