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March 2012 ebooks

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Table of Contents

1. The first, the last, the epic journey of RMS Titanic, and you are there. Some centennialobservations.2. 100% sales. The 'must read' for business people who want more money and want it NOW!3. The lady from Maine laments and quits; the gentleman from Oklahoma says shoot 'em, and werevisit the savage beating -- on the Senate floor no less -- of Sen. Charles Sumner by Rep. PrestonBrooks4. William Topaz McGonagall, (March 1825-29 September 1902), quite possibly the world's worst poet, yet an admirable man well worth the knowing.5. Rock of ages. The pain and comfort locked in every piece of jewelry.6. Running your own business? Think you're listening to and serving your customers? You may besurprised what these customers think about that. You may be surprised what these customers think.about that.

7. Deviled eggs.8. The best marketing training on Earth -- and, astonishingly, it's free. The Worldprofit Junior Monitor program.. . now available to you.9. School bullying. Always with us, not acknowledged as a pressing problem needing attention --until now.10. Google Confirms Using Social Signals to Rank Websites11. Plugin Launched to Tap Google’s Ranking via Social Signals12. Is Social Metrics Pro the Best Social Signal Tracking and Monitoring Tool?13. Social Metrics Pro Uses Little Details that Matter Much14. How do I keep track of the social popularity of my website?15. Boys will be boys.... thoughts on hazing, fraternities, fair Dartmouth and a renowned college

president who stumbled... or did he?16. 'Look away Dixie Land!' The day that determined the outcome of the U.S. Civil War. The Battleof Hampton Roads, March 9, 1862. And you are there....17. Abraham Lincoln... captivated by words, created by words, empowered by words, glorified bywords. Reflections on his Cooper Union Speech, February 27, 1860.18. 'Berries are nice'. The lush ripeness of strawberries and their sweet red allure.19. Flowers assuage 'all sorts of misfortune'. A masterpiece by Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer found,restored, enjoyed in The Lant Collection.20. Celebrating a man, his mission, his achievement, his bliss... by that man himself.21. The two secrets to power writing -- reciting, rewriting.22. On the matter of great books you have not read or even heard about, and one such book in

particular, "The Leopard" by Prince Giuseppe Di Lampedusa.23. The most beautiful place in the world to die. Tyler Clementi... Dharun Ravi... the GeorgeWashington Bridge... and the necessity for remembrance24. 'Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.' Is this the requiem for the great African elephant? A proposal to save them.25. 'By a waterfall.' H2Oh! The unwanted rise here... the unwanted fall there of the element we mosttake for granted and from whence we came.

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The first, the last, the epic journey of RMS Titanic, and youare there. Some centennial observations.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. You know Titanic. It is the most famous ship that ever sailed... and the mostfamous ship that foundered, listed, and sank. It is this ship I ask you to board with me now, having

cleared your mind of everything you know, every thought and impression you have ever had aboutthis great ship, and so recapture the state of mind you would have had when you boarded her atSouthampton, England 10 April, 1912. For you are weighing anchor towards destiny... but do notknow it, no one does.

The Ritz afloat.

The White Star Line was an enterprise that dreamed dreams of magnitude, dreams of floating palaces, of luxury that made you catch your breath and hurry back to record what you saw in your diary, which your grandchildren would savor, a treasured heirloom forever. They brought the veryidea of awe to their work... and it was nothing but the very truth, a source of pride to an empire thatexisted solely because of its command of the seas.

Born in Belfast.

The idea for Titanic and her sister ships RMS Olympic and RMS Britannic commenced in mid-1907when White Star Line's chairman, J. Bruce Ismay, met with American financier J. Pierpont Morgan,the man who controlled White Star Line's parent corporation, the International Mercantile MarineCo. These men had everything... and so, of course, they wanted more. And they had the means to getit.

They insisted, they were adamant, Titanic must be the ultimate in every single element, everyfeature, every component, the dernier cri, the ship for which even the word acme was not goodenough.

Thus they hired the renowned firm of Harland and Wolff, giving them carte blanche, with but asingle command: the result must be the best, unrivalled, unexampled; colossus in the age of colossi,the incontrovertible symbol of this greatest age of man and his wondrous works.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, was stinted for Titanic, and if six men were killed constructing her,with 246 injuries overall, 28 of them "severe" (meaning loss of limb), why, what did that signify...great enterprises have great costs.

Launched 31 May, 1911.

Of the many proud days in Belfast, this was amongst the proudest for this was a day when the

intricate skills of the men of this turbulent city were on best display. Project supervisor Lord Pirrie,J. Pierpont Morgan and J. Bruce Ismay were joined by over 100,000 jubilant, God-fearing peoplewho cheered to the very echo the ship, its sublime grace, the officials who dreamed, the designerswho imagined, and the small army of workers who constructed this masterpiece.

So you who read of these happenings longed to be part of Titanic and its gilded future... rather impulsively buying two tickets, a present (rather expensive to be sure) for your wife, for an eventyou would never forget, of that you were sure.

Thus you found yourself in Southampton... head high, walking up the gangway... where you heardthe unmistakable sound of a fashionable waltz, "Songe d'Automne"... it was exquisite... if a trifle sad

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for such a glad occasion. Yes, haunting, beautiful... mentally noting you would ask the band to playit en route when you wanted just the right sound for a perfect evening...

Thus did the great ship sail on... with no one imagining that she would soon become renowned notfor every aspect of nautical expertise, but for hubris, arrogance, ineptitude and for an end that wouldrival the very essence of Hell itself.

11:40 pm 14 April, 1912. The end begins.

At 11:39 pm of its final night afloat, the magnificent Titanic was a glorious vision, lighting heavenitself, steaming to a ceremonial entrance in New York City, the happy berth of 2,223 people,including the creme de la creme of European and American Society, names you knew, admired,envied.

Just one minute later, suffering a glancing blow from an iceberg whilst maneuvering to avoid it,Titanic began its transformation into a metaphor, not for man's greatness and technical abilities butfor his littleness in the face of unkind and unrelenting Nature, becoming a matter of myth, not merelyhistory.

"No, 't is not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 't is enough, 't will serve."("Romeo and Juliet").

And so it did... a mere gash in the pristine hull an invitation for the gelid waters of the ice-fleckedAtlantic to rush in, mocking the high works of man, drowning them without any effort at all, their merest motion enough for the gravest consequences.

In such times, the very best and the very worst of man's behaviors are evidenced... how one demandsthat half-filled life boats be lowered into the calm sea, the only chance to live, whist another,unbidden, gives up a place of safety in that very boat, to ensure the life of a total stranger. Theremaining moments on doomed Titanic evince all, telling evidence of who we are and what we maydo at anytime, to anyone, for good or ill.

Then came the moment you had to decide...a single moment that shows who you are... anddetermines what you must do. The moment is charged with importance; it is a life or deathdecision... and you must make it now, decisively, without regret or recrimination, and absolutely noopportunity to alter it, even if you could.

"Darling, get in the life boat."

And so you, like every other passenger traveling with a loved one, must act. Must do the right thing,although that thing may cost you your life. And this action must be prompt, for the great thing thatwas once astonishing Titanic is sinking faster now, its frightful end apparent, and with it your fate.

Thus, you look into your beloved's eyes and realize that your lives are now separating forever... andthe pain is more than you can bear. Then, as her life boat is lowered, you remember a token, sacrednow, in your pocket. A locket... with pictures of you both and the single line, "Remember, 14 April,1912", the happy day you meant, a lifetime ago, to memorialize... Giving this is the last time youtouch her hand... a fact she will never forget and will cherish forever.

Now trapped on the sloping deck, you search your soul for whatever comfort you can derive... andresolve not to die here, passive, but to jump to your fate. As you do, you hear the band still playing;the song you first heard upon boarding, the "Songe d'Automne", now not merely a waltz... but ahymn for a ship, an era... and now... for you.

Author's note: Of all the people who sailed on Titanic's only voyage, just 710 survived. Theremainder heard the valiant band play on, until it reached its final arrangement. There is good reason


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to suppose that was the "Songe d'Automne'. It was composed by Archibald Joyce, the "English WaltzKing". We shall never know for sure, because the entire band went down with the ship. Find it nowin any search engine and think on its pathetic history and its final performance on the fateful shipTitanic.

*** We invite you to post your comments to this article below.


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100% sales. The 'must read' for business people who wantmore money and want it NOW!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. I have the inestimable privilege of training some of the brightest business people on earth... people of wit, intelligence, good humor... and a fierce determination to be

successful, climbing the greasy pole, making more money, and living just the way they want. I findthis work enthralling, exhilarating... and (I'll admit it) frequently frustrating... as I watch even the best and the brightest muff it.

And so, today, I am writing about the one essential thing these fine folks -- and that now includesYOU -- must do every single minute of every single day that you want more money. For, let's notkid ourselves... if you understand this crucial article and follow its directives... you are going tomake more money, lots more, and leave your lackadaisical and languid colleagues in the dust. Andwon't that be sweet?

To put you in the mood for my insistent message, I have selected a dance number that once madeyou gyrate and awe... "I Want Your Love" by a group named Chic. It hit the charts in 1978, and it

made its point early and often:

"I want your love. I want your love. I want your love. I want your love."

In other words, they kept on message, driving home the point of their endeavors until even the mostmentally challenged "got it". As a teacher with a sledgehammer, repetitive delivery, I like that... Ilike it a lot.

And so to set the stage for what follows, look this tune up in any search engine now and move thatoverweight, arthritic body; because you're about to recapture your alluring youth... and be the personwho got what you wanted, oh yeah!

Painful, so painful.It happened again yesterday... and it gets me, right in the solar plexus, each and every time I see thisfundamental error. The sales person I was training was operating solo. In other words, they had progressed sufficiently far in their instruction to where they get to fly all alone. I am there, of course;I am always there... but I try to remain as silent as the grave and unobtrusive so that I am seeing thestudent and just the student. And make no mistake about it... this situation (as every parent knows)can make you as nervous and frustrated as all get out.

Lights, camera... think!

Picture the scene. All parties are on the 'net. I am present in my video box, the student is in his... and

the "real life" prospect enters... like a bull at a corrida. Everything happens in real time.... and hasreal world implications, for good... or for ill.

Ok... the student (and, remember, my students are established business people, notwet-behind-the-ears kids) goes into closing mode. This starts by greeting each and every prospect byname; then asking each prospect to watch a 20-minute video packed with the vital data that bothexcites the prospect and instructs her.

These steps are crucial... and the students know I am a stickler for ensuring that they occur. In other words, make SURE the prospect has the critical facts before any further action can occur.

The prospect is prepped... are you?


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"As soon as you've finished the video, return to me for a spectacular one-time-only offer."

These words usher in the next phase of the operation. We make it clear what must be done (watchvideo) and what is coming thereafter (spectacular offer). So far... so good.

Close but no cigar.

The first mistake the students make is to present the offer before the prospect has been adequately

prepped. This is a critical error. Prospects must have the necessary facts... or they end up asking aton of unnecessary questions; questions which have already been answered -- and in precise, clear detail, too -- in the video.

The video, the whole video, nothing but the video.

As soon as you have confirmed that the prospect has watched the ENTIRE video, proceed to the"Big rock candy mountain," your scintillating offer. It IS scintillating, isn't it? For if it doesn't snap,crackle, and pop you've just thrown away a sale. Sales occur because the offer sizzles, excites, is justtoo thrilling to decline. You ARE making such an offer, I trust. And if you're not, you'd better makeits improvement "Action this day," which is what Winston Churchill did when as Prime Minister of England he demanded instant attention and RESULTS.

And now... the critical moment that turns you into a master... and puts another sale in your pocket:100% sales.

To remain an average closer, keep doing what you're doing.But to fly high as one of the world'ssales masters you must set the desired goal... then do everything possible, everything necessary toachieve it.

That is... 100% sales.

Is this what you do?

Make your objective immediately clear to the prospect: "I want you to get the benefits of thiswidget... and I'm going to do everything I can to make it happen." Don't just say these words... meanthem. Because once the prospect knows you're serious, they can be serious too, working with you for fastest, most complete mutual advantage.

At this moment, the prospect may well start back peddling saying things like this:

"I don't have any money."

"I can't do it today."

"I need to tell the little woman. We're a team."

And so forth. Your job is to thrust these obstacles out of the way and CLOSE THAT DEAL.To do this, you must remind yourself AT ALL TIMES that you have a 100% closing goal... and thatyou are going to make this close. If the prospect stalls or blocks you, keep things going by asking for the prospect's undivided attention and for an all- important OPEN mind. Make sure the prospectunderstands what the offer is.... and if necessary improve it; always making it clear that this offer expires the second the prospect leaves. In other words, there is a premium for staying, workingthings out, but irrevocable loss if they won't.

Now, gun it.

Keep in mind at all times, with the terrific offer you are making, the prospect will be better off... if...


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and only if... they take immediate action. It is your job to drive this home NOW... making itabundantly clear that action now is the only sensible course.

Do this, and do it with enthusiasm, gusto, and good humor, and you will not only want that sale...you will get it! For as Chic sang, "a better love you won't find today..." or a better offer either.

*** What do you think? We invite you to post your comments below.


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The lady from Maine laments and quits; the gentleman fromOklahoma says shoot 'em, and we revisit the savage beating-- on the Senate floor no less -- of Sen. Charles Sumner byRep. Preston Brooks

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. There's a whole lot of lamenting going on in Washington, D.C. It goes likethis: once upon a time the Congress of the Great Republic was a genteel place where ladies andgentlemen put on their white gloves and best manners, taking tea while cozily arranging America'saffairs... thence home to a Dickens novel and well-earned slumber. The problem is that such a timenever existed in the Congress of these factious United States. It's the merest myth... for all that the poor lads and lassies who represent us yearn for such a place, such a time, and such amiable,thoughtful, sympathetic colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

And so, these folks give way to frequent tears and even more frequent sighs and vapors... withlamentations loud, frequent, poignant, heart-rending -- and silly.

The most recent to give way to this "feel sorry for me" rubbish is the lady from Maine, senior Republican Senator Olympia Snowe. On February 28, 2012 the Honorable Olympia announced her inability to stomach the poisonous, internecine, downright nasty senatorial environment for another term. And so, lamenting, petulant, self-pitying, she said "basta!"... and started packing her valiseswith the accumulated treasures and heirlooms -- not to mention the pensions and emoluments -- of over 33 years in Congress. These will be substantial indeed.

