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		<title>Ways to Save Money on Your Pet</title>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 19 May 2012 04:07:02 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[The last time you were at the pet store, did you end up spending a small fortune on your furry friend? You probably went there for one or two small items, but ended up grabbing all those fun-looking, fuzzy toys on your way out, right? Well, never fear. There are plenty of ways that you [...]]]></description>
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<p>The last time you were at the pet store, did you end up spending a small fortune on your furry friend? You probably went there for one or two small items, but ended up grabbing all those fun-looking, fuzzy toys on your way out, right? Well, never fear. There are plenty of ways that you can cut back on spending on your cat or dog, and the tips are a lot easier than you might think.
<p><strong>Toys</strong><br />Cats and dogs are often like children; you buy them an expensive toy and they end up playing with the box it came in. If this is the case with your pet, go ahead and just buy him the box – metaphorically, of course. If you pay attention to your pet at play, though, you will find what makes him or her happy and what they just ignore. Some dogs, for example, really love squeaky toys but ignore ropes for tugging. Some cats love playing with ribbons but don&#8217;t like the laser lights. If your cat or dog likes a specific kind of toy, buy them a few of those but don&#8217;t buy more until they run out. If your pet likes to play with things that aren&#8217;t toys, like ribbons or socks, keep some of those handy and don&#8217;t buy toys at all.</p>
<p><strong>Medication</strong><br />You can save a bundle on medication for your pet by buying in bulk online. Of course, you should always see your vet before giving any medication to your furry friend, but once you get the prescription, there are a bunch of online suppliers where you can get your pet&#8217;s medication for cheap if you buy a big supply of them at a time.</p>
<p><strong>Food and Treats</strong><br />Food and treats for your cat or dog can be very expensive, and you usually don&#8217;t want to compromise on quality in order to save a few bucks. Lower quality pet food can be made with lots of fillers that aren&#8217;t very good for your pet&#8217;s health. Luckily, though, there are some great bargain brands. Compare the ingredient lists to price and find what works best for you and your wallet. Also, dry food is almost always cheaper – and healthier. Wet food doesn&#8217;t help your pet&#8217;s digestive tract at all, so you may want to switch to dry food if you can. There is also the option of making your pet&#8217;s food yourself. This is the healthiest way to feed your pet, after you do a little research about what is good for them to eat and what is not. However, even though this is cheaper, it can be very time-consuming.</p>
<p><strong>Bedding</strong><br />Bedding is a necessity, but that doesn&#8217;t mean you have to buy it from a pet store. Bedding from your local pet store can cost a lot of money, especially when you can go to your local department store and get blankets and pillows for much less. Dogs, especially, love fleece blankets, and you can always get some fleece and make your own. Similarly, you can get foam padding and make pads for crates and carriers without spending much at all.</p>
<p><strong>Grooming</strong><br />Grooming is a huge expense when it comes to your pet. If you feel comfortable trimming your own pet&#8217;s fur, you can absolutely do that at home. If not, there are ways to save. People usually have their pets groomed in the spring and fall, when shedding becomes intense. If you brush your pet every day, this will cut down on the number of times you have to bring him or her to the groomer.</p>
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		<title>Pentagon Restricts F-22 Flights Over Safety Concerns</title>
		<link>http://bergerafghanistan.com/?p=2046</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 18 May 2012 04:29:28 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[An unknown and not-yet understood safety problem with F-22 stealth fighters has led to the Pentagon restricting flights of the plane. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the restrictions on Tuesday after Navy and NASA experts indicated it was for the best. Some F-22 pilots have experienced dizziness while flying as well as other symptoms of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>An unknown and not-yet understood safety problem with F-22 stealth fighters has led to the Pentagon restricting flights of the plane. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the restrictions on Tuesday after Navy and NASA experts indicated it was for the best. Some F-22 pilots have experienced dizziness while flying as well as other symptoms of oxygen deprivation. That someone has high up as Panetta has gotten involved in this particular matter indicates just how serious the issue appears to be.
<p>Last year, the Air Force Grounded all F-22s for four months because of the oxygen problem, and some pilots have even refused to fly them. The Air Force could not ultimately determine the cause of the problems but put forth a plan to keep the planes in the sky with pilots using special sensors, filters and other precautions to guard against problems related to oxygen deprivation.</p>
<p>Asked why Panetta was acting at this point, Navy Captain John Kirby, a spokesman for the Pentagon, noted that Panetta has been aware of the problem with the F-22s &#8220;for quite some time.&#8221; He added that given the concerns of pilots, Panetta chose to &#8220;dive a little more deeply into the issue.&#8221; Panetta ordered that F-22s remain &#8220;within proximity of potential landing locations&#8221; in the event that pilots experience problems. The F-22 was developed during the Cold War and the entire U.S. fleet of the planes now numbers 187, with the last added to the fleet just two weeks ago. The total cost per plane is about $  190 million.</p>
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		<title>The Cliffs Notes to Improving Your Credit Scores</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 15 May 2012 05:43:20 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[Credit scores should be viewed as a person&#8217;s financial report card. Each credit score given by each credit bureau is simply an assessment of your financial ranking as a consumer. Credit scores are important because these numbers determine how much interest you will pay when obtaining credit cards and installment loans. Credit scores are also [...]]]></description>
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<div id="article_text_blocks">Credit scores should be viewed as a person&#8217;s financial report card. Each credit score given by each credit bureau is simply an assessment of your financial ranking as a consumer. Credit scores are important because these numbers determine how much interest you will pay when obtaining credit cards and installment loans. Credit scores are also used by insurance companies to determine eligibility and rates, and by potential employers. Here&#8217;s how to fix your score in four steps that take less than a day.
