This book was written for the love of God and all his creatures. It is an exciting tale of an orphan puppy's journey to find her forever home and the challenges she faced along the way and a little girl who longed for nothing more than a puppy she can call her own. It was only by her obedience, faithfulness, and God's abundant grace that she was blessed with just such a gift. It is a lesson about how our Father in heaven gives us the desires of our heart and blesses those who are obedient and who diligently seek him.

Do you "know" that posh comes from an acronym meaning "port out, starboard home"? That "the whole nine yards" comes from (pick one) the length of a WWII gunner's belt; the amount of fabric needed to make a kilt; a sarcastic football expression? That Chicago is called "The Windy City" because of the bloviating habits of its politicians, and not the breeze off the lake? If so, you need this book. David Wilton debunks the most persistently wrong word histories, and gives, to the best of our actual knowledge, the real stories behind these perennially mis-etymologized words. In addition, he explains why these wrong stories are created, disseminated, and persist, even after being corrected time and time again. What makes us cling to these stories, when the truth behind these words and phrases is available, for the most part, at any library or on the Internet? Arranged by chapters, this book avoids a dry A-Z format. Chapters separate misetymologies by kind, including The Perils of Political Correctness (picnics have nothing to do with lynchings), Posh, Phat Pommies (the problems of bacronyming--the desire to make every word into an acronym), and CANOE (which stands for the Conspiracy to Attribute Nautical Origins to Everything). Word Myths corrects long-held and far-flung examples of wrong etymologies, without taking the fun out of etymology itself. It's the best of both worlds: not only do you learn the many wrong stories behind these words, you also learn why and how they are created--and what the real story is.

Educational resource for teachers, parents and kids!

Jay Desmarteaux raised a whole lot of hell in New Jersey after he was released from prison after 25 years for the murder of a rapist bully at his school. Now he’s on the run in his home state of Louisiana, where he traces his roots to an evil family tree that’s grown large and lush, watered with the blood of the innocent. Jay’s hunt for his parents will take him to the doors of stately plantation homes built by the enslaved, through the deadly and gorgeous heart of the bayou, to his greatest nightmare—a cell in the infamous state prison, where his only escape is the wildest show in the South—the Angola Prison Rodeo. Scarred and shell-shocked, Jay Desmarteaux faces his deadliest adversaries yet: the demons within himself and the brutality wrought by his privileged ancestors. The Boy from County Hell is coming home... Praise for THE BOY FROM COUNTY HELL: “Thomas Pluck’s The Boy From County Hell is raucous and rollicking, just like The Pogues song it adapts its name from. There are echoes of James Lee Burke, Barry Gifford, and Joe R. Lansdale, but Pluck’s book burns hot and bright with its own indomitable punk spirit. Joyous, wild, dark fun.” —William Boyle, author of City of Margins, A Friend Is a Gift You Give Yourself, The Lonely Witness, and Gravesend “Blistering, violent, and written with Technicolor flourishes that are Pluck’s unmistakable signature. The Boy from County Hell is a hell of a book.” —Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase “Pluck has crafted a hard-charging thriller that stomps the pedal from page one and never lets up. Crackling with exciting characters and language that pops off the page, The Boy From County Hell is a mad tale of rage, retribution, and no small helping of heart and soul. I loved it.” —Bill Loehfelm, author of the Maureen Coughlin series “Wow. The Boy from County Hell by Thomas Pluck is as wild as a night in a cage with an amorous monkey. So smart and tense and relentless. Pluck decides on his premise, and stays true to it until the rowdy end, but the real star here is his control of style, both hardboiled and poetic at the same time. Impressed.” —Joe R. Lansdale" “The Boy from County Hell is a harrowing and at times deeply philosophical journey through the heart of rage. Thomas Pluck is our trustworthy tour guide through that undiscovered country. With deft prose and an eye towards redemption and revelation Pluck accomplishes an amazing feat. We find ourselves feeling sympathy for the boy from county Hell” —SA. Cosby, New York Times bestselling author of Razorblade Tears

As a technology pioneer at MIT and as the leader of three successful start-ups, Kevin Ashton experienced firsthand the all-consuming challenge of creating something new. Now, in a tour-de-force narrative twenty years in the making, Ashton leads us on a journey through humanity’s greatest creations to uncover the surprising truth behind who creates and how they do it. From the crystallographer’s laboratory where the secrets of DNA were first revealed by a long forgotten woman, to the electromagnetic chamber where the stealth bomber was born on a twenty-five-cent bet, to the Ohio bicycle shop where the Wright brothers set out to “fly a horse,” Ashton showcases the seemingly unremarkable individuals, gradual steps, multiple failures, and countless ordinary and usually uncredited acts that lead to our most astounding breakthroughs. Creators, he shows, apply in particular ways the everyday, ordinary thinking of which we are all capable, taking thousands of small steps and working in an endless loop of problem and solution. He examines why innovators meet resistance and how they overcome it, why most organizations stifle creative people, and how the most creative organizations work. Drawing on examples from art, science, business, and invention, from Mozart to the Muppets, Archimedes to Apple, Kandinsky to a can of Coke, How to Fly a Horse is a passionate and immensely rewarding exploration of how “new” comes to be.

