I'll be speaking and signing books at St. Johns on October 3rd, drop by if you can
HERE'S MY LATEST BOOK OF SHOT STORIES. ITS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND AT BARNES AND NOBLE.
This is a book of short stories taken
from the things I saw and heard in my childhood in the factory town of Ansonia
in southwestern Connecticut. Most of these stories, or as true as I recall them
because I witnessed these events many years ago through the eyes of child and are
retold to you now with the pen and hindsight of an older man. The only
exception is the story Beat Time
which is based on the disappearance of Beat poet Lew Welch. Decades before I
knew who Welch was, I was told that he had made his from California to New
Haven, Connecticut, where was an alcoholic living in a mission. The notion
fascinated me and I filed it away but never forgot it.
The collected stories are loosely
modeled around Joyce’s novel, Dubliners (I
also borrowed from the novels character and place names. Ivy Day, my character in “Local Orphan is Hero” is also the name
of chapter in Dubliners, etc.) and like Joyce I wanted to write about my
people, the people I knew as a child, the working class in small town America
and I wanted to give a complete view of them as well. As a result the stories
are about the divorced, Gays, black people, the working poor, the middle class,
the lost and the found, the contented and the discontented.
Conversely
many of the stories in this book are about starting life over again as a result
of suicide (The Hanging Party, Small
Town Tragedy, Beat
Time) or from a near death experience
(Anna Bell Lee and the Charge of the
Light Brigade, A Brief Summer)
and
natural occurring death. (The
Best Laid Plans, The Winter Years, Balanced and Serene)
With
the exception of Jesus Loves Shaqunda, in each story there is a rebirth
from the death. (Shaqunda is
reported as having died of pneumonia in The Winter Years)
Sal,
the desperate and depressed divorcee in Things
Change, changes his life in Lunch
Hour when asks the waitress for a date and she accepts. (Which we learn in Closing Time, the last story in the
book) In The Arranged Time,
Thisby is given the option of change and whether she takes it or, we don’t
know. The death of Greta’s husband in A Matter of Time has led her to the
diner and into the waiting arms of the outgoing and loveable Gabe.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John William Tuohy is a writer who lives in Washington DC. He holds an MFA in writing from Lindenwood University. He is the author of numerous non-fiction on the history of organized crime including the ground break biography of bootlegger Roger Tuohy "When Capone's Mob Murdered Touhy" and "Guns and Glamour: A History of Organized Crime in Chicago."
His non-fiction crime short stories have appeared in The New Criminologist, American Mafia and other publications. John won the City of Chicago's Celtic Playfest for his work The Hannigan's of Beverly, and his short story fiction work, Karma Finds Franny Glass, appeared in AdmitTwo Magazine in October of 2008.
His play, Cyberdate.Com, was chosen for a public performance at the Actors Chapel in Manhattan in February of 2007 as part of the groups Reading Series for New York project. In June of 2008, the play won the Virginia Theater of The First Amendment Award for best new play.
Contact John:
MYWRITERSSITE.BLOGSPOT.COM
JWTUOHY95@GMAIL.COM
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir/dp/
In
1962, six year old John Tuohy, his two brothers and two sisters entered
Connecticut’s foster care system and were promptly split apart. Over the next
ten years, John would live in more than ten foster homes, group homes and state
schools, from his native Waterbury to Ansonia, New Haven, West Haven, Deep
River and Hartford. In the end, a decade later, the state returned him to the
same home and the same parents they had taken him from. As tragic as is funny
compelling story will make you cry and laugh as you journey with this child to
overcome the obstacles of the foster care system and find his dreams.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir/dp/0692361294/
http://amemoirofalifeinfostercare.blogspot.com/
Here's my book on the Chicago Bootlegger Roger Touhy, there is also a version available with photos
All successful men have agreed in one thing -- they were
causationists. They believed that things went not by luck but by law; that
there was not a weak or a cracked link in the chain that joins the first and
last of things.
300 quotes from Emerson
To view more Emerson quotes or read a life background on
Emerson please visit the books blog spot. We update the blog bi-monthly emersonsaidit.blogspot.com
Photo's I've taken: Ocean City, Maryland
"Look out! it's a wave!"
WHY THE WORLD NEEDS
EDITORS.....................
Never
trust anyone completely but God. Love people, but put your full trust only in
God. Lawrence Welk
GOOD WORDS TO HAVE………………..
Ad hoc: (ad HOK) For a particular purpose only (as opposed to
a wider application); impromptu. From Latin ad hoc (for this).
Greetings NYCPlaywrights
*** FREE THEATER IN NYC ***
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg by Peter Nichols
The Night Shift Theatre
Thursday, September 10 at 7PM
The Alchemical Theatre Laboratory
104 W 14th Street, NYC 10011
Studio A
Please join us for this FREE event as we explore this
challenging and exciting play. We invite you to stay afterwards for a Q&A
with the cast and director to share your thoughts and experiences as you
encounter this piece. Space is limited so be sure to arrive early! Attendance
is free, but donations to support The Night Shift and further exciting events
such as this are welcome.
Space is limited, so reserve your seat today by emailing your
name and number of tickets requested to: jonathan@thenightshifttheatre.org
More information:
http://heyevent.com/event/bqpon27ymw5wga/a-day-in-the-death-of-joe-egg-by-peter-nichols-free-reading
*** Write Your Solo Show at Primary Stages ESPA ***
In SOLO PERFORMANCE at Primary Stages Einhorn School of
Performing Arts, Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian, and solo performer Judy
Gold will help you create engaging characters and craft solo sketches. Like
Anna Deavere Smith, Mike Daisey, Nilaja Sun, John Leguizamo, Eric Bogosian,
Sarah Jones, Daniel Beaty, and other brave solo performers who have come before
you, you will be encouraged to theatricalize your personal stories by learning
the necessary structural and performative elements of the medium. You will
leave this 8-week class with a performance piece based on your own fascinating
life and a new perspective on the art of solo storytelling.
SOLO PERFORMANCE
Instructor: Judy Gold (Actor/Co-Writer, The Judy Show at DR2
Theatre)
Thursdays from 11:00am – 2:00pm
September 17, October 1, 8, 15, 29, November 5, 12, 19
More Info: http://primarystages.org/espa/acting/solo-performance
ESPA is a home for all artists, in all stages of their
careers. We provide students easy and convenient payment plans to break up
tuition. For more information, call 212.840.9705 x211 or email
espa@primarystages.org.
*** PLAYWRIGHTS OPPORTUNITIES ***
Lama Theater Company (NYC) and the Playwrights Project
(Israel) presents:
The Monthly Swap October 2015
We are NOW accepting submissions for The Monthly Swap!
It is very similar to Lama Theater Company’s Monthly Question (Our
cold reading series of new and bold writing around Lama’s monthly question) but
this time the question is with a TWIST...
Throughout the month of September we are going to ask the same
question in New York and in Tel Aviv, and receive submissions of short plays
/Monologues/Poems and songs until the beginning of October.
We will choose five/ six pieces that address the question
differently from each country.
THEN… we SWAP the artist’s work so that Israeli artists work
will be pres ented in New York and the American artists work will be presented
in Tel Aviv.
***
Manhattan Reading Competition
Best Play or Musical : $1,000
No submission fee to participate in this competition
Scripts accepted from all over the U.S.
In order to submit a play please send the following via email:
1. A 100 word synopsis of the play
2. The complete script + character breakdown
3. Your telephone number and home address, plus the phone
number of
one other person in your production that we can contact
4. Your bio.
5. All genres of shows are welcome to submit to our festivals.
6. All Plays and Musicals must never have had a reading in the
Tristate area.
***
Amy’s Horse is seeking short plays, up to 15 minutes in
length, to be produced as part of our podcast.