As for me, I cannot find a single tear for the lady, rather the reverse. She says she was armed for another campaign, had money aplenty to fight the good fight... but she clearly lacked the stomachfor so much closeness to her feisty and outspoken Mainers. Senators are revered, coddled, kowtowedto in Washington, D.C. Back home amidst the problems and bleakness of Portland, they are asked,

insistently too, just what have you done for us lately, Missie... and you'd better have a detailedanswer at the ready. Demigods like Senator Olympia find such directness rude, and long for fragrantcamomile in a fragile cup of Old Worcester while aides fan her with cooling air.... unlimitedincense... and deference to every word and wish.

Ms. Olympia says she's a Greek from Spartan stock... and while that might have been true 30 yearsago in her elected salad days, it is most assuredly true no longer. She's gone Athenian, and nowdemands reverence, not the stark choice of returning with her shield -- or on it. And so she mustretire... because she is no longer able to fight the good fight for Maine, for Mainers, and for the GreatRepublic which needs visionaries, fighters, not aging voluptuaries who crave comfort, notconfrontation.

Enter Congressman John Sullivan (R-Oklahoma).

February 22, 2012 Representative Sullivan made a few red-blooded observations during one of hisregular "town hall" meetings with constituents. The subject was how to get the Senate of the GreatRepublic to get serious, I mean really serious, about balancing the out-of-control federal budget.

"I'd love to get them /the senators/ to vote for it. Boy, I'd love that, you know. But other than megoing over there with a gun and pointing it to their head and maybe killing a couple of them, I don'tfeel they're going to listen unless they get beat."

Cornered by the ever present Thought Police, Representative Sullivan, that able and forthright


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member for Tulsa, backed down. He didn't mean it....shouldn't have said it... certainly didn'timagine... and would never, ever do... You get the picture. The Honorable John was tripping over himself, back pedaling to beat the band. But why?

After all, he is far more what we actually want in our elected representatives, even while we say we prefer the Olympia model. No, we want our reps to represent us robustly, directly, rudely, shrewdly,without limits ... because unless they do that our share of the pie -- and the extra bucks we covet --will go to others more able to bring home the bacon than our shrinking violets... and that will never

do.The great example of Representative Preston Brooks.

In 1856, the great issue of the day was slavery. It was a question which overshadowed all others. Itwas intractable, divisive, perhaps insoluble... certainly unavoidable. And because moderates couldnot prevail in resolving the matter, it was left to the zealots on both sides to see what they could do,using whatever means they chose to use.

And so on May 18, 1856 the Honorable Charles Sumner, the Senator from Massachusetts, arose tosee what he could do to resolve the irresolvable... his vehicle being his great speech "The CrimeAgainst Kansas" given to ensure that slavery did not encroach into the Kansas Territory and so

augment the South and the slave owners he despised.It was a great speech in every way -- 50 single-spaced pages in length, a detailed analysis of the problem, the most brilliant, vituperative language; language meant to insult, to scald, to enrage, witha position that absolutely no one could misunderstand, whatever side they supported.

Picture the scene. Not a cup of camomile to be seen.

Great Sumner rises sustained by sanctimony, rectitude and rage; each word is sonorous, deliveredwith venom, designed to sting, outrage, rebuke, condemn, no quarter asked, none given.

And so this man of Harvard, of Boston, of Massachusetts, this man of certainty, no doubt or hesitation rose to challenge the nation and to reshape the Great Republic.

Every eye was on the man, a mere man no longer, but the agent of a stern, implacable God, God theAvenger, majestic, awe-inspiring, I Am that I Am.

"Mr. President," he began, "You are now called to redress a great transgression."

And every word that followed in that vast torrent of words beat home this point.

There was no note of accommodation, no politics as usual, nothing less than total victory would do.

In the course of this great philippic, which ultimately saw one million copies distributed, Senator Sumner attacked Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina, not just the man or his ideas but his

stroke-impaired physique. It was brutal, it was hurtful; it was insulting... and a few days later inspired the Senator's outraged nephew, South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks to enter theSenate Chamber and, with his gutta-percha cane with solid gold knob, beat Sumner insensate, evenwhen Sumner was comatose, lying in his puddling blood.

So did immoderate Sumner make his case...so did immoderate Brooks retaliate.

And so was the Congress of the Great Republic shortly peopled by representatives carrying devicesof every kind, guns, knives, and of course the gutta-percha sticks with gold knobs made fashionable-- or abhorrent -- by this incident which moved the Civil War appreciably closer.

That is why, Senator Snowe, your decision to leave is a bad decision. The people of Maine need


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you.. the Congress needs you... the Great Republic still has great need of your services. No, it is notconvenient for you; not least because you must present yourself again to your constituents, and, being Mainers, they will question you closely, for they are no respecters of persons and so mayaffront you. What of it? You have the Great Republic's work to do. And that is far more importantand pressing than your own personal feelings or comfort. They count for nothing against what youcan do, must do and cannot abandon now.

Thus I give you this song, "John Brown's Body", a rousing tune which arose from the American

camp meeting tradition in the early 19th century and, after many changes of words, became themarching tune for people who understood the implementation of Truth was a long, difficult, oftendangerous process. Go now to any search engine and find the rendition you like... and bookmark it,for you will have need of it in the work ahead:

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave His soul's marching on."

And so must you, too, Senator Olympia Snowe, for your work for the people is most assuredly notfinished yet.

Dedication: The author is pleased to dedicate this work to Joshua Aaron Sumner and Roshelle ElenaSumner, descendants of the magnificent Yankee who alerted the world to "The Crime Against

Kansas," children of dear friend, Lance Sumner, fellow Internet argonaut.


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William Topaz McGonagall, (March 1825-29 September 1902),quite possibly the world's worst poet, yet an admirable manwell worth the knowing.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. I first became aware of William McGonagall in 1967 when I was a student at

Scotland's oldest and proudest university, St. Andrews. "You must read McGonagall" people saidwith a twinkle. "He's undoubtedly Scotland's worst poet... indeed, quite possibly the single worst poet who has ever lived."

Every person who told me -- and there were many -- offered their fervent recommendation, tonguefirmly in cheek, with high good humor... but there was (odd mixture) more than a dollop of respectin their words, even admiration... and never, ever derision. McGonagall compelled their respect, andso while everyone smiled at his execrable verses... there wasn't a soul who begrudged him ahard-earned encomium for his persistence, his tenacity in pursuing his evanescent, shimmeringdream, and most of all his unyielding determination, a potent combination which made him anunlikely celebrity and a man about whom I now say to you in my turn "You must read

McGonagall."

For the incidental music to this article I have selected a tune from the 1954 musical "Brigadoon",that magic place in the sweet-smelling heather, the pertinacious flower of Scotland; a place thatemerges once every 100 years to remind you of a people, their unquenchable zest and undeniablegenius. McGonagall deserves his hard-won place amongst the revelry and pageantry of Brigadoon...it would no doubt have inspired him to another (admittedly God-awful) effusion.

You will find my selection -- "Heather on the hill" -- in any search engine. Go now... for at this partywe shall eat, drink, be merrie... and if we compel a tear, then it's a willing tribute we pay to a landwe revere and remember fondly too... and because McGonagall shared that sentiment he is alwaysand forever one of us.

Born in Edinburgh, in 1825, or maybe 1830.

Like many aspects of McGonagall's checkered career, his basic facts are either unknown or indispute. He was, for instance, born in the Greyfriars Parish in Edinburgh in March, but just what dateis not known... indeed the very year itself of his birth cannot be determined. What of it? He came tohis Irish parents on a particular day... and it's sufficient that he did so... and so began his race, a racefor which he was well equipped in only one thing -- true grit and assiduity.

... And sad to say, that wasn't enough to win, as he wanted to win. But he refused to recognize thisfact, and that's the point of this tale...

The Weaver Poet.

If he were born today, McGonagall, hard-working weaver of long-wearing cloth, would no doubtqualify for a grant from some well-meaning foundation of liberal tendencies... but such like did notexist then... and so, despite the wife and 7 children he acquired along the way, he left his uncertaincraft... in pursuit of... what? Different people said very different things about what he did. He never heard them, didn't care, and didn't let their advice, however earnest and sensible, determine hisdirection... and that, too, is the point of this tale.

And so his quest for himself and for the words that always eluded him began...

... appropriately enough with a role in "Macbeth" where he played the title role... embellishing it in


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this way: having paid Mr. Giles for the right to play this role at his theatre, he understandablywished to get his money's worth. And so at Macduff's great moment, McGonagall, as Macbeth,refused to die and stayed on the stage, extemporizing, to the consternation and amusement of all. Ah,this was most assuredly a portent of things -- and poetry -- to come.

A pivotal moment in 1877.

There comes to all people with a mission a moment of epiphany, a moment when they know beyonda shadow of doubt what they will do, what they must do to fulfill their destiny and high purpose.This moment occurred in 1877 for McGonagall, and it determined his fate. "I seemed to feel astrange kind of feeling stealing over me and remained so for about five minutes." Another man musthave seen it as dyspepsia brought on by a too fine dinner... McGonagall saw it as destiny.... his fate, poetry.

And now, then, we must unveil some of this poetry, ultimately about 200 works, perhaps the worstever written, God bless him.

McGonagall, fervent royalist that he was, wrote often about his sovereign princess and lady, QueenVictoria. Indeed, on one well-known occasion he thought nothing of walking about 60 miles fromDundee to Balmoral where Her Majesty then resided. Undaunted by her failure to receive him,

drenched to the skin though he was, not even gifted with a wee, warming dram, he still revered, for his loyalty was abiding and profound.

Thus for her Golden Jubilee of 1887, celebrating 50 years upon the throne, he wrote:

"Therefore let all her subjects rejoice and sing, Until they make the welkin ring; And let young andold on this her Jubilee be glad, And cry, 'Long Live our Queen!' and don't be sad.'

Delicious.

Sadly such loyal sentiments so rendered did not enrich this most unpoetic of poets, no indeed. Thushis expedients were many. For instance, he took a job at a circus where he gave readings from hisoeuvre and allowed his discriminating listeners to signify their disapprobation by pelting him withoffal, dead cats, rotten tomatoes, lamb carcasses and other disagreeables. It was never enough, noteven close, to making a living.

.... But still the torpid words, the wrong words, the words that mangled and hurt to hear kept coming,for this was a man possessed, though not gifted.

Until the collapse of the great Tay Bridge, one of the great engineering marvels of the age, gave himhis great opportunity -- and he seized it.

"Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay! Alas! I am very sorry to say That ninety lives have been taken away On the last Sabbath day of 1879, Which will be remember'd for a very long time."

And so he rendered the catastrophe of 28 December 1879 when the bridge collapsed, taking with itthe fast-speeding express and every passenger. McGonagall's words were the high point of his bathetic career.

Let us leave it so, for now you know of McGonagall and his works, each one you can read, savor,and enjoy... though never, ever deride. For though he was a bad poet, perhaps the worst ever known,he was adamant in pursuit of his dream; perhaps more adamant than you. And so in the end, heendures; his awkward verses, every one of them, still in print...

"I am your gracious Majesty ever faithful to Thee, William McGonagall, the Poor Poet, That lives inDundee."


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... And in our hearts.


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Rock of ages. The pain and comfort locked in every piece of jewelry.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

I am about to open a time capsule. It's been waiting for me for some years now, and I am, I think, asready as I shall ever be to look inside -- and to be swept away by the strongest and most enduring

memories... of mother, deceased, never more alive in my mind.I am writing this article for just 4 people, first, my mother herself; she and I discussed this subject onseveral occasions and I want to keep faith with her.

Second, I am writing this article for me. I resolved some time ago that as incidents in my mother'slife rose to the top of my consciousness, I would write about them, the better to remember her andkeep her memory green.

The third person for whom this is written is my only niece Chelsea; she's the young woman (now just 21) who will get these pieces, and I want her to know her grandmother better; to at least knowher through my eyes. Chelsea, your grandmother lives again here, and it is my hope you will

understand just what that means and your role, for you are the one designated by fate, destiny andyour grandmother and I to have, behold, savor this jewelry -- and, in your turn, to pass them on withthe seriousness and thoughtfulness they deserve.

Finally, I am writing this article for you, dear reader. Why? Because at some point in your life youwill face the exact subject of this article and must do it completely right the first time. This articlewill enable you to do just that...

The intimacy of jewelry.

All jewelry is valuable, even that you find on the bargain table of the five-and-dime. Just what thatvalue is depends on the materials used, the fame of the person who designed it, the company that

sold it, and the overall impact of the work. On these things you have no influence whatsoever But on the final point your opinion is everything: what emotional wallop does the piece pack, anintangible that emanates from the loved one who wore this beautiful item, what she thought of it,where and when she wore it, photographs in which the item is featured, etc. So does such an object become an apperture into the life of and memories about your departed beloved... and you mustmake a decision about their importance and intensity to you... and who might have them after you,too, are gone. All this is essential, not easy, and fraught with emotional dynamite.

Pen, paper, object, focus.

It is easy to get distracted when you're sorting items as intimate as your mother's jewelry. These

items are, after all, of the greatest personal significance to you, as must be the case given the personthey once adorned, brightening her life -- and yours. Such memories, too, deserve your fullattention... but not until the business is handled. For this you need the following items: pen, paper,camera and an easy-to-work-in space where you can unpack the items and work with them. Drawingup a list on your computer is also advisable and makes it easy to communicate with the peopleinvolved in this matter. Do this as soon as possible.

This is easier said than done.

As you can see from this article I deferred handling this matter for several years. This would have been irresponsible of me but for the unique circumstances of our family. There were only three


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ladies in the family who had and still have (in the case of the two juniors) any involvement in thismatter, and one being removed from the scene, the other two, mother and daughter, did not demandor insist upon an instant resolution to the business... rather the reverse as Chelsea, the one whowould get most everything, was not ready for ownership yet as still an undergraduate without fixedaddress or life's work... and so the matter could be continued without inconvenience to anyone. Thisis why the objects waited so long for my detailed attention, inspection, report, and distribution.

But now the time capsule must be opened, each item evocative of its owner brought forth, and the

important work begun, as I am doing here at my desk.The importance of each object being marked and recorded, boxed, ready for the next owner, likeMary Regina did.

I take as my superb skill model Queen Mary, wife of King George V. She might have been a curator of a museum, and in all practical particulars she was, given the professional way she handled allitems in the collection of the royal house of Windsor. Each was examined by the Queen and often allits important details clearly recorded in her own fair hand. Well, if it's good enough for QueenMary, it's good enough for me. And so, with great care, I take the first box out of the shopping bagwhere the jewelry has lived for a prolonged period. It is now time for its renewed appearance, to beworn and treasured by another generation.

Open the first box and begin.

If you are lucky the recipient of the jewelry with which you are charged has been scrupulous aboutsaving the box the item came in and any paperwork, like invoice or sales slip. These are importantsince they contain vital information which may bear on the value and rarity of the piece. Keep themsafe... and always gather these details for your heirs. I have been a good guardian... that is my prideas I start to pull the dusty boxes into the light.