<p>1). <strong>Find out what your score is or could be.</strong> To find out what your credit scores are, you can sign up for free trial at <a href="http://www.freecreditscore.com/" target="_blank">www.freecreditscore.com</a> . But you would have to remember to cancel your membership before the promotional period is over. Another option is estimating your credit score with FICO calculator at <a href="http://www.myfico.com/" target="_blank">www.myfico.com</a> . I have used this numerous times, and found it to be within a 10-point range of my actual credit score. Both methods should require no more than 15 minutes of your time. You cannot improve your credit score if you do not know what is on your credit reports.</p>
<p>2). <strong>Review your credit report.</strong> The next step in improving your credit score is getting a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus. This can be accomplished by visiting <a href="http://www.annualcreditreport.com/" target="_blank">www.annualcreditreport.com</a> . Consumers are allowed one free credit report from each bureau, each year by law. Each credit report should be reviewed for and negative incorrect information. If any information is incorrect, you should contact bureau(s) right away to update the information and request that it changes are made immediately. Reviewing your credit reports may vary time due to each person&#8217;s financial history. I would suggest spending at least 20 minutes looking at each credit report.</p>
<p>3). <strong>Create a plan, and work that plan.</strong> The final step to improving your credit score is creating a budget plan that will either pay down or pay off your debts within 90 days to six months. It typically takes 30 days for a credit bureau to update balances. If you have substantial debt (over $  30,000), create plan that you can accomplish in 18 months to three years. Allocate about one hour to creating your budget plan.</p>
<p>4). <strong>Don&#8217;t believe the hype.</strong> The most common misunderstanding about credit is that a zero credit score is a negative thing. Having a credit score of 0 means simply that you don&#8217;t have debt with a financial institution. In situations where major lending may be required, your financial habits can be verified through alternative sources of credit. Alternative sources typically include utility payments, cell phone accounts, rental history, and medical bills. Another common misunderstanding is making regular and timely payments on your accounts will automatically improve your scores. The reality is that paying your balances in full each month will increase your credit score. If you are just making the minimum payments on your accounts, do not expect a credit score anywhere near 750.<br/></p>
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		<title>The Power of the Eye in Shakespeare&#8217;s A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream</title>
		<link>http://bergerafghanistan.com/?p=2044</link>
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		<pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2012 06:08:09 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[The ability of rhetoric to create important and interesting themes in literature can be somewhat lost among the more straightforward and commonplace techniques employed by authors to form major points and ideas within their writing. Techniques such as plot devices, dialog, and allusions are no doubt incredibly meaningful to the transmission of a work of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>The ability of rhetoric to create important and interesting themes in literature can be somewhat lost among the more straightforward and commonplace techniques employed by authors to form major points and ideas within their writing. Techniques such as plot devices, dialog, and allusions are no doubt incredibly meaningful to the transmission of a work of literature&#8217;s themes, although in many cases the rhetoric of that literary work may be just as, if not more important. One very widespread rhetorical device, repetition, has been used by writers throughout the ages to form subtle yet major ideas in their work. Repetition can be used in various ways including, but not limited to, &#8220;palilogia&#8221;, the repetition of a single word, with no other words in between, &#8220;anaphora&#8221;, the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of every clause, and &#8220;alliteration&#8221;, the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of two or more stressed syllables. One of the greatest masters of the forms of repetition in literature was William Shakespeare, who used almost every conceivable type of repetition.
