Good news! There are reports of a light at the end of the recession tunnel. It’s great that there might be a light. Of course, it would be greater if we weren’t in a tunnel.

Unemployment is still high. Combined with under-employment figures, the estimates come in around 16%. Until there’s some massive hiring, it’s the austerity plan — or no plan – for an awful lot of people.

For those of us who are not yet seeing the light, much less feeling the glow, here’s a special list of 23 things you can still enjoy for $5 or less: [Read more →]

Tags: advice, money by Ruby Mac
No Comments »

As I swim my laps a couple of times, a week, I think about copy and paste. On the computer, if you type out a text once, you can copy it and paste it into all the places in your document where you need it. You don’t have to type it over each time. The teachers’ old punishment of writing “I will not chew gum in school” one hundred times loses its edge through copy and paste. But laps don’t work like that. [Read more →]

Tags: stone age memes, technology by Eva Thury
No Comments »

Yahoo! News/AP- George Sodini seethed with anger and frustration toward women. He couldn’t understand why they ignored him, despite his best efforts to look nice. He hadn’t had a girlfriend since 1984, hadn’t slept with a woman in 19 years…For months, he also wrote vaguely about using guns to carry out his “exit plan” at his health club, where lots of young women worked out…On Tuesday, Sodini put his plan into action…He went to the sprawling L.A. Fitness Club in this Pittsburgh suburb, turned out the lights on a dance-aerobics class filled with women, and opened fire with three guns, letting loose with a fusillade of at least 36 bullets…He killed three women and wounded nine others before committing suicide.

George Sodini was not unemployed, sick, or even picked on. He was lonely. So what better way to get back at all the girls not banging down his door to get close to him, than to open fire on them? This is scary really, because these types of massacres were generally reserved for business offices and schools. Now you have to worry about going to the gym. [Read more →]

Tags: ends & odd by Robert O'Hara
No Comments »

This week I’ve put my scheduled column aside and have decided to write about the crash on the Taconic State Parkway. I’ll give a very brief synopsis as I’m sure most of you know by now. A woman went the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in New York while driving a mini-van full of young kids (two kids of her own and three nieces) and crashed into another car carrying three people. Everyone died except the woman’s son, who was hospitalized. Turns out she had a belly full of alcohol and was stoned. They’re calling it Westchester’s worst accident in 75 years. [Read more →]

Tags: family & parenting, going parental by Jaclyn Roth
3 Comments »

In Ellery Queen’s Book of Mystery Stories, first published under the title The Literature of Crime, the crime stories presented in the collection are written by writers generally not recognized as crime, mystery or thriller writers.

Edited by Ellery Queen, the pseudonym of the writing team of Frederic Dannay and James Yaffe, as well as the name of thier fictional detective character, the book offers crime stories by Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson and a dozen other writers.

[Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, on thrillers and crime by Paul Davis
No Comments »

So, let’s get this out of the way right now: I haven’t written this in a while. I broke my wrist two weeks ago and words can’t express how sorry you feel. It’s ok, don’t worry about it. Luckily for you, only the dumbest things in the world have been happening in the last two weeks. Who even cares about this stuff? 

[Read more →]

Tags: Kelly Conaboy saves the world, trusted media & news by Kelly Conaboy
2 Comments »

The school year is approaching, and teachers around the nation are trying not to think too much about tweaking our courses for the next go-round.  Most of us have been blowing it off for months and we really have to give it some thought here in early August.  Part of my current focus is inspired by an article printed in the Washington Post this past February.  Jay Matthews wrote on the age old educators’ debate of breadth vs depth:

The debate goes like this: Should they focus on a few topics so students have time to absorb and comprehend the inner workings of the subject? Or should they cover every topic so students get a sense of the whole and can later pursue those parts that interest them most?

The truth, of course, is that students need both. Teachers try to mix the two in ways that make sense to them and their students. But a surprising study — certain to be a hot topic in teacher lounges and education schools — is providing new data that suggest educators should spend much more time on a few issues and let some topics slide. [Read more →]

Tags: education by Jason Sterlace
No Comments »

It was bizarre to read that the boxer Arturo Gatti was murdered by his wife during a vacation in Brazil. Somehow it makes even less sense to learn his death has now been ruled a suicide. The life of a boxer is far too often a hard one, but Gatti seemed to have a good run. He was, as the cliche goes, a warrior, capable of both dishing out and withstanding severe punishment. It enabled him to rack up a 40-9 record, including participating in four bouts Ring Magazine dubbed “Fight of Year” (he went 2-2), ensuring box office clout far beyond that of most fighters of his caliber (while he gutted out victories most of his career, he was dominated by greats Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather). [Read more →]

Tags: sports by Sean Cunningham
No Comments »

July 21, 2009
I dream I offend an evil genius who vows to get me. He contacts me via a computer device and I see that there is a large snake within striking distance. I evade the snake, but then the evil genius texts me and informs me that a fish is after me. The computer shows me the fish in hot pursuit. I figure I have to get somewhere where there are no bodies of water. I escape to the office building of 1812 Productions and I hope that Jen will let me “hole up” there. The building is not near any bodies of water and furthermore there are several entrances, so if the fish pursues me from one direction I will escape from another.