And, then, unbidden the insistent memories are here, demanding a sustained attention I feelcompelled to give.

The penny-farthing bicycle pin in silver... a reduced version of her Baron's coronet, set in gold, theancient title hers in her own right... the golden Christmas wreath pin set in emeralds and sapphiresshe wore to every seasonal party, for she loved the gladdening smell, regretting only that this pincould not duplicate the original...

And so it went, items unearthed, opened, scrutinized, remembered... each one a memory tugging atmy heart... but I had promised myself I would focus first and foremost on the business at hand... andI kept this promise until one very special piece of jewelry emerged, immediately catching the lightand igniting.

It was the gold iridescent dragonfly with its dense green and gold motif. I recognized it at once; after all, I had given it to her. In addition to the card that accompanied the original gift, there was a

message in my hand. "She always said she wanted to fly free as the curious dragonfly. And now shedoes..."

I broke down and sobbed, for at this moment human frailty, human limitations, human mortalitywere all too close, too painful, too real. And now this brilliant creature is in my hand half a worldaway... and here I shall keep it, until Chelsea is ready and knows why the tears flowed hot andheartfelt and will keep it safe as I have done.

* * * * We invite your comments below.


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Running your own business? Think you're listening to andserving your customers? You may be surprised what thesecustomers think about that. You may be surprised whatthese customers think. about that.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

We live in a society where the means of connecting with each other increase and proliferate everysingle day. And yet, we are communicating with each other less well than ever; in fact, it seems tome that as the means of communicating go up, the actual communicating we do goes down. And if this is one of the chief ironies of our times; it is also amongst the greatest, most irritating and alwaysinfuriating aspects, not least because it should never occur at all.

Irritation by phone.

Every Wednesday I have occasion to see how people who are not sufficiently client-centered handletheir customers. The case in point is the team of Brazilian cleaners which comes every 7 days to helpkeep me sufficiently clean and tidy for another week so that I can do my important work for you,

readers, with the complete focus required.

These cleaners have worked for me for some years now. I like them and (despite my exigentstandards) they seem to like me.

Lately, however, the situation, once stable and acceptable, has declined. What's more I know whyand (if they're paying attention) the cleaners and their fearless leader should know, too.

We have, in fact, arrived at the point where I say a thing, but they do not hear that thing, much lesstake action to do that thing. And so a "problem" that should never have existed... now needs the kindof action I am no longer sure these cleaners are able and willing to take. It goes like this...

"Hang that phone up."The head cleaner, not to put too fine a point on the matter, has never met a phone she doesn't like.She's always pleasant, personable, a smile ever at the ready even when things in her life are notgoing as well as she might like... and (and this is the gravamen of my charge) she's a chatterbox whomay well have been born with a phone in her ear, and this not only annoys me; it alarms me... for my particular lifestyle is unusual for our times...

Life in a museum.

Over the course of the last couple of decades or so I have focused on the acquisition of museumquality artifacts of every kind. Their care and protection is my objective... the better to give each of

them the opportunity to be shown to utmost advantage. This means regular dusting and polishing.Here's where the problem begins.

I have made it clear to the cleaners on now innumerable occasions that the way they work for othersmay not constitute the best way they should work for me. In other words, their whirling dervish styleof dust removal must be changed when the object being dusted has literally hung at Versailles. Slowand steady is the desired approach...

"Don't do it all at once."

Dusting and the like, let's face it, can be dull, excruciatingly dull indeed. I pride myself on an acuteawareness of this fact. And so from the very beginning, with so many facets needing regular


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attention, I have advised the cleaners to do a portion of the artifacts one week; the balance the next...even extending full dusting over three visits; in other words caution and care are desirable, notnecessarily the speed on which they pride their operation. That works for them; it most assuredlydoes not work for me. And, worse, as they rush through their tasks, I literally hold my breath whilethey swing their awkward and provocative vacuum cleaner in the very limited space at their disposal. To say I am nervous as they work is the ultimate under statement.

But no matter how often I advise them... that is the precise number of times they have not only failed

to hear... but have made it perfectly clear that they regard this advice as superfluous, intrusive,completely beside the point...

The phone, the whole phone, and nothing but the phone.

The cleaners love to yap (a word my grandmother used to use for chatter that most assuredly did notrise to the level of more demanding and reciprocal conversation)... and they yap from the momentthey arrive... to the moment they depart. They do it LOUDLY with each other (a situation that Iusually ignore). More seriously, they do it on the phone while doing their cleaning... and this is asituation I most assuredly do NOT ignore. What's more, I cannot ignore it... because, in my case,that would be careless and irresponsible, such is the rarity and beauty of the items herein, a fact I amnever sure they have taken in, much less understand and make clear they understand by carefully

considered and carefully rendered action.

The situation rises to boiling point when they focus on the telephone and their jejune yapping...instead of devoting 100% of their attention to the breathtaking portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence(1769-1830) which arrests the attention of every connoisseur who sees it. For the cleaners, philistines, it is just another burdensome object to get through, get by, get over until they can gohome -- safe from the old geezer who demands not only an earnest effort, but one that does not onany way threaten the object in question.

And so the chief cleaner says this to me with complete incomprehension: "I never break anything,"her pout pronounced... her eyes smouldering. Thus, she indicates she has not heard my point, clearly

doesn't understand it, and does not perceive the benefit of attending to her customer, the customer she needs for her business but cannot be bothered to comprehend, much less conciliate and reassure.

Beneficial advice. Treat it accordingly.

Now let us draw what benefits we can from this situation, for it is time to resolve it, placing our relations on the better footing they once were.

1) Listen to your customers. They are the sole reason why you have a business in the first place.

2) Do not see the customer as the enemy but rather a fellow traveler with you on this planet, who hasa right to your ear as well as your labor.

3) Do not casually listen to, or even ignore, what this customer says. Not only is that bad business; itis also bad human relations.

4) When the customer addresses you, listen... and see what you can do, not to ignore the point, but toimplement it, as quickly and easily as possible.'

5) Where the customer has concerns respond to them with alacrity and with empathy. Then see whatyou can do about implementing solutions to them.

6) Even where you do not entirely agree with the customer, do what you can to accommodate thatcustomer.


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7) Where you know that such and such a thing disturbs your customer, go the extra mile to avoidsuch disturbance.

And, above all, ask yourself this fundamental and crucial question: have I done everything this dayto ameliorate the situation, hearing, doing, improving the relations and so earning the trust and evenadmiration of this all important person. For, remember, each contact you have with your customer provides yet another occasion to earn this trust and admiration, and if you do not take it, you areyourself your own worst enemy... and that is unacceptable indeed.

But let's end on the highest possible note of accommodation and joy, with "painfully fabulous"Siedah Garrett's 2012 Academy Award nominated song, "Real in Rio." Find it in any search engine...and samba. Just don't do it when you're polishing the silver.


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Deviled eggs.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. This is a story as American as apple pie and hay rides, although its roots go back to Ancient Rome. It's a story that will remind you of your own youthful days when the livin'was easy, and you had time enough to waste without a single regret.

It's a story about people you haven't thought about in too long... and places you miss the minute youthink of them... it's about the days when your energies were prodigal... and you were admonished towipe your feet and wash those hands before sitting down and giving a blessing too short, perfunctory... because you didn't know how blessed you were.

It's a story of mom in the kitchen laboring, the lady of the house, a position which later ladies mightdisparage, but which she never did. It's a story, too, of dad who organizes the whole shebang for thegood of the family he's proud of; saying little perhaps, but giving all.

This is the story of a little item that was a frequent guest... and a joy to eat... a thing eaten fast, never savored, gulped, acknowledged later with a belch you tried to quell but could not; your mother thereupon pointing a finger at you while saying, "I told you so."

This is the story of deviled eggs... and you, like me, will be glad to have it... and, if you can find onetoday, glad to eat... for it is the most delicious time capsule of all... and you've been missing itwithout even knowing.

As the incidental music for this article, and this culinary staple of high summer, I have selected "Inthe Good Old Summertime." It started as an American Tin Pan Alley song first published in 1902with music by George Evans and lyrics by Ren Shields. It was the title song in the 1940 film starringJudy Garland and Van Johnson. Go now to any search engine and find the version you like. Thensing along, so you can work up an even better appetite for your ovoid treat.

Terrible cook, memorable deviled eggs.

My mother, bless her soul, was a terrible cook; I could therefore count on the fingers of a single handthe dishes she made which were actually good. One of these was her deviled eggs. They were notmerely good; they were supreme, as if all the talents which might otherwise have gone into a dozendishes or more had been concentrated in just one never-to-be-forgotten masterpiece.

Thus when I saw deviled eggs on the menu at the Cambridge Common Restaurant a couple monthsago, I ordered them at once... and found myself impatient while waiting for them; (a thing I never thought I'd see on any menu hereabouts) . And I did to them what I did to their ancestors of fiftyyears and more ago: I gulped them down, for my brain, in some deep place of memory, knew thatthat was the way, the only way, to eat them... And so in an instant, with a single taste, I was no

longer the senior citizen with burdens and obligations, but twelve or fourteen or so, happy, alive,immersed in joy, surrounded by love... and as many deviled eggs as the sustenance and prolongationof such a mood and condition might require.

Ingredients.

No two cooks, even if they scrupulously followed a common recipe, would produce their deviledeggs in the same way. That is because each, yes every single one, adds one top secret ingredient, aningredient so important it was never discussed, and most assuredly never written down; for your mother was aware that every other housewife (no matter how honorable in other matters ) couldn't possibly resist a little culinary espionage, regarding it as an essential aspect of her work. And if she


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found and employed this ingredient to improve what was wrought by her own fair hand, why thatwas her bounden duty and solemn obligation. After all, all's fair in love...

Start here.

But before we get to the matter of those secret ingredients, let's start with the basics, for in thesemost cooks are agreed.

A dozen hard boiled eggs, yolks extracted Mayo (generously mixed in) Mustard (only a little) salt &

pepper a splash of Worcestershire sauce Add all ingredients above into bowl and hand mix or usehand blender Refill egg cavities with yolk mix Dust finished eggs with paprika Slice pimento-stuffedgreen olives and place a piece so the red center of the green olive is in the center of each deviledegg. Chill and serve.

This recipe works, of course, in the way all such recipes work. It does the job but just in prosaic, pedestrian manner. As such while it may be good enough for others (like Mrs. Anne down the road),it will never be good enough for you and yours. And so you go where lesser housewives do notventure; places that prove your ingenuity, skill and cunning... a condition of affairs which you relishand exult.

And so to Rome.

There isn't a culture on earth that doesn't have its version of deviled eggs; thus you are able to excelin your presentation by studying what is done far from your kitchen... by housewives as proud asyou are. Each delights in her own secret: diced pickle or pickle relish, ground black pepper, powdered cayenne pepper or chipole, turmeric, vinegar, poppy seed, thyme, cilantro, minced onion,celery... and

... garlic, horseradish, wasabi, sliced Jalapeno pepper, cheese, chutney, salsa, hot sauce, ham,mushrooms, spinach, sour cream, caviar, smoked salmon ... and many more...

Each a secret ingredient, and kept secret until the actual moment of use, the ingredient that spellsmastery... and love... for each is the ingredient proving her family is the most loved and cared for of all, proven by a taste that forever means home...wherever you are, whenever you have it.

And, this summer, as in all the summers before, deviled eggs will be in attendance, waiting to perform their delicious function for you as they once did for the emperors of the seven hills of Romeand the wide world beyond....

"No trouble annoying, Each one is enjoying, The good old summer time"...

... and all the deviled eggs you could ever want.

*** We invite you to post your comments to this article.


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The best marketing training on Earth -- and, astonishingly,it's free. The Worldprofit Junior Monitor program.. . nowavailable to you.

The best marketing training on Earth -- and, astonishingly, it's free. The Worldprofit Junior Monitor program.. . now available to you. A very special letter from Worldprofit's three Co-Founders, Chief Technical Officer George Kosch; President and Director of Website Development Sandi Hunter,and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

Friend, you are about to receive an invitation to join the most exciting marketing program on this planet, a unique program you have never seen before for the simple reason that it is available onlyfrom Worldprofit at worldprofit.com.

We are talking about the Worldprofit Monitor Program.

You have already been the beneficiary of this program, for you've seen the Monitors at work in theLive Business Center and no doubt received their attention and assistance at the time you acquiredyour Silver Package and became a Member. (If you do not have a Silver Package yet, log in at

worldprofit.com and ask the Monitor on duty to assist you.)You may have wondered about who these Monitors are... and how they came to be present in thevideo boxes you see on screen. Not merely present, but (at any hour of the day or night) friendly, pleasant, helpful, anxious to assist you and resoundingly able to do so.

At that moment you may have wondered how YOU could join the ranks of these good people... andso we're here to let you know.

A bit of history.

In 2006, master inventor George Kosch did what he does so well and with such astonishingcelerity... he created the device we now call the Live Business Center, a place where entrepreneurs

(particularly of the home-based variety) could gather to receive all the help they needed to profitonline.

Once the software was created, it was time to staff it with people we call Monitors, that is peoplewho are Members of the Worldprofit Community and who generously give of their time, expertise,and, yes, kindness to assist you profit online... something you, like most people on the 'net, have been trying to do but without knowing how or with any success whatsoever.

Meet the first Monitor and Director of the Monitor Program, Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

Known to millions worldwide because of his 18 business books, thousands of practical articles anddaily appearances online and off, Harvard-educated Dr. Lant was the obvious choice to head the

brand-new Monitor Program in 2006. A trained educator who used to teach at Harvard (from whichhe holds two degrees), he was at once a magnetic instructor with an often electrifying delivery... andan experienced marketer who knows what it takes to get the business results you desire.

And so in December, 2006, Dr. Lant presented himself in the Live Business Center as Worldprofit'sfirst -- and only -- Monitor, starting the process that has produced a full complement of the best andmost generous marketers on Earth... and is now ready to welcome... YOU.

Unbeatable benefits.

The benefits of serving the Worldprofit Community as a Monitor are many and varied, tangible and


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intangible... but always substantial.

First, learning from the best how to become a qualified Internet marketer. Are you at the point inyour online career when you understand that you cannot master the Internet alone and do not havethe necessary marketing skills and expertise to succeed? If so, you're ready for the best and mostthorough marketing training anywhere.

Our program is based on the Master-Apprentice model, whereby you are literally taken in hand andlearn precisely what to do to make sale after sale. What's so tremendous about our program of proven success is that it's 100% reality based. It's the kind of training business schools should haveto teach real-world marketing and salesmanship... but never do. That's why we say that our renowned and always practical training is superior to the instruction you find in traditional businessclasses.

