• Vitamin D is produced by the human body when sunlight is absorbed by the skin. No....this doesn't mean you should not still wear sunscreen! So go outside, soak up some rays! Wear sunglasses and slather on the sunscreen, though. :-)
• Four [4] Cups of Vitamin D fortified Milk will give  a body the four hundred[400] Units of Vitamin D the AAP now recommends.
• That level goes for those aged 51-70 also. And for those of a certain age [over 71] six hundred units [600] are the recommended daily allowance.
• Vitamin D is also available in drop form[infants], capsule and tablets.
• You can get Vitamin D in fortified cereals, and oily fish [tuna, mackerel, and salmon] too!
• Not only will Vitamin D make strong bones and teeth but preliminary studies are showing that it can reduce your risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease as well!
• Vitamin D deficiency causes a bone disorder called "Rickets".  This condition was prevalent in the 1800s when malnutrition was a factor. 

Just a bit of information for everyone on a Monday. Happy Columbus Day. Federal Holiday. So no snail mail.  Few open banks.  Check your destinations before you set out because some will be closed in celebration of the day and many retail stores will be open and holding Columbus Day sales.

today's quote:

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you did not do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the trade-winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."         ~Mark Twain.

C'est fini.

'Classic.' A book which people praise and don't read.

Another quote which I actually don't remember :P

but to say I was startled by those quotes and laughed. I wanted to achieve that kind of intelligent witty saying(why?? beacuse it is intelligent :P )

Then I further started to read about Mark Twain and some other quotes from him and became a fan of him. I have never read any books written by him except the abridged versions of Tom sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

This post will explore the sarcasm and quotations by Mark Twain, Which I consider the start of sarcasm. May god bless me.......

 I love dialoging about this, Mark Twain's quote inspired more thoughts in me.  What I mean is, the message contained within his words offers us a mindset that takes us out of the "box" of what we think success looks like.  Or, what ministry looks like.  Or, what following God's plan looks like.  This common, ordinary man settled for a beautiful and simple ordinary life, instead of hearing God's whisper to a plan of a larger scale.   I also acknowledge the point made, which is this: distractions in our life, focusing on our fears rather than using our faith, can hinder us from fulfilling the equally beautiful larger plan (and often small ordinary acts of kindness are the steps that lead us there) God had intended for us.  

There are times, I believe, when He calls us to do something large, really requiring a huge step of faith because it's so out of our ordinary jurisdiction of living.  Beyond ourselves.  Right now I am thinking of Hellen Keller.  She could have succumbed to her fears, never stepped outside of her box, and the world would have suffered an unknown loss, of not knowing her life, and the power of faith which poured out the contents of her living abroad.  She would have still pleased the Lord by doing less than what she did, but I sense it was His will to display Himself in a glorious plan through her life, and had she not lived outside of her self, we would have missed the rich teaching and instructions she demonstrated for the world to see and learn.  Sometimes He wants to use us ordinary people to do an extraordinary thing, all we have to do is be obedient to His voice and follow His lead.  In my own personal ordinary life, I shall always recall the time when The Lord called me to do an extraordinary thing in another country, to help bring a family together.  Way beyond myself, beyond my "connections" or abilities, but God was faithful.  He did it all and He therefore receives all the glory for it!

     That's why I refer to myself as: 

"An Ordinary Woman Who Serves an Extraordinary God."

Carrie George

Today I'd like to pick three things that pleases me in some way.

Books:

Mark Twain said that good friends, good books and sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. I think he's right. Good books are the ultimate source of pleasure, information, stimulation and imagination. I always feel good after reading something that touches my soul, my inner self. I would have shared my shelf picture... but er... I like privacy and to to be honest it is so stacked with books that it seems like crashing :)

I would nonetheless share the photos of two books that are unforgettable to me due to one reason or the other. The first one is called The making of Asoka. That book will always be important for me since I won it in a draw. Believe me I had never won a single draw before that. If any of you used to read children magazine Taleem-o-Tarbiat you would know that it had a quiz section and those who used to give correct answers would get gift books published by Ferozsons. The problem was that many would give correct answers and then draw would come into play. My best buddy from school, lucky girl, won thrice in a draw. While I would be like, heck! what's wrong with me. As a consolation I would only see my name published in the print.

So when I woke up one fine morning in 2002, I got a mail. I was asked to send my mailing address. I had even forgotten that I had ever participated in that online quiz. I was skeptical but I was proved wrong when within a month I got that big parcel right from UK. Won't forget it. Winning is pleasurable and then winning a book that was about my favorite movie and actors. That feeling is still alive in my memory!

Book number 2 is Still Reading Khan. To understand my passion for books and for SRK it is enough to say that I own this book. Well this is the most expensive book I ever bought. I don't think I'll ever spend that much on any book :P I bought it for 5,000 Rs :? I am not kidding but I think it was worth buying.

