Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

I decided to read the first chapter, "Brownies", because I was once a Girl Scout and thought I might be able to relate. I think ZZ Packer is a great writer. I could visualize the troop and the camping trip because of her writing technique. The story was overflowing with detail and description.

On the second page, Packer describes Mrs. Margolin: "Arnetta said this from the very rear of the line, far away from Mrs. Margolin, who always strung our troop behind her like a brood of obedient ducklings. Mrs. Margolin even looked like a mother duck-she had hair cropped close to a small ball of a head, almost no neck, and huge, miraculous breasts." Her description made me laugh. I could picture this oddly shaped large woman leading along little girls in an effortless single-file line.

Sentences like this one, on page 7, give the story it's magic: " 'We can't let them get away with that,' Arnetta said, dropping her voice to a laryngitic whisper."

I particularly liked this description from page 8: "Her tone had an upholstered confidence that as somehow both regal and vulgar at once. It demanded a few moments of silence in its wake, like the ringing of a church bell or the playing of taps." With the visuals of the ringing church bell and the playing of taps I could see how people were silenced.

Instead of telling us that the bathroom was a mess, on page 13, Packer writes, "Inside, the mirrors above the sinks returned only the vaguest of reflections, as though someone had taken a scouring pad to their surfaces to obscure the shine. Pine needles, leaves, and dirty, flattened wads of chewing gum covered the floor like a mosaic. Webs of hair matted the drain in the middle of the floor. Above the sinks and below the mirrors, stacks of folded white paper towels lay on a long metal counter. Shaggy white balls of paper towels sat on the sinktops in a line like corsages on display. A thread of floss snaked from a wad of tissues dotted with the faint red-pink of blood."

With this great detail, I automatically get a complete visual of almost every bathroom at a campsite that I have ever seen and I can almost smell the scent of camping.

(Word Count: 388)

Copy Edit the World

CNN- Record-setting pilot dies at 26

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Vicki Van Meter, who made headlines in the 1990s for piloting a plane across the United States at age 11 and from the U.S. to Europe at age 12, died in an apparent suicide. She was 26.

Vicki Van Meter's mother said "she had more guts than any of us could ever imagine."

Van Meter died Saturday of an *apparently* self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Crawford County coroner said. Her body was found in her Meadville, Pennsylvania, home on Sunday.

Her brother said she battled depression, but her family thought she had been dealing with her problems.

"She was unhappy, but it was hard for her to open up about *that, and* we all thought that she was coping," Daniel Van Meter said. He said she had opposed taking medication.

* = possible mistake
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Yahoo News- Real Death Star Could Strike Earth

Both the massive stars in WR 104 will one day explode as supernovae. However, one of the pair is a highly unstable star known as a Wolf-Rayet, the last known stable phase in the life of these massive stars right before a supernova.

"Wolf-Rayet stars are regarded by astronomers as ticking bombs," Tuthill explained. The 'fuse' for this star "is now very short — to an astronomer — and it may explode any time within the next few hundred thousand years."

When the Wolf-Rayet goes supernova, "it could emit an intense beam of gamma rays coming our way," Tuthill said. "If such a 'gamma ray burst' happens, we really do not want Earth to be in the way."

Since the initial blast would travel at the speed of light, there would be no warning of its arrival.

Firing line

Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions known in the universe. They can *loose* as much energy as our sun during its entire 10 billion year lifetime in anywhere from milliseconds to a minute or more.

* = possible mistake

Journal Writing #3- NPR Radio Interview Analysis

Terry Gross for Fresh Air: Writer Aram Roston, Parsing Ahmad Chalabi's Past

Investigative journalist's book is "The Man Who Pushed America to War"

What did the interviewer know about the subject before the interview? It seems that she had read the book before the interview or had extensive notes on it to refer to. She also seemed to have done research of Ahmad Chalabi.

What kinds of questions did they ask? She asked how the C.I.A funded Chalabi and if it was laundered money. Why the C.I.A trusted Chalabi when he was known to take money? Why did they cut him off?

How did they build up to questions? How did they follow up to questions? She repeated Aram Roston's previous answers and then asked another question related to it. She did the same with following up.

Did the interviewer appear to have a strategy? She wanted to get down to how the project was funded and to show what false information the American people were given because of Chalabi.

How were inadequate or evasive answers (if any) handled? She asked the question she had previously asked in a different way.

What was the apparent relationship between the interviewer and interviewee? They are both journalists, one who is learned in a topic that the other is interested in telling the listeners.

What did you learn about interviewing from this interview? That interviews can run smoothly if you listen and ask questions based off of answers you are given.

Word of the Week

Word #7

Word: atavistic

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

How it was used: She did not comprehend why he thought it an abomination that he had had a woman in secret, since that was an atavistic custom of a certain kind of man, himself included, yes even he in a moment of ingratitude, and besides, it seemed to her a heartbreaking proof of love that she had helped him carry out his decision to die.

Definition: at·a·vis·tic (adj). 1. relating to or diplaying the recurrence of a genetic feature that has been absent for several generations. 2. relating to or displaying the kind of behavior that seems to be a product of impulses long since suppressed by society's rules.

My Sentence: Polygamy is an atavistic practice.

Mystery Character

This curvaceous blonde knows she was born for the limelight. When she enters a room you can’t help but notice her parading around dramatically as if she’s starved for attention. Her aggression is unmistakable. Always dressed in the finest her money can buy, she puts to shame any modern fashionista. She often uses the French word Moi even though she isn't french. Martial arts are not the only arts she practices, she also acts, sings and models. Don’t let her big snout fool you she has a taste for expensive cuisine, especially when it’s with her famous love interest. Young girls are big fans. Can you guess who she is?

(Word Count: 110)

Word of the Week

Word #6

Word: veneration

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

How it was used: They greeted him with a solemnity that on this occasion had more of condolence than veneration, for no one was unaware of the degree of his friendship with Heremiah de Saint-Amour.

Definition: ven·er·a·tion (n). 1. a feeling of great respect or reverence for somebody or something. 2. the expression of respect or reverence for somebody or something in words or actions. 3. the condition of being respected or revered.

My Sentence: The jury held the judge in the uppermost veneration.