<p>Besides the more technical uses of repetition, he is famous for repeating certain keywords throughout his plays to construct specific themes. In the Bedford Companion to Shakespeare, Russ McDonald emphasizes Shakespeare&#8217;s decisive use of language, writing that, &#8220;Shakespeare&#8217;s verbal power is an inexhaustible subject; finally it is a mystery. The magic of his language, its irresistible attraction, is a result of an artistic imagination speaking to the imagination of the audience, and figurative language is the medium for that communication. As we learn from A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, images, imagination, and magic are all of a piece&#8221; (37-8). In the play A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, Shakespeare uses a couple of different words steadily throughout the play, one being &#8220;moon&#8221;, and another being &#8220;eye&#8221;. The repetition of the word &#8220;moon&#8221; has been explored extensively and has clear and widely known connections with themes such as virginity and inconstancy. This is because of what Diana the Roman goddess of the moon symbolizes and the Elizabethans&#8217; connection between the moon&#8217;s waxing and waning and the indecisiveness of human character. In light of the large amount of research and knowledge on the symbolic importance of the moon in the play and in literature in general, the other highly repeated word, &#8220;eye&#8221;, should be given some closer examination and thought. In A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream by William Shakespeare, strong and rich connections can be drawn between the repetition of the word &#8220;eye&#8221; and the fickleness of the imagination in relation to love.</p>
<p>Perhaps the best place to begin is at the end. Theseus&#8217; speech at the beginning of Act 5, Scene 1 is quite possibly the clearest embodiment of the concept of fickleness of the imagination in relation to love within the play:</p>
<p>Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,<br />Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend<br />More than cool reason ever comprehends.<br />The lunatic, the lover, and the poet<br />Are of imagination all compact.<br />One sees more devils than vast hell could hold:<br />That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,<br />Sees Helen&#8217;s beauty in a brow of Egypt.<br />The poet&#8217;s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,<br />Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,<br />And as imagination bodies forth<br />The form of things unknown, the poet&#8217;s pen<br />Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing<br />A local habitation and a name. (5.1.4-17)</p>
<p>Theseus makes the argument that lovers, madmen, and poets&#8217; realities are not based in reason but rather in their imaginations. The madman sees devils that cannot possibly be there; the lover, just as mad himself, sees Helen of Troy, who was supposedly the most beautiful woman to ever live, in the face of a gypsy, a race thought of as inferior and ugly by the Elizabethans; the poet sees the world around him and imagines things unseen, turning these fantasies into realities with his pen. In all instances, the eyes lead these people into fantastical imagination. For better or worse, it seems inevitable that one&#8217;s eyes deceive them from time to time.</p>
<p>In regards to the four lovers of this play, Helena, Hermia, Demetrius, and Lysander, it appears that, although it looks not with the eyes, love nevertheless looks at the eyes. That is to say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This notion is perchance understood most easily from a speech by Helena in Act 1, Scene 1 when she talks bitterly of Demetrius&#8217; betrayal: &#8220;For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia&#8217;s eyne He hailed down oaths that he was only mine, And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt&#8221; (1.1.242-5). Before Demetrius had looked into Hermia&#8217;s eyes, he had sworn to Helena that she was his one and only. After looking upon Hermia&#8217;s eye, Demetrius fell in love with her, and the oaths that he had previously sworn to Helena seemed to just drift away. Thus, a person&#8217;s eyes can entrance the imagination and create love seemingly on the instant. This can be understood even more so in the old cliché, &#8216;love is blind&#8217;.</p>
<p>Love may truly be blind, and it sure acts as if it is when you look at all the great love stories in which characters are willing to endure insane hardships and overcome almost any hindrance in hopes of being united with their love-objects. When we look at the lovers of the play, they are engulfed by desire and imagination which does not represent the reality of their love-objects. Helena gives a number of speeches throughout the play which deal with the role of the eyes in love, many of which seem to foresee the infatuations that occur in the forest. In fact, within the first scene Helena says, &#8220;Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Nor hath love&#8217;s mind any judgment of taste; Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.&#8221; (1.1.234-7). In Latin, the verb &#8220;cupio, cupere, cupivi, cupitus&#8221; means &#8220;to desire, want&#8221;. Taking this historical fact of language into account, Cupid being painted blind shows us that human desire at its deepest root is unreasonable and impulsive. According to art historian Erwin Panofsky, &#8220;Helena&#8217;s speech is casting back to a medieval tradition in which Cupid was painted with a bandage over his eyes to represent the blindness of vulgar sensuality&#8221; (1962: 122-3). It could be that in all of this, it is vulgar fancies of the mind which produce such irrational action in our four lovers. This breaks down the whimsical ideal of love and turns our characters into nothing more than people acting out of animalistic craving. This cynical view of love is supported also by the adventures of the lovers in the forest.</p>
