This is the story of a man who, at age fifty, found his world crashing in on him. In addition to losing his job, he found that he was afflicted with a heart condition that could be fatal within five years. Rather than sitting back and awaiting the arrival of the Grim Reaper, he elected to start a new career in franchising, cofounding a retail concept that had never been tried. With the assistance of new medications and numerous groundbreaking surgeries, he continued to lead the fledgling company for twenty years, building an international network of retail private postal facilities that now exceed six thousand outlets spanning the whole globe. The purpose of this book is to provide encouragement to individuals who have arrived at middle age and feel that life has passed them by, that their unrealized goals in life are now unachievable. We agree with that sage, Yogi Berra. "It ain't over till it's over!"
The representation of aquatic people in contemporary film and television—from their on-screen sexuality to the mockumentaries they’ve inspired. Mermaids have been a feature of western cinema since its inception and the number of films, television series, and videos representing them has expanded exponentially since the 1980s. Making a Splash analyses texts produced within a variety of audiovisual genres. Following an overview of mermaids in western culture that draws on a range of disciplines including media studies, psychoanalysis, and post-structuralism, individual chapters provide case studies of particular engagements with the folkloric figure. From Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid” to the creation of Ursula, Ariel’s tentacled antagonist in Disney’s 1989 film, to aspects of mermaid vocality, physicality, agency, and sexuality in films and even representations of mermen, this work provides a definitive overview of the significance of these ancient mythical figures in 110 years of western audio-visual media.
Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- 1 Youth and Media -- 2 Then and Now -- 3 Themes and Theoretical Perspectives -- 4 Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers -- 5 Children -- 6 Adolescents -- 7 Media and Violence -- 8 Media and Emotions -- 9 Advertising and Commercialism -- 10 Media and Sex -- 11 Media and Education -- 12 Digital Games -- 13 Social Media -- 14 Media and Parenting -- 15 The End -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z
Captain Crompie is an old Captain with ships only in bottles. Two Januarys ago he lost his son who was also a Captain. He lives with his granddaughters while their mother is in a sanitarium. He can't sell the ships in bottles to maintain his little family. A mermaid surfaces, with magical powers to save the captain and solve his problems. Delores DeSio is an artist, and a writer. Captain Crompie and the Mermaid is her eighth book. Her previous books are: Rescue of the Gem Children, Distinctly the Duck, Up A Tree with Mary McPhee, Annie's Journey Through the Golden Door, The Legend of Ruby O'Grady, Aunt Nettie's Backyard, an adult book, and In the Magic of the Night. She is listed in Marquis' Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Women, and Who's Who in the World.
By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas | Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Selected by Time as One of the Ten Best Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News, and Kirkus Reviews | A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist | Winner of the ALA Alex Award | Finalist for the Costa Novel Award From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for thirteen-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in a dying Cold War England, 1982. But the thirteen chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissingeresque realpolitik enacted in boys’ games on a frozen lake; of “nightcreeping” through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason’s search to replace his dead grandfather’s irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher’s recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons. Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell’s subtlest and most effective achievement to date. Praise for Black Swan Green “[David Mitchell has created] one of the most endearing, smart, and funny young narrators ever to rise up from the pages of a novel. . . . The always fresh and brilliant writing will carry readers back to their own childhoods. . . . This enchanting novel makes us remember exactly what it was like.”—The Boston Globe “[David Mitchell is a] prodigiously daring and imaginative young writer. . . . As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall.”—Time
