Writer Harlie Rose is dumped by his lover, it precipitates a cross country journey to mend his broken heart. Now four months later, Harlie is ready to settle down and start writing again. When Harlie finds himself on the doorstep of the Belladonna Arms, a quirky, perhaps even seedy apartment building on the only hill in San Diego, he knows he's found home. What he doesn't know is that the Belladonna Arms has a reputation for romance—and Harlie is about to become its next victim.
Needing a job to pay the rent, Harlie finds a job as a baker's apprentice at the bakery just up the street. The grumpy but gorgeous baker is the owner's son, Milan, and Harlie finds himself attracted to the man despite Milan's attempts to push him away. Why? Milan too is nursing a broken heart. Soon the men find themselves hopelessly attracted to each other, despite their histories and internal walls.
The Belladonna Arms cupid has its work cut out for it, but luckily there's plenty of help from the other residents, from Sylvia, on the verge of her final surgery to become a woman, Charley and PJ- the kleptos in 3C, to Arthur, the aging drag queen who is about to discover a romance of his own, and Stanley and Roger, the handsome young couple in 5C who lead by example, Harlie soon learns that at the Belladonna Arms, love is always just around the corner waiting to pounce. Whether you want it to or not.
Yep. It was time to finally settle down and pull those notes together. And time to somehow squeeze The Great American Novel out of them. I was home now to do exactly that, or I would be home as soon as I found a home to settle in.
That's why I was standing in the rain in front of the Belladonna Arms. The old sign had caught my attention while I was tooling aimlessly down Broadway looking for a place to light. Broadway, by the by, is San Diego's main thoroughfare. It bisects the city from east to west, and at the moment I could see it a bit down the hill from where I stood.
But back to the sign. When I first spotted it, I had immediately liked the cheesy orange lettering on the rattletrap neon contraption. I even liked the way it stood slightly askew atop the boxy, less than elegant 1940s-era apartment building the old drag queen had ducked into. The whole misaligned package of tattered neon and weathered construction, perched one upon the other on this out-of-place hill on the southernmost tip of the California coast, somehow shrieked home to me. Go figure.
Even Arthur realizes immediately that Harlie belongs there and hauls him in to live in Apartment 2A. By then a love affair has started between the reader and these characters, including the Belladonna Arms, a romance that gets better, deeper and more memorable as the story progresses.
Truthfully, all I would have to do to get you to pick up this story is quote Chapter 1 over and over again. It's hilarious, and touching, and downright addicting. John Inman's descriptions are so wildly funny that you will find yourself laughing until the tears flow. Yet those same colorful descriptions, while perhaps being blunt and containing truthful observations of everyone involved, are never cruel or stoop to cheap shots at the characters expense. No, John Inman loves and understands these unconventional people who have all the same hopes and dreams for themselves as everyone else, despite their outlook, outward appearances and even their kleptomania. And he makes you love and understand them as well.
The title appears to be about Harlie's ongoing attempts to "butch" up drag queen Arthur so Arthur can finally find true love. So initially it appears that Arthur is Harlie's work in progress. But nothing is ever that simple at the Belladonna Arms, for everyone there is in transition of one sort or another, including all the people we met in Serenading Stanley as well as the new characters too. There's the fragile, beautiful Sylvia completing her transition to female with her devoted fiance Pete at her side, Stanley and Roger (the main romance in Serenading Stanley) more deeply in love and looking towards the future, kleptomaniacs Charley and P.J. now happily together whether stealing or on their meds, Chi Chi and Ramon who provide the fire as well as the pathos, even the Belladonna Arms cat whose name changes depending upon whose apartment he's visiting at the time. This tight family of people are all so important to the story that no one really feels like a secondary character. That's because the Belladonna Arms is a sum of all its parts and we need them all in order for this story to work its magic. And believe me it does. Magic, tacky, glittery, over the top, sort of dusty, magic, is scattered throughout this story like the feathers from a boa tossed in the wind.
Inman's new characters are as strongly crafted and layered as the ones we were already fond of. Milan, his father Mr. Berger, each new person fills a void for someone within the Belladonna Arms. And yes, with all the love and laughter that bubbles off these pages, the author balances it with life's loss and pain. This element is real, raw, and very necessary in order to appreciate the glow and radiance achieved at the end.
I'm sure I don't have to tell you that I love and recommend this book (ok, yes, I just did that), it should be obvious. So instead I will leave you with another short excerpt, still from Chapter 1. Harley has just settled in and is heading out for a grocery run.
Lives don't write themselves any more than WIPs do. Nosirree. Might as well get started living mine right now. And to live it, I needed food.
I locked the apartment door behind me, taking a moment to brush my fingertips fondly over the 2A screwed onto the front of the door in something that resembled copper but probably wasn't. I trotted my way down the one flight of stairs to the front door, wondering if I'd see Arthur along the way, which I didn't.
I had a feeling I was going to like the Belladonna Arms. I wasn't sure why. The place was actually kind of a dump. But hey, I thought, popping open the umbrella and ducking underneath it as I strolled out the door and into the rain, it's kind of a happy dump. And happy is exactly what I need right now. Christ knows I've been morose long enough.
By the time I sloshed my way to the car, I was surprised to hear myself whistling. And wasn't that a stunning revelation.
You will find yourself whistling along with him. Perhaps even doing a little dance step or two. These characters and this story will have that effect on you. Make your acquaintance with John Inman today and pick up both stories! Happy Reading.
Cover artist: Aaron Anderson. I feel this cover is a bit of a miss. There were so many elements to choose from for this cover and yet this is the content?
This entry was posted in 5 star Rating, Book Reviews, Books, Contemporary fiction, Dreamspinner Press, eBooks, LGBTQ Book Reviews, M/M Book Reviews, M/M Contemporary Fiction, M/M Fiction, M/M Romance, Scattered Thoughts Best of 2014, Uncategorized and tagged A MelanieM Review: Work in Progress (Belladonna Arms #2) by John Inman, John Inman, Scattered Thoughts Highly Recommended, Work in Progress by John Inman.
At 24 Gordon Stafford had it all. A rising career as a tv meteorologist, a loving family, a wide circle of friends…everything anyone could want. By 26, Gordon Stafford had lost it all. And all it took was the decision to drive home drunk from an awards ceremony. That decision shattered three mens lives immediately. For one man, the driver of the other car, it cost him his life. His passenger? Multiple injuries and the love of his life. And for Gordon, the driver that hit the other car head on, it cost him his career, his home, his friends, his self esteem…everything that had mattered to Gordon at the time.
Two years later, Gordon is a changed man. Consumed by guilt and shame, Gordon spends his days thinking about suicide and working at court appointed community service at Mama's Soup Kitchen, the local shelter for the homeless. It's there he meet's Squirt, a young man barely surviving. At first meeting, Gordon realizes that Squirt is special. He seems shy and fragile. But when Squirt saves Gordon from a beating or worse from thugs under a nearby bridge, Gordon realizes that looks can be deceiving and that Squirt is much more than he appears.
From that moment on, Gordon finds a new meaning to his life. He rediscovers his will to live and perhaps even found love. And it's all due to having Squirt in his life. But Gordon still needs to find forgiveness. Forgiveness for himself and the destruction he caused. And that the forgiveness Gordon needs the most will come from the one person he least expects, the one closest to his heart.
Head-On is a huge departure from the comedic stories John Inman normally writes. Unlike those novels which are full of laughter and humorous moments, Head-On naturally has little to none, which should be expected given the nature of the plot and the gravity of the subject matter at the heart of this story. With Head-On, John Inman demonstrates he has as deft a gift for writing characters full of pain and poor life choices as he does people with lives filled less with drama and more the search for romance.
The opening chapter of Head-On is astonishing for a number of reasons but the most important of them is that Inman pours us into the seat next to Gordon, first at the awards dinner as he consumes multiple congratulatory drinks and then in the passenger seat of his car as he makes that fateful decision to drive home drunk. We're in his head, and his thoughts could so easily be that of anyone who has taken one drink too many and decides to drive. But this time Gordon's poor judgement results in a fatal car crash that we catch in shocking glimpses just before Gordon passes out after the cars collide. That one scene will stay with you for some time to come.
From there we move to Gordon's life post crash, and here Inman pulls no punches, makes no excuses for Gordon who is mired in guilt and self loathing. And yes, still drinking. Inman's realistic portrayal of Gordon shows a man totally aware of the consequences of his actions, the life cut short, the destruction of families, someone who is living with a pain that has no balm. Gordon exists in a prison of his own making. And for those who get frustrated and angry when they hear of drunk drivers getting off with a so-called "slap of the wrist", especially those whose actions caused the deaths of others, this feels like a window into the post accident life of one of those drivers who "got off lightly".
Just the subject matter of drunk drivers is inflammatory. That category covers the range from repeat offenders to those who make a one time bad decision when they decide they are sober enough to drive home. And while this book opens up the conversation about drunk drivers and asks the question "what is ample punishment for their deeds", it remains focused on those drivers like Gordon. For some, like Gordon, theu are their own warden, turning their lives into a sort of prison of their own making. It's a wretched life John Inman constructs for Gordon and it reeks of authenticity and despair.
Only Gordon's court ordered community service at Mama's Soup Kitchen provides a temporary relief to the cycle of drinking and hangovers that has become Gordon's life. Again, Inman brings Mama's to life, from the kitchen preparations to the customers who line up for what might be their only meal of the day. Inman gets the details exactly right, including all those homeless and down on their luck people who need a shelter like this so badly.
Squirt who appears to get a meal isn't exactly homeless but he is clearly a person who has been damaged in more ways than are visible. His mental faculties are simplistic while still remaining that of an adult. His is a lovely character, vulnerable and easy to connect to. Which is exactly what Gordon does. Squirt is another lost soul and when he rescues Gordon from an attack, he ends up saving Gordon emotionally as well as physically. Watching this relationship form is such a heartwarming element of this story.
