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Apparently, there was a movie adaptation of the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" from Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" that was released in 1998. If you want to see it, too bad because it was only released on VHS, though there is a petition for rerelease on DVD.

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A Soldier's Sweetheart is a 1998 film directed by Thomas Michael Donnelly and starring Kiefer Sutherland, Skeet Ulrich, and Georgina Cates. It is based on a short story by Tim O'Brien, "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong." The story was part of his award winning book, The Things They Carried (1990).

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Arthur Miller's "Death of a Sales" debuted on the big screen in 1985. If the story interested you like me, you ought to watch the movie. You gotta admit, It's rated 8.4/10 with 100% on the tomato mater. Click here to get to Netflix.

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Netflix - Watch TV Shows Online, Watch Movies Online

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Watch Netflix movies & TV shows online or stream right to your smart TV, game console, PC, Mac, mobile, tablet and more.

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Reading "The Lesson," I became curious with the constant mention of FAO Schwarz. In case you're curious too, here is some information regarding the oldest toy store in the United States.

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FAO Schwarz (pronounced Schwartz) founded in 1862, is the oldest toy store in the United States. The company is known for its unique high-end toys, life-sized stuffed animals, dolls, and games. The FAO Schwarz second flagship store in its history was located on Fifth Avenue in New York City was a popular tourist destination and gained iconic status for its floor piano and cameos in major motion pictures.

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While reading "Everyday Use," I was surprised to see an Islamic greeting. Considering the time period and era in which the story took place, I am unsure whether Hakim is an orthodox Muslim or from the Nation of Islam, which gained great popularity among African Americans during the era of segregation in the 1950s. Being a Muslim, I'd just like to clarify the difference between the two to prevent any further misinformation about Muslims. Personally, I do not agree with the teachings of the Nation of Islam, and worry they hurt the reputation of orthodox Islam.

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Origins, practices, and more about the controversial faith.

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"Battle Royal" is only a section of his entire "Invisible Man" novel. If you enjoyed the reading, you can access the entire book with the followed link. Courtesy of the Penn State University. The prologue is quite an eerie yet luring intro.

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I am quite anxious to graduate with my associates and transfer. Reading many of Langston Hughes' poems, I was reminded of Oklahoma's very own black historical college, Langston University. Though the names are merely coincidence, I'm sure you'd encounter more of Hughes' material there. In case you're interested and haven't thought of where you'll transfer, check it out! I still have my options open.

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Lion Camp will be held July 27 - Aug. 12, 2018. This is a time to help new Langston students transition to college life as smooth and enjoyable as possible while integrating them into the Langston University community.

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In the ending of ZZ Packer's "Brownies," Laurel recalls her father mentioning the only time a white man would be on his knees for a black man. This line reminded me of an interview of the heroic Charles Ramsey who rescued a trapped little girl and two others. He felt something was wrong immediately "a little pretty white girl run to a black man" He performed a courageous deed and provided some laughs. Check out his interview!

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Charles Ramsey Interview, Cleveland Man That Found Amanda Berry

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Cleveland's local ABC affiliate caught an interview with Charles Ramsey, the man who found Amanda Berry & Gina DeJesus. Here is Charle's 911 call: http://media.cleveland.com/pdextra/audio/amanda-berry-911-call-2.mp3

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I think it's crucial for the "bad" side of history to be evident to prevent repition

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I think it's crucial for the "bad" side of history to be evident to prevent repition

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Recently I've also been dealing with a History class, and I am dumbfounded by the censorship and euphemism within our textbooks. Reading Hughes' "Let America be America Again," I was reminded of the lines omitted from Oklahoma's own Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" due to the controversy behind mentioning the "poor." Check out the hyper-link if you want to see them.

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" This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940, based on an existing melody, a Carter Family tune called "When the World's on Fire", in critical response to Irving Berlin's " God Bless America."

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I have used this website many times in the past. I was using it again for my "The Yellow Wallpaper" essay to find relevant articles that could be related to Jane and her disorder. Stop here if you ever need relevant and valid information for any medical information. Very Useful reference.

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national center for biotechnology information

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united states national library of medicine

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PubMed comprises more than 28 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

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Probability that a first marriage will survive 10 years: 6.7%

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Probability that a first marriage will survive 10 years: 6.7%

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The play "A Doll's House" peaked my curiousity and once I get I headed to the internet to find some numbers. I found some interesting statistics. What is even more interesting is seeing so many people getting married for the first time nowadays.

