On a recent weekend, sand creatures were sprawled across this Pacific Coast beach at Cannon Beach's 47th annual sand sculpting tournament. There were sea horses by a giant squid, with an "Attackin' Kraken" sea monster nearby, along with several pigs, some giant mice and an amputee octopus. Many of the sand sculptures had the same point of origin: They had been built by people who at one time or another were advised by Bert Adams, one of the nation's handful of professional sand-castle consultants. "He's a great mentor," says Amos Callender, an Olympia, Wash., architect who took a course—Sand 101—that Mr. Adams taught two years ago. Mr. Callender and his team took first place at Cannon Beach last year, while this year they built a sand sculpture depicting "the good life"—a wine lover sporting a beret; a mouse tucking into a giant wheel of cheese—that finished second. As this year's sand-sculpture season gets going, Mr. Adams is one of the people who have carved out a unique consulting niche on the circuit. While millions of kids will construct sand creations all summer for nothing, sand advisers have built practices charging individuals and companies for sand castle-building classes, as well as partnering with charities that sponsor sand-sculpting competitions. Just one consulting gig can garner thousands of dollars, while building a birthday sand castle in an hour can yield a fee of $300. The rise of sand-sculpting consultants comes as the sand-castle tour increasingly resembles the pro golf or tennis circuits, complete with grueling schedules. Competitions now take place everywhere from Amagansett, N.Y., which in August will hold the 20th annual East Hampton Beach Master Sand Sculpting Competition, to San Diego, where in July the U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition will distribute $21,000 in prize money. Mr. Callender's team was paid $800 last year for wearing T-shirts at Cannon Beach emblazoned with the name of a local veterinary clinic. At another tournament in Long Beach, Wash., he and his team got $1,200 to wear T-shirts provided by a building-supplies store. Sand consultants don't have groupies though—just "gritties," jokes Mr. Adams. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304231204576404782910039182.html

What makes a password stronger Replace a letter with a numeral or a symbol. Use a capital letter for one of the letters. Add a random number (not your birthdate) to beginning or end of password. The Wall Street Journal June 23, 2011.

Paraphrases from Bossypants by Tina Fey
Always AGREE and SAY YES when you're improvising. I point my finger and say, "Freeze, I have a gun!" You say: "The gun I gave you for Christmas! You bastard!" We have agreed that my finger is a gun. Agree, and add something of your own. I say, "I can't believe it's so hot in here." You say: "Yes, this can't be good for the wax figures."
Photoshop itself is not evil. Retouching is here to stay.
A French newspaper accidentally ran a picture of Amy Poehler and me from a Katie Couric sketch on Saturday Night Live, thinking it was a picture of Couric and Sarah Palin.

Hope by Emily Dickinson

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me. See discussion and links to other poems at: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/hope.html

Look up detailed information about thousands of plants using BBC Plant Finder. You will find descriptions of the plants and tips about growing them. Find answers to your gardening questions, learn about flower shows and search horticultural societies at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/

Wildlife is back in Germany The rumble of tanks and the report of heavy artillery have given way after six decades in the rolling hills east of Frankfurt to more soothing tones: the gentle neighing of wild horses. Przewalski's horses, as they are called. The last breed of horse never to have been domesticated. These horses once ranged from Southern Europe to Mongolia. Today, a herd of nine roams at Campo Pond, a 250-acre former U.S. military training ground here in western Germany. They are here only temporarily, assembled from zoos across Germany and beyond, awaiting transfer to the Asian steppe as part of an international effort to boost their remaining numbers there. Other once-vanished species regaining their footings include wolves and bears, which were hunted out of German forests centuries ago but now feast on exploding populations of deer and wild boar. But wildlife isn't flourishing just in the east and Bavarian countryside. Below the surface of the Rhine, the shipping thoroughfare that sustains Germany's industrial heartland, cleaner manufacturing methods and the fading imprint of coal mining have encouraged the return of the Atlantic salmon. Tens of billions of euros have been spent improving the water quality and building a series of fish ladders that allow the salmon to maneuver around dams to swim upstream. Making the river safe again for salmon and eels is as good for people as it is for the fish, says Ben van de Wetering, secretary general of the Cologne-based International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703864204576315393197296476.html

From Nancy Pearl at National Public Radio My office (a spare bedroom in my house) is strewn with books that I've gotten for possible review. There are books on the bookshelves, books more or less arranged on the floor and other books stacked high, waiting to be shelved. I probably start 15 books for every book I finish. When I'm ready for my next good read, I look for a book (fiction or nonfiction) with a strong narrative voice, wonderfully drawn characters and writing that makes me stop and savor the words the author has written — all of which are present in these 10 terrific books. Find list at: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/23/137084790/nancy-pearl-presents-10-terrific-summer-reads