<p>The entirety of the forest escapade is used by Shakespeare as a major point of support for the theme of the fickleness of the imagination in relation to love. Everything that happens in the forest is dreamlike and serves as a metaphor for the human imagination when spellbound by love. When Demetrius and Helena meet in the forest in Act 2 Scene 1, Demetrius degrades her, saying, &#8220;Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am sick when I do look on thee&#8221; (2.1.211-2) to which Helena responds, &#8220;Then how can it be said I am alone, When all the world is here to look on me?&#8221; (2.1.225-6). When Helena says that &#8220;all the world&#8221; is there looking at her, she is saying that Demetrius is the entire world, for he is the only one present. Again, it is Demetrius&#8217; look which is described explicitly, showing the power of a love-object&#8217;s gaze. This ability of the eyes to engender both hatred and love is what lead Shakespeare scholar James L. Calderwood to say that &#8220;these annihilating looks and the general antagonisms of the wood may remind us that falling in love is hard to distinguish from falling in hate&#8221; (1992:39). These &#8220;gazes&#8221; are employed by Shakespeare once again as plot devices in Oberon&#8217;s scheme.</p>
<p>The whole concept of the &#8220;love juice&#8221; and its application to the eyes of Lysander, Demetrius, and Titania is a connection between the eyes and the imagination. When Puck anoints the eyes of these three characters, they instantly fall in love with the first thing they see. This is an exaggerated form of the concepts of beauty being in the eye of the beholder and love being blind. It is exaggerated purposefully as to show how the mind can ridiculously warp our vision of love and our love-object. Especially in Titania&#8217;s case when she falls instantly in love with Bottom, who has the head of an ass. In Lysander and Demetrius&#8217; case, they represent the fickleness of the imagination and love when they both instantly fall in love with Helena, since they had both just been pursuing Hermia. The following confusion of Helena&#8217;s disbelief that the two men really love her, as well as her accusations that Hermia has conspired with them to play a prank on her, create yet another display of the fickleness of the imagination. Confusion plays its role again in A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, in the play-within-the-play.</p>
<p>Shakespeare uses the interesting tool of &#8216;metatheater&#8217; to press the power of the eye and the imagination&#8217;s fickleness one more time to his audience. In the play put on by the bumbling actors, The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, we are again faced with metaphors backed by a larger metaphor. The fact that the actors are terrible and do ridiculous things such as Snug telling the women in the audience to not fear him because he is not really a lion, but Snug, or Starveling, who plays the moon, saying &#8220;This lantern doth the horned moon present&#8221; (5.1.231), shows the air of confusion around the entire performance. The title itself shows a confused troop of actors, for how can a comedy be most lamentable and funny at the same time? Well, besides it being a pun of Shakespeare&#8217;s since they act so terribly that the play is actually funny, no play can truly display both these themes wholly and this shows the performance as one surrounded in confusion. This confusion is similar to the misunderstandings of the lovers in the forest. Within the context of this confusion of performance, Pyramus and Thisbe are only able to view and hear each other through a crack in a wall which furthers the idea of the imaginations ability to create, elaborate love fantasies and that the mind is opened to these through the eye. They can only see each other through a slit, so the eyes of the lovers are windows into one another&#8217;s minds. Without much deep knowledge of each other, they fall madly in love and create an incredible romance. This is very similar to what happens in the forest with the &#8220;love juice&#8221; and the four lovers. Their eyes act as Pyramus and Thisbe&#8217;s do, as do their imaginations. The tragic end of Pyramus and Thisbe shows the most extreme point of where the mind can lead someone, to death. They built their entire romance, one which they died for, around one another&#8217;s eyes. And what passions came of it, what senseless passions.</p>
<p>In A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, both the mind and the eyes are as senseless as the other. The mind lacks serious judgment, perhaps shown best in Helena&#8217;s unrequited love for Demetrius. Thus, Love&#8217;s eye and mind are both blinded, as Cupid was blinded, because the senses fall short, as did Pyramus and Thisbe&#8217;s senses, and the mind lacks judgment, as do the minds of Demetrius, Lysander, Helena, and Hermia. The fickleness of the imagination in relation to love is repeated throughout with references to the &#8220;eye&#8221;: the anointing of the lovers&#8217; eyes by Puck in the woods and the subsequent mess they find themselves in, the looks and gazes which set the minds of the lovers into fantastical imagination, and the metaphorical use of the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe&#8217;s eye-engendered romance that leads them to their deaths. In Shakespeare&#8217;s A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, the eye leads the characters in and out of love, confusion, and unbounded imagination. The eye acts as a window into the characters&#8217; minds, while the imagination is a fog which covers that window, shaping our lovers into a literal representation of the imagination&#8217;s fickleness in relation to love.</p>
<p><strong>Works Cited-</strong></p>
<p>Calderwood, James L. A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.</p>
<p>McDonald, Russ. The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin&#8217;s, 2001.</p>
<p>Panofsky, Erwin. &#8220;Blind Cupid&#8221; in his Studies on Iconology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.</p>
<p>Shakespeare, William. &#8220;A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream.&#8221; The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton &amp; Company, Inc., 2009. 199-246.
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		<title>Man Accused of Double Homicide Commits Suicide</title>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 06:37:12 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[According to the FBI, Adam Mayes, a suspect in a double murder and kidnapping was found with a self inflicted gun shot wound that he did not survive. Mayes allegedly kidnapped a woman and her three children due to being under the impression that two of the children were his. The mother and her oldest [...]]]></description>
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<div id="article_text_blocks">According to the FBI, Adam Mayes, a suspect in a double murder and kidnapping was found with a self inflicted gun shot wound that he did not survive. Mayes allegedly kidnapped a woman and her three children due to being under the impression that two of the children were his. The mother and her oldest daughter were found murdered and buried in Mayes back yard.
