Evelyn Lozada: Why Is Basketball Wives Star on Show with Football Boyfriend?

Evelyn Lozada Continues to Star on Basketball Wives Despite Engagement to Football Star Chad Ochocinco

Season three of the hit show Basketball Wives is slated to kick-off Monday night and one of it's stars really doesn't fit the title anymore.

Evelyn Lozada was originally on the show because she was the ex-wife of former Boston Celtics star Antonie Walker.

He went bankrupt, and now she decided to switch sports. Evelyn has been dating Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocino for almost a year and now they are engaged.

Yet Evelyn plans to have another huge role in Basketball Wives.

What's the deal?

Clearly the show is her way of staying in the limelight and it doesn't matter what sport her man plays...Evelyn will still find plenty of drama to get into.

But if she marries Ochocinco anytime soon, maybe Evelyn should consider a switch to Football Wives because she simply doesn't fit the title of the show anymore.

Then again, neither does Shaunie O'Neal, the ex-wife of Shaq, whom is currently without a man in her life and is another "basketball wife" that really isn't.

Oh well, as long as there is drama VH-1 will be satisfied.

 

(source)

David Fincher's 'Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' Trailer Hits The Web (Video)

No one's sure how it got there taking credit yet, but the red-band trailer for David Fincher's highly anticipated adaptation of the hit Stieg Larsson novel, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," has surfaced on the web.

And it's gaining momentum. Fast.

From the slice of story we see here, it looks like Fincher's using a hard-edged approach to capture this dramatic thriller, which stars Rooney Mara as the hacker heroine Lisbeth Salander and Daniel Craig as the journalist-gone-rogue Mikael Blomkvist.

The trailer cuts quickly from snowy roads, to racing motorcycles, to bloody showers, as well as everything (and we mean everything) in between. In fact, it even brands itself as "The feel bad movie of Christmas." Move over Mark Zuckerberg, because there's a new computer genius in town, and she's not interested in making any friends.

Of course, the excitement of the trailer itself is mirrored only by the mystery of how this clip even landed on the web. Supposedly, it was recorded (illegally, mind you) in a European movie theater, but, as The Hollywood Reporter points out, the quality is unusually good for such a video and there are no sounds of other theatergoers. Odd.

Even more eyebrow-raising is the mere fact that the videos haven't been pulled from the web. Yet. Stay tuned. It would certainly be appropriate if Sony were going a viral route to launch their campaign for this flick.

Check out the sneak peek for yourself (while you can) and see if you think you can hang with Fincher's new crew.

"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" hits theaters Dec. 21.

 (source)

What's On Tonight: 'Glee,' 'Christmas in Rockefeller Center,' 'The Victoria Secret Fashion Show,' 'Strange Days With Bob Saget'

Here's tonight's lineup of new shows and events (all times Eastern). Check your local TV listings for additional information.

* = Series/Season Premiere

** = Series/Season Finale

# = New Day/Time

Time for more early holiday offerings with the annual lighting of the Rockefeller Center tree and the 2010 debuts of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' and 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas.' And for all of you Scrooges out there, CBS offers up its yearly running of the 'Victoria Secret Fashion Show.'

8:00 to 9:00

ABC: 'Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas' and 'Shrek the Halls'

CBS: 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'

CW: 'One Tree Hill'

FOX: 'Glee'

NBC: 'Christmas in Rockefeller Center'

Cooking Channel: 'FoodCrafters' -- 8:30 start

DIY: 'Rescue Renovation' -- 8:30 start

History: 'The Real Story of Christmas'

Military Channel: 'Robby Gordon Army Challenge'

NickToon: 'The Mighty B!' -- I don't know if these are actually new or new to NickToon, being previously seen on Nickelodeon. If someone knows please respond in the comments.

The rest of the schedule and the late night talk shows after the jump.

9:00 to 10:00

ABC: 'No Ordinary Family'

CW: 'Life Unexpected'

FOX: 'Raising Hope' and 'Running Wilde'

NBC: 'The Biggest Loser' -- (120 minutes)

A&E: 'Billy the Exterminator'

Bravo: 'The Millionaire Matchmaker'

Cartoon Network: 'Tower Prep'

Cooking Channel: 'United Tastes of America' -- 9:30 start

CNBC: 'The Billionaires' Road Trip'

Current: 'Long Way Round'

Discovery: 'Dirty Jobs'

DIY: 'Kitchen Impossible' and 'I Hate My Kitchen'

ID: 'Cold Blood'

HBO: 'In Treatment'

HGTV: 'Real Estate Intervention' -- 9:30 start

NatGeo: 'Frontier Force'

Oxygen: 'The Bad Girls Club' -- The top 10 'BGC' moments

SyFy: 'Stargate Universe'

TLC: '19 Kids and Counting'

Travel: 'Mysteries at the Museum'

TVOne: 'K-Ci & JoJo...Come Clean'

10:00 to 11:00

ABC: 'Detroit 1-8-7'

CBS: 'The Victoria Secret Fashion Show'

A&E: 'Strange Days With Bob Saget'* -- Two episodes

BET: 'Being Terry Kennedy' -- 10:30 start

Bio: 'Biography' -- Profile of Morgan Freeman

Bravo: 'The Fashion Show'

Discovery: 'Auction Kings'

FX: 'Sons of Anarchy'** -- (92 minutes)

ID: 'I (Almost) Got Away With It'

MTV: '16 and Pregnant'

Oxygen: 'Running Russell Simmons'

Science Channel: 'Mantracker'

Spike: 'Auction Hunters'

TBS: 'Glory Daze'

TLC: 'The Little Couple'

truTV: 'Party Heat'

11:00 to Midnight

Food Network: 'Private Chefs of Beverly Hills'

And now the late night talk shows. Scheduled guests can change without notice.

11:00

'Charlie Rose' (PBS): TBA

'The Mo'Nique Show' (BET): The Neelys; Kim Fields; Jon B

'The Daily Show' (Comedy Central): Judah Friedlander

'Chelsea Lately' (E!): TBA

'Conan' (TBS): Charles Barkley; Dr. Drew Pinsky; comedian Bo Burnham

11:30

'Late Show With David Letterman' (CBS): Rescued Chilean miner Edison Peña; actor Tracy Morgan (repeat)

'The Tonight Show' (NBC): Chelsea Handler; actor Kellan Lutz; performance by Rod Stewart

'The Colbert Report' (Comedy Central): Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack

Midnight

'Jimmy Kimmel Live' (ABC): Magic Johnson; actress Autumn Reeser; performance by Miguel

'Tavis Smiley' (PBS): Natalie Cole; 'Black Swan' filmmaker Darren Aronofsky

'Lopez Tonight' (TBS): Bill Cosby; actress Angela Kinsey

12:30

'The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson' (CBS): DJ Qualls; author Salman Rushdie

'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' (NBC): Zach Galifianakis; director Danny Boyle; performance by Kid Cudi with Cage and St. Vincent (repeat)

1:30

'Last Call With Carson Daly' (NBC): Singer Serj Tankian; singer Ben Weasel; performance by Broken Bells (repeat)

(source)

Sean Kingston Hospitalized After Jet Ski Accident

Sean Kingston is in the hospital after being injured in a jet ski accident near Miami Beach on Sunday afternoon (May 29).