Everyday Extraordinary is a follow up to My Saturday Morning Posts, the compilation of a weekly journal posted on social media that followed Penny Sparks’ first year of grief after the unexpected loss of her husband. Through this format, her healing process developed into a continued walk through the “more” that everyday life can bring. So often we can see God clearly in crisis, turning points or big decisions, but what about the routines in our average days? He promises we will see and do more if we engage Him in the middle-of-the-road moments. This collection of thoughts is divided into four seasons in recognition of how we can feel differently and more deeply at different times of the year. Penny uses her everyday moments to share extraordinary lessons about the goodness of God. These stories will inspire you to see God in the seemingly insignificant stuff and show you how He doesn’t just work in the earthquakes of life, but in the gentle whispers as well.

A look at the origins of your favourite Nursery Rhymes and the truth about how they started.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • For the first time ever—a comprehensive biography of one of the twentieth century’s most innovative creative artists: the incomparable, irreplaceable Jim Henson He was a gentle dreamer whose genial bearded visage was recognized around the world, but most people got to know him only through the iconic characters born of his fertile imagination: Kermit the Frog, Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy, Big Bird. The Muppets made Jim Henson a household name, but they were just part of his remarkable story. This extraordinary biography—written with the generous cooperation of the Henson family—covers the full arc of Henson’s all-too-brief life: from his childhood in Leland, Mississippi, through the years of burgeoning fame in America, to the decade of international celebrity that preceded his untimely death at age fifty-three. Drawing on hundreds of hours of new interviews with Henson's family, friends, and closest collaborators, as well as unprecedented access to private family and company archives, Brian Jay Jones explores the creation of the Muppets, Henson’s contributions to Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live, and his nearly ten-year campaign to bring The Muppet Show to television. Jones provides the imaginative context for Henson’s non-Muppet projects, including the richly imagined worlds of The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth—as well as fascinating misfires like Henson’s dream of opening an inflatable psychedelic nightclub. An uncommonly intimate portrait, Jim Henson captures all the facets of this American original: the master craftsman who revolutionized the presentation of puppets on television, the savvy businessman whose dealmaking prowess won him a reputation as “the new Walt Disney,” and the creative team leader whose collaborative ethos earned him the undying loyalty of everyone who worked for him. Here also is insight into Henson’s intensely private personal life: his Christian Science upbringing, his love of fast cars and expensive art, and his weakness for women. Though an optimist by nature, Henson was haunted by the notion that he would not have time to do all the things he wanted to do in life—a fear that his heartbreaking final hours would prove all too well founded. An up-close look at the charmed life of a legend, Jim Henson gives the full measure to a man whose joyful genius transcended age, language, geography, and culture—and continues to beguile audiences worldwide. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BOOKPAGE “Jim Henson vibrantly delves into the magnificent man and his Muppet methods: It’s an absolute must-read!”—Neil Patrick Harris “An exhaustive work that is never exhausting, a credit both to Jones’s brisk style and to Henson’s exceptional life.”—The New York Times “[A] sweeping portrait that is a mix of humor, mirth and poignancy.”—Washington Independent Review of Books “A meticulously researched tome chock-full of gems about the Muppets and the most thorough portrait of their creator ever crafted.”—Associated Press

The ballads and poems in this anthology were written by soldiers, miners, loggers, a Supreme Court Judge, song writers and even a few poets. Some of the language is pretty rough, but many of the men that wrote them or composed them were pretty rough themselves. In many books about ballads, the authors are listed as unknown or anonymous, but with the help of the internet, the Library of Congress, and several other anthologies I found a few of the Unknowns. Several qualities seem to give a ballad legs to remain popular over the centuries. It has to relate to current human events, such as war, unrequited love or sudden death. It also can be humorous, such as The four nights drunk, as any hung over man and pissed off wife can attest to. Songs and poems about animal behavior will always be popular because pups will always piddle and Persian kittens will always screw. The story poems of Robert Service and Banjo Patterson, have fascinated generations by their vivid imagery and the power of the English language. Some of these ballads are very old. The Cockroach song, La Cucaracha, predates Cortez and was sung by the Spaniards in the wars against the Moors. Other ballads were modified from the original, such as My Darling Clementine. Even the great balladeer, Woody Guthrie borrowed his song, Union Maid, from Thurland Chattaways song Redwing. And Patrick Gilmores Johnnie Comes Marching Home, was taken from an Irish Anti-war ballad, Johnnie I Hardly Knew Ye. The type of music often leads to ballad composition. Dvoraks Humoresque, Sousas Garry Owen and Howes Battle Hymn of the Republic are lilting and easy to sing and memorize. Try to write lyrics to Beethovens Fifth or something out of Wagner. Johnnie Cash recorded dozens of ballads to the same beat.