Levant
1. The countries bordering on the eastern
Mediterranean Sea from Turkey to Egypt.
2. A heavy, coarse-grained morocco leather often
used in bookbinding. Also called Levant
morocco.3. To leave hurriedly or in secret to avoid unpaid debts. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Levant
It was June 6, 1983. School was out and kids were plonked in front of the TV for the summer. A new show premiered, extolling the virtues of shutting off the television and reading a book.
That was 30 years ago. The episode “Tight Times” debuted as the first episode of public television’s “Reading Rainbow.” And though the program’s 26-year run ended in 2009, its host LeVar Burton continues to champion the joys of reading and the importance of literacy. “I spent the last 36 years of my life really trying to change the world,” said Burton. And he found that the medium best suited to doing that was television, whether hosting “Reading Rainbow;” as Geordi La Forge on “Star Trek: The Next Generation;” or as the young Kunta Kinte on the groundbreaking miniseries “Roots.” Though “Reading Rainbow” started out with “meager budgets” and little support, Burton said after a few years, teachers started noticing that kids were coming back in the Fall with improved reading and comprehension skills, and publishers were seeing their featured books flying off the shelves. It became a summer staple for a generation of children growing up in the ‘80s, ‘90s and the early 2000s. Of the show’s more than 150 episodes, Burton noted some of his favorites were scuba diving to a coral reef and landing an airplane for the first time. A new generation of children continues to experience “Reading Rainbow” through an app for iPads and Kindles. And it has become something of a pop culture phenomenon. Burton recently did a skit on “The Colbert Show,” schooling its host and actress Carey Mulligan about “The Great Gatsby.” And Jimmy Fallon’s rendition of the “Reading Rainbow” theme song, sung as Jim Morrison from The Doors, remains Burton’s favorite cover effort. “We wanted to create a show that took a child who knew how to read, and turn them into a reader for life,” explained Burton. “ And that’s what we’ve been doing ever since.”
So here are Burton’s picks for kids’ summer reading:
--- “Enemy Pie,” by Derek
Munson
--- “Amazing Grace” by
Mary Hoffman
--- “Tar Beach” by Faith
Ringgold http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/newsmakers/levar-burton-summer-reading-musts-turning-kids-readers-164629759.html
The
10 Greatest Audiobook Narrators: An Insomniac's Guide by Jake Flanagin Some people use white noise machines. Some use earplugs. I, on the other hand, cannot fall asleep
without an audiobook. Here are, in my
opinion, the best of the best audiobook narrators at: http://airshipdaily.com/blog/the-10-greatest-audiobook-narrators-insomniac-guide
July 2013 Earphones Award Winners http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/earphones.cfm
Postal Service Is Watching, Too:
Outside of All Mail Is Recorded,” by Ron Nixon: “Under “the Mail Isolation Control and
Tracking program…Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every
piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States – about 160 billion
pieces last year. It is not known how
long the government saves the images…The Mail Isolation Control and Tracking
program was created after the anthrax attacks in late 2001 that killed five people,
including two postal workers. Highly
secret, it seeped into public view last month when the F.B.I. cited it in its
investigation of ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama and Mayor Michael
R. Bloomberg. It enables the Postal
Service to retrace the path of mail at the request of law enforcement…Law
enforcement officials need warrants to open the mail… New York Times July 3, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/us/monitoring-of-snail-mail.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
The 10 vehicles assembled in the U.S. in 2013 using the most U.S. and Canadian parts are listed at: http://www.thestreet.com/story/11968700/1/10-most-american-made-cars-of-2013.html
For the third year in a row, foreign-based Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda
captured five of the top ten spots for the most “American-made” cars this year: The cars are made in the states of Alabama,
Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri and Texas. Mark J. Perry
See the list at: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2013/06/2013-top-ten-american-made-cars-five-are-japanese/
Robert Passikoff, the founder and president of Brand Keys, a New York-based consumer
research firm, has released a list of the 25 most patriotic brands in America. Brand Keys’ list came from a survey of 4,500
consumers across the United States. The
research looked at almost 200 different brands, honing in on how much each was
associated with the idea and value of patriotism. Jeep’s score of 98 on a 100-point scale was
tops, beating out Hershey’s and Coca-Cola, which tied for second. Levi
Strauss and Disney tied for fourth. Other notables included Zippo, at seventh,
and Kodak and Gillette, which tied for 10th. Marlboro and Budweiser tied for 14th. And while Budweiser was once wholly American,
since 2008 it has been a brand of the Belgian-based Anheuser-Busch InBev. Does that matter to consumers? “Apparently not,” Mr. Passikoff said with a
chuckle. “All I can say is they ended up
about the middle of the list.” In a sense, that goes back
to what the list is all about: perception and emotion. Jeep, for that matter, is a brand of Chrysler
Group LLC — which is majority owned by the Italian automaker Fiat SpA. “I guess it depends on how much you know and
how much the rational fact leverages against the emotion,” Mr. Passikoff
said. Tyrel Linkhorn http://www.toledoblade.com/Automotive/2013/07/04/Jeep-corners-market-for-red-white-and-blue-1.html
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