Essay on Same-Sex Parenting - 1442 Words

Same-Sex Parenting Since the early 1900s, homosexual people have become increasingly popular and greatly resisted. People that are homosexual face barriers placed upon them by the political system and society. Due to these challenges, homosexuals fought to have the same marital and parental rights as heterosexual people. Same-sex adoption is not prohibited in most states in the United States of America and many places worldwide. Family is not determined solely on blood relations and should be legalized in all parts of the world; because homosexual parents are just as good as heterosexual parents, if not better, and can provide an enriching second chance for many children waiting to be adopted. Homosexual parents exhibit parenting†¦show more content†¦These desires will translate into parenting by a homosexual person or couple because when their child is experiencing an internal conflict, whether it is about self-identity or sexual orientation; a homosexual parent will be able to sympathize and relate to the child more because they have experienced it as well, thus, making the child feel comfortable to talk to their parent and feel understood. Many heterosexual parents fail in this aspect and make their child feel disconnected from them because many heterosexual parents are usually not open to these types of issues. Children of homosexual parents feel less pressure placed on them from gender stereotypes. After all, homosexuals do not fall into traditional gender roles so they would have fewer expectations on the children to act like their biological gender role than a heterosexual parent would. For example, I was waiting in line at an event and there was a mother waiting with her children as well, a girl and a younger boy. The girl took a toy away from the boy and he began crying. The mother became annoyed by his crying and yelled at him â€Å"STOP CRYING LIKE A LITTLE GIRL!† The little boy became sadder but stopped crying shortly after. By the mother making that comment to her son she took away his opportunity to be himself and express his emotions as a human being. Society has been determined crying as an act for girls and discourage it in boys because it makes them â€Å"weak.† A homosexual parent would be less likelyShow MoreRelatedSame Sex Marriage And Parenting999 Words   |   4 PagesSame-Sex Marriage and Parenting Same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting are comparatively new controversial topics in today’s world and its â€Å"mainstream† morality. I was not exposed to any homosexual â€Å"lifestyle† while growing up. While I know that I am firmly traditional in my theological views, nevertheless, I firmly believe that traditional marriage and traditional parenting are devotional commitments between a man and a woman. Therefore, same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting are to me, issuesRead MoreSame Sex Marriage And Parenting938 Words   |  4 PagesSame-Sex Marriage and Parenting Gay and lesbian couples wish to get married for many of the equivalent reasons that heterosexual couples wish to for love, constant companionship, and to create a nuclear family environment. A survey of same-sex marriage and same-sex parenting reveals several challenges facing gay and lesbian couples, most noticeable being the stereotyping their lifestyles, parenting, and gay beliefs. In the United States, marriage egalitarianism has started to structure itself.Read MoreStudies on Same-Sex Parenting556 Words   |  2 Pagesthat have legalized same sex marriage, and currently Thirty-three states that have banned same sex marriage. For the states that have legalized gay marriage have been juried by Court Decision, State Legislature and popular vote. As for the states that have banned legalized marriage that has been ruled by the constitutional amendment and state laws. Unions have been discussed up how legalization can be justified in states. Not even just U.S citizens want legalization in the same sex marriage but politiciansRead MoreSame Sex Parenting and Children Essay1639 Words   |  7 Pagesrelation may affect the welfare of a child’s upbringing. The prospect of a nontraditional upbringing in a same-sex partnership, or marriage ought to be a problem when raising children. Some feel that there is no real negative influence that this form of parenting has on a child. Politics has raised concern, but there is a limited amount of research in this area to corroborate this concern. Should same-sex marriage be an issue when raising children? Some states such as Massachusetts, Vermont, and ConnecticutRead MoreThe Debate Over Same Sex Parenting1435 Words   |  6 Pages The debate over same-sex parenting and same sex couples being capable of raising healthy children in the United States is a contentious one, speakers on both sides continue to work hard to have their voices heard. Some believe that being raised by same sex couples will cause the children to pursue same sex relationships in the future. The supreme court has been working towards equality and listening to arguments on the rights for same-sex couples to not only marry but to adopt and raise childrenRead MoreSame Sex Parenting is Just as Effective as Straight Parenting997 Words   |  4 Pages Same Sex Parenting is Just as Effective as Straight Parenting Imagine a child in an adoption center, he’s lonely and doesnt have friends and longs for a loving family since his past family decided to put him up for adoption. Then there is a same sex couple wishing to be able to adopt a child so their family can be complete, but sadly the same sex couple can’t adopt the child because of anti-gay groups that frown upon it. Think about it this way, would you rather have a sad and lonely childRead More Same Sex Parenting and Adoption Essay1902 Words   |  8 PagesAdoption for same sex couples is a very controversial topic in Family Law, and often same sex couples face many unique issues if they wish to adopt. Many states have different laws that apply for gay and lesbian adoption, as opposed to heterosexual couples. Several states also have special rules that apply when a child is born into a gay or lesbian partnership. Gay and lesbian couples may sometimes opt to bring a child into their lives through conception and birth as well. For a lesbian couple, thisRead MoreImpact Of Same Sex Parenting On Gender Identity Disorders1969 Words   |  8 PagesRESEARCH PAPER â€Å"Impact of Same-Sex parenting on Gender Identity Disorders in adolescence† INTRODUCTION: Same-sex parenting will always face the two different concepts: one considering it lawful, plain and simple and the other opposing it as a matter of morality. Same-sex couples can never be equivalent to heterosexual couples in terms of legality, outcomes and even children as homosexuals lack the ability to give birth to children due to which they refer to joint adoptions mostly. Many countriesRead MoreThe Issue Of Same Sex Parenting1153 Words   |  5 PagesPaper Same-Sex Parenting ​Homosexuality has been a sensitive subject in this society for generations; it has been repelled against and condemned because it is considered to be sin-natured to certain traditions and religions. In the past several years, gay rights have been a controversial topic in many areas of the public and court rooms. More recently, the debate about gays having the right or ability to parent has become an increasingly popular topic, especially with same-sex marriage being legalizedRead MoreSame Sex Parenting And Parents Essay975 Words   |  4 PagesThis paper discusses same-sex parenting and some of the situations they have experienced. I will be discussing how this same sex pair handles family life, their demographics in relation to class material and Family Systems Theory as well as personal and professional application in their situation. There are a number of same sex parents in society today. Same sex families are no different from other families, but there are a few uniq ue challenges that occasionally arise. Same sex parents still have

Marriage And Divorce A Study Of Human Development

Marriage and Divorce Anthropology can be defined as the study of human development over a period. God performed the first marriage in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, both made in God’s image, were joined and commanded to â€Å"be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth† (Genesis 1). Marriage, as stated in the Bible, is a lifelong commitment between a man and women before God. Marriage was created in Genesis 2:23 ­ 24, â€Å"The man said, ‘this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called â€Å"woman,† for she was taken out of a man.† A man will leave his father’s home, and seek a woman to become one with. God proposed marriage to be a profound functional unity, walking in integrity, serving God, and keeping his commandments†¦show more content†¦Biblical marriage is between a man and a woman who become one. Throughout this course we read many writings that can closely relate to this statement. For examp le, Thomas Aquinas, a theologian and philosopher from the 1250s, explained that by loving another individual, you must become one with them. He analyzed love as an appetite, or a transformation when two people love and marry one another, they take the form of one another. However, before you can consume the shape of your loved one, you must build a relationship with God. We are establishing a healthy relationship by figuring out how to love and cherish, as Christ does for the Church, and by choosing to remain physically immaculate until marriage (Gen 2:24, Matt. 19:5, Eph 5:31). During the Bible era, a couple was considered married once they were united, or engaged. For the couple to separate after the marriage, they would have to get a legal divorce. This Biblical perspective contrasts with the views of the Christians in today’s society. Our culture sees this relationship as an optional commitment. Marriages should be formed between one man and one woman who are willing to work together through their trials and tribulations. However, nowadays, marriages are falling apart because they are often called off at the first sight of contention. Attacks on the Biblical perspective of marriage are attacks on the relationship that Christ offered us to demonstrate his

Christmas Carol The Moral Message Essay Example For Students

Christmas Carol The Moral Message Essay In the preface to A Christmas Carol, Dickens states that he had endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an idea. To what extent do you think he is successful in creating an enjoyable Christmas story with a serious moral message about the treatment of others? A Christmas Carol is the story of a single mans spiritual journey in the festive season. Dickens tries to raise the Ghost of an idea by basing the novel on his own experiences as a working class individual in the Victorian era. Dickens raises moral issues still relevant today, such as the immense variation in quality of life between classes. The topics raised will linger in the readers minds, in order for them to understand the social and spiritual consequences of their actions. Dickens aim was to raise awareness of a social and economic plight. He chooses to convey this fundamental message through the simple story of Ebenezer Scrooge, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner. This book uses Scrooge as a metaphor to show the wealthy Victorian public the plight of those living in extreme poverty, and that it is never too late to adjust your ways. This allegory, though basic, is effective, as the one dimensional characters are polarised, emphasising the moral reversal. This allows people to identify more with Scrooges spiritual journey. In the preface, Dickens also states that he does not want readers to feel out of humour after having read the novel. The purpose of the book is seemingly to entertain and enlighten, not to cast a burden onto anyones mind. The similarities between characters and the social classes in Victorian society must not be taken with offence. The book, although not religious, does have undertones of Christianity, clearly shown through the three spirits and the significance of life after death. Scrooge is instantly introduced as a cruel and immoral person, to ensure the audiences reaction to him is negative. The way Scrooge is described is also reflective on his treatment of the poor: he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone. This shows that he never gave away money to anyone, and was greedy with his wealth. Scrooge is also described as a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, clutching, covetous, old sinner. This suggests the list of negative characteristics could go on indefinitely. The use of pathetic fallacy strengthens Scrooges image as a bad character, although this comparison would have been much more significant in Victorian England, as winters were harsh and bleak, especially for the poor. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow more intent upon its purpose. This description of Scrooge contrasts strongly with that of his nephew, Fred, who is all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again. These two descriptions, when juxtaposed, show the extreme linguistic and physical contrasts between the two characters, although they are related. The difference between these two characters simply helps to emphasise Scrooges malicious nature and help the readers warm to Fred. Scrooge is also described as solitary as an oyster, a manifestation of his reclusive nature and self. However, this leads to the question, is Scrooge like an oyster, holding a pearl inside, with the potential to love and give? The scene with the charity workers is used as a plea for the poor and destitute people of Victorian society. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries, hundred of thousands are in want of common comforts. This statement, issued from one charity worker only leads on, however, to a show to Scrooges selfishness and lack of empathy. I dont make myself merry at Christmas and I cant afford to make idle people merry. This should influence the audience to act in such a way as to distance themselves from Scrooges behaviour, and to give to the poor. The harsh response from Scrooge, coupled with his discourteous tone and rude language implies that he believes unemployed people are worthless and not deserving of his money or time. .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 , .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 .postImageUrl , .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 , .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665:hover , .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665:visited , .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665:active { border:0!important; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665:active , .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665 .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uccee2e1b2cfd29f7925a608c14053665:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Modern Drama EssayDickens uses Scrooge, throughout this scene, as a mouthpiece for the prevailing attitudes of the particular time the poor were routinely criminalised. This scene leads to further alienation and hatred of Scrooge. Conversely, Scrooges reaction would not have differed greatly from that of people at the time, as support for the poor law and treadmill was common, and Victorian policies greatly endorsed. Through the governments ideas, people began to criminalise the poor, although this concept is far removed from the assistance they are given today. Scrooge shows throughout this discussion his support for the imprisonment of poor people, as he has even gone so far as to aid these organisations: I help to support the establishment I have mentioned: they cost enough. This also implies he believes that the poor should be encouraged to work, and those who cannot pay their debts, should be imprisoned or put into work houses. Dickens viewpoint is seen clearly through this scene as he encourages the audience to dislike Scrooge, as he himself shows criticism for the criminalisation of the deprived.

Why Is Facebook Addictive The Reasons For Facebook Addiction free essay sample

Facebook Addiction is not a recognized clinical disorder. Hundreds of millions of people use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family, plan events, receive news, and play games. For most, Facebook is a useful and enjoyable way of interacting with others online. However, some users claim to be addicted or obsessed with Facebook and have difficulty logging off even after they have been on for hours. Facebook allows users to keep in touch with others by means of communicating effortlessly. By means of a single post to read on, and it will guide you to get some updates with a simple click and tap.People from the different group shared his interests to be connected as usual. But, there is some point that Internet addiction and social network addiction recognized as psychological disorders all over the world. There are different levels of social network addiction. Based on different studies that Facebook purpose is for academic procrastination. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Is Facebook Addictive? The Reasons For Facebook Addiction or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page One interesting finding of the research was that people tended to be unaware of just how much time they really spent in using it. And the effect this might have on their academic performance. On the other hand, Social network addiction has been noted that there may be a correlation between low self-esteem and a sense of social inadequacy. It seems that many types of social interaction which would present great challenges in the real world for certain types of individuals have been rendered much easier for them in the virtual world, thus putting them at a higher risk of becoming addicted to Facebook and the like.Here is another, A Mexican study found that Facebook addicts had a higher incidence of depression and lower physical and general self-esteem levels than less frequent Facebook users.There are many factors that determine the characteristics of Internet and social network addictions in different parts of the world. The nature and scope of these problems are not only affected by technological advancement and the number of computers connected to the internet per capita and other such quantitative data, but cultural factors are also key in determining the local incidence of these addictions.Social networks have changed the ways we interact with each other enormously. One thing that has changed dramatically is the concept of meeting people. Social network addictions may not be as dramatic as Internet gaming addictions, for example, seem to be in some Asian countries, the rapid growth of social networks both in reach and in the number of interaction possibilities poses new problems every day for the elaboration of solid diagnostic criteria. There are some considerations that must be up in here like sharing information with many people and it is a net etiquette we get into. And it makes unfamiliar seems to be familiar in the way of searching and getting information from other people. Facebook Addiction is partially driven by this never-ending desire for more information. This reasoning also applies to the appeal of the internet.