Windows Live Messenger/Yahoo Messenger:

Well, I am addicted to both. It connects me with my loved ones. And yes, my messenger buddy list is not something like 50 0r 100 people. It is very limited :)

Cell Phone:

Lastly, cell phone! I like my current cell phone. I am not much into playing music on phone. But I like it for video and still camera and internet connectivity. Whenever I am taking rest I end up fiddling with it. Sending texts, setting alarm (snooze is wicked), writing quick short notes, ringing up my siblings at odd times, checking the time or just to see my way in it's light when the power is out :P

After messenger it is the second best thing.

That is it on my part. Although my list could have been long but I would limit it to three things like my fellow bloggers. I wish I had cute pets to talk about. But I have none! Gosh! I am so boring! :P

I now tag:

Asma

Aadil

Sarah (Though I doubt she'd write on it because she is busy)...

"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read." -  Mark Twain

I am starting my own person mini-challenge to read at least 7 classics next year.

I adore reading and would read 24/7 if I could. (okay, maybe 22/7 to be realistic :) ) As much as I love reading, I must admit that I haven't read alot of the "classics." The novels that survive the test of time. The books that remain bestsellers for generation after generation. The literary favorites.

So in an attempt to correct what I consider an inferiority in the literary world,  I am ensuring (with the help of my beloved bookclub) that I fit more classics into my reading agenda. At my standard reading rate, to read 7 classics in one year... that's about 1 classic for every 4 or 5 other books. I think that's realistic...only 20% of my reading. I am going to introduce myself to the admired and recognized authors of the past; hello Steinbeck, pleased to meet you Dostoevsky, what's up Orwell, let's do lunch Ms. Austen.

The books I have in mind to tackle:

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
• Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Pride & Prejudice (yep...shocker; I've never read it!) by Jane Austen
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - (I've only read Huckleberry Finn.)

I hope to enjoy them all and move on to more. Let's hope I don't get ultra-distracted with the thousands of other books on my list.

We just received a heads-up from one of our favorite authors, Jon Clinch, that he will appear on CBS Sunday Morning this coming Sunday about the difficulties faced by historic homes--specifically the Mark Twain House in his case--in these tough economic times. The interview, performed by Erin Moriarty along with Tom Perrotta, Robert Hicks and Stewart O'Nan, was filmed in the living room of the Mark Twain House. Be sure to tune in!

The American Public Media radio program also interviewed Jon about the Twain House intervention and the house's roots in Jon's life and work. The show airs on various stations at various times on Monday the 13th (station listing here), and will be available as a podcast/mp3 both at their web site and through iTunes.

I once read a magazine article about the stock market. I can't remember which magazine published it, but Rolling Stone is my first guess. The article was about a coming market related to either bulls or bears, whichever is worse, and it parsed the market itself as a sort of nebulous popularity contest. It vaguely connected being a popular stock like Apple or Google or Microsoft (though this was in the days before Google, I believe) to being the popular kid in school, and made the analogy that such popularity was a sort of currency, which was why people traded and bartered it. Why people believed that something so ethereal as a small stake in a zero and a one could be worth actual cash money.

I remember enjoying the article immensely even if I didn't really understand it. Like I've never understood economics, and like I certainly don't understand what's going on right now. I guess maybe I really am Joe Sixpack even though my drink of choice is a Smirnoff mixer or a nice glass of wine. But when I open up Yahoo! and its finance page tells me every damned time that the Dow has dropped another twenty points since the last time it piddled itself, and I know that's bad. I know, vaguely, what it means that it dropped in points, but in real world terms?

Not a damned clue.

What I do think I vaguely understand is that right now everyone seems to want to sell! sell! sell! because they've suddenly realized that their stock certificates aren't actually worth the paper on which their printed, but they can't sell! sell! sell! because nobody wants to buy right now. Not when banks are quite literally shuttering their doors every day. And because everyone wants to rid themselves of their stocks, everyone else is panicking to get rid of theirs. It's like dominoes, or something.

Or, well, that's my rudimentary understanding of it, anyway. It's probably rather wrong. I wouldn't quote me on it.

But what I do understand is consumerism. Stores are worrying because customers aren't buying much. Wal-Mart started their Christmas season a month ago, slashing prices drastically, in the hope of luring some easy cash from consumers' pockets. But consumers aren't buying like they used to. No one's buying plasma televisions or high end sound systems or thousand count bedsheets. Car dealerships aren't giving out loans, which means people aren't buying new Hummer H2s . . .

And we think this is a bad thing?

In Dressed to Kill, Eddie Izzard pointed out that America was the new Roman Empire, and while I don't really know about that either way, as Mark Twain once noted, history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure does echo. Certainly we have lived in excess of our needs. Parents drive their children to soccer games in vehicles literally designed for surface combat in land wars, and we pay more for a 'venti' cup of coffee than for an entire gallon of gasoline, and people are surprised that the economy is in the toilet?

Shouldn't we somewhat more surprised this didn't happen years ago?

I know I've done it, and I think what's surprised me most about the past few weeks is not that it's happening but that it took so damned long to catch up to me. I got easy credit cards during my twenties, and I maxed them right out. I went to Berlin and ate out and did all the damned fool things you might expect a fool like me to do, and I know well the repercussions. I'm going through my own personal economic crisis in many ways, but you know, when I consider it, I'm kinda like: "Well, I kinda fucking deserve it, don't I?" Because I kinda fucking do. I've been as guilty as the next guy, if not more so, in feeling my life with shit I just don't need.