<p>Adam Mayes was charged earlier in the week along with his wife, with first degree murder of a Tennessee woman and her teenage daughter. Jo Ann Bain and her daughter Adrienne, who was only 14 were found buried in the Mayes backyard.. It is also charged that they kidnapped Alexandria, age 12, and Kyliyah, age 8. The <a class="link interlink" rel="&amp;content_type=topic&amp;content_type_id=6819" href="http://voices.yahoo.com/topic/6819/fbi.html" title="FBI">FBI</a> becomes involved with vicious crimes that cross state lines. Since the family originated in Tennessee, and the bodies were found in Mississippi, FBI claimed jurisdiction.</p>
<p>Mayes mother, Mary Frances, was also charged with conspiracy to commit kidnapping. Teresa Mayes was arrested as well and told FBI that she had witnessed the killing of JoAnn Bain in the garage and Adrienne inside the Mayes home. After Adam Mayes was charged, he went into hiding.</p>
<p>Shortly after his disappearance, he was placed on the FBI&#8217;s Top 10 fugitive list. After he was located, the FBI SWAT team closed in on his location. Mayes realized that he was going to be captured, he allegedly shot him self in the head.</p>
<p>The swat team attempted to resuscitate him. After loosing his pulse twice, he was pronounce dead at a local hospital. The two younger girls who were declared kidnapped after the death of their mother and older sister were found unharmed.</p>
<p>Family and neighbors of the victims claim that Mayes was obsessed with the family and stated that the two girls that he kidnapped were his own children. It was also reported that he was obsessed with the two little girls.</p>
<p><strong>Resources<br/></strong><br/><a target="_blank" href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/suspected-killer-adam-mayes-shoots-dead-missing-tennessee/story?id=16319838#.T67Hd8WvOmE">http://abcnews.go.com/US/suspected-killer-adam-mayes-shoots-dead-missing-tennessee/story?id=16319838#.T67Hd8WvOmE</a></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/11/adam-mayes-homicide-kidnap-suspect-kills-self-2-surviving-sisters-safe/">http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/11/adam-mayes-homicide-kidnap-suspect-kills-self-2-surviving-sisters-safe/</a></p>
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		<title>The Power of the Eye in Shakespeare&#8217;s A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream</title>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 12 May 2012 07:03:25 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[The ability of rhetoric to create important and interesting themes in literature can be somewhat lost among the more straightforward and commonplace techniques employed by authors to form major points and ideas within their writing. Techniques such as plot devices, dialog, and allusions are no doubt incredibly meaningful to the transmission of a work of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>The ability of rhetoric to create important and interesting themes in literature can be somewhat lost among the more straightforward and commonplace techniques employed by authors to form major points and ideas within their writing. Techniques such as plot devices, dialog, and allusions are no doubt incredibly meaningful to the transmission of a work of literature&#8217;s themes, although in many cases the rhetoric of that literary work may be just as, if not more important. One very widespread rhetorical device, repetition, has been used by writers throughout the ages to form subtle yet major ideas in their work. Repetition can be used in various ways including, but not limited to, &#8220;palilogia&#8221;, the repetition of a single word, with no other words in between, &#8220;anaphora&#8221;, the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of every clause, and &#8220;alliteration&#8221;, the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of two or more stressed syllables. One of the greatest masters of the forms of repetition in literature was William Shakespeare, who used almost every conceivable type of repetition.
<p>Besides the more technical uses of repetition, he is famous for repeating certain keywords throughout his plays to construct specific themes. In the Bedford Companion to Shakespeare, Russ McDonald emphasizes Shakespeare&#8217;s decisive use of language, writing that, &#8220;Shakespeare&#8217;s verbal power is an inexhaustible subject; finally it is a mystery. The magic of his language, its irresistible attraction, is a result of an artistic imagination speaking to the imagination of the audience, and figurative language is the medium for that communication. As we learn from A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, images, imagination, and magic are all of a piece&#8221; (37-8). In the play A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, Shakespeare uses a couple of different words steadily throughout the play, one being &#8220;moon&#8221;, and another being &#8220;eye&#8221;. The repetition of the word &#8220;moon&#8221; has been explored extensively and has clear and widely known connections with themes such as virginity and inconstancy. This is because of what Diana the Roman goddess of the moon symbolizes and the Elizabethans&#8217; connection between the moon&#8217;s waxing and waning and the indecisiveness of human character. In light of the large amount of research and knowledge on the symbolic importance of the moon in the play and in literature in general, the other highly repeated word, &#8220;eye&#8221;, should be given some closer examination and thought. In A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream by William Shakespeare, strong and rich connections can be drawn between the repetition of the word &#8220;eye&#8221; and the fickleness of the imagination in relation to love.</p>
<p>Perhaps the best place to begin is at the end. Theseus&#8217; speech at the beginning of Act 5, Scene 1 is quite possibly the clearest embodiment of the concept of fickleness of the imagination in relation to love within the play:</p>
<p>Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,<br />Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend<br />More than cool reason ever comprehends.<br />The lunatic, the lover, and the poet<br />Are of imagination all compact.<br />One sees more devils than vast hell could hold:<br />That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,<br />Sees Helen&#8217;s beauty in a brow of Egypt.<br />The poet&#8217;s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,<br />Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,<br />And as imagination bodies forth<br />The form of things unknown, the poet&#8217;s pen<br />Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing<br />A local habitation and a name. (5.1.4-17)</p>