Brucespringsteen free essay sample

# 8217 ; s Streetsofphiladelphia Essay, Research Paper Mean Streets The topic of Bruce Springsteen s Streets of Philadelphia has to make with a individual walking on metropolis streets, but the subject focuses on a certain facet of the individual. The verse form describes how easy one can lose his or her individuality when no 1 about knows who they are and how others do non see the disregard and forsaking towards these people. Springsteen develops the subject by utilizing poetic elements such as scene, imagination, and tone and feeling. The scene is the streets of Philadelphia. We will write a custom essay sample on Brucespringsteen or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In large metropoliss there are frequently 1000s of people who walk the street every twenty-four hours. Few of those people live on the streets or notice those who do. Although there are really many people who live in the metropolis it is still difficult for people to happen aid. Springsteen writes, Oh brother are you gon na go forth me Wastin off On the streets of Philadelphia. ( 6 ) This represents a call for aid to the people that the talker is able to see. None of the people around the talker offer a response to his calls. The deficiency of concern towards individuals who live on the metropolis streets shows through disregard the people of the metropolis demo them. Imagery helps the reader develop a good sense of what the talker is experiencing and believing. In the first stanza the image of person who is have oning apparels that are soiled and ripped appears when the talker describes himself as, bruised and battered ( 1 ) and by stating, My clothes don T suit me no more. ( 16 ) The talker says, # 8230 ; my legs felt like rock, ( 9 ) leting the reader to visualize a individual who seems cramped and ti ruddy. Sprinegsteen produces an image so the reader can see this individual and relate that to the others the reader may hold seen on the streets. The tone of this verse form is sad and lonely. Partss of this verse form demo the reader s low self-esteem and loss of individuality. The talker starts by stating, I couldn t tell what I felt I was unrecognisable to myself. ( 1 ) This tells the reader that the talker # 8217 ; s confusion makes it hard to be in touch with his or her feelings. When the talker says, I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone, ( 10 ) the reader feels sorry for this individual for being abandoned by those he held near to his bosom. Springsteen makes the talker seem abandon, non merely by his friends but by God when he writes, Ain t no angel gon na recognize me. ( 14 ) When the talker says, At dark I could hear the blood in my venas Black and whispering as the rain.. , it helps develop the temper of unhappiness and solitariness. The mention to dark adds a darkness to the overall tone and feeling. Springsteen s wrote this verse form as a vocal words. The words are poetic and descriptive. He does a good occupation of utilizing tone and feeling, puting and imagination to develop this verse form. Springsteen draws the reader in and relates, on some degree, how the talker feels. The verse form is being told through the eyes of person who is fighting with life and personal trials. The reader can non assist experiencing compassion for the talker because of his or her state of affairs. When the reader put his or her ego into the talker s place, it is possible to see the job of disregard and forsaking that is being overlooked in society.

buy custom Medicinal Marijuana essay

buy custom Medicinal Marijuana essay For thousands of years, marijuana has been used as a prescription for many sicknesses. Presently, it is still used in various states for therapeutic purposes. The medicinal use of marijuana is surrounded by a cloud of social, political, and religious debate, which obscures the facts that should be believed in its treatment. The issue of whether we should legalize marijuana to be a medical option has been widely debated in our community recently. It is an important issue because it concerns the health of the populace at large. This essay considers the arguments against legalizing medicinal marijuana and points to some of the valid reasons for the opposed views. It then puts forward arguments for legalizing medicinal marijuana and the reasons for the proposed views. The controversy surrounding marijuana stems from the legalization of the drug for medical use. Outrageously expressive arguments rage about whether or not marijuana should be considered as a legitimate medicine. The present debate over the medical use of marijuana is in actual fact, a debate over the worth of its medicinal properties relative to the risk posed by its use. But should marijuana be a medical option? Even though scientists and supporters propose for its medical usage, I believe that marijuana should not be used as a medical option. In the 20th century, marijuana has been used more for its ecstatic effects than as a medicine. Why should doctors take a solid stand against the legalization of marijuana? First, marijuana is recorded as Schedule I in federal drug laws, which means that it has no lawful medical use. Second, no medical authority identifies it as an effective treatment for any condition. It may bring some easing effects on patients with extensive list of diseases, medical conditions or symptoms, but scientific evidence is absent. However, it would be extremely unlikely that a responsible physician would prescribe a joint of marijuana to treat depression. The instant danger is that sick people will use marijuana in lieu of authentic medicine; the symptoms will be camouflaged by the psychoactive effects of the drug causing the patient to return to legitimate treatment whilst the time period for treatment has really elapsed. Thirdly, marijuana use has many severe health effects as detailed in the subseque nt paragraphs (McCollum 127). Scientists have confirmed that smoked marijuana, damages the lungs, heart, brain, and immune system. It impairs learning and impedes with judgment, memory and perception. Research has been accumulating lately indicating clearly that marijuana limits the capacity to absorb and preserve information. A 1995 study of college students ascertained that the inability of heavy marijuana limits users to focus, prolong attention, and systematize data for as long as twenty four hours after their last utilization of the drug. Earlier research that compared cognitive capability of adult marijana users with non-using adults, found that marijuana users fall short on memory as well as mathematics and oral skills. Although it has yet to be confirmed conclusively, that heavy marijuana use can cause permanent loss of intellectual capacity, animal studies have confirmed that marijuana damages portions of the brain vital to learning and memory. Mental disorders associated with marijuana use has been recorded in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV and issued by the American Psychiatric Association. These include Cannabis Intoxication Delirium, Cannabis Intoxication, Cannabis Induced Psychotic Disorder, and Cannabis Induced Anxiety Disorder (Golden, Peterson and Haley 63). Marijuana is a hazardous mind-altering drug and is the cause of many mental disorders, including panic attacks, delusions, acute toxic psychosis, flashbacks, depression, depersonalization, uncontrollable aggressiveness, hallucinations, and paranoia. Moreover, for a long time marijuana has been well-known to trigger attacks of mental illness for instance, schizophrenia and bipolar psychosis. In the short term, use of marijuana weakens thinking, perception, learning, memory and judgment. Many physicians have opposed medicinal marijuana since it would increase users and lead to subsequent increases in addiction (McCollum 126). Moreover, smoked marijuana contains cancer-causing compounds and has been involved in a high percentage of crashes and workplace accidents, since, its consequence on coordination, perception, and judgment means that it consequences result to a number of accidents. Marijuana is also associated with gateway behavior leading to more extensive drug use. Currently, there are no controlled studies of marijuana in the AIDS-wasting disease, nor have there been any logical studies of the effects of smoked marijuana on immunological condition in HIV patients. Smoking marijuana has also been correlated with other medical problems. Rapidly accumulating new research has revealed that babies born to women who smoked marijuana during pregnancy have a heightened prevalence of leukemia, low birth weight and other newborn defects. Furthermore, smoking marijuana may compromise ones immunity. In patients with AIDS, marijuana use has been a contributing factor on the heightened growth of both fungal and bacterial pneumonias. Moreover, among HIV positive individuals, marijuana use has been revealed to be a causal factor for the rapid shift from HIV infection to AIDS and the acquirement of opportunistic infections or Kaposis sarcoma, or both (Jamerson 59). Additionally, chronic marijuana smokers are susceptible to contracting bronchial asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, chest and colds. Persistent usage damages the lungs and airways and increases the risk of cancer. There is a high rate of exposure to cancer-causing chemicals from smoking a single marijuana joint to ssmoking five tobacco cigarettes. Moreover, there is proof that marijuana may restrict the ability of the immune system to fight disease and infection. Marijuana also affects hormone since regular use can delay the onset of puberty in young men and lessen sperm production. For women, regular use may interrupt normal monthly menstrual cycles and reduce ovulation. When pregnant women use marijuana, they run the possibility of having smaller babies with lesser birth weights and a high possibility to contract health problems (McCollum 127). The legalization of medical marijuana has been the desire of many citizens in United States for a long time. Supporters and scientists of this view claim that for many critically sick people, medicinal marijuana is the only remedy that relieves their pain and suffering, or treats symptoms of their medical situation, without debilitating side effects. Moreover they argue that marijuana should be relied on since it is valuable and scientifically attested. Supporters also claim that marijuana may be effective in the treatment of pain, nausea resulted consequence of chemotherapy, and weight loss related with AIDS and cancer. They also maintain that marijuana-derived chemicals may improve sleeping problems, MS-related pain, bladder problems and mobility difficulties. Doctors also recommend medical marijuana for easing pain and improving the quality of life for patients who are terminally ill. They also recommend it for other diseases such as multiple sclerosis, insomnia, ADHD, inflammation, epilepsy, glaucoma, chronic pain, migraines, loss of appetite, anxiety, arthritis and Crohn's disease. Opponents of marijuana put forward these ideas because they believe that marijuana is the safest drug with real benefits for the user as compared to alcohol which is unsafe and causes birth defects, addictions, and involves factually every organ in the body (Jamerson 59). However, after hundreds of reports, experiments and studies, there is still no consensus about its medicinal effect. Even though various findings hold that marijuana holds medical value in the treatment of various diseases, it is still illegal for doctors in U.S. to prescribe their patients with marijuana. There is still little evidence that marijuana has medical efficacy. The medical use of marijuana should be supported by scientific evidence rather than ideology. Hence, science and medicine should conclude the question of whether marijuana has any legitimate medical use (McCollum 126). In Conclusion, there are valid reasons why marijuana should not be a medical option. Americans have the right to disagree on the legalization of medicinal marijuana, since it is not safe for medical use. The risks to individuals and the costs to society associated with medicinal marijuana are substantially high. Hence, making an exception for marijuana would create a dangerous precedent in our country at large (McCollum 129). Buy custom Medicinal Marijuana essay

Strategy Plan for American Airlines Co Research Paper

Strategy Plan for American Airlines Co - Research Paper Example The company’s top priority is to meet or exceed the needs and expectations of their customers by giving them the best travel experience upon boarding, on-board, and upon arrival. This could be done through route network optimization, competitive pricing, cost structuring, safety and security, and many more. The main trust of this paper is to provide a strategy plan for American Airlines Inc. This plan would incorporate competitive strategy that would help the company become the market share leader and largest air carrier in the world. 2. American Airlines, Inc. A. Business Overview i. Company history. American Airways was founded last 1930 through the consolidation of 85 subsidiaries airlines of The Aviation Corporation. American Airways was renamed to its current American Airlines Inc. under the appointment of the new CEO, C.R. Smith; the airline is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. For several years, AA had managed to introduce improvements in terms of technology, fliers p rogram, quality service, etc. making AA the largest in passenger miles and passenger fleet size. AA had maintained its strong presence particularly in the U.S. domestic market, and in 2009, â€Å"about 38.85 of Americans flying were international- Latin America and Caribbean, 18.7%; Europe, 15.6%; and Pacific, 4.5%† (â€Å"AMR Corporation,† 2010). Since then, AA had been successful and considered to be one of the biggest global airlines that served one-third of the U.S. population (85.7million) and more than 300,000 tons of cargo in a year. On a daily basis, the carrier transported an approximately 275,000 passengers between nearly 250 cities in over 40 countries with average daily flights of 3,400. ii. Worldwide operator. AA is one of the largest operators worldwide with a total of 623 active aircrafts as of 2010 and the largest number of international destinations. The carrier has scheduled domestic flights throughout North America, South America, Central America, an d other extensive international network in East and South Asia, and Europe. It has been more successful and gain competitive advancement after combining network fleet with AmericanConnection and American Eagle as its regional affiliates. B. Organizational Structure i. 655 Aircrafts/ 260 Destinations/ Dallas Hub AA is wholly owned subsidiary of AMR Corporation which is a publicly-traded company. The accountability and responsibility structure of AA is often disseminated in the organization through the board of directors and a chief executive officer. A large commercial airline like AA has hundreds of smaller stations to points all over the world, and hub airports that include: Chicago, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport - the largest hub. To send passengers to these hubs, AA employed various aircrafts such as Boeing, and ATR, ERJ, Bombardier for American Eagle. Currently, AA has 623 aircrafts with more than 621 fleet size and 250 destinations ac ross 40 countries around the world. C. Business Segments i. Domestic (U.S.). The U.S. domestic market is dominated by AA with a market share of 13.7%. The regional carriers of AA, American Eagle and AmericanConnection served as an advantage to the company as the affiliation acquired 7.5% of the total domestic market (Vasigh, Fleming, & Tacker, 2008, p. 14).

Discussion 9 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Discussion 9 - Essay Example Aside from time, I think that the type of problem being addressed by the decision-making process is also determinative. When the problem addressed is broad and involves several units in the organizational structure, or when the problem involves profound policy formulation and implementation that will be applied in the long term, then decision-making is preferable. The resultant decision shall be implemented by a large part of the organization, therefore: (1) the feedback concerning possible repercussions in their respective areas must be considered; and (2) their cooperation must be engendered to make the long-term adjustments among and between the units successful. An example of this is the merging of a new acquisition into the existing structure of the surviving organization. On the other hand, if the decision is constrained by the circumstances such that negotiations among the units cannot be accommodated, or if the problem addressed is localized or requires moderate adjustments, then command decisions are best. An example is the order by the parent firm for a subsidiary to implement a global marketing strategy. Reference: Mezey, G (2004) Crisis management decision making. Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences (AARMS), 3(2): 267-288 2. Consider your work environment and responsibilities.   How do you avoid the problem of "bounded awareness" in the decisions you make at work? Bounded awareness is defined by Chugh and Bazerman (2004) as ‘an individual’s failure to â€Å"see† and use accessible and perceivable information while â€Å"seeing† and using other equally accessible and perceivable information’ (p. 2). Some people would call this ‘tunnel vision’ in the figurative sense, in so far as the person focuses on certain details or elements to the exclusion of other equally important, or even more important aspects. A person may be predisposed to looking only at select details for many r easons, such as a mental fixation or mindset, prejudicial presumptions, or lack of education or training in recognizing or appreciating what is important in a certain situation. In my own work environment, there is a tendency for medical representatives like myself to be fixated on our own particular product line-up, regular clientele, or the service area we are assigned to that we do not see how a specific decision or regulation could affect other product offerings, other clients, and other service areas. A new supervisor promoted from one of the subordinate units is often seen to exhibit a keen understanding of the circumstances of the unit he/she came from but a lack of understanding concerning other units now under his leadership. The best way one may avoid bounded awareness is of course forming a decision or advisory team to discuss and analyze the various facets of a problem and arrive at alternative recommendations before the final decision is made. There are many considerati ons that may not be apparent to an individual decision-maker because his attention is circumscribed by the aspects of management he/she is experienced in. In due time and with practice, bounded awareness may be addressed by developing a wider perspective of the

Career Exploration Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Career Exploration Project - Essay Example In this light, the purpose of this report is to take up informational interview with two key employees of Hilton Group to explore the dynamics that are required for survival in hospitality sector. Mr. Walter Jones works as a supervisor for the hotel for three departments mainly front-desk manager, food and beverage and customer complaint and the Mr. Alex Jordan works in developing the customer relationships. This research is a primary one that will be further used for my own personal development in the professional environment. The interviews have occurred over telephone. I had to obtain the permission of the respondents before conducting the interview and this was done by e-mailing them in advance. The timing of the phone call was discussed over e-mails with the consent of the respondents. The findings from the interview are presented below. Mr. Walter Jones has worked with the Hilton Group for the past six years and he acts as a supervisor of three key areas namely front office, food and beverages delivery and resolution of customer complaints. Three most important skills have come up in the conversation with Mr. Walter Jones, namely, communication, problem solving and self-management skills. He explained that most importantly it is mandatory to manage one-self before managing others. He said that resolution of customer complaints requires having excellent communication skills. These finding is consistent with the findings of Mallinson and Weiler (2000 cited in Barron 78) who had also found that communication is most important requirement of supervisors. Problem-solving has also featured in their works. Mr. Whitman has also added that the organization has also been trying to improve its customer service experience for which it has encouraged every employee to take up computer learning skills. Mr. Whitman informed that he has recently learned internal computer software that makes his job easier. The