Now hear this: even if you have never had any sales and marketing experience or success, thatdoesn't matter... you start from the beginning and learn accordingly; this, therefore, is marketing andsales training you can use at once... and use forever.

This unexampled training is given by Dr. Lant and by the Senior Monitors 24/7/365. If a Senior Monitor is serving alone and has an available video box, you may ask to come up for training at

ANY hour of the day. When you do Senior Monitors will give you the benefit of their considerable,seasoned experience and erudition.

Immediate Benefits.

In short order, you'll be ready to take the helm as a Senior Monitor yourself, a proud member of our unique team. As such you will be the "captain" of the ship during your scheduled service, as little astwo hours per week; more if you like.

During the time you are Senior Monitor all associates who enter without sponsors are automaticallyassigned to your account; this can number 5, 10 or more associates assigned to you per shift. Inaddition you receive thousands of valuable safe list profit credits for sales made during your shift.

These benefits are deposited at once in your account and may be used to promote whatever you like.Tremendous!

Service to the Worldprofit Community.

In addition to the very tangible benefits you gather in each shift, you also benefit from the joy andhonor of helping people worldwide get the assistance they require for online success, success theyhave long desired but have never had before. You will feel proud of this work, a service unique toour great Community and its Monitors, for you are truly making the world a better place andimproving lives with every contact.

To get started.

You will need a webcam and headset, which you can easily purchase at Wal-Mart, Target, RadioShack, etc for about $20.

Don't wait a single minute to start your training and so become an experienced marketer, with theawesome benefits that come to such Masters. Act now. Space in the Monitor Program is alwayslimited... after reading this you understand why. That's why you must contact Dr. Lant now and begin the best marketing and sales training on Earth, becoming a valued Member of our superbMonitor Team.


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School bullying. Always with us, not acknowledged as apressing problem needing attention -- until now.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. If you're like me, the first time you heard this bouncy tune, you laughed...then laughed some more. It's called the "Too fat polka", with its immediately recognizable opening,

"You can have her, I don't want her, she's too fat for me."It came from the mind of Arthur Godfrey, a nationally known personality from television's earliestdays. Go now to any search engine to find and play it. You will probably laugh, too... until, that is,you really perceive the meaning of the words. Then if you have brain and heart, you'll have thenecessary pause that precedes recognition of what you have been doing... and why you can do it nolonger.

Godfrey, you see, was a bully; he evinced his tendencies openly and on national television, mostfamously the day he canned singer Julius La Rosa on air... not merely removing La Rosa buthumiliating him... something that's cat nip to a bully who lives to torment others, in ways both vulgar and exquisite.

And thus we came to see this not as a cute little ditty, but a tune designed to hurt good people andkind struggling with fat and needing support not insult. And so as Godfrey's hurtful tendencies anddisposition became known, as we grew appalled, not amused; his fame was tarnished and his highstar waned. In such ways do we make progress, one person at a time. But this is often too little toolate, especially in our wired age where in an instant a vicious sentiment and attack will be universal,thereby magnifying its impact and pain.

The Internet changes everything.

In the first days of the Internet, it was said with pride by the early netizens that "the Internet changeseverything." We had little idea of just how right we were... and how the instant availability of

information, easily accessed, easily transmitted, would radically alter the world and humaninteraction. Nowhere was this more true than in the matter of bullying... both for those doing the bullying and for the people being bullied. The Internet fostered a climate of anonymous insult andmalice, a place where, so it was thought, one could with impunity say anything about anyone...garden-variety bullies morphing (with a few keystrokes) into super-bullies, pain, retribution, cosmiccomeuppance theirs to summon and command -- without care, concern, accountability,responsibility. And so the greatest age in the history of bullying began and prospered.

Understanding bullies.

This is an article with the particular object of understanding school yard bullies, the better to take

effective action for their diminishment and eradication. Bullies have existed in every culture andsociety since the beginning of human history. Bullies have been tolerated, condoned, evenencouraged because they represent the prevailing power structure and elites and mirror their attitudes.

Bullies rarely are the representatives of the poor, the dispossessed, the politically isolated, themisunderstood and "different"... although bullies' usual victims ordinarily are found in thesecategories. In other words, bullies get away with their anti-social behaviors because they arerepresentatives of prevailing prejudices, hatreds, fears, and anxieties. Scratch a bully, and you willfind an entire network of people (often including his parents) who not only do not condemn suchactivities, but consciously or unconsciously assist in their realization and defense. As such bullying


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goes well beyond one bully and one victim to being instead one cultural tradition attempting tocontain, control, intimidate and even destroy another culture and its "unacceptable" views.

As such the problem of bullies quickly becomes a problem about the cultural wars which sodistinguish our times. These wars, like all wars, are brutal, inhumane, boundless in their crueltiesand, worst of all, in their point of view which is that they epitomize good; their opponents the very principle of evil amongst us. It is with this background in mind that we take up the labor of understanding, identifying, curtailing, controlling and (for we must keep this high goal before us)

eliminating bullying. And so we go to Ground Zero, the schools of the Great Republic, where theinternecine cultural wars are fought every day, every single day.

The extent of the problem. Thanks to the sustained work of organizations likehow-to-stop-bullying.com we now have, for the first time, hard statistics on such matters as who bullies, who is bullied, why, how, how often, etc. The advent of such data indicates that progress is being made in understanding and effectively confronting and handling this matter. Remember, bullying has always existed... but because it was not regarded as a "problem", much less a problemthat school personnel must deal with, no progress towards the ultimate goal of eradication was madeor could be made. These are the early days of a reversal of this invidious, ostrich-head-in-the-sand"policy" which has endured for centuries, where bullying was anecdotal, insignificant, never

regarded, never mattered, never solved.Thankfully our way, indeed our entire approach to this subject, is increasingly different from whathas unacceptably gone before. Pro-active, we see the seeds not merely of significant but of pervasive, fundamental, beneficial change. Yes, things are changing, though these are but its earlydays.

What you can do.

Obviously, this is a problem of most immediate relevance to affected students, their parents, andtheir schools. This is where the bullying war, in all its aspects, is fought daily.

Parents must be aware that bullying is a daily feature in most schools.

They must therefore maintain open and productive conversations with children to discern what may be happening... and with school authorities who should be glad for your active concern andwillingness to help.

Parents should ask school committees and other responsible educational officers just what they aredoing both to preclude the problem and handle individual instances once they arise.

In this way, school by school, principal by principal, teacher by teacher, parent by parent, student bystudent progress must, can and will be made, for one thing is certain: if we as a people, with our full panoply of resources intellectual and organizational, confront this problem with a will, progress will be made and the schools of the Great Republic cleansed of an outrage swept under the rug by

nations and peoples before us who were less committed to students and schools than we are. Thiswill not, cannot, be the work of a single school or single term, and we must be so prepared. But it isimportant work, empowering legions of afflicted students who can now grow to full potential,enriching and enhancing the Great Republic which is sore in need of their skills and services, manyand timely.

**** We invite you to post your comments to this article below.


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Google Confirms Using Social Signals to Rank Websites

Google's recent revelation that it uses social signals to rank websites has caused drastic aftershocksin the online community. Networkers are busy changing their strategies to meet with the newestranking factor developed by the head honchos at Google.

Search engine Google recently came out into the open with the newest parameter it uses to rank websites. Dubbed as social signals, this new method of website ranking has added to the growingimportance of the world of social networking and marketing. This system of ranking will see Googleuse information from social networking portals such as Facebook and Twitter to assess the rank of websites.

‘Social signals’ is a collective name accorded to methods used by social networking websites togauge online popularity. These include Facebook’s Likes, Twitter’s Retweets and Google’s Plus’+1s. Among these, a definite leverage is commanded by Twitter’s Retweets, which are beingconsidered as the most emphatic method right now to build links. Twitter allows its content to beretweeted a number of times, which adds up the social signals it sends. Google reveals that it usessuch social signals to rank websites on its search pages.

Google justifies its position by stating that social signals are the most accurate measure of awebsite’s popularity. Social signals originate from users who genuinely like what they see and wantto share it with their circle of people. Google uses this viral marketing strategy to constantly rank websites so that it can offer the most popular content to its users.

This revelation from the world’s biggest search engine has the search engine optimizers in a tizzy.Over the last year, backlinks had turned out to be the most popular modus operandi of marketers tooptimize their websites. However, with the advent of social signals, backlinking has taken a backseat. Online marketers are rapidly employing new methods to improve their websites from thesocial networking point of view.

Plugins are being developed to measure the social signals accumulated by websites. Such plugins

gather data from popular social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Digg,StumbleUpon and others to get a dynamic measure of the popularity of websites. Plugins such asSocial Metrics Pro are compatible with specific blog platforms such as WordPress, and use methodssuch as color coding to differentiate the more popular content from the less popular one.

However, while some online marketers are busy changing their tactics to fit into Google’s newgroove, there are a few who are unruffled. They hold the view that this is just another of Google’sever-changing policies, which will not affect the world of SEO much. At the same time, there areothers who are playing it safe and focusing on both backlinking as well as social signals to bringtheir websites to the top of the heap.


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Plugin Launched to Tap Google’s Ranking via Social Signals

Online marketers have commenced leveraging social signals, the newest parameter that searchengines like Google and Bing have admitted to using to rank social websites. Social Metrics Pro isone of the plugins that was announced this week.

In order to gain the best leverage out of Google’s recently announced ranking system using socialsignals, a new plugin known as Social Metrics Pro has been launched. This plugin is compatiblewith the WordPress platform and is available in a downloadable format.

For the uninitiated, Google announced about a month ago that it has started using feeds from socialnetworking portals to rank the popularity of websites. With the advent of Web 2.0, people have become more actively participating in the working of the Internet rather than merely browsing it.Google feels that the number of comments and shares that website content receives through socialnetworking websites is the right parameter to judge its popularity. Always one to be the pioneer, theGoogle search engine has used these feeds as the new ranking factors.

Among the social networking platforms that Google has targeted are included Twitter andFacebook. Every tweet made through Twitter and every like through Facebook is now a yardstick

along which Google measures the popularity of websites.Social Metrics Pro helps online entrepreneurs as it gives a true picture of the social popularity of online content. It uses a simple color coding system to illustrate this popularity. Content that is more popular is coded green while the one that needs attention is coded red. With this color codingsystem, it becomes easier for the marketer to convert the reds to greens, which means they can propelthe viability of their content across online social networks.

Currently, Social Metrics Pro is capable of measuring Facebook Likes, Twitter Tweets, Google Plus+1s and several other social signals such as those from StumbleUpon and Digg. The plugin is beingdeveloped further so as to be able to measure social signals from other social networks as well.

Daniel Tan, a developer of Social Metrics Pro, says, “With Google’s newest announcement, therehas been a lot of activity in the world of search engine optimization. Backlinking has now become passé; and marketers are looking at how to improve the visibility of their content on socialnetworking websites. We purport to make this task easier for the online marketer with Social MetricsPro.”


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Is Social Metrics Pro the Best Social Signal Tracking andMonitoring Tool?

With the trends of social optimization changing at every drop of the hat, optimizers have been facinga difficult time trying to keep up. Link-building and creating backlinks—two methods that are beingcurrently used for SEO—have suddenly become obsolete. This is because of the recentannouncement made by popular search engine websites like Google and Bing that they have begun

using social signals to rank the popularity of websites. Though the new announcement puts mostsearch engine optimizers in a tizzy, as they would have to change their methods, the tool we arereviewing today is a step in the right direction. Social Metrics Pro is the newest search engineoptimization tool on the market that works on the principle of Google and Bing’s newest policy of ranking websites. It helps optimizers keep track of the progress of their websites on social networks.It is compatible with some of the most popular social networks already. It can assess feeds fromFacebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg and several others are in the pipeline.

The purpose of Social Metrics Pro is to give the user a clear picture of how the website is faring onthe social network. Each time someone comments, likes or shares some content, it is recorded bySocial Metrics Pro. The optimizer can keep track of this and keep making improvements to the

websites so as to make them more appealing on the social network.

Social Metrics Pro is a new-fangled tool but it still makes things easy for the newbie optimizer. It hasa simple color coding output system. The content on the website that has poor social signals aredisplayed in red, while the content that fares well is displayed in green. This literally gives a clear picture to the social optimizer, whose primary task is to convert all the reds into greens.

Currently, Social Metrics Pro is available as a simple downloadable plugin that works on most browsers. It is designed for the WordPress blogosphere.

For the modern optimizer, it becomes important to stay in tune with the website’s performance onthe social network. Social Metrics Pro does just that, through a simple visual representation. It does

not need the optimizer to work with difficult links, tags or codes.


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Social Metrics Pro Uses Little Details that Matter Much

One of the main reasons why so many search engine optimizers are speaking favorably about SocialMetrics Pro is that it addresses the most current way in which websites are optimized, i.e. throughassessing the social networking performance of the websites. This tool, simply put, analyzes how awebsite is received on social platforms, such as likes on Facebook, tweets on Twitter, +1s on GooglePlus and so on. It also checks the performance of content on syndicated websites such as

StumbleUpon and Digg.The principle is quite concise—if your website is performing well on these social networking places,then it means that it is more in demand. Google and Bing, to name just two search engines, haverecently started using these social signals as a means to judge the relevance of online content.

In many little and big ways, Social Metrics Pro helps the webmaster to get a true picture of therelevance of the website. A lot has been said about the color coding method that Social Metrics Prouses. Content is divided through a system of color codes, where green shows the more popular content and red shows the less popular one.

Apart from this, there are many other ways in which Social Metrics Pro proves to be a useful tool to

the SEO expert. It is accessible through the dashboard on the WordPress admin page itself. It worksfor all WordPress blogs above version 3.2. There are simple options provided by which you canmodify your experience with the assessment tool. For instance, you can choose to filter optionsaccording to categories and dates. You can choose to analyze data by using sorting and searchingoptions that are provided with the plugin. You can also set a data refresh frequency that suits your needs, which means that you have the most current stats of your website’s online performancewhenever you choose to analyze it.

Social Metrics Pro also allows transferability of its content to spreadsheets in .xls and .csv formats.You can analyze your data through Microsoft Excel or even when you are on the move through your handheld device. This helps you to constantly keep tinkering with the data on your website until all

your reds turn into greens.The best thing about Social Metrics Pro is that it tells you exactly which of your website content is performing well and which isn’t. This helps you to improve the social signals of your website, whichhelps it rank better.


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How do I keep track of the social popularity of my website?

