The Theft Of Memory By Jonathan Kozol Essay - 1591 Words

Theme The theme of The Theft of Memory is somewhat of a social commentary, a personal and medical analysis of Alzheimer’s disease. Jonathan Kozol discusses his father’s decent into Alzheimer’s from his own point of view and how the experience related to their family as a whole. He shares his grief and suffering along with celebrating the impact that his father had on so many people throughout his lifetime. Jonathan tells stories from his father’s past to illustrate what an incredible doctor and amazing man he truly was. The documentation of his father’s illness is something that many people can relate to within their own families. As his illness progresses, Dr. Kozol tries to diagnose and treat himself at first before relinquishing that control to another doctor. Jonathan did everything in his power to maintain his father’s dignity throughout his life. The book documents the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on their family and tests the l imits of Jonathan’s devotion to his parents. Summary In this book, Jonathan discusses the changing dynamic between his parents and himself. In the beginning his parents appear to be a loving couple and he appears to be a very devoted son. As his parents age and his father’s illness progresses, those dynamics change. His father loses all recollection of who his family is and Jonathan’s mother seems to detach herself from the situation, referring to his father as â€Å"the baby† most of the time. Kozol (2015) says, â€Å"Before she fell asleep that

Analysis Of The Article Disability And The Urban...

Urban settings are constantly faced with problems due to large and varying populations. One of the largest problems facing modern urban environments is the inconveniences and limited accessibility within a city for citizens with disabilities. Hahn addresses the issues of the urban environment that are responsible for creating a minority of disabled people and segregated city within the article â€Å"Disability and the urban environment: A Perspective on Los Angeles.† Published in 1986, the article still holds relevance in modern society, and is supported by Inger Marie Lid in her article from 2013 titled â€Å"(Dis)ability and the experience of accessibility in the urban environment.† Hahn’s article uses case studies and anecdotes to successfully acknowledge the complicated aspects of the urban environment that challenge disabled people and result in the consequential inconveniences of their daily lives that are observable in modern societies, including Philadelp hia. Hahn’s article uses pathos from personal experiences to make the reader show sympathy for people with disabilities in modern cities and support their arguments that public settings are difficult for disabled people. Their studies analyzed their experiences of disabled persons in the late 20th century throughout the urban environment. The central purpose of the studies was to inform the public and government about the â€Å"experiences of disabled persons in Los Angeles [and other urban environments] from a perspective thatShow MoreRelatedHomelessness Thesis9057 Words   |  37 PagesNBP Reservation Poblacion, Muntinlupa City REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Homelessness Hombs, (1990) At the beginning of the decade the stereotypical homeless person was portrayed as a middle aged, White alcoholic male, from an urban neighborhood who wandered the country as a vagrant, tramp or hobo, who lived in isolated downtown areas known as skid rows. 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Australian Tax Law Calculating the Capital Gain

Question: Describe about the Australian Tax Law for Calculating the Capital Gain. Answer: Introduction:- The profit or loss, generated from sale of any capital assets, is taxable under Capital Gain Taxation rules[1]. The capital gain or loss is calculated by deducting the cost base of the assets and other expenses, incurred for retaining the ownership of the asset and for selling the asset, from the sales amount received. As per the Australian Taxation Rules, generally if the owner of the asset, holds the asset for less than 12 months, then the total amount of profit will be regarded as taxable. On the other hand, if the asset is owned for more than 12 months, then the assessee can enjoy 50% exemption on the capital gain. However, if the asset is acquired before 21st September, 1999, then the cost base of the asset is calculated under indexetation method and the assessee cannot claim for 50% exemption. Moreover, if the asset is acquired before 20th September,1985, then the asset is treated as pre-CGT asset and no capital gain or capital loss, generated from such asset, is taken into con sideration for taxation purpose. The capital loss is not adjusted with other taxable incomes of the assessee. It is carried forward to the next year and adjusted only with the capital gains. However, the above discussion is based on general rules. There are many exceptions of these acts, through which, assessee can claim exemptions against his/her capital gain or loss. Jonathan, an Australian resident, has sold few assets in the financial year 2015-16. The report is prepared to discuss the consequences and determine the taxable capital gain or loss, generated from the sale of such assets. Sale of Land and Builiding:- The section 108-5 of the Incoe Tax Assement Act defines CGT asset as any kind of property or a equitabke or leagal right that is not a property. Thefore according the act the land and building is cobsidered as capital asset. The transactions or events that results in Capital loss or Capital gain is referred to as Caital gain tax events in the act. The CGT events is classified into various categories in the given case land and building is sold so it falls under the category of disposal of Assets which is a CGT event A1. The common law provides that anything which is attached to the land is part of the land but the law for the purpose of Capital gain tax (CGT) provides that there is an exception to this rule. This exception to the common rule is set out in subdividion 108-D of the Income Tax Assesment Act 1997. The section 108-55 of the Income Tax Assesment Act 1997 particularly provides the circumstances in which is to be treated as a separate asset from the land. It states that if an y building or structure is constructed on or after 20th September 1985 on a land that isacquired before 20th September 1985 then in such cases the building or structure will be treated as a sparate assest than the land. In the given case Jonathan had inherited a block of land on 1st May,1983 from his grandmother. In the year 1996, he had build a house on that vacant land. On 1st November,2015, he sold the house at $11,00,000. The selling of a house is a CGT A1 event under the category of disposal of asset. The land on which the house was contructed was acquired before 20th September 1985 therefore it is a pre CGT event. According to the section 108-55 (2) of the Income Tax Assesment Act 1997 the land and the building therefore should be treated as a separate asset. The section 104-20 of the Income Tax Assesment Act states that when an asset is destroyed or lost then it is considered as a CGT C1 event. In the given there was a fire on 23rd July of 2015 that destroyed the garden shed of Jonathans house. Therefore it is a CGT C1 event as per section 108-5 of the Icome Tax assesmwnt Act 1997. Sale of Land:- As per the market value, the land worth $600,000 at the time of the sale. The land was acquired by Jonathan before 20th September,1985. Before building the house there, he had not made any capital improvement on that land. Therefore, the land should be treated as pre-CGT asset and not be considered for capital gain or loss[2]. Jonathan had incurred $4000 as legal fees to retain the ownership of the land. He had incurred advertisement expenses and stamp duty charges for selling both the properties jointly. Therefore, proportionate amounts of both the expenses and the full amount of legal fees should be accounted for the land also[3].As the sale of the land is exempted from the total assessable income of Jonathan, the expenses, incurred in account for the land is also not included in the deductible expenses for taxation purpose. Sale of Building:- The section 100-45 of the Income tax Assesment Act 1997 provides the procedure for calculating capital gain or loss for most of the CGT events. The process provided in the section firstly required to ascertain the capital proceed from the CGT event. Then it is required to work out the cost base for the CGT asset. After that the cost basee should be deducted from the proceeds of the CGT event. Then if the proceed is in ecess of the cost base then it is a capital gain or eitherwise it is a capital loss. There are three methods of calculating capital gain they are discount method, indexation method and other methods. In the discount method the individual, partnership and trusts are allowed to rduce its capital gain by 50%. The companies are not allowed to avail this deduction. In the indexation method it is allowed to increase the base cost of the asset by applying consumer price index upto September 1999. The indexation method can be applied only if the asset is acquired before 11:45 a m of 21st September 1999. Further it is aso required that the assets should be held for for more than 12 months. The other method is applicable to the assets held for less than 12 month and the method is also simple the cost of the asset is subtracted from the capitl procceds. The tax payer can choose any of the method for calculating capital gain after the date of purchasing the asset and the number of years it is held. For example if an asset is sold which is held for less than 12 months then only the other method can be used. If the asset is held for more than 12 months and the asset is purchased before 11:45 a.m of the 21st September 1999 then both the method can be used for calculating the capital gain. If the asset is purchased after the 21st September 1999 11:45 a.m and the asset is held for more than 12 months then only the discounting method can be used for calculating the capital gain. In the given case the building is made by Jonathan ten years ago on 2006. The building was owned by him for more than 2 years. The building ws constructed after 1999 therefore only discounting method can be used for working out capital gain. On the other hand, being an individual tax payee, Jonathan can also consider the original cost of the house,i.e.,$300,000 as the cost base and use the discount method for calculating the capital gain or loss from the asset. The sales consideration of the building should be ($110000-$600000) $500000 as the total sales amount is based on both the land and building. For computing the capital gain or loss on the sale of building, the pexpenses, incurredfor advertisement and stamp duties should be added with the cost base proportionately and the interest on loan for building and the balance of the mortgage should be added fully with the base. However, Jonathan ha been using the building as his permanent residence for the last ten years. According to the Australian taxation rules, the sale of such permanent residential property of the taxpayer should be exempted from the capital gain or loss calculation. Therefore, Jonathan will not have to pay capital gain tax on the amount received from the sale of the building. Sale of Paintings:- As per section 108-10(2) of the income Tax Assesment Act 1997 the defination of collectibles includes artwork, jewellery,coin, manuscript or book, a reare folio, a firstday cover postage stamp. It is also provided in the section 108-10(1) of the Income Tax ssesment Act 1997 that while computing the capital gain or loss of the income year the capital loss arising from collectible can only be used against capital gain from collectibles. The section 108-10(4) also provides that if the loss from collectible remains uapplied for the income year then it can be used to set off against the capital gain of collectible for the next income year. According to the above sections the valuable paintings are considered as collectables. The Australian taxation rules also provides that collectables items, acquired for $500 or less or valued $500 or less at the time of acquisition are exmpted from capital gain taxation. Jonathan had acquired the painting on 1999 for $800000 and retained the ownership for more than 2 years. Therefore, the painting should be considered as an CGT asset and profit or loss, generated from the sale of the painting must be considered as capital gain or loss for taxation purpose. Sale of Car:- The section 108-20(2) of the Income Tax Assesment Act 1997 defines personal asset as those CGT assets that is primarily used for personal use or enjoyment, it includes right or option and also includes debt arising from the CGT event. The section 108-20(1) of the Income Tax Assesment Act 1997 provides that while calculating capital gain or loss for the income year any capital loss that is made from personal use asset is disregarded. As per section 108-20(2) the motor car is therefore personal asset. It is also provided that the sale of personal motor car, which can carry less than one tone loadings and less than nine passengers, should be exempted from CGT calculation. The car owned by Jonathan falls under the above category. It has been owned by Jonathan for more than 2 years and used for his personal amusement and purpose only. Therefore, it will be not treated as CGT asset and the profit or loss from the sale of the car should be exempted from taxation[4]. Sale of Shares:- The section 108-5 of the Income Tax Assesment Act provides that capital assets include any kind of property and also legal or equitable right that is not property. Therfore in accordance with the definition of this section shares are also CGT assets. It ois also provided that shares are treated as CGT assets, if it do not belongs to any pool development fund, and sale of shares should be included in the capital gain or loss of the taxpayee. Jonathan had equity and preference shares in a limited company. Therefore, the sale of transferring ownership of shares should be considered for CGT calculation. Transfer of Common Shares:- Jonathan had acquired the ordinary shares on 2005. In the current taxation year, he had transferred the shares to his daughter at nil consideration. As per the taxation rules, in the case of transfer of ownership to close relatives at nil consideration or at lower value, the sale consideration for taxation purpose should be determined at the market value of the asset instead of the actual amount of consideration. The common shares have a market value of $5.50 each. Therefore, Jonathan has to pay CGT on the transfer of shares, based on the market valuation of 200 shares, i.e., $5500. The legal fees for the transfer should be included in the cost base for determining the net capital gain or loss. Jonathan can claim 50% exemption on the capital gain, as he owned the shares for more than 2 years. Redemption of Preference Shares:- For the redemption of the preference shares to the company, Jonathan also has to payt CGT on the transfer of such shares. In this case, the sales consideration will be the redemption value of the preference shares and 50% exemption on the capital gain will be allowed due to retaining the shares for more than 2 years by the taxpayee. Calculation of Capital Gain or Loss:- On the basis of the above discussion, the capital gain or loss, arising from the disposal of assets, of Jonathan for the financial year 2015-16, is calculated below: Taxpayee: Mr.Jonathan Calculation for Taxable Capital Gain For the Taxation Year 2015-16 Particulars Amount Capital Gain or Loss from Sale of Land Exempted Capital Gain or Loss from Sale of Building Exempted Capital Gain or Loss from Sale of Car Exempted Capital Gain or Loss from Sale of Painting: Sale Proceeds of Painting 750000 Less : Cost Base of the Painting 800000 Capital Loss on Paintings A -50000 Capital Gain or Loss from Redemption of Preference Shares: Sale Proceeds of Preference Shares 500 Less : Cost Base of the Shares 400 Less : 50% Exemption 50 Taxable Capital Gain on Preference Shares B 50 Capital Gain or Loss from Transfer of Ordinary Shares: Market value of the shares 5500 Less : Cost Base of the Shares 1200 Less: Legal Fees 190 4110 Less : 50% Exemption 2055 Taxable Capital Gain on Preference Shares C 2055 NET TAXABLE CAPITAL GAIN B+C 2105 Conclusion:- As per the above table, Jonathan has to pay tax on the Capital gain, amounted to $2105. The capital loss on the paintings has not been set off against the capital gains from shares, as the loss from collectables can only be adjusted with the capital gain from other collectables. Therefore, the capital loss of $50000 from sale of the paintings will be carried forward to the following year and may get adjusted, if Jonathan can earn any capital gain from sale of other collectable items. Bibliography:- Ato.gov.au. (2016).Exemptions | Australian Taxation Office. [online] Available at: https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Capital-gains-tax/CGT-exemptions,-rollovers-and-concessions/Exemptions/#collectables [Accessed 27 Aug. 2016]. Ato.gov.au. (2016).Selling your home | Australian Taxation Office. [online] Available at: https://www.ato.gov.au/General/capital-gains-tax/your-home-and-other-real-estate/selling-your-home/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2016]. Ato.gov.au. (2016).The indexation method of calculating your capital gain | Australian Taxation Office. [online] Available at: https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Capital-gains-tax/In-detail/Calculating-a-capital-gain-or-loss/The-indexation-method-of-calculating-your-capital-gain/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2016]. Ato.gov.au. (2016).Transferring real estate to family or friends | Australian Taxation Office. [online] Available at: https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Capital-gains-tax/In-detail/Real-estate/Transferring-real-estate-to-family-or-friends/?page=3 [Accessed 27 Aug. 2016]. Ato.gov.au. (2016).Working out your net capital gain or loss | Australian Taxation Office. [online] Available at: https://www.ato.gov.au/General/capital-gains-tax/working-out-your-capital-gain-or-loss/working-out-your-net-capital-gain-or-loss/ [Accessed 27 Aug. 2016]. [1] Income Tax ASSESSMENT Act 1997 sub-s 102-5 (1). [2] Income Tax ASSESSMENT Act 1997 sub-S 109 5 (2) [3]Australian Income Tax Legislation, 2016 (CCH Australia, 2016). [4][4] Income Tax ASSESSMENT Act 1997 sub-S 118 - 5