The "revelatory" aspect of Head-On is not as surprising as one might expect. But here it's the journey to the "denouement" and not the revelation itself, that drives the story. Its the twists and turns, the stops along the way as Squirt and Gordon try to figure out a way to move forward towards redemption and forgiveness that make this story such a memorable read. Inman's writing style works so beautifully here to bring us into Gordon's thoughts and life. And then it does the same for Squirt. From wretchedness to hope, from personal darkness to atonement and light, this story works on every level.
I highly recommend this moving story. With it John Inman moves into the ranks of authors who can move easily from one genre to the next, from angst to comedy and any combination thereof. If he was not a "must read" author for you before, Head-On should bring John Inman into that circle for you now. Don't miss out on this remarkable story.
Cover art by Reese Dante. Explosive and Emotional. Perfect for this story.
This entry was posted in 5 star Rating, Book Reviews, Books, Contemporary fiction, Dreamspinner Press, eBooks, LGBTQ Book Reviews, M/M Book Reviews, M/M Contemporary Fiction, M/M Romance, STRWC, Uncategorized and tagged drunk driving subject matter, Head-On by John Inman, John Inman, Reese Dante cover, Scattered Thoughts Highly Recommended.
Memorial Day. Two words that bring forth powerful emotions and memories of both of those from our past as well as our present. We think of the past and those deceased while at the same time our memories are full of family celebrations, and the laughter and love that speaks of life itself.
I was thinking of both of those as I watched the film on the news of the inauguration ceremony of National September 11 Memorial & Museum in NYC. The pictures brought forth a profound sadness as the cameras scanned over the survivors and their families as well as the exhibits, stopping here and there for closeups and personal stories. A staircase that was the only avenue for some to freedom and life stands bone white, covered in ash. Bent, blackened metal framework from parts of the structure from the towers loom upwards over the crowds within the museum, much like the towers they once helped support. All chilling and stark reminders of that day and our national tragedy.
But for me it was the small items that were so poignant and personal that they made the pain and loss intimate and immediate once more. A red bandana from a young man who sacrificed his life to make sure others got down safely. His mother was present,full of pride for her son, as she stood next to his photograph and his red scarf now enclosed in glass. It was the scarf that the survivors he helped down that day remember him by. Over and over again, a young man in a red bandana grabbed people, moving them towards safety and life. The expression on her face, so full of love, loss, and grief, was visceral as she looked at the scarf. Another survivor was there looking at the black, dusty shoes she donated that she wore that day as she walked down all those flights of steps. She ended up caring them as she ended up finally walking down in her bare feet because the pain of going down all those steps made wearing them impossible. Small item after item, watches, cell phones, glasses, standing side by side next to the physically imposing and massive items from the World Trade Center bombings, like a fire truck and or large pieces of masonry from the Pentagon, yes that's there too. And there is a wall of photographs of those that died that day. Every race, every gender,, every age….all represented there. Forever remembered, forever immortalized.
It made me think of another wall, one full of names on black marble. Here in Washington, DC, where huge crowds will gather on this weekend to remember, to grieve and to celebrate lives now gone. There will be Rolling Thunder, and parades, and the echoing refrain of Taps heard over Arlington Cemetery this weekend. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, my favorite of all Washington memorials, stands as one of our more striking and haunting memorials. The pictures found there aren't on the wall but will be left by loved ones, friends, family, and fellow soldiers who come to commune with the dead and their memories. There, as well as in New York City, the memorials will help all of us remember and help to mitigate the grief left behind. Powerful images, powerful emotions, and a powerful almost unimaginable amount of loss.
Take a moment this Memorial Weekend and remember. Do something that will celebrate their life as well as remember their loss.
This entry was posted in Book Reviews, Books, Contemporary fiction, eBooks, M/M Book Reviews, M/M Contemporary Fiction, M/M Fiction, Uncategorized and tagged Aleksandr Voinov and L.A. Witt, Amelia C. Gormley, Andrew Grey, author guest blogs, John Inman, John Inman on Writing with Humor, Laura Harner, Memorial Day Thoughts, ScatteredThoughtsandRogueWords Week Ahead in Reviews, TA Webb.
When Jason Day, video games designer, agrees to watch his precocious four-year-old nephew, Timmy, for four weeks he has no idea how his life will be forever changed by his acceptance. Jason works from home and is a confirmed, but not happy about it, gay bachelor. He is the only immediate family in his his nephew's life outside of his nephew's mom as Timmy's father disappeared several years ago and has never been heard from again. Jason is surprised to find himself bonding with Timmy, loving the 4 year old's company even as it exhausts him.
Then a young man arrives and announces himself as Timmy's uncle too but from the other, still missing, side of the family. His appearance starts off a series of startling events, not the least of which is a ghostly presence that is getting increasingly agitated by the hour. Soon Jason finds himself with a burgeoning love interest, a mystery that turns ominous, and a ghost with an alarming sense of humor. Things are getting out of hand and Jason finds himself and Timmy right in the middle of it all. Can the weirdest summer Jason has ever had also turn out to be his best?
I found author John Inman about 5 books of his ago after cuddling up to Loving Hector. Between gales of laughter and more than a few shed tears, I knew that John Inman, with his talent for writing comedic fiction with a heart, would always have a place on my must read author list. After Loving Hector, came Shy, and Hobbled, and Serenading Stanley, and all the rest leading up to Spirit, a whacky, supernatural infused tale of love and what it means to be a family, ancient Chihuawhatits included. And while I can always be certain that each tale of his will include some gut busting scenes of humor and maybe a dog or two, everything else comes as a surprise. That's what I found with Sprit. Surprise after surprise to my total delight and absolute amusement.
How else can you explain a supernatural love story murder mystery? Because that is exactly what Spirit is, a conglomeration of elements and genres that swirl around a thirty something video game designer, Jason, and his energetic, intelligent 4 year-old nephew, Timmy. It is clear that when Jason's sister drops off Timmy before heading off on vacation that Jason has only spent short amounts of time with his nephew and has no idea what is in store for him during this extended stay. Why you ask? Because so much of what happens with Timmy here is accurate (ok, supernatural stuff not withstanding). YOu can child proof your house all you want but there will always be something that is missed or not thought of. That haircutting business that Inman throws in? Perfection and spot on. Sometime I will recount my college days in Ohio and a certain preschool playground when scissors reigned supreme and 3 to 5 year olds ran amuck inside those concrete cylinders that were ubiquitous at the time. Thank you, John Inman, for bringing those memories so vividly back home. I had to put my Kindle down because my sides hurt from laughing so much at Timmy and his haircut.
Let me say, with years of experience behind me as a parent and park naturalist, " why yes, indeedy, they do". Some toddlers and older kids come out just preternaturally smart and smart mouthed. They can say the most amazing things and have the most acute and unexpected take on situations that astound those that care to listen to them. Not all, surely, but a larger amount of children than you would expect. So when I came across Timmy, I felt as though here was a child I already knew. And watching the relationship between Jason and Timmy unfold was truly a thing of joy. From the funny conversations to the walks they had with Thumper who is, in John Inman's words " … a mix of Chihuahua, dachshund, miniature poodle, and quite possibly a three-toed sloth" and also 20 years old, this uncle/nephew bonding time felt real and loving. The love that Jason feels for Timmy grows so strong and heart deep that it becomes ours as well.
That's the just one of the familial love elements here. Then Inman introduces us to Sam, Timmy's uncle from his father's side. With Sam's appearance, a whole slew of new elements come into play. First there is the love aspect for Jason and Same, who is just as happily gay as Jason is. Their attraction is immediate but there is no instant love to be found here, thankfully. Just a naturally occurring affection that turns into something deeper as time passes and the astounding events unfold. Sam is as realistic a character as the rest of the people to be found within this story. His cautious acceptance of Jason and his pain over the mystery of his brother's disappearance are easy to empathize with and believe in. So we have love, love, and more love. Terrific and endearing on every level. Did I mention a dog's love for a boy too? That's here as well.
Then Timmy starts to see a ghost and everything turns into a supernatural mystery that starts pointing towards an dark happening in the not to distant past. I loved Inman's ghost, a supernatural entity at turns humorous and chilling. And you never know which side of the ghost will arrive at any given situation. That's another marvelous aspect of this story too. The ghost does what all ghosts should, scare you, entertain you, and provide a certain amount of pathos one would expect from someone who…..oh never mind, Find out that one for yourself.
So yes, a mystery, a ghostly tale, a couple of love stories, both familial and romantic, Spirit is all that and more. I loved it. Did I see the ending coming? Kind of but that in no way lessened my enjoyment of this story. I don't think it will yours either. If you are unfamiliar with John Inman, this is a wonderful place to get acquainted. Pick up Spirit and then work your way through his back list. If you are already a fan of this author, then this is another story that you are sure to love. Either way grab it up now and start reading! I consider Spirit to be one of ScatteredThoughtsandRogueWords Highly Recommended Novels of 2014.
✍My dog, Thumper, who was a mix of Chihuahua, dachshund, miniature poodle, and quite possibly a three-toed sloth, was no threat to Timmy at all. The poor thing was almost twenty years old and hardly had any teeth left. I hadn't heard her bark in three years. She only moved off the sofa to eat and go potty, and once her business was done, she stood in front of the sofa looking up like the Queen Mother waiting for the carriage door to be opened until I scooped her off the floor and redeposited her among the cushions. Poor thing. (I mean me.) She lay there all day long watching TV: Channel 9, the Mexican channel. Don't ask me why, but that was the only channel she would tolerate. Couldn't live without it, in fact. The one benefit to this annoying habit of hers was that, while I didn't understand my dog at all, I was pretty sure I was beginning to comprehend Spanish.
✍Timmy was at that happy stage of child rearing where he could pull down his own pants and climb onto the commode without any help from squeamish gay uncles. He had brought an entourage of toys with him that would have kept an orphanage entertained. The first thing I did after finding a trail of little black skid marks on my new oak flooring was to confiscate his tricycle, allocating the thing to outdoor use only, which Timmy accepted with stoic resignation, although I did hear him mumble something about chicken poop and peckerheads. I'm not sure if his watered-down-obscenity-strewn mumbling was related to the tricycle announcement but fear it was. While the kid might have gotten my brat gene, there was also little doubt he had inherited my sister's sarcastic- foulmouthed-snarky gene. God help his teachers when he started school.