According to CNN, the “Beautiful Girls” singer, 21, and a female passenger were taken to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital after their watercraft crashed into a small bridge around 6 p.m. local time.

Kingston’s publicist confirmed that the singer was in an accident. “No further details are available at the moment. He and his family thank everyone for the well wishes,” the statement said.

While some reports suggest he is in critical condition, hip-hop artist Trav, who featured Kingston on his song “Life Style,” visited him at the hospital. “He is good in stable condition,” he told told CNN via e-mail.

His fans and famous friends flooded Twitter with their well wishes. Tourmate Justin Bieber wrote, “got my friend @seankingston in my prayers tonight. a true friend and big bro. please keep him in your prayers tonight as well.”

Nicki Minaj, who collaborated with him on “Letting Go (Dutty Love),” added, “My love & prayers are with Sean Kingston & his family,” while his fellow islander Rihanna tweeted, “Sean we praying for u baby.”

source : www.rap-up.com

Indy 500 win doesn't guarantee a ride for Wheldon

INDIANAPOLIS — Dan Wheldon is a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. He's also – at least for the moment – out of a job. "I'm sure I'll be changing diapers by tomorrow," Wheldon said with a laugh after his stunning last-lap pass of rookie JR Hildebrand sent him to Victory Lane at the Brickyard. Wheldon was smiling when he said it, but he wasn't kidding.

The 500 is the only race he's under contract for this season, and even the addition of a second Borg-Warner trophy to his collection doesn't mean the phone is guaranteed to start ringing off the hook anytime soon.

He's aware more than most how delicate the economy is these days. He tried to court new sponsors when his contract with Panther Racing wasn't renewed over the winter. He thought he had a deal in place to join a new team in January, but it fell through at the last minute.

Rather than take a ride with a team he didn't believe could be competitive on a weekly basis, the Englishman opted to stay at home with his wife and two young children.

"Do I sit and home and think, 'It'd be great to be out there? Absolutely,'" Wheldon said. "But it's all I can do."

Even the title "two-time Indy winner" might not be enough to get Wheldon any more work this year, though his performance put an exclamation point on a month that saw upstart teams hang with the deep-pocketed big boys at Target Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske.

The top four finishers – Wheldon, Hildebrand, Graham Rahal and Tony Kanaan – all were competing in their first 500 with their respective teams, and their ability to thrive at the 2.5-mile oval showcased a much-needed uptick in parity.

Hildebrand actually replaced Wheldon at Panther and would have won if not for an ill-fated pass of Charlie Kimball on the final turn that sent Hildebrand into the wall.

Rahal came in a solid third driving for Service Central Chip Ganassi Racing, while Kanaan salvaged a tough day for KV Racing Technology-Lotus by finishing fourth after starting 22nd.

Kanaan, whose long partnership with Andretti Autosport ended last fall when primary sponsor 7-Eleven scaled back, viewed Wheldon's win as a strike for talented drivers who are out of full-time rides due to factors other than on-track results.

"I'm surely happy for Dan," Kanaan said. "He's been through a lot. He got thrown out the window. A lot of people said that he wasn't good enough."

Not Wheldon. He never lost faith in himself even when the business of the series left him on the outside looking in.

"It's just part and parcel of the economy," he said. "I feel confident in my own ability to know that it's not based on talent."

Yet Wheldon also understands the series' marquee event provides unemployed drivers such as himself a rare opportunity to get behind the wheel with a legitimate chance to compete. Though there are few sponsors out there with the resources for a full-year commitment, there are far more who want to see their logo splashed on a car during the 500.

That's why he jumped at the chance to drive for owner Bryan Herta. And the lengthy run-up to the race gives new teams a chance to work out the kinks, something that can't always be done during the relatively short practice windows before a regular race.

Wheldon didn't get into Herta's No. 98 Honda until a few weeks ago. By the time the green flag dropped, it felt as if he was part of a team.

"It's not like we kind of just scraped this crew together," Wheldon said. "There's some quality individuals there, certainly some people that I think are the best I've worked with."

Yet as of Monday morning, they'll be his former co-workers. When he gets a full-time job is anybody's guess. The series is going to a new car in 2012, and money could get even tighter.

Wheldon's best path might be to find a sponsor and then find a team. It worked for Rahal, who found a full-time sponsor in Service Central before joining Ganassi this year in a move that could signify how drivers will find rides down the road.

"The biggest problem next year is people are going to have to buy cars, which is going to make (sponsored) drivers even more good looking," Wheldon said.

When asked last week if he's better looking than Rahal, Wheldon just laughed.

"Better looking than Graham? That's for you to decide," Wheldon said. "When he's bringing in $6 million bucks, probably not. Six million to my zero? Probably not."

Not even with a shiny new trophy to bring home to the kids.

Wheldon is OK if the phone doesn't ring. He proved the doubters wrong on Sunday and re-established that he can drive with the best when he's in the right car.

If it's good enough for sponsors to come on board and help him get a ride, great. If not, he'll go home. He hasn't ruled out moving to another series, though his time off has helped him realize how much he loves IndyCar.

"I've been doing this 8-9 years, and you do take it for granted a little bit," he said. "I don't feel like (the down time) re-energized me, but it's made me appreciate more. Now I'm in a situation where I feel like I'm having fun again, and that enjoyment has come back."

source : www.huffingtonpost.com

164. BALZAC and the LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS

Dai Sijie 2000
Translated from the French by Ina Rilke 2001

The magic of story-telling comes alive within this enchanting fable about the narrator and Luo, two  teenage boys sent to remote Phoenix mountain for re-education during Mao Zedong's reign in China, 1971. What would have been a very hard and drudging life drastically changes after they discover and take possession of a suitcase full of translated classic books. They become particularly enraptured with Balzac's book, Ursule Mirouet, which they use to win the heart of a beautiful Chinese seamstress.

