Do you know that tennis was invented by monks? What is the most dangerous crocodile on earth? How do you say "fart" in Romanian? What does the word "pet" mean in French? (Hint: it smells like a rotten egg.) How many monarch butterflies fly from Canada to Mexico every year? What really happens to our bodies during puberty? How did the Foo Fighters get their name?
Welcome to the wacky, wonderful world of Simon Eliot
. . . a place where adults and curious kids alike can learn a few facts about things you never thought you knew, or thought you knew but were wrong, or were always afraid to ask.
The fastest book on two wheels explores the timeless appeal of the motorcycle.
In 1885, two German inventors strapped a motor to a bicycle, and the world's first motorcycle was born. Riders have been hooked ever since.
Climb aboard From Boneshakers to Choppers and discover how these two-wheeled wonders spawned subcultures that continue to flourish today. From early endurance contests that catapulted Harley-Davidson to fame to pulp novels featuring rugged biker heroes, you'll witness the burgeoning motorcycle image of the early 20th century.
Move on to wartime when the military pushed the motorcycle's portability by designing collapsible motorbikes to drop -- by parachute -- behind enemy lines. Then follow the motorcycle through the definitive postwar years: the birth of the Hell's Angels, the ultimate cool of biker Marion Brando in The Wild One, and the scooter-as-fashion craze of the mods. You'll also discover the world of adventurous female bikers, take to the tracks of stunt riders, and hit the road with cross-continent racers.
Brimming with an amazing collection of archival and contemporary photographs, From From Boneshakers to Choppers will take you on an unforgettable ride.
It's culture creation made easy by a master of the independent art scene.
Join indie-guru Hal Niedzviecki on a how-to journey through the world of pop culture. In his upbeat, spirited style, Niedzviecki first provides a quick history of entertainment -- from its origins through to the present day, when corporate powers largely determine what we read, hear and watch.
Niedzviecki then shows how to reclaim cultural expression by encouraging everyone to use the tools of modern media: print (self-publishing zines, comics and books), video (making movies and shows), CD (creating original music) and the indie-paradise of the Internet (websites, blogs, video games). Quick and easy do-in-a-day project ideas are included, so emerging artists will feel ready to tackle more ambitious works.
Punctuated by inspiring interviews with young creators, engaging sidebars, and zine-style graphics that capture the spirit of the indie movement, The Big Book of Pop Culture is an empowering guide to original artistic expression.
Boasting more that 75 million users, the MySpace online community is the second most visited site on the Internet. It has become a haven for teens and young adults, a virtual hangout where friends (and strangers) share thoughts, pictures, music, video, and more. Parents naturally wonder...
Should they be concerned? What can they do to protect their kids? Are there valuable uses for MySpace?Jason Illian demonstrates that with careful use and close monitoring, MySpace can help kids facilitate relationships and help parents understand and interact with their children’s world like never before.
In addition to teaching adults how to log on to MySpace and set up an account, this valuable guide explains how parents can talk with their kids about their MySpace communications, join groups, forums, and bulletin boards to keep informed, and use filters, alerts, and other technologies to track their kids’ online activities.
Mark Gregston, founder of Heartlight Ministries, offers vital help to parents of teens who exhibit destructive or unhealthy behaviors and actions. With biblical guidance, encouraging stories from his ministry, and a fresh message of hope, Mark helps parents:
look beyond behavior to the heart of a teen recognize how kids stuff the void God wants to fill have proper expectations for themselves and the teen create a belief system and effective rules in the home set boundaries and nurture a sense of securityAn ever–increasing number of families face these life storms. With expertise and compassion, Mark offers them the knowledge and understanding they need for their journey from struggling to success.
* Who Fired the Phoenix?
* The Boy Who Cried Werewolf
* The Great Rough Beast
* Postscript on Prester John
* The Secret of Hyperborea
* What Gave All Those Mammoths Cold Feet?
