My Current Interest

                For many nights I stayed up far too late reading this book.   I knew I should go to sleep, but all I wanted to do was keep reading.   Eventually my eyes would start to drop and I had to put the book away so as not to lose my place.   It was always disappointing when this happened because all I wanted to do was read.                 I found A Duty to the Dead in the Bas Bleu catalog.   Well, I sort of found it that way.   What I actually found was another book in the Bess Crawford mystery series, but I did not know that at the time.   When I got the book home from the library I figured out pretty quickly what I had reserved was not the first book in the series.   Since I always have to start at the beginning, I looked up the first book and reserved that from the library.   The first book ended up being A Duty to the Dead .   Now that I have read it, I am excited to read the one that I returned as well as all the others in between.                 Bess Crawford

              Originally I watched the show 4 th and Loud out of curiosity.   Football is not my sport, so having a show about arena football is not going to entice me all on its own.   What I was interested in was what goes on behind the scenes of a professional sports team.   All the time there are stories about how this or that person was traded or went to free agency or opted out of their contract.   It does not make any sense to me.   I’m used to tennis.   Either you play, or you don’t.   There isn’t any team politics and deals involved.   Team sports, however, do not work this way.   There are so many people involved in how well a team does and whether or not a player or coach gets to stay with their team.   I wanted to know how this all works which is a big part of why I started watching 4 th and Loud .                 The other reason I watched the show is because I wanted to see why in the world Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of the rock group Kiss decided to own an ar

               I don’t know how many people would see ballroom dancing as a way to bring peace to the world, but world renowned ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine does.   He believes that teaching people to dance with one another will break barriers.   This is especially true with children.   Mr. Dulaine proved this with his work in New York City schools.   In the documentary Dancing in Jaffa , Mr. Dulaine takes the same principals he used in the United States to his birthplace in Jaffa.                       In Jaffa, Israel there is a big divide between the Jewish-Israelis and the Palestinian-Israelis.   There is years of animosity between the two groups and Mr. Dulaine is determined to bring it to an end.   He decides to teach five different groups of children at five different schools to ballroom dance and then bring them together into a competition.   This means children of the opposing sides will have to learn how to dance with each other.   Accomplishing something like this w

                  If someone were to ask me to name a magician, the first person to come to mind would most likely be Harry Houdini.   I am probably not alone.   With his illusions and death defying escapes, Houdini is still thought of as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, magicians of all time.   If he weren’t, people would not still be writing books about him or making movies.   I have even heard talk of a Broadway musical.   None of this would be happening if Houdini were not an important part of our history and culture.                 The most recent Houdini oriented work I have experienced is the miniseries that aired on the History channel.   Starring Adrien Brody as Houdini, the miniseries takes the viewer through Houdini’s adult life starting around the time he meets his wife Bess (Kristen Connolly) to his death.   There are some childhood moments mixed in to understand where Houdini came from, but there are not many.   Instead the series concentrates on Houdini’s