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SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR INSTANT ACCESS TO ALL DATA

Full Access Starting at just $0.65 / Day

Statistic Sources & References

Sources: LOGIN TO VIEW SOURCES

Content Author: Statistic Brain

Marriage Statistics
Demographics
Related Statistic Brain Research
Statistic Brain
Marriage Statistics
Demographics

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Full Access Starting at just $0.65 / Day Statistic Sources & References Sources: LOGIN TO VIEW SOURCES Content Author: Statistic Brain Marriage Statistics Demographics Related Statistic Brain Research Statistic Brain Marriage Statistics Demographics

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Sometimes we can't keep glancing at words, and we need more visual stimulation. In case you aren't in the mood to read the play I suggest, go buy/rent/download this short episode. Surprising to find a modern adaptation of such an old play.

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Directed by Pamela Gaye Walker. With Todd Krish, Austin Madison, Teddy Newton, Michael O'Brien. In 1939, a murder happens in a remote farm house in rural Iowa. The Sheriff and other men on duty look for concrete evidence in order to convict the victim's wife. Quietly in the kitchen, two women solve the crime.

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A discussion lead me to search for more information on the author Jamaica Kincaid. Upon the results, I did find an old, off-topic article that was interesting. It made me reorient my perspective of the author's point of view in "Girl". I originally felt the story was monotone, but it may have purposely been somewhat pessimisstic.

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Jamaica Kincaid's life reads like an American Cinderella story: born and raised in poverty on the island of Antigua, West Indies; unloved by an unresponsive and often abusive mother who shipped her off to the United States at 17 to be an au pair (Kincaid insists on the word "servant" to describe her employment status); "discovered" on the streets of Manhattan by New Yorker columnist George Trow, who brought her into the fold of the magazine by printing one of her articles in the "Talk of the Town" section; became a celebrated fiction writer ( Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother) and gardening columnist; married the son of legendary New Yorker editor William Shawn; and moved to the idyll of North Bennington, Vermont, where she now writes, gardens, teaches, and tends to her family, which includes two beautiful children.

Why, then, does this 48-year-old woman, who speaks with an accent both lilting and sweet, feel it's her "duty to make everyone a little less happy"? Mother Jones spoke with Kincaid about her continuing obsessions and her upcoming book, My Brother (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a nonfiction account of her youngest sibling, who died of AIDS in 1996.

Q: Why did you decide to go public about the life and death of your brother?

A: For me, writing isn't a way of being public or private; it's just a way of being. The process is always full of pain, but I like that. It's a reality, and I just accept it as something not to be avoided. This is the life I have. This is the life I write about.
Q: In the book you said of your brother that he lived in death. What did you mean?
A: His life was a passive event. It had no shape. His life was sort of waiting to happen. As he died, that seemed to be what was going to happen - so one could only say that he never lived. He sort of died all the time. It was one of the frustrating things in taking care of him that I sometimes seemed to care more whether he lived. I didn't like that. I also suspect that my interest in him was because I thought if circumstances had been different that might have been my own life. What distinguished my life from my brother's is that my mother didn't like me. When I became a woman, I seemed to repel her. I had to learn to fend for myself. I found a way to rescue myself.

Q: Your characters seem to be against most things that are good, yet they have no reason to act this way - they express a kind of negative freedom. Is this the only freedom available to the poor and powerless?

A: Of course everyone must find their own way. The characters I've - I don't want to say created; I don't think I'm capable of creating - written about, would seem to find their own way. It seemed to make sense. Any other way would be inconsistent and untrue with the characters I've written.

I think in many ways the problem that my writing would have with an American reviewer is that Americans find difficulty very hard to take. They are inevitably looking for a happy ending. Perversely, I will not give the happy ending. I think life is difficult and that's that. I am not at all - absolutely not at all - interested in the pursuit of happiness. I am not interested in the pursuit of positivity. I am interested in pursuing a truth, and the truth often seems to be not happiness but its opposite.

Americans like to be funny, they like to laugh and they like a happy ending - which accounts I think for the sorry state of American writing life, but that's a whole other story.

Q: You once gave a speech at a symposium on botanical gardens but talked about colonialism and peoples being forcibly transplanted to foreign soils, and the great cost that lies behind what most of us want to just see as beautiful...

A: Yes. They were shocked!