Needs Assessment for Cervical Cancer Screening

Needs Assessment for Cervical Cancer Screening References Bailie,R.S., McDonald,E.L., Stevens,M., Guthridge,S., Brewster,D.R. (2010). Evaluation of an Australian indigenous housing programme: community level impact on crowding, infrastructure function and hygiene. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. doi:10.1136/jech.2009.091637 Bunchs theory Google Search. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Bunch%27s+theoryhl=engws_rd=ssl#hl=enq=theorist+Bunchs+theory+community+self+control+modelnirf=theories+Bunchs+theory+community+self+control+model Department of Health. (2014). Cervical cancer screening (may 20). Retrieved from http://www.health.vic.gov.au Marmot,M.G., Wilkinson,R.G. (2006). Social determinants of health (2nded.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mikhailovich K, Morrison P, Arabena K. (2007). Evaluating Australian Indigenous community health promotion initiatives: :. a selective review. Rural and Remote Health, 746(7). Retrieved from http://www.rrh.org.au Pap tests, Pap smears, HPV, cervical cancer PapScreen Victoria. (2014, August). Retrieved from http://www.papscreen.org.au Prochaska and DiClemente. (1983). Transtheoretical Model of Change, a theoretical model of behavior change. Stages of Change Model/Transtheoretical Model (TTM). Retrieved from currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/transtheoretical_model.html Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. (n.d.). Women?s Cervical Screening Strategy 2006 2010 by Sandy Angus. Round,R. (2005). Planning for effective health promotion evaluation. Dept of Human Services, Deakin University. The Social Identity Approach in Social Psychology. (n.d.). Bunchs theory Google Search. Retrieved from https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Bunchs+theoryhl=engws_rd=ssl#hl=enq=theorist+Bunchs+theory+community+self+control+modelnirf=theories+Bunchs+theory+community+self+control+model 1

Accounting Cash Flows Essay

Question 2.2 – Accounting and Cash Flows: Why is it that the revenue and cost figures shown on a standard income statement may not be representative of the actual cash inflows and outflows that occurred during a period?  Financial Statements are prepared according to accrual rule of , according to which cost and revenue are recorded as they occur and not when they are actually received or paid. This is why cash flows during the year may be different from revenue and costs in income statements. Different companies use different policies to pay the costs and collect revenues in current and subsequent years. In other words, the income statement assumes that once a good is sold, it is also paid for at that exact same time. Typically collection of revenue does not happen at the same time of delivery. See more: Examples of satire in adventures of huckfinn essay As I reflect on managerial accounting, I recall that some companies only collect twenty-five percent the same month of the sale. Then, they collect the other fifty percent the month after and the final twenty-five percent two months after the sale. Question 2. 3 – Book Values versus Market Values: In preparing a balance sheet, why do you think standard accounting practice focuses on historical cost rather than market value? When comparing book value to market value it is simply what the firm paid for the item versus what the firm could sell the items on the market. Book values are used because they have a historical perspective associated with them. I understand from my readings that the book values are the â€Å"minimum† or worst case scenarios of what these items are worth. Question 2. 4 – Operating Cash Flow: In comparing accounting net income and operation cash flow, what two items do you find in net income that are not in operating cash flow? Explain what each is and why it is excluded in operating cash flow. Operating cash flow is revenues minus the costs, except for depreciation and financing interest, because neither of these is paid in cash. Cash flows are important because the cash flow reflects, basically, whether a company’s outflows of cash can meet their inflows of cash. Net income does include financing interest and depreciation, because all liabilities need to be accounted for. Question 3. 4 – Financial Ratios: Fully explain the kind of information the following financial ratios provide about the firm. Many companies use financial ratios to avoid problems with comparing companies of different sizes. A â€Å"quick ratio† is also known as â€Å"acid-test† and is an indicator of a company’s short-term liquidity. Furthermore, the quick ratio measures a company’s ability to meet its short-term obligations with its most liquid assets. The higher the quick ratio’s the better the position of the company. A quick ratio is calculated as follows: Quick Ratio = Current Assets – Inventory – Inventories / Current Liabilities As notes in our text, the using cash to buy inventory does not affect the current ratio, but it reduces the quick ratio. The idea is that inventory is relatively illiquid compared to cash. (Ross, Westerfield, Jordan, p. 57) A â€Å"cash ratio† equals cash divided by current liabilities. The ratio of a company’s total cash and cash equals it’s current liabilities. The cash ratio is most commonly used as a measure of company liquidity. It can determine if, and/or how quickly the company can repay its short-term debt. A strong cash ratio is useful to creditors when deciding how much debt, if any, they would be willing to extend to the asking party. (Investopedia. om) Furthermore, the cash ratio is generally a more conservative look at a company’s ability to cover its liabilities than many other liquidity ratios. Mainly, due to the fact that inventory and accounts receivable are left out of the equation. Since these two accounts are a large part of many companies, this ratio should not be used in determining company value, but simply as one factor in determining liquidity. Final ly, the â€Å"capital intensity ratio† is a ratio measures the ability of a company to effectively use its assets. Simply put, capital intensity shows how much of an investment in fixed assets was required during a given period to produce $1 of sales revenue. The actual ratio formula to measure capital intensity is total assets divided by sales revenue for a specified period. One of the major problems with ratios is that different organizations and different sources often don’t compute them exactly the same way, which lead to confusion and false results. The definitions are vague and when comparing to other’s equations, you may find significant results depending on the way they are computed. Accounting: Cash Flows Essay John Stacey, a sales engineer for Aldhus Corporation, was worried. A flight delay had caused him to miss last week’s accounting class in the evening MBA program in which he had enrolled at the suggestion of the personnel director at Aldhus, a growing manufacturer of computer peripherals. The class he had missed had been devoted to a lecture and discussion of the statement of cash flows, and he was sure the material he had missed would be covered in the weekly quiz that was part of each class session. A classmate had faxed Stacey some notes distributed by their instructor, but they were too cryptic to be understood by anyone who had missed the class. In desperation, John called Lucille Barnes, the assistant controller at Aldhus, to ask if she could take a few minutes to point him in the right direction toward understanding the statement of cash flows. She seemed delighted by the request, and they agreed to meet that afternoon. op The Meeting At 2:00 P. M. John Stacey went to the office of Lucille Barnes with his notes and questions. After they had exchanged greetings, Lucille handed John three cash flow statements from the annual reports of other high-technology companies (Exhibits 1, 2, and 3). John was worried that Lucille would ask him to explain them, and that she would see how confused he still was about some aspects of accounting; instead, Lucille began explaining. Lucille Barnes (Assistant Controller): The statement of cash flows is really a very useful part of the set of three statements companies are required to prepare. In some cases, it tells more about what is actually happening in a business than either the balance sheet or income statement. The statements of cash flows that I have given you are very revealing. Let me give you a brief overview of the structure and content of cash flow statements, and then you take some time to study these statements. I have prepared some questions to guide your study. Then, we can meet again tomorrow to discuss what you have learned and to answer any questions that remain. I do not think you have to worry about your next quiz because if you understand how balance sheets and income statements are prepared, much about the statement of cash flows will seem pretty obvious. John Stacey: I hope you are right. I really like the accounting course, and I want to do well in it and to really learn the material. That’s why I panicked when I could not understand the notes our instructor passed out last week. Professors Julie H. Hertenstein and William J. Bruns prepared this case as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  © 1993 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. hbsp. harvard. edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Permissions@hbsp. harvard. edu or 617-783-7860. Statements of Cash Flows: Three Examples Lucille Barnes: Forget those notes for a while and just concentrate on studying the statements I have given you. Notice that the statement of cash flows is divided into three sections: operating activities, investing activities, and financing activities. Each section shows the cash inflows and the cash outflows associated with that type of activity. Operating activities shows the inflows and outflows related to the fundamental operations of the basic line or lines of business that the company is in. For example, it would include cash receipts from the sale of goods or services and the cash outflows for purchasing inventory, and paying wages, taxes and rent. Investing activities shows cash flows for the purchase and sale of assets not generally held for resale and for the making and collecting of loans. (Maybe it should more appropriately be called the investing and disinvesting activities section. ) Here is where you would see if the company sold a building, purchased equipment, made a loan to a subsidiary, or purchased a piece of equity in its supplier. Finally, financing activities shows the cash flows associated with increasing or decreasing the firm’s financing, for example, issuing or repurchasing stock and borrowing or repaying loans. It also includes dividends, which are cash flows associated with equity. However, ironically, it does not include interest payments; these are included in operating activities. John Stacey: That seems strange to me. Since loans are the reason interest payments are made, why are they not included in the financing activities section? You know, interest is to loans as dividends are to equity? Lucille Barnes: Actually in some other countries such as the United Kingdom interest is included in the financing activities section! But in the United States the Financial Accounting Standards Board voted that interest payments should be in the operating activities section instead. This is one of these situations where you might have to do some adjusting if you were trying to compare a U. K. company like British Petroleum to a U. S. company like Exxon. John Stacey: That is interesting! How can I use each section of the statement? Lucille Barnes: The operating activity section is the cash-flow engine of the company. When this engine is working effectively, it provides the cash flows to cover the cash needs of operations. In a healthy, growing company, we would expect growth in operating working capital accounts such as inventory and accounts receivable (uses of cash) as well as in accounts payable and other operating payables (sources of cash). Obviously there can be quite a bit of variability in working capital accounts from period to period, but on average inventories, receivables, and accounts payable usually grow in growing companies. In addition, this operating cash-flow engine provides cash for needed investments, to repay debt, and to pay dividends. There are exceptions, of course. Start-up companies, for example, usually have negative cash flows from operations because they have not gotten their cash-flow engines up to speed. Companies in cyclical industries may have negative operating cash flow in a â€Å"down† year; a company that has experienced an extensive strike could also be expected to have negative cash flow from operations. Although an occasional year of negative operating cash flow does not spell disaster, nonetheless, we should expect operating cash flow, on average, to be positive. Investing activities are a different story. Whereas we expect positive operating cash flow, we also expect a healthy company to continually invest in more plant, equipment, land, and other fixed assets to replace the assets that have been used up or have become technologically obsolete, as well as to expand and grow. Although companies often sell assets that are no longer of use to them, we would normally expect them to purchase more capital assets than they sell. As a result, in general, we expect negative cash flows from investing activities. Like operating activities, exceptions occur, especially if the firm divests a business or subsidiary. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Permissions@hbsp. harvard. edu or 617-783-7860. Statements of Cash Flows: Three Examples Cash flows from financing activities could as easily be positive as negative in a healthy company, and they are likely to change back and forth. If the company’s need for cash to invest exceeds the cash flow generated by operating activities, this will require extra financing by debt or equity, therefore a positive financing cash flow. On the other hand, if cash flow from operating activities exceeds the investing needs, the firm will have excess cash to repay debt or pay more dividends, producing negative cash flows from financing.

Could broadband be the benchmark for globalization’s progress and adoption?

Though there have been considerable advances in the field of internet technology, not all problems are addressed to reach globalization’s progress and adoption. This is in contrast to the steady and rapid advances in semiconductor technology, information storage, networking, and applications, the interaction of IT with various elements of society is more complex. Although IT performance in many cases improves exponentially, the utility to users in many cases improves more slowly (Chandra et al. 2000).For example, a doubling of computer processing speeds may bring only small improvements in the most widely used applications, such as word processing or spreadsheets. Furthermore, although it is common to talk about the â€Å"impact† or â€Å"effect† of IT or the Internet—implying a one-way influence—the interaction of IT with society is multidirectional and multidimensional. Over the past two decades, many studies have explored how organizations use IT . Cumulatively, these studies have found that a simple model of IT leading to social and organizational effects does not hold (Kling 2000).Instead, IT is developed and used in a social context in which organizations and individuals shape the technology and the way it is used. The implementation of IT is an ongoing social process that involves changes in people's roles and in organizational procedures. Incentives and trust are important factors in the success of IT implementation. And broadband proliferation is an important ingredient of globalization. The public debate in this country on the War in Iraq has been the most hotly contested issue in recent history and shows no sign of letting up.Through all the policy proposals, failures and triumphs many positive viewpoints have emerged about how to address the most distressing issues related to United State's new found global role: exporter of security. Dr. Barnett believes this is positive trend overall: â€Å"That is why the public debate about this war has been so important: It forces Americans to come to terms with what I believe is the new security paradigm that shapes this age, namely, Disconnectedness defines danger. † I think that last statement is an apt template for understanding the daunting task facing the broadband era: the age of transactional transformation.It is in the disconnectedness that defines the danger for our productiveness and growth, and hence our economy as a whole. The disconnectedness from novel approaches, the disconnectedness from relevant value models, disconnectedness from persistent progression to universal broadband access. Perhaps there is a need to view broadband technology adoption as a historical process in the same vain as globalization. Unfortunately, for many, this leads to a nasty polemic on it's relative merits. Barnett has this to say on this issue: The problem with most discussion of globalization is that too many experts treat it as a binaryoutcome: Either it is great and sweeping the planet, or it is horrid and failing humanity everywhere. Neither view really works, because globalization as a historical process is simply too big and too complex for such summary judgments. Instead, this new world must be defined by where globalization has truly taken root and where it has not. Barnett goes on to say: Show me where globalization is thick with network connectivity, financial transactions, liberal media flows, and collective security, and I will show you regions featuring stable governments, rising standards of living, and more deaths by suicide than murder.These parts of the world I call the Functioning Core, or Core. But show me where globalization is thinning or just plain absent, and I will show you regions plagued by politically repressive regimes, widespread poverty and disease, routine mass murder, and most important the chronic conflicts that incubate the next generation of global terrorists. These parts of the world I call the Non -Integrating Gap, or Gap. Could broadband be the benchmark for globalization's progress and adoption? It can be, I believe the more the connectedness to the Functioning Core the greater the value rendered.Broadband access providers whether wireline or wireless will have to holistically reconsider the ramifications of globalization in this context. They can do much to advance it positively or hinder it destructively. The lessons for content providers may seem less obvious but in a globalize economy the more connectedness the richer the value doesn't always resolve neatly. Microsoft, Google, Cisco, Apple, Oracle, Yahoo, eBay and IBM to name a few, have all handle this transition quite nicely. And if supporting and expanding the core is what the new economy is all about then I can think of no better marker for globalization than broadband.This proposed study will try to find out if indeed broadband can be the benchmark for globalization’s progress and at the same time, will it b alance with societal impacts? Will the globalization’s progress and adoption will take into consideration the affect on the people as whole? REFERENCES CHANDRA, B. , DAHLIN, M. , GAO, L. , AND NAYATE, A. 2001. End-to-end WAN Service Availability. In Proc. 3rd USITS (San Francisco, CA, 2001), pp. 97–108. Kling, R. (2000). Learning about information technologies and social change: The contribution ofsocial informatics. The Information Society, 16(3), 217-232. Sawyer, S. and Rosenbaum, H. (2000). Social informatics in the information sciences: Current activities and emerging directions. [Electronic Version] Informing Science. 3 (2), 89-95 available Suchman, L. (1994). Supporting articulation work: Aspects of a feminist practice of office technology production. In R. Kling (Ed. ), Computerization and Controversy (pp. 407-423). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Williams, R. , & Edge, D. (1996). The social shaping of technology. Research Policy, 2

Religious Freedom essays

Religious Freedom essays Throughout the whole of American history, religion and government has been a very controversial topic. While religion seems to find its way into almost every aspect of our lives, there have been various legal battles over religious. First, let us define what religion is. The American Heritage Dictionary defines religion as, Belief in and reverence of a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe ... a personal or institutional system grounded in such belief and worship. (American Heritage Dictionary: 4th Edition). However, in his book, Michael Corbett defined religion as, ... an integrated system of beliefs, lifestyle, ritual activities, and institution by which people give meaning to (or to find meaning in) their lives by orienting themselves to what they take to be holy, sacred, or of ultimate value. (Corbett, 1999: 5). Problem arises when the line between government and religion is crossed. Members of our government in positions of authority decide everything in our lives in the form of laws, which determine our behavior. For example, the removal of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building in Montgomery on August 27th, 2003 (CNN News, 2003). Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore installed a Ten Commandment monument in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building in September 2001. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a similar case in Lincoln Nebraska and Philadelphia, PA opposed to this action. The ACLU stated that, ...Ten Commandments monument violated the principles of religious freedom. (ACLU Press Release: April 2003). Foundation of the American Government The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and the Government respects this right in practice. James Madison the guiding force behind the language of the Constitution, co-author of the ...