When I was in my teens, I went through a phase of collecting baseball hats. I had one for the Mariners and the Orioles and the Lightning, and then various other ones. Just for the heck of it. I would ask for hats for my birthday and for Christmas, and finally one day I inspired my mother to ask: "Jesus, William, just how many heads do you have?"

I look around at some of the stuff in my life and wonder similarly. How many boxes of books can one person plan to read (because Lord knows I haven't actually read most of them). Am I really ever going to finish any Fitzgerald novel besides The Great Gatsby, or Joyce's Ulysses, for that matter? I read the end of it with John Rechy in a class at USC, and I've since picked it up and read part of the beginning, but thirty pages in and it still doesn't feel like it's going anywhere and I can't imagine why I'm still trying. Some things I can't get rid of, like the dreamcatcher I bought at a fair in Pennsylvania when I was boy scout camping when I was, like, sixteen, but some of the other stuff I own I look at and wonder: "Um. Zuh?"

I guess I just feel cluttered. And at the moment, I look around at all the shit I own that I just don't need and it makes me cringe a little bit. I've always liked the idea of living essentially, and boyhow have I failed miserably in that endeavour recently.

So I've decided: out it goes. If I look at any one thing and can't think of a good reason to keep it besides that I already own it: done.

And I'm hoping that I'll get better. I'm trying hard to keep purchases to essentials.

I'd like to see the same thing happen on a larger level. I liked that Barack Obama mentioned responsibility in the other night's debate, that he noted we all have to contribute. I wanted him to say "It's time to give up our SUVs we don't need and gas we rely on too heavily. It's time to look at our lives and decide what we really need."

Like, for instance, concerning the bailout. Will Shetterly blogs occasionally about essential living (among lots of other awesome topics), and it was through his blog that I discovered What $700 billion could have bought if the administration hadn't decided to put it in the banks. On that list:

• Covering health care costs plus out-of-pocket medical expenses for all of America's uninsured: $100 billion
• Universal preschool: $35 billion
• Rebuilding New Orleans: $100 billion
• Free college education for everyone: $50 billion
• Total energy independence for the United States, with a shift to renewables within the next ten years: $500 billion

And okay, that actually seems to equal $785 billion, if I'm not mistaken (and I may well be. I often am, but hey, I'm a writer), but I still like the point it bears out. Because Wall Street gets an influx of cash with which to save itself and continues to plummet by the day, but millions of Americans have been uninsured for years, and New Orleans is still waterlogged years after Katrina.

And yes, I'm totally going to admit I'm batshit jealous of Wall Street, because they get, quite literally, metric tons of cash to bail themselves out, but I don't get any forgiveness on student loans whatsoever.

One of the things I think Starbucks has realized is that it, as a company, is only so good as its employees are happy. It gives benefits, including health insurance, even to part-time employees, and their satisfaction translates to good customer service. And I bring this up because I think one of the major problems right now is that America has forgotten its citizens and their happiness. It has invested too much time and money in foreign endeavours. We spend $10 billion per month in Iraq, but if we applied the same amount of money here, we could have universal health care in less than a year.

To answer my own question: I know we need to 'save' the economy. I know it's going to get worse before it gets any better, but I also know it will get better. That's what the economy does; it swings and slides, shakes all over like a jellyfish (but is not nearly so much fun as a crazy little thing called love), and really it's only stable in its instability, constant in its change.

But I would like to think that, when we finally begin the hopefully inevitable upswing, we will learn some lessons, some of which will be hard, about where we ended up and how we got there.

This is my contribution to this week's Booking Through Thursday challenge:

What was the last book you bought?

Technically I suppose I bought five books today (actually I earned store credit at a used book store for books I brought in; I did pay the sales tax on them, so currency was exchanged).

The five are

1. Nevermore by William Hjortsberg
2. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3. Coyote v. Acme by Ian Frazier
4. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
5. Bigfoot Dreams by Francine Prose

Name a book you have read MORE than once

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (3 times)

Has a book ever fundamentally changed the way you see life? If yes, what was it?

Thinking About Basic Beliefs: An Introduction to Philosophy by Howard Kahane. This was the main textbook of the required basic philosophy course I took my sophomore year at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University-San Marcos). This book, along with supplemental readings, including Mark Twain's "Letters From the Earth," challenged all my beliefs, especially about God. In second place --- not that you asked --- was whatever textbook we used in my freshman lit course, the one that introduced me to Hemingway via the short story "Hills Like White Elephants".

How do you choose a book? eg. by cover design and summary, recommendations or reviews

Friends, usually other writers, recommend them. Or I read a review. And sometimes I browse shelves and become intrigued by a cover or a title: I peak inside, then read a few paragraphs or even pages, and then the writing usually alerts me that this is a book worth reading. Titles can be provoking. At times, if I really like a writer I will try to read everything that writer has written, obsessively hunting down his or her books. Also, if I read a writer's journalism or short fiction in a newspaper or a magazine and that writing is engaging, I often look for books by that writer.