Cover art by Reese Dante. Love this cover. Spooky and pertinent in every way. Great job.
This entry was posted in Book Reviews, Contemporary fiction, Dreamspinner Press, eBooks, M/M Fiction, M/M Romance, M/M Supernatural Fiction, Uncategorized and tagged an LGBTQ supernatural comedic murder mystery love story, John Inman, Reese Dante cover, Scattered Thoughts Highly Recommended, Spirit by John Inman.
Jasper Stone has few needs. A writer, Jasper loves his solitude and quiet, something he gets plenty of on his ninety acre ranch, high on the side of the Juniper Mountains. Living alone in his rustic cabin, Jasper's only companions are the animal menagerie the kind hearted author has managed to accumulate since his arrival. While all his dogs and cats keep Jasper from being alone, they don't always keep him from being lonely. Then Jasper finds a young man with a fever hiding in his chicken coop and everything changes.
When small-time thief Timmy Harwell carjacks a Cadillac, he tumbles into something much more dangerous than just stealing a car. That outrageously outfitted Cadillac belongs to Miguel Garcia, aka El Poco, a Tijuana drug dealer, known for his ruthless manner and killer reputation. And it's not just the drug dealer's favorite car that Timmy has stolen, no, its the $100,000 he finds in the trunk as well. Soon, Timmy is on the run, trying to put as much distance between him and El Poco as possible.
But a storm forces Timmy to hide out on Jasper's ranch until he falls ill from exposure. Jasper finds Timmy and nurses him back to health, becoming fond of the young man during his recovery. But Timmy recognizes that Jasper is everything he is not. Jasper is kind, and honest, valuing trust and the truth above all. So Timmy hides who he is and what he has done behind lie after lie. When the past and El Poco catches up to Timmy on Jasper's mountain, Timmy realizes its not just himself he has placed in danger but Jasper too, a man he has come to love and admire. When it all comes down to making a choice, will Timmy choose survival? Or will he decide honesty and Jasper is the only choice his heart desires?
I first found John Inman through a series of novels with a comedic bent to their plots and characters. And although each contained a serious element or two in the narrative, they were generally light hearted fare that left you smiling or perhaps even guffawing long after you had finished reading them. So I found myself surprised by the gravity of Jasper's Mountain, a novel with a few endearing scenes to lighten a storyline of unusual seriousness by this author of humorous tales.
The characters that John Inman creates have always been people that felt authentic. Their personalities, character traits and relationship issues seeming more those of your neighbors than of created personas. That holds true here for Jasper Stone and Timmy Hartwell. Jasper, especially, resonated with me. Jasper is 32 years old, and more fond of animals than he is of people. Animals have never let him down the way people have. And Jasper's mistrust of people combined with his awkwardness and dislike of society have caused him to retreat to his mountain sanctuary and the company of animals. Further isolating this man is his chosen profession of writing, something he is only moderately successful at. Jasper sells enough manuscripts to sustain himself and his pets but not for anything more. Everything about Jasper feels real, if not relatable.
Timmy Hartwell also comes across as a believable young thief. Stealing is a way of life Timmy just fell into, driven by a desire never to be poor again after a childhood spent in foster care. A lack of discipline, no impulse control and a flexible morality made life as a thief an easy occupation. If Timmy saw it and wanted it, well, then he stole it. And thought about the consequences later. Even Timmy admitted to himself that he probably wasn't very smart about his life choices, just went with the flow of events and easy choices. Only the choice of hiding spots causes a change in outlook, not a desire to go straight. Another beautifully layered portrait from John Inman of a young confused human being with a life of bad choices behind him and more of the same in his future.
As with all Inman novels, the animal characters that pop up haphazardly about the story are as vivid and realistic as the people around them. Whether it is Harry and Harriet, pigs destined never to be bacon, Guatemala and Fiji, the cats with appetites for alligator lizards and the comforts of home, or Bobber, Jumper, and Lola, the dogs of indeterminate breeding that Jasper adopts, all the animals have larger than life personalities that support and enhance the people they are attached to. In this instance, the menagerie that Jasper has accumulated makes Jasper's decision to help and then house another, albeit human, stray feel authentic to the character and situation. Jasper collects animals in need, what's one more? The problem arises in that Timmy is a liar and a thief, someone Jasper cannot count on, unlike the unwavering love and loyalty of his animal family. It's a great plot idea, but does it make a great romance?
As I stated before, Jasper's Mountain is a departure from the typical lighthearted story I expect from this author. And that more serious aspect runs through the entire narrative. The biggest issue between the characters also becomes the biggest issue, in my opinion, between the readers relating to and believing in a romance between Jasper and Timmy. Timmy consistently lies to Jasper throughout the story. Over his background, over the events that lead him to Jasper's ranch, over the peril he places Jasper in, and well, everything about the situation Timmy has created. Timmy is not just in the well, he's in the Carlsbad Cavern of bad places, so deep and perilous is the position he has created for himself and Jasper. And the more he lies he tells Jasper, the more distance Timmy puts between himself and the reader's emotional involvement in his future. I am not sure that Inman recognized the extent that the dishonesty of Timmy's character would decrease the attachment one would feel towards Timmy. It also keeps the reader from investing in their romance. Even towards the end, Timmy is not honest about the head games he has been playing. We understand his desperation, the acts he commits in order to survive. John Inman has made Timmy a thoroughly believable little thief. I'm just not sure how much a reader will like him. That may depend on how much empathy you are able to extend towards Timmy and his situation.
The authenticity of Inman's scenario extends to the story's resolution as well. It's not a HEA or even a HFN. More like a gritty probability that hope and the right decision will make a future possible. I liked that the author remained committed to a more likely ending than creating one that discounted all the events and characters that went before. For me, it was the only way this story could end and stay plausible. Love and hope sometimes has to be enough. John Inman understands that as well.
If you are looking for a lighthearted romance, then this is probably not the story for you. But Jasper's Mountain has so much to offer. Its well written, believable, and full of layered characters that will hold your attention from start to finish. And no matter how I felt about Jasper and Timmy as a couple, I never stopped reading, not once. Pick it up and decide for yourself.
Cover artist Reese Dante gave Jasper's Mountain a beautiful, memorable cover. One of the best of the year.
This entry was posted in Book Reviews, Books, Contemporary fiction, Dreamspinner Press, eBooks, LGBTQ Book Reviews, M/M Book Reviews, M/M Contemporary Fiction, M/M Fiction, M/M Romance, Uncategorized and tagged 3.75 star rating, HFN, John Inman, realistic ending, Reese Dante cover, ScatteredThoughts Best Covers of 2014.
It's 60 degrees here today. The sun is shining, the snow is melting, and thoughts of Spring are crowding into my mind. I know that February still has to run its course. And March can and most likely will be blustery and cold. And yet, and yet. All this warmth and sunshine is playing games with my head, luring me out to garden centers bare of plants and hardware stores still packed full of snow shovels and sand for the driveway.
There I linger not over the snowblowers and mittens, but the seed packets and starting trays. The small portable greenhouses and adjustable hoes for tilling around established plants in the gardens. New feeders and birdbaths beckon, and then even more until I have to flee before I find myself laden down with purchases at the counter.
Instead I am heading off to lunch with our DC Metro Romance Group of authors, publishers, bloggers and readers. We postponed it already once this month due to snow. I can't wait to hear how every one is handling this long winter. New books, new conferences, time to get caught up.
Here is the week ahead….Its almost March and I hear my gardens calling.
This entry was posted in Book Reviews, Books, Contemporary fiction, Dreamspinner Press, eBooks, LGBTQ Book Reviews, M/M Book Reviews, M/M Contemporary Fiction, M/M Fiction, M/M Romance, Riptide Publishing, Science Fiction, Wilde City Press and tagged Alicia Nordwell, Best February 2014 covers, Christian Baines, February 2014 Summary of Reviews, John Inman, Mary Calmes, Robin White.
Our region has seen single digit temperatures, ice, snow and flash freezing. OK, it is January, a winter month, but still this is far too cold for this area and I think we are in shock. I have kept the bird feeders full, as they are emptying them almost within an hour of being filled. Same goes for the suet cakes hanging in the trees.
My yard is full of evidence of nightly visitors, deer tracks, fox tracks, raccoon and opossum. That is the opossum track to the left, notice the tail drag in the middle. Their ears and tails are naked, getting frostbitten on nights like these. They crisscross and circle in search of food and shelter from the bruising cold winds and frigid Arctic air. I always loved tracking in the woods after it has snowed. So many stories are written on the glistening surface just waiting for someone to read them.
It snowed considerably the first year I worked as a Park Naturalist in Rock Creek. And my first journey into the woods was amazing. I remember walking deep into the hickory oak forest and finding a small pile of Red Shouldered Hawk feathers on the ground, the snow spotted with blood. As I looked around I noticed another grouping of feathers about 12 feet away, and then another. And here and there the wing prints of a large bird, one who had landed with its prey, plucked for a while before taking off again with its heavy load. Further and further I tracked until I finally found my culprit. A great horned owl's nest, high in a dead white oak tree, the base of which was strewn with owl pellets and fresh feathers. I stood in awe of such a majestic and efficient predator. A silent killer whose wings were capable of carrying a meal almost its own size, a shark of the skies where everything was considered fair game, including other owls. I stood there for a while until throughly chilled, picked up a feather and owl pellet and headed back to the nature center, memorizing my path as I went. I knew I would return there to check for owlets in another month or so and to see what other prey the Great Horned Owl had found. This adventure cemented my love for raptors and owls in particular.
This week a Snowy Owl appeared in downtown Washington, DC. It appeared unconcerned that it stopped all traffic, vehicle and foot, as people gazed on in amazement. How marvelous….
The cold is lingering into this coming week, a perfect time for reading a book or two or three. Here are the books I reviewed this week.
This entry was posted in Book Reviews, Books, Contemporary fiction, Dreamspinner Press, eBooks, Fantasy, Less Than Three Press, LGBTQ Book Reviews, M/M Book Reviews, M/M Contemporary Fiction, M/M Fiction, M/M Romance, M/M Supernatural Fiction, MLR Press, Riptide Publishing, Shifters, Weres, Supernatural, Vampires, Wilde City Press and tagged Hell or High Water series, Instincts series, John Inman, Kate Sherwood, M. King, park naturalist memories, SE Jakes, SJ Frost, The Week Ahead in Book Reviews, Valentina Heart.


