Wisenheimer

Author: Mark Oppenheimer
Publisher: Free Press
ISBN: 9781439128640
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Have you ever met a child who talked like an adult? Who knew big words and how to use them? Was he a charmer or an insufferable smart aleck—or maybe both? Mark Oppenheimer was just such a boy, his talent for language a curse as much as a blessing. But when he got to junior high, Oppenheimer discovered an outlet for his loquaciousness: the debate team. Frank and comical, Wisenheimer chronicles the travails of a hyperarticulate child who finds salvation in the heady world of competitive oratory. In stirring prose, Oppenheimer describes what it was like to have a gift with no useful application. Unlike math or music prodigies, he had no way to showcase his unique skill, except to speak like a miniature adult—a trick some found impressive but others found irritating. Frustrated and isolated, Oppenheimer used his powers for ill—he became a wisenheimer, pushing his peers and teachers away. Then, in junior high, he discovered the world he was meant for: the debate club. His skill with language was finally being channeled, refined, and honed into something beautiful. As Oppenheimer blossomed as a person, he also became a world-champion high school and college debater. His journey from loneliness to fulfillment affords a fascinating inside look at the extraordinary subculture of world-class high school debate and at the power of language to change one’s life. Oppenheimer writes movingly about the art of rhetoric, of his passion for it, and of the inspiration he derived from debating and watching others do it. This smart, funny memoir not only reveals a strange, compelling subculture, it also offers a broader discussion of the splendor and power of language and of the social and developmental hazards of being a gifted child. Finally, it looks with hope at our present age, in which oratory is once again an important force in American culture. Revealing, touching, and entertaining, Wisenheimer offers a brilliant portrait of the rarefied world of high school and college debate—and of what it’s like to grow up talkative in America.

Easy Moving

Author: Gregory T Spalding
Publisher: gregory spalding
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 62

Book Description
Philip Mizzou thinks that life as a Fly By Night moving man is an ideal way to see sights and to meet people in beautiful San Francisco. But when Fly By Night goes belly up, he and fellow Easy Mover Big John Yelverton strike out on their own in a partnership that leads to strange hallucinations and world-renown counterfeiters. Meet exotic dancer Pandora Boxxe, her jaded beau Knuckles the bouncer, plus E. X. Queasy; the man with huge appetite and mysterious past. Laugh-a-minute adventures guide you up and down the rolling hills of northern California, then through majestic Yosemite Valley, while two Easy Movers traverse roads of international intrigue and undercover law enforcement--but watch out for steep inclines and close encounters with the legendary Bigfoot!

New York Magazine

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Book Description
New York magazine was born in 1968 after a run as an insert of the New York Herald Tribune and quickly made a place for itself as the trusted resource for readers across the country. With award-winning writing and photography covering everything from politics and food to theater and fashion, the magazine's consistent mission has been to reflect back to its audience the energy and excitement of the city itself, while celebrating New York as both a place and an idea.

The Dude and the Zen Master

Author: Jeff Bridges
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101600756
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Book Description
The perfect gift for fans of The Big Lebowski, Jeff Bridges's "The Dude", and anyone who could use more Zen in their lives. Zen Master Bernie Glassman compares Jeff Bridges’s iconic role in The Big Lebowski to a Lamed-Vavnik: one of the men in Jewish mysticism who are “simple and unassuming,” and “so good that on account of them God lets the world go on.” Jeff puts it another way. “The wonderful thing about the Dude is that he’d always rather hug it out than slug it out.” For more than a decade, Academy Award-winning actor Jeff Bridges and his Buddhist teacher, renowned Roshi Bernie Glassman, have been close friends. Inspiring and often hilarious, The Dude and the Zen Master captures their freewheeling dialogue and remarkable humanism in a book that reminds us of the importance of doing good in a difficult world.

Wisenheimer Wednesday

Author: Doug TenNapel
Publisher: Apple
ISBN: 9780590059565
Category : Classroom environment
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Book Description
How different are the kids in Mrs. Frightenright's class? There's the kid who is half boy, half-fish and a really, really hairy kid! How different do you think you are?