Do you prefer Fiction or Non-Fiction?

Umm ... I love both forms, although because I want to return to journalism, and want to delve into various forms of creative nonfiction, I've been reading a lot of nonfiction lately. I love novels, though, and do plan to read more novels, especially in my goal to complete my 100-novels reading project that I started almost three years ago. Not that I will stop reading novels when I'm done.

What’s more important in a novel - beautiful writing or a gripping plot?

Can I have my cake and eat it too? Ideally, I think they should go together, because beautifully-wrought paragraphs strung together without any sort of structural connection, no matter how flimsy or artfully subtle, are just nice paragraphs that go nowhere. It also depends on what I'm reading: If it's a novel meant to largely entertain or read for escape, I still would rather read something with clear, decent sentences than something jumbled like The Godfather (I really don't know how this book has managed to become such an iconic part of American culture).

Most loved/memorable character (character/book)

I love Iago in Othello, just this side of Satan in Paradise Lost. Of course, reading Iago is hard to do without thinking of Bob Hoskins' performance in the BBC production of the play. Hoskins really caught that relish in being evil that Iago delights in.

Which book or books can be found on your nightstand at the moment?

The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder, Write Free: Atrracting the Creative Life by Rebecca Lawton and Jordan Rosenfeld, The Practical Stylist by Sheridan Baker, Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose, and a printed copy of the e-book How To Write A Great Query Letter by Noah Lukeman

What was the last book you’ve read, and when was it?

In Fact: The Best of Creative Nonfiction, edited by Lee Gutkind. I finished the book Monday. See my review.

Have you ever given up on a book half way in?

Interesting that you asked this question. I just set aside Bob Shacochis' Swimming in the Volcano after getting only a chapter in. I can't really pinpoint why I set this novel aside: I had planned to read it as part of my reading project (see above), but it seemed slow to get started, almost too dense, very unlike Shachosis' journalism. Last year, I set aside William Gaddis' The Recognitions about 100 pages in (the novel is about 1,000 pages), and that was my second attempt at reading the book. Before that, if memory serves, it was Typo by David Silverman, a strange memoir of a business gone sour (too many negative associations of an unruly and negative experience tied to that book). And before that, if memory serves, was Dow Mossman's The Stones of Summer, for which I'm truly sad, because the film The Stone Reader makes a hero and perhaps object lesson of Mossman. I really wanted that novel to be good, because Mossman had my sympathy, but the novel sorely needs an editor.

"October is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The other are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February."

-- Mark Twain.

I bet you think I'm going to talk about the pitiful economy and the terrible downward trend of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (down 678 points today to fall below the 9000 mark).

Well, I'm not.

Instead I'm going to talk about a writing "guideline" embodied in the acronym RUE--Resist the Urge to Explain.

Within that guideline is the  implied message to trust your reader to "get it". We writers sometimes want to make sure our readers understand what we're trying to get across. In doing so, we engage in needless repetitions.

I didn't need to explain to you that in that Twain quote, he was actually saying that the stock market is risky every month of the year. If I did, the humor in his statement would be lost, don't you think?

Sometimes it is best not to be so worried that our readers are not as smart as ourselves. If they aren't then they are probably blissfully ignorant and oblivious to what they don't "get".

So, leave it alone. Let your statement speak for itself. Don't try to explain everything. Trust your reader.

Anyway, the way she explained to Il Conte, these rascals made the equivilant of a zillion Euros (that's molto dog treats, in any language or currency), bankrupt their companies, then asked the government for a loan to cover their mistakes.

What did they do with some of that loan money?  They went to the beach, of course.  A very expensive beach.

This is totally contrary to canine logic, I just want all the American people to know.  As Mark Twain once wisely noted:

"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you.  This is the principal difference between a dog and a man."

You Americans may think that, at the moment, congress is littered with dogs (pun intended), but I say, throw out ALL the curs and fill the vacant seats with rescue dogs.  The very name implies their mission.

Prosperous dogs will never bite the hand that feeds them.

I know.

Chow.

"Whoever is happy will make others happy too."  -Mark Twain

GOLDFRAPP- HAPPINESS  *******This video made me smile.  He was waaaay too happy!  I love the days when I feel like skipping down the street, helping old ladies with their groceries and buying all the neighborhood children an ice cream cone.  Thank God for bad days because I'd be broke and tired if I felt like that everday!  ;)*******

WORD OF THE DAY

DUPLICITOUS

MCCLELLAN'S CONSCIENCE BY THE SOUTHERN AVENGER  *******The Southern Avenger did a great job of showing just how duplicitous the Bush administration has been in regards to the Iraqi War.*******

SONG OF THE DAY

SAVING JANE-SUPERGIRL-FUNFEST 2008  *******This is my new workout song...you gotta hype yourself up any way you can! ;)*******

Ahí va el primer regalito:

Una genealogía ilustre

Apendice, por Mark Twain

Varias personas me han invitado, en diversas ocasiones, a trazar mi propia biografía para su regalo y contento en las horas de ocio.

Accedo, pues, a esa cariñosa invitación. Y ahí va mi historia.

La noble casa de los Twain tiene su origen en remota antigüedad.