<p>Theseus makes the argument that lovers, madmen, and poets&#8217; realities are not based in reason but rather in their imaginations. The madman sees devils that cannot possibly be there; the lover, just as mad himself, sees Helen of Troy, who was supposedly the most beautiful woman to ever live, in the face of a gypsy, a race thought of as inferior and ugly by the Elizabethans; the poet sees the world around him and imagines things unseen, turning these fantasies into realities with his pen. In all instances, the eyes lead these people into fantastical imagination. For better or worse, it seems inevitable that one&#8217;s eyes deceive them from time to time.</p>
<p>In regards to the four lovers of this play, Helena, Hermia, Demetrius, and Lysander, it appears that, although it looks not with the eyes, love nevertheless looks at the eyes. That is to say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This notion is perchance understood most easily from a speech by Helena in Act 1, Scene 1 when she talks bitterly of Demetrius&#8217; betrayal: &#8220;For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia&#8217;s eyne He hailed down oaths that he was only mine, And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt&#8221; (1.1.242-5). Before Demetrius had looked into Hermia&#8217;s eyes, he had sworn to Helena that she was his one and only. After looking upon Hermia&#8217;s eye, Demetrius fell in love with her, and the oaths that he had previously sworn to Helena seemed to just drift away. Thus, a person&#8217;s eyes can entrance the imagination and create love seemingly on the instant. This can be understood even more so in the old cliché, &#8216;love is blind&#8217;.</p>
<p>Love may truly be blind, and it sure acts as if it is when you look at all the great love stories in which characters are willing to endure insane hardships and overcome almost any hindrance in hopes of being united with their love-objects. When we look at the lovers of the play, they are engulfed by desire and imagination which does not represent the reality of their love-objects. Helena gives a number of speeches throughout the play which deal with the role of the eyes in love, many of which seem to foresee the infatuations that occur in the forest. In fact, within the first scene Helena says, &#8220;Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Nor hath love&#8217;s mind any judgment of taste; Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.&#8221; (1.1.234-7). In Latin, the verb &#8220;cupio, cupere, cupivi, cupitus&#8221; means &#8220;to desire, want&#8221;. Taking this historical fact of language into account, Cupid being painted blind shows us that human desire at its deepest root is unreasonable and impulsive. According to art historian Erwin Panofsky, &#8220;Helena&#8217;s speech is casting back to a medieval tradition in which Cupid was painted with a bandage over his eyes to represent the blindness of vulgar sensuality&#8221; (1962: 122-3). It could be that in all of this, it is vulgar fancies of the mind which produce such irrational action in our four lovers. This breaks down the whimsical ideal of love and turns our characters into nothing more than people acting out of animalistic craving. This cynical view of love is supported also by the adventures of the lovers in the forest.</p>
<p>The entirety of the forest escapade is used by Shakespeare as a major point of support for the theme of the fickleness of the imagination in relation to love. Everything that happens in the forest is dreamlike and serves as a metaphor for the human imagination when spellbound by love. When Demetrius and Helena meet in the forest in Act 2 Scene 1, Demetrius degrades her, saying, &#8220;Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; For I am sick when I do look on thee&#8221; (2.1.211-2) to which Helena responds, &#8220;Then how can it be said I am alone, When all the world is here to look on me?&#8221; (2.1.225-6). When Helena says that &#8220;all the world&#8221; is there looking at her, she is saying that Demetrius is the entire world, for he is the only one present. Again, it is Demetrius&#8217; look which is described explicitly, showing the power of a love-object&#8217;s gaze. This ability of the eyes to engender both hatred and love is what lead Shakespeare scholar James L. Calderwood to say that &#8220;these annihilating looks and the general antagonisms of the wood may remind us that falling in love is hard to distinguish from falling in hate&#8221; (1992:39). These &#8220;gazes&#8221; are employed by Shakespeare once again as plot devices in Oberon&#8217;s scheme.</p>
<p>The whole concept of the &#8220;love juice&#8221; and its application to the eyes of Lysander, Demetrius, and Titania is a connection between the eyes and the imagination. When Puck anoints the eyes of these three characters, they instantly fall in love with the first thing they see. This is an exaggerated form of the concepts of beauty being in the eye of the beholder and love being blind. It is exaggerated purposefully as to show how the mind can ridiculously warp our vision of love and our love-object. Especially in Titania&#8217;s case when she falls instantly in love with Bottom, who has the head of an ass. In Lysander and Demetrius&#8217; case, they represent the fickleness of the imagination and love when they both instantly fall in love with Helena, since they had both just been pursuing Hermia. The following confusion of Helena&#8217;s disbelief that the two men really love her, as well as her accusations that Hermia has conspired with them to play a prank on her, create yet another display of the fickleness of the imagination. Confusion plays its role again in A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, in the play-within-the-play.</p>
<p>Shakespeare uses the interesting tool of &#8216;metatheater&#8217; to press the power of the eye and the imagination&#8217;s fickleness one more time to his audience. In the play put on by the bumbling actors, The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, we are again faced with metaphors backed by a larger metaphor. The fact that the actors are terrible and do ridiculous things such as Snug telling the women in the audience to not fear him because he is not really a lion, but Snug, or Starveling, who plays the moon, saying &#8220;This lantern doth the horned moon present&#8221; (5.1.231), shows the air of confusion around the entire performance. The title itself shows a confused troop of actors, for how can a comedy be most lamentable and funny at the same time? Well, besides it being a pun of Shakespeare&#8217;s since they act so terribly that the play is actually funny, no play can truly display both these themes wholly and this shows the performance as one surrounded in confusion. This confusion is similar to the misunderstandings of the lovers in the forest. Within the context of this confusion of performance, Pyramus and Thisbe are only able to view and hear each other through a crack in a wall which furthers the idea of the imaginations ability to create, elaborate love fantasies and that the mind is opened to these through the eye. They can only see each other through a slit, so the eyes of the lovers are windows into one another&#8217;s minds. Without much deep knowledge of each other, they fall madly in love and create an incredible romance. This is very similar to what happens in the forest with the &#8220;love juice&#8221; and the four lovers. Their eyes act as Pyramus and Thisbe&#8217;s do, as do their imaginations. The tragic end of Pyramus and Thisbe shows the most extreme point of where the mind can lead someone, to death. They built their entire romance, one which they died for, around one another&#8217;s eyes. And what passions came of it, what senseless passions.</p>