Amy’s Horse is a bi-weekly theatre podcast that produces two
short plays per episode. Actors in multiple locations connect to our Vermont
studio via the internet for the live recording of the show. The podcast
launched in June, and we've produced 8 plays over 4 episodes. These are
available on our website or through the iTunes Store.
The goal is to bring together emerging playwrights and
established actors to read new works, then chat about them. At the end of each
reading, the actors and author stick around to speak about the play and promote
their current projects. It’s a very light-hearted and relaxed environment.
*** FOR MORE INFORMATION on these and other opportunities see
the web site athttp://www.nycplaywrights.org ***
*** WORKERS THEATRE MOVEMENT ***
In the 1920s 'agitprop' theatre was developing as a vehicle
for political agitation and engagement with working class audiences. What was
being promoted was a focus on street theatre, on short sketches and satires,
politically challenging, inviting audience responses and seeking to stir up
enthusiasm for the cause.
More…
http://www.wcml.org.uk/our-collections/creativity-and-culture/drama-and-literature/workers-theatre-movement/
***
Political Theatre in the Early 20th Century
The Pioneer Players, Kingsway Theatre, London, 1911
The Pioneer Players, Kingsway Theatre, London, 1911. This
image is from the Pioneer Players' production The First Actress, a one-act play
about Margaret Hughes, one of the first professional English actresses. Auriol
Lee (on the left) played Madame Vestris, famous for her breeches parts. Ellen
Terry played Nell Gwyn in this production.
At the turn of the century an interest in theatre that
explored the moral and social issues of contemporary society had developed.
During Granville Barker's management of the Royal Court between 1903 and 1907
the work of Fabian George Bernard Shaw began to be popular. Granville Barker
also produced the work of feminist writers such as Cicely Hamilton who also
wrote for the suffrage cause with The Pioneer Players. In the regions socialist
writers Stanley Houghton and Harold Brighouse (known as the Manchester School)
wrote plays such as 'Hindle Wakes' with working class protagonists.
Socialist theatres
At a more grass roots level the Socialist movement and the
early Labour Party used cultural activities to further their cause. Cooperative
societies also ran drama groups. In 1912 the National Association of Clarion
Dramatic Clubs established the People's Theatre in Newcastle. Other theatre
groups aimed at promoting the socialist cause sprang up across the regions.
More…
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/p/political-theatre-in-the-early-20th-century/
***
Staged Action: Six Plays From the American Workers' Theatre
http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=books
***
The Federal Theatre Project (1935–39) was a New Deal program
to fund theatre and other live artistic performances and entertainment programs
in the United States during the Great Depression. It was one of five Federal
Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration. It
was created not as a cultural activity but as a relief measure to employ
artists, writers, directors and theater workers. It was shaped by national
director Hallie Flanagan into a federation of regional theatres that created
relevant art, encouraged experimentation in new forms and techniques, and made
it possible for millions of Americans to see live theatre for the first time.
The Federal Theatre Project ended when its funding was canceled after strong
Congressional objections to the left-wing political tone of a small percentage
of its productions.
More…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Theatre_Project
***
CRADLE WILL ROCK
The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 musical by Marc Blitzstein.
Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson
Welles, and produced by John Houseman. The musical is a Brechtian allegory of
corruption and corporate greed and includes a panoply of societal figures. Set
in "Steeltown, USA", it follows the efforts of Larry Foreman to
unionize the town's workers and combat wicked, greedy businessman Mr. Mister,
who controls the town's factory, press, church and social organization. The
piece is almost entirely sung-through, giving it many operatic qualities,
although Blitzstein included popular song styles of the time.
The WPA temporarily shut down the project a few days before it
was to open on Broadway, so to avoid government and union restrictions, the
show was performed with Blitzstein playing piano onstage and the cast members
singing their parts from the audience.[1]
More…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cradle_Will_Rock
***
The Cradle Will Rock - excerpt from 1964 revival performed by
Jerry Orbach
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaGnVyZa8iI
***
Cradle Will Rock is a 1999 drama film written, directed, and
produced by Tim Robbins. The film fictionalizes the true events that surrounded
the production of the 1937 musical The Cradle Will Rock by Marc Blitzstein; it
adapts history to create a fictionalized account of the original production,
bringing in other stories of the time to produce this commentary on the role of
art and power in the 1930s, particularly amidst the struggles of the 1930s
labor movement and the corresponding appeal of socialism and communism among
many intellectuals and working-class people of that time.
The film is not based on Orson Welles's script The Cradle Will
Rock, which was to be an autobiographical account of the play's production. It
went into pre-production in 1983 with Rupert Everett on board to play Welles
before the backers pulled out and the production collapsed.[2]
More…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cradle_Will_Rock
***
Cradle Will Rock
Ventriloquist Bill Murray sings the Internationale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rggCCyDB8V8
***
Cradle Will Rock
The entire movie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqPE0YYgwjI
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Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or
consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with
love, grace, and gratitude. Denis
Waitley
HERE'S PLEASANT POEM FOR YOU TO
ENJOY................
The Lives of the Heart
by Jane Hirshfield
Are ligneous, muscular, chemical.
Wear birch-colored feathers,
green tunnels of horse-tail reed.
Wear calcified spirals,
Fibonaccian spheres.
Are edible;are glassy;are
clay;blue schist.
Can be burned as tallow, as coal,
can be skinned for garnets, for
shoes.
Cast shadows or light;
shuffle;snort;cry out in passion.
Are salt, are bitter,
tear sweet grass with their
teeth.
Step silently into blue
needle-fall at dawn.
Thrash in the net until hit. .
Rise up as cities, as serpentined
magma, as maples,
hiss lava-red into the sea.
Leave the strange kiss of their
bodies
in Burgess Shale. Can be found,
can be lost,
can be carried, broken, sung.
Lie dormant until they are opened
by ice,
by drought. Go blind in the
service of lace.
Are starving, are sated,
indifferent, curious, mad.
Are stamped out in plastic, in
tin.
Are stubborn, are careful, are
slipshod,
are strung on the blue backs of
flies
on the black backs of cows.
Wander the vacant whale-roads,
the white thickets
heavy with slaughter.
Wander the fragrant carpets of
alpine flowers.,
Not one is not held in the arms
of the rest, to blossom.
Not one is not given to ecstasy's lions.
Not one does not grieve.
Each of them opens and closes,
closes and opens
the heavy gate --violent, serene,
consenting, suffering it all.
Jane Hirshfield (born 24 February
1953)
Jane Hirshfield was born on East
20th Street, New York City. She received her bachelor's degree from Princeton
University in the school's first graduating class to include women.
Hirshfield's seven books of
poetry have each received numerous awards. Her fifth book, Given Sugar, Given
Salt, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and her sixth
collection, After, was shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize (UK) and named a
'best book of 2006' by The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, and
the Financial Times. She has written a book of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the
Mind of Poetry. The Ink Dark Moon, her co-translation of the work of the two
foremost women poets of classical-era Japan, was instrumental in bringing tanka
(a 31-syllable Japanese poetic form) to the attention of American poets. She
has edited four books collecting the work of poets from the past and is noted
as being "part of a wave of important scholarship then seeking to recover
the forgotten history of women writers."
She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1985,
the Academy of American Poets’ 2004 Fellowship for Distinguished Achievement, a
National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 2005, and the Donald Hall-Jane
Kenyon Award in American Poetry in 2012.
Never a full-time academic,
Hirshfield has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, University of
San Francisco, The Bennington Writing Seminars, and as the Elliston Visiting
Poet at the University of Cincinnati. She has also taught at many writers
conferences, including Bread Loaf and The Napa Valley Writers Conference and
has served as both core and associate faculty in the Bennington Master of Fine
Arts Writing Seminars.
Hirshfield appears frequently in
literary festivals both in America and abroad, including the Geraldine R. Dodge
Poetry Festival, the National Book Festival, the Los Angeles Times Festival of
Books, Poetry International (London, UK), the China Poetry Festival (Xi'an,
China), and the Second International Gathering of the Poets [Kraków, Poland].