Mas el primero de mis antecesores, respecto del cual hay ya datos precisos, fue un amigo de la familia llamado Higgins. Ello ocurrió en el siglo XI, cuando los Twain vivían en Aberdeen, condado de Cork, Inglaterra.

A que se deba el que mi dilatada ascendencia haya venido usando desde entonces el apellido materno (salvo alguna que otra incursión en el apodo para evitarse ciertos disgustos) en vez del paterno, misterio es que ninguno de nosotros ha tenido nunca grandes ansias de descubrir. Ello constituye algo amablemente novelesco que sería lástima despoetizar. En buen número de viejas familias ilustres ha ocurrido lo mismo, después de todo.

Arturo Twain fue un hombre en extremo considerado por las gentes. Desempeñaba el oficio de procurador en los caminos reales, allá por la época de Guillermo Rufo. Como, según parece, procuraba para sí con exceso, suscitó envidias y odios. Tendiéronle un lazo, cayó en él, y lo encerraron en una mansión de delicias, de donde no volvió a salir. Creo que falleció allí repentínamente a la edad de treinta años.

Augusto Twain hizo mucho ruido en el último tercio del siglo XII. Dicen que fue persona atrózmente divertida. Una de sus bromas predilectas consistía en ocultarse tras de las esquinas, provisto de pesado espadón, y no bien acertaba a pasar alguien molesto a tercera persona, lo abría de arriba abajo para ver lo que tenía dentro. Como se observará, Augusto Twain había nacido filántropo y humorista.

Tuvo la mala ocurrencia de llevar muy adelante las bromas, y, cierto día, la gente de justicia se tomó el desquite, amputando al humorista la fábrica de sus graciosas ocurrencias. Por una delicada atención de la justicia, aquel trozo capital de Augusto Twain quedó clavado en una larga estaca para que pudiera contemplar al pueblo desde alto y reírse a su costa. La verdad es que el divertidísimo individuo no había pensado jamás en ocupar posiciones tan elevadas. Ni nunca tuvo tan bien sentada la cabeza.

Continuará, os lo prometo.

Today I took care of some things I had been putting off. I now have a family doctor down on Commercial Drive, and I will soon be getting my charts updated with a Vancouver-based opthamologist. Once that is complete, I'll be receiving an additional $300 from the government on top of the $600 I am getting now.

Amid the errand-running I had a full-on anxiety attack downtown. I seem to be experiencing these more and more as of late, and I am very reluctant to solve the problem with a pill. I am going to tough it out for now and use my program to help abate the onset of panic. I realize this is all a part of my recovery, as well as an inherited disorder. Aunt Diane tells me that it runs in the family.

I've been listening to Oprah's podcasts on itunes--particularly her "Soul Series". It's encouraging me to practice daily meditation/prayer in addition to all kinds of positive affirmation, mantras, and mindfulness. I am considering becoming vegan, so I've started by removing beef, pig, and lamb from my diet. We'll see how this goes.

I leave you with a quote

"Education consists mainly of what we have unlearned" -- Mark Twain

"It has always been a marvel to me--that French language; it has always been a puzzle to me. How beautiful that language is! How expressive it seems to be! How full of grace it is! And when it comes from lips like those, how eloquent and how limpid it is! And, oh, I am always deceived--I always think I am going to understand it."

"I heard a Californian student say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective."

"They spell it "Vinci" and pronounce it "Vinchy". Foreigners always spell better than they pronounce."

"In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language."

"Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him until he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth."

Part IV

Travel Information Provided by

GamblingResort.com

GamblingResort.com visits gambling destinations on occasion so as to provide visitors with timely travel and casino information. The crew of GamblingResort.com recently traveled to Reno, Carson City and Virginia City, Nevada, to explore the many dimensions of these historical places. 

Carson City has a long and colorful history. It has been the capital of the Nevada Territory since it was established in 1861 during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Statehood came quickly, only three years later in 1864, as the Civil War raged on, and the city has remained as the capital throughout.

The population of the town has ebbed and flowed over the years. The boom and bust days of mining activity in nearby Virginia City and other towns, the construction and re-routing of various railroad transit points have contributed to major population swings.

To visit Carson City and Virginia City is to step back in time. The story now continues from Part III:

Carson City became a major freight and staging area for all the mining activity in Virginia City, in the 1860’s and 1870’s, with the help of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad, the V & T. Timber harvested in the Lake Tahoe basin became finished lumber here that ultimately helped to stabilize the mines in Virginia City and other mining towns.

Lumber was an essential component in the underground mines of Virginia City. Since collapsing mine shafts were a major killer of miners, a method had to be developed to protect the miner from the ever increasing problem of collapsing walls as the miners dug deeper into the mountain in pursuit of a vein of silver that turned out to be a half mile wide and seven miles long.

A mining engineer from Germany, Philip Deidesheimer, studied the problem and developed a method whereby notched timbers were interlocked into the shape of a honeycomb that allowed miners to go deeper and deeper into the mine without fear of the walls caving in around them. 