And many more--fictional? authoritative? fantastic? deadpan?--investigations into the real, the true…and the things that should be true
PREFACE BY PETER S. BEAGLE
ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE BARR
"Although the wombat is real and the dragon is not, nobody knows what a wombat looks like and everyone knows what a dragon looks like."
Not a novel, not a book of short stories, Adventures in Unhistory is a book of the fantastic--a compendium of magisterial examinations of Mermaids, Mandrakes, and Mammoths; Dragons, Werewolves, and Unicorns; the Phoenix and the Roc; about places such as Sicily, Siberia, and the Moon; about heroic, sinister, and legendary persons such as Sindbad, and Aleister Crowley, and Prester John; and--revealed at last--the Secret of Hyperborea.
The facts are here, the foundations behind rumors, legends, and the imaginations of generations of tale-spinners. But far from being dry recitals, these meditations, or lectures, or deadpan prose performances are as lively, as crazily inventive, as witty as the best fiction of the author, a writer praised by Gardner Dozois as "one of the great short story writers of our times."
Who, on the subject of Dragons, could write coldly, dispassionately, guided only by logic? Certainly not Avram Davidson. Certain facts, these facts, deserve more than recitation; they deserve flourish, verve, gusto, style--the late, great Avram Davidson's unique voice. That prose which, in the words of Peter S. Beagle's Preface to this volume, "cries out to be read aloud."
Ghostly women lurking in the shadows of city streets.
Spectral holy men and outlaws from America's Spanish past making appearances in our modern age.
They are all citizens of Haunted America, and this is
HAUNTED HOMELAND.
From a haunted castle in the wilds of Alaska to phantom clergymen in the Southwest and mysterious bouncing lights on the East Coast, this latest volume covers the places, the people, and the things that belong to the earthbound realm of the fantastic. Michael Norman has gathered together spectral events of all kinds--apparitions of the famous like Mary Surratt, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Mad Anthony Wayne; haunted crime scenes in Chicago and along the Indiana byways; as well as banshees, poltergeists, and even a ghost named George who has become an accepted resident in a house in North Carolina.
Some of these tales date back to America's early days, such as the screaming woman of Marblehead, Massachusetts, while others rise from more contemporary sources, like noted mystery writer Mary Robert Rhinehart's encounter with ghost at a house on Long Island.
A ghostly Supreme Court Justice, a specter known as The Texan, an abandoned Canadian bride reminiscent of Dickens's Miss Haversham, and many others make an appearance in this latest chronicle of the Haunted American landscape.
Are you afraid to be different? How often do you follow everyone else just so they don't think you're weird or an outsider? What happens when you find yourself at the big end-of-the-year party and you're challenged to take a swig of beer or make out with the cute guy headed toward you? At what point do you walk away? A big part of being a Christian who leads is standing against something you know is wrong. You don't have to go with the flow all the time.
To be a leader, you've got to be different. Your peers will observe you and the choices you make, and if you make that decision to go against the social order and stand up for what you believe in, others will notice. If other girls follow your example, there could be an incredible revolution across our generation. It takes only one to make a change. You can be a leader. Are you willing to be different?
(Being a Girl Book 3)
1. Know your budget: Learn innovative, money-saving ways to increase your clothing funds.
2. Know your style: Get helpful hints from fashion insiders and use them to develop your own mode of self-expression.
3. Know your bargains: Discover the art of scoring exclusive friends-and-
family coupons for your favorite department stores
Whether you’re a homemaker from Houston, a grandma from Grand Rapids, or an M.D. from Manhattan, you don’t need to break the bank to look your best. With great cost-cutting tips, at-home spa secrets, designer discount websites, and access to exclusive deals, The Budget Fashionista is like having your own personal stylist at your beck and call. So before you go out and commit the eighth deadly sin–buying a fake Louis Vuitton–read this must-have guide and learn to be style-smart and budget-wise!