Archive for the 'Holidays 1998' Category
Posted on December 14, 1998.
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by Pamela Rice Hahn
I believe a humor writer is someone who looks at the world a bit differently than most of those around him. It’s not that he wears rose-colored glasses; however, he does have a mental astigmatism that makes him look at the familiar in a different manner. He notices things, and often comments on them in such a way that whichever acquaintance happens to be walking beside him at that moment, oftentimes pretends he’s “never met that guy before in my life.” His friends sometimes fail to hear the subtle distinctions, but he knows there’s a talent to innuendo and out the other. Eventually, as with all socially-unacceptable diseases, the infection spreads. Drop an “aside” and maybe one person will hear it, but write it down and maybe the whole world will read it! The class clown grows up and buys a computer and the printed word is never the same again.
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Posted on December 12, 1998.
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Review Submitted by Luanne Oleas
Angela’s Ashes
Angela’s Ashes is available in:
HARDCOVER
AUDIO CD
Written (and read) By
Frank McCourt
‘Tis sure that only the Irish could take a childhood filled with lack, poverty, and drunkenness and make the world smile. Frank McCourt tells of his youth in the lanes of Limerick with a lyrical, lilting voice and a knack for detail that touches the heart.
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Posted on December 11, 1998.
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Passages from:
The Walking Drum by Louis L’amour
“It has seemed to me that each year one should pause to take stock of himself, to ask where am I going? What am I becoming? What do I wish to do and become?
“Most people whom I encounter were without purpose, people who had given themselves no goal. The first goal need not be the final one, for a sailing ship sails first by one wind, then another. The point is that it is always going somewhere, proceeding toward a final destination…
“Up to a point a man’s life is shaped by environment, heredity and movement and changes in the world about him; then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say this I am today, that I shall be tomorrow. The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds.”
From: The Walking Drum by Louis L’amour
Posted on December 10, 1998.
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A favorite passage from:
Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul:
101 Stories to Comfort Cancer Patients and Their Loved Ones
THE “WE” NURSE
by Norman Cousins
When I was in the hospital, I had a “We” nurse. She began each sentence with “How are we today?” “We need to have a bath.” This really irritated me, so I decided to play a little joke on her.
One day, she brought in a specimen cup and requested a urine sample. After she left, I poured my apple juice into the cup. When she returned for the specimen, she observed it and noted, “My we’re a little cloudy today, aren’t we?”
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Posted on December 9, 1998.
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NOTE: This book is now out of print, but there are used books available. (Chances are you’ll pay more for shipping than you will for the book. If you still use Paint Shop Pro as your computer art-creation program, the book is therefore now a bargain.)
Review Submitted by:Jodi Cornelius
Creating Your Own Web Graphics with Paint Shop Pro by Andrew Bryce Shafran and Dick Oliver is an excellent book for novice and expert Web designers alike. If you’ve ever wanted to create graphics, be they .jpg or .gif, and didn’t know where to start, this book is for you. If you want to learn how to create or make .gifs that are transparent, this book tells you how, step-by-step.
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Posted on December 8, 1998.
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Review submitted by Luanne Oleas
Here on Earth
By Alice Hoffman
For those over 40 who still wonder about that one person from long ago and why it never worked out, Here on Earth lets you know. March Cooper returns to the rural Massachusetts town she left as a girl without her first love, who left her staring out an icy window for three years before she moved to California and married Richard Cooper.
It’s the funeral of her nanny, Judith Dale, that brings March back, carrying more emotional baggage than the red-eye express in the form of her rebellious, spike-haired 15- year-old daughter, Gwen, and an unrequited love for Hollis. In the author’s own unique style of poetic prose lays bare the tale of what happens when a fantasy love becomes a reality.
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Posted on December 7, 1998.
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Review submitted by Dave Silberstein
As thrillers go, Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter has to be an “11″ on a scale of 1-10.
Here’s the plot. A retired sniper, living in the Arkansas moutains by himself, is framed as the shooter who takes a shot at the President. The FBI and the Secret Service are after him, and they have him IDed at the site of the shooting, they have his rifle, and they have his notes on shooting sites where the Prez will be.
The guys who framed him are also after him because he knows who they are, and he just plain doesn’t have a friend in the world.
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Posted on December 6, 1998.
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Murdering Mr. Monti
by Judith Viorst
Brenda, a thrice-weekly advice columnist, plots to off Mr. Monti because of his threat to her favorite son. (Mr. Monti doesn’t approve of Brenda’s son dating his daughter, so forget any chance of him marrying her.)
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Posted on December 5, 1998.
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Thirty years ago, in Dragonflight, Anne McCaffrey first introduced readers to the world of Pern and the flying dragons that protected it from the ravages of Thread. In the ensuing years she has written over a dozen books set in that same world–each one giving her readers more insight into the people and dragons that populate Pern. The world of Pern and the threat of the Red Star have become mainstays in the science-fiction genre.
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Posted on December 4, 1998.
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I must admit my reasons for buying and beginning to read War and Peace by Count Leo Tolstoy, were superficial at first. My thoughts were, “Well, I’ll be able to say I’ve read War and Peace.” Thereby making myself an instant intellectual, of course. As I began to read, however, a strange, deepening realization began to take hold within me. This was a book that was going to change my perspective on life.
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