Q: Why this insistence on provocation and unpleasantries? On saying that a daffodil is not just a daffodil, for example, because of the way it was cultivated, who cultivated it, and who sweated over it?

A: I don't know how to say it without sounding pompous: Why this insistence on truth? Everything has all sorts of sides. The daffodil has this peculiar side to it. The garden has a peculiar side to it, a qualifying side. For instance, most of the nations that have serious gardening cultures also have, or had, empires. You can't have this luxury of pleasure without somebody paying for it. This is nice to know. It's nice to know that when you sit down to enjoy a plate of strawberries, somebody got paid very little so that you could have your strawberries. It doesn't mean the strawberries will taste different, but it's nice to enjoy things less than we do. We enjoy things far too much, and it leads to incredible pain and suffering.

Q: Some might argue that you're just being depressing and nihilistic.

A: Good! I like to be depressing. I feel it's my duty to make everyone a little less happy. You know that line in the Declaration of Independence, "the pursuit of happiness"? I've come to think that it has no meaning at all. You cannot pursue happiness. And to think that this bad little sentence has determined our lives.

Q: The Declaration of Independence also talks about freedom, a concept that has been important to you creatively. What does freedom mean to you?

A: Of course you only are familiar with freedom if you have its opposite. The thing to remember about the Declaration of Independence and the profession of freedom is that it was written by people who were quite free and who were surrounded by people who were not free. The people who wrote the Declaration of Independence were ventriloquists really. The obsession with freedom makes no sense when it applies to them.

Q: You have said that you will never forget "how my ancestors came from Africa to the West Indies as slaves. It's like a big wave that's still pulsing." Much of your writing springs from this heritage, yet, elsewhere, you almost heap scorn on those - mostly African-Americans - who define their identities by their blackness.

A: I hope I don't heap scorn on African-Americans for anything, but I do often find the conversation African-Americans have frustrating. I, for instance, wish that not one African-American had had anything to say about Mr. O.J. Simpson's guilt or innocence. I wish not one African-American felt that it was necessary to participate in some ridiculous, diverting spectacle called the Million Man March.

Do you know the journals of Lewis and Clark? Captain Lewis had what is described as a servant by the name of York. York was not a servant. York was a slave. But they can't face it, so York is called a servant. On this journey with Lewis and Clark, York is often used by the party to divert the Indians. York would dance and sing. The Indians would rub York's hair. That, for me, is the beginning of the stereotype of the African-American as the diversion.

The African-American is often used, and has conspired with the rest of America to be used, as a diversion from America's problems. I wish African-Americans would stop contributing to this sideshow. I also wish all African-Americans would cease to sing and dance just for a generation. I think we provide too much entertainment.

Q: What are we being diverted from?

A: Well, the fact that the schools are very, very bad, for example. Or that there is such a real thing as racialism. It's not about the specifics of whether O.J. killed his wife and her friend. There is such a thing as racialism, and one would just like to face up to that and move on. I also think people like Jesse Jackson do not help matters. I mean, "I am somebody"? My God, of course you are! Nobody needs to claim anything. This just drives me insane. How can you claim to be somebody? A human being is a human being. What frustrates me is to see African-Americans behave as though what European-Americans say is worthwhile. It simply isn't. It's just some silly people who can make laws and have the power to enforce them. I'm often amazed at the conversations black people have about themselves. They ought to be having these conversations about white people. It's white people who are flawed and at fault.

Q: You dedicate My Brother to Ian "Sandy" Frazier, your former colleague at the New Yorker. You've also dedicated a book to your friend George Trow. It's nice to know you have friendships with these two white men, who have supported you personally and professionally, since most of your work is about the oppressive relationship between men and women and between the powerful and the powerless.

A: Oh, gosh, yes! You can make these broad generalizations creatively, and then you have your own life. The strange thing about my life is that I came to America at about the time when racial attitudes were changing. This was a big help to me. Also, the people who were most cruel to me when I first came to America were black Americans. They made absolute fun of the way I talked, the way I dressed. I couldn't dance. The people who were most kind and loving to me were white people. So what can one make of that? Perhaps it was a coincidence that all the people who found me strange were black and all the people who didn't were white.

The other strange thing is that, whatever I say in my writing, in my personal life I'm really incredibly lucky. I suppose that's what gives me the freedom to express negatives.