text:
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import React, { PropTypes } from 'react';

export default class User extends Component {

  static propTypes = {
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  };

  render() {
    const {
      user: { displayName, profileImageURL }
    } = this.props;
    const title = displayName || 'Some user logged in via email';
    return (
      <li>
        <img
          alt={`${title} profile`}
          src={profileImageURL}
          title={title}
        />
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  }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This topic contains 2 replies, has 1 voice, and was last updated by SA 2 months ago.
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Coming Soon Suzuki Swift Sport
Swift Sport with not only a more striking paint scheme but also with other updates which add to its sportiness.
2019 Suzuki Swift Sport custom debuts – Looks even more sporty with updates
2019 Suzuki Swift Sport custom marks its debut. Seen with a special paint scheme, which has been further enhanced by body graphics, giving it an even sportier appeal.
Though the new custom Suzuki Swift Sport carries on with most of its original styling in its exterior makeup, it gets a large diffuser, sportier bumper and new honeycomb front grille.
It also gets body colored headlamp eyelashes, dual racing stripes painted across its hood and twin air scoops. There are no changes to the rear expect for new custom tail lamps with a smoked effect while interiors also see no changes with a sporty all black color scheme with red trims all around and black leather seat upholstery with red stitching.
2019 Suzuki Swift Sport gets its power via a K14C 1.4 liter Boosterjet petrol engine offering 140 PS power at 5,500 rpm and 230 Nm torque at 2,500-3,500 rpm. The turbocharged petrol engine comes mated to a 6 speed manual transmission or a 6 speed automatic transmission that drives its front wheels.
Suspension is in the form of performance oriented Monroe shock absorbers and a larger strut bar while wheel hub and wheel bearings are combined into a single unit with increased width between bearings which contributes to better rigidity during cornering. The Swift Sport also receives a new torsion beam for added roll stiffness.
It's bold, unapologetic, and turbo charged. The new Swift Sport will give you the edge you need to jump ahead, if you're ready for it. With all its power and striking looks, you'd better get used to standing out and stepping up. There's only one way to drive the new Swift Sport - you've gotta OWN IT.
Want to stay on top of all things Swift Sport?
The new Swift Sport

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
FAR Ltd FAR
Rating as of Jan 19, 2022
Quote Stock Analysis News Price vs Fair Value Sustainability Trailing Returns Financials Valuation Operating Performance Dividends Ownership Executive
Valuation Jan 19, 2022
Is it the right time to buy or sell?
Find out with Morningstar Premium
1-Star Price
Economic Moat
About Quantitative Ratings
There is no one analyst in which a Quantitative Star Rating and Fair Value Estimate is attributed to; however, Mr. Lee Davidson, Head of Quantitative Research for Morningstar, Inc., is responsible for overseeing the methodology that supports the quantitative fair value. As an employee of Morningstar, Inc., Mr. Davidson is guided by Morningstar, Inc.'s Code of Ethics and Personal Securities Trading Policy in carrying out his responsibilities. For information regarding Conflicts of Interests, click here .
Morningstar Quantitative ratings for equities (denoted on this page by) are generated using an algorithm that compares companies that are not under analyst coverage to peer companies that do receive analyst-driven ratings. Companies withratings are not formally covered by a Morningstar analyst, but are statistically matched to analyst-rated companies, allowing our models to calculate a quantitative moat, fair value, and uncertainty rating. Click here for more on how to use these ratings.
FAR Ltd is an independent oil and gas explorer with interests in Australia and Africa. Its projects include Africa, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, and Australia. The company in West Africa has a portfolio of exploration permits, including offshore Senegal, which consists of FAN-1 and SNE-1 exploration wells.
530 Collins Street, Level 17
Melbourne, VIC, 3000, Australia
www.far.com.au
Industry Oil & Gas E&P
Most Recent Earnings —
Fiscal Year End Dec 31, 2021
Stock Type —
Employees 3