This strategy, called the “Square Set” was soon duplicated in mines all over the world. Over time, some 750 miles of tunnels were dug beneath Virginia City with the help of the “Square Set.” 500 million dollars worth of silver was ultimately hauled out of the Comstock. That represents several billion dollars in today’s terms.

Miners came to the area in the 1850’s in pursuit of gold. But they were plagued by conditions that were less than desirable. A blue sticky mud clung to their boots, to their tools and to their wagons. This gluey concoction made mining for a gold a miserable endeavor.

This mud, however, had a metallic sheen to it, as seen in the wheel tracks left by the wagons.

A sample of this glop was hauled over the mountains to an assayer’s office in Grass Valley in California for analysis. The suspicions of the miners proved correct. This mud was worth a fortune. It held some $2,000 worth of silver per ton of mud. Word finally got out and Virginia City would never look back.

Henry Comstock, a drifter and miner, sold for $11,000 his questionably obtained 1/3 interest in the Ophir Mine here, which was to become the largest silver mine in the world. Mining claims were bought and sold and investors from San Francisco like George Hearst made fortunes that helped to fuel the building of that city on the Bay.

At its peak, some 30,000 persons made Virginia City home. The gambling halls and saloons along “C” Street became the center of the universe for a time. Virginia City was raucous, energetic, dangerous, crowded, and populated by a rogue’s gallery of outlaws, drifters and hustlers. Still others who came to town were well intentioned.

So many eked out a difficult living as laborers in the mines, in harsh conditions, for two or three dollars a day, while others gambled and drank the hours away to no good end. A drink in the saloon was a welcomed thing. The temperatures in the mine increased by five degrees for every hundred feet decline. At 2,000 feet below the surface, the temperature was 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Water flooded these mines as well and had to be pumped out while the tools became too hot to even handle.

A witness to the activities inside both the mines and saloons was a gentleman from Missouri named Samuel Clemens. He came to town and became a reporter for the local newspaper, the “Territorial Enterprise” using the pen name Mark Twain. In 1861, he wrote, “In Nevada, the cheapest and easiest way to become an influential man and to be looked up to by the community at large was to stand behind a bar, wear a clustered diamond pin and sell whiskey. To be a saloonkeeper and to kill a man was to be illustrious. More than one man was killed in Nevada under hardly the pretext of provocation so impatient was the slayer to achieve reputation.”

By 1864, Mr. Twain left town and later achieved a certain reputation himself as author of “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn.”

One can walk down the center of “C” Street today in Virginia City and intuitively know what life was like there years ago. The appearance of the town has survived nearly unchanged for decades. The wooden and brick walls of these buildings and the wooden sidewalks too emit an unmistakable historical charm from every pore.

It is difficult to know for sure what the casinos and saloons that serve whiskey today were like in the day or if they even existed at all. The Delta Saloon, however, first opened its doors in 1863 and is alive and well today in its current manifestation. The Bucket of Blood Saloon has been around since 1876. It was built after the great fire of 1875 that destroyed some 1,000 structures in town. The McBride family has owned and operated the business since 1931.

GamblingResort.com is a travel website dedicated to the proposition that all worthwhile casinos, especially those flanked by history, deserve special attention. Useful information and photos of the venues can be found here as well. One can plan a trip to any gambling destination and book hotels directly at the site.GamblingResort.com is ready when you are.

October.  This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in.  The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.

• Mark Twain (pen name of Samuel Langhorn Clemens), Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar; The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, Chapter 13

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

-Mark Twain

Some of the authors are unsurprising, but Toni Morrison didn't become a talented writer by hiding her head in the sand.  How fair is it to forbid future authors from reading the great writing of our time?  I'm all for parents keeping an eye out, but let's not be ridiculous.  There would be a certain irony to banning Fahrenheit 451, however, don't you think?

Here's my list and instructions for you to do the meme yourself: Bold the books you've read recently or as a child.

Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Willhoite
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
Forever by Judy Blume
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Alice(Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Giver by Lois Lowry
It’s Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Sex by Madonna
Earth’s Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
The Witches by Roald Dahl
The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
The Goats by Brock Cole
Kaffir Boyby Mark Mathabane
Blubber by Judy Blume
Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
Final Exit by Derek Humphry
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughtersby Lynda Madaras
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
The Pigman by Paul Zindel
Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
Deenie by Judy Blume
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
Cujo by Stephen King
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
Ordinary People by Judith Guest
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
What’s Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sonsby Lynda Madaras
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
Athletic Shortsby Chris Crutcher
Fade by Robert Cormier
Guess What?by Mem Fox
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Native Son by Richard Wright
Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women’s Fantasies by Nancy Friday
Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
Jack by A.M. Homes
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
Carrie by Stephen King
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
Family Secrets by Norma Klein
Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
Private Parts by Howard Stern
Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
Sex Education by Jenny Davis
The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

Here’s the list of the 10 most banned/challenged books for 2007:
And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Olive’s Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
TTYL,by Lauren Myracle
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

]]> http://audiobooktreasury.wordpress.com/?p=23 Sun, 05 Oct 2008 11:06:54 +0000 audiobooktreasury http://audiobooktreasury.fr.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/free-audio-book/

Our latest free audio book is Tom Sawyer - the story of a super-scamp.