When social signals started being used by search engines such as Google and Bing for ranking popularity of websites, one common question was heard throughout the blogosphere, “How do Ikeep track of the online popularity of my website?” Now, a concrete answer has arrived to thatquestion, in the form of the product known as Social Metrics Pro.

The best part of using Social Metrics Pro is its simplicity. This is what makes it possible for even themost amateur online marketer to use this tool and harness its potential to gauge the online popularityof their website.

Social Metrics Pro is driven by a dashboard that keeps track of the social status of the content on thewebsite. The dashboard is simplified with a system of color coding. Different colors indicate therelative popularity of the posts. Reds indicate posts that are performing poorly on the socialnetworks, while greens indicate posts that are performing well on the social networks. As the poor performing posts are worked upon, the reds turn into greens, which is a direct measure of theimprovement of the social signals of the website.

Social Metrics Pro also allows the optimizer to directly transfer the output into a Microsoft Excel

file. This can be used to further analyze the performance of the website. These files are viewable onall spreadsheet processors.

The best part of Social Metrics Pro is that it is available as a plugin. Once installed, it sits pretty onthe taskbar of the browser, until it is called upon to perform its analysis. The plugin works for any blog that has been created on WordPress, upwards of Wordpress 3.2 version. Its access is alsoavailable through the admin dashboard of Wordpress as well.

There are small features that help the newbie optimizer immensely. For instance, the webmaster canchoose to refresh their data. The frequency can be preset, which helps to give an updated version of the social networking status of the blog at any required time. The plugin begins performing as soonas it has been downloaded and installed. Once installed, the plugin keeps on updating itself. There

are free lifetime updates provided with the plugin, and a dedicated technical support team helps people with any issues that they might have.


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Boys will be boys.... thoughts on hazing, fraternities, fair Dartmouth and a renowned college president whostumbled... or did he?

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. I have total recall of this matter. It was1966 and I was about to be a

sophomore at alma mater... and my parents were worried... worried that I, their darling, their first-born son, was becoming a wonk... all work, no play, a very dull boy indeed. Sure, I was #1 inmy class, a certain summa in the making, but not well rounded, never the lithe master of everycountry club skill. And so, mom did not so much request as plead with me to go through "rushweek" when older boys (to my worried parents' complete satisfaction) scrutinized younger boys...delivering themselves of every social outrage, all in the name of social acceptance, socialadvancement, and the glory of the frat.

And so to please mama, I signed up as an available pledge... and went out each and every evening tomy fate... which went like this...

Gilded anachronism.To justify their anachronistic existence, and divert attention from what they liked to do and were inexistence to deliver, all the fraternities sponsored a yearly academic prize... and all worked as hardas they ever worked on anything to win it... for winning covered a multitude of outrages. And sothey sought out wonks, not because they liked wonks but because these wonks and their stellar grades, once pledged, gave them the latitude to party hardy.

"Boy," they said at each House in the stream of parties attended, "we don't want you... but we dowant your perfect grade point average... that cool 4 point o." And so, holding their noses, the jeunesse doree' of Fraternity Row offered me membership... at the cost of my self-esteem. Findingthe necessary resolution, I told them thanks but no thanks, breaking my uncomprehending mother's

heart, who saw not courage but a lifetime of effortless contacts from past, present, future brothersthrown thoughtlessly away...

... As a result, I was never hazed and so cannot from personal experience relate its intricacies, primalthrills and long-established protocols. Luckily I have at my disposal the unvarnished truths on thematter delivered by the man who kissed and told, that rogue brother, the traitor of Sigma AlphaEpsilon fraternity, Andrew Lohse, the man who did the worst thing he could do... letting hiserstwhile brothers down... to his everlasting shame and damnation.

For the incidental music to this piece about boys being boys and the ways long honed by their Greek letter predecessors of getting around bamboozled parents and clueless authority figures of everykind, I have selected one of the popular songs from the "Animal House" series (first released in

1978). It's "Louie, Louie", the ultimate attitude song. It was written by Richard Berry and released in1957. Find it in any search engine. Play it at once. And, remember, it didn't get its reputation for outrage, insolence and ability to irritate every adult everywhere for nothing...

Dartmouth College, an abbreviated history.

When you first see Dartmouth, founded in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1769, you catch your breath.It's a picture-postcard-perfect scene, a location tailor-made for well-heeled parents rememberingtheir own undergrad capers. But behind the Currier-and-Ives scenaries is one generation of Dartmouth men doing absolutely disgusting things with and to the bodies of other young Dartmouthmen... in rites as old as Neanderthal and as new as Facebook.


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The current imp to unveil the excesses occurring behind the Corinthian columns on Fraternity Row-- for they have been unveiled before -- is young Lohse, aspiring journalist, who had no farther tolook for inspiration than to his brothers. What they were willing to do to sleep in such exaltedquarters amongst the gilded youths makes piquant reading indeed...

... how pledges slurped beer (no doubt the cream of pale ales) off the backsides, between the legs of their soon-to-be brethren;

how these same chosen few walked through kiddie pools sloshing urine and excrement;

how they feasted, as well they might, on succulent pies of gourmet-quality vomit.

There is more, of course; there is always more, of these gifted Ivy Leaguers snorting with eachother, spitting on each other, tossing the furniture about, least wisely at a female Dartmouth securityofficer. There is still more... but you get the picture, the picture Lohse first published in the campusnewspaper, The Dartmouth (America's oldest college newspaper, since 1799) on January 25, 2012; a picture he has now sold for publication in "Rolling Stone" for the edification of the world.

The faculty reacted with the usual unedifying mixture of umbrage, outrage, humiliation, and -- aboveall -- embarrassment. How could they brag of their high positions at this Ivy League institution when

this institution was most often portrayed -- and in such detail, too -- as a country club for the sociallymaladjusted and their jejune pastimes and adolescent joys? Outrageous!

Enter Dartmouth president Jim Kim.

Having little else to do in their pristine North woods, the abashed faculty made their way to PresidentJim Kim's available door... pouring forth their hot words, often in iambic pentameter. Amongst thewords most heard: outmoded, dangerous, illegal, scandalous, moral thuggery, physically,emotionally, psychologically damaging... and much more of this florid, grandiloquent, purplelanguage of high import and flatulence; for this faculty, like so many faculties, never met a sonorousand highfalutin word it didn't like, and uses them with gay abandon whenever the opportunity arises,as it most surely has arisen here.

Weak as water, or shrewd and cagey, biding his time?

President Kim, a renowned educator, gave these aroused faculty members no satisfactionwhatsoever, although he called for an investigation and made it clear the College's detailedanti-hazing policy, as well as that of the Granite State itself, would be applied and applied withrigor. That was the presidential equivalent of "blah, blah, blah" and conduced to greater anger amongst the academicians than they had already evinced. Too little, they grumbled, too late; theydemanded the complete demolition of each and every den of iniquity and bad taste calledfraternities.

Here President Kim not only disappointed, but alarmed them... for he made clear that he would not,and most likely, could not eradicate the insolent fraternities and their (to others) offensive ways.Some saw this as a nod in the direction of Dartmouth's rich alumni, aging brothers with odd tastesand strong memories. If drinking beer their own way had been good enough for them, what had afew chiding do-gooders to say of the practice? They would give to Dartmouth if and only if...

And since Dartmouth needs money, and oodles of if, the fraternities and their bullying, homo-erotic,unhousebroken ways, might have to be tolerated... for this is, after all, America... where a man (or woman) has the God-given right to outrage their neighbors and their prim views just about anywaythey like.

And, with that, I give you the stirring chords of "Louie, Louie" once again, because whilst these


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frats and their particular menaces and peculiar devices might well remain for cycles yet to come,"me, I've gotta go"...

**** We invite you to post your comments to this article.


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'Look away Dixie Land!' The day that determined theoutcome of the U.S. Civil War. The Battle of Hampton Roads,March 9, 1862. And you are there....

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. The American Civil War began April 12, 1861 with the firing of the rebel

forces on Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. It officially ended on April 9,1865 when General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House. In between,212,938 people from both sides were killed in action, with total casualties exceeding 625,000 inwhat was the most bloody war ever fought on this planet... and the most embittered, as is always thecase when brothers fight each other to the death, enraged, grieving, broken hearted but determinedto have victory, whatever the cost...

This war was filled with incident, great deeds of valor, deeds, too, of squalor, treachery, unmitigatedcruelty... and chivalry... but of all the deeds in this great struggle, the deeds of just a handful of mendetermined the outcome. These were the men who fought each other at the Battle of HamptonRoads, Virginia March 8-9, 1862. And I am taking you there today... for you will want to know who

won, who lost, and why it happened the way it did.

For the incidental music to this article, I have selected Daniel Decatur Emmett's famous tune,"Dixie," also known as "I Wish I Was in Dixie," a song originating in the black face minstrelsy of the 1850s. It is a tune that makes even the least likely ready to jump up and whirl. I have selected ittoday because, as Abraham Lincoln himself said on April 10, 1865, it's "one of the best tunes I ever heard" ... but also because of its famous line, "Look away, Dixie Land." After the Battle of HamptonRoads, Virginia and all the other Confederate states had nothing to look forward to... and everythingto look away from.

But it didn't look that way on March 8, 1862... quite the contrary.

News of the most alarming portent arrives in Washington, D.C., Sunday, March 9, 1862.

Gideon Wells, a New England journalist, found himself urgently summoned to the White House.Come! Come at once! And this Connecticut Yankee, in his unlikely role as Secretary of the Navy,scurried to a meeting where he found Mr. Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, in the greatest possibledismay... and so alarmed himself that he was alarming, too, the President of the Dis-united States of America.

It was a scene to brighten every heart in Dixie... and cause shrewd financiers to sell U.S. Treasury bonds short before Wall Street opened Monday, to chaos and defeatism.

Mr. Stanton could not keep still, could not hide his profound anxiety and fear. He sat down, only to

jump up again and rush to the windows... What was he looking for? A savior for the Union cause...What did he expect to see? The CSS Virginia in all her glory steaming up the Potomac, sinking theFederal cause with effortless grace. It was a scene of destiny, and every man on both sides of thestruggle knew that history of the gravest magnitude was happening now! To them! At HamptonRoads! And so depending on their point of view and allegiance they either gave way to unbridled joy... or profound despair and lamentation. No one was neutral on this urgent matter.

USS Merrimac into CSS Virginia.

The largest naval installation of the Great Republic was at Norfolk in Virginia... and so after the OldDominion seceded (April 24, 1861) it became a matter of the greatest urgency to both sides to


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arrange matters there to their greatest advantage. This to the Federal forces meant moving as muchas could be moved, destroying the rest. And, to the rebels, to do just the reverse.

Thus was the USS Merrimac, unable to be removed in time and against the rebel sentiments of her crew, burnt and sunk... but not effectively. Her new owners quickly discovered both hull andengines were serviceable... and so began her transformation into the CSS Virginia, the vessel whichmade Secretary Stanton quail with acute fear and humiliating anxiety.

Why?

Because CSS Virginia, for all that she had just weeks ago been scuttled, was transformed into themightiest ship of all the navies of all the seas... a ship sheathed in iron, designed to deal death to the picturesque, now ineffectual sailing ships of every navy, but without suffering a single nick at all.Thus did the dead Merrimac come to be the super weapon the Confederacy needed to pulverize theUnion and secure their freedom from the meddling, inept Yankees they despised.

Confederate triumph March 8, 1862.

The world changed this day... as the Virginia, with the merest motion, rammed the hapless USSCumberland, 121 seamen going down with her... then the USS Congress was put out of action,surrendering... and everyone, from the merest cabin boy, saw the future... and knew that everygallant wooden vessel, yesterday puissant, was now dross. And so, as cat to mouse, Virginia movedto her next sure triumph, USS Minnesota... while every telegrapher sent on the news, the news thatso discomfited Secretary Stanton... and every other brave Union heart. Armageddon was here... andit flew a Confederate flag.

Until...

In August, 1861 Gideon Wells authorized work on a top-secret Union ironclad... and in due coursethe USS Monitor was born, the most radical naval design ever; the invention of Swedish engineer and inventor John Ericsson. And it was this curious, much mocked vessel that steamed intoHampton Roads March 9, just in time, to reverse what but yesterday had seemed certain, Southern

command of the seas and therefore victory.And as Monitor and Virginia battled each other to a draw, each unable to finish its deft opponent,the entire strategic scene changed. All wooden ships, every single one, was now obsolete; thus a newarms race started for command of the seas. USS Monitor had, simply by maneuvering to a draw,stopped the South's "certain" advance and commenced a war of bloody attrition, a war the Northcould win, and the South had most reason to fear. For without access to the world, the South couldonly rely on itself... and that would never be enough to ensure independence as every Southernfamily would, in tragic due course, come to understand only too well. As for both the historic shipsof this engagement, neither sailed for long. Virginia was burnt again and sunk when Union forcestook back the Norfolk port facilities in May. As for the plucky Monitor, she sank December 31,1862

off North Carolina. The remains of one of her stricken crew, 24-year-old James Fenwick, were justrecently brought to the surface for honorable burial. He had been married just a few weeks beforeMonitor embarked on her final voyage; her history short but epochal.

"Old times they are not forgotten; Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land."


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Abraham Lincoln... captivated by words, created by words,empowered by words, glorified by words. Reflections on hisCooper Union Speech, February 27, 1860.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. 150 years ago, March 4, 1861 Abraham Lincoln (born 1809), became 16th

president of the United States. And if you do not believe in destiny, fate, or kismet, even you willwonder at the undoubted fact that at the time of its maximum peril, the Great Republic should havefound the perfect man to guide her affairs and so preside not over her premature dissolution (as somany thought and even wished) but her greatest trial, from which, terrible forge though it was,emerged the greatest of nations. Oh, yes, here was the hand of God, indeed... to the wonder of all...and as we know His ways are mysterious so we shouldn't wonder at this man and his story... a storyto be told in the words he loved, the words he mastered, the words he used to effect his great purpose... the words we all have at our disposal... but which only he used with such grace and power... and such resolve... the mark of the consummate master of our language and the great uses towhich it can always rise...

For this tale, I have selected as the occasional music a tune Abraham Lincoln loved and tapped histoe to, "Jimmy Crack Corn". It's a frolicksome number thought to be a black face minstrel song of the 1840s. Like so much that touches Lincoln, it's not quite what it appears to be.... that is, a black slave's lament over his master's death... it has indeed a subtext of rejoicing over that death and possibly having caused it by deliberate negligence.... "Dat Blue Tail Fly"... It is a feeling every slavemust have thought at some time... which every master must have understood and feared... and fromthis seemingly unsolvable conundrum Lincoln freed both, saving the people, cleansing the GreatRepublic.

Without benefit of formal education... yet with every necessary word to hand.