'The village headman, a man of about fifty, sat cross-legged in the centre of the room, close to the coals burning in a hearth that was hollowed out of the floor; he was inspecting my violin. Among the possessions brought to this mountain village by the two "city youths" -- which was how they saw Luo and me -- it was the sole item that exuded an air of foreignness, of civilisation, and therefore aroused suspicion.'(opening lines)

'A few words about re-education: towards the end of 1968, the Great Helmsman of China's Revolution, Chairman Mao, launched a campaign that would leave the country profoundly altered. The universities were closed and all the "young intellectuals," meaning boys and girls who had graduated from high school, were sent to the countryside to be "re-educated by the poor peasants."'(6)

"The saying goes: a sincere heart can make even a stone blossom. So tell me, was the flower girl's heart lacking in sincerity?"(35)

'Ba-er-zar-ke." Translated into Chinese, the name of the French author comprised four ideograms. The magic of translation! The ponderousness of the two syllables as well as the belligerent, somewhat old-fashioned ring of the name were quite gone, now that the four characters -- very elegant, each composed of just a few strokes -- banded together to create an unusual beauty, redolent with an exotic fragrance as sensual as the perfume wreathing a wine stored for centuries in a cellar.'(56)

'Then I was seized with an idea: I would copy out my favourite passages from Ursule Mirouet, word for word. It was the first time in my life that I had felt any desire to copy sentences from a book.'(58)

'The old man ran his fingers lightly over the strings of his instrument, which he held like a guitar. After a few notes he launched, almost inaudibly, into song.  Our attention was immediately drawn to the contortions of his stomach, the sight of which was so extraordinary as to obliterate his voice, the tune and everything else from our consciousness. Being so thin, he didn't actually have a stomach at all, just wrinkled skin forming innumerable tiny folds on his abdomen. When he began to sing the wrinkles billowed out, forming little waves that rippled across his tanned and gleaming body. The band of plaited straw that served as his belt began to undulate too. Every now and then it disappeared into a roll of skin, but just as it seemed lost forever in the tidal flow it re-emerged, dignified and pristine. A magical waistband.'(73)

'When planning our strategy a few days earlier we had come to the conclusion that the success of our illegal entry hinged on one thing: knowing were Four-Eyes had hidden his suitcase. How would we find it? '(98)

'It was all such a long time ago, but one particular image from our sting of re-education is still etched in my memory with extraordinary precision: a red-beaked raven keeping watch as Luo crawled along a narrow track with a yawning chasm on either side. On his back he carried the inconspicuous, work-soiled bamboo hod in which he had secreted Old Go, as Balzac's Pere Goriot was titled in Chinese -- the book he was going to read to the Little Seamstress, the lovely mountain girl in need of culture.'(109)

'Suddenly, I felt the stirrings of an uncontrollably sadistic impulse, like a volcano about to erupt. I thought about all the miseries of re-education, and slowed down the pace of the treadle.'(134)

'That the ultimate pay-off of this metamorphosis, this feat of Balzacian re-education, was yet to come didn't occur to us. Were we wrapped up in ourselves to notice the warning signals? Did we overestimate the power of love? Or, quite simply, had we ourselves failed to grasp the essence of the novels we have read to her?'(180)

First Anchor Books Edition, November 2002
184 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

Tom Jones On American Idol, Mick Jagger On Grammys - Ageless Rockers

America got quite a cultural wake up call watching American Idol Wednesday night. After Scotty McCreery, who's bent is toward country music, won the singing competition, and got to meet Carrie Underwood backstage, the show ended with a performance by Sir Tom Jones.

Tom Jones, born June 7, 1940, is now 71 years old and from a time, the 1960s, of Go-Go Girls, James Bond, and his own show, demonstrated to a whole new audience that he's not only still got it, but at a high level.

The reaction to Mr. Jones was tremendous. "Tom Jones" as a keyword search was number one and listed as "Volcanic" on Google Trends and a top Twitter Topic, as well. When I shared a YouTube video of Jones' performance with my Mom - this one...

..My Mom's reaction was one of pure joy; she has been a big Tom Jones fan, and she raved about his performance, saying "He's from my time!"

With his American Idol presentation, Sir Tom effectively pushed together Americans who were 13, 33, 53, and 73 years old. Only a few performers can do that; Tom Jones and Mick Jagger are part of that club.

We're in a wonderful place where digital media has fused our culture in a way not possible 20 years ago. Jagger, The Rolling Stones front man, was rocking at the time of Tom Jones, and when he gave his rendition of "Everybody Needs Somebody," the reaction to 67-year-old Mick Jagger throwin' down at The 2011 Grammy's was equal to that of Tom Jones.

And, like Jones, young people who use Twitter to get their information, were sharing tweets about a person some in the media considered as getting too old to do his craft.

Forget it.

Mick Jagger and Tom Jones have shown that it's possible to have entertainers who transcend generations, and vast distances of time and culture, but that only could have happened with social media.

Social media has a larger and broader demographic distribution pattern than for standard media. So, a much larger part of the American culture is aware that Tom Jones and Mick Jagger kicked ass in the 21st Century, than would have been the case in the 20th Century.

source : zennie2005.blogspot.com

163. the IMPERFECTIONISTS

Tom Rachman 2010

It is 2007 and in Rome, Italy, a small English newspaper company is in trouble and struggling to remain afloat. As such, although written with wit and humor, there is an overlying sense of melancholy as one reads through each chapter dedicated to the story of each employee  (American expats), it's current publisher and one extraordinary reader. The writing is remarkable and  the format so perfect for the plot. What is brilliant about the format, is the way the author smartly inserts the different characters within the different stand-alone short stories, the technique so subtle and yet so startling.  And as a flashback, at the end of each chapter, the history of the company, from its inception in 1953, slowly unfolds. Three absorbing stories are my favorites: Arthur Gopal, the Obituary writer, Ornella de Monterecchi, the Reader and Abbey Pinnola, the Chief Financial Officer.

'Lloyd shoves off the bedcovers and hurries to the front door in white underwear and black socks. He steadies himself on the knob and shuts his eyes. Chill air rushes under the door; he curls his toes. But the hallway is silent.'(opening lines)

'Travel means effort and a night away from home. Bleak. And nothing is worse than obit interviews. He must never disclose to his subjects that he's researching because they tend to become distressed. So, he claims to be working on a "profile." He draws out the moribund interview, confirms the facts he needs, then sits there, pretending to jot notes, stewing in guilt, remarking, "Extraordinary!" and "Did you really?" All the while, he knows how little will make it into print -- decades of a person's life condensed into a few paragraphs, with a final resting place at the bottom of page nine, between Puzzle-Wuzzle and World Weather.'(31)

"What I really fear is time. That's the devil: whipping us on when we'd rather loll, so the present sprints by, impossible to grasp, and all is suddenly past. My past -- it doesn't feel real in the slightest. The person who inhabited it is not me. It's as if the present me is constantly dissolving. There's the line of Heraclitus: 'No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.' That's quite right. We enjoy this illusion of continuity, and we call it memory. Which explains, perhaps, why our worst fear isn't the end of life but the end of memories."(37)