She is also a contributing editor at The Alaska Quarterly Review and
Ploughshares, a former guest editor of The Pushcart Prize Anthology and an
advisory editor at Orion and Tricycle.
In 2012, Hirshfield was elected a
Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
In 1979, Hirshfield received lay
ordination in Soto Zen at the San Francisco Zen Center.
I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS
Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news
is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you
can accomplish! And what your potential is! Anne Frank
THE ART OF PULP
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you
could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as
you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a
spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a
gift to that person, a beautiful thing. Mother Teresa
DON'T YOU LOVE POP ART?
“Niagara” by Eugenia Loli
7 Things Every Kid Needs to Hear
1. I love you
2. I’m proud of you
3. I’m sorry
4. I forgive you
5. I’m listening
6. This is your responsibility
7. You’ve got what it takes.
Senate follows House, White House in pushing for paid family
leave for feds
By Sam Ufret
September 15, 2015 7:25 pm
Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) introduced a bill on
Tuesday that would give federal employees six weeks of paid parental leave for
the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child.
The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act would give new
parents the option to switch any type of unpaid leave with six weeks of paid
leave, and also let feds take the six weeks as they choose, whether it be at
separate times or all in one shot.
Although the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) lets employees
take 12 weeks of unpaid leave for medical and family issues, it doesn’t provide
a paid parental leave.
“No working parent should be forced to choose between caring for
their family and keeping their job,” said Mikulski in a statement. “This
legislation will provide a critical lifeline to working moms and dads to
provide the care and support infants and children need. ”
The National Treasury Employees Union praised Schatz and Mikulski
for introducing the legislation. In a statement, NTEU President Tony Reardon
said it would ease the pressure on feds who struggle to be good parents and
good public servants.
“These proposals would align federal parental leave policies with
the private sector and bring the U.S. closer in line with other industrialized
nations,” Reardon said.
The American Federation of Government Employees also praised
FEPPLA’s introduction, saying it would serve as a model for U.S. employers to
see the economic and family benefit of paid parental leave.
“We cannot continue to hire the best and brightest to care for our
veterans, secure our borders and keep our communities safe without offering
benefits like these to attract those workers,” said AFGE National President J.
David Cox.
The Senate bill is the second introduced this year in a growing
push to get federal workers paid leave when they have a new addition to the
family. President Barack Obama signed a memo in January telling agencies to
advance up to six weeks of leave for new parents. He also urged Congress to
pass a bill to make this benefit permanent.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced the original bill H.R.
532 in January, which gives feds a total 12 weeks of combined paid leave. It
also amends the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 and the Family and
Medical Leave Act of 1993 to grant the same rights to covered congressional
employees, Government Accountability Office employees and employees at the
Library of Congress.
“While private companies are beginning to see the benefits of
providing paid family leave, America is still the only industrial nation in the
world without a program that gives working parents the time off and income they
need to care for a new child,” Schatz said. “Our legislation will
provide federal workers with six weeks of paid leave, making sure no federal
employee has to make the impossible choice between caring for a newborn child
and putting dinner on the table.”
Teaching a Different Shakespeare from the One I Love
By STEPHEN GREENBLATT
My first encounter with Shakespeare — ‘‘As You Like It,’’ in Miss
Gillespie’s eighth-grade English class — left me cold. I still remember the
words ‘‘I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry,’’ which I must have been
compelled to recite out loud, with a shudder. But not long afterward, I fell in
love with him, not through the charm of performance but through the
hallucinatory power of his language.
Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are, /
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, /
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, /
Your looped and windowed raggedness defend you /
From seasons such as these?
It seemed — it still seems — incredible to me that this power and
the moral intelligence that it conveyed could come into my possession. If I
desired it, it was mine as if by birthright, for the simple reason that English
was my native tongue. All that I needed to do was to immerse myself in it
passionately. And, equally incredible, as a teacher, I could spend my life
sharing this passion with my students.
It is easy enough at the moment to bewail the fate of the
humanities. Enrollments in traditional majors like English, history, philosophy
and art history are all down from their historic highs and, despite ample evidence
to the contrary, students drawn to these fields often fear that they are
risking their chances for gainful employment. Left to their own devices, many
students avoid serious engagement with the literature, art and thought of the
past; ‘‘the past’’ sometimes seeming to them anything earlier than late last
night. Anxious to shore up declining enrollments, professors foolishly
reinforce this avoidance by jettisoning the requirements that used to compel
students to venture into unfamiliar or difficult territory. On those occasions
when they do finally enter such territory, they often feel at a loss.
I had only to open the
book and read in order
to enter the kingdom.
Even the highly gifted students in my Shakespeare classes at
Harvard are less likely to be touched by the subtle magic of his words than I
was so many years ago or than my students were in the 1980s in Berkeley, Calif.
What has happened? It is not that my students now lack verbal facility. In
fact, they write with ease, particularly if the format is casual and resembles
the texting and blogging that they do so constantly. The problem is that their
engagement with language, their own or Shakespeare’s, often seems surprisingly
shallow or tepid. It is as if the sense of linguistic birthright that I
experienced with such wonder had faded and with it an interest in exploiting
its infinite resources.
There are many well-rehearsed reasons for the change: the rise of
television followed by the triumph of digital technology, the sending of
instant messages instead of letters, the ‘‘visual turn’’ in our culture, the
pervasive use of social media. In their wake, the whole notion of a linguistic
birthright could be called quaint, the artifact of particular circumstances
that have now vanished. And in my case at least, the charge is difficult to
gainsay. My intoxication with Shakespeare’s language was unquestionably
conditioned by my family history: All four of my grandparents were impoverished
immigrants from Lithuania (or Russia, as they called it). For my parents, born
in Boston, the English language was a treasured sign of arrival and rootedness;
for me, a mastery of Shakespeare, the supreme master of that language, was like
a purchased coat of arms, a title of gentility tracing me back to
Stratford-upon-Avon.
The imaginary pleasure of that line of descent survived even when
I discovered, in my years of studying and living in England, that the English
themselves could not or would not acknowledge the claim made by someone of my
name, background or religion. It did not matter: I had only to open the book
and read in order to enter the kingdom.
All of this has, like an insubstantial pageant faded, dissolved
and left not a trace behind. It is not that the English language has ceased to
be a precious possession; on the contrary, it is far more important now than it
ever was in my childhood. But its importance has little or nothing to do any
longer with the dream of rootedness. English is the premier international
language, the global medium of communication and exchange. In the cafes of
Cambridge, Mass., on the Tube in London and at scientific colloquia in São
Paulo, Berlin or Kyoto, speakers from worlds apart drop their native tongues
and make their way, as best they can, in whatever English they can muster.
Shakespeare has not lost his place in this new world, just as,
despite the grim jeremiads of the cultural pessimists, he has not lost his
place in colleges and universities. On the contrary, his works (and even his
image) turn up everywhere, and students continue to flock to courses that teach
him, even when those courses are not required.
But as I have discovered in my teaching, it is a different
Shakespeare from the one with whom I first fell in love. Many of my students
may have less verbal acuity than in years past, but they often possess highly
developed visual, musical and performative skills. They intuitively grasp, in a
way I came to understand only slowly, the pervasiveness of songs in
Shakespeare’s plays, the strange ways that his scenes flow one into another or
the cunning alternation of close-ups and long views. When I ask them to write a
10-page paper analyzing a particular web of metaphors, exploring a complex
theme or amassing evidence to support an argument, the results are often
wooden; when I ask them to analyze a film clip, perform a scene or make a
video, I stand a better chance of receiving something extraordinary. A student
with a beautiful voice performed Brahms’s Ophelia songs, with a piano
accompaniment by another gifted musician. Students with a knack for creative
writing have composed monologues in the voice of the villainous Iago, short
stories depicting an awkward reunion of Shylock and his daughter, Jessica, or
even additional scenes in Shakespearean verse.