Consider the matter of Illinois, the 21st state, frontier of the Great Republic in 1818 when it was

admitted to the Union. It was a land firmly focused on the bright future all were certain wascoming... the better to obliterate and make bearable the rigors and unceasing travails of the present.The land was rich... the richness of the people would soon follow.

In this land of future promise, inchoate, Lincoln, like all those who delight in words, found hislabors lightened and vista magnified by books, and thanks to the good and helpful work of RobertBray (2007), we may learn just what books he possessed, and so which words he knew, by whomrendered, and how.

It is impossible to know in just what order young Lincoln found the books, read the books, and withwhat degree of joy and enthusiasm, for Lincoln (unlike many who love and live by words) was not a

great writer of marginal commentary, in which reader engages in often enraged tete-a-tete withauthor. Such marginalia are cream to any biographer, but in Lincoln's case were infrequent.

In any event, we can surmise that he learned his words first from the great King James version of The Bible, perhaps the most influential and certainly most lyric book in the language. If so, it bestowed on him not only the words but their sonority, cadence and above all, moral certainty, all of which were critical in the development of his mature style and so helped save a great nation fromself-destruction. There followed first the odd volume, happily received, then a steady trickle, thenthe glorious days when he could have as many books, and so as many words, as he wanted; paradiseto a man for whom each word, and every book, was a key to greater understanding of the cosmos...and himself...


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Thus, E.A. Andrews and S. Stoddard "A Grammar of the Latin Language" (1836); Nathan Bailey"Dictionary of English Etymology" (1721); James Barclay "Dictionary" (1774); George Bancroft"History of the United States (1834); Francis Bacon "Essays" (1625); John Bunyan "The Pilgrim'sProgress" (1678); Benjamin Franklin "Autobiography" (1818); Edward Gibbon "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (1776)...

... and one great poet after another, for as Lincoln learned, as every word smith must learn, there can be no mastery of words where there is no understanding of poets and their precise, meticulous craft...and so one finds without surprise the works of Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Thomas Gray whose"Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (1751) he so loved... with its sad beauty, lines which,once read, seem to have been written for Lincoln himself:

"The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, Awaitsalike the inevitable hour, the paths of glory lead but to the grave."

It was a thought Lincoln knew only too well, and he had but to touch this poem to think on its powerful, unanswerable, haunting words, including these...

"Slow through the church-way path we saw him borne"... but not yet... not yet.

And so Lincoln on every day sought out the light enabling him to learn the words, all the words heneeded and his work demanded.... thus was he up with day's first light... to finish his work betimes,to snatch some minutes for the words..., then to pass the night and gain some further words by firelight and smokey tallow. Because the words would not be denied... Lincoln was not to be denied.They beckoned. He followed... until he was at last ready to begin, just to begin, his great work... thework that needed all of him... and so every word at his command.

Thus was he summoned from Springfield in Illinois to the greatest city of the Great Republic, NewYork, where its most renowned and anxious citizens, worthy, substantial, concerned, waited withimpatience, condescension, worry and, yes, even hope to hear what a prairie lawyer named Lincolnhad to say to them about the great issue of their day and how this great blot upon the Great Republic

could be resolved... and their great experiment in governance be purified. And so did AbrahamLincoln rise to speak, at Cooper Union, February 27, 1860.

The most important speech since Washington's Farewell Address (1796).

These days only specialists are knowledgeable about the Cooper Union speech... but this is wrong,for it gave the Union a new voice, a new leader, and a man fiercely dedicated to the preservation andtriumph of the Constitution. Without Cooper Union Lincoln would never have been nominated in1860, so never would have served, and could not have brought his signal talents to bear on savingthe Great Republic. And thus the greatest experiment in human history and affairs might well havecome to naught, to the impoverishment and despair of our species.

But Cooper Union did happen... and with every word the nation knew it had found not merely agood and honest man, but a savior... a man fiercely dedicated to truth... fiercely dedicated toworking together with even obdurate men who hated and outraged each other... fiercely determinedto find the formula to protect and defend the Union... And so he was fierce in his moderation... fiercein his implacable opposition to anyone threatening the great federal Union... fierce in asking all goodcitizens to step forward and work for the greater good... And such was the power of his fiercemessage of what must be done, such was the excellence, clarity and reasonableness of his words,that this audience of the great thrilled and cheered him to the very echo.

This single man whose ambition was defined (according to his law partner William H. Herndon) as"a little engine that knew no rest", was now in place for the uttermost struggle, a struggle for


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common sense, common purpose, common decency and the validation and acknowledgement of all.He was ready... for he had the ideas, the fortitude, the moral certainty... and, above all, the words heneeded, the words that saved the Great Republic and remind us still of what is possible when wehave a leader who summons the "better angels of our nature."


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'Berries are nice'. The lush ripeness of strawberries and their sweet red allure.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. This is a story about a fruit so rich that once you start thinking about it youcannot rest until you are eating some... popping them into your mouth as fast as you can, crushing

them... letting the richness of its sweet, sweet juice drip down your chin... glad to have all you caneat... joyfully careless about what you waste... for there will always be strawberries enough for you...you are absolutely sure of that!

But as Deana Carter knows, the lush abundance of strawberries is not unlimited... and so she twangsher tale of high summer, desire, a taste so sweet it maddens you and never satiates... producing awine you can never get enough of... a strawberry wine... a wine that you can never forget... thoughsometimes you wish you'd never come to know.

And so, I have selected for today's occasional music "Strawberry Wine" by Matraca Berg and GaryHarrison, released in August, 1996. Nashville record companies found the song overly long,controversial, and not memorable enough. But when Carter sang her heart out about the summer, the

boy... the strawberries and their wine... the record won Song of the Year at the Country MusicAssociation Awards. Go now to any search engine and listen to it. You'll find yourself remembering... you'll find yourself craving... you'll want their taste again... the berries always see tothat.... for they are an imperious fruit.

Her Majesty's strawberry. On a picture perfect summer day one August I was in Scotland, in theHighlands, at Balmoral... a country castle conceived by Prince Albert, the beautiful German princeloved obsessively by Queen Victoria. For an American used to the White House with its layer after layer of security, Balmoral comes as a rather unnerving shock. "Security" consisted of a singleguard, unobtrusive, reading a newspaper. There might be, there must be more... but that's all I ever saw. He barely looked at us.. smiled... and waved. Thus does Her Britannic Majesty tell you she is

beloved of the people and doesn't need a legion of centurions to protect her... unlike the president of the Great Republic who always needs more... and more.

And so in due course, my friend and I found ourselves in the magnificent park, expansive, serene, aslovely a place as Earth provides. And in the park I found a kitchen garden... the Queen's garden...and in this garden I saw a strawberry, huge, perfectly ripe, ready to be eaten. And so I reached downto pluck it and enjoy... whereupon I felt a strong hand pulling me up and heard my friend's voice, nolonger amiable, but commanding, imperative, stentorian: "Do not touch that strawberry.... that is theQueen's berry!" And I realized what being a subject of the Windsors meant, whilst I was the child of revolution and lese majeste/. And so the uneaten berry remained... for the delectation of the Queen.

Even dukes get only leaves.

I was crushed but as my friend was driving I had to give way, and gracefully, too -- or else.

Then I had a thought that cheered me up. Even the grandest members of the nobility couldn't eat of the Royal fruit with impunity. They had to make do with the strawberries' leaves. And no, I am notmaking this up. A duke's coronet proves my point. When a man becomes a duke (and there are only24 such people in the entire realm of Great Britain) he is entitled to a silver-gilt circlet called acoronet. It features eight strawberry leaves -- not one more and never a single one less. Thus does thesovereign elevate ambitious members of the aristocracy... and keep her strawberries for herself.

Other gentlemen of high rank and title are also entitled to strawberry leaves on their coronets. And


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here there is a most curious conundrum: marquesses who rank just below dukes in the peerage of therealm are entitled to four strawberry leaves... but earls, who rank below marquesses, get eight. Whatcan this mean? For peers, as you may imagine, are protocol mad... and scrutinize their inferiors for any indication that they are claiming rank and privilege to which they are not strictly entitled. Youcan be sure there's some fiddle going on here... but if the marquesses are in a pet of high indignation,they have but to look far down at the viscounts and barons who have not a single strawberry leaf between them... and that's just the way these marquesses mean to keep it -- "Honi soit qui mal y pense.". Strawberry leaves mean strawberry tea.

Fortunately, there is more you can do with your strawberry leaves than wait for the Queen to makeyou a duke. That, after all, could be a long time coming since the last non-royal duke was his graceof Westminster, in 1874. It's true that her present majesty when a young woman offered to make Sir Winston Churchill duke of London... but he declined and there the matter rests, perhaps forever.

And you'll agree, this situation could be more than irritating for those who every morning see intheir looking glasses, not milord this or the right honorable that but... His Grace the Duke of...resplendent in ermine and strawberry leaves.

These men, well bred for hundreds of years, offer the correct aquiline features, the correct pedigree,with generations of the right fathers and acquiescing mothers, masters of every arcane procedure, the

right words and impeccable cravat, these men I tell you are smoldering with rage, aggravation,frustration, worthies all marooned in the wrong time. For them, each of them only the calming propensities of strawberry leaf tea will do... poured in a fragile cup of Minton, delivered by Nanniewho always knows just what to do. "Have some more sugar, ducks. There, there, it'll be all right."

And so does Nanny, who loves you best, goes out with wicker basket on her arm, to the places sheknows well, where the fresh wild strawberries grow or the sweet woodland berries. Take 1tablespoon of dried rose petals, 1/2 teaspoon of yarrow, 1 teaspoon of strawberry leaves, a pinch of mint or blackberry leaves. Add 1 cup of boiling water and allow to steep. Choler cannot long exist inthe presence of such determined coziness.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886).It was perhaps in pursuit of these ingredients that Emily Dickinson, mistress of opaque language,stepped out, "Over the fence" ...

"Over the fence -- Strawberries -- grow -- Over the fence -- I could climb -- if I tried, I know --Berries are nice. But -- if I strained my Apron -- God, would certainly scold! Oh, dear, --- I guess if He were a Boy -- he'd -- climb -- if He could!"

So, let's leave it like that, for as Deana Carter sang, "It's funny how those memories they last. Likestrawberry wine... (when) The hot July moon saw everything" and the strawberries were there, brightand beckoning, just over the fence.


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Flowers assuage 'all sorts of misfortune'. A masterpiece byJean-Baptiste Monnoyer found, restored, enjoyed in TheLant Collection.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. In the 17th century, in France, ambitious men strove to become the masters

of their crafts. They didn't look for short-cuts; abominated slothful, slipshod ways, and always,always aimed not merely to excel, but to astonish not only their colleagues and their patrons... butmost of all themselves, their most discerning critic, the one who knew everything and from whomthere could be no secrets or matters undisclosed.

For the incidental music to this article on French master Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer, painter of flowers,I have selected music by Francois Couperin (1668-1733), master composer. Go to any search engineand find one of the many renditions of his gem "Les Baricades Misterieuses." Turn it on, turn it up,for you are in the company of deft mastery, of craftsmanship, of genius.

Sotheby's, London, Lot 251, December 8, 2011.

This is what the catalog said:

"Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (Lille 1636-London 1699)

A still life of lilies, honeysuckle and other flowers in a vase on a ledge.

Signed lower right JBaptiste. oil on canvas 17 7/8" by 22 3/8 in."

This write-up was accompanied by a photograph, a photograph disclosing without mercy the pitiablecondition of what had once been a work of grace, beauty, and allure, but which now was anything but. My heart went out to this picture, its painter, its present state of distress and the thought thathere I might be able to make a difference, to make a once proud and beautiful object proud and

beautiful again.About Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer.

Monnoyer started his career providing designs for both the Gobelins and Beauvais tapestryworkshops, the acme of such works. There his fruit and flower designs were judged to be excellent.Such was his skill and artistry that he was taken up by Charles Le Brun and so came to work at theChateau de Marly, the hideaway King Louis XIV sought when the pomp and protocol which hecreated and insisted be used at Versailles became too overwhelming even for a Sun King.Monnoyer, thus, was in the perfect place at the moment of its sumptuous perfection.

In 1690, having been admitted to the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, he went to

England, where his masterful work crafting over 50 panels for Montague House, Bloomsbury,London created a vogue for the man and his meticulous work produced with botanical accuracy. Hedid not merely paint flowers, he made them live. It was a skill only the greatest masters possess...and which Monnoyer possessed in such abundance that he was no longer a painter of flowers, nomatter how excellent, but The Master of such painters, the doyen who set the standard by which allothers would be judged. Such a master did not ask me to scrutinize this work and do what wasnecessary to rehabilitate it. He commanded me to do so.

A call to Simon Gillespie, Cleveland Street, London.

When I see a thing of beauty which I might want for my collection, I contact Simon Gillespie, for in


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the art of conserving pictures, he is as masterful as Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer in creating them. And Iknow whereof I speak, for over the last 25 years Simon has restored over 30 pictures for me, all of which were badly damaged at acquisition but, because of painstaking, meticulous work, came to liveagain. For a thing of beauty can only be a joy forever if it is expertly, regularly cared for with theskill and dexterity of which Gillespie is past master. I know the man. I know his work. I would notthink of commissioning another to save the imperiled pictures I collect and delight in saving.

This is what he told me about this Monnoyer before I acquired it: "This was once a very beautiful

picture by a very good artist. It has probably been in a very hot room at the start of its life where itdried rapidly causing a dramatic set of cracks. I think I should go and have a look when it is up onthe wall to determine the viability of resurrecting it." And so it began... he doing his research, medoing mine.

The online Artcyclopedia provided me with excellent but rather daunting information; the works of Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer are found in the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge; theHermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston; and the Royal Collection in London. Moreover, the J. Paul GettyMuseum in Los Angeles has acquired 13 -- yes 13 -- of his paintings and with almost unlimitedfunds could easily outbid me.... outbid, perhaps, but perhaps not outsmart.

And so, with the perceived distress of this masterpiece working in my favor, I acquired it... happythat what it needed we could provide and at once.

What had to be done.

The picture was brought to Simon's studio where tests were carried out to remove the various layersof dirt, grime, discolored varnish. and small amounts of over paint which had been applied tominimize some of the cracking but also liberally covered original paint unnecessarily.

The cracks were indeed disfiguring and interrupted the fine detail of the brush strokes of the flowers.The canvas had also been enlarged top and bottom incorporating the old edges of the canvas, presumably to fit an old frame or match a series of other paintings. Each of these problems -- and

several others --had to be solved, not merely finessed. And as you can see from the merest glanceabove, each and every one of them was solved...