Lost in the Echo by Linkin Park free essay sample

Lost in the Echo is a 2012 song by American band Linkin Park. The background music is made up of fast-paced synths matched with pounding bass. The verses are rapped by Mike Shinoda, who normally does not have the lead in most Linkin Parks songs. Chester Benington, who most listeners are familiar with, performs the chorus. During the second time around, the chorus has a surprise for its listeners. Chester lets out a tremendous scream which echos until the next verse begins. As someone who generally does not prefer screaming in music, goosebumps quickly spread across my body. It was nothing short of amazing. The music video for the single does not have an appearance by the band, but is an incredible work of art. The synopsis is a young man with a suitcase walks into a post-apocalyptic world where he distributes photographs to a growing crowd of people. As the characters move into rundown rooms, they study the photographs that they received. We will write a custom essay sample on Lost in the Echo by Linkin Park or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As they hold them in front of their eyes, magnificently, those seen in the pictures appear before them. The characters have a strong reaction to this, where they cry out as the first scream erupts, as if they had once had a connection with who appeared in front of them. At the end, the photos fade to a blank canvas and those holding them crumble to dust. The man with the suitcase is seen placing photos now containing the faces of who he originally gave the pictures into his suitcase and walks away, presumably heading to another location.

essay123 Essays - Architecture, Lighting, Stage Lighting

essay123 Essays - Architecture, Lighting, Stage Lighting There are a lot of components that I take into consideration when picking out light and fixtures. Modern styles stand out to me the most because of the city living I choose to live in. City style living is all about maximizing your space as much as possible. Having brighter walls with neutral colors always makes a home feel bigger than what it actually is. I love retro looks because it gives me a sense of sleek, spacious, and cool vibe s to any home I've seen. After reviewing throughthe brand page I found threecompanies that were most appealing to me based strictly offthe appearance . They are Lois Poulsen , Vesoi lighting, andNEXT.I then went to each website to learn more about the products.Louis Poulsen stood out to me because of the unique structureof most of the fixtures. I appreciated the type of bright/white light the company showed on each piece. I visualized someof the lamps and wall lights in my common area for study areas and vanity lighting. The main concern that turned my away from the company was the pricing because I did not find it very reasonable. I then came across Vesoi lighting and was instantly drawn to viewing more of the suspended lighting. The chandeliersand suspension light s are very elegant and visually pleasing to look at. The E1 3 30/so Suspension light is ab s o l ut ely magnificent and my favorite item. I was amazed thatalmos tevery product I loved on site page and thepricing was very reasonable. However,I then quickly realized that I could not personally see these fixtures in my home. I would only purchase these items to use in an area for business and not in ho me. After reviewing all three, it was very evident that NEXT would be my brand of choice. As I stated before, I am a big fan of modern designs and NEXT provide s that look with almost all the pieces on the brand page . As a college student the energy efficiency rating, energy saving, long life span, and eco friendly aspects became a plus. I love white and silver lights and they had the most variation I have seen with a very elegant touch to each item. They had different indoor and outdoor lighting with the same design, which I found very convenient. I reviewed the company's policy on warranty and delivery that was very impressive for the brands customer care. I also read more on smart controls, which I was not previously aware of. It explained that integrates occupancy, daylight, demand response, dimming, and energy saving components which I thought was absolutely stellar. The Alien M Easy Floor Light was amazing to me. I could really see that piece in my home now or any home I choose in the future. The design was very pleasing to look at and I know that it would make a great piece for conversation because most lighting fixtures are not designed that way. The DNA Wall and Ceiling Lamp is absolute a must have. The desi gn is so innovative to me and can real ly add finishing touches to any home design. Sleek, sexy

Three Ways Social Shares Can Mean More Money For Writers

Three Ways Social Shares Can Mean More Money For Writers The statistical value of your work published online (social shares) matters more than ever. Pay attention to how your articles are socially redistributed, shared, and liked. Shivani Sharma, CEO of Firefly Creative Inc. stated in a  Software Advice  article for tech-savvy marketers and business owners  that businesses should look for  freelance writers who know how to write content  that engages the target audience. What does this mean for you as a freelancer? It means its time you leveraged those social shares, or the impact, of your articles to increase your future income. To get started, learn how to collect your social shares data: 1. Use spreadsheets Excel or Google Docs should work fine. In your spreadsheet, list your published articles in the first column, then assign a column for each social media share option, i.e. Facebook shares, likes, Twitter shares, LinkedIn likes, blog comments, Google + shares, and other platforms that show on the share buttons of the site youve published on. Update this document at least monthly. 2. Use Contently.com This free platform for writers can help you showcase a collection of your Now that you have your data, use the data to increase your income: 1. Ask for a raise from current clients Asking for a rate increase carries the risk of losing a client, but now that you have data to back up your demand, you can prove how your articles helped their site and more importantly, their business. For this particular purpose, you could track the articles youve written for that clients site alone and show how your influence becomes theirs. 2. Justify (or negotiate) your rates with potential clients Potential clients will haggle for lower rates. Next time you negotiate your rate, use your social shares data to show the impact of your work on websites and businesses youve already written for. You have the numbers to show your value, proof of what you accomplished for other websites which reflects on what you can do for the potential client. Show them youre a business investment instead of just a writing expense. 3. Attract better paying clients Lastly, use data to analyze which articles did well and why. Review the ones receiving the most engagement. What words did you use in your headline? Did you share personal stories or interview experts? Was the topic unique or controversial? Then pitch a guest post to medium or big sites, writing the post with the same style and tone you used in your most engaging articles. Just remember to follow the guidelines of the site youre guest posting on. The types of post that receive the most shares are almost the same as reported With social sharing we see the effect our words have on readers and use it to improve our craft. But it can also be our means to earning more income.

General Electric Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

General Electric - Essay Example Understanding Groups Group is a collection of 2 or more individuals, who interact regularly, exert mutual influence and work in collusion with each other to achieve a common goal (Griffin & Moorehead, 2008). Purpose of a group forms its background and the process through which this is achieved makes it operational. Team is structured, requires coordinated interaction to reach the set goal and all the members stand responsible for its activities. A congregation of individuals qualifies to be called a group based on Kurt Lewin’s parameters, which specify that the members should interact, are interdependent, influence each other, the members feel belongingness, have a structure, work towards a common goal and are recognised as a group by others. Task and relationship-based interactions develop in groups, through which people connect and affect each other. Group Development Bruce Tuckman suggested 4 stages of group development, which consist of forming, storming, norming and perfo rming. Adjourning has been appended later (Griffin & Moorehead, 2008). a. Forming During this phase, individuals mingle with each other and communicate, in an attempt to arrive at their purpose of association. They assess their respective comfort zones. Leaders play a vital role in facilitating this understanding and walking them towards the next stage (Griffin & Moorehead, 2008). In this phase, as we have come from different departments and educational backgrounds, we questioned each other on the relevant details. We have also discussed the past work experience and project records of each of the members. This has helped us in gaining an understanding on the capabilities of every individual of the teams. As a leader, I saw that the team discussions at this phase are directed towards exploring each other, being polite, keeping the communication alive and coordinating them. These conversations created an idea on what would be the ideal roles for each of them within the team and we dec ided on them towards the end of the formation meeting. b. Storming Here, the members share their views, assemble with others sharing similar thoughts and socialise. Leader persuades them to open up and streamlines their ideas, differences etc towards the group goals (Griffin & Moorehead, 2008). This phase has been the challenging one, as the group members started to interact, the differences started to surface. The resource sharing and competition led to substantial friction. However, as a trained and experienced leader, I created the clarity on the jobs and responsibilities; the scope of every person in the team is highlighted. Thus, the importance of every member and his role is clearly understood even by the others and thus, the decision making powers and necessity of the resources to each of them is discussed. Further, the common goals of the team and the focus on productivity of the team, which is only possible through the concerted efforts of all the teammates is stressed. I h ad to support the views of some of the members of the team during such communication, which has planted a doubt in them that I am favoring those members, which was cleared in the due course as the actual work proved my support right. As the team members appreciate the roles and responsibili