text:
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
Illustrated by Garth Williams
E.B.White divided his time between New York City, where he wrote for the New Yorker, and a salt water farm in Maine, where he raised chickens, geese, sheep, and pigs. In 1948, he published an essay, "Death of a Pig", in the Atlantic Monthly, which told a sad tale of his unsuccessful ministrations to a sick pig. He was unsettled by the irony of the scenario: his attempt to prevent the premature demise of a pig he was raising for eventual slaughter. He decided to write a children's book about a pig who is saved from the seemingly inevitable butcher's knife, and he eventually happened upon a barn spider as the instrument of salvation.
Charlotte's Web is an intricate book that seamlessly interweaves the human story of Fern, an eight year old girl, with the animal story of young Wilbur, the pig, and Charlotte, the wise spider. Wilbur is saved by the carefully chosen words that his friend weaves into her web: SOME PIG, TERRIFIC, RADIANT, and HUMBLE. She is aided, sometimes accidentally, usually begrudgingly, by Templeton, the scurrilous rat, while the stuttering geese provide the comic chorus in the background.
Charlotte's Web is arguably the best children's book ever written. It has all the elements: a tight storyline that naturally overlays fantasy (talking animals and a writing spider) onto a lovingly depicted barnyard world, an assortment of nuanced and evolving characters, and an honest depiction of the loneliness of death while celebrating life, friendship, and the rhythm of nature. E.B. White was a consummate literary craftsman (he co-wrote The Elements of Style) and few have matched his ease and clarity of style, or his simple honesty.
E.B.White's lack of pretence is apparent in his sound recording for the audiobook version of Charlotte's Web. Dissatisfied with the reading by a professional actress, he chose to do a simple reading himself with his "famous monotone". "I think a book is better read the way my father used to read books to me – without drama. He just read the words, beginning with the seductive phrase "Chapter One", and I supplied my own dramatization." He recorded the book, not in a sound studio, but in a friend's living room, and he had to pause whenever a car drove by. He also recorded The Trumpet of the Swan, his third and final children's book, and it is a pleasure to hear him read both stories.
Aside: Garth Williams illustrated both Charlotte's Web and the earlier Stuart Little. His early renditions of Charlotte featured a woman's face. E.B.White, distressed, referred Williams to several arachnid natural histories. Fortunately, White prevailed.
Tagged Books, Charlotte's Web, Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, E.B. White, Garth Williams
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Illustrated by John Hench and Al Dempster
Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up saw its wildly popular stage premiere in London in 1904. The book, not published until seven years later, was something of an afterthought. It has that feel – a careless air, a rambling casualness. The play itself, finally brought to print in 1928, is tighter and makes for a more exhilarating read. For this is a story that belongs on the stage, drawn with bold theatrical strokes. It needs an audience to gasp as Peter Pan flies across the stage or to clap wildly as Peter asks for believers to bring Tinker Bell back to life. It needs the inspired music and lyrics of the Broadway musical – with such songs as "I Won't Grow Up" and "Never Never Land". Even on film, the Disney version is a pleasure, with its extravagantly mustached pirate captain – better for his character to be deliciously and comically evil than weirdly nuanced as he is in print.
However it is experienced, the story sparkles with imaginative brilliance. There is Peter Pan himself – cocky and conceited, but also a merry vibrant life force to be admired. He navigates by the stars and gives his address as "Second to the right and then straight on till morning." He is a stickler for fairness, but is strangely amoral in other respects, especially when it comes to murder and mayhem – he is "frightfully happy" as he prepares for his fight to the death with his nemesis. For all his bravado, he is a poignant figure, for his eternal childhood comes at the price of memory and growth and the reassuring comforts of family and home. When Peter returns to the nursery to visit Wendy a year later, he has no recollection of either Captain Hook or Tinker Bell. He is ready to start over at the beginning again. And again. And again.
J.M. Barrie, if not a polished writer, was a wizard when it came to creating memorable characters and set pieces. Who else has come up with a situation as bizarre as that of the dashing Captain Hook brought sniveling to his knees by the tick tocking crocodile (a female, as unlikely as it seems), forever in pursuit after having had a taste of him? And how about Neverland itself, populated (excessively) with pirates, lost boys, redskins (of the Piccaninny tribe – what?), wild beasts, fairies, and mermaids? Is it not inventive that the beautiful Indian princess is named Tiger Lily, an appellation that evokes the exotically wild and the English country garden simultaneously? And then there is the Darling household back in Kensington Square where Nana, the Newfoundland, is nursemaid and the father, as penance, takes up residence in the doghouse.
The book is filled with oddities. But J.M. Barrie, himself, was odd. A tiny (5'3") Scottish man, married for a time but asexual by most accounts, devoted to his mother, about whom he wrote a biography, devoted also to the Llewelyn Davies boys, all five of whom he supported after their parents died in quick succession of cancer, and for whom he invented the Peter Pan story. One can feel his own strange longing in the pages.
Tagged Captain Hook, Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard
The Wind in the Willows is one of the treasures of childhood. Start with the memorable Toad: shamelessly boastful, maddeningly conceited, extravagantly self-indulgent while at the same time affectionate, well-intentioned, and good-natured. Leaving the grand Toad Hall, he indulges a whim for the open road by procuring a gypsy caravan, painted canary yellow with green trim and red wheels. When a brilliant motor-car whizzes past, spooking the horses and leaving the caravan up-ended in the ditch, Toad is disastrously smitten. He sits in the road in a trance murmuring "Poop-poop!" and then proceeds along a magnificently self-destructive path fueled by his obsession with motor-cars. After smashing seven and stealing another, he is sentenced to 20 years. Aided by the gaoler's daughter, he disguises himself as a washerwoman and makes his escape. There follows an exhilarating train ride with the warders hot in pursuit, an interlude with a barge woman that culminates in Toad absconding with her horse, a horsetrading scene with a gypsy who offers "Shillin' a leg", and a last hair raising ride in a motor-car.
The adventures of Toad, the reckless, the incorrigible, provide the excitement and the humor. But The Wind in the Willows is really two interwoven tales, each of which is essential to the other. Playing Penelope to Toad's Odysseus are Rat, Mole, and Badger, who prefer to stay home – where they cultivate an Arcadian vision of home as haven of tranquility. Enter their sanctuaries and find a fire in the hearth, armchairs before the blaze, a simple meal shared with friends, an inviting coziness. The book is a hymn sung in praise of the English countryside and a carefree life of bucolic domesticity. Kenneth Grahame, a child of the Industrial Revolution, sought in his writing to return to the pristine rural ideal that was the antithesis of a mechanized age. The Victorian era saw the flourishing of a number of eccentric cults, one of which was a neopaganism devoted to Pan and a pastoral spirituality. Hence the strange mysticism in the bizarre chapter, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. How audacious that Grahame could transition from a surreal scene in which Rat and Mole are bowing down before Pan on a holy island to the dungeon where Toad is histrionically indulging in self-pity and transitory remorse before effecting his escape.
The Wind in the Willows has been graced by illustrations by such famous artists as Arthur Rackham, Tasha Tudor, Michael Hague, and Michael Foreman, but the truest images are those by Ernest H. Shepard who did equal justice to Toad's humorous escapades and Mole's cozy burrow.
Tagged Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, Ernest H. Shepard, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong
Illustrated by Maurice Sendak
When Lina, a young schoolgirl in a tiny Dutch fishing village, wonders why the storks no longer nest in Shora, she and her five schoolmates (all boys) resolve to fasten a wagon wheel onto the roof of the school to tempt their return. Gently encouraged by their teacher, the children each take one of the roads radiating like spokes from the village, in search of a wheel. Along their meandering and intersecting journeys, they are joined by a small and eccentric cast of characters, including Janus, the misanthropic and grumpy double amputee who spends his wheelchair-bound existence protecting his cherry tree from predatory birds and children. Lina, exploring along a dyke, discovers a wagon wheel in the most unlikely of places, under an overturned fishing boat that had been beached by a storm eighty years before. Aided by Old Douwa, who as a boy had saved his shipwrecked father – trapped beneath this very boat, she works to retrieve the wheel, racing against the incoming flood tide and an approaching storm. Their subsequent rescue presages the later rescue of a pair of exhausted storm-battered storks, marooned on a sand bar, threatened by the rising tide – storks who become the first to nest on the wheel on the school.
The book quietly celebrates the power of children, ever resourceful, to change the world. The book is also a quiet celebration of the European white stork (Ciconia ciconia), which has largely disappeared from many of its traditional breeding grounds in western Europe. The population of breeding pairs in Holland at the advent of the twentieth century was over 500: by the time DeJong was writing The Wheel on the School, the number was in the 50's, and nests which had seen continuous occupation for hundreds of years were empty. Most Dutch today are more likely to see a stork, symbol of fertility, deliverer of babies in a sling, on a birth announcement than in the sky overhead. The storks still fly north to breed but they now head for eastern Europe, particularly Poland. Theirs is a remarkable migration: in flocks of 10,000 or more, they make the journey from their wintering grounds in Africa, splitting east and west at the Mediterranean Sea to avail themselves of the warm thermals that rise from the land. The roundtrip is over 10,000 miles. With their stark tuxedo plumage, impressive stature, and bizarre bill clattering (they cannot sing), it is easy to imagine how their miraculous return to a rooftop year after year came to be considered an auspicious sign.
Maurice Sendak illustrated six of Meindert DeJong's books, including The Wheel on the School. Their shared spirit of humanity made for a harmonious marriage of talents. They also shared the honor of each being a recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's literature.
Tagged Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, Maurice Sendak, Meindert DeJong, Storks, The Wheel on the School
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
In one of the most famous scenes in American literature, Tom Sawyer is condemned to whitewashing the front fence as a Saturday morning punishment inflicted by Aunt Polly. Taking stock of his pocket treasures, he realizes he cannot buy his way out. Desperate for freedom, he has a sudden flash of inspiration. Combining an acute understanding of human nature with masterful acting skills, he soon finds himself seated on a barrel in the shade eating an apple, his first booty, while his friend Ben paints away. Tom "planned the slaughter of more innocents. There was no lack of material…" By the end of the afternoon, Tom has amassed a fortune (including a dead rat and a string, twelve marbles, a one-eyed kitten, and four pieces of orange-peel.) And the fence has been whitewashed thrice over.
There is a reason that classics are classics. The delight in discovering Mark Twain's droll wit, pitch-perfect ear for colloquial speech, acerbic social commentary, and deft portrayal of boyhood along the Mississippi River is reason enough to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. There is also the imperative of reading a common literary canon. Families are bound by shared memories, and cultures are bound by a common vocabulary of images. Mark Twain is the quintessential American author and Tom Sawyer should be a familiar icon to all. Every child can benefit by Tom's epiphany that Saturday morning. "He had discovered a great law of human action – without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain."
Among literary characters, Tom is one of the greats. He is a good-natured adventurous romantic who combines ingenuity, courage, humor, honor, and a strong penchant for mischief. Consider the following. Spurned by Becky Thatcher, Tom takes to the Mississippi River where he leads a pirate's life on Jackson Island with Huck Finn and Joe Harper. The boys watch the townsfolk search the river for their drowned bodies. That night, Tom slips away, thinking to leave a note for his Aunt Polly to ease her anguish. Overhearing plans for the impending memorial service, he desists, and the three runaways make their triumphant return at their own funeral. Tom is a prankster, but a lovable one, and the feelings between the boy and his guardian aunt run deep.
There is more. For anyone who gets hooked on Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the incomparable sequel. The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court can follow.