All this having been accomplished, Simon wrote this to me: "The resulting work of art is a veryrefined piece of painting from a famous artist who knew how to achieve a great painting. I amalways proud to see that after years of bad experience a picture can undergo such a goodtransformation. Looking at the painting now, you would never know that it had taken this recent journey."

Indeed not, and that is why Simon Gillespie is the master craftsman he is, and why I deem it notmerely a practical necessity but an honor to enage him and his talented staff.

Here, in Cambridge, to cheer and remind me.

Now this masterpiece hangs in my inter sanctum, the place where I think, write, and think somemore; the place where I am writing you now. It is a special place... a place devoted to making theworld a better place... an exacting task in which my two Monnoyers assist. For both fell upon hardtimes and were rescued... and if two can be rescued, why not three, three hundred, and more?

All it takes is starting with a single step, for as 20th century poet Wallace Stevens wrote after discovering Monnoyer, flowers assuage "all sorts of misfortune". Thus we must do everything wecan to ensure they have the chance to perform their comforting work, suffusing our often difficultlives with brilliant color, light, hope... and the vision and craft of masters like Monnoyer, Couperin,


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and Gillespie.


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Celebrating a man, his mission, his achievement, his bliss...by that man himself.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. Today is a very special day in my life, and I want to share it with you, myreader. Today is the day I reach my goal of publishing 500 articles in my current series of

commentaries. Thus I have become, literally at the stroke of a pen, a man read by millionsworldwide. And that produces a feeling of excitement, enthusiasm, euphoria. Personal happinessfuels the entire enterprise.

At least four times each week since September 18, 2010, I have faced the daunting blank page,aiming to transform that white space into words of magic! Timely significance! Perfect accuracy!Words that stop you in your tracks to read and consider... and then keep, selecting them as guides for the betterment of your life. And I have done all this at record speed... thereby proving yet again that being a senior citizen is a state of mind, not a date on the calendar or some particular disfigurermentor debilitating condition or daily diminishment.

And so for this article of achievement, commendation and insight, I have selected the stirring march

by Sir William Walton (whose life and sound were profiled in this series). It's called "CrownImperial" (1937). And most every day I play it online to herald my first appearance of the day, at atime that could be anywhere and everywhere on clocks truly challenged to keep up with me, a verymobile target.

Go now to any search engine and play this effusion of stateliness... and now imagine my adventembellished with these words:

Arriba! Arriba! Arriba! El Imperator! The Master of the Lyric Words...

These stirring words, which arrest the attention of all, causing a sea of viewers worldwide to stop!Read! Consider... and so be captivated. Such an entrance never loses its captivating power and

arching thrill for the man.... me!... who is so announced.

Written on the screen.

I write each commentary live, on the screen of the Worldprofit Live Business Center atworldprofit.com. Each day, therefore, becomes not just a writing opportunity for me... but a writingclass for all observers worldwide. Thus, without paying a single penny people everywhere get thisunique class and all its pragmatic and entrancing writing skills free! You, too, can join us there onany morning and so, at once, find yourself a sentient part of an educational experience which noother writer makes available, much less available for free! And so as paragraph by paragraphemerges from my brain, it is instantly posted on the screen thereby showing the enraptured audience

how to write to be read, to be persuasive, to be memorable, to be lyric.But such mighty outcomes are never the sole result of my efforts, no matter how consequential andimportant those might be. The result is rather the effort of the Worldprofit Writing Team, good people and true who esteem it their honor and pleasure (though, in truth, they are mine) by racing tofind items prosaic and exact, such as correct spelling, accurate dates, quotations not misquoted andviews not misstated. In short they constitute the most magnificent support team ever assembled, onewhich may, in fact, be unique and is certainly peerless and beyond mere praise.

The outlook that informs each commentary.

It is my firm belief that our great age of quick information (as epitomized by the Internet) is the even


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greater age of misinformation; information, data, statistics et al flow without relief... but necessaryaccuracy is often a casualty, both by design and by accident. Valuable commentators exist to correctmatters, state such matters accurately and without personal agenda, whether hidden or otherwise.Commentators, therefore, exist for one reason only, to make true, detailed, honest reflections aboutany topic they write about.

The motto of each commentator must be the same as Harvard University, my alma mater -- "veritas"-- truth. For insomuch as truth has been a major casualty in our e-days, so must we work all the

harder to ensure that its high standards are still rendered and revered, not sacrificed to accommodateviews selfish, limited, and inaccurate.

Thus each and every day as I work, I remind myself that my work, like the work of anycommentator, is valuable only insofar as it is based on and disseminates truth; for truth is our truemaster and must always remain so.

What I write about.

Once it is clear that truth is and must be the reason for writing commentary, it is crucial that youestablish your subject field... or, in my ambitious and demanding case, subject fields. For my "beat"is mankind in all his works, magnificent, inspiring, degrading, deleterious, and all the rest. In short it

is as broad as the epoch of mankind on Planet Earth and all his works. Thus you are as likely to findin my articles true and provocative commentary on specific animal groups moving towardsunalterable extinction... to the matter of why humans bully each other and what we can do about it...to the succulent and minutely remembered pies baked by grandma... to agendas apt or wrong-headedadvanced by every political party and its representatives, eminent or as yet unknown.

No subject, no matter where manifesting itself on Earth, is too limited... or so important... that itcannot be dealt with here. And as I am no idle, uncritical respecter of persons or long-establishedinstitutions and traditions -- the views I promote will always be my own, that is to say the result of long years of looking at every manner of person and event, and drawing my own conclusions... andso stating matters that you will draw your own, too; for my commentaries are never about dictating

opinion, but always about informing it.Astonishing results, millions of readers.

When I started this project, I little foresaw just how rapidly it would grow or how important it would be. But I know better now. People -- and I mean every sort and condition of people -- have done methe signal honor not merely to access and read my wide constellation of thoughts, but to laud, extol,and praise... and, yes, to offer me the benefit of their own opinions, too, which I always urge them toshare...whatever those opinions might be. For maintaining sustained, interactive relationships withthe world and his wife has always been my clear objective.

The future.

Aging daily, man's fate, it might be thought that I might on this occasion or shortly so announce thecurtailment or even termination of my exigent work. But that will never happen. For as long as Ihave something useful to say to people needing to hear it (if not always welcoming) I shall continue,and gladly. It is what I was born to do, my fate, and I embrace it with the greatest possibleenthusiasm.

Besides, with every commentary I write, I empower the thousands of blog publishers set up byworldprofit.com and made potent and worth attending by me. And nothing makes me happier than toknow that my work, all my work, can be used by you, as it is used and published by people just likeyou everywhere on Earth.


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Thus, I give you great Browning's great words, so beloved of my mother, now so beloved of me:

Grow old with me. The best is yet to be! The last of life for which the first was made.

Thus, if today is a memorable day, let us consider it as just the first of many such days to come... for that I shall surely achieve... if you, all of you, continue to support and sustain me in the work Iconsider the most important of my life; work which you have told me so often is so important in thefulfillment of yours.


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strenuous culture.

First, BIG relief item. There's an audience of just one to these academy award winning performances: you! And unless you're the culprit, no one need ever know that you do this whenever you want the best possible content and the best possible content presentation.

Here's what needs to be in your kit for this project: a printer, marking pens, and a surface on whichto spread this masterpiece in process. Now add gumption and you're ready to go...

You're looking for errors. Here are some places you'll find them:

1) Line length. Good writers, that is to say persuasive writers know that less is more. Thus, thelonger the sentence, the more likely the reader misses the point, and this will never do. If you findyourself taking another breath to get through the sentence in question, that sentence is too long. Theoptimum line length is 10-15 words, and you must cut sharply as a result... and so keep your readers.

2) Do the same severe pruning with your paragraphs. Short paragraphs are the best paragraphs; theyshould run from 6 to 8 lines.

3) Start as many sentences as possible with "you" (explicit or implicit). Whatever you write is

written for just one person -- the "you" who is your present reader. That person must have your complete and total focus, because if that "you" stops reading, it doesn't matter what your message is,this all-important person isn't going to do anything about it.

4) Use action verbs. Here's the drill you want every reader to follow: your prose calls for action...your prose gets the reader to act. But this only happens when you take a machete to your passiveverbs. They are torpid... impenetrable... movement killers. Just the way they should be and remainforever -- that is if you want your prose cited in the "Guinness Book of Records" under the category"execrable".

5) Make war on all purple passages. These you can easily spot when reading for, when uttering themyou automatically start talking like the divine Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923), which means in thesententious idiom of late 19th century France!

Your language should be clean, simple, efficient -- you know, the way it isn't now.

Solution # 2. Rewrite.

Wow, after scrutinizing your latest effusion per Solution #1, you're surrounded by items that have been ruthlessly removed. What now? Simple; my next sure-fire writing insight, viz. that the mosteffective writers are the most conscientious rewriters. In other words, the ones who do not merelyspew words on the page, but who do what's necessary for maximum impact. This means you.

And so today, at first light, take your latest writing project and go out into the pristine dew of day to

recite it. Sure your neighbors will deduce that you have finally gone mad... but the many new prospects and customers you'll derive will leave them happy... leave you a paragon of prose... andricher.; oh, yes, a very great deal richer.


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On the matter of great books you have not read or evenheard about, and one such book in particular, "The Leopard"by Prince Giuseppe Di Lampedusa.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. I am, have been, and always will be a book man; a man, that is, whose life

has been enriched in every way by books. These books have been my joy, my obsession, always thesource of bliss. And no wonder. For in my own special corner with book in hand and myimagination, I have learned something of the utmost significance. Books can take you anywhere.With them you can be anyone... achieve anything... experience everything. ... This is what a book can do and what books for the last 65 years have done for me.

Books... the necessary and irreplaceable tools for education... boon companions and dearest friendsfor life, the solace of our older age, and where we look to assuage our grief when a loved one passes.Books offer us everything... for books are about everything... about everyone... about everywhere.

The only drawback to books... is that there are so many, so brilliant, so moving, so epochal, so

packed with fact and incident that we time-challenged humans don't have even a tiny fraction of thehours we need to know them, read them, think on them, and use them to improve the person we areand wish always to ameliorate. Books are always present, reminding us with their full assistance,how much better we can be... if only we open the cover and allow the words and pages that follow totake us to the superior place that is theirs to give to each of us.

Had we but world enough and time (Andrew Marvell, 1681)...

... but you see, that is the eternal challenge, for we do not... and this, then, becomes the particular puzzle of all our lives. How to know of, find, and find the time to read what must be read... thegreatest books by our greatest masters; for as one grows older and older still, one discovers that timeis too short to read anything else. That is why when people do me the honor to ask what books have

influenced me, I am ever ready with the contents of my library to advise them. And so I take thisopportunity to tell you about "The Leopard", a masterpiece that was in 1957 so despised by Italian publishers that some said it would never be printed, was not worth printing... thereby breaking theheart of its author, Prince Di Lampedusa whose manners were so refined that he did not excoriateand rebuke the purblind publishers who thereby missed a work of high genius. It is this great book by an undoubted master that I tell you about this day.

But before I tell this tale, I wish to commend to you the incidental music to accompany this piece. Itis the "valzerone e quadriglia" by that composer of cinematic magic, Nino Rota (1911-1979). Gonow to any search engine and play it at once, for if "The Leopard" could possibly be improved upon,it would be by Rota and his mesmeric dance rhythms. A novel about the Italy you know nothing

about.You cannot understand this book unless you know that its author was a bona fide principe, prince of ancient lineage and generations of hubris, condescension and perfect manners. He would not haveliked you... why should he?... but you'd never know how exquisite his insults until long after he'dmade his graceful exit from your unwanted company, the mark of a true aristocrat, a nonpareil whokills but never maims -- unless he intends to.

But, and this too is crucial to understanding this book, this principe was not a prince of Italy, but a prince from Palermo, in Sicily, an island which had been since ships could sail the highly desirabletarget of one monarch after another, Dei gratia all.


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As a result, there was a plenitude of titles on Sicily; grandiose, exalted, the residue of one temporaryregime after another. Every noble knew how every title in the kingdom had been procured, by blood,valor... bedroom services or outright purchase. Thus the same title could mean wildly differentthings, of one order going up, while another was descending. Every nobleman and most especiallyhis milady knew every nuance and secret. And so reputations wilted and died, scandals commencedand scandals reported behind delicate fans which at once enabled them to show their artistry anddelicate wrists to best advantage while obscuring expressions which might well reveal too much.

This was a world the prince of Lampedusa knew well, every flutter of a fan, every patent of nobilityfinagled, every tittle of gossip, enjoyed, examined, twisted to best advantage. This is the arcaneworld, now as distant as the moon, that his excellency brought to life in "The Leopard".

"Nothing much happens. They just talk."

In doing my research for this article, I came across the line above, sentiments posted online by areader puzzled by this book. This is understandable, for unlike our action packed books and films,"The Leopard" moves at a very different pace... the pace of real life in the 1860s when the oldverities of Sicilian life were giving way before the insistent realities of Italian unification.

You see, the unified Italy you know and which you may assume has existed for centuries is in fact a

new reality. Since the fall of the Roman Empire, Italy had been broken up into smaller states. Andthese states spent their time intriguing against each other, gaining an acre here, losing a city there. Itgave generations of princes and their privy counselors something to do during the delicious days of la dolce far niente. It was this ancient system that the princes reigning in Turin, the House of Savoy,were determined to end... reigning instead over one nation, their patrimony.

It is towards the end of this opera-bouffe revolution that Lampedusa begins his tale, a tale based onthe life of his paternal great-grandfather, a grandee of Sicily who saw everything changing,changing, changing to the detriment of the beautiful life he loved but could no longer afford.

And so "The Leopard", Prince Fabrizio Salina, finds himself doing something he abhors but knowsis absolutely necessary... allowing his beloved nephew, Prince Tancredi Falcorieri, to marry beneath

himself... to the most attractive young lady of the district, Angelica Sedara, who is sociallyambitious, endlessly calculating... and rich.

Thus while they live, think, intrigue, eat, dance and make love, the House of Savoy changeseverything for everyone... Thus is the reader rebuked who thinks that nothing is happening, for infact an entire world and everyone, everything in it changes forever right before your eyes...

... a riveting story told in language so beautiful, so poignant, so epigrammatic and apt one is forcedto reread line after line so as not to miss a single limpid word. It is for this that "The Leopard" is awork of genius and the prince of Lampedusa occupies at last his just place in the literary pantheon.

April, 1993.

I read "The Leopard" in the spring of 1993; I know because I entered the date on the title page. I've been reading it again lately, and will come back again, perhaps only to read a page, or even a single paragraph, before my life is over. Classics are like that... drawing us back, insinuating themselvesinto our lives in ways lesser creations cannot hope to duplicate.