<p>In A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, both the mind and the eyes are as senseless as the other. The mind lacks serious judgment, perhaps shown best in Helena&#8217;s unrequited love for Demetrius. Thus, Love&#8217;s eye and mind are both blinded, as Cupid was blinded, because the senses fall short, as did Pyramus and Thisbe&#8217;s senses, and the mind lacks judgment, as do the minds of Demetrius, Lysander, Helena, and Hermia. The fickleness of the imagination in relation to love is repeated throughout with references to the &#8220;eye&#8221;: the anointing of the lovers&#8217; eyes by Puck in the woods and the subsequent mess they find themselves in, the looks and gazes which set the minds of the lovers into fantastical imagination, and the metaphorical use of the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe&#8217;s eye-engendered romance that leads them to their deaths. In Shakespeare&#8217;s A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream, the eye leads the characters in and out of love, confusion, and unbounded imagination. The eye acts as a window into the characters&#8217; minds, while the imagination is a fog which covers that window, shaping our lovers into a literal representation of the imagination&#8217;s fickleness in relation to love.</p>
<p><strong>Works Cited-</strong></p>
<p>Calderwood, James L. A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.</p>
<p>McDonald, Russ. The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare: An Introduction with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin&#8217;s, 2001.</p>
<p>Panofsky, Erwin. &#8220;Blind Cupid&#8221; in his Studies on Iconology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962.</p>
<p>Shakespeare, William. &#8220;A Midsummer Night&#8217;s Dream.&#8221; The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton &amp; Company, Inc., 2009. 199-246.
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		<title>Scott Brown Questions Elizabeth Warren&#8217;s Native American Ancestry</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2012 07:25:15 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[In Massachusetts, political races are so contested that candidates apparently question the ethnicity of their opponents. Or such is the case in the state at the moment, where Senator Scott Brown issued a statement yesterday indicating that his likely Democratic opponent in the Massachusetts Senate race, Elizabeth Warren, should release her law school applications to [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<div>In Massachusetts, political races are so contested that candidates apparently question the ethnicity of their opponents. Or such is the case in the state at the moment, where Senator Scott Brown issued a statement yesterday indicating that his likely Democratic opponent in the Massachusetts Senate race, Elizabeth Warren, should release her law school applications to indicate if she is, in fact, of Native American ancestry.
<p>Warren apparently self-identifies herself as Cherokee, but it is a tenuous claim at best and apparently Brown is calling her on it. Noted a statement put out by Brown’s camp, &#8220;Serious questions have been raised about the legitimacy of Elizabeth Warren&#8217;s claims to Native American ancestry and whether it was appropriate for her to assume minority status as a college professor. The best way to satisfy these questions is for Elizabeth Warren to authorize the release of her law school applications and all personnel files from the various universities where she has taught.&#8221;</p>
<p>Warren countered rather quickly, indicating that the move is an attempt by Brown to divert voter attention from his record. Noted a spokesperson for Warren in a statement, &#8220;Once again, Republican Senator Brown is shamelessly attempting to divert attention from his record on the issues that really matter in this election, like the cost of student loans. Minutes after Scott Brown voted with his Republican Party to double interest rates on student loans, he ridiculously attacked Elizabeth Warren with questions that have already been answered.&#8221; Whether Warren will ever prove her ancestry claims remains to be seen, but it is something that Brown is likely to drop until she does.</p>
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		<title>Vs. autobiography. Memory</title>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 10 May 2012 07:51:21 +0000</pubDate>
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<p> There are many similarities between autobiographies and memoirs, and often only the most discerning reader can tell the difference between the two. Whether you were assigned the book for a class or picked it up at your local library, because it seemed interesting to know the difference between autobiography and memories can improve their understanding of the text
<p>. <strong> Autobiographies </strong> </p>
<p> autobiographies are different from those biographies where the author writes an autobiography about his ego more than what is written about them. Autobiographies usually cover much ground in the author&#8217;s life AOs. If you are reading the author&#8217;s life story until he or she wrote the book, it is likely that reading an autobiography. The wording of these texts tends to be a bit dry, or less interesting, because so long must be covered from beginning to end. </P> <strong> Memories </strong> </p>
<p> Memory usually address a specific issue or point in a person&#8217;s life AOs. If the author wants to tell the story of his divorce, illness or any other time or event in the author&#8217;s life changed administrative officers, he or she probably will write a memoir. Because this is a specific problem that is usually within the author, the PM in recent memory, the writing style in the reports tends to be more literate and creative, making it easier to read. </P> <strong> Similarities </strong> </p>