Santa claus essays

Santa claus essays How does Santa handle it all? The holidays are the busiest time of the year. From bright red garments, to the protruding yet offensive beer belly, Santa Claus is over 1,000 years of sheer anticipation and jubilation. From the time I was little, Ive heard wondrous takes of this kind soul who ventures from rooftop to rooftop delivering not just toys, but spirit, hope and happiness. These takes have inspired me to lead a life devoted to morality and virtue, giving Santa Claus an almost fictional holiness, that would lead to the most enjoyable and rewarding day spent with the original Santa Claus himself. In my life I have found it incredibly difficult to keep an ever-flowing stream of positive thoughts and feelings. Imagine being told that you had to work every day of the year, especially Christmas, and that the only reward you would get for this would be the enjoyment of the kids you deliver your product too. Add into this formula that you have to live in the coldest place in the world, and work with small yet chipper companions, always optimistic, divergent of human nature. This is the life of Santa Claus, yet he keeps up what I never could, an un-relentless optimistic and unparalleled generosity. I would like to know his secret behind his success. Was it Mrs. Claus? It makes you wonder doesnt it? A jolly man, like Claus, betrays an atmosphere during the holiday that unites love ones. Another curious topic of interest would be the discretion between naughty and nice children. Man has created its own set of wrongs and rights, and used these to control the population, as a guideline to keep order. It would be interesting to understand on what basis Santa Claus judges kids, whether he has some sort of divine justice written up, or he just chooses based on his own perspective whether a child is good or not. ...

Idols Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Idols - Assignment Example When we look at the sky, we see stars in a disorganized form and try to organize them in a pattern, into objects and forms. The second form, idols of the cave relate to distortions that apply to certain groups of people as opposed to others (Bacon, pg.45). For example, some people are more inclined to tradition and culture than others, while some people are inclined to new philosophies more than others. Thirdly, the idols of the market place are distortions arising from semantics or social activities. Bacon has noted that incorrect use of language and words has led to problems in comprehension and thus urges people to use words correctly and precisely. For instance, we are wrong to say, ‘the sun is up’ because the sun does not move. Rather, it is the earth that rotates. Lastly, he notes the idols of the theater which influence the mind into excesses of denial or dogmatism (Bacon, pg.56). An example of this is the various theologies, theories and philosophies that people come up with and interpret their world. Their thoughts, actions and views are interpreted based on this new philosophy and world view. He notes that people need to be aware of how the views distort their perceptions of world and seek to change

Concepts of Health Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Concepts of Health Behavior - Essay Example Views regarding the interaction between the two concepts come from all directions. Thus, the initial action of health professionals and authorities is to define and categorize the said relationship between health and behavior. There are important terms to define in the study of the relationship between health and behavior. The aspects to be defined to be able to achieve a deeper understanding of the relationship between health and behavior include behavior, health and risk factors. Behavior, also referred to as biobehavioral sciences can be defined as the aspect of the field of study related to the empirical data and analyses of animal and human behavior with the inclusion of the different types of sciences pertinent to the study such as neuroanatomy, neurology, neurochemistry, endocrinology, immunology, psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, ethnology, sociology, anthropology and new interdisciplinary fields such as behavioral genetics, psychoneuroimmunology, and behavioral medicine. Health is another aspect of the study which is defined as the state of wellness. In terms of the definition related to behavior, it is defined as the state of resistance or recovery from different types of issues that can affect the body such as disease, illness, and intervention.

Dunlap v. Tennessee Valley Authority Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dunlap v. Tennessee Valley Authority - Coursework Example This theory requires the plaintiff to prove that the employer is biased against a specific group. A prima facie case is established when: (1) the defendant identifies a specific employment practice to be challenged; and (2) through relevant statistical analysis proves that the challenged practice has an adverse impact on a protected group. Walsh, D. J. (2010, pg 210). Here Dunlap couldn’t present any evidence which connected his interview and the practices used during that interview with that of the other candidates that were part of the interview process. Thus there was no statistical proof to compare and contrast the rest of the interviews with his own in front of the court and show how TVA misused its authority and purposely rejected him. This lack of evidence meant that the court should not accept Dunlap’s appeal for disparate impact thus the claim failed. In the disparate treatment the plaintiff has to prove how the employer is biased against a selected group of in dividuals based on their cast, color, origin or religion. A clear case is established when: (1) The plaintiff must establish a prima facie case of racial discrimination; (2) the employer must articulate some legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its actions; and (3) the plaintiff must prove that the stated reason was in fact pretextual. (Walsh, D. J., 2010, pg 210). This law is clearly provided in the case and transcribed. The disparate treatment claim was however successful as Dunlap was able to provide a strong case of racial discrimination. The Tennessee Valley Authority needed to provide a valid reason to reject the plaintiff which it did by providing the selection matrix used during Dunlap’s interview. Here Dunlap was able to rebut the selection matrix and showed how the selection committee decided to distribute the marks for the final score. The committee agreed that seventy percent marks be kept for the interview while the other thirty percent be given for the educa tion, training and experience. This distribution did not correspond with the company’s policies which clearly stated that the burden of the final score be based on technical experience, education and training. Thus the selection committee violated the policies without informing any of the candidates and changed the calculation of the final score from an objective measurement (favors education and training) towards a subjective measurement (favors communication skills). Dunlap’s claim was a success as he successfully proved the pretextual nature of TVA’s stated reason. He showed how they manipulated the selection matrix to reduce his score in comparison to the other applicants so that he does not make the top ten. Dunlap narrated examples which showed how the selection committee had a biased approach. He stated that his attendance record was excellent with only a few leaves, quite similar to that of a couple of white applicants but the marks he and the other appl icants received varied significantly. Similarly on another occasion he had a better safety record than most, still he received lesser marks as compared to the white applicants. In addition to this the court was able to find a connection in the â€Å"score balancing† process and how the number of â€Å"outstanding† candidates exactly equaled the job vacancies. The scores were changed after the interviews thus

Data Protection Act 1998 Essay Example for Free

Data Protection Act 1998 Essay The data protection Act 1998 came into force in 2000 and aims to protect an individual’s right to privacy in relation to their personal data. This includes things like the person’s medical information, information about their current employees, their address, pay, bank detail etc. Santander has to make sure the information of their employees is kept secret and no one can access it. Businesses like Santander need information about people to increase the chances of people joining them. They also need information about their customers e. g. their address, their home phone number, their occupation etc. so the information stored by business on database must be: Obtained fairly and lawfully Used for purposes stated during collection Adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the intended use Accurate and up to date Not kept for longer than necessary Processed in line with your rights Subject to procedures to prevent unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction and damage to personal data Protected from transfer to an area outside the European economic area (EEA) unless adequate protection exists for that data in the area. Santander needs to make sure they follow all these laws or they can get prosecuted and their organisation can be closed down by the government for breaking the law. Santander needs to make sure all their employees obey these laws because if they break them then they are breaking the law. In order to make sure the employees working at Santander don’t break the laws, Santander provide them the information about these laws when they join to work for Santander and keep them up-to-date as the laws change. Freedom of information Act 2000: The freedom of information Act 2000 is a really important law. It provides individuals and organisations with the right to request information held by a public authority. This law came into effect in 2005. The public authority must tell the person asking for the information so the organisation or an individual if they (public authority) have the information or not and if they have the information then they must supply the information within 20  working days, in the requested format. Public authorities are the national, state or local government agency. The freedom of information Act 2000 does have exemptions to it for example if the cost of a request for information exceeds an appropriate limit, the public authority may decide whether a greater public interest is being served by denying the request or supplying the information. This law effect Santander because it can be used Santander to find important information about people, different trends etc. to increase the chances of peop le joining them. For example Santander can demand information about the statistics about people from public authority in order to help them sell their products. This law doesn’t affect the employees of Santander to much. This law doesn’t cause any conflict within the organisation so Santander doesn’t have to address it to much. Freedom of information Act 2000 can help Santander to persuade people to sell their items or what items to sell because they can get information about different trends or other statistics from the public authority which can show them what majority of people are like and what product they buy etc. For example the statistics about people who get life insurance after the age of 50 can help Santander sell life insurances because they will know what age group buy the most life insurance so they can target that age group and try to persuade them to join Santander. This is an important law which Santander can benefit from in order to progress faster as a company and make more profit. It doesn’t affect the customers or employees to much although in a way it does affect the employees, if Santander make more profit then they expected then they might give their employees higher bonuses. Computer Misuse Act 2000: This is a really important law because it prevents a lot of important things. The computer misuse act 1990 is a law in the UK that legislates against certain activities using computer for example hacking into other people’s account/system or misusing software’s to gain protected files. This means if someone tries to take another person’s personal file or hacks into their computer then they are breaking the law and can be prosecuted and jailed. The computer misuse Act is split into 3 different sections and these are: Unauthorised access to computer material. Unauthorised access to computer systems with intent to commit another offence. Unauthorised modification of computer material.  This is one of the most important laws for Santander to keep in mind because Santander has a lot of employees and this law applies to all of them. None of the employees can use another person’s information for their benefit or even look at it without a reason. If they do then they are breaking the law and will be sacked and reported to the police. In order to deterrent employees from looking at peoples information for their benefit, Santander sack anyone caught of committing this crime. It is really easy for people to commit frauds if they have other people’s personal information so this is another reason Santander has to make sure they handle people information carefully and they don’t send people’s personal information to other agencies and companies. If they do send their customer’s information to third parties without the customer’s permission then the customers can sue Santander. Santander has to make sure none of their employees commit any crime especially in regards to this law because it can lead to frauds being committed against their customer. Santander needs to make sure they take serious actions against anyone who breaks this law in order to deterrent people from doing it. This law protects the customers of Santander as well as the employees so it’s important. Health and Safety (display Screen equipment) Regulations 1992: This law is really important because it includes everyone associated with doing work on computers or other display screen equipment in Santander. Santander has a lot of people working on computers so this rule covers a lot of employees of Santander. This rule applies to employees who are a user of displace screen equipment, their work station have to be assessed with regard to the health and safety of the user. â€Å"The minimum requirements of the work station (i.e. display equipment, keyboard, software, accessories, disc drive, telephone, modem, printer, document holder, work chair, work surface or desk, etc. when provided are laid down in the Schedule. The scheduling of the work of a user shall be such that the work on the display screen equipment is periodically interrupted by breaks or changes of activity. Before a person is employed as a user that person has a right to have an appropriate eye and eyesight test carried out by a competent person. Such tests shall be available to users at regular intervals. Where normal corrective appliances cannot be  used when the operator is experiencing visual difficulties which reasonably may be considered to be caused by work on display screen equipment, the employer shall ensure special corrective appliances are provided.iâ€Å" When Santander recruits someone for a role which has the use of computers, they (Santander) should give them training regarding the appropriate health and safety to make sure they are safe whilst they do their job. In this rules a few things are covered such as: Equipment. Environment the person has to work. User/computer interface. Santander has to provide training for people who aren’t sure about how to operate stuff that includes display screens such as computer. This can be a expensive process for Santander because training sessions are expensive. On the other hand Santander can recruit people who are familiar with these regulation and rules in order to cut the costs of training them although it will be harder to find people like these because most of them have jobs. The more trained and experience Santander’s employees are, the faster the organisation will progress and the more profit they will make this is because if people know what they need to do then they will do it faster than people who struggle to do their role and need time to adjust or find the role hard. These laws mostly apply to employees in Santander so it is quite important for Santander to keep this law in mind and obey it. They need to make sure their employees are given proper health and safety guidance before they start and in addition Santander should regularly make their employees go to optician to get their eye sight checked. Santander have training sessions for people who aren’t familiar with these health and safety rules in order to make sure they don’t harm themselves while working.

The Handmaids Tale: Oppression of Women for Male Political Gain Essay

The Handmaids Tale is a poetic tale of a woman's survival as a Handmaid in the male dominated Republic of Gilead. Offred portrayed the struggle living as a Handmaid, essentially becoming a walking womb and a slave to mankind. Women throughout Gilead are oppressed because they are seen as "potentially threatening and subversive and therefore require strict control" (Callaway 48). The fear of women rebelling and taking control of society is stopped through acts such as the caste system, the ceremony and the creation of the Handmaids. The Republic of Gilead is surrounded with people being oppressed. In order for the Republic to continue running the way it is, a sense of control needs to be felt by the government. Without control Gilead will collapse. The Republic of Gilead is a futuristic world where its citizens are controlled through a group of classes known as the caste system. Allana A. Callaway describes this government creation as a "superficially designed [way] to simplify the lives of citizens by dividing them into classes with clearly delineated standards" (Callaway 49). Each citizen in Gilead is controlled in some way by the caste. The Handmaids are controlled by their large red dresses and eye blinders on their hat. The Daughters wear white to show their purity, the Wives by their home restrictions. The Commanders are controlled by their obligations. Every person working, and living in Gilead has some sort of restriction placed on them. Offred is a Handmaid, who is thought of as the most and least important people in the caste system; "they rank among the most powerful female agents of the patriarchal order." (Callaway 50). The Handmaids have one thing that all the women in Gilead want – fertility. Their fertility ma... ...ssed by receiving less salary for more work. Women are seen as sexual trophies, things to look at. Men are seen as dominant, the bread winner and macho. Men and women are seen as sex symbols, and treated as such. If Americans do not begin to cooperate, life could end up much like the one described in The Handmaid’s Tale; a Republic that takes basic rights away from human beings. A country where the only way to gain basic human cooperation is abandoned and genders are oppressed to make the other more powerful. Works Cited Atwwod, M. (1986). The Handmaid's Tale. New York: Anchor Books. Callaway, Alanna A., "Women disunited : Margaret Atwood's The handmaid's tale as a critique of feminism" (2008). Master's Theses. Paper 3505. http://shcolarworks.sjsu.edu/etd_theses/3505 Version, H. B. (1984). Keith (Ed) Danby. New York: International Bible Society.