The cheekiest, cleverest, cunningmost child ever to choose the letter 'C' as his favourite letter (probably) and to grace a children's book (definitely).

The following list was taken from the American Library Association's compilation of the 10 most challenged books of 2007.  Challenges are culled from newspapers nationwide and from personal complaints filed with the ALA.  (The ALA estimates that for every 1 challenge recorded, there are 4 to 5 that go unreported.)  Keep in mind that while a challenge is not a ban, it is essentially an endorsement for one.

Without further ado, a countdown of the top 10 books that are allegedly poisoning the minds of young people today:

10.The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Stephen Chbosky

What it's about: "The story takes place in a suburb of Pittsburgh during the 1991-1992 school year, when Charlie is a high school freshman. Charlie is the wallflower of the novel. He is an unconventional thinker, and as the story begins he is shy and unpopular.

The story explores topics such as introversion, teenage sexuality, abuse, and the awkward times of adolescence. The book also touches strongly on drug use and Charlie's experiences with this. As the story progresses, various works of literature and film are referenced and their meanings discussed." (Wikipedia)

Why it's being challenged: "Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group."

9. It's Perfectly Normal: Robie Harris

What it's about: "Frank yet playful, [this book] portrays a reassuring array of body types and ethnic groups...allowing readers to come away with a healthy respect for their bodies and a better understanding of the role that sexuality plays in the human experience.

Birth control, abortion, and homosexuality are given an honest, evenhanded treatment, noting differing views and recommending further discussion with a trusted adult. The dangers of STDs, teen parenthood, and sexual abuse are examined." (School Library Journal)

Why it's being challenged: "Sex Education, Sexually Explicit."

8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: Maya Angelou

What it's about: "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiography about the early years of author Maya Angelou's life. [It] begins when three-year-old Angelou and her older brother are sent to Stamps, Arkansas to live with their grandmother and ends when Angelou becomes a mother at age seventeen years old.

The author uses her coming-of-age story to illustrate the ways in which racism and trauma can be overcome by a strong character and a love of literature." (Wikipedia)

Why it's being challenged: "Sexually Explicit."

7. ttyl: Lauren Myracle

What it's about: "An epistolary novel [crafted] entirely out of IM transcripts between three high-school girls. Far from being precious, the format proves perfect for accurately capturing the sweet histrionics and intimate intricacies of teenage girls.

Myracle's triumph comes in leveraging the language-stretching idiom of e-mail, text messaging, and IM. Reaching to express themselves, the girls communicate almost as much through punctuation and syntactical quirks as with words." (Amazon.com Editorial Review)

Why it's being challenged: "Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group."

6. The Color Purple: Alice Walker

What it's about: "The Color Purple is an acclaimed 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award.

Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female African American life during the 1930s in the Southern United States, addressing the numerous issues in the black female life, including their exceedingly low position in American social culture." (Wikipedia)

Why it's being challenged: "Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language."

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain

What it's about: "The drifting journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature.  By satirizing Southern antebellum society that was already a quarter-century in the past by the time of publication, the book is an often scathing look at entrenched attitudes, particularly racism. " (Wikipedia)

Why it's being challenged: "Racism." (Oh irony.)

4. The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman

What it's about: "The Golden Compass tells of Lyra Belacqua's journey north in search of her missing friend, Roger Parslow, and her imprisoned father, Lord Asriel, who has been conducting experiments with a mysterious substance known as Dust.  Both the trilogy and the film adaptation have faced controversy, as some critics assert that the story presents a negative portrayal of the Church and religion." (Wikipedia)

Why it's being challenged: "Religious Viewpoint."

3. Olive's Ocean: Kevin Henkes

What it's about: "Twelve-year-old Martha Boyle stands on the brink of discovery: about her family, about first love, and mostly about herself. Martha is given a journal entry from her classmate, Olive, who was killed in an automobile accident. Martha didn't really know Olive, but the journal entry makes Martha reflect on what might have been if Olive hadn't died. In her two weeks on Cape Cod, Martha learns to deal with the changing emotional landscape that comes with adolescence." (AudioFile)

Why it's being challenged: "Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language."

2. The Chocolate War: Robert Cormier

What it's about: "Set at the fictional Trinity High School, the story follows protagonist Jerry Renault as he challenges the school's cruel, brutal, and ugly mob rule. Because of the novel's language, the concept of a high school's secret society using intimidation to enforce the cultural norms of the school, and the protagonist's sexual ponderings, it has been the frequent target of censors." (Wikipedia)

Why it's being challenged: "Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence."

1. And Tango Makes Three: Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell

What it's about: "The book is based on the true story of Roy and Silo, two male Chinstrap Penguins in New York's Central Park Zoo who for six years formed a couple. Roy and Silo hatched and raised the healthy young chick, a female named "Tango" by keepers, together as a family.

This book aims to send the reader the message that it is okay to be in, or know someone who has, a "non-traditional" family." (Wikipedia)

Why it's being challenged: "Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group."

For those of you counting, "Sexually Explicit" was the biggest reason a book was challenged in 2007, with 7/10 books falling under that category; "Offensive Language" came in second with 5/10 books; and "Homosexuality" and "Unsuited to Age Group" tied for third with 3/10 books.