Movie REVIEW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Movie REVIEW - Essay Example He was someone who excelled in almost every task assigned to him and it made Nick jealous of him and then starts the process of how professional jealously actually intervenes with the personal lives and can take its toll on the performance of the employees working at each level. A closer look at the character of Nick Falzone would suggest that Nick was working in a profession which was not only stressful in terms of work requirements but also had relatively higher employee turnover. Due to the difficult work situation, Nick was in a position to respond to the situations in a relatively tensed and stressful manner so that he not only can establish his authority within the department but also establish himself as someone who is high performing and upon which department relies upon when required. It is also clear while watching this movie that competition or professional jealousy between the employees not only hurt their personal lives or also their professional duties and responsibilities. it is evident that when competition between the employees can result into negativity and low productivity if the emotional side of the employees is not managed properly. The role of the organization therefore is of critical nature in such situations to help employees to balance their emotional and personal sides with effective stress management at work and in personal lives. It is clear that Nick was following stress model because underlying his behavior was the stress which was arising from his deep rooted fears that he was working in an industry where jobs were relatively difficult and tough to perform. Apart from this, his personal life also seem to suggest that he was acting under the stress and was willing to do anything to preserve his ego and dominance over others. Underlying the stress model is the basic assumption of our behaviors being driven by the fear and love. It is

The theme of loneliness the most in the novel Of Mice And Men Essay Example for Free

The theme of loneliness the most in the novel Of Mice And Men Essay A guy goes nuts if he aint got nobody. Dont matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I tell ya a guy gets to lonely an he gets sick. This is a very interesting definition of loneliness brought to us by Crooks, one of the pivotal characters, along with Candy and Curleys wife, whom develop the theme of loneliness the most in the novel. Steinbecks novel Of Mice and Men is set at the time of the Great Depression after the stock market crash of 1929. The currency is almost worthless and people can afford little possessions. Due to the situation, many people move from place to place to find work. This means they are never in one place long enough to form any relationships, thus being a very lonely existence: Guys like us, that live on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. George and Lennie are the two main characters of the novel, they find work in a ranch near Soledad: even the name of the small town recalls Solitude, furthermore soledad means loneliness in Spanish. Which emphasises the power and role loneliness has in the novel. Steinbeck infact emphasises loneliness, powerlessness, and isolation, and his hatred for it throughout the novel. He contrasts this with the companionship of George and Lennie. They are the only men who actually travel together,and look out for each other, and this is proved by the way everyone is suspicious of their friendship. The three characters I have chosen to describe the theme of loneliness are very jealous of the two mens friendship. They are: Crooks, Candy and Curleys wife. Crooks is a black man that is isolated because of the racist society of the early Twentieth Century. The loneliness that Crooks feels is created by the discrimination of the white ranchers towards him. Crooks does not know how to relate to other people because he is mistreated, he is disrespected and isolated: he cant participate at the daily events with the other white people, he doesnt know how to control his frustration and therefore is angry at everyone. Cause Im black. They play cards in there, but I cant play because Im Black. They say I stink. Well I tell you, you all stink to me! Moreover, no one likes living in a barn and working with horses all day long, Crooks spends all his nights reading to take shelter from society. Crooks is fascinated by George and Lennies strong friendship Well, spose, jus spose he dont come back. Whatll you do then? Crooks asks such questions, because having no friends he doesnt know how it feels. he tries in every way to seek understanding and to begin friendships with other people, he would do anything to come out of his solitude and depression. If youguys would want a hand to work for nothing Just his keep, why Id come an lend a hand. I aint so crippled I can work like a son-of-a-bitch if I want to. Crooks, too, experiences the emotional bleakness of the majority of the characters drawn by Steinbeck in this story, as shown in his jealousy of George and Lennies friendship and his desire to join in the dream of part-owning their own ranch. Crooks wants to participate in George and Lennies dream not only because he wants to leave the hostile ranch he works in but because he too wants to be involved in their friendship. Candy is an old, physically disabled swamper. He has worked on the ranch for a great part of his life, and it is on this very farm he was victim of a machinery accident which cost his hand, leaving him behind money but loneliness. His old age and his handicap make him feel useless, this thought makes him more handicapped than his missing hand. He feels like a useless old man who is wasting the last few years of his miserable life. He is haunted by the idea of losing his job because he is a cripple and that this will then further lead him to death. I got hurt four years ago. Theyll can purty soon. Jusas soon as I cant swamp out no bunk houses theyll put me on the county Candy thinks that no one wants to be his friend because he has missing a hand. He is often invited by the other people on the ranch to drink and play cards but always refuses because he has a very low self-esteem, so Candy is putting a loneliness tag on himself and not the other people. At the end he tries to make friends joining George and Lennies dream: to have their own ranch. This is one of Candys feeble attempts to make place for himself in society, and to give himself a goal in life. Ill wash the dishes an little chick stuff like that. But Ill be on your own place, an Ill be let to work on our own place. After Candy lost his dog he felt even more lonely than before, his dog was the only possession Candy actually owned and that he could take care of by himself. After his death Candy owned nothing, not one important thing. The relationship between Candy and his dog is the same as that between George and Lennie. While George had Lennie and the other ranchers had each other, Candy on the other hand had no one, and this led him to depression and loneliness. No one else in the book shared the same dreams as Candy. This is why he so desperately seeks attention from George and Lenny. He even offers them money, but as its well known money doesnt buy friendship Maybe if I give you money, youll let me how in the garden even after I aint no good at it. Curleys wife is another pivotal character and her hasty marriage to Curley proves to be another failed attempt of escaping from her own spiral of loneliness. In addition, his failure to satisfy her either emotionally or physically leads her to seek solace in the other men even those at the very bottom of the social hierarchy of the ranch. Curleys wife is a tease to everybody on the ranch. She will dress and act in a provocative way. She uses her beautiful body to attract attention; she does this so she will feel less lonely. These acts make her feel wanted and important, because she always has everyones eyes on her, but at the same it gives her a bad reputation, and so none of the ranchers wants to talk to her. This seek for attention prevents her from getting rid of the sexual image the other men have of her. Maybe you better go along to you own house now. We dont want no trouble. George sees Curleys wife as a very dangerous threat, he soon refers to her as rat trap. This shows us how radical sexism was like in the 1930s and how woman were treated in that society. Although the sympathy we at first feel for her soon diminishes due to her cruelty, and the she treats: Candy Crooks and Lennie referring to them as a nigger an a dum- dum and a lousy ol sheep moreover she dismisses their dream as Balony. Curleys wife notices how simple-minded Lennie is and takes advantage of that situation. She knows that Lennie is the only person, with whom she can discuss her problems. Her type of loneliness is caused when there is no one around you to talk to. This underlines the sexist society of the time, a society that didnt care of a womens opinion; a society that only looked at women in cat houses and brothels. Curleys wife was aware of this and tried to seek attention through her body, Maybe Curleys wife demanded too much of Lennys simple mind, more that what he could give to her: without meaning to, he kills her. Curleys wifes death can be seen both as a tragedy and as something positive because she ended all of her sufferings. All these three characters are very alike even though they have different types of solitude, because everyone tries to solve their problems in some way. All three also try to get closer to George and Lennis friendship. Solitude is an inevitable fact of life, an important phase of growth that not even the strongest people can avoid.

Same Sex Parenting and Adoption Essay -- adoption, homosexuality, fami

Adoption for same sex couples is a very controversial topic in Family Law, and often same sex couples face many unique issues if they wish to adopt. Many states have different laws that apply for gay and lesbian adoption, as opposed to heterosexual couples. Several states also have special rules that apply when a child is born into a gay or lesbian partnership. Gay and lesbian couples may sometimes opt to bring a child into their lives through conception and birth as well. For a lesbian couple, this is usually done through a male donor or a sperm bank and having one of the couple become pregnant. Similarly, gay men may use a surrogate mother and then become a legal parent through adoption. The other parent then can become a legal second parent through stepparent or second parent adoption. However, many states including Virginia don’t allow second parent adoption. The definition of a legal ‘parent’ is (n.) the lawful and natural father or mother of a person. The word does not mean grandparent or ancestor, but can include an adoptive parent as a replacement for a natural parent. Adoption laws vary from state to state, and there are some states that do allow lesbian and gay couples to adopt children as legal, joint parents. Gay and lesbian couples in these states can go through adoption agencies in order to adopt, personally arrange their adoption, or even adopt internationally. In many states, however, stepparent, second parent or even joint adoption is not an option for gay and lesbian couples. Although the Commonwealth of Virginia does not have a law in place that prohibits same sex couples from adopting a child, it is usually a very hostile situation and it may be very difficult in many occasions for gays and lesbians to ... ...he way society will treat the child, the psychological effects on the child and the child’s well being and safety above all are the main factors that the courts should look at when dealing with this issue. As previously stated the issue of same sex adoption is one of the most controversial topics in today’s Family Law across the country and with good reason. Given that this involves the upbringing of human beings who are the future of our society, it is extremely important to make sure that they are given the best care and best influences in their lives in order to make good moral and educated decisions in their future lives. Same sex parenting may not be as bad as society has made it seem but it absolutely has to be socially and scientifically proven before any more steps are taken in this matter because, after all, it is in the â€Å"best interest of the child.†