Plato and Aristotle: a Comparison

Plato and Aristotle are two of the earliest known thinkers in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Although Aristotle was a student of Plato, the two had some very contrasting ideas.MetaphysicsPlato and Aristotle believed in the concept of forms, although they had different definitions of the concept. Plato's take on metaphysics can be labeled as dualism. Plato developed his ideas a priori; he formulated his own explanations of an ideal reality and applied them to the observable world.Reality had two levels for Plato: the level of the observable objects, and the level of forms (the ideal). The observable aspect of the world are but imperfect copies of the forms, and observable objects are impermanent, as opposed to forms, which are eternal. Plato's forms can be understood as blueprints that existed outside of the observable, and on which everything observable depends; thus these forms are more â€Å"real† than the observable. Plato uses analogies for this explanation; in his allegory of the cave, for example, lifetime immobile prisoners see only shadows on a cave wall and think that the shadows are the ultimate reality.Although it cannot be disputed that the shadows are â€Å"real,† it is the objects that are casting the shadows that are, in a sense, the true reality. Aside from the well-known allegory of the cave, Plato used a number of other metaphors to explain his metaphysical views, such as the metaphor of the sun, and the divided line.  Conversely, Aristotle developed his ideas a posteriori—by directly observing the world and then deriving â€Å"formulas† for this observable reality. His primary concern in this area was causality. Aristotle believed in only one level of reality, and he believed that form had no existence outside of physical, observable reality.Aristotle's concern on the relationship of form and matter led to his concepts of causality. He believed that there are four very basic causes that can be applied to anything: the Material cause, or, in Aristtle's words, â€Å"that out of which a thing comes to be, and which persists,† the formal cause, â€Å"the statement of essence† (which states that anything is determined by the definition or archetype), the Efficient cause,   (the primary source of change), and the Final cause, (the end, or the intent of an action).EpistemologyPlato's epistemology holds that all knowledge is innate, which means the process of learning is actually just a recollection of knowledge buried deep in the soul; Plato believed that before birth the soul had a perfect knowledge of everything. This is the basic precept of Plato's Theory of Ideas.  According to Plato, ideas are permanent and absolute. In Plato's view all human actions can be judged through the standard of these concrete and absolute ideas, but Aristotle refutes Plato's theory on the grounds that Plato's arguments are inconclusive—stating that Plato's arguments are not convincin g or lead to contradictory conclusions.Aristotle refutes Plato's claim that Ideas are absolute, perfect entities outside of human experience, but argues that, on the contrary, ideas exist in the mind alone and are simply duplicates or interpretations of things that are experienced. Aristotle claims that all standards are based on things that are first experienced.  Aristotle agreed with Plato's notion that the immaterial (form) and the material (matter) were distinctly separate entities; however, he states that forms (or ideas) exist in the mind and are dependent on the observer, and argues that Plato's theory of ideas goes by the incorrect premise of absolute universal definitions for material, observable things.EthicsPlato's ethics states that â€Å"good† is born of knowledge and â€Å"evil† is born of ignorance (lack of knowledge). Hence Plato argues that the path to a good life is purely intellectual.Plato's   absolutism dictates that there is only one right co urse of action, one that is true in every case and exists independent of human opinion or interpretation.  On the other hand Aristotle adopted a scientific, empirical approach to ethical problems. He believed that in order for human actions to be judged as moral or immoral, they must have a certain degree of health and wealth. Aristotle believed that ethical knowledge is not certain knowledge, like metaphysics and epistemology, but general knowledge.Also, Aristotle argued that the achievement of â€Å"good† must be a practical discipline, as opposed to Plato's heavily theoretical approach. He claimed that to become good cannot be achieved simply by studying virtue, but that one must practice virtue in everyday life. He called the   ultimate goal of this discipline the â€Å"Highest Good.†Ã‚  Also, for Aristotle the achievement of happiness was by application of the â€Å"golden mean†, which just means moderation in everyday life. Aristotle argued that happin ess could not be found only in pleasure, or only in fame and honor. He claims that happiness can be achieved through knowledge of humanity's specific purpose; that is, according to him, â€Å"by ascertaining the specific function of man.†PoliticsIn his political theories, Plato focused on formulating the perfect society by finding ways to cure humanity of its social and personal failures. Plato, in Republic, described the ideal government as having a philosopher-king as its leader, a king with a completely just soul who would thus be able to run a completely just government. Plato also argued that since he can imagine such a leader, than such a leader can exist.  Plato's utopia consists of three non-hereditary classes: Guardians, Auxiliaries, and Workers. The guardians are wise and good rulers and high-level civil servants, the auxiliaries soldiers and lower civil servants, and the workers composed of unskilled laborers.Unlike Plato, Aristotle was not concerned with the per fection of society, but simply its improvement, within what he believed were a more realistic context. Aristotle agreed that Plato's government, with its philosopher-king, would be ideal, but did not believe that such a person could exist, and thus dismissed the possibility that such a government could exist, and considers other systems that he believed are more realistic.  Plato's belief in this philosopher-king reflects his theories of knowledge, which have the a priori approach to reality. On the other hand, Aristotle bases his beliefs on the observable. And claims that since he has never encountered such a completely just man, he must discount that possibility of his existence.Aristotle argues that dividing society into distinct classes excludes men with ambition and wisdom but are not in the right class to hold political power. Another argument against Plato's class system is that guardians will, by nature of their work, be deprived of happiness, and such guardians will natur ally assume that the same strict lifestyle be imposed on all of society. Aristotle valued moderation more, in contrast to Plato's utopia, which carried expectations to such extremes that it was no longer realistic to Aristotle.Aristotle derived a theory of Democracy, where he puts emphasis on the polis, or city-state, which allows political participation by the average citizen. He claimed that â€Å"the people at large should be sovereign rather than the few best.† However, this is contrary to Plato's beliefs, who argues that the public's decisions would be based on mere belief and not fact.  Essentially, we can describe Plato as having been in pursuit of a philosophical, idealized truth, whereas Aristotle was concerned with the more worldly and realistic   concerns of the citizen and the government. Although they had widely divergent views, they had essentially the same goal of a better society.References:Silverman, A. (2003). Plato's Middle Period Metaphysics and Episte mology. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2003 Edition). Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2003/entries/plato-metaphysics.Cohen, S. M. (2003). Aristotle's Metaphysics. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2003 Edition).Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2003/entries/aristotle-metaphysics.Frede, D. (2003). Plato's Ethics: An Overview. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2003 Edition). Retrieved February 24, 2006, from  Ã‚   http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2003/entries/plato-ethics.Kraut, R. (2005). Aristotle's Ethics. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2005 Edition). Rerieved February 24, 2006, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2005/entries/aristotle-ethics.Miller, F. (2002). Aristotle's Political Theory. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2002 Edition). Retrieved February 24, 2006, from   http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2002 /entries/aristotle-politics.Brown, E. (2003). Plato's Ethics and Politics in The Republic. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2003 Edition). Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2003/entries/plato-ethics-politics.Aristotle. (2006, February). Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle.Plato. (2006, February). Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato.Platonic Epistemology. (2006, February). Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved Ferruary 24, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_epistemology.Falcon, A. (2006). Aristotle on Causality. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2006 Edition). http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2006/entries/aristotle-causality.

