What intrigues me most about laughter is how it spreads. It’s almost impossible not to laugh when everybody else is. There have been laughing epidemics, in which no one could stop and some even died in a prolonged fit. There are laughing churches and laugh therapies based on the healing power of laughter. The must-have […] Read more
Audiobooks
Monster by Jonathan Kellerman
Chapter 11 William Swig said, “you think that means something?” It was just after four P.M. and we were back in his office, Milo’s unmarked was low on gas, so he left it at the park and I drove to Starkweather. On the way, he made two calls on the cell phone. An attempt to […] Read more
Monster Without Souls
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there lived a monster at the bottom of a lake. This monster craved souls, and spent every waking hour outside the lake searching for one. However, this world was too big for a monster, so it split itself into two- one heading east and the […] Read more
Myths that Every Child Should Know – Edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie – Introduction – Paragraph 3
When a man sneezes, people still say in some countries, “God bless you.” They do not know why they say it; they simply repeat what they heard older people say when they were children, and do not know that every time they use these words they recall the age when people believed that evil spirits […] Read more
Negotiate Like A Pro By Lisa Bertagnoli
Even in these enlightened days when women are CEOs and Cabinet Members, many still feel uncomfortable with blatant displays of power. Women are often afraid to ask for what they want because they tend to confuse assertion with aggression. Aggression implies violation. When you act aggressively, the other person will feel angry or taken advantage […] Read more
Never Cry Wolf By Farley Mowat
I listened, but if a wolf was broadcasting from those hills he was not on my wavelength. George, who had been sleeping on the crest of the esker, suddenly sat up, cocked his ears forward and pointed his long muzzle toward the north. After a minute or two he threw back his head and howled; […] Read more
Nothing Less than War
“We are walking on quicksand,” wrote Woodrow Wilson to a cousin in September 1915. For over a year the president had sought to steer a neutral course during a conflict first known as the Great War, then as World War I. Costing 30 million casualties and 8 million dead, the event was sufficiently cataclysmic for […] Read more
Nothing Less Than War – by Justus D. Doenecke
Chapter 5 Frustrating Times August 1915–March 1916 On August 19, 1915, seventy miles off Queenstown, Ireland, at about three in the afternoon, the German submarine U-27 halted the British mule steamer Nicosian. Acting in accordance with the rules of international law, the U-boat was waiting for the Nicosian’s crew to evacuate, when a vessel that […] Read more
Of Mice and Men by John Stienbeck
Of Mice and Men George came quietly out of the brush. George said quietly, “What the hell you yellin’ about?” Lennie got up on his knees. “You ain’t gonna leave me, are ya, George? I know you ain’t.” George came stiffly near and sat down beside him. “No.” “I knowed it,” Lennie cried. “You ain’t […] Read more
Omnivore’s Dilemma…Second Day on the Farm
Omnivore’s Dilemma Michael Pollan excerpt, pages 212, 213 (whole excerpt runs about 1:50) That day, my second on the farm, as Joel introduced me to each of his intricately layered enterprises, I began to understand just how radically different this sort of farming is from the industrial models I’d observed before, whether in an Iowa […] Read more