The illustrations above are by an unknown artist from the Association of Illustrators, True Williams – the wonderfully-named illustrator for the original edition, and Richard Rogers.
Tagged Books, Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Classic Poetry: An Illustrated Collection selected by Michael Rosen
Illustrated by Paul Howard
Many of us may be philistines when it comes to poetry, but children are not. They delight in the musicality of meter, the humor of limericks, the wordplay of rhyme. They are adept at memorization – poems are easily engraved in memory in the young and, once owned, are there for a lifetime. A poem memorized in childhood can be recited on a deathbed.
There are countless anthologies, many excellent, none exhaustive. It is good to have a number on hand. Classic Poetry has a particularly rich selection with stylistically diverse illustrations to accompany the poems along with portraits, both visual and text, of the poets.
Some are silly, as only Edward Lear can be.
Far and few, far and few
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.
Some are musical, none more so than Banjo Paterson's lyrics that were written as a bush ballad.
Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,
Under the shade of a coolibah-tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled,
'Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?....'
Some celebrate the exoticisms of language, as in John Masefield's "Cargoes".
Quinquireme of Ninevah from Distant Ophir
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine
With a cargo of ivory
And apes and peacocks
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.
We should never underestimate the intelligence of children. They might not know a quinquireme from a Spanish galleon on first pass, but they will figure it out. Their ears will respond even in the presence of nonsense. Try a poem a day. Or sit down with an anthology and read it from start to finish.
Tagged Books, Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, Classic Poetry: An Illustrated Collection, Michael Rosen, Paul Howard
Big Tiger and Christian by Fritz Muhlenweg
Illustrated by Rafaello Busoni
Out of print for many years, this is a book that happens into hands by chance. It is read in appreciation and amazement and continues to haunt the reader for decades more. It is a book that has inspired travels and changed lives. Yet it is almost completely unknown.
The story begins, in part, with Sven Hedin, a renowned Swedish explorer in the grand tradition, who did much to fill in the white patches on the map of Central Asia. In the 20's and 30's, he lead the Sino-Swedish Expedition to Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, and Xinjiang, accompanied by an international bevy of archeologists, geologists, meteorologists, geographers, astronomers, botanists, zoologists. He was honored along the way by having a glacier, a lunar crater, and a butterfly (among other things) named after him. My Life as an Explorer is a riveting travelogue.
The story continues, in part, with Fritz Muhlenweg. He was working as a young accountant with the new German airline, Lufthansa, when he was posted to Hedin's expedition (Lufthansa's interest was a proposed Peking-Berlin air route). He made three trips to Mongolia before settling into a career as a painter and writer.
Muhlenweg's reverence for Mongolian culture is palpable in the tale that was inspired by his travels, and few books provide a deeper sense of place. There are yurts, camel caravans, dunes, tamarisk trees, roasted barley, and language (try "zook, zook" if you want your camel to kneel). This is the backdrop that gives texture and depth to an adventure story that quietly enthralls. Two 12-year old boys, one European and one Chinese, go kite-flying in Peking and end up as secret couriers for General Wu. They embark on a 1,500 mile mission to Urumchi, on the far side of the Gobi Desert, by train, truck, horse, camel, and foot. They encounter lamas, honorable bandits, dishonorable thieves, shepherds, traders, soldiers, warlords, wild monks, a nomadic girl, and a black poodle who have names like Dog, Sevenstars, Good Fortune, Affliction, Moonlight, and Thunderbolt. There is an evil villain named Greencoat and his nemesis, an outlaw king referred to as The Venerable Chief, a kind of Mongolian Robin Hood, and there is a hidden treasure in an abandoned desert city. Apart from the villain, who is irredeemably wicked, the characters are nuanced. Muhlenweg is sympathetic to even the roughest scallywags and in his hands they tend to rise to the occasion to reveal a hidden goodness.
Tagged Big Tiger and Christian, Books, Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, Fritz Muhlenweg, Literature, Mongolia, Rafaello Busoni, Sven Hedin
Grandpa Toad's Secrets by Keiko Kasza
Illustrated by Keiko Kasza
Funny picture books run the gamut: they can be zany, sly, silly, ironic, clever, joyful, nonsensical, slapstick. The responses they elicit run a comparable gamut. Surprisingly, there are relatively few great ones that elicit gleeful laugh-out-loud delight. Punch in New York, Lottie's New Beach Towel, and Max's Chocolate Chicken are three. A fourth is Grandpa Toad's Secrets.
Grandpa Toad and Little Toad walk through the forest. Confronted by a hungry snake, Grandpa Toad blows himself up to balloon size and the snake, intimidated, slinks away. He then outwits a hungry snapping turtle by tempting him with the prospect of a snake feast in lieu of a measly toad snack. But when he happens upon a humongous monster, Grandpa Toad freezes and he gets snatched up for the makings of a toad sandwich. Little Toad, in a genius move, grabs red berries from a plant and pelts the brute. Looking down with horror on the red spots erupting on his legs and tail, the monster drops Grandpa Toad and runs.
This never fails: kids find this uproariously funny. There is the intrinsic delight in the child besting the monster, but the glee comes from the simplicity of the weapon – with harmless berries, Little Toad deceives the monster into believing himself mortally poisoned. Keiko Kasza's watercolor illustrations capture Little Toad shivering with fear in his hiding place, then emboldened with outrage as he throws the berry grenades. Toads (like chickens) are intrinsically funny so the author chose her protagonist well.
Kasza has written and illustrated almost twenty books, many of which involve a victim outwitting a foe through cleverness. My Lucky Day is one of the most inspired. A piglet arrives at the door of a fox. He enjoys a warm soapy bath (to get nice and clean), a filling meal with fresh cookies (to get fattened up), and a massage (to get tenderized). The fox, exhausted by his ministrations, falls asleep, leaving the rejuvenated piglet to skip off in eager anticipation of tricking his next carnivore.
Tagged Books, Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, Grandpa Toad's Secrets, Keiko Kasza, Literature, My Lucky Day
The Box of Delights or When the Wolves Were Running by John Masefield
Illustrated by Judith Masefield
John Masefield's upbringing reads like something out of Dickens. Orphaned at a young age (his mother died in childbirth, his father in an asylum), he was taken in by a domineering and despised aunt who quickly packed him off to a boarding school where he was miserable and then to a maritime school (on the HMS Conway) where he was more miserable still. After weathering (badly) a month-long ice storm of f Cape Horn, he landed in a Chilean hospital with sunstroke and a nervous breakdown before being deemed unfit and sent home. His aunt arranged for his next apprenticeship on a ship out of New York. Masefield failed to report for duty and, age 16, became a vagabond in America, determined to be a writer. The high point of his teen sailing years must have been the sighting of a lunar rainbow. Despite his traumatic experiences on ocean voyages, he is best known for his poems Sea-Fever ("I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky….") and Cargoes ("Quinquereme of Ninevah from distant Ophir/ Rowing home to haven in Sunny Palestine.") He was a prolific writer – of poems, novels, and plays – and was celebrated in the U.K. where he was Poet Laureate for almost forty years. Along the way, he
wrote the two Kay Harker books for children, The Midnight Folk (1927) and The Box of Delights (1935), and these are strange gems indeed.
Kay Harker, like the author, is an orphan. Returning to his home and guardian for the winter holidays, he encounters a Punch and Judy showman on a station platform. This is Cole Hawlings, who gives Kay a message to deliver ("The Wolves are Running") and the Box of Delights for safekeeping. The Box can make Kay swift or small, as well as open doors to the past. All of which comes in handy as he grapples with the nefarious and mercurial Abner Brown and his gang – their standard disguise is in the ecclesiastical robes of seminarians, but they can also morph into wolves or pirates or dive-bombing toy airplanes. The Brotherhood scrobbles (kidnaps) the Punch and Judy man, Kay's beloved guardian, his friends Maria and Peter, the Bishop of Tatchester, and all the cathedral staff down to the choir boys. At the denouement, as the water is rising menacingly in the dungeon cells, it is up to Kay to overcome the sinister villains. And he must do so in time for the Christmas Eve celebration at the Tatchester Cathedral to take place at midnight.
The book is richly complex with an inspired confusion of elements. There are unicorn-drawn sleighs, stags, talking rats and mice, fairies, Roman legionnaires, jousting knights, Christmas parties, carol singers, incompetent police inspectors, and innocent diversions like building snowmen or sailing toy ships a la Christopher Columbus. It's an unusual mix but it all combines to create an odd off-kilter universe that accommodates the real world and the fantastic. Kay is the unflappable center – good natured, matter-of-factly courageous, intrepid, honorable, decent. Masefield's genius was to combine Magic and Crime. What other master jewel thief can you think of who could collapse his soothsaying boy assistant (his head telescoping into his chest) to punish him for insolence?
Masefield, with his poet's eye, was a master of atmospherics. Try this.
"It was a dark, lowering afternoon, with a whine in the wind, and little dry pellets of snow blowing horizontally. In the gutters, these had begun to fall into little white layers and heaps….. Kay went on alone into the street. He thought that he had never been out in a more evil-looking afternoon. The marketplace had emptied, people had packed their booths, and wheeled away their barrows. As he went down towards Dr. Gubbinses, the carved beasts in the woodwork of the old houses seemed crouching against the weather. Darkness was already closing in. There was a kind of glare in the evil heaven. The wind moaned about the lanes. All the sky above the roofs was grim with menace, and the darkness of the afternoon gave a strangeness to the fire-light that glowed in the many windows."
There is an uneasy eerie undercurrent of the ominous, the sinister, the creepy that runs through the story, but there are also passages of innocent delight. When read in December, it is a book that will give the reader the fantods on a wintry evening (as Peter would say) but also be a joyful harbinger of Christmas celebrations.
The endpapers and the diminutive illustrations, provided by Masefield's daughter, reflect this odd and original tone.
Aside:
"Jolly good chaps, the Romans," Kay said.
"Oh, I don't know, said Peter. "They were rather a mouldy lot. They were lucky chaps not to have to learn Latin grammar, but to know it naturally."
Tagged Books, Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, Christmas, John Masefield, Judith Masefield, Literature, The Box of Delights
Along Came a Dog by Meindert Dejong
Along Came a Dog is the unlikely story of a man, a homeless dog, and a little red hen. On the first day of spring, the man enters the hen house and greets the red hen, a bright and adventurous creature when compared to the timid bird-brained white chickens and the unimaginative rooster. The little red hen's toes have frozen and fallen off during the cold winter and she is left with an awkward ungainly gait that makes her the target of the flock's nastiness. The man fashions rubber flippers and sews them onto his jacket: when he plants the hen's knuckle bones into the socket holes, she can perch on his shoulder. A black stray dog, meek and starving, appears in the barnyard and becomes the little red hen's protector. Twice banished by the man, he twice manages to find his way back to continue his mission as the hen's guardian. By the end, he earns himself the gratitude of the man and the home he so craves.
Dejong's style appears simple, deceptively so. No breathless prose here – Dejong's Dutch Calvinist background is evidenced by straightforward plots, methodically written. Behind the plain-spokenness, however, is an uncanny ability to convey the essence of character, whether it be the stupidity and meanness of a flock of chickens or the cringing self-effacement of a miserable dog desperate for an owner. In DeJong's books, the overriding sense is one of honesty.
In a long and prolific career, Meindert DeJong was repeatedly acknowledged for his unusual gift as a writer for children. He was the first American (he immigrated to Michigan from Holland at the age of eight) to be honored with the Hans Christian Andersen Award. He set a record when he was awarded one Newberry Medal and four Newberry Honors in a five year stretch. The Newberry Medal went to The Wheel on the School, a story of a group of young children in a Dutch village who wonder why the storks have disappeared and carry out a plan to attract their return. The Newberry Honors went to Shadrach, Hurry Home Candy, The House of Sixty Fathers, and Along Came a Dog. A decade later, he received the National Book Award for Journey from Peppermint Street.
Tagged Along Came a Dog, Books, Child, Children's Books, Children's Literature, Maurice Sendak, Meindert DeJong