<p> Obviously, autobiographies and memoirs are nonfiction texts written by the author about specific events in your life. The biggest similarity is that the texts are all true. Many authors write autobiographical fiction, which means that the story itself is not true, but based on events that happened in your life. While this may look like autobiographies or memoirs, the fact that the latter is absolutely true in the eyes of the storyteller that difference. Both memoirs and autobiographies can also be very interesting to read, especially considering the events actually occurred. As the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction, so reading nonfiction can attract many readers. </P> <strong> differences </strong> </p>
<p> The differences between autobiographies and memoirs, then, are subtle. As mentioned above, autobiographies usually cover a longer time period and as such, are sometimes more difficult to read. If you are very interested in the story of someone&#8217;s life administrative officers, you may want to pick that person, the autobiography of AO. If you are more interested in how someone was a specific situation &#8211; perhaps one they face in their lives &#8211; a memoir on the subject can be for you. Similarly, the reports often address difficult issues and you do not necessarily have to be written by someone who is already well known. </P> <strong> decide Write </strong> </p>
<p> If you are an author of nonfiction who aspire and are planning on writing about his life, deciding between writing an autobiography and a memoir can be difficult. The first thing to do is think about the story you want told. If you want to tell the story of his life, go with an autobiography. If you can see in your life and identify a situation that happened and you feel strongly that, ODA, and to share that experience with the world, go with a memoir. </P> From the perspective of sales, the memories are more likely to sell, especially if you are not a well known celebrity. Celebrities can write autobiographies successful because people want to read their stories of life in their views, so generally sell well. Memories, however, apply to all who have gone through a similar situation, making it easier to market. </P> </div>
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		<title>Everyone in Cincinnati Loves Mamma Mia!</title>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2012 08:20:30 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[Based on the songs of ABBA, Broadway&#8217;s hit musical Mamma Mia! didn&#8217;t disappoint the packed house when it opened at Cincinnati&#8217;s Aronoff Center on Tuesday May 1. The touring production of Mamma Mia! that hit the stage in Cincinnati starred Chloe Tucker as Sophie, Happy Mahaney as Sky, Kaye Tuckerman as Donna (Sophie&#8217;s Mother) and [...]]]></description>
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<p>Based on the songs of ABBA, Broadway&#8217;s hit musical Mamma Mia! didn&#8217;t disappoint the packed house when it opened at Cincinnati&#8217;s Aronoff Center on Tuesday May 1.</p>
<p>The touring production of Mamma Mia! that hit the stage in Cincinnati starred Chloe Tucker as Sophie, Happy Mahaney as Sky, Kaye Tuckerman as Donna (Sophie&#8217;s Mother) and Donna&#8217;s friends and former bandmates Alison Ewing as Tanya and Mary Callanan as Rosie.</p>
<p>Set on a small, Greek island, the story becomes a bit tangled at times with Sophie trying to find and include her father in her upcoming wedding. However, the mood of the show remains upbeat and lighthearted throughout the entire production. The crowd was laughing with the characters and singing along to some of their best-loved ABBA songs the whole night.</p>
<p>In the end, this romantic comedy has a happy ending as Sophie renews her bond with her Mother, pledges her love to Sky and is introduced to Harry, Bill and Sam.</p>
<p>Highlights from the stellar show included &#8220;Dancing Queen&#8221; &#8220;Mamma Mia,&#8221; &#8220;S.O.S,&#8221; &#8220;Money, Money, Money,&#8221; &#8220;Take a Chance on Me,&#8221; and &#8220;The Winner Takes it All.&#8221;</p>
<p>The show is very moving and inspiring, as it causes viewers to think about their own <a class="link interlink" rel="&amp;content_type=theme&amp;content_type_id=1394" href="http://voices.yahoo.com/theme/1394/relationships.html" title="relationships">relationships</a> &#8211; past, present and future.</p>
<p>Written in 2000, Mamma Mia! became a top-grossing movie in 2008, featuring Meryl Steep. Today, it continues to impress millions across the globe. Of course, a standing ovation was in order at the end of the show.</p>
<p>Mamma Mia! Has been seen by over 50 million people around the world, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus&#8217; Mamma Mia! is celebrating over 4,000 performances in its tenth year at Broadway&#8217;s Winter Garden Theatre and remains among Broadway&#8217;s top selling musicals. The current North American Tour has played over 3,700 performances in over 150 cities with 145 repeat visits.</p>
<p>Momma Mia! will be in Cincinnati through Sunday, May 6. Tickets range from $  40 to $  75 each (plus applicable fees.) For tickets, visit <a href="http://www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com">http://www.BroadwayAcrossAmerica.com</a>, or at <a href="http://www.ticketmaster.com">http://www.ticketmaster.com</a>, by phone at (800) 982.2787. For more about Mamma Mia! visit <a href="http://www.mammamianorthamerica.com">http://www.mammamianorthamerica.com</a>. The show is part of the Fifth Third Bank Broadway in Cincinnati 11/12 Season.</p>
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		<title>Sample Christian Graduation Thank You Card</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 08 May 2012 08:42:47 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description><![CDATA[Dear , I just wanted to thank you for my graduation gift. The gift you sent is being used to buy a . I want to thank you for supporting me and being an influence in my life. I treasure our friendship and all you have done and continue to do for me. The gift [...]]]></description>
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<p>Dear ,</p>
<p>I just wanted to thank you for my graduation gift. The gift you sent is being used to buy a . I want to thank you for supporting me and being an influence in my life. I treasure our friendship and all you have done and continue to do for me. The gift was a blessing and may God bless you for blessing me.</p>
<p>Ephesians 4:7 &#8211; Now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the Messiah&#8217;s gift.</p>
<p>Thank you again for what you have done. I am truly grateful.</p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Class of</p>
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