Students continue to flock
to courses that teach him,
even when those courses
are not required. But as I
have discovered in my
teaching, it is a different
Shakespeare from the one
with whom I first fell in love.
This does not mean that I should abandon the paper assignment; it
is an important form of training for a range of very different challenges that
lie in their future. But I see that their deep imaginative engagement with
Shakespeare, their intoxication, lies elsewhere. And I should add that no one,
as far as I can tell, any longer dreams of establishing symbolic descent from
Stratford-upon-Avon to substitute for or displace actual descent from Vilnius
or Seoul or Johannesburg. Contrary to my expectations, my students at Harvard
are far more diverse, in geographical origin, culture and class, than my
students ever were at U.C. Berkeley. They embrace this diversity and
confidently expect to make their way through a global environment linked by
complex digital networks.
Shakespeare has already mastered this environment, as he once
mastered the comparatively tiny world of the Elizabethan theater. AtInternet
Shakespeare Editions, a website that originated at the University of Victoria
in British Columbia, readers can access old-spelling editions of all the plays
and poems, along with a vast, ongoing ‘‘Performance Chronicle’’ and other
resources. The M.I.T. Global Shakespeare Project features an electronic archive
that includes images of every page of the First Folio of 1623. In the Norton
Shakespeare, which I edit, the texts of his plays are now available not only in
the massive printed book with which I was initiated but also on a digital
platform. One click and you can hear each song as it might have sounded on the
Elizabethan stage; another click and you listen to key scenes read by a troupe
of professional actors. It is a kind of magic unimagined even a few years ago
or rather imaginable only as the book of a wizard like Prospero in ‘‘The
Tempest.’’
But it is not the new technology alone that attracts students to
Shakespeare; it is still more his presence throughout the world as the common
currency of humanity. In Taiwan, Tokyo and Nanjing, in a verdant corner of the
Villa Borghese gardens in Rome and in an ancient garden in Kabul, in Berlin and
Bangkok and Bangalore, his plays continue to find new and unexpected ways to
enchant.
The old desire that was awakened in me has renewed itself, for
different reasons but with equal or greater force. In Tehran last November, I
spoke for hours with ardent, well-informed and eloquent students eager to
grapple with ‘‘Richard III’’ and ‘‘Macbeth.’’ In Abu Dhabi I watched a highly
inventive — deliberately fragmented and deconstructed — student adaptation of
‘‘Hamlet,’’ and I learned of comparably imaginative performances in Oman and
Mysore, Karachi and Sana. If Shakespeare himself would not have understood the
languages or even fully recognized what had happened to his stories, he would,
I think, have nonetheless embraced with delight the whole astonishing diffusion
of his influence. After all, he called his theater the Globe.
Stephen Greenblatt is the author of ‘‘The Swerve: How the World
Became Modern,’’ which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the
eternal rule. Buddha
The fundamental philosophical principle of Buddhism is that
all our suffering comes about as a result of an undisciplined mind, and this
untamed mind itself comes about because of ignorance and negative emotions. For
the Buddhist practitioner then, regardless of whether he or she follows the
approach of the Fundamental Vehicle, Mahayana or Vajrayana, negative emotions
are always the true enemy, a factor that has to be overcome and eliminated. And
it is only by applying methods for training the mind that these negative
emotions can be dispelled and eliminated. This is why in Buddhist writings and
teachings we find such an extensive explanation of the mind and its different
processes and functions. Since these negative emotions are states of mind, the
method or technique for overcoming them must be developed from within. There is
no alternative. They cannot be removed by some external technique, like a
surgical operation. The 14th Dalai Lama,
Dzogchen: The Heart Essence of the Great Perfection, 2004
For most of us, happiness is a habit
By Brigid Schulte
HAPPINESS isn't just about feeling good, it's about the joy we
feel while striving after our potential.
Researcher Shawn Achor, the author of The Happiness Advantage,
has found that choosing simple happiness habits that take no longer than
brushing your teeth can boost your mood, make you happier and, as a result,
healthier, more productive and creative at work and closer to those you love at
home.
1. Three acts of gratitude
Spend two minutes a day scanning the world for three new
things you're grateful for. And do that for 21 days. The reason why that's
powerful is you're training your brain to scan the world in a new pattern:
you're scanning for positives, instead of scanning for threats. It's the
fastest way of teaching optimism.
2. The doubler
For two minutes a day, think of one positive experience that's
occurred during the past 24 hours. Bullet point each detail you can remember.
It works, because the brain can't tell the difference between visualisation and
actual experience. So you've just doubled the most meaningful experience in
your brain. Do it for 21 days, your brain starts connecting the dots for you,
then you have this trajectory of meaning running throughout life.
3. The fun 15
Fifteen minutes of cardiovascular exercise a day. It's the
equivalent of taking an anti-depressant for the first six months, but with a
30% lower relapse rate over the next two years.
4. Breathe
We did this at Google. We had them take their hands off their
keyboards two minutes a day. And go from multitasking, to simply watching their
breath go in and out. This raises accuracy rates. Improves levels of happiness.
Drops their stress levels. And it takes two minutes.
5. Conscious acts of kindness
The final habit is the most powerful that we've seen so far.
For two minutes each day, start work by writing a two-minute positive email or
text praising or thanking one person you know. And do it for a different person
each day. People who do this not only get great emails and texts back and are
perceived as positive leaders because of the praise and recognition, but their
social connection score is at the top end of the scale. Social connection is
the greatest predictor of long-term happiness - the study I did at Harvard is
0.7 correlation, which doesn't sound very sexy, but is stronger than the
connection between smoking and cancer.
Q: Can these little, two-minute habits really make a
difference?
Achor: So many people are struggling to create happiness while
their brain is inundated by noise. If your brain is receiving too much
information, it automatically thinks you're under threat and scans the world
for the negative first. Because the brain is limited, whatever you attend to
first becomes your reality. What we're finding is that it's not the macro
things that matter, but it's the micro choices for happiness that actually
sustain happiness the best.
HERE'S SOME NICE ART FOR YOU TO LOOK AT....ENJOY!
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has lent one of its great treasures—Johannes Vermeer’s "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" (c. 1663)—to the National Gallery of Art in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the landmark Johannes Vermeer exhibition, which opened here in November 1995. But that is not the only Vermeer that will be delighting new audiences this fall and winter. One of three paintings in the Gallery's collection by Vermeer, "A Lady Writing" (c. 1665), will be on view in “Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer,” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from October 11 to January 18.
Amy Morin
There are a lot of advantages to
being a happy person. Studies consistently show happy people enjoy benefits
ranging from better relationships and improved health to enhanced creativity
and better problem-solving skills.
It seems as though people are
trying harder than ever to be happy these days. Yet, the pursuit of happiness
doesn’t always have a happy ending. If you’re making any of these mistakes,
your efforts to increase your happiness could backfire:
1. Comparing Yourself to Other
People
It can be tempting to compare
your life to the lives of those around you – and one of the most common ways
people draw social comparisons on social media. But, social media comparisons
aren’t a good yardstick for measuring happiness. Comparing your life to someone
else’s highlight reel will undermine your well-being.
Scrolling through Facebook FB
+0.00% to view other people’s vacation photos, doctored selfies, and
proclamations of success can cause you to think your life doesn’t measure up.
Studies even show that envying your friends on Facebook can actually lead to
depression. So rather than turn your quest for happiness into a competition,
stay focused on your own journey to a better life.
2. Placing Too Much Emphasis on
Being Happy
A 2011 study concluded, “Valuing
happiness may lead people to be less happy just when happiness is within
reach.” If you expect that you ‘should’ be happy, you may grow discouraged when
your emotions don’t match your expectations. Self-defeating thoughts like,
“I’ve got a good marriage, great kids, and a nice job – I should be happier,”
will cause you to feel worse.