Black House Chapter Twenty-three

23 â€Å"ONE MORE !† says the guy from ESPN. It sounds more like an order than a request, and although Henry can't see the fellow, he knows this particular homeboy never played a sport in his life, pro or otherwise. He has the lardy, slightly oily aroma of someone who has been overweight almost from the jump. Sports is perhaps his compensation, with the power to still memories of clothes bought in the Husky section at Sears and all those childhood rhymes like â€Å"Fatty-fatty, two-by-four, had to do it on the floor, couldn't get through the bathroom door.† His name is Penniman. â€Å"Just like Little Richard!† he told Henry when they shook hands at the radio station. â€Å"Famous rock ‘n' roller from back in the fifties? Maybe you remember him.† â€Å"Vaguely,† Henry said, as if he hadn't at one time owned every single Little Richard had ever put out. â€Å"I believe he was one of the Founding Fathers.† Penniman laughed uproariously, and in that laugh Henry glimpsed a possible future for himself. But was it a future he wanted? People laughed at Howard Stern, too, and Howard Stern was a dork. â€Å"One more drink!† Penniman repeats now. They are in the bar of the Oak Tree Inn, where Penniman has tipped the bartender five bucks to switch the TV from bowling on ABC to ESPN, even though there's nothing on at this hour of the day except golf tips and bass fishing. â€Å"One more drink, just to seal the deal!† But they don't have a deal, and Henry isn't sure he wants to make one. Going national with George Rathbun as part of the ESPN radio package should be attractive, and he doesn't have any serious problem with changing the name of the show from Badger Barrage to ESPN Sports Barrage it would still focus primarily on the central and northern areas of the country but . . . But what? Before he can even get to work on the question, he smells it again: My Sin, the perfume his wife used to wear on certain evenings, when she wanted to send a certain signal. Lark was what he used to call her on those certain evenings, when the room was dark and they were both blind to everything but scents and textures and each other. Lark. â€Å"You know, I think I'm going to pass on that drink,† Henry says. â€Å"Got some work to do at home. But I'm going to think over your offer. And I mean seriously.† â€Å"Ah-ah-ah,† Penniman says, and Henry can tell from certain minute disturbances in the air that the man is shaking a finger beneath his nose. Henry wonders how Penniman would react if Henry suddenly darted his head forward and bit off the offending digit at the second knuckle. If Henry showed him a little Coulee Country hospitality Fisherman-style. How loud would Penniman yell? As loud as Little Richard before the instrumental break of â€Å"Tutti Frutti,† perhaps? Or not quite as loud as that? â€Å"Can't go till I'm ready to take you,† Mr. I'm Fat But It No Longer Matters tells him. â€Å"I'm your ride, y'know.† He's on his fourth gimlet, and his words are slightly slurred. My friend, Henry thinks, I'd poke a ferret up my ass before I'd get into a car with you at the wheel. â€Å"Actually, I can,† Henry says pleasantly. Nick Avery, the bartender, is having a kick-ass afternoon: the fat guy slipped him five to change the TV channel, and the blind guy slipped him five to call Skeeter's Taxi while the fat guy was in the bathroom, making a little room. â€Å"Huh?† â€Å"I said, ? ®Actually, I can.' Bartender?† â€Å"He's outside, sir,† Avery tells him. â€Å"Pulled up two minutes ago.† There is a hefty creak as Penniman turns on his bar stool. Henry can't see the man's frown as he takes in the taxi now idling in the hotel turnaround, but he can sense it. â€Å"Listen, Henry,† Penniman says. â€Å"I think you may lack a certain understanding of your current situation. There are stars in the firmament of sports radio, damned right there are people like the Fabulous Sports Babe and Tony Kornheiser make six figures a year just in speaking fees, six figures easy but you ain't there yet. That door is currently closed to you. But I, my friend, am one helluva doorman. The upshot is that if I say we ought to have one more drink, then â€Å" â€Å"Bartender,† Henry says quietly, then shakes his head. â€Å"I can't just call you bartender; it might work for Humphrey Bogart but it doesn't work for me. What's your name?† â€Å"Nick Avery, sir.† The last word comes out automatically, but Avery never would have used it when speaking to the other one, never in a million years. Both guys tipped him five, but the one in the dark glasses is the gent. It's got nothing to do with him being blind, it's just something he is. â€Å"Nick, who else is at the bar?† Avery looks around. In one of the back booths, two men are drinking beer. In the hall, a bellman is on the phone. At the bar itself, no one at all except for these two guys one slim, cool, and blind, the other fat, sweaty, and starting to be pissed off. â€Å"No one, sir.† â€Å"There's not a . . . lady?† Lark, he's almost said. There's not a lark? â€Å"No.† â€Å"Listen here,† Penniman says, and Henry thinks he's never heard anyone so unlike â€Å"Little Richard† Penniman in his entire life. This guy is whiter than Moby Dick . . . and probably about the same size. â€Å"We've got a lot more to discuss here.† Loh more t'dishcush is how it comes out. â€Å"Unless, that is† Unlesh â€Å"you're trying to let me know you're not interested.† Never in a million years, Penniman's voice says to Henry Leyden's educated ears. We're talking about putting a money machine in your living room, sweetheart, your very own private ATM, and there ain't no way in hell you're going to turn that down. â€Å"Nick, you don't smell perfume? Something very light and old-fashioned? My Sin, perhaps?† A flabby hand falls on Henry's shoulder like a hot-water bottle. â€Å"The sin, old buddy, would be for you to refuse to have another drink with me. Even a blindman could see th â€Å" â€Å"Suggest you get your hand off him,† Avery says, and perhaps Penniman's ears aren't entirely deaf to nuance, because the hand leaves Henry's shoulder at once. Then another hand comes in its place, higher up. It touches the back of Henry's neck in a cold caress that's there and then gone. Henry draws in breath. The smell of perfume comes with it. Usually scents fade after a period of exposure, as the receptors that caught them temporarily deaden. Not this time, though. Not this smell. â€Å"No perfume?† Henry almost pleads. The touch of her hand on his neck he can dismiss as a tactile hallucination. But his nose never betrays him. Never until now, anyway. â€Å"I'm sorry,† Avery says. â€Å"I can smell beer . . . peanuts . . . this man's gin and his aftershave . . .† Henry nods. The lights above the backbar slide across the dark lenses of his shades as he slips gracefully off his stool. â€Å"I think you want another drink, my friend,† Penniman says in what he no doubt believes to be a tone of polite menace. â€Å"One more drink, just to celebrate, and then I'll take you home in my Lexus.† Henry smells his wife's perfume. He's sure of it. And he seemed to feel the touch of his wife's hand on the back of his neck. Yet suddenly it's skinny little Morris Rosen he finds himself thinking about Morris, who wanted him to listen to â€Å"Where Did Our Love Go† as done by Dirtysperm. And of course for Henry to play it in his Wisconsin Rat persona. Morris Rosen, who has more integrity in one of his nail-chewed little fingers than this bozo has got in his entire body. He puts a hand on Penniman's forearm. He smiles into Penniman's unseen face, and feels the muscles beneath his palm relax. Penniman has decided he's going to get his way. Again. â€Å"You take my drink,† Henry says pleasantly, â€Å"add it to your drink, and then stick them both up your fat and bepimpled ass. If you need something to hold them in place, why, you can stick your job up there right after them.† Henry turns and walks briskly toward the door, orienting himself with his usual neat precision and holding one hand out in front of him as an insurance policy. Nick Avery has broken into spontaneous applause, but Henry barely hears this and Penniman he has already dismissed from his mind. What occupies him is the smell of My Sin perfume. It fades a little as he steps out into the afternoon heat . . . but is that not an amorous sigh he hears beside his left ear? The sort of sigh his wife sometimes made just before falling asleep after love? His Rhoda? His Lark? â€Å"Hello, the taxi!† he calls from the curb beneath the awning. â€Å"Right here, buddy what're you, blind?† â€Å"As a bat,† Henry agrees, and walks toward the sound of the voice. He'll go home, he'll put his feet up, he'll have a glass of tea, and then he'll listen to the damned 911 tape. That as yet unperformed chore may be what's causing his current case of the heebie-jeebies and shaky-shivers, knowing that he must sit in darkness and listen to the voice of a child-killing cannibal. Surely that must be it, because there's no reason to be afraid of his Lark, is there? If she were to return to return and haunt him she would surely haunt with love. Wouldn't she? Yes, he thinks, and lowers himself into the taxi's stifling back seat. â€Å"Where to, buddy?† â€Å"Norway Valley Road,† Henry says. â€Å"It's a white house with blue trim, standing back from the road. You'll see it not long after you cross the creek.† Henry settles back in the seat and turns his troubled face toward the open window. French Landing feels strange to him today . . . fraught. Like something that has slipped and slipped until it is now on the verge of simply falling off the table and smashing to pieces on the floor. Say that she has come back. Say that she has. If it's love she's come with, why does the smell of her perfume make me so uneasy? So almost revolted? And why was her touch (her imagined touch, he assures himself) so unpleasant? Why was her touch so cold? After the dazzle of the day, the living room of Beezer's crib is so dark that at first Jack can't make out anything. Then, when his eyes adjust a little, he sees why: blankets a double thickness, from the look have been hung over both of the living-room windows, and the door to the other downstairs room, almost certainly the kitchen, has been closed. â€Å"He can't stand the light,† Beezer says. He keeps his voice low so it won't carry across to the far side of the room, where the shape of a man lies on a couch. Another man is kneeling beside him. â€Å"Maybe the dog that bit him was rabid,† Jack says. He doesn't believe it. Beezer shakes his head decisively. â€Å"It isn't a phobic reaction. Doc says it's physiological. Where light falls on him, his skin starts to melt. You ever hear of anything like that?† â€Å"No.† And Jack has never smelled anything like the stench in this room, either. There's the buzz of not one but two table fans, and he can feel the cross-draft, but that stink is too gluey to move. There's the reek of spoiled meat of gangrene in torn flesh but Jack has smelled that before. It's the other smell that's getting to him, something like blood and funeral flowers and feces all mixed up together. He makes a gagging noise, can't help it, and Beezer looks at him with a certain impatient sympathy. â€Å"Bad, yeah, I know. But it's like the monkey house at the zoo, man you get used to it after a while.† The swing door to the other room opens, and a trim little woman with shoulder-length blond hair comes through. She's carrying a bowl. When the light strikes the figure lying on the couch, Mouse screams. It's a horribly thick sound, as if the man's lungs have begun to liquefy. Something maybe smoke, maybe steam starts to rise up from the skin of his forehead. â€Å"Hold on, Mouse,† the kneeling man says. It's Doc. Before the kitchen door swings all the way shut again, Jack is able to read what's pasted to his battered black bag. Somewhere in America there may be another medical man sporting a STEPPENWOLF RULES bumper sticker on the side of his physician's bag, but probably not in Wisconsin. The woman kneels beside Doc, who takes a cloth from the basin, wrings it out, and places it on Mouse's forehead. Mouse gives a shaky groan and begins to shiver all over. Water runs down his cheeks and into his beard. The beard seems to be coming out in mangy patches. Jack steps forward, telling himself he will get used to the smell, sure he will. Maybe it's even true. In the meantime he wishes for a little of the Vicks VapoRub most LAPD homicide detectives carry in their glove compartments as a matter of course. A dab under each nostril would be very welcome right now. There's a sound system (scruffy) and a pair of speakers in the corners of the room (huge), but no television. Stacked wooden crates filled with books line every wall without a door or a window in it, making the space seem even smaller than it is, almost cryptlike. Jack has a touch of claustrophobia in his makeup, and now this circuit warms up, increasing his discomfort. Most of the books seem to deal with religion and philosophy he sees Descartes, C. S. Lewis, the Bhagavad-Gita, Steven Avery's Tenets of Existence but there's also a lot of fiction, books on beer making, and (on top of one giant speaker) Albert Goldman's trash tome about Elvis Presley. On the other speaker is a photograph of a young girl with a splendid smile, freckles, and oceans of reddish-blond hair. Seeing the child who drew the hopscotch grid out front makes Jack Sawyer feel sick with anger and sorrow. Otherworldly beings and causes there may be, but there's also a sick old fuck prowling around who needs to be s topped. He'd do well to remember that. Bear Girl makes a space for Jack in front of the couch, moving gracefully even though she's on her knees and still holding the bowl. Jack sees that in it are two more wet cloths and a heap of melting ice cubes. The sight of them makes him thirstier than ever. He takes one and pops it into his mouth. Then he turns his attention to Mouse. A plaid blanket has been pulled up to his neck. His forehead and upper cheeks the places not covered by his decaying beard are pasty. His eyes are closed. His lips are drawn back to show teeth of startling whiteness. â€Å"Is he † Jack begins, and then Mouse's eyes open. Whatever Jack meant to ask leaves his head entirely. Around the hazel irises, Mouse's eyes have gone an uneasy, shifting scarlet. It's as if the man is looking into a terrible radioactive sunset. From the inner corners of his eyes, some sort of black scum is oozing. â€Å"The Book of Philosophical Transformation addresses most current dialectics,† Mouse says, speaking mellowly and lucidly, â€Å"and Machiavelli also speaks to these questions.† Jack can almost picture him in a lecture hall. Until his teeth begin to chatter, that is. â€Å"Mouse, it's Jack Sawyer.† No recognition in those weird red-and-hazel eyes. The black gunk at the corners of them seems to twitch, however, as if it is somehow sentient. Listening to him. â€Å"It's Hollywood,† Beezer murmurs. â€Å"The cop. Remember?† One of Mouse's hands lies on the plaid blanket. Jack takes it, and stifles a cry of surprise when it closes over his with amazing strength. It's hot, too. As hot as a biscuit just out of the oven. Mouse lets out a long, gasping sigh, and the stench is fetid bad meat, decayed flowers. He's rotting, Jack thinks. Rotting from the inside out. Oh Christ, help me through this. Christ may not, but the memory of Sophie might. Jack tries to fix her eyes in his memory, that lovely, level, clear blue gaze. â€Å"Listen,† Mouse says. â€Å"I'm listening.† Mouse seems to gather himself. Beneath the blanket, his body shivers in a loose, uncoordinated way that Jack guesses is next door to a seizure. Somewhere a clock is ticking. Somewhere a dog is barking. A boat hoots on the Mississippi. Other than these sounds, all is silence. Jack can remember only one other such suspension of the world's business in his entire life, and that was when he was in a Beverly Hills hospital, waiting for his mother to finish the long business of dying. Somewhere Ty Marshall is waiting to be rescued. Hoping to be rescued, at least. Somewhere there are Breakers hard at work, trying to destroy the axle upon which all existence spins. Here is only this eternal room with its feeble fans and noxious vapors. Mouse's eyes close, then open again. They fix upon the newcomer, and Jack is suddenly sure some great truth is going to be confided. The ice cube is gone from his mouth; Jack supposes he crunched it up and swallowed it without even realizing, but he doesn't dare take another. â€Å"Go on, buddy,† Doc says. â€Å"You get it out and then I'll load you up with another hypo of dope. The good stuff. Maybe you'll sleep.† Mouse pays no heed. His mutating eyes hold Jack's. His hand holds Jack's, tightening still more. Jack can almost feel the bones of his fingers grinding together. â€Å"Don't . . . go out and buy top-of-the-line equipment,† Mouse says, and sighs out another excruciatingly foul breath from his rotting lungs. â€Å"Don't . . . ?† â€Å"Most people give up brewing after . . . a year or two. Even dedicated . . . dedicated hobbyists. Making beer is not . . . is not for pussies.† Jack looks around at Beezer, who looks back impassively. â€Å"He's in and out. Be patient. Wait on him.† Mouse's grip tightens yet more, then loosens just as Jack is deciding he can take it no longer. â€Å"Get a big pot,† Mouse advises him. His eyes bulge. The reddish shadows come and go, come and go, fleeting across the curved landscape of his corneas, and Jack thinks, That's its shadow. The shadow of the Crimson King. Mouse has already got one foot in its court. â€Å"Five gallons . . . at least. You find the best ones are in . . . seafood supply stores. And for a fermentation vessel . . . plastic water-cooler jugs are good . . . they're lighter than glass, and . . . I'm burning up. Christ, Beez, I'm burning up!† â€Å"Fuck this, I'm going to shoot it to him,† Doc says, and snaps open his bag. Beezer grabs his arm. â€Å"Not yet.† Bloody tears begin to slip out of Mouse's eyes. The black goo seems to be forming into tiny tendrils. These reach greedily downward, as if trying to catch the moisture and drink it. â€Å"Fermentation lock and stopper,† Mouse whispers. â€Å"Thomas Merton is shit, never let anyone tell you different. No real thought there. You have to let the gases escape while keeping dust out. Jerry Garcia wasn't God. Kurt Cobain wasn't God. The perfume he smells is not that of his dead wife. He's caught the eye of the King. Gorg-ten-abbalah, ee-lee-lee. The opopanax is dead, long live the opopanax.† Jack leans more deeply into Mouse's smell. â€Å"Who's smelling perfume? Who's caught the eye of the King?† â€Å"The mad King, the bad King, the sad King. Ring-a-ding-ding, all hail the King.† â€Å"Mouse, who's caught the eye of the King?† Doc says, â€Å"I thought you wanted to know about â€Å" â€Å"Who?† Jack has no idea why this seems important to him, but it does. Is it something someone has said to him recently? Was it Dale? Tansy? Was it, God save us, Wendell Green? â€Å"Racking cane and hose,† Mouse says confidentially. â€Å"That's what you need when the fermentation's done! And you can't put beer in screw-top bottles! You â€Å" Mouse turns his head away from Jack, nestles it cozily in the hollow of his shoulder, opens his mouth, and vomits. Bear Girl screams. The vomit is pus-yellow and speckled with moving black bits like the crud in the corners of Mouse's eyes. It is alive. Beezer leaves the room in a hurry, not quite running, and Jack shades Mouse from the brief glare of kitchen sunlight as best he can. The hand clamped on Jack's loosens a little more. Jack turns to Doc. â€Å"Do you think he's going?† Doc shakes his head. â€Å"Passed out again. Poor old Mousie ain't getting off that easy.† He gives Jack a grim, haunted look. â€Å"This better be worth it, Mr. Policeman. ‘Cause if it ain't, I'm gonna replumb your sink.