Objective of Punishment

Objectives of Punishment There have been many rules throughout history some choose to follow those rules and some choose to break the rules. The big question is the product to those who should break the rules. There was a day when parents could spank their children freely and accepted as simply normal. As the years went on, society started to see how people would take it too far. Therefore, laws had to change. It is the same within today’s prison system. Individuals are in prison because they broke the rules and would have to serve their time. Some go to federal prison and some go to state prisons. It depends on the type of crime that a person commits; because these prisons harbor different types of criminals they also have different guidelines to follow in terms to punishing the inmates. How does sending one person to state or one person to federal prison affect the correctional system altogether? The State of California’s main goal of sentencing is to match the community sanctions with the offender. The types of community sanctions include: Criminal offenders who benefit from prevention services and are at risk of committing more crimes include: juvenile offenders with learning difficulties, high school dropouts, and urban youth gang members. Prevention services may include activities such as special education programs, and big brother programs. Criminal offenders who have received and benefited from these early intervention services are mostly first time offenders. Early intervention programs can significantly decrease the offender’s chances for committing crimes in the future. Offenders need substance abuse and alcohol counseling-related services, work skill development, and education, (Nieto, 1996). Offenders eligible for these programs are people in prison who can divert to alternative services and programs. The convicted offenders can be a second time or even a third time offenders who failed probation and even convicted of several of nonviolent offenses. California's â€Å"three strike's law,† can result in convicted felon sentenced to prison for life if the convicted offenders first two felonies were violent crimes and the third felony committed by the repeat offender is also a violent crime, (Nieto, 1996). The main goal of these sentencing guidelines is to put the targeted offenders with appropriate community sanctions. However, there are some differences and variations in the California sentencing guidelines, which include the punishment by the nature of crime committed, frequency, and severity. A good example took place in Michigan. If an offender is arrested for burglary, which is a class ‘C' felony in the state of Michigan, and a previous drug arrest, which are also a class C crime. The Michigan sentencing guideline rates provide sentencing options from alternative community corrections to a two-year prison sentence, (Nieto, 1996). The community correction’s alternative gives the judge the option of sentencing the criminal offender to a community-based and secured substance abuse treatment program for a period of six months. Upon successful completion of the treatment program, the offender must complete a probationary period. The discretion of the judge comes from a vast array of options. However, if an offender is found guilty of a serious felony and has prior nonviolent felony, sentencing guidelines provide community corrections and alternatives are not authorized and a minimum two-year prison sentence may be requisite, (Nieto, 1996). Until 1975, the federal bureau of prisons operated under the principles of the medical model of managing inmates. The medical model entailed educational, vocational, and treatment programs that attempted to transform criminal behavior into a positive and productive behaviors that would benefit society. The medical model utilized the federal inmate classification system to manage the inmate population and promote individualized treatment, (Miller, 2011). By 1975, the federal bureau of prisons had a much greater inmate population than it had several decades earlier during its inception, and they adopted the balanced model to manage those inmates. The balanced model no longer promoted individualized treatment. The balanced model was a composite model that focused on a combination of the principles of rehabilitation, deterrence, retribution, and incapacitation, (Miller, 2011). Several other major changes over the last few decades have affected the sentencing of those convicted of violating federal laws. The U. S. Sentencing Commission of 985 limited the use of probation for federal offenses, particularly for drug offenses and violent crimes. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 limited the amount of time the prisoners could reduce from their sentences for good behavior. This new law mandated that federal prisoners must serve a minimum of 85% of their sentence. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 also abolished the use of parole for federal p risoners, (Miller, 2011). Federal prisons manage their inmates within the guidelines of a Prisoners Bill of Rights. The prisoner’s rights include clean and decent living environments. Prisoners also have the rights to develop and maintain skills as a productive worker and have the rights to maintain and reinforce family and community ties, (Miller, 2011). The adoption of prisoner rights has helped the federal prisons avoid much of the legal turmoil that has embroiled the state prison systems. Most of the United States economist believed that in today’s times, the USA experiences the most drastic crisis in decades. All states in the United States report about significant budget shortfalls. As the results, the state governments significantly have to reduce their spending for correctional system. For the last two decades of the 20th Century, the spending for state and federal penitentiaries increased 600% because of the growth of measured requiring economic expenditures, for example, mandatory minimum sentences, truth in sentencing laws and three-strike legislation, (Carlson, 2008). Although economic trends started affecting the consideration of sentencing policy, the public attitude toward crimes has greatly changed. Polls show that more people think that it is necessary to address the root causes of crimes and less support the use of strict measures toward criminals. The attitude toward mandatory sentencing also underwent a change. The pool conducted in 2005 showed that 38% think that mandatory sentencing is a good idea whereas 45% of respondents prefer judicial discretion. This radical change in the attitude can be causing significant drop in the crime rate registered in the country, (Carlson, 2008). State and federal governments respond to the impact of the economic crisis on the correction system in a number of ways. The nature of problems varies, depending on the state, and so varies the strategies used. The most popular measures are as follows: prison closings, cuts of the staff in corrections, reviewing the budget of corrections concerning nonessentials, reconsidering sentencing schemes, establishing sentencing committees and commissions. Everything in life changes all the time and will always be that way, which is why everything about the past be called history. The rules and regulations for punishing the wicked and wrong doers always have been around. Many past mistakes made; consequently, the rules had to have either adjusted or completely erased altogether to fix these mistakes. The system of punishment is not a design to humiliate or degrade individual in any way, it is an intention to teach the difference between what is right and what is wrong according to the guidelines set forth by government officials. As the rules and regulations change, it affects the state and federal prison systems. They have had to become more lenient and tolerant with the individuals punished for their crimes. Still they have to try to maintain order within the walls of the confinement even though tougher laws outside the walls are making it easier to put individuals behind bars causing overcrowding and less money for security. References Carlson, Peter M. (2008). Garrett, Judith Simon, Prison and Jail Administration: Practice and Theory, Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Miller, Whitehead (2011). Report Writing for Criminal Justice Professionals, 4th Edition, p140, Chapter 6, State and Federal Prisons, Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database. Nieto, Marcus (May 1996). Community Correction Punishments: An Alternative To Incarceration for Nonviolent Offenders. http://www. library. ca. gov/crb/96/08/#RTFToC6.

The Small Things in Life That We Own Are the Most Precious

Argumentative Writing- Oct/Nov 2012 Paper 33- ‘The small things in life that we own are the most precious’. Do you agree? How many of you have an award sitting on the dusty shelf in the front of you, reminding you of your previous achievements? Or a framed certificate hanging on the wall of your room? These memories mean so much because they represent a proud moment in your journey. The small things we own in life is what we hold nearest to our hearts. In our daily lives, we throw many things away: worn out clothing, used stationery, and torn footwear, but never will you see the traces of a trophy or a certificate lying in the trash bin.Why? Because these mementos, which date back to our childhood, represent an occasion, a symbolic moment. I remember when I received a blue ribbon for participating in an All Summer Gymnastics Club, and I kept it all these years, as a reminder of what I have accomplished, and as a memory of all the fun times I had been through. As humans, memories are the most important to us, because they only live within the recesses of our mind. In line with obtaining tokens of our personal achievements, we also possess certain items of sentimental value. A pearl necklace or a well-kept diary that is passed on to you acts as a mark of love and warmth.The smallest things we have acquired and collected over the years are the ones we cherish our whole life. It is often thought only the big moments in life are looked back upon, however this is a false impression, as small things in life: the ribbons, pictures, medals, and mementos all reflect on a memory or moment in life, which should be given equal value or even more than the bigger ones. To sum up, I feel the smallest gifts hold the most importance. They carry our values and our honor within them thereby making them our most precious possessions.

Cellulose and Hemicellulose Essays

Cellulose and Hemicellulose Essays Cellulose and Hemicellulose Paper Cellulose and Hemicellulose Paper When A.niger has been starved for 6 hours, CreA repression is alleviated and it releases a subset of scouting enzymes to find a carbon source to breakdown [2]. From six to nine hours, the scouting enzymes (or degradative enzymes) look out for complex polysaccharides which will release inducing sugars (such as xylose). The release of xylose triggers a subsequent induction of hydrolases by XInR and from nine hours plus, degradation of complex polysaccharides takes place. Other bacterial and fungal models suggest that the induction of these enzymes is from a basal level of expression of degradative enzymes[16]. Transcriptional changes are seen in A.niger in association with growth on wheat straw compared to growth on simple sugars (e.g. glucose). With growth on wheat straw, it was observed that levels of free glucose increased indicating that degradation had begun on wheat straw polysaccharide. In addition, increases in xylose levels and arabinose in comparison to increase in glucose showed that hemicellulose degradation is the primary activity of A.niger at this point [2]. Degradation of Cellulose and Hemicellulose  The plant cell wall is composed of polysaccharides; cellulose, hemicellulose, and pectin (in order of abundance) [17] and lignin.  The most famous and abundant polysaccharide is cellulose or ÃŽ ²-1,4-glucan, in both primary and secondary cell walls. The cellulose content in cell walls vary but can be up to 45% in particular primary cell walls[17]. It is a linear polymer made up ÃŽ ²-1,4-linked D-glucose residues, existing in four polymorphic crystalline forms and is closely linked to xylan (a hemicellulose). In the cell wall, monomers are ordered to become fibres to give rigidity to the cell wall. Additionally, there are two types of cellulose; the native type and regenerative type[18]. To breakdown cellulose through Trichoderma and Aspergillus species, three main classes of enzymes are involved: endoglucanases (EG), cellobiohydrolases (CBH) and ÃŽ ²-glucosidases (ÃŽ ²-GD). EG hydrolyses cellulose to glucooligosaccharides followed by CBH degrading crystalline cellulose to produce cellobiose. Finally, ÃŽ ²-glucosidase degrade the oligosaccharides to glucose[19]. However, as a results of different enzyme studies, exoglucanases have been seen to release glucose from cellulose and glucooligosaccharides however, it is not a clear distinction from the role of cellobiohydrolases[20]. Lastly, expression of cellulolytic genes in Aspergilli is observed in the presence of various monomeric and polymeric carbon sources. Hemicelluloses are heterogeneous polysaccharides. They are used as a flexible cell wall support for plants and are able to bond to cellulose microfibrils through hydrogen bonding[13, 21]. However, the composition of this polysaccharide is different between plants and between species. There are many types of hemicelluloses but predominant types are xylan (in cereals) and xyloglucan (in onions). Xylan is a polymer consisting of a ÃŽ ²-1,4-linked D-xylose backbone and a side group. In wheat straw, the side group to the xylose backbone are D-glucopyranosyluronic acid at position 2 and L-arabinofuranosyl and D-xylopyranosyl groups linked at position 3 on the backbone[22]. To degrade the xylan backbone, endoxylanses are used to cleave the backbone down to oligosaccharides and further degradation by ÃŽ ²-xylosidases produces xylose [20]. For the degradation of xyloglucan, EGs and ÃŽ ²-GD are used. Finally, pectins are a group of heteropolysaccharies. The backbone of pectin is compost of ÃŽ ±-1,4-linked D-galacturonic acid residues[20].  A non-polysaccharide component of the cell walls is lignin. In trees, lignin’s role in the cell wall is to support xylem cell and is covalently link to hemicellulose [23, 24]. However, in terms of advanced biofuel production, one of the key issues with the breakdown of wheat straw is lignin as it cannot be hydrolysed and monolignals are not involved to bioethanol production. Consequently, pre-treatment is a crucial step to allow access to cellulose and hemi-cellulose[25] which can be thermal, chemical or fungal. A chemical pre-treatment is to degrade lignin in wheat straw, is using a mixture of acetic acid–nitric acid or using white rot fungi [26, 27]. An aim for future biofuels is to reduce the amount of pre-treatments required since stronger pre-treatments reduce the availability of polysaccharides. Cellobiohydrolase (CBH) A and B are involved in the breakdown of ÃŽ ²-1,4-glucan down to glucose, particularly the breakdown of the crystalline cellulose. These two enzymes are encoded by the genes cbhA and cbhB respectively and belong to the fungal family CBH 7. The modular structure of cbhB contains a cellulose binding domain or carbohydrate binding module (CBM) domain which is linked to a catalytic domain by a Pro/Ser/Thr-rich linker peptide but cbhA has just the catalytic domain[28]. The modular structure of CbhB can be seen across a number of species and in T.reesei, over half of the protein secreted is cellobiohydrolase I (CBHI) which has the exact same structure is seen cbhB[11]. It must be noted that the lack of a CBD in cbhA only affects its cellulase activities with insoluble cellulose but not with other soluble substrates[29]. The regulation of many cellulases is at the transcriptional level. Transcriptional repression of these genes can be seen in T.reesei in the presence of glucose by CreA whereas transcriptional activation is induced by XInR[30]. Furthermore, the expression of cbhA and cbhB are activated by XInR, xylanolytic transcriptional activator in the presence of D-xylose.[28]  Carbohydrate-Binding Module (CBM) Domain  The CBM domain catalyses the inefficient attack on glycosidic bonds of polysaccharides by GHs[31]. Glycosidic bonds do not always fit in the active site of GHs therefore to overcome this, many GHS use catalytic and non-catalytic CBMs to promote their association with their substrate.  CBMs are mainly involved in to the hydrolysis of plant structure polysaccharides such as cellulose and hemicellulose. They also contain protein domains within a carbohydrate-active enzyme which is separate from a catalytic domain with carbohydrate binding activity[32]. A.niger has a subtype of CBM called the starch binding domain (SBD) which is found at the many amylolytic enzymes. The CBM domain was previously defined as cellulose binding domain (CBD) because initial studies on these domains found these modules bound to cellulose [33, 34]. However, it can now be seen that modules appear to be bound to other carbohydrates. CBDs, in particular in T.reesei, are essential in cellulases performing the beginning steps of cellulose degradation as most of the substrate is still insoluble. However, not all cellobiohydrolase contain a CBD, such as cbhA in A.niger [28, 35]. Expression of Xylanolytic Enzymes Xylanolytic enzymes breakdown xylan into xylose and are produced on xylose (monosaccharide), xylan (polysaccharide) or substrates containing these sugars[20]. However, xylanolytic enzymes are not induced by other monomeric or polymeric substrates such as glucose and cellulose. Some are cellulases are induced by xylose suggesting the presence of xylose may activate transcription genes encoding cellulases[28]. There is a separate regulatory control of synthesis of cellulases and beta-xylanases. In certain species such as A.terreus, xylanolytic enzyme, ÃŽ ²-xylanase was induced by cellobiose and cellulose (which are structurally related to xylobiose and xylan) as well as a heterodissachride of glucose and xylose[36] [37]. Studies of the genes encoding xylanolytic enzymes (from A.niger and A.tubingensis) have shown that these enzymes are expressed in the presence of D-xylose, xylobiose, or xylan by XInR (transcriptional activator) however, when xylose concentration is too high or glucose is present, thee genes are repressed by CreA(catabolite repressor protein)[38-40].