Avoid judging yourself for not
being happy enough. Focus on enjoying the moment. When you stop creating
emotional expectations, you’ll experience more contentment.
3. Putting a Timeline on When
You’ll be Happy
It’s likely everyone has thought
a specific event or change in circumstances would ignite their happiness. While
one person may say, “I’ll be happy when I lose weight,” another might assume,
“I’ll be happy when I’m retired.” But waiting for – and planning on – external
events to make you happy will only lead to disappointment.
Research shows that everyone has
some sort of happiness baseline. So while a new chapter in your life may
provide an initial boost to your happiness, the positive effect will eventually
wear off. So don’t wait until you get married, have a better job, move to a new
city, or have kids to be happy – seize the moment and enjoy today.
4. Confusing Success with
Happiness
Success and happiness can raise
some ‘chicken or the egg’ type questions. Are happy people successful? Or are
successful people happy?
Research shows that happy people
are more likely to become successful. But being successful doesn’t necessarily
make you happy. Unfortunately, people often confuse the order and inadvertently
make themselves miserable.
The pursuit of success leads
people to accept longer commutes, work more hours, and refrain from social
activity. But earning more money or gaining a promotion won’t automatically
make you happier. In fact, the steps you may need to take to pursue high levels
of achievements are exactly the types of things that can zap your happiness the
fastest.
Balance your pursuit of success
and your pursuit of happiness in a way that aligns with your values.
5. Thinking You’re Alone
Social support is one of the keys
to happiness. But being surrounded by people – even kind and loving friends and
family – won’t guarantee happiness. In fact, researchshows your perception of
your relationships is what matters most.
People who think things like, “No
one likes me,” are more susceptible to negative moods. Those who feel supported
– even when it may not be true – are more likely to feel happy. So worry less
about filling your social calendar with superficial social engagements, and
focus more on forming deeper connections with those that matter.
Choose Happiness
The good news is, everyone has
the ability to make choices that foster happiness. Create a meaningful life,
filled with positive social relationship, and you’ll be on your way to a
happier life. Practice gratitude for the good things you have, and proactively
build resilience to help you deal with hardship, and you’ll enjoy more life
satisfaction.
Amy Morin is a psychotherapist,
keynote speaker, and the author of 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, a
bestselling book that is being translated into more than 20 languages.
MEXICO CONTEMPLATES HIGHER SODA,
SNACK TAX
The move could raise revenue by 130% next
year.
September 16, 2015
MEXICO CITY, Mexico – The Mexican
Congress is considering a hefty increase in its soda and junk food taxes to
help offset a decrease in tax revenue, the Mexican Daily News reports. The hike
in the Special Tax on Products and Services (IEPS), which targets high-calorie
drink and food products as well as tobacco and alcohol, would generate an
estimated 363 billion pesos next year, up from 159 billion in 2015.
Leobardo Brisuela Arce, president
of the Mexican Institute of Public Accountants (IMCP), said such a tax increase
would push tax revenues up by 130%. “This is a very important figure because we
are predicting a 250-billion-peso decrease in income tax revenue while IVA [the
value-added tax] is predicted to grow by just 30 billion pesos next year,” he
said.
Not everyone is happy about the
proposed hike. Manuel Herrera, president of the Confederation of Industrial
Chambers, said the increase would unfairly impact the poor, who are more likely
to buy snacks and soft drinks.
Mexico began tacking on an 8% tax
on sugary drinks and junk in 2013, but many believe the move has not decreased
consumption of those foods and beverages. Meanwhile, earlier this summer,
Mexico added a 16% tax to all pre-packaged and ready-made food at convenience
stores.
People taking pictures of people: I'm an amateur photographer, I
travel a lot so some years ago and I noticed that everywhere I went there was
someone taking a photo of someone else. It's part of the human condition and I
think it’s fun so I started snapping pictures of people taking pictures.
THE ART OF WAR...............................
Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.”
THE BOOK OF FUNNY, ODD AND INTERESTING THINGS THAT PEOPLE SAY
Compiled by John William Tuohy
Qualifications
I'm a lean, mean, marketing machine.
I have a current passport
I am a great team player I am.
I have lurnt Word Perfect 6.0, computor and spreadsheat
progroms.
I flurrish in an environment where there is no inner-office
tension and people respect one another.
I never take anything for granite.
I am creative, dependable, and housebroken.
I am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details.
I am an onest and ambitious person, understanding the words as
deadline, professional skills, communication with people, seriousity.
I have eight arms and eight legs with excellent interpersonal
skills.
I have unsuccessfully raised a dog.
I can adapt to just about any environment from cubicles to
fancy IKEA desks.
I'm a rabid typist.
I procrastinate, especially when the task is unpleasant.
I am loyal to my employer at all costs. Please feel free to
respond to my resume on my office voice mail.
I am a quick leaner, dependable and motivated.
I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely no one
and absolutely nothing.
Excellant at people oriented positi9ons and organizational
problem solving.
Minor allergies to house cats and Mongolian sheep.
Very experienced with out-house computers.
Spent several years in the United States Navel Reserve.
1881-1995: Spent my time teaching and going to school for
computer science.
At the age of twelve, I began hustling newspapers like many
other great Americans had done. The only difference was that they became great.
Instrumental in ruining entire operation for a Midwest chain
operation.
Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial institutions.
It's best for employers that I not work with people.
Failed bar exam with relatively high grades.
Marital status: single. Unmarried. Unengaged. Uninvolved. No
Commitments.
As indicted, I have over five years of analyzing investments.
BLOGLAPEDIA’S BLOGS
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture
for the blog of it
http://architecturefortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
THE ARTS
Art
for the Blog of It
http://artfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Art
for the Pop of it
http://artforthepopofit.blogspot.com/
Photography
for the blog of it
http://photographyfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Music
for the Blog of it
http://musicfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Sculpture
this and Sculpture that
http://sculpturethisandsculpturethat.blogspot.com/
The
art of War (Propaganda art through the ages)
http://theartofwarcleverhuh.blogspot.com/
Album
Art (Photographic arts)
http://albumartsocheesyitsgood.blogspot.com/
Pulp
Fiction Trash (The art of Pulp Fiction covers)
http://pulpfictiontrash.blogspot.com/
Admit
it, you want to Read this Book (The art of Pulp Fiction covers)
http://goaheadadmitityouwanttoread.blogspot.com/
FILM
The
Godfather Trilogy BlogSpot
http://thegodfathertrilogyblogspot.blogspot.com/
On
the Waterfront: The Making of a great American Film
http://onthewaterfrontthefilm.blogspot.com/
FOOD
Absolutely
blogalicious
http://absolutelyblogalicious.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book support site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
Good
chowda (New England foods)
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/
Old
New England Recipes (Book support site)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com/
And I
Love Clams (New England foods)
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/
In
Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener (New England foods)
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/
Wicked
Cool New England Recipes (New England foods)
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Old
New England Recipes (New England foods)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
FOSTER CARE
Foster Care new and Updates
Aging out of the system
Murder, Death and Abuse in the
Foster Care system
Angel and Saints in the Foster
Care System
The Foster Children’s Blogs
Foster Care Legislation
The Foster Children’s Bill of
Right
Foster Kids own Story
The Adventures of Foster Kid.