'Here is a fact: nothing in all civilization has been as productive as ludicrous ambition. Whatever its ills, nothing has created more. Cathedrals, sonatas, encyclopedias: love of God was not behind them, nor love of life. But the love of man to be worshipped by man.'(38)

"My feeling is that, at heart, every story is a business story."(63)

'Journalism is a bunch of dorks pretending to be alpha males.'(153)

'But we've got to acknowledge that we're entertainers of a sort. That doesn't mean phony. Doesn't mean vulgar. It means readable in the best way -- so people wake up wanting us before their coffee. If we're so reverent about public service that nobody reads us, we're not doing the public any service at all.'(179)

'How will she explain her contentment of living like a housewife?'(186)

'At newspapers, what was of the utmost importance yesterday is immaterial today.'(193)

'I suspect revenge is one of those things that's better in principle than in practice. I mean, there's no real satisfaction in making someone suffer because you have.... I mean, is the point to get justice -- to balance out something unfair? Nothing does that. ... The way to get over stuff, I think, is by forgetting.'(195)

'Typewriters disappeared next, replaced by video display terminals. Overnight, the newsroom's distinctive clack-clack-bing went silent. The rumbling basement presses hushed, too, with the work outsourced to modernized printing sites around the globe. No longer did vast rolls of newsprint slam into the backside of the building in the late afternoon, jolting any dozing reporter awake. No longer did delivery trucks clog Corso Vittorio at dawn as workmen loaded the papers, copies still warm.'(201)

'She has read every copy of the paper since 1976, when her husband, Cosimo de Monterecchi, was posted to Jeddah... She had never learned the technique of newspaper reading, so took it in order like a book, down the columns, left to right, page after page. She read every article and refused to move on until she was done, which meant that each edition took several days to complete.... One year into her newspaper reading, she was six months behind. When they returned to Rome in the 1990's, she remained stranded in the late 1970s. When it was the 1990s outside, she was just getting to know President Reagan. When planes struck the Twin Towers, she was watching the Soviet Union collapse. Today, it is February 18, 2007, outside this apartment. Within, the date remains April 23, 1994.'(207)

'Once at the boarding gate, Abbey falls into her customary travel coma, a torpor that infuses her brain like pickling fluid during long trips. In this state, she nibbles any snack in reach, grows mesmerised by strangers' footwear, turns philosophical, ends up weepy. She gazes at the backs of seats around the departure lounge: young couples nestling, old husbands reading books about old wars, lovers sharing headphones, whispered words about duty-free and delays.'(225)

2011 Dial Press Trade Paperback Edition
272 pages
Book owned
Book qualifies for: 100+ Reading Challenge

The Bachelorette : Ashley Hebert Suitors, Scandals and Final Four Revealed ...

The Bachelorette returns this evening and in keeping with tradition, THG has a deluge of Bachelorette spoilers for you before the season premiere even airs.

Who gets engaged to Ashley Hebert? That's still unclear. For now.

We'll update this post with any additional intel we come across, but we've got a bunch of spoilers already. Turn back now if you don't want to see them.

Nice. So are you ready, Bachelorette lovers? Let's do this ...

To learn nearly everything that happens between The Bachelor season premiere this very night, and the final rose ceremony, just follow the jump ...

The great Reality Steve has done it again. Using his remarkable pull with unnamed inside sources, he's got big time dish on Ashley's entire season.

The man is never wrong, either. Well, except for when he is in fact wrong, despite insisting that he is 100 percent not wrong. Which is sometimes.

What can you do. He gets fans one heck of a lot of info with regularity, and does catch his own mistakes by the end. So give credit where it's due.

His site has much more information, but this is what's important. Here are the 18 gents who survive the premiere and vie for Ashley Hebert:

1. Ben Castoriano: 28, New Orleans

2. Chris Drish: 25, Chicago

3. Ryan “Mickey” McLean: 31, Ohio

4. Bentley Williams: 28, Alpine, UT

5. Blake Julian: 27, Greenville, SC

6. Ben Flajnik: 28, San Diego, CA

7. Nick Peterson: 26, Tampa, FA

8. Stephen D’Amico: 27, Manhattan Beach, CA

9. William “Will” Holman: 30, Fostoria, OH

10. West Lee: 30, Columbia, SC

11. Lucas Daniels: 30: Odessa, TX

12. Constantine “Dino” Tzortzis: 30, Cumming, GA

13. Ryan Park: 31, San Luis Obispo, CA

14. Ames Brown: 31, New York, NY

15. Jeff Medolla: 35, St Louis, MO

16. Matt Colombo: 28, Ameherst, MA

17. Ryan Miller: 27, Michigan.

18. JP Rosenbaum: 34, Long Island, NY

Now for the rundown on who survives subsequent episodes:

Episode 2 (down to 15)...

1-on-1 date: Will Holman. Will gets a rose.

Group Date: At the Monte Carlo hotel with 12 guys. The twelve guys are split up into two teams of six. Bentley gets the rose on this group date.

1-on-1: Mickey McLean. At the Mandalay Bay, they got a private concert from Colbie Callait performing her song “I Do”. Mickey gets a rose.

Eliminations: Matt Colombo, Stephen D’Amico, and Ryan Miller.

Episode 3 (down to 12) ...

1-on-1: Ben Castoriano. Flash Mob Video date in Pasadena, California at the Americana at Brand outdoor mall. Whatever that means. Rose given.

Group Date: 10 guys in the first “Bachelorette Roast.” Basically, the guys do stand-up comedy directed at ripping on the other guys – and Ashley.

Will gets a bit carried away and apparently spends an inordinate amount of time making fun of Ashley. Nice. Ryan Park gets the rose on this date.

1-on-1: JP Rosenbaum. Low key date, just dinner at Ashley's place. Rose.

Eliminations: Chris Drish and Jeff Medolla. Bentley Williams eliminates himself after his group date, saying he misses his daughter and can't stay.

Episode 4 (down to 11) ...

1-on-1: Ames Brown. At some point, they end up sitting at the edge of the water in the sand in their bathing suits. Ames gets a rose, obviously.

Group Date: At a local orphanage where the guys are building and painting stuff all day for the kids. Ben Flajnik, the artistic one, gets the rose.

1-on-1: Constantine Tzortzis. Rose.

Elimination: West Lee.

Episode 5 (down to 8) ...

1-on-1: Ben Flajnik. They go shopping at an outdoor market, visit an ancient Temple, then enjoyThai music, dancing, and fire eaters. Rose.