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Jamaica Kincaid's life reads like an American Cinderella story: born and raised in poverty on the island of Antigua, West Indies; unloved by an unresponsive and often abusive mother who shipped her off to the United States at 17 to be an au pair (Kincaid insists on the word "servant"

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After reading the story "Story of an Hour", I was curious if it was possible undergo cardiac arrest from intense emotions. Though it makes great sense that the adrenaline could cause the plaques to tear, happiness generally leads to a healthier heart.

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Positive People Have Less Heart Disease
From the WebMD Archives

Feb. 17, 2010 - Whether you view the glass as half empty or half full may help determine your risk for heart disease.

Just as negative emotions such as depression, anger, and hostility are risk factors for heart attack and stroke, happiness seems to protect the heart.

This was the finding from a large study that examined the impact of positive personality traits like happiness, contentment, and enthusiasm on heart disease risk.

Researchers followed 1,739 healthy adults living in Nova Scotia, Canada, for 10 years to determine whether attitudes affected their health.

At the start of the study, trained professionals assessed the participants' degree of expression of negative emotions like depression, hostility, and anxiety and positive emotions such as joy, happiness, and excitement.

Naturally happy people certainly do experience depression and other negative emotions from time to time, lead researcher Karina W. Davidson, PhD, of Columbia University Medical Center tells WebMD. But this is usually situational and transient.

The tendency toward expression of positive emotions such as happiness and contentment is known in psychological circles as "positive affect."

"We know from previous studies that negative emotion is predictive of heart disease," Davidson says. "We wanted to find out if positive affect is protective."

Happiness and the Heart

After accounting for known heart disease risk factors, the researchers found that the happiest people were 22% less likely to develop heart disease over the 10 years of follow-up than people who fell in the middle of the negative-positive emotion scale.

People with the most negative emotions had the highest risk for heart disease and people who scored highest for happiness had the lowest risk.

This observed protection persisted even when naturally happy people were experiencing transient depressive symptoms.

The findings do not prove that happiness protects the heart. For that, Davidson says, rigorously designed clinical trials will be needed.

"It is just speculation at this point, but there are several possible explanations for how happiness may protect the heart," Davidson says.

They include:

Healthier lifestyle: Happy people tend to sleep better, eat better, smoke less, and get more exercise. All of these things lower heart disease risk.

Physiological impact: Happiness may produce a host of positive chemical changes -- such a reduction in stress hormones -- that are good for the heart.

Genetic influences: It could be that people who are predisposed to happiness are also predisposed to have fewer heart attacks.

"If we are able to change people's level of positive affect we may be able to lower their risk for heart disease," Davidson says.

She recommends devoting at least 15 to 20 minutes a day to doing something enjoyable and relaxing. And make sure this activity is not the first thing to be abandoned on a busy day.

"You have to commit to it," she says. "Schedule the time and stick to it."

Continued

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Research into happiness and how it impacts health, known as positive psychology, is a relatively new.

It was long believed that most people are hardwired to be either naturally happy or not, regardless of life events.

But this view has changed in recent years as more becomes known about the science of happiness, University of Michigan professor of medicine Bertram Pitt, MD, tells WebMD.

In an editorial published with the study, Pitt writes that interventions that focus on improving social skills and decreasing social anxiety may lower heart disease risk.

Both the study and editorial appear in the European Heart Journal.

Pitt cites numerous strategies that could help naturally negative people become happier, including:

Express gratitude on a regular basis.

Practice being optimistic.

Engage in frequent acts of kindness.

Visualize one's best self.

Savor joyful events.

Practice forgiveness.

"Finally, regular exercise and sexual activity and good sleep are all associated with increased self-reported happiness," he writes.

Sources

SOURCES:

Davidson, K.W. European Heart Journal, published online Feb.18, 2010.

Karina W. Davidson, PhD, associate professor of medicine and psychiatry; director, Center for Behavioral Cardiovascular Health, Columbia University Medical Center, New York.

Bertram Pitt, MD, professor of internal medicine, University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor.

News release, European Society of Cardiology.

Fosbol, E. Circulation: Heart Failure, November 2009; vol 2: pp 582-590.

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Positive People Have Less Heart Disease From the WebMD Archives Feb. 17, 2010 - Whether you view the glass as half empty or half full may help determine your risk for heart disease. Just as negative emotions such as depression, anger, and hostility are risk factors for heart attack and stroke, happiness seems to protect the heart.