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Étrœungt è un comune francese di 1.402 abitanti situato nel dipartimento del Nord nella regione dell'Alta Francia.

Società

Evoluzione demografica

Note

Altri progetti

Etroeungt

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


There are three permanent Park and Ride sites at Meynells Gorse (Leicester Forest East), Birstall and Enderby; buses operate every 15 mins from all sites. Immigrants from the Indian sub-continent began to arrive in the 1960s, their numbers boosted by Asians arriving from Kenya and Uganda in the early 1970s. The last major development of this era was Beaumont Leys in the north of the city, which was developed in the 1970s as a mix of private and council housing. They went on to acquire twin qualification as a solicitor and after reducing their teeth in a excessive street observe in Hinckley they chose to concentrate on critical and sophisticated crime transferring to work in Nottingham in 1996.
Following graduation they went to dwell in Mexico for three years, having began studying Spanish throughout their remaining yr at Leicester.If you're looking for a conveyancing solicitor in Leicester they can help you.


What I wore to brunch yesterday. It was a sunny day not to be confused with a warm day! Good thing my bubble jacket is o so warm.
Did a little shopping at the Zara sale and picked up this turtleneck for less than $10! Its so tempting to go back although I know I shouldn't.


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Tag Archives: upgrades
Moody's upgrades India's government bond rating to Baa2 from Baa3; changes outlook to stable from positive
November 17, 2017 Passion Solution	Leave a comment
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While India's high debt burden remains a constraint on the country's credit profile, Moody's believes that the reforms put in place have reduced the risk of a sharp increase in debt, even in potential downside scenarios.
New York: Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") has on Thursday (16 November 2017) upgraded the Government of India's local and foreign currency issuer ratings to Baa2 from Baa3 and changed the outlook on the rating to stable from positive for the first time in 14 years. Moody's has also upgraded India's local currency senior unsecured rating to Baa2 from Baa3 and its short-term local currency rating to P-2 from P-3.
The short-term foreign-currency bond ceiling remains unchanged at P-2, and the short-term foreign-currency bank deposit ceiling has been raised to P-2 from P-3. The long-term local currency deposit and bond ceilings remain unchanged at A1.
The decision to upgrade the ratings is underpinned by Moody's expectation that continued progress on economic and institutional reforms will, over time, enhance India's high growth potential and its large and stable financing base for government debt, and will likely contribute to a gradual decline in the general government debt burden over the medium term.
Moody's has also raised India's long-term foreign-currency bond ceiling to Baa1 from Baa2, and the long-term foreign-currency bank deposit ceiling to Baa2 from Baa3. The short-term foreign-currency bond ceiling remains unchanged at P-2, and the short-term foreign-currency bank deposit ceiling has been raised to P-2 from P-3. The long-term local currency deposit and bond ceilings remain unchanged at A1.
Since ratings involve judgements about the future, on the one hand, and since they are used by investors as a means of protection, on the other, the effort is made when assigning ratings to look at "worst" possibilities in the "visible" future, rather than solely at the past record and the status of the present. Therefore, investors using the rating should not expect to find in them a reflection of statistical factors alone, since they are an appraisal of long-term risks, including the recognition of many non-statistical factors. – Moody's
Purpose of Ratings
The system of rating securities was originated by John Moody in 1909. The purpose of Moody's ratings is to provide investors with a simple system of gradation by which future relative creditworthiness of securities may be gauged.
Rating Symbols
Gradations of creditworthiness are indicated by rating symbols, with each symbol representing a group in which the credit characteristics are broadly the same. There are nine symbols as shown below, from that used to designate least credit risk to that denoting greatest credit risk:
Aaa Aa A Baa Ba B Caa Ca C
Moody's appends numerical modifiers 1, 2, and 3 to each generic rating classification from Aa through Caa.
Click here for Rationale for upgrading the Rating to Baa2
India's RatingMoody'supgrades
'More draconian': Mamata again writes to PM Modi on proposed changes in IAS cadre rules - Hindustan Times
Army contacts PLA for return of Arunachal teenager - The Hindu
Delhi logs 43 Covid deaths, highest since 10 June; positivity rate dips to 21.48% - Mint
UP assembly polls: Akhilesh Yadav set to contest from Karhal - Times of India
AAP CM face Bhagwant Mann to contest from Dhuri - The Indian Express


Dandelions, identified by their bright yellow blooms and fluffy seedheads, are a well-known plant in Calgary.
The remaining third of Calgarians aren't overly concerned about whether dandelions are controlled with herbicides or not.
Dandelions are not one of the 74 legislated weeds that the Province requires to be controlled.
Sports fields: We control the growth of all weeds, including dandelions. This is done for safety concerns, as uneven turf from weeds can create hazards for users.
Meridians, boulevards and other City green areas: We do not control growth of dandelions in areas beside roadways, ditches, utility right-of-ways.
City parks and natural areas: We practice some level of dandelion control in manicured parks, and spray parks on a rotation every five years to control weeds. Natural or naturalized areas do not have dandelion control methods applied.
The City does not use herbicides for cosmetic purposes.
Dandelions are hardy and grow even in poor soil conditions. The good news is that the healthier the grass is, the fewer dandelions can grow.
Removal of mowed grass, and replacing it with plants native to Calgary. Native plants naturally thrive in Calgary's climate and soil conditions, and are able to out-compete dandelions.
a green "alternative pesticide" that kills dandelion leaves.
provides added nutrients directly to turf.
a method of adding nutrients and microorganisms which helps grass outcompete weeds.
Herbicides are used occasionally, with other techniques such as aerating and fertilizing.
Find out if a herbicide is being applied in your community.
Calgary bylaws do not prohibit dandelions on private property. However, grass and other herbaceous plants must be kept shorter than 6 inches.
Pull broadleaf weeds out by their roots, especially before they go to seed.
Keep your grass at least 3 inches long so it shades its own roots from the sun, chokes out unwanted plants and holds moisture better.
Practice good turf management to keep your grass healthy.
Work with your neighbours to maintain healthy turf in your community. More tips for healthy yards.
More tips for healthy yards.


Sheriff William E. Yessman, Jr. began his law enforcement career in 1985, working in both the Schuyler County Jail and the Emergency Dispatch Center. After completing the basic police course at the Southern Tier Law Enforcement Academy, he was promoted to the Sheriff's Road Patrol. In 1991, Sheriff Yessman was promoted to Sergeant and five years later promoted to Lieutenant. He became Sheriff Mike Maloney's Undersheriff in 2001 and took on the additional responsibilities as Schuyler County STOP DWI Coordinator as well. He was elected Sheriff in 2006.
Sheriff William Yessman has attended numerous law enforcement and corrections schools and earned his Associate Degree in Criminal Justice. His commitment to education influenced his development as an instructor at the Southern Tier Law Enforcement Academy and various law enforcement conferences and seminars.
Sheriff Yessman also serves as Law Enforcement Coordinator at the Watkins Glen International Racetrack, which draws over two hundred thousand spectators annually.


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Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries of Jamaica
Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Hon. Audley Shaw (second right), presents Chief Executive Officer for the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA),[...]
The passport production and issuance operations of the Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) have been certified to the ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System (QMS) Standard by the National Certification Body of Jamaica (NCBJ). This follows the entity's completion of the nine-month preparatory process, which included a two-stage audit. Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Hon. Audley Shaw, who has portfolio responsibility for the NCBJ, formally presented PICA's certificate to Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Andrew Wynter, during a ceremony at the agency's head office on Constant Spring Road on Wednesday (December 9). Mr. Shaw, in commending PICA, noted that the ISO 9001 QMS is the most popular standard globally, adding that achieving this certification 'is testament to the collective dedication and vision that is needed to create a better Jamaica through wealth creation'. He said the Ministry is keen on improving the quality of the public service, recognising that Jamaica's business environment and global competitiveness are equally hinged on the quality of service delivered by the public and private sectors. 'That was why we revised the National Quality Policy of 2019, which was supported by the Strategic Public Sector Transformation Project. It provides the Government's policy framework to promote the production or delivery of high-quality goods and services in all aspects of national life,' Mr. Shaw outlined. He said that the policy proposes the implementation of the ISO 9001 QMS as a vehicle to transform most public and private institutions, organisations and businesses to facilitate the socio-economic transformation of the Jamaican society towards achieving global competitiveness. 'As the Minister… under whose portfolio Standards fall, I am elated to note that this Government is leading from the front regarding the adoption and implementation of the ISO 9001 Quality Management System, and I am encouraging the private sector to vigorously follow suit,' Mr. Shaw said. Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, under which PICA falls, Senator the Hon. Matthew Samuda also welcomed PICA's certification, describing the accomplishment as 'no small feat'. He noted that it is indicative of the level of commitment, work and energy by PICA's team. 'When an agency that is critical to national development, such as PICA, takes the steps to become certified in this manner, it tells [us]… that their work will be seamless, efficient and to the benefit of the country,' Senator Samuda pointed out. Mr. Wynter for his part, said PICA's certification 'marks the end of a journey… and the beginning of another'. 'This achievement of certification… is another demonstration of the agency's commitment to providing quality service to our customers, both locally and abroad,' he pointed out. Noting that the Standard provides the framework and context within which PICA will operate, Mr. Wynter said 'it also forces the agency to address issues and examine our operations and processes to ensure that we are always at our best'. PICA is among the first 18 of an initial 40 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) earmarked for ISO certification, through collaboration between the Ministries of Industry, Investment and Commerce, and Finance and the Public Service and facilitated under the World Bank-funded Strategic Public Sector Transformation Programme. PICA also joins a small group of agencies already achieving ISO 9001:2015 QMS certification. These include the EX-IM Bank and Companies Office of Jamaica (COJ). NCBJ Manager, Navenia Wellington Ford; World Bank Resident Representative, Ozan Sevimili; and ISO Standards Ambassador, Reginald Budhan, were among the other officials and guests attending the certification ceremony. Source: JIS
Smartlinks | Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries of Jamaica | Cabinet Office of the Government of Jamaica | News | International News | Social and Non-Profit | Policy and Regulation | Government | National Government | Executive Government | Government Departments | International Politics and Policy | Departments of Agriculture | Departments of Trade, Business and Economic Development


K-B test is a topic covered in the Taber's Medical Dictionary.
Venes, Donald, editor. "K-B Test." Taber's Medical Dictionary, 23rd ed., F.A. Davis Company, 2017. Taber's Online, www.tabers.com/tabersonline/view/Tabers-Dictionary/742312/all/K_B_test.
K-B test. In: Venes D, ed. Taber's Medical Dictionary. 23rd ed. F.A. Davis Company; 2017. https://www.tabers.com/tabersonline/view/Tabers-Dictionary/742312/all/K_B_test. Accessed April 24, 2019.
K-B Test [Internet]. In: Venes D, editors. Taber's Medical Dictionary. F.A. Davis Company; 2017. [cited 2019 April 24]. Available from: https://www.tabers.com/tabersonline/view/Tabers-Dictionary/742312/all/K_B_test.