HEALTH
Me
vs. Diabetes (Diabetes education site)
http://mevsdiabetes-bloglapedia.blogspot.com/
HISTORY
The
Quotable Helen Keller
http://thequotablehelenkeller.blogspot.com/
Teddy
Roosevelt's Letters to his children (Book support site)
http://teddyrooseveltsletterstohischildren.blogspot.com/
The
Quotable Machiavelli (Book support site)
http://thequotablemachiavelli.blogspot.com/
HUMOR
Whatever
you do, don't laugh
http://whateveryoudodontlaugh.blogspot.com/
The
Quotable Grouch Marx
http://thequotablegrouchmarx.blogspot.com/
IRISH-AMERICANA
A Big
Blog of Irish Literature
http://abigblogofirishliterature.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Blog of Irish Jokes (Book support blog)
http://theweeblogofirishjokes.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Blog of Irish Recipes
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
The
Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com
The
Irish in their Own Words
http://theirishintheirownwords.blogspot.com/
When
Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book support site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
LITERATURE
Following
Fitzgerald
http://followingfitzgerald.blogspot.com/
Shakespeare
http://shakespeareinamericanenglish.blogspot.com/
The
Blogable Robert Frost
http://theblogablerobertfrost.blogspot.com/
Charles
Dickens
http://charlesdickensfan.blogspot.com/
The
Beat Poets of the Forever Generation
http://thebeatspoetsoftheforevergenera.blogspot.com/
Holden
Caulfield Blog Spot
http://holdencaulfieldblogspot.blogspot.com/
The
Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://thequotableoscarwilde.blogspot.com/
NEW ENGLAND BLOGS
The
Quotable Thoreau
http://thequotablethenrydavidthoreau.blogspot.com/
Old
New England Recipes
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Wicked
Cool New England Recipes
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Emerson
http://emersonsaidit.blogspot.com/
The
New England Mafia
http://thenewenglandmafia.blogspot.com/
And I
Love Clams
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/
In
Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/
Watch
Hill
http://watchhillwesterly.blogspot.com/
York
Beach
http://yorkbeachfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
The
Connecticut History Blog
http://connecticuthistory.blogspot.com/
The
Connecticut Irish
http://theconnecticutirish.blogspot.com/
Good
chowda
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/
NOSTALGIA
God,
How I hated the 70s
http://godhowihatedthe70s.blogspot.com/
Child
of the Sixties Forever
http://childofthesixtiesforeverandever.blogspot.com/
The
Kennedy’s in the 60’s
http://thekennedysinthe60s.blogspot.com/
Music
of the Sixties Forever
http://musicofthesixtiesforever.blogspot.com/
Elvis
and Nixon at the White House (Book support site)
http://elvisandnixonatthewhitehouse.blogspot.com/
Beatles
Fan Forever
http://beatlesfanforever.blogspot.com/
Year
One, 1955
http://yearone1955.blogspot.com/
Robert
Kennedy in His Own Words
The
1980s were fun
http://the1980swereokayactually.blogspot.com/
The
1990s. The last decade.
http://1990sthelastdecade.blogspot.com/
ORGANIZED CRIME
The
Russian Mafia
http://russianmafiagangster.blogspot.com/
The
American Jewish Gangster
http://theamericanjewishgangster.blogspot.com/
The
Mob in Hollywood
http://themobinhollywood.blogspot.com/
We
Only Kill Each Other
http://weonlykilleachother.blogspot.com/
Early
Gangsters of New York City
http://earlygangstersofnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/
Al
Capone: Biography of a self-made Man
http://alcaponethebiographyofaselfmademan.blogspot.com/
The
Life and World of Al Capone
http://thelifeandworldofalcapone.blogspot.com/
The
Salerno Report
http://salernoreportmafiaandurderjohnkennedy.blogspot.com/
Guns
and Glamour
http://gunsandglamourthechicagomobahistory.blogspot.com/
The
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
http://thesaintvalentinesdaymassacre.blogspot.com/
Mob
Testimony
http://mobtestimony.blogspot.com/
Recipes
we would Die For
http://recipeswewoulddiefor.blogspot.com/
The
Prohibition in Pictures
http://theprohibitioninpictures.blogspot.com/
The
Mob in Pictures
http://themobinpictures.blogspot.com/
The
Mob in Vegas
http://themobinvegasinpictures.blogspot.com/
The
Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com
Roger
Touhy Gangster
http://rogertouhygangsters.blogspot.com/
Chicago’s
Mob Bosses
http://chicagosmobbossesfromaccardoto.blogspot.com/
Chicago
Gang Land: It Happened Here
http://chicagoganglandithappenedhere.blogspot.com/
Whacked:
One Hundred years of Murder in Gangland
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/
The
Mob Across America
http://themobacrossamerica.blogspot.com/
Mob
Cops, Lawyers and Front Men
http://mobcopslawyersandinformantsand.blogspot.com/
Shooting
the Mob: Dutch Schultz
http://shootingthemobdutchschultz.blogspot.com/
Bugsy&
His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://bugsyandvirginiahill.blogspot.com/
After
Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate on Organized Crime
http://aftervalachi.blogspot.com/
Mob
Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee (Book
support site)
http://virgilpetersonmobbuster.blogspot.com/
The
US Government’s Timeline of Organized Crime (Book support site)
http://timelineoforganizedcrime.blogspot.com/
The
Kefauver Organized Crime Hearings (Book support site)
http://thekefauverorganizedcrimehearings.blogspot.com/
Joe
Valachi's testimony on the Mafia (Book support site)
http://joevalachistestimonyonthemafia.blogspot.com/
Mobsters
in the News
http://mobstersinthenews.blogspot.com/
Shooting
the Mob: Dead Mobsters (Book support site)
http://deadmobsters.blogspot.com/
The
Stolen Years Full Text (Roger Touhy)
http://thestolenyearsfulltext.blogspot.com/
Mobsters
in Black and White
http://mobstersinblackandwhite.blogspot.com/
Mafia
Gangsters, Wiseguys and Goodfellas
http://mafiagangsterswiseguysandgoodfellas.blogspot.com/
Whacked:
One Hundred Years of Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Mob (Book support site)
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/
Gangland
Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal (Book support site)
http://ganglandgaslightrosyrosenthal.blogspot.com/
The
Best of the Mob Files Series (Book support site)
http://thebestofthemobfilesseries.blogspot.com/
PHILOSOPHY
It’s
All Greek Mythology to me
http://itsallgreekmythologytome.blogspot.com/
PSYCHOLOGY
Psychologically
Relevant
http://psychologicallyrelevant.blogspot.com/
SNOBBERY
The
Rarifieid Tribe
http://therarifiedtribe.blogspot.com/
Perfect
Behavior
http://perfectbehavior.blogspot.com/
TRAVEL
The
Upscale Traveler
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/
TRIVIA
The
Mish Mosh Blog
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/
WASHINGTON DC
DC
Behind the Monuments
http://dcbehindthemonuments.blogspot.com/
Washington
Oddities
http://washingtonoddities.blogspot.com/
When
Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/
FROM LLR BOOKS. COM
Litchfield Literary Books. A really small company
run by writers.
AMERICAN HISTORY
The Day
Nixon Met Elvis
Paperback 46 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Nixon-Met-elvis/
Theodore
Roosevelt: Letters to his Children. 1903-1918
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Roosevelt-Letters-Children-1903-1918/dp/
THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND CIVILIZATIONS
The Works
of Horace
Paperback 174 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Works-Horace-Richard-Willoughby/
The
Quotable Greeks
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Greeks-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotable Epictetus
Paperback 142 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Epictetus-Golden-Sayings
Quo
Vadis: A narrative of the time of Nero
Paperback 420 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quo-Vadis-Narrative-Time-Nero
CHILDRENS
BOOKS
The
Porchless Pumpkin: A Halloween Story for Children
A Halloween play for young children. By consent of the author,
this play may be performed, at no charge, by educational institutions,
neighborhood organizations and other not-for-profit-organizations.
A fun story with a moral
“I believe that Denny O'Day is an American treasure and this
little book proves it. Jack is a pumpkin who happens to be very small, by
pumpkins standards and as a result he goes unbought in the pumpkin patch on
Halloween eve, but at the last moment he is given his chance to prove that just
because you're small doesn't mean you can't be brave. Here is the point that I
found so wonderful, the book stresses that while size doesn't matter when it
comes to courage...ITS OKAY TO BE SCARED....as well. I think children need to
hear that, that's its okay to be unsure because life is a ongoing lesson isn't
it?”