Group Date: Eight men compete against each other in Muay Thai boxing, tournament style. Ryan beats Ames and accidentally gives the guy a concussion, sending him to the emergency room. Blake beats Lucas.

Constantine beats Nick. JP beats Mickey. Constantine and JP bow out. Blake and Ryan have one final match. Blake wins, then wins a rose.

2-on-1: Ben Castoriano and Will Holman. Both are sent home.

Eliminations: Ben Castoriano, Will Holman and Nick Peterson.

Episode 6 (down to 6) ...

Bentley reappears! However, he doesn’t return to the competition, doesn’t go on dates, and isn’t part of the rose ceremony. He appears to talk to Ashley about ... something. But the end result is that he is sent back home this same week.

1-on-1: Lucas Daniels gets a rose.

Group Date: Three 2-man teams competing in a dragon boat race. Long story short, Ryan ends up getting the rose on this group date.

1-on-1: JP gets a rose.

Eliminations: Blake Julian and Mickey McLean.

Episode 7 (down to 4) ...

1-on-1: Constantine. Rose.

1-on-1: Ben F. Rose.

Group Date: Ames, JP, Lucas. JP gets a rose.

1-on-1: Ryan. He gets sent home on this date.

Eliminations: Ryan Park and Lucas Daniels.

Episode 8 - Hometown Dates (down to 3) ...

The lucky four fellas who get to go home with Ash:

* Ben Flajnik (Sonoma, CA).

* Constantine Tzortzis (Cumming, GA).

* JP Rosenbaum (Long Island, NY).

* Ames Brown (New York, NY).

source: www.thehollywoodgossip.com

Young Love! Justin Bieber & Selena Gomez Kiss On Live TV

Despite keeping their romance on the down-low in the past, Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez put their young love on full display at Sunday's Billboard Music Awards -- openly kissing and hugging in the audience for all the world to see.

The cutie-pie couple locked lips as Bieber, 17, won top new artist of the year -- one of six awards he picked up during the evening. (Bieber tied with Eminem for most wins).

This wasn't the first time an awards-show pucker has sparked headlines. In fact, throughout the years there have been plenty of memorable lip-locks that set the trail for Sel and the Biebs.

From winners and losers to surprise cameos and awesome performances, there were plenty of things to talk about after last night's Billboard Music Awards, and yet the moment that seems to have caused the biggest stir is the kiss between Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez. Justin kissed GF Selena right after his win for Best New Artist, and while the kiss lasted approximately three seconds (we're being generous here), it was enough to set the entire internet abuzz.

In addition to their televised smooch, Gomez, 18, was photographed with her hand sweetly draped on Bieber's knee at one point.

source : www.justinbieberzone.com and hollywoodcrush.mtv.com

Bryan Stow's Attacker In Custody, Says LAPD Chief

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police have released the name of a suspect in the Dodger Stadium beating of a San Francisco Giants fan two months ago.

Police said in a statement Sunday night that 31-year-old Giovanni Ramirez of Los Angeles has been booked for assault with a deadly weapon and is being held on $1 million bail.

Police say Ramirez was taken into custody early Sunday morning as detectives and SWAT team members working on a tip from a parole officer served a search warrant at an apartment building.

Chief Charlie Beck did not know if Ramirez had hired an attorney, and police released no further information on him.

Beck called Ramirez the "primary aggressor" in the March 31 beating by two men of Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic who remains in critical condition in a San Francisco Hospital.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

A tip from a parole officer led to the arrest Sunday of the key suspect in the attack on a San Francisco Giants fan outside Dodger Stadium after the rival teams' season opener, a brutal beating that prompted an outpouring of support for the victim and outrage in the sports world and beyond.

The man detained in the early morning raid on an East Hollywood apartment building was believed to be the "primary aggressor" in the March 31 beating that left Bryan Stow with brain damage, Police Chief Charlie Beck said at an afternoon news conference at the stadium that included Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Dodgers officials.

An emotional Beck hailed the work of 20 full-time detectives who he said have pursued more than 630 leads in the case so far. The police chief choked back tears as he described getting a call at 7 a.m. Sunday from Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger.

source : huffingtonpost.com

Iceland Volcano Eruption 2011: Images From Grimsvotn

Grimsvotn, the volcano in southeast Iceland that began its largest eruption in 100 years on Saturday, sent ash as high as 12 miles into the air and grounded airplanes at the country's largest airport.

From The Associated Press:

The ash from Grimsvotn – about 120 miles (200 kilometers) east of the capital, Reykjavik – turned the sky black Sunday and rained down on nearby buildings, cars and fields. Civil protection workers helped farmers get their animals into shelters and urged residents to wear masks and stay indoors. No ash fell on the capital.

Reuters reports that the ash could travel to Europe next week, but experts also said that just a day after the eruption, the volcano has already begun to decrease in strength. Late Sunday the height of the ash cloud had decreased by more than 5 miles, to 6.8 miles.

Even though it's bigger, scientists do not expect the Grimsvotn eruption to disrupt travel as severely as last year's Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which left millions of passengers around the world stranded.

Grimsvotn's most recent eruption -- in 2004 -- lasted for five days.

this is the image of iceland volcano eruption 2011

source : huffingtonpost.com

162. a RED HERRING without MUSTARD

Alan Bradley 2011

Eleven-year-old Flavia is off to solve another murder mystery once again. After she accidentally burns down the tent of the Gypsy fortune-teller Fenella, a series of events follow, that includes finding a dead body hanging from the trench of a sculpture of Poseidon. With nothing but her bicycle Gladys in tow, Flavia sleuths around her interesting neighborhood of Bishop's Lacey, asks endless questions, and once again cracks the investigation with absolute charm. In this third book of the Flavia de Luce Mystery series, the author gives a poignant glimpse of  Flavia's mother Hariet, who died soon after she was born.