† Beezer comes back with a huge bundle of rags, and he's put on a pair of green kitchen gloves. Not speaking, he mops up the pool of vomit between Mouse's shoulder and the backrest of the couch. The black specks have ceased moving, and that's good. To have not seen them moving in the first place would have been even better. The vomit, Jack notices with dismay, has eaten into the couch's worn fabric like acid. â€Å"I'm going to pull the blanket down for a second or two,† Doc says, and Bear Girl gets up at once, still holding the bowl with the melting ice. She goes to one of the bookshelves and stands there with her back turned, trembling. â€Å"Doc, is this something I really need to see?† I think maybe it is. I don't think you know what you're dealing with, even now.† Doc takes hold of the blanket and eases it out from beneath Mouse's limp hand. Jack sees that more of the black stuff has begun to ooze from beneath the dying man's fingernails. â€Å"Remember that this happened only a couple of hours ago, Mr. Policeman.† He pulls the blanket down. Standing with her back to them, Susan â€Å"Bear Girl† Osgood faces the great works of Western philosophy and begins to cry silently. Jack tries to hold back his scream and cannot. Henry pays off the taxi, goes into his house, takes a deep and soothing breath of the air-conditioned cool. There is a faint aroma sweet and he tells himself it's just fresh-cut flowers, one of Mrs. Morton's specialties. He knows better, but wants no more to do with ghosts just now. He is actually feeling better, and he supposes he knows why: it was telling the ESPN guy to take his job and shove it. Nothing more apt to make a fellow's day, especially when the fellow in question is gainfully employed, possessed of two credit cards that are nowhere near the max-out point, and has a pitcher of cold iced tea in the fridge. Henry heads kitchenward now, making his way down the hall with one hand held out before him, testing the air for obstacles and displacements. There's no sound but the whisper of the air conditioner, the hum of the fridge, the clack of his heels on the hardwood . . . . . . and a sigh. An amorous sigh. Henry stands where he is for a moment, then turns cautiously. Is the sweet aroma a little stronger now, especially facing back in this direction, toward the living room and the front door? He thinks yes. And it's not flowers; no sense fooling himself about that. As always, the nose knows. That's the aroma of My Sin. â€Å"Rhoda?† he says, and then, lower: â€Å"Lark?† No answer. Of course not. He's just having the heebie-jeebies, that's all; those world-famous shaky-shivers, and why not? â€Å"Because I'm the sheik, baby,† Henry says. â€Å"The Sheik, the Shake, the Shook.† No smells. No sexy sighs. And yet he's haunted by the idea of his wife back in the living room, standing there in perfumed cerements of the grave, watching him silently as he came in and passed blindly before her. His Lark, come back from Noggin Mound Cemetery for a little visit. Maybe to listen to the latest Slobberbone CD. â€Å"Quit it,† he says softly. â€Å"Quit it, you dope.† He goes into his big, well-organized kitchen. On his way through the door he slaps a button on the panel there without even thinking about it. Mrs. Morton's voice comes from the overhead speaker, which is so high-tech she might almost be in the room. â€Å"Jack Sawyer was by, and he dropped off another tape he wants you to listen to. He said it was . . . you know, that man. That bad man.† â€Å"Bad man, right,† Henry murmurs, opening the refrigerator and enjoying the blast of cold air. His hand goes unerringly to one of three cans of Kingsland Lager stored inside the door. Never mind the iced tea. â€Å"Both of the tapes are in your studio, by the soundboard. Also, Jack wanted you to call him on his cell phone.† Mrs. Morton's voice takes on a faintly lecturing tone. â€Å"If you do speak to him, I hope you tell him to be careful. And be careful yourself.† A pause. â€Å"Also, don't forget to eat supper. It's all ready to go. Second shelf of the fridge, on your left.† â€Å"Nag, nag, nag,† Henry says, but he's smiling as he opens his beer. He goes to the telephone and dials Jack's number. On the seat of the Dodge Ram parked in front of 1 Nailhouse Row, Jack's cell phone comes to life. This time there's no one in the cab to be annoyed by its tiny but penetrating tweet. â€Å"The cellular customer you are trying to reach is currently not answering. Please try your call again later.† Henry hangs up, goes back to the doorway, and pushes another button on the panel there. The voices that deliver the time and temperature are all versions of his own, but he's programmed a random shuffle pattern into the gadget, so he never knows which one he's going to get. This time it's the Wisconsin Rat, screaming crazily into the sunny air-conditioned silence of his house, which has never felt so far from town as it does today: â€Å"Time's four twenty-two P.M.! Outside temperature's eighty-two! Inside temperature's seventy! What the hell do you care? What the hell does anyone care? Chew it up, eat it up, wash it down, it aaall â€Å" comes out the same place. Right. Henry thumbs the button again, silencing the Rat's trademark cry. How did it get late so fast? God, wasn't it just noon? For that matter, wasn't he just young, twenty years old and so full of spunk it was practically coming out of his ears? What That sigh comes again, derailing his mostly self-mocking train of thought. A sigh? Really? More likely just the air conditioner's compressor, cutting off. He can tell himself that, anyway. He can tell himself that if he wants to. â€Å"Is anyone here?† Henry asks. There is a tremble in his voice that he hates, an old man's palsied quaver. â€Å"Is anyone in the house with me?† For a terrible second he is almost afraid something will answer. Nothing does of course nothing does and he swallows half the can of beer in three long gulps. He decides he'll go back into the living room and read for a little while. Maybe Jack will call. Maybe he'll get himself a little more under control once he has a little fresh alcohol in his system. And maybe the world will end in the next five minutes, he thinks. That way you'll never have to deal with the voice on those damned tapes waiting in the studio. Those damned tapes lying there on the soundboard like unexploded bombs. Henry walks slowly back down the hall to the living room with one hand held out before him, telling himself he's not afraid, not a bit afraid of touching his wife's dead face. Jack Sawyer has seen a lot, he's traveled to places where you can't rent from Avis and the water tastes like wine, but he's never encountered anything like Mouse Baumann's leg. Or, rather, the pestilential, apocalyptic horror show that was Mouse Baumann's leg. Jack's first impulse once he's got himself back under something like control is to upbraid Doc for taking off Mouse's pants. Jack keeps thinking of sausages, and how the casing forces them to keep their shape even after the fry pan's sizzling on a red-hot burner. This is an undoubtedly stupid comparison, primo stupido, but the human mind under pressure puts on some pretty odd jinks and jumps. There's still the shape of a leg there sort of but the flesh has spread away from the bone. The skin is almost completely gone, melted to a runny substance that looks like a mixture of milk and bacon fat. The interwoven mat of muscle beneath what remains of the skin is sagging and undergoing the same cataclysmic metamorphosis. The infected leg is in a kind of undisciplined motion as the solid becomes liquid and the liquid sizzles relentlessly into the couch upon which Mouse is lying. Along with the almost insupportable stench of decay, Jack can smell scorching cloth and melting fabric. Poking out of this spreading, vaguely leglike mess is a foot that looks remarkably undamaged. If I wanted to, I could pull it right off . . . just like a squash off a vine. The thought gets to him in a way the sight of the grievously wounded leg hasn't quite been able to, and for a moment Jack can only bow his head, gagging and trying not to vomit down the front of his shirt. What perhaps saves him is a hand on his back. It's Beezer, offering what comfort he can. The rowdy color has completely left the Beez's face. He looks like a motorcyclist come back from the grave in an urban myth. â€Å"You see?† Doc is asking, and his voice seems to come from a great distance. â€Å"This ain't the chicken pox, my friend, although it looked a little like that while it was still getting cranked up. He's already exhibiting red spots on his left leg . . . his belly . . . his balls. That's pretty much what the skin around the bite looked like when we first got him back here, just some redness and swelling. I thought, ? ®Shit, ain't nothin' to this, I got enough Zithromax to put this on the run before sundown.' Well, you see what good the Zithro did. You see what good anything did. It's eating through the couch, and I'm guessing that when it finishes with the couch, it'll go right to work on the floor. This shit is hungry. So was it worth it, Hollywood? I guess only you and Mouse know the answer to that.† â€Å"He still knows where the house is,† Beezer says. â€Å"Me, I don't have a clue, even though we just came from there. You, either. Do you?† Doc shakes his head. â€Å"But Mouse, he knows.† â€Å"Susie, honey,† Doc says to Bear Girl. â€Å"Bring another blanket, would you? This one's damn near et through.† Bear Girl goes willingly enough. Jack gets to his feet. His legs are rubbery, but they hold him. â€Å"Shield him,† he tells Doc. â€Å"I'm going out to the kitchen. If I don't get a drink, I'm going to die.† Jack takes on water directly from the sink, swallowing until a spike plants itself in the center of his forehead and he belches like a horse. Then he just stands there, looking out into Beezer and Bear Girl's backyard. A neat little swing set has been planted there in the weedy desolation. It hurts Jack to look at it, but he looks anyway. After the lunacy of Mouse's leg, it seems important to remind himself that he's here for a reason. If the reminder hurts, so much the better. The sun, now turning gold as it eases itself down toward the Missis-sippi, glares in his eyes. Time hasn't been standing still after all, it seems. Not outside this little house, anyway. Outside 1 Nailhouse Row, time actually seems to have sped up. He's haunted by the idea that coming here was as pointless as detouring to Henry's house; tormented by the thought that Mr. Munshun and his boss, the abbalah, are running him around like a windup toy with a key in its back while they do their work. He can follow that buzz in his head to Black House, so why the hell doesn't he just get back in his truck and do it? The perfume he smells is not that of his dead wife. What does that mean? Why does the idea of someone smelling perfume make him so crazy and afraid? Beezer knocks on the kitchen door, making him jump. Jack's eye fixes on a sampler hung over the kitchen table. Instead of GOD BLESS OUR HOME, it reads HEAVY METAL THUNDER. With a carefully stitched HARLEY-DAVIDSON beneath. â€Å"Get back in here, man,† the Beez says. â€Å"He's awake again.† Henry's on a path in the woods or maybe it's a lane and something is behind him. Each time he turns to see in this dream he can see, but seeing is no blessing there's a little more of that something back there. It appears to be a man in evening dress, but the man is frightfully elongated, with spike teeth that jut over a smiling red lower lip. And he seems is it possible? to have only one eye. The first time Henry looks back, the shape is only a milky blur amid the trees. The next time he can make out the uneasy dark swim of its coat and a floating red blotch that might be a tie or an ascot. Up ahead of him is this thing's den, a stinking hole that only coincidentally looks like a house. Its presence buzzes in Henry's head. Instead of pine, the woods pressing in on either side smell of heavy, cloying perfume: My Sin. It's driving me, he thinks with dismay. Whatever that thing back there is, it's driving me like a steer toward the slaughterhouse. He thinks of cutting off the lane to his left or right, of using the miracle of his new sight to escape through the woods. Only there are things there, too. Dark, floating shapes like sooty scarves. He can almost see the closest. It's some sort of gigantic dog with a long tongue as red as the apparition's tie and bulging eyes. Can't let it drive me to the house, he thinks. I have to get out of this before it can get me there . . . but how? How? It comes to him with startling simplicity. All he has to do is wake up. Because this is a dream. This is just a â€Å"It's a dream!† Henry cries out, and jerks forward. He's not walking, he's sitting, sitting in his very own easy chair, and pretty soon he's going to have a very wet crotch because he fell asleep with a can of Kingsland Lager balanced there, and But there's no spill, because there's no can of beer. He feels cautiously to his right and yep, there it is, on the table with his book, a braille edition of Reflections in a Golden Eye. He must have put it there before first falling asleep and then falling into that horrible nightmare. Except Henry's pretty sure he didn't do any such thing. He was holding the book and the beer was between his legs, freeing his hands to touch the little upraised dots that tell the story. Something very considerately took both the book and the can after he dropped off, and put them on the table. Something that smells of My Sin perfume. The air reeks of it. Henry takes a long, slow breath with his nostrils flared and mouth tightly sealed shut. â€Å"No,† he says, speaking very clearly. â€Å"I can smell flowers . . . and rug shampoo . . . and fried onions from last night. Very faint but still there. The nose knows.† All true enough. But the smell had been there. It's gone now because she's gone, but she will be back. And suddenly he wants her to come. If he's frightened, surely it's the unknown he's frightened of, right? Only that and nothing more. He doesn't want to be alone here, with nothing for company but the memory of that rancid dream. And the tapes. He has to listen to the tapes. He promised Jack. Henry gets shakily to his feet and makes his way to the living-room control panel. This time he's greeted by the voice of Henry Shake, a mellow fellow if ever there was one. â€Å"Hey there, all you hoppin' cats and boppin' kitties, at the tone it's seven-fourteen P.M., Bulova Watch Time. Outside the temp is a very cool seventy-five degrees, and here in the Make-Believe Ballroom it's a very nifty seventy degrees. So why not get off your money, grab your honey, and make a little magic?† Seven-fourteen! When was the last time he fell asleep for almost three hours in the daytime? For that matter, when was the last time he had a dream in which he could see? The answer to that second question, so far as he can remember, is never. Where was that lane? What was the thing behind him? What was the place ahead of him, for that matter? â€Å"Doesn't matter,† Henry tells the empty room if it is empty. â€Å"It was a dream, that's all. The tapes, on the other hand . . .† He doesn't want to listen to them, has never wanted to listen to anything any less in his life (with the possible exception of Chicago singing â€Å"Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?†), but he has to. If it might save Ty Marshall's life, or the life of even one other child, he must. Slowly, dreading every step, Henry Leyden makes his blind way to his studio, where two cassettes wait for him on the soundboard. â€Å"In heaven there is no beer,† Mouse sings in a toneless, droning voice. His cheeks are now covered with ugly red patches, and his nose seems to be sinking sideways into his face, like an atoll after an undersea earthquake. â€Å"That's why we drink it here. And when . . . we're gone . . . from here . . . our friends will be drinking all the beer.† It's been like this for hours now: philosophical nuggets, instructions for the beginning beer-making enthusiast, snatches of song. The light coming through the blankets over the windows has dimmed appreciably. Mouse pauses, his eyes closed. Then he starts another ditty. â€Å"Hundred bottles of beer on the wall, one hundred bottles of beer . . . if one of those bottles should happen to fall . . .† â€Å"I have to go,† Jack says. He's hung in there as well as he can, convinced that Mouse is going to give him something, but he can wait no longer. Somewhere, Ty Marshall is waiting for him. â€Å"Hold on,† Doc says. He rummages in his bag and comes out with a hypodermic needle. He raises it in the dimness and taps the glass barrel with a fingernail. â€Å"What's that?† Doc gives Jack and Beezer a brief, grim smile. â€Å"Speed,† he says, and injects it into Mouse's arm. For a moment there's nothing. Then, as Jack is opening his mouth again to tell them he has to go, Mouse's eyes snap wide. They are now entirely red a bright and bleeding red. Yet when they turn in his direction, Jack knows that Mouse is seeing him. Maybe really seeing him for the first time since he got here. Bear Girl flees the room, trailing a single diminishing phrase behind her: â€Å"No more no more no more no more â€Å" â€Å"Fuck,† Mouse says in a rusty voice. â€Å"Fuck, I'm fucked. Ain't I?† Beezer touches the top of his friend's head briefly but tenderly. â€Å"Yeah, man. I think you are. Can you help us out?† â€Å"Bit me once. Just once, and now . . . now . . .† His hideous red gaze turns to Doc. â€Å"Can barely see you. Fuckin' eyes are all weird.† â€Å"You're going down,† Doc says. â€Å"Ain't gonna lie to you, man.† â€Å"Not yet I ain't,† Mouse says. â€Å"Gimme something to write on. To draw a map on. Quick. Dunno what you shot me with, Doc, but the stuff from the dog's stronger. I ain't gonna be compos long. Quick!† Beezer feels around at the foot of the couch and comes up with a trade-sized paperback. Given the heavy shit on the bookcases, Jack could almost laugh the book is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Beezer tears off the back cover and hands it to Mouse with the blank side up. â€Å"Pencil,† Mouse croaks. â€Å"Hurry up. I got it all, man. I got it . . . up here.† He touches his forehead. A patch of skin the size of a quarter sloughs off at his touch. Mouse wipes it on the blanket as if it were a booger. Beezer pulls a gnawed stub of pencil from an inside pocket of his vest. Mouse takes it and makes a pathetic effort to smile. The black stuff oozing from the corners of his eyes has continued to build up, and now it lies on his cheeks like smears of decayed jelly. More of it is springing out of the pores on his forehead in minute black dots that remind Jack of Henry's braille books. When Mouse bites his lower lip in concentration, the tender flesh splits open at once. Blood begins dribbling into his beard. Jack supposes the rotted-meat smell is still there, but Beezer had been right: he's gotten used to it. Mouse turns the book cover sideways, then draws a series of quick squiggles. â€Å"Lookit,† he says to Jack. â€Å"This the Mississippi, right?