Paperback: 42 pages
http://www.amazon.com/OLANTERN-PORCHLESS-PUMPKIN-Halloween-Children
BOOKS
ON FOSTER CARE
It's Not
All Right to be a Foster Kid....no matter what they tell you: Tweet the books
contents
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Foster-Kid-no-matter-what
From the Author
I spent my childhood, from age seven through seventeen, in
foster care. Over the course of those
ten years, many decent, well-meaning, and concerned people told me, "It's
okay to be foster kid."
In saying that, those very good people meant to encourage me,
and I appreciated their kindness then, and all these many decades later, I
still appreciate their good intentions. But as I was tossed around the foster
care system, it began to dawn on me that they were wrong. It was not all right to be a foster kid.
During my time in the system, I was bounced every eighteen
months from three foster homes to an orphanage to a boy's school and to a group
home before I left on my own accord at age seventeen.
In the course of my stay in foster care, I was severely beaten
in two homes by my "care givers" and separated from my four siblings
who were also in care, sometimes only blocks away from where I was living.
I left the system rather than to wait to age out, although the
effects of leaving the system without any family, means, or safety net of any
kind, were the same as if I had aged out. I lived in poverty for the first part
of my life, dropped out of high school, and had continuous problems with the
law.
Today, almost nothing
about foster care has changed. Exactly
what happened to me is happening to some other child, somewhere in America,
right now. The system, corrupt, bloated,
and inefficient, goes on, unchanging and secretive.
Something has gone wrong in a system that was originally a
compassionate social policy built to improve lives but is now a definitive
cause in ruining lives. Due to gross
negligence, mismanagement, apathy, and greed, mostly what the foster care
system builds are dangerous consequences. Truly, foster care has become our
epic national disgrace and a nightmare for those of us who have lived through
it.
Yet there is a suspicion among some Americans that foster care
costs too much, undermines the work ethic, and is at odds with a satisfying
life. Others see foster care as a part
of the welfare system, as legal plunder of the public treasuries.
None of that is true;
in fact, all that sort of thinking does is to blame the victims. There is not a single child in the system who
wants to be there or asked to be there.
Foster kids are in foster care because they had nowhere else to go. It's that simple. And believe me, if those kids could get out
of the system and be reunited with their parents and lead normal, healthy
lives, they would. And if foster care is a sort of legal plunder of the public
treasuries, it's not the kids in the system who are doing the plundering.
We need to end this
needless suffering. We need to end it
because it is morally and ethically wrong and because the generations to come
will not judge us on the might of our armed forces or our technological
advancements or on our fabulous wealth.
Rather, they will judge
us, I am certain, on our compassion for those who are friendless, on our
decency to those who have nothing and on our efforts, successful or not, to
make our nation and our world a better place.
And if we cannot accomplish those things in the short time allotted to
us, then let them say of us "at least they tried."
You can change the tragedy of foster care and here's how to do
it. We have created this book so that
almost all of it can be tweeted out by you to the world. You have the power to improve the lives of
those in our society who are least able to defend themselves. All you need is the will to do it.
If the American people,
as good, decent and generous as they are, knew what was going on in foster care,
in their name and with their money, they would stop it. But, generally speaking, although the public
has a vague notion that foster care is a mess, they don't have the complete
picture. They are not aware of the human, economic and social cost that the
mismanagement of the foster care system puts on our nation.
By tweeting the facts laid out in this work, you can help to
change all of that. You can make a
difference. You can change things for
the better.
We can always change the future for a foster kid; to make it
better ...you have the power to do that. Speak up (or tweet out) because it's
your country. Don't depend on the
"The other guy" to speak up for these kids, because you are the other
guy.
We cannot build a future for foster children, but we can build
foster children for the future and the time to start that change is today.
No time
to say Goodbye: Memoirs of a life in foster
Paperbook 440 Books
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir
BOOKS ABOUT FILM
On the
Waterfront: The Making of a Great American Film
Paperback: 416 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Waterfront-Making-Great-American-Film/
BOOKS ABOUT GHOSTS AND THE SUPERNATUAL
Scotish
Ghost Stories
Paperback 186 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Ghost-Stories-Elliott-ODonell
HUMOR BOOKS
The Book
of funny odd and interesting things people say
Paperback: 278 pages
http://www.amazon.com/book-funny-interesting-things-people
The Wee
Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook
Perfect
Behavior: A guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in all Social Crises
http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Behavior-Ladies-Gentlemen-Social
BOOKS ABOUT THE 1960s
You Don’t
Need a Weatherman. Underground 1969
Paperback 122 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Weatherman-Notes-Weatherman-Underground-1969
Baby
Boomers Guide to the Beatles Songs of the Sixties
Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-Guide-Beatles-Songs-Sixties/
Baby
Boomers Guide to Songs of the 1960s
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Boomers-Guide-Songs-1960s
IRISH- AMERICANA
The
Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly
The Wee Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook/
The Wee
Book of Irish Recipes
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-Recipes/
The Wee Book of the American-Irish Gangsters
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-American-Gangsters/
The Wee book of Irish Blessings...
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Blessing-Proverbs-Toasts-ebook/
The Wee
Book of the American Irish in Their Own Words
http://www.amazon.com/Book-American-Irish-Their-Words/
Everything
you need to know about St. Patrick
Paperback 26 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Need-About-Saint-Patrick
A Reading
Book in Ancient Irish History
Paperback 147pages
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Book-Ancient-Irish-History
The Book
of Things Irish
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Things-Irish-William-Tuohy/
Poets and
Dreamer; Stories translated from the Irish
Paperback 158 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Poets-Dreamers-Stories-Translated-Irish/
The
History of the Great Irish Famine: Abridged and Illustrated
Paperback 356 pages
http://www.amazon.com/History-Great-Irish-Famine-Illustrated/
BOOKS ABOUT NEW ENGLAND
The New
England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook/
Wicked
Good New England Recipes
http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Good-New-England-Recipes/
The
Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly
The
Twenty-Fifth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers
Paperback 64 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Fifth-Regiment-Connecticut-Volunteers-Rebellion
The Life
of James Mars
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-James-Mars-Slave-Connecticut
Stories
of Colonial Connecticut
Paperback 116 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Colonial-Connnecticut-Caroline-Clifford
What they
Say in Old New England
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/What-they-say-New-England/
BOOK ABOUT ORGANIZED CRIME
Chicago
Organized Crime
Chicago-Mob-Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/Chicagos-Mob-Bosses-Accardo-ebook
The Mob
Files: It Happened Here: Places of Note in Chicago gangland 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-1900-2000-ebook
An
Illustrated Chronological History of the Chicago Mob. Time Line 1837-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Chronological-History-Chicago-1837-2000/
Mob
Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Buster-Peterson-Committee-ebook/
The Mob
Files. Guns and Glamour: The Chicago Mob. A History. 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Guns-Glamour-ebook/
Shooting
the Mob: Organized crime in photos. Crime Boss Tony Accardo
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-photos-Accardo/
Shooting
the Mob: Organized Crime in Photos: The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Valentines-Massacre
The Life
and World of Al Capone in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Life-World-Al-Capone
AL
CAPONE: The Biography of a Self-Made Man.: Revised from the 0riginal 1930
edition.Over 200 new photographs
Paperback: 340 pages
http://www.amazon.com/CAPONE-Biography-Self-Made-Over-photographs
Whacked.