'"You frighten me," the Gypsy said. "Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness.'(opening lines)

'I had already learned that sisterhood, like Loch Ness, has things that lurk unseen beneath the surface, but I think it was only now that I realized that of all the the invisible strings that tied the three of us together, the dark ones were the strongest.'(41)

'Once, when we were lying on the south lawn looking up into the blue vault of a perfect summer sky, I had suggested to Feely that Father's quest for imperfections was not limited to stamps, but was sometimes expanded to include his daughters.'(45)

'I'd learned quite early in life that the mind loves nothing better than to spook itself with outlandish stories, as if the various coils of the brain were no more than a troop of roly-poly Girl Guides huddled over a campfire in the darkness of the skull.'(69)

'Alone at last! Whenever I'm with other people, part of me shrinks a little. Only when I am alone can I fully enjoy my own company.'(102)

'I have no fear of the dead. Indeed, in my own limited experience I have found them to produce in me a feeling that is quite the opposite of fear. A dead body is much more fascinating than a live one, and I have learned that more corpses tell better stories.'(114)

'Love's not some bug river that flows on and on forever, and if you believe it is, you're a bloody fool. It can be clammed up until nothing's left but a trickle..."(155)

'I had long ago discovered that when a word or formula refused to come to mind, the best thing for it was to think of something else: tigers, for instance, or oatmeal. Then, when the fugitive word was least expecting it, I would suddenly turn the full blaze of my attention back onto it, catching the culprit in the beam of my mental torch before it could sneak off again into the darkness.... "Thought-stalking," I called the technique, and I was proud of myself for having invented it.'(180)

'Spring water, I knew, was a remarkable chemical soup: calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, and assorted salts and sulphates. I grabbed the battered old iron tin cup that hung from a chain, scooped it full of the burbling water, and drank until I thought I could feel my bones strengthening.'(250)

'Our September breakfast menu had been in force for almost two weeks now, and the base of my tongue shrank back a little as Mrs. Mullet brought to the table what I thought of as our daily ration of T.O.A.D.
Toast
Oatmeal
Apple Juice
Dates
The dates stewed and served with cold clotted cream, were another of Mrs. Mullet's culinary atrocities. They looked and tasted like something that had been stolen from a coffin in a midnight churchyard.'(263)

'I think there must be a kind of courage that comes from not being able to make up your mind.'(273)

a Delacorte Press Hardcover Edition
399 pages
Book borrowed from the library
Book qualifies for:100+ Reading Challenge

Harold Camping: The Man Behind 'Judgement Day,' May 21, 2011

Behind thousands of “Judgement Day” billboards from rural highways to city skylines and a small army of volunteers that have traipsed across the country preaching May 21 as the beginning of the world’s destruction is a frail, 89-year-old California multimillionaire who runs one of the largest Christian radio networks in the world.

Each day, Harold Camping’s slow and sonorous Bible readings and his Open Forum call-in show broadcast for hours from the Oakland, Calif. headquarters of Family Radio, where his words are punctuated by slots of Christian gospel and shows with titles such as “Beyond Intelligent Design” and “Creation Moments.”

And while the retired civil engineer and former Sunday school teacher has been preaching the gospel for decades and talking about God’s wrathful plan for earth for the past two years, recent times have brought him into the spotlight like never before.

In the last week, variations of “End of the World May 21st” and “Harold Camping” have been among the top search terms on Google. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control took advantage of that popularity by releasing a mock guide to the “Zombie Apocalypse” on its web site that quickly went viral.

But “it’s no laughing matter,” Camping says in an interview with The Huffington Post. “It is not something where its' a tiny, tiny, tiny chance it may happen. It is going to happen.”

He and his fringe group of churchless followers believe that at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, a massive earthquake will make it’s way around the earth, beginning in Fiji and New Zealand. Graves will open and the dead who are 'saved' will ascend to heaven. Alive or dead, two hundred million of the saved will float up. The doomed remainder will live on an unruly earth for five months before God annihilates it on Oct. 21.

Camping’s warnings are drawn from complex Biblical numerology that is part-based on a literal reading of the King James Bible and part-based and obscure interpretation of the book’s many symbols.

Source : huffingtonpost.com

U.S. Warns Of Zombie Apocalypse

Hard to believe that this is a real communication from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, but it is! From the official CDC blog:

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

A Brief History of Zombies

We’ve all seen at least one movie about flesh-eating zombies taking over (my personal favorite is Resident Evil), but where do zombies come from and why do they love eating brains so much? The word zombie comes from Haitian and New Orleans voodoo origins. Although its meaning has changed slightly over the years, it refers to a human corpse mysteriously reanimated to serve the undead. Through ancient voodoo and folk-lore traditions, shows like the Walking Dead were born.

In movies, shows, and literature, zombies are often depicted as being created by an infectious virus, which is passed on via bites and contact with bodily fluids. Harvard psychiatrist Steven Schoolman wrote a (fictional) medical paper on the zombies presented in Night of the Living Dead and refers to the condition as Ataxic Neurodegenerative Satiety Deficiency Syndrome caused by an infectious agent. The Zombie Survival Guide identifies the cause of zombies as a virus called solanum. Other zombie origins shown in films include radiation from a destroyedNASA Venus probe (as in Night of the Living Dead), as well as mutations of existing conditions such as prions, mad-cow disease, measles and rabies.

The rise of zombies in pop culture has given credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen. In such a scenario zombies would take over entire countries, roaming city streets eating anything living that got in their way. The proliferation of this idea has led many people to wonder “How do I prepare for a zombie apocalypse?”

Well, we’re here to answer that question for you, and hopefully share a few tips about preparing for real emergencies too!

Source : http://www.disinfo.com

Hang on – World Ending May 21st – so say the Religious

Just a small update today, and in light of our world ending I figure I would say a few things… first a pox on Statistics Canada for sending me a nasty census reminder to participate and secondly, promptly arranging to have the online census form bork out and be unavailable when I finally clear time to actually do the damn thing.

However, if the world is ending on the 21st, then I have it made in the shade!

“According to evangelical Christian leader Harold Camping, the world will come to an end this Saturday.

Camping, the 89-year-old leader of Family Radio Worldwide, predicts that the second coming of Jesus Christ will occur on May 21. Camping claims that those who have accepted Christ as their savior will rise into the air and join him in the sky before proceeding on to heaven, an event known in evangelical circles as “the rapture.”

Once the rapture occurs, those left behind will experience the wrath of God until the world is completely destroyed by fire on Oct. 21, 2011.”

Sounds like a bad deal except for the whole rapture part because then we will have less religious inanity to deal with for awhile.

“What is the inspiration for such unquestioning faith? Camping claims his prediction was derived from a mathematical analysis of the Bible. His doomsday calculus is the square of the product of 5 (which represents “atonement”), 10 (which represents “completeness”) and 17 (which represents “heaven”). That number — 722,500 — is equal to the number of days between Christ’s crucifixion and his return to judge the earth. According to Camping, Jesus is scheduled to arrive on May 21, 2011, 6 p.m. local time.

I guess it should have been obvious.

However, this isn’t the first time Camping has made such a prediction. Two decades ago, his mathematical gymnastics resulted in the prediction that the world would end in September 1994. When the world did not cease to be, Camping blamed it on a miscalculation, but the experience wasn’t a complete failure: the publicity he generated led to increased donations and book sales.”