Okay Fine Whatever

Author: Courtenay Hameister
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316395692
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
The "hilarious and poignant" story of one chronically anxious woman's quest to become braver by seeking out the kinds of experiences she's spent her life avoiding (Cheryl Strayed). For most of her life (and even during her years as the host of a popular radio show), Courtenay Hameister lived in a state of near-constant dread and anxiety. She fretted about everything. Her age. Her size. Her romantic prospects. How likely it was that she would get hit by a bus on the way home. Until a couple years ago, when, in her mid-forties, she decided to fight back against her debilitating anxieties by spending a year doing little things that scared her -- things that the average person might consider doing for a half second before deciding: "nope." Things like: attending a fellatio class. She did that. She also spent an afternoon in a sensory deprivation tank, got (legally) high in the middle of a workday, had a session with a professional cuddler, braved twenty-eight first dates, and (perhaps scariest of all) actually met someone who might possibly appreciate her for who she is. Refreshing, relatable, and pee-your-pants funny, Okay Fine Whatever is Courtenay's hold-nothing-back account of her adventures on the front lines of Mere Human Woman vs. Fear, reminding us that even the tiniest amount of bravery is still bravery, and that no matter who you are, it's possible to fight complacency and become bold, or at least bold-ish, a little at a time.

Wolf Hall

Author: Hilary Mantel
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
ISBN: 1443402842
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 535

Book Description
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe oppose him. The quest for the king’s freedom destroys his advisor, the brilliant Cardinal Wolsey, and leaves a power vacuum and a deadlock. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell. The son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a bully and a charmer, Cromwell has broken all the rules of a rigid society in his rise to power. Narrowly escaping personal disaster—the loss of his young family and of Wolsey, his beloved patron—he picks his way deftly through a court where “man is wolf to man.” Pitting himself against parliament, the political establishment and the papacy, he is prepared to reshape England to his own and Henry’s desires. In inimitable style, Hilary Mantel presents a picture of a half-made society on the cusp of change, where individuals fight or embrace their fate with passion and courage. Wolf Hall re-creates an era when the personal and political are separated by a hair’s breadth, where success brings unlimited power, but a single failure means death.

Thespian Theology

Author: John A. TenBrook
Publisher: CSS Publishing
ISBN: 0788019953
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 99

Book Description
Stimulate audiences to see the scriptural message in a new light with these inspiring sketches based on Cycle C lectionary readings for the Lent and Easter seasons. Originally developed for presentation by a high school-age youth group, the simple, easy-to-perform scenes in this latest installment of John TenBrook's popular Thespian Theology series are an excellent tool for sharing the Gospel with unchurched people and getting them excited about Jesus Christ. Each skit is introduced by brief "Thespian Theological Thoughts" on the drama and the scripture texts. These versatile pieces can be staged as an alternative to the Sunday sermon or used for youth programs and other fellowship settings -- they're sure to enlighten audiences of all ages while leaving an indelible impression. Some of the intriguing titles include: - Dust Thou Art... Art Thou Dust? (Ash Wednesday) - Moses The Fig Tree (Lent 3) - The Spiritual Struggle Of Sidney Centurion (Passion/Palm Sunday) - "But I Wasn't There... Ya Gotta Show Me!" (Easter 2) - Let Everyone Who Is Thirsty Come (Easter 7) A graduate of Harvard University (B.A. and M.B.A.), John A. TenBrook has been addicted to the theatre ever since he appeared in Harvard's famous Hasty Pudding Show as an undergraduate. His career has included marketing and public relations positions with the Westvaco and Friendly Ice Cream corporations, and TenBrook also served as community relations director for two social service agencies in the Springfield, Massachusetts, area.

The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death

Author: Charlie Huston
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345501128
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
With his teaching career derailed by tragedy and his slacker days numbered, Webster Fillmore Goodhue makes an unlikely move and joins Clean Team, charged with tidying up L.A.'s grisly crime scenes. For Web, it's a steady gig, and he soon finds himself sponging a Malibu suicide's brains from a bathroom mirror and flirting with the man's bereaved and beautiful daughter. Then things get weird: The dead man's daughter asks a favor. Every cell in Web's brain tells him to turn her down, but something makes him hit the Harbor Freeway at midnight to help her however he can. Soon enough it's Web who needs the help when gun-toting California cowboys start showing up on his doorstep. What's the deal? Is it something to do with what he cleaned up in that motel room in Carson? Or is it all about the brewing war between rival trauma cleaners? Web doesn't have a clue, but he'll need to get one if he's going to keep from getting his face kicked in. Again. And again. And again.

School Days

Author: Robert B. Parker
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101205512
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
A horrifying school shooting draws Boston PI Spenser into a harrowing investigation in this thriller by New York Times bestselling author Robert B. Parker. When a Massachusetts boy is accused of mass murder, his socially prominent grandmother is convinced of his innocence and is willing to fight for him. But based on the boy’s resigned attitude and the evidence stacked against him, Spenser isn’t convinced of anything—except that there’s trouble ahead...