Sterling Price - American Civil War - Major General

Sterling Price - American Civil War - Major General Sterling Price - Early Life Career: Born September 20, 1809 in Farmville, VA, Sterling Price was the son of wealthy planters Pugh and Elizabeth Price.   Receiving his early education locally, he later attended Hampden–Sydney College in 1826 before departing to pursue a career in law.   Admitted to the Virginia bar, Price briefly practiced in his home state until following his parents to Missouri in 1831.   Settling in Fayette and then Keytesville, he married Martha Head on May 14, 1833.   During this time, Price engaged in a variety of enterprises including tobacco farming, a mercantile concern, and operating a hotel.   Gaining some prominence, he was elected to the Missouri State House of Representatives in 1836.   Sterling Price - Mexican-American War: In office two years, Price aided in resolving the Mormon War of 1838.   Returning to the state house in 1840, he later served as speaker before being elected to the US Congress in 1844.   Remaining in Washington a little over a year, Price resigned his seat on August 12, 1846 to serve in the Mexican-American War.   Returning home, he raised and was made colonel of the  Second Regiment, Missouri Mounted Volunteer Cavalry.   Assigned to Brigadier General Stephen W. Kearnys command, Price and his men moved southwest and aided in the capture of Santa Fe, New Mexico.   While Kearny moved west, Price received orders to serve as military governor of New Mexico. In this capacity, he put down the Taos Revolt in January 1847.    Promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on July 20, Price was appointed as military governor of Chihuahua.   As governor, he defeated Mexican forces at the Battle of Santa Cruz de Rosales on March 18, 1848, eight days after the ratification of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.   Though reprimanded for this action by Secretary of War William L. Marcy, no further punishment occurred.   Leaving military service on November 25, Price returned to Missouri.   Considered a war hero, he easily won election as governor in 1852.   An effective leader, Price departed office in 1857 and became the states banking commissioner.    Sterling Price - The Civil War Begins:        Ã‚     Ã‚   With the secession crisis following the election of 1860, Price initially opposed the actions of the southern states.   As a prominent politician, he was elected to head the Missouri State Convention to debate secession on February 28, 1861.   Though  the state voted to remain in the Union, Prices sympathies shifted following Brigadier General Nathaniel Lyons seizure of Camp Jackson near St. Louis and arrest of the Missouri Militia.   Casting his lot with the Confederacy, he was appointed to lead the Missouri State Guard by pro-Southern Governor Claiborne F. Jackson with the rank of major general.   Dubbed Old Pap by his men, Price embarked on a campaign to push Union troops out of Missouri. Sterling Price - Missouri Arkansas: On August 10, 1861, Price, along with Confederate Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch,  engaged Lyon at the Battle of Wilsons Creek.   The fighting saw Price win a victory and Lyon killed.   Pressing on, Confederate troops claimed another victory at Lexington in September.   Despite these successes, Union reinforcements compelled Price and McCulloch, who had become fierce rivals, to withdraw into northern Arkansas in early 1862.   Due to the conflict between the two men, Major General Earl Van Dorn was dispatched to take overall command.   Seeking to regain the initiative, Van Dorn led his new command against Brigadier General Samuel Curtis Union army at Little Sugar Creek in early March.   While the army was on the move, Prices major general commission was finally transferred to the Confederate Army.   Leading an effective attack at the  Battle of Pea Ridge on March 7, Price was wounded.   Though Prices actions were largely successful, Van Dorn was beaten the fo llowing day and forced to retreat. Sterling Price - Mississippi: Following Pea Ridge, Van Dorns army received orders to cross the Mississippi River to reinforce General P.G.T. Beauregards army at Corinth, MS.   Arriving, Prices division saw service in the Siege of Corinth that May and withdrew south when Beauregard elected to abandon the town.   That fall, when Beauregards replacement,  General Braxton Bragg, moved to invade Kentucky, Van Dorn and Price were left to defend Mississippi.   Pursued by Major General Don Carlos Buells Army of the Ohio, Bragg directed Prices enlarged Army of the West to march from Tupelo, MS north towards Nashville, TN. This force was to be aided by Van Dorns smaller Army of West Tennessee. Together, Bragg hoped  this combined force to would prevent Major General Ulysses S.  Grant from moving to aid Buell.         Ã‚   Marching north, Price engaged Union forces under Major General William S. Rosecrans on September 19 at the Battle of Iuka.   Attacking the enemy, he was unable to break through Rosecrans lines.   Bloodied, Price elected to withdraw and moved to unite with Van Dorn at Ripley, MS.   Rendezvousing five days later, Van Dorn led the combined force against Rosecrans lines at Corinth on October 3.   Assaulting the Union positions for two days in the Second Battle of Corinth, Van Dorn failed to achieve victory.   Angered by Van Dorn and desiring to take his command back to Missouri, Price traveled to Richmond, VA and met with President Jefferson Davis.   Making his case, he was chastised by Davis who questioned his loyalty.   Stripped of his command, Price received orders to return to the Trans-Mississippi Department. Sterling Price - Trans-Mississippi: Serving under Lieutenant General Theophilus H. Holmes, Price spent the first half of 1863 in Arkansas.   On July 4, he performed well in the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Helena and assumed command of the army as it withdrew to Little Rock. AR.   Pushed out of the state capital later that year, Price ultimately fell back to Camden, AR.   On March 16, 1864, he took command of the District of Arkansas.   The following month, Price opposed Major General Frederick Steeles advance through the southern part of the state.   Misinterpreting Steeles objectives, he lost Camden without a fight on April 16.   Though Union forces had won a victory, they were short on supplies and Steele elected to withdraw to Little Rock.   Harried by Price and reinforcements led by General Edmund Kirby Smith, Steeles rearguard defeated this combined force at Jenkins Ferry in late April. Following this campaign, Price began advocating for an invasion of Missouri with the goal of reclaiming the state and endangering President Abraham Lincolns reelection that fall.   Though Smith granted permission for the operation, he stripped Price of his infantry.   As a result, the effort in Missouri would be limited to a large-scale cavalry raid.   Moving north with 12,000 horsemen on August 28, Price crossed into Missouri and engaged Union forces at Pilot Knob a month later.   Turning west, he fought a string of battles as his men laid waste to the countryside.   Increasingly hemmed in by Union forces, Price was badly beaten by Curtis, now leading the Department of Kansas Indian Territory, and Major General Alfred Pleasonton at Westport on October 23.   Pursued into hostile Kansas, Price turned south, passed through the Indian Territory and finally halted at Laynesport, AR on December 2 having lost half of his command. Sterling Price - Later Life: Largely inactive for the remainder of the war, Price elected not to surrender at its conclusion and instead rode to Mexico with part of his command in the hope of serving in the army of Emperor Maximilian.   Turned down by the Mexican leader, he briefly led a community of Confederate expatriates living in Veracruz before growing ill with intestinal issues.   In August 1866, Prices condition worsened when he contracted typhoid.   Returning to St. Louis, he lived in an impoverished state until dying on September 29, 1867.   His remains were buried in the citys Bellefontaine Cemetery. Selected Sources: Civil War Trust: Major General Sterling PriceHistory of War: Major General Sterling PriceEncyclopedia of Arkansas: Major General Sterling Price

Managerial Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Managerial Decision Making - Essay Example I have also been asked to perform a self evaluation of the decisions made and to evaluate them myself as to whether I think they were a success or failure for the organization. My supervisor has asked me to email him this evaluation as part of my own yearly evaluation which will be used to decide my yearly bonus, so I have decided to make it as professional as possible. Discussion In posting my self evaluation regarding some recent decisions that I have made for the college, I have decided to evaluate each decision in terms of the six steps mentioned by Bazerman and Moore (2008) in their text and use this as a guide to determine whether each decision was a success or a failure. In this context I would like to define success as being an outcome where it has resulted in a reduction of effort on the part of staff or automated a process or reduced cost or improved the quality and efficiency of the college and its staff. If it did none of these things, I would regard it as a failure. The Office of Fiscal Affairs where I work is responsible for receiving and allocating funds for college use, as well as safeguarding financial assets. We must also conform to all Federal and State laws as well as maintain adequate internal control over the assets with which it has been entrusted. As the Senior Accountant, my objective has always been to minimize burdensome and time-consuming procedures in order to affect the flow of business transactions as smoothly and conveniently as possible. In this post, I will share with you some of my findings from the audit and how I intend to fix them as well as avoid repetitions of these errors in the future. Finding 1: Grant Expenditures Coded to Operating Expenses During my audit I noted that there were no set procedures for the invoicing of grant expenditures. Many costs that were allowable as Federal and State grant costs were recorded as general costs instead. The Finance Director and the Grants Manager did not coordinate and review the e xpenditures for inclusion as Federal or State grant expenditures. The current invoicing practice has contributed to the College’s delay in recording revenue in a timely and accurate manner. The optimal decision would be to correctly code allowable costs to the proper Federal and State grants so as to increase cash collections and better maintain the accuracy of the Grants Receivable balance. I strongly suggest that management investigate this problem and I further suggest that a formal policy and procedure be adopted to classify revenues, costs and expenses so that accounting personnel have a clear responsibility and involvement in the approval of invoices sent to the College’s grantors. In fact the College has procedures in place for processing grant expenditures. The previous administration elected not to use these processes which include collaboration with the grants department, administration and the business office. The College is reviewing this process and taking appropriate action to ensure that clear responsibility for the approval and classification of expenditures are understood in expenditures of Federal and State grants. The review process includes more involvement of the Grants Office and the Accountant in the Business Office that is responsible for accurate expenditure and billing for

The Godfather by Mario Puzo, A Comparison of novel and film Essay

The Godfather by Mario Puzo, A Comparison of novel and film - Essay Example There are numerous schools of thought on what made this novel and film appeal to the American public. Some critics are of the view that it was all about the timing. Firstly, Barra (4 & 5) argues that the novel lacked the literary merit to warrant its popularity and goes on to base the novels success on the fact that it was produced at a period when easy-reading books, that he refers to as novelizations, were a hit. However, when it comes to the films, The Godfather  and  The Godfather Part II were realised in 1972 and 1974, which was a time that the US was experiencing much turmoil and change. Critics attribute the films’ leanings towards the New Left and its exposure of the hypocrisy of institutions of power, such as corruption in the police force and politicians, gave the public what they desired to see and hear. However, the theme that pundits agree on that may have contributed to the success of both the novel and the film was that the story was really about the exper iences of American immigrant families, specifically Sicilian-Americans, adapting to their new environment. Barra (6) states that if we take away the gambling and the murder, the story becomes a straightforward depiction of how Italian-American families were assimilated into American culture. This we believe superseded the notion that it was the film that made the novel famous because historical data shows that the book had already sold millions of copies before the first film was  ­released in 1972. This common theme therefore is what we believe to be bearing the underlying relevance of the both the novel and the films: assimilation of immigrant families into the American society and its resultant consequences. The original plot and the film adaptations The Godfather novel is set in the 1940s and revolves around the family of a Sicily-American immigrant. Don Vito Corleone, the head of the Corleone family is referred to as the Godfather because he embodies what every man aspires to be. He is strong, powerful, cunning and a loving family man. This is depicted where we see Amerigo Bonasera coming to him to seek justice for his daughter’s rape (Puzo 10) and also by Virgil Sollozo who seeks Vito’s partnership to engage in the lucrative drug peddling business. The Don refuses to take up Sollozo’s offer, which leads the â€Å"Turk† to send assassins to kill the Don. Vito Corleone survives, but needs to stay away from the direct running of the family business. Sonny, his hot-headed son, takes up leadership of the Corleone family, convinces Michael, his younger brother to kill Sollozo and Captain McCluskey in vengeance for his father’s failed assassination attempt. This act results in a full scale war between the five mafia families in New York. The all out mafia war leads to the death of Sonny and Michael’s ascension to the head of the family. Michael initially tries to legitimize the Corleone business empire, but fails. Michael who erstwhile wanted nothing to do with the family business changes into a ruthless Don, who eliminates all the heads of the other mafia families in New York. He later sells all the Corleone property in New York and moves the family to Lake Tahoe, Nevada. In contrast to the novel, the movie is made of three sequels. The Godfather, Part I is the film whose plot most closely resembles the novel’s bar the elimination of several character backstories