† â€Å"Right,† Jack says. When he leans in, he starts getting the smell again. Up close it's not even a stench; it's a miasma trying to crawl down his throat. But Jack doesn't move away. He knows what an effort Mouse is making. The least he can do is play his part. â€Å"Here's downtown the Nelson, Lucky's, the Agincourt Theater, the Taproom . . . here's where Chase Street turns into Lyall Road, then Route 35 . . . here's Libertyville . . . the VFW . . . Goltz's . . . ah, Christ â€Å" Mouse begins to thrash on the couch. Sores on his face and upper body burst open and begin leaking. He screams with pain. The hand not holding the pencil goes to his face and paws at it ineffectually. Something inside Jack speaks up, then speaks in a shining, imperative voice he remembers from his time on the road all those years ago. He supposes it's the voice of the Talisman, or whatever remains of it in his mind and soul. It doesn't want him to talk, it's trying to kill him before he can talk, it's in the black stuff, maybe it is the black stuff, you've got to get rid of it Some things can only be done without the mind's prudish interference; when the work is nasty, instinct is often best. So it is without thinking that Jack reaches out, grasps the black slime oozing from Mouse's eyes between his fingers, and pulls. At first the stuff only stretches, as if made of rubber. At the same time Jack can feel it squirming and writhing in his grip, perhaps trying to pinch or bite him. Then it lets go with a twang sound. Jack throws the convulsing black tissue onto the floor with a cry. The stuff tries to slither beneath the couch Jack sees this even as he wipes his hands on his shirt, frantic with revulsion. Doc slams his bag down on one piece. Beezer squashes the other with the heel of a motorcycle boot. It makes a squittering sound. â€Å"What the fuck is that shit?† Doc asks. His voice, ordinarily husky, has gone up into a near-falsetto range. â€Å"What the fuck â€Å" â€Å"Nothing from here,† Jack says, â€Å"and never mind. Look at him! Look at Mouse!† The red glare in Mouse's eyes has retreated; for the moment he looks almost normal. Certainly he's seeing them, and the pain seems gone. â€Å"Thanks,† he breathes. â€Å"I only wish you could get it all that way, but man, it's already coming back. Pay attention.† â€Å"I'm listening,† Jack says. â€Å"You better,† Mouse replies. â€Å"You think you know. You think you can find the place again even if these two can't, and maybe you can, but maybe you don't know quite so much as you . . . ah, fuck.† From somewhere beneath the blanket there is a ghastly bursting sound as something gives way. Sweat runs down Mouse's face, mixing with the black poison venting from his pores and turning his beard a damp and dirty gray. His eyes roll up to Jack's, and Jack can see that red glare starting to haze over them again. â€Å"This sucks,† Mouse pants. â€Å"Never thought I'd go out this way. Lookit, Hollywood . . .† The dying man draws a small rectangle on his makeshift scribble of map. â€Å"This â€Å" â€Å"Ed's Eats, where we found Irma,† Jack says. â€Å"I know.† â€Å"All right,† Mouse whispers. â€Å"Good. Now look . . . over on the other side . . . the Schubert and Gale side . . . and to the west . . .† Mouse draws a line going north from Highway 35. He puts little circles on either side of it. Jack takes these to be representations of trees. And, across the front of the line like a gate: NO TRESPASSING. â€Å"Yeah,† Doc breathes. â€Å"That's where it was, all right. Black House.† Mouse takes no notice. His dimming gaze is fixed solely on Jack. â€Å"Listen to me, cop. Are you listening?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Christ, you better be,† Mouse tells him. As it always has, the work captures Henry, absorbs him, takes him away. Boredom and sorrow have never been able to stand against this old captivation with sound from the sighted world. Apparently fear can't stand against it, either. The hardest moment isn't listening to the tapes but mustering the courage to stick the first one in the big TEAC audio deck. In that moment of hesitation he's sure he can smell his wife's perfume even in the soundproofed and air-filtered environment of the studio. In that moment of hesitation he is positive he isn't alone, that someone (or something) is standing just outside the studio door, looking in at him through the glass upper half. And that is, in fact, the absolute truth. Blessed with sight as we are, we can see what Henry cannot. We want to tell him what's out there, to lock the studio door, for the love of God lock it now, but we can only watch. Henry reaches for the PLAY button on the tape deck. Then his finger changes course and hits the intercom toggle instead. â€Å"Hello? Is anyone out there?† The figure standing in Henry's living room, looking in at him the way someone might look into an aquarium at a single exotic fish, makes no sound. The last of the sun's on the other side of the house and the living room is becoming quite dark, Henry being understandably forgetful when it comes to turning on the lights. Elmer Jesperson's amusing bee slippers (not that they amuse us much under these circumstances) are just about the brightest things out there. â€Å"Hello? Anyone?† The figure looking in through the glass half of the studio door is grinning. In one hand it is holding the hedge clippers from Henry's garage. â€Å"Last chance,† Henry says, and when there's still no response, he becomes the Wisconsin Rat, shrieking into the intercom, trying to startle whatever's out there into revealing itself: â€Å"Come on now, honey, come on now, you muthafukkah, talk to Ratty!† The figure peering in at Henry recoils as a snake might recoil when its prey makes a feint but it utters no sound. From between the grinning teeth comes a leathery old tongue, wagging and poking in derision. This creature has been into the perfume that Mrs. Morton has never had the heart to remove from the vanity in the little powder room adjacent to the master bedroom, and now Henry's visitor reeks of My Sin. Henry decides it's all just his imagination playing him up again oy, such a mistake, Morris Rosen would have told him, had Morris been there and hits PLAY with the tip of his finger. He hears a throat-clearing sound, and then Arnold Hrabowski identifies himself. The Fisherman interrupts him before he can even finish: Hello, asswipe. Henry rewinds, listens again: Hello, asswipe. Rewinds and listens yet again: Hello, asswipe. Yes, he has heard this voice before. He's sure of it. But where? The answer will come, answers of this sort always do eventually and getting there is half the fun. Henry listens, enrapt. His fingers dance back and forth over the tape deck's buttons like the fingers of a concert pianist over the keys of a Steinway. The feeling of being watched slips from him, although the figure outside the studio door the thing wearing the bee slippers and holding the hedge clippers never moves. Its smile has faded somewhat. A sulky expression is growing on its aged face. There is confusion in that look, and perhaps the first faint trace of fear. The old monster doesn't like it that the blind fish in the aquarium should have captured its voice. Of course it doesn't matter; maybe it's even part of the fun, but if it is, it's Mr. Munshun's fun, not its fun. And their fun should be the same . . . shouldn't i t? You have an emergency. Not me. You. â€Å"Not me, you,† Henry says. The mimicry is so good it's weird. â€Å"A little bit of sauerkraut in your salad, mein friend, ja?† Your worst nightmare . . . worst nightmare. Abbalah. I'm the Fisherman. Henry listening, intent. He lets the tape run awhile, then listens to the same phrase four times over: Kiss my scrote, you monkey . . . kiss my scrote, you monkey . . . you monkey . . . monkey . . . No, not monkey. The voice is actually saying munggey. MUNG-ghee. â€Å"I don't know where you are now, but you grew up in Chicago,† Henry murmurs. â€Å"South Side. And . . .† Warmth on his face. Suddenly he remembers warmth on his face. Why is that, friends and neighbors? Why is that, O great wise ones? You're no better'n a monkey on a stick. Monkey on a stick. Monkey â€Å"Monkey,† Henry says. He's rubbing his temples with the tips of his fingers now. â€Å"Monkey on a stick. MUNG-ghee on a stigg. Who said that?† He plays the 911: Kiss my scrote, you monkey. He plays his memory: You're no better'n a monkey on a stick. Warmth on his face. Heat? Light? Both? Henry pops out the 911 tape and sticks in the one Jack brought today. Hello, Judy. Are you Judy today, or are you Sophie? The abbalah sends his best, and Gorg says â€Å"Caw-caw-caw!† [Husky, phlegmy laughter.] Ty says hello, too. Your little boy is very lonely . . . When Tyler Marshall's weeping, terrified voice booms through the speakers, Henry winces and fast-forwards. Derr vill be morrr mur-derts. The accent much thicker now, a burlesque, a joke, Katzenjammer Kids Meet the Wolfman, but somehow even more revealing because of that. Der liddul chull-drun . . . havv-uz-ted like wheed. Like wheed. Havv-uz-ted like . . . â€Å"Harvested like a monkey on a stick,† Henry says. â€Å"MUNG-ghee. HAVV-us-ted. Who are you, you son of a bitch?† Back to the 911 tape. There are whips in hell and chains in Sheol. But it's almost vips in hell, almost chenz in Shayol. Vips. Chenz. MUNG-ghee on a stick. A stigg. â€Å"You're no better'n † Henry begins, and then, all at once, another line comes to him. â€Å"Lady Magowan's Nightmare.† That one's good. A bad nightmare of what? Vips in hell? Chenz in Shayol? Mung-ghees on sticks? â€Å"My God,† Henry says softly. â€Å"Oh . . . my . . . God. The dance. He was at the dance.† Now it all begins to fall into place. How stupid they have been! How criminally stupid! The boy's bike . . . it had been right there. Right there, for Christ's sake! They were all blind men, make them all umps. â€Å"But he was so old,† Henry whispers. â€Å"And senile! How were we supposed to guess such a man could be the Fisherman?† Other questions follow this one. If the Fisherman is a resident at Maxton Elder Care, for instance, where in God's name could he have stashed Ty Marshall? And how is the bastard getting around French Landing? Does he have a car somewhere? â€Å"Doesn't matter,† Henry murmurs. â€Å"Not now, anyway. Who is he and where is he? Those are the things that matter.† The warmth on his face his mind's first effort to locate the Fisherman's voice in time and place had been the spotlight, of course, Symphonic Stan's spotlight, the pink of ripening berries. And some woman, some nice old woman Mr. Stan, yoo-hoo, Mr. Stan? had asked him if he took requests. Only, before Stan could reply, a voice as flat and hard as two stones grinding together I was here first, old woman. had interrupted. Flat . . . and hard . . . and with that faint Germanic harshness that said South Side Chicago, probably second or even third generation. Not vass here first, not old vumman, but those telltale v's had been lurking, hadn't they? Ah yes. â€Å"Mung-ghee,† Henry says, looking straight ahead. Looking straight at Charles Burnside, had he only known it. â€Å"Stigg. Havv-us-ted. Hasta la vista . . . baby.† Was that what it came down to, in the end? A dotty old maniac who sounded a bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger? Who was the woman? If he can remember her name, he can call Jack . . . or Dale, if Jack's still not answering his phone . . . and put an end to French Landing's bad dream. Lady Magowan's Nightmare. That one's good. â€Å"Nightmare,† Henry says, then adjusting his voice: â€Å"Nahht-mare.† Once again the mimicry is good. Certainly too good for the old codger standing outside the studio door. He is now scowling bitterly and gnashing the hedge clippers in front of the glass. How can the blindman in there sound so much like him? It's not right; it's completely improper. The old monster longs to cut the vocal cords right out of Henry Leyden's throat. Soon, he promises himself, he will do that. And eat them. Sitting in the swivel chair, drumming his fingers nervously on the gleaming oak in front of him, Henry recalls the brief encounter at the bandstand. Not long into the Strawberry Fest dance, this had been. Tell me your name and what you'd like to hear. I am Alice Weathers, and . â€Å"Moonglow,† please. By Benny Goodman. â€Å"Alice Weathers,† Henry says. â€Å"That was her name, and if she doesn't know your name, my homicidal friend, then I'm a monkey on a stick.† He starts to get up, and that is when someone something begins to knock, very softly, on the glass upper half of the door. Bear Girl has drawn close, almost against her will, and now she, Jack, Doc, and the Beez are gathered around the sofa. Mouse has sunk halfway into it. He looks like a person dying badly in quicksand. Well, Jack thinks, there's no quicksand, but he's dying badly, all right. Guess there's no question about that. â€Å"Listen up,† Mouse tells them. The black goo is forming at the corners of his eyes again. Worse, it's trickling from the corners of his mouth. The stench of decay is stronger than ever as Mouse's inner workings give up the struggle. Jack is frankly amazed that they've lasted as long as they have. â€Å"You talk,† Beezer says. â€Å"We'll listen.† Mouse looks at Doc. â€Å"When I finish, give me the fireworks. The Cadillac dope. Understand?† â€Å"You want to get out ahead of whatever it is you've got.† Mouse nods. â€Å"I'm down with that,† Doc agrees. â€Å"You'll go out with a smile on your face.† â€Å"Doubt that, bro, but I'll give it a try.† Mouse shifts his reddening gaze to Beezer. â€Å"When it's done, wrap me up in one of the nylon tents that're in the garage. Stick me in the tub. I'm betting that by midnight, you'll be able to wash me down the drain like . . . like so much beer foam. I'd be careful, though. Don't . . . touch what's left.† Bear Girl bursts into tears. â€Å"Don't cry, darlin',† Mouse says. â€Å"I'm gonna get out ahead. Doc promised. Beez?† â€Å"Right here, buddy.† â€Å"You have a little service for me. Okay? Read a poem . . . the one by Auden . . . the one that always used to frost your balls . . .† † ? ®Thou shalt not read the Bible for its prose,' † Beezer says. He's crying. â€Å"You got it, Mousie.† â€Å"Play some Dead . . . ? ®Ripple,' maybe . . . and make sure you're full enough of Kingsland to christen me good and proper into the next life. Guess there won't . . . be any grave for you to piss on, but . . . do the best you can.† Jack laughs at that. He can't help it. And this time it's his turn to catch the full force of Mouse's crimson eyes. â€Å"Promise me you'll wait until tomorrow to go out there, cop.† â€Å"Mouse, I'm not sure I can do that.† â€Å"You gotta. Go out there tonight, you won't have to worry about the devil dog . . . the other things in the woods around that house . . . the other things . . .† The red eyes roll horribly. Black stuff trickles into Mouse's beard like tar. Then he somehow forces himself to go on. â€Å"The other things in those woods will eat you like candy.† â€Å"I think that's a chance I'll have to take,† Jack says, frowning. â€Å"There's a little boy somewhere â€Å" â€Å"Safe,† Mouse whispers. Jack raises his eyebrows, unsure if he's heard Mouse right. And even if he has, can he trust what he's heard? Mouse has some powerful, evil poison working in him. So far he's been able to withstand it, to communicate in spite of it, but â€Å"Safe for a little while,† Mouse says. â€Å"Not from everything . . . there's things that might still get him, I suppose . . . but for the time being he's safe from Mr. Munching. Is that his name? Munching?† â€Å"Munshun, I think. How do you know it?† Mouse favors Jack with a smile of surpassing eeriness. It is the smile of a dying sibyl. Once more he manages to touch his forehead, and Jack notes with horror that the man's fingers are now melting into one another and turning black from the nails down. â€Å"Got it up here, man. Got it alll up here. Told you that. And listen: it's better the kid should get eaten by some giant bug or rock crab over there . . . where he is . . . than that you should die trying to rescue him. If you do that, the abbalah will wind up with the kid for sure. That's what your . . . your friend says.† â€Å"What friend?† Doc asks suspiciously. â€Å"Never mind,† Mouse says. â€Å"Hollywood knows. Don'tcha, Holly-wood?† Jack nods reluctantly. It's Speedy, of course. Or Parkus, if you prefer. â€Å"Wait until tomorrow,† Mouse says. â€Å"High noon, when the sun's strongest in both worlds. Promise.† At first Jack can say nothing. He's torn, in something close to agony. â€Å"It'd be almost full dark before you could get back out Highway 35 anyway,† Bear Girl says quietly. â€Å"And there's bad shit in those woods, all right,† Doc says. â€Å"Makes the stuff in that Blair Witch Project look fuckin' tame. I don't think you want to try it in the dark. Not unless you got a death wish, that is.† â€Å"When you're done . . .† Mouse whispers. â€Å"When you're done . . . if any of you are left . . . burn the place to the ground. That hole. That tomb. Burn it to the ground, do you hear me? Close the door.† â€Å"Yeah,† Beezer says. â€Å"Heard and understood, buddy.† â€Å"Last thing,† Mouse says. He's speaking directly to Jack now. â€Å"You may be able to find it . . . but I think I got something else you need. It's a word. It's powerful to you because of something you . . . you touched. Once a long time ago. I don't understand that part, but . . .† â€Å"It's all right,† Jack tells him. â€Å"I do. What's the word, Mouse?† For a moment he doesn't think Mouse will, in the end, be able to tell him. Something is clearly struggling to keep him from saying the word, but in this struggle, Mouse comes out on top. It is, Jack thinks, very likely his life's last W. â€Å"D'yamba,† Mouse says. â€Å"Now you, Hollywood. You say it.† â€Å"D'yamba,† Jack says, and a row of weighty paperbacks slides from one of the makeshift shelves at the foot of the couch. They hang there in the dimming air . . . hang . . . hang . . . and then drop to the floor with a crash. Bear Girl voices a little scream. â€Å"Don't forget it,† Mouse says. â€Å"You're gonna need it.† â€Å"How? How am I going to need it?† Mouse shakes his head wearily. â€Å"Don't . . . know.† Beezer reaches over Jack's shoulder and takes the pitiful little scribble of map. â€Å"You're going to meet us tomorrow morning at the Sand Bar,† he tells Jack. â€Å"Get there by eleven-thirty, and we should be turning into that goddamned lane right around noon. In the meantime, maybe I'll just hold on to this. A little insurance policy to make sure you do things Mouse's way.† â€Å"Okay,† Jack says. He doesn't need the map to find Chummy Burn-side's Black House, but Mouse is almost certainly right: it's probably not the sort of place you want to tackle after dark. He hates to leave Ty Marshall in the furance-lands it feels wrong in a way that's almost sinful but he has to remember that there's more at stake here than one little boy lost. â€Å"Beezer, are you sure you want to go back there?† â€Å"Hell no, I don't want to go back,† Beezer says, almost indignantly. â€Å"But something killed my daughter my daughter! and it got here from there! You want to tell me you don't know that's true?† Jack makes no reply. Of course it's true. And of course he wants Doc and the Beez with him when he turns up the lane to Black House. If they can bear to come, that is. D'yamba, he thinks. D'yamba. Don't forget. He turns back to the couch. â€Å"Mouse, do you â€Å" â€Å"No,† Doc says. â€Å"Guess he won't need the Cadillac dope, after all.† â€Å"Huh?† Jack peers at the big brewer-biker stupidly. He feels stupid. Stupid and exhausted. â€Å"Nothin' tickin' but his watch,† Doc says, and then he begins to sing. After a moment Beezer joins in, then Bear Girl. Jack steps away from the couch with a thought queerly similar to Henry's: How did it get late so early? Just how in hell did that happen? â€Å"In heaven, there is no beer . . . that's why we drink it here . . . and when . . . we're gone . . . from here . . .† Jack tiptoes across the room. On the far side, there's a lighted Kingsland Premium Golden Pale Ale bar clock. Our old friend who is finally looking every year of his age and not quite so lucky peers at the time with disbelief, not accepting it until he has compared it to his own watch. Almost eight. He has been here for hours. Almost dark, and the Fisherman still out there someplace. Not to mention his otherworldly playmates. D'yamba, he thinks again as he opens the door. And, as he steps out onto the splintery porch and closes the door behind him, he speaks aloud with great sincerity into the darkening day: â€Å"Speedy, I'd like to wring your neck.†