Now, therefore, go to any search engine, find Nino Rota's valzerone written for Visconti's 1963grand film recreation of the leopard's doomed world, open the book, turn the music on andcommence reading from the first line,

"Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen. The daily recital of the Rosary was over..." but your pleasure


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has just begun.


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The most beautiful place in the world to die. Tyler Clementi...Dharun Ravi... the George Washington Bridge... and thenecessity for remembrance

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. Tyler Clementi was a young violinist who with his obliging instrument

produced sounds that touched the heart. Given world enough and time who knows where thisundeniable talent, showcased in the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Youth Orchestra,would have taken him? But because he was attracted to men rather than to women, he was never toknow. And so today, I sit here in Cambridge starring at a photograph of a dead boy we cannot affordto forget, for to forget would be the real crime...

... but memory is sharp, hard, remorseless, exquisitely painful...

And so we must have Mozart. Mozart who so well understood life... and who with such grandeur enables us to cope with death...

Thus, as the occasional music to this tale I give you the Master's Requiem Mass in D Minor (K.

626), composed in Vienna (1791) available in any search engine... Focusing on his life, whilst never forgetting his death and uneasy spirit...

The thousands of pages dedicated to the matter of Tyler Clementi focus on when he died, how hedied, why he died, and, above all, who is responsible that he died... and I shall also deal with thesecrucial questions. But, first and foremost, we must never lose sight of the boy at the center of thismatter... for this is above all his story...

Tyler was born in 1991 in Buffalo, New York and raised in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He was a goodstudent and like so many other aspiring musicians found life, beauty, meaning and sustenance in thecelestial purity of sound, often so intense as to produce exaltation, apotheosis, catharsis, ecstasy.

Tyler was one of the gifted who took mere notes on a page and produced beauty... and whenever he picked up his violin that beauty was his to command.... and to give...

... and he gave freely, liberally, with the exuberance and trust of youth and a heart that sought loveand meant no harm to anyone...

And so Tyler Clementi went to Rutgers, to test himself against the best of his peers... He was just 18years old... with a mere handful of days to live. What happened next is now a matter of detailedrecord... why it happened will always require the judgement of Solomon and perhaps more... for the person we long to ask -- Tyler himself -- cannot tell us.

Dramatis personnae.

Now come the principal actors...

Tyler, his roommate Dharun Ravi, fellow hallmate Molly Wei... and the gaping worldwidecommunity found on the Internet and without which there would have been no story, no tragedy, anda happier life for all.

Here is what happened....

On the nights of September 19 and 22, 2010 Clementi texted Ravi about using their room for theevening, a thing college students have been asking their roommates forever. On the first occasionRavi met Clementi's friend, an older man whom Ravi did not like. Nothing so far meant very much;


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And so he jumped, alive for seconds still... already gone from the living, en route to eternity, the lastthings he saw, the dark waters of the Hudson, the explosion of light that was Manhattan. Thennothing... a dead boy of enigmas and secrets which I so long to know but never shall.

Envoi.

On March 16, 2012 now 20 year old Dharun Ravi was convicted of invasion of privacy and biasintimidation, a hate crime. Wherever he goes in life, however long he lives, every day he will think on young Tyler Clementi, whose vivid memory and restive spirit will be ever present... "To die, tosleep/No more... Be all my sins remember'd."


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'Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.' Is this the requiemfor the great African elephant? A proposal to save them.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. The terrible news is just in from Johannesburg, and it could hardly be worse.The fate of one of the world's most majestic creatures is being determined now... now at this very

minute... and the forces charged with the task of protecting the last of the once-great herd located inCameroon are losing....

It is a vision of hell, the ill-prepared and lackadaisical soldiers of Cameroon out gunned, out classed,out maneuvered by marauding horsemen, poachers believed to have originated in Sudan. Fast-riding,determined they have forged a sickening scene of the Apocalypse...

The soldiers fall back and back again, as the fiendish purveyors of death advance, the moredetermined as the number of elephants falls, the very closeness of their extinction driving their nemeses to greater risk and purpose. The elephants maddened by the blood and carcasses of their fallen comrades rend the air with their terrible cries of pain and fear. They know what is happeningand shriek against the failing of the light.

Yet still the fearful highwaymen advance... determined on their dreadful work, shaming we so-calledcivilized men who prate, consider, and endlessly discuss this pressing matter but do so little so lateto avert the monumental tragedy occurring now, this very day, in the land called Cameroon.

For the incidental music to this fateful story of greed, mayhem, and looming catastrophe I haveselected the music of 19th century Italian master Amilcare Ponchielli (1834-1886) specifically his"Dance of the Hours." First performed in 1876, it was revised in 1880. The dance is intended tosymbolize the eternal struggle between the forces of light and darkness.

Of all the lyric melodies of this prolific maestro, this is his most well known composition, virtuallyevery note instantly recognizable. It was popular from the moment it was released as part of the

opera "La Gioconda". But became immortal in 1940 when Walt Disney included it in the animatedfilm masterpiece "Fantasia." Whilst the ballet was fully rendered there, its place in the original operawas not. There the ballet appears at the end of the third act, where the character Alvise, who headsthe Inquisition, receives his guests in a large and elegant ballroom adjoining the death chamber.

There could hardly be a more apt image for what is happening to real elephants this very day... for while we amuse ourselves, they die, their putrid, stinking remains a charnel house of horror anddisgust... far from the dancing elephants in pink slippers portrayed through the animation of Disney.Go now to any search engine and listen to Ponchielli and his sounds of the passing hours, the lasthours on Earth of a creature we say we revere and cherish... but have so completely and irrevocablyfailed.

The Facts.

March 15, 2012 World Wildlife Fund, the world's largest conservation organization, released thelatest and most alarming statement in a long chain of such statements concerning the situationregarding the fast dwindling population of African elephants. The statement was issued by NatashaKofoworola Quist, WWF's Central African Regional Programme Office Representative. Itsimportant contents are of the most sobering kind.

Approximately two weeks ago in response to escalating, emboldened poacher activity, the Cameroongovernment authorized a military intervention at the site of the slaughter of hundreds of unprotectedelephants. Despite this intervention, in which at least one soldier has already died, poaching


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continues unabated in Bouba N'Djida National Park.

Predictably in this unmitigated fiasco, these forces were unprepared for their work, came too late,and were the very model of ineptitude. WWF estimates that fully one half the herd was butchered before their "deliverers" arrived... with the holocaust only worsening upon their arrival.

So apprised, WWF approached his excellency of Cameroon, president Paul Biya with undeniablefacts, data, photos... and a plea for concerted action, concrete assurances that he would take thenecessary steps to avert a great calamity, an indelible stain on him, his administration and hisineffectual promises, akin to the emperor Nero fiddling whilst Rome burned.

But if this missive, this delegation, this clear rendering of what is happening and what must be doneat once is like the missives, delegations, and clear renderings gone before, why then this oncemighty and flourishing herd is as good as dead and gone forever.

Still WWF has performed, in its latest exhortation to Biya, what it is positioned to do, strenuouslyurging protection of the elephants, the capture and detention of those violating Cameroon's territorialintegrity with deadly weapons, and the imposition of the most severe sentences against them for thedeath of elephants and the ruthless harvest of their ivory. No doubt his excellency will take it allunder advisement as he and his predecessors have all done before...

... and so the elephants will be exterminated, shot by point-blank shot, and even faster now that their certain end is nigh.

Immediate, aggressive, international pressure.

What do we need then? What we have needed from the beginning. For all its good work, WWF canonly advise... and this is not enough. The great nations of this planet must intervene and at once,make plain their adamant opposition to the status quo, and cut the deal that must be cut with thecurrent authorities in Yaounde. They who care so little about elephants and their future will caremore, and promptly, if we make it worth their while.

Thus, my modest proposal. Send U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon Robert Jackson to see PresidentBiya along with his fellow ambassadors from England, France, Germany et al. Flesh out thecontours of the deal, the deal that will save Biya's face -- and the elephants. Then send Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to sign it and take the necessary photos, whilst privately admonishing Biya thatthis time, at long last, we civilized folk mean business. Clinton can do this; she's an experienced politician, a practised deal maker and here she can make the necessary difference.

Now it's your turn.

The African elephant is near the irreversible tipping point, that crucial moment when it will be toolate to save them. What is happening now in Cameroon has considerably advanced this lamentableoutcome. Every entity, governmental, political, charitable, which might have helped has, for

whatever reason, failed, thereby hastening the end of the greatest of animals.

Now, therefore, it falls to us, the people of this Planet, to take action. Send a letter to SecretaryClinton, send this article. Write simply and powerfully: "You know what to do. Do it!" And do itnow, for every second is precious if we are to save the life of this great creature now passing intoeternity. For if you do not, there will come the day, and far too soon, when only Disney's dancingelephants in pink slippers will remain, to the abiding shame and regret of our ruthless, carelessspecies which is entirely responsible for this result and the terrible void impending.


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'By a waterfall.' H2Oh! The unwanted rise here... theunwanted fall there of the element we most take for grantedand from whence we came.

Author's program note. The first thing scientists engaged in seeking life on other planets look for iswhether there is water there. For without it they know there can be no life... and no species like ours.Water, you see, is the defining element, the sine qua non without which life is not merelyimprobable... but impossible.

Thus for the incidental music to today's article, I give you the mastery of that aquatic choreographer and tongue-in-cheek provocateur Busby Berkeley (1895-1976), imp, troublemaker, artiste, Americanoriginal , and -- above all -- genius. In 1933 he put his mind of high originality to work crafting for the film "Footlight Parade" a complex geometric water ballet to the tune of "By a Waterfall," music by Sammy Fain, lyrics by Irving Kahal.

It was designed to mesmerize, titillate, enthrall, entrance... it was cheeky, scandalous... just plain funfor those who enjoyed the beach and its unending possibilities for naughtiness -- and an innocencewhich is now long gone from the Great Republic.

To create this undoubted masterpiece, which had "made in America" stamped all over it, the exigentBerkeley, never one to economize, demanded a 40 x 80 foot swimming pool that filled an entiresound stage. Its walls and floor were glass, and before shooting started 100 chorus girls took twoweeks to practice their exacting routines in it. The actual filming lasted six days and required 20,000gallons of water per minute to be pumped across the set.

Busby's genius and his innovative use of not just comely young maidens but of cameras did the rest.So instead of filming numbers from set angles, like other, lesser men, he instead set his cameras intomotion on custom built booms and monorails and as necessary, even cutting through the studio roof to get the right shot...for to get his great vision on film for eternity was ever his objective.

And so stars Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler found themselves "By a waterfall". "Just a windingstream where I can drift and dream...." We have all had this experience, transformed into poetry if we were there with our beloved... It is this scenario that is at growing risk worldwide as we learnfrom two sobering reports just released on the subject of the future of water.

Too little water here.... too much water there.

March 22, 2012 US intelligence agencies reported that droughts, floods and a lack of fresh water may cause significant global instability and conflict in the decades dead ahead. The report makesclear that developing countries, already severely challenged, will have to scramble to meet demandfrom exploding populations while dealing with the effects of climate changes.

This report, reflecting the joint judgement of federal intelligence agencies, concludes that in the nextdecade the risk of water shortages and related issues is minimal, although they assert there will bediscernible tensions between affected states thereby destabilizing national and global food markets.This phase of the matter offers important issues and challenges but not chaos. ..

... that, they conclude, begins beyond 2022. Then it begins with a vengeance. Then water becomes aweapon of war, a tool of terrorism and a vehicle for the utmost dislocation, despair, and dismay.Amidst such well founded deductions heralding Armageddon, we are as far as possible from Powelland Keeler at their enchanting waterfall, particularly in South Asia, the Middle East and NorthAfrica where the crisis has already commenced, with far, far worse foreseeable and on its way.


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The report is based on a classified National Intelligence Estimate on water security which wasrequested by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and was concluded in the fall of 2011. Itsstark conclusion: floods, scarce and poor quality water, worsened by poverty, poor leadership, andweak governments will contribute to acute instability; this in turn could lead to the failure of numerous states with massive possibilities for mischief by aggressive regimes like China and byterrorists of every kind; people adept at promising reforms they cannot deliver but which provefertile in the minds of people who have nothing but who see every day what we in the West have...and which they want for themselves, whatever it takes to get it. Thus does the bitter brew of this

witches' cauldron heat to a boil... its toxic ingredients instability and state failure, exacerbatedregional tensions, and with such distractions, the report concludes, that may prevent them fromworking with the Unites States and our Allies on important policy objectives, thereby further imperiling the tenuous lives of millions, each one subject to events they do not control, but whichmost assuredly control them.

World Water Day, March 22, 2012

At this year's WWD event, Secretary Clinton unveiled a new US Water Partnership that aims toshare American water management expertise with the rest of the world, calling the findings of thereport disturbing, sobering, a call to action before no action beyond prayer will matter. Thus, the

conclusion of this timely report:"We judge that as water shortages become more acute beyond the next 10 years, water in shared basins will increasingly be used as leverage; the use of water as a weapon or to further terroristobjectives."

But water will wend its terrible way with us in other grave matters, too...

4 million to be at flood risk, study says.

Whilst researchers and policy makers contemplate the serious matters above, others of their ilk have been at work on another aspect of the problem, this time expected flooding from rising seas fueled by global warming. Their blunt findings were published March 15, 2012 in the peer-reviewed

journal "Environmental Research Letter." This report, in the form of two scientific articles, makesalarming reading, asserting as it does projected sea level rise by the year 2100. Nearly 4 million people across the United States, from Los Angeles to much of the East Coast are in the danger zone.

The cities that have the most people living within three feet of high tide -- the projected sea levelrise by 2100 -- are in Florida, Louisiana, and New York. Boston, Norfolk, Virginia, Charleston,South Carolina, and the capital of the Great Republic itself, Washington, D.C. will be seriouslyaffected with catastrophic results for property and lives.

What can we do, or are we, too, simply at the mercy of events?

I believe that God helps those who help themselves... and what we can do here is plain. We must

keep the feet of our leaders to the fire, reminding them of the necessity to focus on recognizing andsolving these problems. The younger you are the more you must do so, understanding as soon as possible that you have power, if only you will use it.

And if each of us will claim our infinitesimal share of these monumental problems and remaindedicated to their solution, we will have won the right to these words:

"By a waterfall I'm calling you. We can share it all beneath a ceiling of blue. We'll spend a heavenlyday Here where the whispering waters play."

Go now to any search engine and play this tune... after all, it's your future they're singing about.


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http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/march-2012-ebook2165816019023 59/60http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com Copyright Howard Martell - 2012 59 of 60

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Resource

About the Author Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a widerange of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home businesstraining, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting,hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online

Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today.

Republished with author's permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com.

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