Damn, he’s only been wrong once, and of course it was a ‘miscalculation’. Some days I think it would nice just to start my own cult and prey on the stupid to make money and live like a sultan for the rest of my days. (Yes I am watching the sock-gnome cult thread developing and taking careful notes, stay tuned). 

source : http://deadwildroses.wordpress.com

Jennifer Lawrence As Katniss Everdeen at The Hunger Games

There are few movie roles that offer instantly as massive a fan base as do the lead heroines in big screen adaptations of Young Adult novels. To wit: Emma Watson, "Harry Potter's" Hermoine, is an icon of screen and style, while Kristen Stewart, the embodiment of Bella in "The Twilight Saga," has her every moody move tracked by jealous fans as she makes her way through new big screen epics and dating co-star Robert Pattinson.

Having won the next massive book-to-film role, Katniss Everdeen in Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games," Jennifer Lawrence knows what's in store for her. Being ready is another thing.

In an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, Lawrence discussed her sudden rise to fame -- on the back of an entirely different type of film, the indie "Winter's Bone," for which she earned an Oscar nomination -- and her mental preparation to play such a highly sought role (she won the part over fellow Oscar nominee Hailee Steinfeld).

"I knew that as soon as I said yes, my life would change," she told the magazine. "And I walked around an entire day thinking 'It's not too late, I could still go back and do indies, I haven't said yes yet, it's not too late.'"

But in the end, she preserved, showing the strength to match her character's. "I love this story," she said, "and if I had said no, I would regret it every day."

Lawrence will be joined in the movie by a star studded cast, including Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth as her close friends Peeta and Gale in the semi-apocalyptic youth fighting tournament from which the film derives its name, as well as Elizabeth Banks as her guide Elfie Trinket, Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy.

source : http://www.huffingtonpost.com

May 21st Doomsday?

What others anticipate what will happen on May 21st? So what we cognize? At 6 p.m. on may 21st 2011 present be quake on all the humanity. This quake gift equivalent no opposite and module be most coercive seism in the account of the mankind.

May 21st Doomsday ? It’s not unencumbered what, just, the unrestricted is questionable to do with this aggregation. Most fill perhaps move with a shrug, presumptuous that it’s another failed religious day statement. Others may change that that if the humanity truly is going to end presently, there’s not such repair in harassment near it.

It should be noted that Camping’s evidence list of apocalypse predictions is somewhat inconsistent. He was previously definite that the humans would end in Sept of 1994, and prepared himself for the event. The worthy deficiency of Spirit did not deter Habitation, who went wager to the Scripture, did any numerological legerdemain, and recalculated the realistic Fate as May 21. Minute will tell if he’s reactionary, but either way it’s not a bad strain to inform friends and parentage how more they norm to you.

Reverend Camping present be viewing may 21st destiny unrecorded on TV. Intellectual phenomenon with that after big earthquake. Because previous modality of the may 21st is sensation from Reverend Camping.

source : http://yoogya.com/may-21st-doomsday.html

Twitter Comprehends May 21st Doomsday

There have been many theories and predictions about how and when the world will end. The day also known as Armageddon, the Apocalypse or Doomsday if you prefer. There are also more than one theory on how the world or Earth first came about, it all depends on what your beliefs are.

A lot of people tend to the mark year 2012 as being a significant one when it comes to the end of all time. This comes from an ancient Mayan cult’s theory that the date 21st December 2012 marks the end of a 5, 125 year cycle, a date which they believe something cataclysmic will happen.

You may even have seen the film 2012 in which the Earths plate become unstable causing a global flood and mass destruction. Funnily enough there is little evidence to suggest a catastrophe of such levels and also little is said about how the world will end.
Today a new prediction was announced by leader of the independent Christian Ministry Family Radio Worldwide, Harold Camping, who predicts the world will in fact end this year on May 21st. again there is no evidence to suggest this but just look for yourself the amount of buzz it has caused on Twitter by clicking the link.

What do you think of these predictions? When do you think the world will end?

source : http://www.product-reviews.net

161. SO MUCH for THAT

Lionel Shriver 2010

In this very timely novel that boldly questions the current state of our American Health Care (business) Industry, Shep, the main character forgoes his dream of retiring to a remote Island of Pemba in Africa after his wife Glynis reveals that she has Mesothelioma, a fatal cancer. As they go through the motions of experimental treatments, their life-savings and personal relationships start to dwindle away. Will the illness break or save their marriage? Supported by equally unforgettable strong characters such as Shep's best friend Jackson with his incessant rants, and Jackson's daughter Flicka with her brave candor, the story is riveting and will probably unleash your own personal angst on the issues of health care (among other things), as it did mine. Is it any wonder that I read this book in one sitting?

 'Shepherd Armstrong Knacker
Meryll Lynch Account Number 934-23F917
December 01, 2004 - December 31, 2004
Net Portfolio Value: $731,778.56
What do you pack for the rest of your life?'(opening lines)

'Water had a devious willfulness of its own, a sneaky, seeping insistence, an instinct for finding the single seam or joint you've left unsealed. Sooner or later, water will get in it if he wants to, or -- more vitally, in Shep's case -- it will get out.'(6)

'Shep believed fervently that money -- the web of your fiscal relationships to individuals and to the world at large -- was character; that the surest test of any man's mettle was how he wielded his wallet.'(8)

'It was disconcerting to be systematically punished for what might have engendered a modicum of gratitude. He did not require the gratitude, but he could have skipped the resentment, an emotion distinctive for being disagreeable on both its generating and receiving ends. Glynis resented her dependency: she found it humiliating. She resented not being a celebrated metalsmith, and she resented the fact that her status as professional nonentity appeared to everyone, including Glynis, to be all her fault. She resented her two children for diverting her energies when whey they were young; once they were no longer young, she resented them for failing to divert her energies. She resented that her husband and now her thoughtlessly undemanding children had thieved her most  cherished keepsakes: her excuses. A resentment produces the psychic equivalent of acid reflux, she resented the resentment itself. Never having had much of substance to complain about was yet one more reason to feel aggrieve.'(15)

'But even when doctors acted kind, the extent of their capacity to be kind was often out of their hands. However gently put, many a message that physicians were forced to deliver was cruel, and if it did not feel cruel it was a lie and then was even cruder. Personally Shep didn't understand why anyone would want to be one.'(47)

"Here's how it works," Jackson explained benevolently, "We're going on a trip, and it's your car, so I've agreed to pay for gas. We stop at a station, you fill up the tank, tell me the gas was fifty bucks, hold out your hand. With an expression on my face like I'm doing you a big favor, I hand you a twenty. You say, what's this? I say, but that's what a tank of gas should cost -- since that's what it cost when I was twelve. Basically, the insurers live in a fantasy world, and we Mugs are stuck in the real one.'(64)

'You never know what kind of a life someone might still value even if you don't think you'd put up with it yourself. In fact, you might be wrong. You might put up with it. You never know what you'll put up with if the alternative is nothing.'(107)