An Interactive Technique in Instructional Strategy Assignment - 1

An Interactive Technique in Instructional Strategy - Assignment Example I incorporated an interactive technique in my instructional strategy as this was the best method of noting what students actually need. An interactive strategy helps in getting first-hand information from the people concerned with the endeavor (Hardy, 2002). The timeline of the program will run throughout the research period. Each course is scheduled to meet three days a week for one week. Class time will be approximately two hours. The learners of this program are both the students and their respective lecturers. They need to have knowledge in using a computer, as well as researching on the internet. This will ensure that constraints are limited and will ease the process (Hardy, 2002). A lecturer should be willing to assist his/her students at all cost. This takes into consideration using the internet. Students will be considered if they cannot assess the internet. They will be allowed to use the institution’s WiFi in order to carry out their research. They type of learning that will take place, as stated earlier, is an interactive learning. Students and their lecturers will be able to send the survey or questionnaire to users. They will also receive completed PDF forms from other users. Group activities will serve a purpose by permitting participants to assist each other to learn during the course (Hardy, 2002). This is the greatest way of understanding/learning as it will allow people to be open to one another. The aim/goal of this program is to allow students to assist one another as they carry out their research. A student, for instance, might need the assistance of in completing a research paper given to him/her by their respective lecturers (Hardy, 2002). This will widen up the student's knowledge by getting information from other regarding the research topic.  Ã‚  

Secular Views on the Concept of Kindness Essay Example for Free

Secular Views on the Concept of Kindness Essay In our modern world, it is unfortunate that kindness seems to be one of the most neglected character traits people choose to cultivate in their everyday lives. Kindness is listed by Paul as one of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit the nine visual traits that distinguish authentic Christian living in Chapter 5 of Pauls letter to the Galatians. Confucius instructed his followers to recompense kindness with kindness. One of the Ten Perfections in Buddhism is Metta, or loving-kindness. According to the Talmud, deeds of kindness are equal in weight to all the commandments. On a secular note, Nietzsche proposed that kindness and love are the most curative herbs and agents in human intercourse. Aristotle pointed out that kindness is helpfulness towards some one in need, not in return for anything, nor for the advantage of the helper himself, but for that of the person helped. Some even consider the majority of Shakespeares opus to be a study of human kindness. In my own humble opinion, kindness is an essential attribute for any person to possess. Kindness is refreshing to both receive and dish out to others worthy of it. Others tell me frequently that I am a very kind person. My mother and father both are very kind people. I dont consider kindness as something out of the ordinary, as many others seem to do. In an ideal world everyone would be brought up to show kindness to others; however we are not in an ideal world. I, on the other hand, I was raised to show respect, kindness and compassion to others. I believe that small, every day acts of kindness nourish the soul and body. For example, when I was younger I used to go visit an elderly, widowed woman named Rose in my neighborhood. She was very limited in the things she could do for herself because she had developed arthritis and had frequent back trouble. She could still do for herself, but she couldnt get around as well as she could in her youth. I did light housework, ran errands, and offered her conversation. I didnt expect anything material in return. I just welcomed the satisfaction of knowing I played a part in making this womans life easier and more satisfying. I enjoyed seeing her being able to sit on the porch and enjoy the sunshine. It warmed my heart to bring a smile to her face and to know that I made a positive difference in her day to day life. I did this without compensation for about a year. Miss Rose was such a sweet woman. It hurt me dearly when she suddenly moved away. To sum it up, I believe that it is acts of kindness such as these that would make life more fulfilling for the giver as well as the recipient. If everyone made made the decision to do one act of kindness for another everyday it would make the world an infinitely sweeter and more bearable place for all to live in. I believe that is kindness was emphasized and cultivated more by those in our society, then a host of problems in our society such as poverty, hunger and violence would be greatly reduced or eradicated.

Minors and the Death Penalty Essay -- essays research papers

A.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Should the death penalty be given to minors? The two groups against this issue, are the religious and medical groups. They believe they are too young to know what they have done. The medical groups believe adolescents are less developed than adults and should not be held to the same standards. . The opposing side, held mostly by state officials, feel if they are old enough to commit the crime they, old enough to get the punishment, including death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  B.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The very first execution of a minor was in1642 with Thomas Graunger in Plymouth Colony, Massachesetts. In the three-hundred years since that time, a total of approximately 365 persons have been executed for juvenile crimes, constituting 1.8 percent of roughly twenty-thousand confirmed American executions since 1608. Twenty-two of these executions for juvenile crimes have been imposed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. These twenty-two recent executions of juvenile offenders make up about 2 percent of the total executions since 1976. The death penalty for juvenile offenders has uniquely become an American practice, in that, it appears to have been abandoned by nations everywhere else in large part due to the express provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and of several other international treaties and agreements   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  C.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The reason this is a moral issue because the death of a human being is a moral issue, and if that human being is not even an adult, than it makes it an atrocity that he/she was put to death by are legal system that in all aspects is placed there for our protection. The punishment is for the criminal, but in reality the only people being punished is the family of the juvenile in question.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  D.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Capital punishment is more expensive than a life imprisonment sentence without the opportunity of parole. Florida spent an estimated $57 million on the death penalty from 1973 to 1988 to achieve eighteen executions, that is an average of $3.2 million per execution. It costs six times more to execute a person in Florida than to incarcerate a prisoner for life with no parole. The average cost of a capital trial in Florida is ... ...y between the law breaker and society. Just punishment is binding and not to be mitigated by any utilitarian consideration. Kant also believes in â€Å"blood guilt† and the necessity for cleansing criminal actions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   H.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This issue is pretty touchy to me, because i could support both side of minor being put to death. I agree with if they do the crime, they can do the time, but at the same time they are just little kids and they do not know better. The way I see how this situation can change is that instead of holding the child responsible for the crime hold the parents in contempt. The reason I say this is because a study shown shows that most juvenile convicts come from a broken home. The old saying goes â€Å"monkey see, monkey do.† I believe if these children would have had the chance of growing up in a stable family upbringing, there is a good chance that they would have been upstanding citizens. So my belief may be torn apart on the subject, I'm am going to have to say that I am against the death penalty for minors, because i believe they don not know what they do, because of a lack of immaturity and lack of experience in life.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER ELEVEN