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Nanotech Drug Delivery Research for Melanoma Treatment
Researchers from Oregon State University develop a new three-drug delivery system for cancer treatment.
Researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) have developed a new three-drug delivery system for cancer treatment, specifically metastatic melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. According to researchers, this system may have particular value for cancers that spread through the lymphatic system.
The findings were discovered during a study done on laboratory animals, and published in the Journal of Controlled Release by researchers from the College of Pharmacy at OSU. The work was supported by an OSU startup fund, and a provisional patent has been granted for this technology.
"Melanoma can be a very difficult cancer to treat because it often metastasizes and travels through the lymphatic system," said lead author Adam Alani, an assistant professor in the Oregon State University/Oregon Health & Science University College of Pharmacy. "Melanoma has a high mortality rate because the lymph nodes tend to act as a haven for cancer cells, and allow them to resist treatment through chemotherapy."
The new technology uses nanoparticles that increase the effectiveness of attacks on cancer cells in the body's lymph nodes. Use of the technology also purportedly reduces the development of drug resistance, and the broader toxicity often associated with this type of chemotherapy.
The new OSU research was able to combine three anti-cancer drugs at the same time into a nanoparticle delivery system. After injection, these nanoparticles primarily migrated to lymph nodes, acted in a synergistic manner that was more powerful than any one drug separately, and maximized their impact in those locations while minimizing the development of drug resistance and overall toxicity.
Laboratory mice treated with this approach all survived. The therapy caused no apparent negative effects, and at least one type of the nanoparticles migrated effectively to distant lymph nodes, where the drugs significantly reduced the number of melanoma cells.
This could become an important advance in the treatment of any type of cancer that tends to move through the lymphatic system, Alani noted, including melanoma, but also breast, head and neck, prostate, pancreatic, lung, and gastric cancers.
According to the OSU researchers, up to 80% of melanomas metastasize through the lymphatic system and the tumor cells even secrete growth factors to further streamline their progress. The major drawback of existing therapies, they said, is the inability to deliver therapeutic concentrations of drugs to the lymphatic system without creating systemic toxicity. Use of drugs one at a time also tends to breed resistance to them.
The research showed the nanoparticles used to carry these cancer drugs are stable, increase the drug circulation time, and can deliver multiple drugs in a single step to the desired target.
Souce: Oregon State University
Drug DeliveryIndustry NewsDevelopment


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Posted December 1, 2022 by Mike Mineo in Lo-Fi Hip-Hop
Mike Masch – 'Return to the Boulevard'
In addition to his work as Moment, Detroit-based musician and producer Mike Masch excels under his own name with the album Return to the Boulevard. The instrumental release explores lo-fi hip-hop, lounge, downtempo, and jazz-hop with lushly engrossing intent.
A colorful range of sounds and palates immerse throughout. The graceful beginnings of "Troublemakin'" drives into a murky, industrial bass-fronted appeal, shifting throughout between effervescent intrigue and nocturnal spirit. The contrasting tones make for an exciting listening experience throughout.
Elsewhere, "Blissful Memory" resonates with shimmering keys and a soaring vocal effect, evoking a new-age nostalgia in its spacious unveiling. In another spectrum, "Lesson" leads with a bluesy guitar effect that lingers with suavely entrancing effect. Return to the Boulevard maintains a chilled-out composure on tracks like these and throughout the album, all while touting inventive song structures and various stylistic pursuits that avoid a sense of over-predictability. Masch's productions and projects are definitely catching my ears.
Masch elaborates further:
"This release is a follow-up to the successful 2017 jazzhop album, 'Sanguine on Amplified Blvd'. The new album expands on the easy listening lounge style but expands into lofi hip-hop. This produces a slight modern edge over the prior album that Mike believes fans of these genres will really love. As mentioned from the prior album, sanguine means staying confident even in tough or difficult times. This kind of music inspires that level of emotion & feeling and Mike is ready to bring more of it to others. This is vital, as everyone can use something like this during these times or just throughout their days."
Stream Return to the Boulevard:
"Troublemakin'" and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound's 'Best of November 2022' Spotify playlist.
Lo-Fi Hip-Hop
Triple M – "What If You Fly"
Frowein Pedersen – 'Neighbours'
akilbeatsdenver – 'intrinsic'


The NSW Government recognises that our rivers and groundwater systems are potentially threatened by the over-extraction of water. Water sharing plans have been developed to establish rules for sharing water between the needs of the environment and all other water users. Use of a river or aquifer can be for town and rural water, industry or irrigation. The department assesses water sharing plans to determine whether the plans are successful in maintaining or improving the health of our rivers and aquifers.
It is important that we understand the reasons for any changes to our water. This knowledge can be used to improve the way we manage water resources. Monitoring assesses how our rivers are responding to environmental flows. Monitoring can also investigate how different patterns of water flow affect the way our rivers function. We are interested in the river's physical form, its fringing vegetation and what sort of fish and insects live there. Groundwater can also be important in supporting vegetation. All of this information is then used to gauge the health of our rivers and floodplain systems.
As our scientific understanding increases we will be able to more effectively allocate water to the environment and other water users. We can better evaluate the performance of water sharing plans. Scientific feedback informs efficient sharing of water.


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Alma Exley Scholarship Program
"…to encourage and support persons of color in Connecticut who are pursuing careers in public school teaching."
About Alma Exley
Previous Recipients
Our Partner: Community Foundation of Greater New Britain
The Alma Exley Scholarship Program was established in 1995 to increase diversity and promote excellence in the teaching profession. We are pursuing these goals by aiding and recognizing students of color who demonstrate outstanding potential and strong dedication to classroom teaching.
Only about seven percent of the teachers in Connecticut's public schools are persons of color. However, students of color comprise one-quarter of students statewide and more than 85 percent in major cities.
Three school districts employ over half of all minority teachers in Connecticut. Almost one-third of the state's 166 school districts do not employ even one minority professional staff member.
All students benefit when they are taught by persons of color. We need more teachers who:
Mirror the rich diversity of our student population;
Understand the cultural backgrounds and life experiences that students bring to the classroom;
Serve as positive role models for minority and non-minority students;
Provide a classroom environment and curriculum that respect and celebrate a diversity of cultures.
Alma Exley, a dedicated educator, was working at the Connecticut Department of Education to bring more people of color into the teaching profession. Since her death in 1995, the Alma Exley Scholarship Program has been carrying on her work.
Support the Scholarship Program
The program annually awards one scholarship of at least $5,000 to a student of color in an accredited teacher-preparation program in Connecticut. The deadline each year is October 31. Learn about the application process.
For more information, please contact the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain, which administers the program.
Woody Exley, who established the scholarship program in memory of his wife, writes an occasional letter.
Sibani Sengupta Named to Leadership Position
Belief in the individual motivates Commissioner Miguel Cardona
Recruiting Future Teachers From The Rank and File
More from the Founder's Blog...


From August 22 through September 13, BCB Art presents The M. Van Dyke Group Monoprints of the 1980s by Lucio Pozzi. This group of unique works was made in New York City in the 1980s. At BCB Art, 116 Warren Street.


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require "sockjs/transport"

module SockJS
  module Transports
    class EventSource < ConsumingTransport
      register 'GET', 'eventsource'

      def setup_response(request, response)
        response.status = 200

        response.set_content_type(:event_stream)
        response.set_session_id(request.session_id)
        response.set_no_cache
        response.write_head

        # Opera needs to hear two more initial new lines.
        response.write("\r\n")
        response
      end

      def format_frame(response, frame)
        raise TypeError.new("Payload must not be nil!") if frame.nil?

        ["data: ", frame.to_s, "\r\n\r\n"].join
      end
    end
  end
end


Martina is one of the Conservative councillors for Nonsuch.
Jane is one of the Conservative councillors for Belmont.
Lily is one of the Conservative councillors for Sutton West.
Holly is one of the Conservative councillors for Cheam.
Moira is one of the Conservative councillors for Carshalton South and Clockhouse.
Tony is the Conservative councillor for Sutton South.
Tim is one of the Conservative councillors for Carshalton South and Clockhouse.
Ryan is one of the Conservative councillors for Stonecot.
Jed is one of the Conservative councillors for Stonecot.
Peter is one of the Conservative councillors for Nonsuch.