One Hundred Years Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Outfit
Paperback: 172 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Whacked-Hundred-Murder-Mayhem-Chicago/
Las
Vegas Organized Crime
The Mob
in Vegas
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Vegas-ebook
Bugsy
& His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://www.amazon.com/Bugsy-His-Flamingo-Testimony-Virginia/
Testimony
by Mobsters Lewis McWillie, Joseph Campisi and Irwin Weiner (The Mob Files
Series)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-ebook
Rattling
the Cup on Chicago Crime.
Paperback 264 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Rattling-Cup-Chicago-Crime-Abridged
The Life
and Times of Terrible Tommy O’Connor.
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Terrible-Tommy-OConnor
The Mob,
Sam Giancana and the overthrow of the Black Policy Racket in Chicago
Paperback 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Giancana-ovethrow-Policy-Rackets-Chicago
When
Capone’s Mob Murdered Roger Touhy. In Photos
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Capones-Murdered-Roger-Touhy-photos
Organized
Crime in Hollywood
The Mob in Hollywood
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Hollywood-ebook/
The Bioff
Scandal
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Bioff-Scandal-Shakedown-Hollywood-Studios
Organized
Crime in New York
Joe Pistone’s war on the mafia
http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Petrosinos-War-Mafia-Files/
Mob
Testimony: Joe Pistone, Michael Scars DiLeonardo, Angelo Lonardo and others
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Testimony-DiLeonardo-testimony-Undercover/
The New
York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mafia-Origins
The New
York Mob: The Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mob-Bosses/
Organized
Crime 25 Years after Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate
http://www.amazon.com/Organized-Crime-Valachi-Hearings-ebook
Shooting
the mob: Dutch Schultz
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Photographs-Schultz
Gangland
Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal. (Illustrated)
http://www.amazon.com/Gangland-Gaslight-Killing-Rosenthal-Illustrated/
Early
Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City
Paperback 382 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Street-Gangs-Gangsters-York
THE RUSSIAN MOBS
The
Russian Mafia in America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Russian-Mafia-America-ebook/
The
Threat of Russian Organzied Crime
Paperback 192 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Threat-Russian-Organized-Crime-photographs-ebook
Organized
Crime/General
Best of
Mob Stories
http://www.amazon.com/Files-Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-Crime/
Best of
Mob Stories Part 2
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-ebook/
Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters-ebook
Mob
Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobsters in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-For-Meals-Mobsters-Photos
More Mob
Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobs
http://www.amazon.com/More-Recipes-Meals-Mobsters-Photos
The New
England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook
Shooting
the mob. Organized crime in photos. Dead Mobsters, Gangsters and Hoods.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-mob-Organized-photos-Mobsters-Gangsters/
The Salerno
Report: The Mafia and the Murder of President John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Salerno-Report-President-ebook/
The
Mob Files: Mob Wars. "We only kill each other"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Wars-other/
The Mob
across America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Files-Across-America-ebook/
The US
Government’s Time Line of Organzied Crime 1920-1987
http://www.amazon.com/GOVERNMENTS-ORGANIZED-1920-1987-Illustrated-ebook/
Early
Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City: 1800-1919. Illustrated
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-1800-1919-Illustrated-Street-ebook/
The Mob
Files: Mob Cops, Lawyers and Informants and Fronts
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Informants-ebook/
Gangster
Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/
The Book
of American-Jewish Gangsters: A Pictorial History.
Paperback: 436 pages
http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-American-Jewish-Gangsters-Pictorial/
The Mob
and the Kennedy Assassination
Paperback 414 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-Mobsters
BOOKS ABOUT THE OLD WEST
The Last
Outlaw: The story of Cole Younger, by Himself
Paperback 152 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Outlaw-Story-Younger-Himself
BOOKS ON PHOTOGRAPHY
Chicago:
A photographic essay.
Paperback: 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Photographic-Essay-William-Thomas
STAGE PLAYS
Boomers
on a train: A ten minute play
Paperback 22 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-train-ten-minute-Play-ebook
Four
Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy
Four More
Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy/
High and
Goodbye: Everybody gets the Timothy Leary they deserve. A full length play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/High-Goodbye-Everybody-Timothy-deserve
Cyberdate.
An Everyday Love Story about Everyday People
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Cyberdate-Everyday-Story-People-ebook/
The
Dutchman's Soliloquy: A one Act Play based on the factual last words of
Gangster Dutch Schultz.
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Dutchmans-Soliloquy-factual-Gangster-Schultz/
Fishbowling
on The Last Words of Dutch Schultz: Or William S. Burroughs intersects with
Dutch Schultz
Print Length: 57 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Fishbowling-Last-Words-Dutch-Schultz-ebook/
American
Shakespeare: August Wilson in his own words. A One Act Play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/American-Shakespeare-August-Wilson-ebook
She
Stoops to Conquer
http://www.amazon.com/She-Stoops-Conquer-Oliver-Goldsmith/
The Seven
Deadly Sins of Gilligan’s Island: A ten minute play
Print Length: 14 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Deadly-Gilligans-Island-minute-ebook/
BOOKS ABOUT VIRGINIA
OUT OF
CONTROL: An Informal History of the Fairfax County Police
http://www.amazon.com/Control-Informal-History-Fairfax-Police/
McLean
Virginia. A short informal history
http://www.amazon.com/McLean-Virginia-Short-Informal-History/
THE QUOTABLE SERIES
The
Quotable Emerson: Life lessons from the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Over 300
quotes
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Emerson-lessons-quotes
The
Quotable John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-John-F-Kennedy/
The
Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Oscar-Wilde-lessons/
The
Quotable Machiavelli
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-Thayer/
The
Quotable Confucius: Life Lesson from the Chinese Master
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Confucius-Lesson-Chinese/
The
Quotable Henry David Thoreau
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Henry-Thoreau-Quotables-ebook
The
Quotable Robert F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Robert-F-Kennedy-Illustrated/
The
Quotable Writer: Writers on the Writers Life
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Writer-Quotables-ebook
The words
of Walt Whitman: An American Poet
Paperback: 162 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Words-Walt-Whitman-American-Poet
Gangster
Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/
The
Quotable Popes
Paperback 66 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Popes-Maria-Conasenti
The
Quotable Kahlil Gibran with Artwork from Kahlil Gibran
Paperback 52 pages
Kahlil Gibran, an artist, poet, and writer was born on January
6, 1883 n the north of modern-day Lebanon and in what was then part of Ottoman
Empire. He had no formal schooling in Lebanon. In 1895, the family immigrated
to the United States when Kahlil was a young man and settled in South Boston.
Gibran enrolled in an art school and was soon a member of the avant-garde
community and became especially close to Boston artist, photographer, and
publisher Fred Holland Day who encouraged and supported Gibran’s creative
projects. An accomplished artist in drawing and watercolor, Kahlil attended art
school in Paris from 1908 to 1910, pursuing a symbolist and romantic style. He
held his first art exhibition of his drawings in 1904 in Boston, at Day's
studio. It was at this exhibition, that Gibran met Mary Elizabeth Haskell, who
ten years his senior. The two formed an important friendship and love affair
that lasted the rest of Gibran’s short life. Haskell influenced every aspect of
Gibran’s personal life and career. She became his editor when he began to write
and ushered his first book into publication in 1918, The Madman, a slim volume
of aphorisms and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry
and prose. Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931, at the age of 48
from cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis.
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Kahlil-Gibran-artwork/
The
Quotable Dorothy Parker
Paperback 86 pages
The
Quotable Machiavelli
Paperback 36 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-L-Thayer
The
Quotable Greeks
Paperback 230 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Greeks-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotabe Oscar Wilde
Paperback 24 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Oscar-Wilde-lessons-words/
The
Quotable Helen Keller
Paperback 66 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Helen-Keller-Richard-Willoughby
The Art
of War: Sun Tzu
Paperback 60 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Confucius-Lesson-Chinese-Quotables-ebook
The
Quotable Shakespeare
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Shakespeare-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotable Gorucho Marx
Paperback 46 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Groucho-Marx-Devon-Alexander