If you're wondering who challenges these books, the ALA has compiled the following graph of challenges by initiator from 2000-2005.  Parents lead by nearly four times the challenges as the next group.  Particularly troubling is the inclusion of elected officials and government as active challenging parties.

I have a few thoughts of my own about this list from the ALA, such as Since when is "Homosexuality" a reason to ban any book?, Why are my elected officials campaigning for the banning of books?, and Have these challengers of literature checked out what their kids have been watching on TV for the past decade? I'd like to hear your thoughts.

 ~~~~~

"Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."  Mark Twain

"A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing but together can decide that nothing can be done."  Fred Allen

"A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."  Winston Churchill

"If you can't convince them, confuse them."  Harry S. Truman

"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."  George Bernard Shaw

"I have opinions of my own-- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them."  George Bush

"We have a firm commitment to NATO; we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe; we are part of Europe."  Dan Quayle

"For seven and a half years I've worked alongside President Reagan. We've had triumphs. Made some mistakes. We've had some sex... uh... setbacks."  George Bush Sr.

"I must say acting was good training for the political life which lay ahead of us."  Nancy Reagan

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."  Ronald Reagan

"It is not pollution that is ruining the earth. It is impurities in the water and air."  George Bush

"I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix."  Dan Quayle

"Border relations between Canada and Mexico have never been better."  George Bush

"I have orders to be awakened at any time in case of a national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting."  Ronald Reagan

"The reason we start a war is to fight a war, to win a war, thereby causing no war."  George Bush

"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal."  Richard Nixon

"Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening."  Bill Clinton

"Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times."  Winston Churchill

"Things are more like they are now than they ever were before."  Dwight Eisenhower

One minute, I was driving down the road, just planning to sit in on an event near Lake Mary.

Then, the event expanded, I mean, it just flat-out turned turtle on reality.

Let me explain. This was the kick-off for the legal hearing that pitted the St. Johns RiverKeeeper against Seminole County ( where I live) and the regional water management district.

Here's the deal: About 150 years ago, the great American storyteller Mark Twain said we live not in a democracy, but in a "plutocracy." That's government by the wealthy.

More recently, the great naturalist Ed Abbey wrote that 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.'

This out-of-body legal hearing had to do with the sheer arrogance and illogic of my home county wanting to continue to squander water. Mainly because they can---or, in this case, think they can.

Our elected officials have allowed water hogs to take as much of this "common resource" as they want from our underground Floridan Aquifer for decades. Now, because upland recharge is being paved over and unmanaged growth is sucking that geological reservoir dry, those same officials are looking for an easy fix.

Well, folks, there is no easy fix. It sort of comes down to taking responsibility for our actions---for acknowledging there are "consequences" to our squandering-mindsets.

That doesn't play well politically (Remember Twain's take on it?).

And so comes the trial. Leading off was a so-called expert for the county's "environmental consultants". He was an engineer working as the project director of a plan that would harvest a tremendous amount of water from the St. Johns River.

Yep, that would be Bartram's "Grand and Noble San Juan". An American Heritage River. The timeless aquatic highway into the interior of Florida. The most historic of our country's rivers, and the largest river in our state.

The engineer, on the stand, said that taking up to 150 million gallons of water of day from the grand and noble San Juan would have absolutely no negative ecological impact on it. The phrase he used was "no environmental harm."

He said that several times, in different ways. He was a puffed up sort of guy, overweight with a bad goatee, and every time he answered a question, he did so with a pronounced twitch of his head. He seemed as if the questions almost offended him, and each time he fielded one, he did so with one of those inbred arrogant reactions---as if to imply: "I've got better things to do with my time." Odd, but he seemed not offended at all by the lack of truth in his testimony. Or by the irony that other schemers said virtually the same thing a century earlier about the draining of the headwaters of the St. Johns. In this speciated world of the consultant it's not about sustaining the ecology--- It's about making money. Yet, the economic value of nature---the "natural capital"--- is never factored into such equations.

After this went on a bit, I leaned over to my good friend sitting next to me, and whispered to her: "Cane Toad."

As in Bufo marinus. Large exotic herp that hops about, croaks, eats up native fodder, and then, when all is said and done, sits back down on its haunches, and burps.

There's lots more to come on this strange theater. But for now, I wish that Twain had been with us. He would have provided context, and reminded us that, after all, vigilance is needed to keep the liberties that are so essential to us. And then he would have satirized it all in a story or novel.

And, if Ed Abbey were there, he probably would have laughed out loud at the outrageous lies.

I know I sure did.

Mark Twain worked as a reporter for San Francisco Call. During that time he frequented the Bank Exchange, a bar on the ground floor of the Montgomery Block where the Transamerica Building is located today. Other noticeable figures who visited the saloon often were literary likes such as Jack London, Bret Harte and Steven Louis Richardson.

There's much to say about the the bar, but let's get to the point. Mark Twain befriended a fireman at the Bank Exchange, and he liked him so much he never forgot about him even after he moved back east to write his novels.

This fireman was Tom Sawyer :)