I woke in the early hours of the following morning convinced that there was someone in the north bedroom with me. I sat up against the pillows, rubbed my eyes, and saw a dark, shouldery shape standing between me and the window. ‘Who are you?' I asked, thinking that it wouldn't reply in words; it would, instead, thump on the wall. Once for yes, twice for no what's on your mind, Houdini? But the figure standing by the window made no reply at all. I groped up, found the string hanging from the light over the bed, and yanked it. My mouth was turned down in a grimace, my midsection tensed so tight it felt as if bullets would have bounced off. ‘Oh shit,' I said. ‘Fuck me til I cry.' Dangling from a hanger I'd hooked over the curtain rod was my old suede jacket. I'd parked it there while unpacking and had then forgotten to store it away in the closet. I tried to laugh and couldn't. At three in the morning it just didn't seem that funny. I turned off the light and lay back down with my eyes open, waiting for Bunter's bell to ring or the childish sobbing to start. I was still listening when I fell asleep. Seven hours or so later, as I was getting ready to go out to Jo's studio and see if the plastic owls were in the storage area, where I hadn't checked the day before, a late-model Ford rolled down my driveway and stopped nose to nose with my Chevy. I had gotten as far as the short path between the house and the studio, but now I came back. The day was hot and breathless, and I was wearing nothing but a pair of cut-off jeans and plastic flip-flops on my feet. Jo always claimed that the Cleveland style of dressing divided itself naturally into two subgenres: Full Cleveland and Cleveland Casual. My visitor that Tuesday morning was wearing Cleveland Casual you had your Hawaiian shirt with pineapples and monkeys, your tan slacks from Banana Republic, your white loafers. Socks are optional, but white footgear is a necessary part of the Cleveland look, as is at least one piece of gaudy gold jewelry. This fellow was totally okay in the latter department: he had a Rolex on one wrist and a gold-link chain around his neck. The tail of his shirt was out, and there was a suspicious lump at the back. It was either a gun or a beeper and looked too big to be a beeper. I glanced at the car again. Blackwall tires. And on the dashboard, oh look at this, a covered blue bubble. The better to creep up on you unsuspected, Gramma. ‘Michael Noonan?' He was handsome in a way that would be attractive to certain women the kind who cringe when anybody in their immediate vicinity raises his voice, the kind who rarely call the police when things go wrong at home because, on some miserable secret level, they believe they deserve things to go wrong at home. Wrong things that result in black eyes, dislocated elbows, the occasional cigarette burn on the booby. These are women who more often than not call their husbands or lovers daddy, as in ‘Can I bring you a beer, daddy?' or ‘Did you have a hard day at work, daddy?' ‘Yes, I'm Michael Noonan. How can I help you?' This version of daddy turned, bent, and grabbed something from the litter of paperwork on the passenger side of the front seat. Beneath the dash, a two-way radio squawked once, briefly, and fell silent. He turned back to me with a long, buff-colored folder in one hand. Held it out. ‘This is yours.' When I didn't take it, he stepped forward and tried to poke it into one of my palms, which would presumably cause me to close my fingers in a kind of reflex. Instead I raised both hands to shoulder-level, as if he had just told me to put em up, Muggsy. He looked at me patiently, his face as Irish as the Arlen brothers' but without the Arlen look of kindness, openness, and curiosity. What was there in place of those things was a species of sour amusement, as if he'd seen all of the world's pissier behavior, most of it twice. One of his eyebrows had been split open a long time ago, and his cheeks had that reddish windburned look that indicates either ruddy good health or a deep interest in grain-alcohol products. He looked like he could knock you into the gutter and then sit on you to keep you there. I been good, daddy, get off me, don't be mean. ‘Don't make this tough. You're gonna take service of this and we both know it, so don't make this tough.' ‘Show me some ID first.' He sighed, rolled his eyes, then reached into one of his shirt pockets. He brought out a leather folder and flipped it open. There was a badge and a photo ID. My new friend was George Footman, Deputy Sheriff, Castle County. The photo was flat and shadowless, like something an assault victim would see in a mugbook. ‘Okay?' he asked. I took the buff-backed document when he held it out again. He stood there, broadcasting that sense of curdled amusement as I scanned it. I had been subpoenaed to appear in the Castle Rock office of Elmer Durgin, Attorney-at-Law, at ten o'clock on the morning of July 10, 1998 Friday, in other words. Said Elmer Durgin had been appointed guardian ad litem of Kyra Elizabeth Devore, a minor child. He would take a deposition from me concerning any knowledge I might have of Kyra Elizabeth Devore in regard to her well-being. This deposition would be taken on behalf of Castle County Superior Court and Judge Noble Rancourt. A stenographer would be present. I was assured that this was the court's depo, and nothing to do with either Plaintiff or Defendant. Footman said, ‘It's my job to remind you of the penalties should you fail ‘ ‘Thanks, but let's just assume you told me all about those, okay? I'll be there.' I made shooing gestures at his car. I felt deeply disgusted . . . and I felt interfered with. I had never been served with a process before, and I didn't care for it. He went back to his car, started to swing in, then stopped with one hairy arm hung over the top of the open door. His Rolex gleamed in the hazy sunlight. ‘Let me give you a piece of advice,' he said, and that was enough to tell me anything else I needed to know about the guy. ‘Don't fuck with Mr. Devore.' ‘Or he'll squash me like a bug,' I said. ‘Huh?' ‘Your actual lines are, ‘Let me give you a piece of advice don't fuck with Mr. Devore or he'll squash you like a bug.† I could see by his expression half past perplexed, going on angry that he had meant to say something very much like that. Obviously we'd seen the same movies, including all those in which Robert De Niro plays a psycho. Then his face cleared. ‘Oh sure, you're the writer,' he said. ‘That's what they tell me.' ‘You can say stuff like that 'cause you're a writer.' ‘Well, it's a free country, isn't it?' ‘Ain't you a smartass, now.' ‘How long have you been working for Max Devore, Deputy? And does the County Sheriffs office know you're moonlighting?' ‘They know. It's not a problem. You're the one that might have the problem, Mr. Smartass Writer.' I decided it was time to quit this before we descended to the kaka-poopie stage of name-calling. ‘Get out of my driveway, please, Deputy.' He looked at me a moment longer, obviously searching for that perfect capper line and not finding it. He needed a Mr. Smartass Writer to help him, that was all. ‘I'll be looking for you on Friday,' he said. ‘Does that mean you're going to buy me lunch? Don't worry, I'm a fairly cheap date.' His reddish cheeks darkened a degree further, and I could see what they were going to look like when he was sixty, if he didn't lay off the firewater in the meantime. He got back into his Ford and reversed up my driveway hard enough to make his tires holler. I stood where I was, watching him go. Once he was headed back out Lane Forty-two to the highway, I went into the house. It occurred to me that Deputy Footman's extracurricular job must pay well, if he could afford a Rolex. On the other hand, maybe it was a knockoff. Settle down, Michael, Jo's voice advised. The red rag is gone now, no one's waving anything in front of you, so just settle I shut her voice out. I didn't want to settle down; I wanted to settle up. I had been interfered with. I walked over to the hall desk where Jo and I had always kept our pending documents (and our desk calendars, now that I thought about it), and tacked the summons to the bulletin board by one corner of its buff-colored jacket. With that much accomplished, I raised my fist in front of my eyes, looked at the wedding ring on it for a moment, then slammed it against the wall beside the bookcase. I did it hard enough to make an entire row of paperbacks jump. I thought about Mattie Devore's baggy shorts and Kmart smock, then about her father-in-law paying four and a quarter million dollars for Warrington's. Writing a personal goddamned check. I thought about Bill Dean saying that one way or another, that little girl was going to grow up in California. I walked back and forth through the house, still simmering, and finally ended up in front of the fridge. The circle of magnets was the same, but the letters inside had changed. Instead of hello they now read help r ‘Helper?' I said, and as soon as I heard the word out loud, I understood. The letters on the fridge consisted of only a single alphabet (no, not even that, I saw; g and x had been lost someplace), and I'd have to get more. If the front of my Kenmore was going to become a Ouija board, I'd need a good supply of letters. Especially vowels. In the meantime, I moved the h and the e in front of the r. Now the message read lp her I scattered the circle of fruit and vegetable magnets with my palm, spread the letters, and resumed pacing. I had made a decision not to get between Devore and his daughter-in-law, but I'd wound up between them anyway. A deputy in Cleveland clothing had shown up in my driveway, complicating a life that already had its problems . . . and scaring me a little in the bargain. But at least it was a fear of something I could see and understand. All at once I decided I wanted to do more with the summer than worry about ghosts, crying kids, and what my wife had been up to four or five years ago . . . if, in fact, she had been up to anything. I couldn't write books, but that didn't mean I had to pick scabs. Help her. I decided I would at least try. ‘Harold Oblowski Literary Agency.' ‘Come to Belize with me, Nola,' I said. ‘I need you. We'll make beautiful love at midnight, when the full moon turns the beach to a bone.' ‘Hello, Mr. Noonan,' she said. No sense of humor had Nola. No sense of romance, either. In some ways that made her perfect for the Oblowski Agency. ‘Would you like to speak to Harold?' ‘If he's in.' ‘He is. Please hold.' One nice thing about being a best selling author even one whose books only appear, as a general rule, on lists that go to fifteen is that your agent almost always happens to be in. Another is if he's vacationing on Nantucket, he'll be in to you there. A third is that the time you spend on hold is usually quite short. ‘Mike!' he cried. ‘How's the lake? I thought about you all weekend!' Yeah, I thought, and pigs will whistle. ‘Things are fine in general but shitty in one particular, Harold. I need to talk to a lawyer. I thought first about calling Ward Hankins for a recommendation, but then I decided I wanted somebody a little more high-powered than Ward was likely to know. Someone with filed teeth and a taste for human flesh would be nice.' This time Harold didn't bother with the long-pause routine. ‘What's up, Mike? Are you in trouble?' Thump once for yes, twice for no, I thought, and for one wild moment thought of actually doing just that. I remembered finishing Christy Brown's memoir, Down All the Days, and wondering what it would be like to write an entire book with the pen grasped between the toes of your left foot. Now I wondered what it would be like to go through eternity with no way to communicate but rapping on the cellar wall. And even then only certain people would be able to hear and understand you . . . and only those certain people at certain times. Jo, was it you? And if it was, why did you answer both ways? ‘Mike? Are you there?' ‘Yes. This isn't really my trouble, Harold, so cool your jets. I do have a problem, though. Your main guy is Goldacre, right?' ‘Right. I'll call him right aw ‘ ‘But he deals primarily with contracts law.' I was thinking out loud now, and when I paused, Harold didn't fill it. Sometimes he's an all-right guy. Most times, really. ‘Call him for me anyway, would you? Tell him I need to talk to an attorney with a good working knowledge of child-custody law. Have him put me in touch with the best one who's free to take a case immediately. One who can be in court with me Friday, if that's necessary.' ‘Is it paternity?' he asked, sounding both respectful and afraid. ‘No, custody.' I thought about telling him to get the whole story from the Lawyer to Be Named Later, but Harold deserved better . . . and would demand to hear my version sooner or later anyway, no matter what the lawyer told him. I gave him an account of my Fourth of July morning and its aftermath. I stuck with the Devores, mentioning nothing about voices, crying children, or thumps in the dark. Harold only interrupted once, and that was when he realized who the villain of the piece was. ‘You're asking for trouble,' he said. ‘You know that, don't you?' ‘I'm in for a certain measure of it in any case,' I said. ‘I've decided I want to dish out a little as well, that's all.' ‘You will not have the peace and quiet that a writer needs to do his best work,' Harold said in an amusingly prim voice. I wondered what the reaction would be if I said that was okay, I hadn't written anything more riveting than a grocery list since Jo died, and maybe this would stir me up a little. But I didn't. Never let em see you sweat, the Noonan clan's motto. Someone should carve DON'T WORRY I'M FINE on the door of the family crypt. Then I thought: help r. ‘That young woman needs a friend,' I said, ‘and Jo would have wanted me to be one to her. Jo didn't like it when the little folks got stepped on.' ‘You think?' ‘Yeah.' ‘Okay, I'll see who I can find. And Mike . . . do you want me to come up on Friday for this depo?' ‘No.' It came out sounding needlessly abrupt and was followed by a silence that seemed not calculated but hurt. ‘Listen, Harold, my caretaker said the actual custody hearing is scheduled soon. If it happens and you still want to come up, I'll give you a call. I can always use your moral support you know that.' ‘In my case it's immoral support,' he replied, but he sounded cheery again. We said goodbye. I walked back to the fridge and looked at the magnets. They were still scattered hell to breakfast, and that was sort of a relief. Even the spirits must have to rest sometimes. I took the cordless phone, went out onto the deck, and plonked down in the chair where I'd been on the night of the Fourth, when Devore called. Even after my visit from ‘daddy,' I could still hardly believe that conversation. Devore had called me a liar; I had told him to stick my telephone number up his ass. We were off to a great start as neighbors. I pulled the chair a little closer to the edge of the deck, which dropped a giddy forty feet or so to the slope between Sara's backside and the lake. I looked for the green woman I'd seen while swimming, telling myself not to be a dope things like that you can see only from one angle, stand even ten feet off to one side or the other and there's nothing to look at. But this was apparently a case of the exception's proving the rule. I was both amused and a little uneasy to realize that the birch down there by The Street looked like a woman from the land side as well as from the lake. Some of it was due to the pine just behind it that bare branch jutting off to the north like a bony pointing arm but not all of it. From back here the birch's white limbs and narrow leaves