Terri Garey, faithful reader Pam Talley’s sister, received an award on August 2 presented in San Francisco before 2000 people, including Nora Roberts. Terri has two more books on the shelves and has three more under contract. Her debut novel, DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY was awarded Best First Book by Romance Writers of America.
http://tgarey.blogspot.com/2008/08/2008-rita-awards-dead-girls-are-easy.html

A TANK AWAY FROM TOLEDO OR COLUMBUS
The Midwest Sculpture Initiative has organized the Tecumseh Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in Tecumseh, Michigan from May 1st, 2008 through April 15th, 2009. Tecumseh is located 25 miles southwest of Ann Arbor, Michigan and 45 miles northwest of Toledo, Ohio. Here are pictures and locations of the sculptures, and you will notice the first two shown are by Toledoan Calvin Babich.
http://www.msisculpture.com/exhibits/Tecumseh2008-09.htm
Ten of the fourteen sculptures are on Chicago Boulevard, Tecumseh’s main street. Pick up the 2008-2009 Art Trail Map brochure at the public library, 215 North Ottawa Street, for actual street addresses. Tecumseh District Library http://www.tecumseh.lib.mi.us/
While wandering on Chicago Boulevard, we saw Pentamere Winery (penta means five and mere means lake or sea). All the fruit in the wines comes from the Great Lakes watershed. www.pentamerewinery.com
We bought local cheese and butter at Boulevard Market at the corner of East Chicago Boulevard and South Evans Street. See article about the business: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080422/ART06/804220302
We then walked a few feet to Evans Street Station, a restaurant in a former firehouse. On Wednesdays, wines $75 and under are sold at half off. http://www.evansstreetstation.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=30

Pew Research Center - Men or Women: Who's the Better Leader? A Paradox in Public Attitudes, August 25, 2008
Americans believe women have the right stuff to be political leaders. When it comes to honesty, intelligence and a handful of other character traits they value highly in leaders, the public rates women superior to men, according to a new nationwide Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends survey. Nevertheless, a mere 6% of respondents in this survey of 2,250 adults say that, overall, women make better political leaders than men. About one-in-five (21%) say men make the better leaders, while the vast majority--69%--say men and women make equally good leaders.
The paradox embedded in these survey findings is part of a wider paradox in modern society on the subject of gender and leadership. In an era when women have made sweeping strides in educational attainment and workforce participation, relatively few have made the journey all the way to the highest levels of political or corporate leadership. Why not? In the survey, the public cites gender discrimination, resistance to change, and a self-serving "old boys club" as reasons for the relative scarcity of women at the top.

Knowledge Transfer is Critical to Companies' Competitive Edge, as Large Numbers Of Boomers Retire
News release: "Most companies do not have a plan to manage and transfer knowledge and even fewer factor cross-generational challenges into business strategy, says a new report from The Conference Board...
"As the Baby Boom generation of corporate leaders and experts approaches retirement, businesses in the U.S., Canada, and many European nations face the loss of experience and knowledge on an unprecedented scale," says Diane Piktialis, Mature Workforce Program Leader at The Conference Board and co-author of the report with Kent Greenes, Program Director, Learning & Knowledge Management Council, The Conference Board. "Younger workers can't be counted on to fill the void, as they lack the experience that builds deep expertise. They also tend to change jobs frequently, taking their technological savvy and any knowledge they've gained with them."
The result can be a significant drain of business wisdom that decreases innovation, lowers growth capacity, and reduces efficiency in the organization.
The Conference Board report - Bridging the Gaps: How to Transfer Knowledge in Today's Multigenerational Workplace (available for purchase only) - is based on a Research Working Group on Multigenerational Knowledge Transfer that explored the topic with a special emphasis on knowledge-retention challenges that organizations face due to shifting demographics and the shortage of new talent in the pipeline.

Bankruptcy Filings Near Million Mark for 12-Month Period Ending June 30, 2008
U.S. Courts: "In the 12-month period ending June 30, 2008, there were 967,831 bankruptcy cases filed, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. That is a 28.9 percent increase compared to filings for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2007, when cases totaled 751,056. Historic data on bankruptcy filings is available on the Judiciary's website under Bankruptcy Statistics."

In 16th-century Italy, beggars, using chalk on the plazas outside cathedrals, copied paintings of the Madonna by Raphael and his contemporaries. With these street painters, called I Madonnari (painters of the Madonna), an artistic tradition was born. Today I Madonnari festivals are held annually in Europe, Africa, and the United States.
19th annual Chalk Festival in Cleveland Fine Arts Garden
Saturday September 20, 11:00-4:00
Sunday, September 21, noon-5:00
Enjoy chalk artists and entertainment at no charge
Chalk your own pictures for a modest fee
For more information, please contact the Community Arts Department, 216-707-2483 or neisenberg@clevelandart.org
http://www.clemusart.com/educef/chalk/

Keepers After arranging my book collection, I left one shelf for “keepers,” books that I think are important enough to read again or to suggest to others. Here are a few titles:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Control by William Goldman
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Watership Down by Richard Adams

The world's largest Louis Comfort Tiffany art glass dome in the Chicago Cultural Center has undergone a gleaming restoration, and is letting in natural light for the first time in more than 70 years
The Tiffany glass done is as old as the Cultural Center itself. It was constructed in 1897 when the building at 78 East Washington Street held the main branch of the Chicago Public Library. The dome is 38 feet in diameter and covers 1,000 square feet. It has 30,000 individual pieces of glass in 243 sections, according to the Cultural Center. Originally, natural light streamed into the room through a translucent shell that protected the Tiffany dome from the elements. But sometime in the 1930s, well before the library became the Cultural Center, an opaque copper and concrete shell replaced it.
In 2005, the Cultural Center found that 1,800 pieces of glass were cracked, and dirt had accumulated on all of the glass. The inspection also determined that there were rough chunks of clear, reflective glass, or "jewels," that had been facing into the ceiling rather than into the room. For the restoration, the glass panels were cleaned and restored to their original luster, and turned so the jewels again faced into the room.
http://cbs2chicago.com/local/cultural.center.dome.2.761138.html