'Shep kept a hand on her cheek, holding her gaze, careful to keep his own eyes from darting even briefly to the anesthetist as she filled the syringe. And then he told his wife that he loved her. The effect of the injection was almost immediate, and these would be the last words she heard.
He had infused the ritual with as much feeling as three words could bear. Yet he wished that by convention their invocation was rare. Between spouses, the declaration was too often tossed off in hasty, distracted partings, or parlayed lightly to round up banter on the phone. He might have preferred a custom that restricted such a radical avowal to perhaps thrice in a lifetime. Rationing would protect the claim from cheapening  and keep it holy. For were he to have been doled out three I-love-yous like wishes, he would have spent one of them this morning.'(126)

"We pay good money so these kids learn something. Instead they're so coddled that Heather doesn't even get proper grades. What do we get on her report card? 'Does consistently,' 'does usually,' or 'does with assistance.' There's no 'doesn't do,' 'won't do,' or 'does, but it's crap.' And you saw that newsletter: they won't let her teachers use red pen anymore. Red's too 'confrontational' and 'threatening,' so now her tests are marked in a 'soothing' green. They've chucked the bell between classes to make the environment more 'welcoming.' They keep this up, Heather'll grow up and get a job, and the first time her boss says, 'You're late,' or has a tiny bit of a problem paying her to do work she didn't do because she didn't feel like it? She'll jump off the bridge."(171)

"What would I like to get away from? Complexity. Anxiety. A feeling I've had my whole life that at any given time there's something I'm forgetting, some detail or chore, something that I'm supposed to be doing or should have already done. That nagging sensation -- I get up with it, I go through the day with it, I go to sleep with it."(205)

"You can't take pleasure in your leisure, because it's been forced on you," he said. "And because you feel like shit. So it's the time we have while feeling well that's precious. I'm just not squandering my 'life' on botched Sheetrock jobs in Queens. I'm squandering my healthy life. You of all people should appreciate how raw the deal is. We slave away during the few years that we're capable of enjoyment. Then what's left are the years we're old and sick. We get sick on our own time. We only get leisure when it weighs on us. When it's useless to us. When it's no longer an opportunity but a burden."(205-206)

'Remembering was a more active experience than she had ... remembered. You could reconstruct the past only with the building blocks of the present. To remember joy, you required joy at hand.'(308)

'"You know them movies... He was groping. "Remember how sometimes, in the middle, a movie seems to drag? I get restless, and take a leak, or go for popcorn. But sometimes, the last part, it heats up, and then right before the credits one of us starts to cry -- well, then you forget about the crummy middle, don't you? You don't care about the fact that it started slow, or had some plot twist while along the way that didn't scan. Because it moved you, because it finally pulled together, you think, when you walk out, that it was a good movie, and you're glad you went. See Gnu?" he promised. "We can still end well."'(404)

First Harper Perennial Edition published 2011
433 pages
Book owned and won from Man  of la Book Blog's giveaway. His awesome review is HERE.
Book qualifies for: 100 + Reading Challenge

160. SILAS MARNER

George Eliot 1861

After Silas Marner is betrayed by a friend and later loses his fiance, he moves to Raveloe and leads the life of a lonely weaver, seemingly content to enjoy the gold he has accumulated from his craft. But when this treasure gets stolen from its hiding place by his hearth, and days later, he finds a golden-haired child in its place, his life begins to change. With the help of Dolly, a friendly neighbor, he raises the child as his own, while continuing to wonder about the identity of the child's parents and the person who stole his gold. Set in 19th century England, this is another classic that gives as a timeless story of the redemptive powers of love.

'In the days when the spinning-wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses -- and even great ladies, clothes in silk and threadlace, had their toy spinning-wheels of polished oak -- there might be seen, in districts far away among the lanes, or deep in the bosom on the hills, certain pallid undersized men, who, by the side of the brawny country-folk, looked like the remnants of a disinherited race.'(opening lines)

'He seemed to weave, like the spider, from pure impulse, without reflection. Every man's work, pursued steadily, tends in this way to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life. Silas's hand satisfied itself with throwing the shuttle, and his eye with seeing the little squares in the cloth complete themselves under his effort.'(14)

'The sense of security more frequently springs from habit than from conviction, and for this reason it often subsists after such a change in the conditions as might have been expected to suggest alarm. The lapse of time during which a given event has not happened, is, in this logic of habit, constantly alleged as a reason why the event should never happen, even when the lapse of time is precisely the added condition which makes the event imminent.'(38)

'I suppose one reason why we are seldom able to comfort our neighbors with our words is, that our goodwill gets adulterated, in spite of ourselves, before it can pass our lips. We can send black puddings and pettitoes without giving them a flavour of our own egoism; but language is a stream that is almost sure to smack of a mingled soil. There was a fair proportion of kindness in Raveloe, but it was often of a beery and bungling sort, and took the shape least allied to the complimentary and hypocritical.'(77)

"Would you never forgive me, then, Nancy -- never think well of me, let what would happen -- would you never think that the present made amends for the past? Not if I turned a good fellow, and gave up everything you didn't like?"(106)

'It is seldom that the miserable can help regarding their misery as a wrong inflicted by those who are less miserable.'(108)

'He turned immediately towards the hearth where Silas Marner sat lulling the child. She was perfectly quiet now, but that wide-gazing calm which makes us older human beings, with our inward turmoil, feel a certain awe in the presence of a little child, such as we feel before some quiet majesty of beauty in the earth or sky -- before a steady glowing planet, or a full-flowered eglantine, or the bending trees over a silent pathway.'(119)

'The prevarication and white lies which a mind that keeps itself ambitiously pure is as uneasy under as a great artist under the false touches that no one eye detects but his own, are worn as lightly as mere trimmings when once the actions have become a lie.'(120)

"Ah," said Dolly, with soothing gravity, "it's like the night and the morning, and the sleeping and the waking, and the rain and the harvest -- one goes and the other comes, and we know nothing how or where. We may strive and scrat and fend, but it's little we can do arter all -- the big things come and go wi' no striving o' our'n -- they do, that they do;..."(123)

'Perfect love has a breath of poetry which can exalt the relations of the least-instructed human beings; and this breath of poetry had surrounded Eppie from the time when she had followed the bright gleam that beckoned her to Silas's hearth; so that it is not surprising if, in other things besides her delicate prettiness, she was not quite a common village maiden, but had a touch of refinement and fervour which came from no other teaching than that of tenderly-nurtured unvitiated feeling.'(145-146)

a Bantan Book Reissue, June 1992

183 pages

Book owned
Book quotes from the edition on the left (and not title post)

Book qualifies for: Victorian Reading Challenge

                                 100+ Reading Challenge