[Read more →]

Tags: Fred's dreams by Fred Siegel
No Comments »

One of the problems with reading historical fiction is that you usually know how the story ends. You can write a book about the Titanic, but everyone knows that the boat sinks. The same is true, to some extent, about Scottsboro by Ellen Feldman: most people know at least a little about the Scottsboro Boys, nine young black men, falsely charged with raping two white women and sentenced to die in the electric chair. So, how does an author turn this into a fresh, interesting story? [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, Lisa Reads by Lisa Hura
No Comments »

 When Adam Sandler and writer/director Judd Apatow were roommates and struggling comics, Sandler would entertain himself by making prank phone calls. Apatow found them so amusing that he videotaped them.  Funny People begins with this real footage, and then we see present day comic star George Simmons (Sandler) sadly watching his younger self.  Like the opening, Funny People is hilarious in parts and surprisingly moving.   Funny People‘s only flaw is that with a running time of two hours and twenty six minutes, it needs another edit.  However, Apatow gets excellent performances from the talented pals who often populate his films, and despite its length, this entertaining film is worth the ticket price and the time. [Read more →]

Tags: Gail sees a movie, movies by Gail D. Rosen
1 Comment »

Gazpacho is a refreshing “liquid salad” originating in Southern Spain, made by blending seasonal raw vegetables into a cold soup. It is best made with the highest quality vegetables you can find since you really taste each individual flavor. I top my gazpacho with chunks of shallow-poached wild Gulf shrimp and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro. [Read more →]

Tags: easy weeknight dinners, recipes & food by Jessica Alfreds
No Comments »

I have been reading George Santayana’s The Life of Reason. I downloaded all five volumes into my Kindle a few months ago and started reading it while ensconced in a cabin in Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains region.  I’m not sure if I quite grasp Santayana’s line of argument, not because it is unclear, but because his prose is so intoxicating. It is all so perfectly phrased, one hardly bothers wondering if any of it is true, especially since, from time to time, he punctuates his discourse with aphorisms that seem so right that one simply presumes that everything leading up to them must have been eminently sound. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
No Comments »

Have you ever had one of those moments where you see a headline and it completely makes your head spin? You almost think that you must have looked like you were in a cartoon at that moment, eyes bugging out six inches from your head while still remaining attached. I had one of those moments this weekend when I read the following headline: “Newport News to hold celebration for Michael Vick.” [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports, sports by Alan Spoll
No Comments »

10. He asks you what the word ‘itinerary’ means.

9. He recommends insurance naming him as the beneficiary.

8. He gets you a special deal on a Somali cruise.

7. He is skeptical that so-called “air travel” is even scientifically possible.

6. He wonders how you feel about traveling in the cargo hold.

5. For the second leg of your journey, from London to Amsterdam, he’s just penciled in “Any way you can get there.”

4. He brags that the very first flight he ever booked was for Buddy Holly.

3. The “meals included” at the Brussels hotel are just the mints on your pillow.

2. He asks if he can pack your luggage for you, but only if you promise to keep it a secret.

1. He hopes you won’t mind dropping him and his family off at the airport.
 

Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, travel & foreign lands by Bob Sullivan
No Comments »

From the beginning, I misjudged Junk as a niche book. Based on the cover and what little I’d been told, I assumed incorrectly that Junk dealt primarily with Big Brother food regulation (the ban of trans-fats in NY, the regulation of fast-food products, and the censorship of junk food advertisement). [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing by Tyler Samien
No Comments »

While the execution of terrorist Canada geese continues in New York City, a planned execution of the birds was recently approved by the City Council in Rochester, Indiana, according to a story in the Rochester Sentinel. Allegedly, Canada geese are a threat to golfers, and the course itself, at the Round Barn Golf Club at Mill Creek. So, with the blessing of city officials in hand, club pro Lyle Lingenfelter plans to have police officers shoot the terrorist geese. What Lingenfelter and the cops don’t know is that a quartet of golfing animal rights activists is planning to thwart the execution. [Read more →]

Tags: creative writing by David A. Brensilver
No Comments »