Tall tales and historical stories of Florida's alligators

This book is full of anecdotes about the program's colorful and sometimes controversial history. A season-by-season look at one of college football's top teams.

These adventurous short stories are great for ages ten to one hundred. People's interactions with alligators are usually tense, frightening, engrossing, and occasionally funny after the adrenaline settles down. These encounters occur for a variety of reasons and have various outcomes. Ever accidentally step on an alligator? A big one? It happens! You'll see what can happen when you feed alligators. What can happen when a huge alligator climbs into the boat with you? You'll learn why an alligator would knock on your door. Just visiting? Would an alligator come ashore just to say hello? How might you introduce your children to alligators and other interesting dangers? Should you go for a walk with an alligator? If you open a delicatessen for alligators, should you expect good manners? Just how mean can a cat be? The author based these stories on personal experiences and interviews with people who either witnessed or participated in these events. To show how these events came about and progressed, the author provides insights, conversations, and literary tones to explain the attitudes and behaviors of involved people and alligators. Similar events occur in most of the Southeastern United States, so read these stories to be aware. But realize that you still won't know enough. So, leave alligators alone.

Drawn from Florida history, folklore, and fiction, this collection of stories tailor-made for telling will entertain, inspire, and astound readers and listeners of all ages. Cracker Jack is up to his old tricks: putting one over on his Yankee schoolteacher; confounding a census taker; and convincing a befuddled farmer that its not Saturday but Sunday (and if the preacher finds him working on a Sunday, well, there'll be you-know-what to pay!). Sheriff "Pogy" Bill Collins used to be the worst lawbreaker in Okeechobee City. Then he promised Judge Hancock that hed walk the straight and narrow in return for his release from jail. Pogy Bill kept his promise to the judge ... and then some. In a place called Dogbone, its really not that unusual to see a glow-in-the-dark man running naked after a driverless truck with two barking dogs in pursuit. It even made Ed Grady an honest-to-goodness churchgoer. See all of the books in this series

“Lizard Tales, People and Events in the Life of a Naturalist” consists of stories that I told in my ecology, evolution, ornithology, herpetology, natural history, and general biology classes or around campfires, and includes many that have never been told to anyone until now. The book is autobiographical and geographic: Chicago, Hollywood, San Diego, UCLA, Cal. Tech., New York, Arizona and also Australia, Mexico, and Central America. The stories are about animals, fieldwork, people, and weird or exciting events. Because I have met and interacted with many people, there are personal stories about Debbie Reynolds, Natalie Wood, John Steinbeck, Margaret Meade, Cellist Gregory Piatagorsky, Charles Richter (Earthquake Scale), U.S. Grant IV, The Emperor of Japan, and artist Charles Russell! Some of the fun stories include: Playing badminton with the world’s champion, Cobras getting loose at UCLA, Nobel Laureates in my class, How I invented the stent, Origin of the first elephant race in human history, Why salamanders helped Custer lose the Battle of Little Big Horn, The girl that peed with rattlesnakes, Sliding off the side of a whale, Drinking beer with the Emperor of Japan, Can lizards predict earthquakes, Three gringos and a dead horse (Costa Rica), and Attempted murder using a rattlesnake.

The Women's Health Book is a comprehensive and informative guide to female health written by an Irish women's health specialist and owner of The Women's Health Clinic in Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. An essential addition to any woman's bookshelf, The Women's Health Book addresses the lack of a thorough and all-encompassing Irish guide to female-related health and wellness. It is written in an accessible style and includes black and white illustrations. The author covers health from the teenage years up to the later years of life, including identifying symptoms and treatment. Topics such as adolescent gynaecology, female cancers, heart-related issues, osteoporosis, the menopause, pregnancy and all issues particularly related to the female anatomy are covered.

Mary Cheever called Kathleen O’Connor’s fiction “funny, sad, and utterly convincing.” These fifteen stories possess all those qualities. They also remind us of the importance of the connections between family, friends, and neighbors. The title story, Water’s Edge, details how an alienated young woman forges a bond with her grieving grandmother. In Through the Woods an elderly man reconnects with a troubled foster child. And the young boy in With Harry’s Help survives through his bond with a fictional character. The constant in all of O’Connor’s stories is the hope that comes from our need and love for each other.

A Blues Bibliography, Second Edition is a revised and enlarged version of the definitive blues bibliography first published in 1999. Material previously omitted from the first edition has now been included, and the bibliography has been expanded to include works published since then. In addition to biographical references, this work includes entries on the history and background of the blues, instruments, record labels, reference sources, regional variations and lyric transcriptions and musical analysis. The Blues Bibliography is an invaluable guide to the enthusiastic market among libraries specializing in music and African-American culture and among individual blues scholars.

A fascinating survey of the entire history of tall tales, folklore, and mythology in the United States from earliest times to the present, including stories and myths from the modern era that have become an essential part of contemporary popular culture. Folklore has been a part of American culture for as long as humans have inhabited North America, and increasingly formed an intrinsic part of American culture as diverse peoples from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania arrived. In modern times, folklore and tall tales experienced a rejuvenation with the emergence of urban legends and the growing popularity of science fiction and conspiracy theories, with mass media such as comic books, television, and films contributing to the retelling of old myths. This multi-volume encyclopedia will teach readers the central myths and legends that have formed American culture since its earliest years of settlement. Its entries provide a fascinating glimpse into the collective American imagination over the past 400 years through the stories that have shaped it. Organized alphabetically, the coverage includes Native American creation myths, "tall tales" like George Washington chopping down his father's cherry tree and the adventures of "King of the Wild Frontier" Davy Crockett, through to today's "urban myths." Each entry explains the myth or legend and its importance and provides detailed information about the people and events involved. Each entry also includes a short bibliography that will direct students or interested general readers toward other sources for further investigation. Special attention is paid to African American folklore, Asian American folklore, and the folklore of other traditions that are often overlooked or marginalized in other studies of the topic.