still made a woman's shape, and when the wind shook the lower levels of the tree, the green and silver swirled like long skirts. I had said no to Harold's well-meant offer to come up almost before it was fully articulated, and as I looked at the tree-woman, rather ghostly in her own right, I knew why: Harold was loud, Harold was insensitive to nuance, Harold might frighten off whatever was here. I didn't want that. I was scared, yes standing on those dark cellar stairs and listening to the thumps from just below me, I had been fucking terrified but I had also felt fully alive for the first time in years. I was touching something in Sara that was entirely beyond my experience, and it fascinated me. The cordless phone rang in my lap, making me jump. I grabbed it, expecting Max Devore or perhaps Footman, his overgolded minion. It turned out to be a lawyer named John Storrow, who sounded as if he might have graduated from law school fairly recently like last week. Still, he worked for the firm of Avery, McLain, and Bernstein on Park Avenue, and Park Avenue is a pretty good address for a lawyer, even one who still has a few of his milk-teeth. If Henry Goldacre said Storrow was good, he probably was. And his specialty was custody law. ‘Now tell me what's happening up there,' he said when the introductions were over and the background had been sketched in. I did my best, feeling my spirits rise a little as the tale wound on. There's something oddly comforting about talking to a legal guy once the billable-hours clock has started running; you have passed the magical point at which a lawyer becomes your lawyer. Your lawyer is warm, your lawyer is sympathetic, your lawyer makes notes on a yellow pad and nods in all the right places. Most of the questions your lawyer asks are questions you can answer. And if you can't, your lawyer will help you find a way to do so, by God. Your lawyer is always on your side. Your enemies are his enemies. To him you are never shit but always Shinola. When I had finished, John Storrow said: ‘Wow. I'm surprised the papers haven't gotten hold of this.' ‘That never occurred to me.' But I could see his point. The Devore family saga wasn't for the New York Times or Boston Globe, probably not even for the Derry News, but in weekly supermarket tabs like The National Enquirer or Inside View, it would fit like a glove instead of the girl, King Kong decides to snatch the girl's innocent child and carry it with him to the top of the Empire State Building. Oh, eek, unhand that baby, you brute. It wasn't front-page stuff, no blood or celebrity morgue shots, but as a page nine shouter it would do nicely. In my mind I composed a headline blaring over side-by-side pix of Warrington's Lodge and Mattie's rusty doublewide: COMPU-KING LIVES IN SPLENDOR AS HE TRIES TO TAKE YOUNG BEAUTY'S ONLY CHILD. Probably too long, I decided. I wasn't writing anymore and still I needed an editor. That was pretty sad when you stopped to think about it. ‘Perhaps at some point we'll see that they do get the story,' Storrow said in a musing tone. I realized that this was a man I could grow attached to, at least in my present angry mood. He grew brisker. ‘Who'm I representing here, Mr. Noonan? You or the young lady? I vote for the young lady.' ‘The young lady doesn't even know I've called you. She may think I've taken a bit too much on myself. She may, in fact, give me the rough side of her tongue.' ‘Why would she do that?' ‘Because she's a Yankee a Maine Yankee, the worst kind. On a given day, they can make the Irish look logical.' ‘Perhaps, but she's the one with the target pinned to her shirt. I suggest that you call and tell her that.' I promised I would. It wasn't a hard promise to make, either. I'd known I'd have to be in touch with her ever since I had accepted the summons from Deputy Footman. ‘And who stands for Michael Noonan come Friday morning?' Storrow laughed dryly. ‘I'll find someone local to do that. He'll go into this Durgin's office with you, sit quietly with his briefcase on his lap, and listen. I may be in town by that point I won't know until I talk to Ms. Devore but I won't be in Durgin's office. When the custody hearing comes around, though, you'll see my face in the place.' ‘All right, good. Call me with the name of my new lawyer. My other new lawyer.' ‘Uh-huh. In the meantime, talk to the young lady. Get me a job.' ‘I'll try.' ‘Also try to stay visible if you're with her,' he said. ‘If we give the bad guys room to get nasty, they'll get nasty. There's nothing like that between you, is there? Nothing nasty? Sorry to have to ask, but I do have to ask.' ‘No,' I said. ‘It's been quite some time since I've been up to anything nasty with anyone.' ‘I'm tempted to commiserate, Mr. Noonan, but under the circumstances ‘ ‘Mike. Make it Mike.' ‘Good. I like that. And I'm John. People are going to talk about your involvement anyway. You know that, don't you?' ‘Sure. People know I can afford you. They'll speculate about how she can afford me. Pretty young widow, middle-aged widower. Sex would seem the most likely.' ‘You're a realist.' ‘I don't really think I am, but I know a hawk from a handsaw.' ‘I hope you do, because the ride could get rough. This is an extremely rich man we're going up against.' Yet he didn't sound scared. He sounded almost . . . greedy. He sounded the way part of me had felt when I saw that the magnets on the fridge were back in a circle. ‘I know he is.' ‘In court that won't matter a whole helluva lot, because there's a certain amount of money on the other side. Also, the judge is going to be very aware that this one is a powderkeg. That can be useful.' ‘What's the best thing we've got going for us?' I asked this thinking of Kyra's rosy, unmarked face and her complete lack of fear in the presence of her mother. I asked it thinking John would reply that the charges were clearly unfounded. I thought wrong. ‘The best thing? Devore's age. He's got to be older than God.' ‘Based on what I've heard over the weekend, I think he must be eighty-five. That would make God older.' ‘Yeah, but as a potential dad he makes Tony Randall look like a teenager,' John said, and now he sounded positively gloating. ‘Think of it, Michael the kid graduates from high school the year Gramps turns one hundred. Also there's a chance the old man's overreached himself. Do you know what a guardian ad litem is?' ‘No.' ‘Essentially it's a lawyer the court appoints to protect the interests of the child. A fee for the service comes out of court costs, but it's a pittance. Most people who agree to serve as guardian ad litem have strictly altruistic motives . . . but not all of them. In any case, the ad litem puts his own spin on the case. Judges don't have to take the guy's advice, but they almost always do. It makes a judge look stupid to reject the advice of his own appointee, and the thing a judge hates above all others is looking stupid.' ‘Devore will have his own lawyer?' John laughed. ‘How about half a dozen at the actual custody hearing?' ‘Are you serious?' ‘The guy is eighty-five. That's too old for Ferraris, too old for bungee jumping in Tibet, and too old for whores unless he's a mighty man. What does that leave for him to spend his money on?' ‘Lawyers,' I said bleakly. ‘Yep.' ‘And Mattie Devore? What does she get?' ‘Thanks to you, she gets me,' John Storrow said. ‘It's like a John Grisham novel, isn't it? Pure gold. Meantime, I'm interested in Durgin, the ad litem. If Devore hasn't been expecting any real trouble, he may have been unwise enough to put temptation in Durgin's way. And Durgin may have been stupid enough to succumb. Hey, who knows what we might find?' But I was a turn back. ‘She gets you,' I said. ‘Thanks to me. And if I wasn't here to stick in my oar? What would she get then?' ‘Bubkes. That's Yiddish. It means ‘ ‘I know what it means,' I said. ‘That's incredible.' ‘Nope, just American justice. You know the lady with the scales? The one who stands outside most city courthouses?' ‘Uh-huh.' ‘Slap some handcuffs on that broad's wrists and some tape over her mouth to go along with the blindfold, rape her and roll her in the mud. You like that image? I don't, but it's a fair representation of how the law works in custody cases where the plaintiff is rich and the defendant is poor. And sexual equality has actually made it worse, because while mothers still tend to be poor, they are no longer seen as the automatic choice for custody.' ‘Mattie Devore's got to have you, doesn't she?' ‘Yes,' John said simply. ‘Call me tomorrow and tell me that she will.' ‘I hope I can do that.' ‘So do I. And listen there's one more thing.' ‘What?' ‘You lied to Devore on the telephone.' ‘Bullshit!' ‘Nope, nope, I hate to contradict my sister's favorite author, but you did and you know it. You told Devore that mother and child were out together, the kid was picking flowers, everything was fine. You put everything in there except Bambi and Thumper.' I was sitting up straight in my deck-chair now. I felt sandbagged. I also felt that my own cleverness had been overlooked. ‘Hey, no, think again. I never came out and said anything. I told him I assumed. I used the word more than once. I remember that very clearly.' ‘Uh-huh, and if he was taping your conversation, you'll get a chance to actually count how many times you used it.' At first I didn't answer. I was thinking back to the conversation I'd had with him, remembering the underhum on the phone line, the characteristic underhum I remembered from all my previous summers at Sara Laughs. Had that steady low mmmmm been even more noticeable on Saturday night? ‘I guess maybe there could be a tape,' I said reluctantly. ‘Uh-huh. And if Devore's lawyer gets it to the ad litem, how do you think you'll sound?' ‘Careful,' I said. ‘Maybe like a man with something to hide.' ‘Or a man spinning yarns. And you're good at that, aren't you? After all, it's what you do for a living. At the custody hearing, Devore's lawyer is apt to mention that. If he then produces one of the people who passed you shortly after Mattie arrived on the scene . . . a person who testifies that the young lady seemed upset and flustered . . . how do you think you'll sound then?' ‘Like a liar,' I said, and then: ‘Ah, fuck.' ‘Fear not, Mike. Be of good cheer.' ‘What should I do?' ‘Spike their guns before they can fire them. Tell Durgin exactly what happened. Get it in the depo. Emphasize the fact that the little girl thought she was walking safely. Make sure you get in that ‘crossmock' thing. I love that.' ‘Then if they have a tape they'll play it and I'll look like a story-changing schmuck.' ‘I don't think so. You weren't a sworn witness when you talked to Devore, were you? There you were, sitting out on your deck and minding your own business, watching the fireworks show. Out of the blue this grouchy old asshole calls you. Starts ranting. Didn't even give him your number, did you?' ‘No.' ‘Your unlisted number.' ‘No.' ‘And while he said he was Maxwell Devore, he could have been anyone, right?' ‘Right.' ‘He could have been the Shah of Iran.' ‘No, the Shah's dead.' ‘The Shah's out, then. But he could have been a nosy neighbor . . . or a prankster.' ‘Yes.' ‘And you said what you said with all those possibilities in mind. But now that you're part of an official court proceeding, you're telling the whole truth and nothing but.' ‘You bet.' That good my-lawyer feeling had deserted me for a bit, but it was back full-force now. ‘You can't do better than the truth, Mike,' he said solemnly. ‘Except maybe in a few cases, and this isn't one. Are we clear on that?' ‘Yes.' ‘All right, we're done. I want to hear from either you or Mattie Devore around elevenish tomorrow. It ought to be her.' ‘I'll try.' ‘If she really balks, you know what to do, don't you?' ‘I think so. Thanks, John.' ‘One way or another, we'll talk very soon,' he said, and hung up. I sat where I was for awhile. Once I pushed the button which opened the line on the cordless phone, then pushed it again to close it. I had to talk to Mattie, but I wasn't quite ready yet. I decided to take a walk instead. If she really balks, you know what to do, don't you? Of course. Remind her that she couldn't afford to be proud. That she couldn't afford to go all Yankee, refusing charity from Michael Noonan, author of Being Two, The Red-Shirt Man, and the soon-to-be-published Helen's Promise. Remind her that she could have her pride or her daughter, but likely not both. Hey, Mattie, pick one. I walked almost to the end of the lane, stopping at Tidwell's Meadow with its pretty view down to the cup of the lake and across to the White Mountains. The water dreamed under a hazy sky, looking gray when you tipped your head one way, blue when you tipped it the other. That sense of mystery was very much with me. That sense of Manderley. Over forty black people had settled here at the turn of the century lit here for awhile, anyway according to Marie Hingerman (also according to A History of Castle County and Castle Rock, a weighty tome published in 1977, the county's bicentennial year). Pretty special black people, too: most of them related, most of them talented, most of them part of a musical group which had first been called The Red-Top Boys and then Sara Tidwell and the Red-Top Boys. They had bought the meadow and a good-sized tract of lakeside land from a man named Douglas Day. The money had been saved up over a period of ten years, according to Sonny Tidwell, who did the dickering (as a Red-Top, Son Tidwell had played what was then known as ‘chickenscratch guitar'). There had been a vast uproar about it in town, and even a meeting to protest ‘the advent of these darkies, which come in a Horde.' Things had settled down and turned out okay, as things have a way of doing, more often than not. The shanty town most locals had expected on Day's Hill (for so Tidwell's Meadow was called in 1900, when Son Tidwell bought the land on behalf of his extensive clan) had never appeared. Instead, a number of neat white cabins sprang up, surrounding a larger building that might have been intended as a group meeting place, a rehearsal area, or perhaps, at some point, a performance hall. Sara and the Red-Top Boys (sometimes there was a Red-Top Girl in there, as well; membership in the band was fluid, changing with every performance) played around western Maine for over a year, maybe closer to two years. In towns all up and down the Western Line Farmington, Skowhegan, Bridgton, Gates Falls, Castle Rock, Morton, Fryeburg you'll still come across their old show-posters at barn bazaars and junkatoriums. Sara and the Red-Tops were great favorites on the circuit, and they got along all right at home on the TR, too, which never surprised me. At the end of the day Robert Frost that utilitarian and often unpleasant poet was right: in the northeastern three we really do believe that good fences make good neighbors. We squawk and then keep a miserly peace, the kind with gimlet eyes and a tucked-down mouth. ‘They pay their bills,' we say. ‘I ain't never had to shoot one a their dogs,' we say. ‘They keep themselves to themselves,' we say, as if isolation wer e a virtue. And, of course, the defining virtue: ‘They don't take charity.' And at some point, Sara Tidwell became Sara Laughs. In the end, though, TR-90 mustn't have been what they wanted, because after playing a county fair or two in the late summer of 1901, the clan moved on. Their neat little cabins provided summer-rental income for the Day family until 1933, when they burned in the summer fires which charred the east and north sides of the lake. End of story. Except for her music, that was. Her music had lived. I got up from the rock I had been sitting on, stretched my arms and my back, and walked back down the lane, singing one of her songs as I went.