Literary pick: Three new children’s books
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
Laura Purdie SalasThe snow is melting, leaving behind water and more water. It’s the perfect time of year for three new books from Minneapolis children’s author Laura Purdie Salas, all connected by water. They are: “Zap! Clap! Boom!,” “Finding Family: The Duckling Raised by Loons,” and a board book, “Puddle Song!”Purdie Salas, who’s written more than 130 books for the kiddos, will launch her new trio at a spring storytime at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, April 1, at Red Balloon Bookshop, 891 Grand Ave., St. Paul. She promises “singing, storming, moving and reading.” After the program, she will sign books.Here’s a peek inside their covers.“Zap! Clap! Boom!”: This dynamic introduction to weather focuses on the life cycle of a thunderstorm that begins “no rain yet. It’s just a threat -/ a rising cloud, a towering plume, then… ” The text follows as the weather changes from a blue-sky d...Ask Amy: Hot babe seeks same, and friends are over it
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
Dear Amy: Over the last two decades my partner and I have helped a friend through several abusive relationships, rehab, and financial issues. Now, not unlike her history of addiction, she’s suddenly “found God” to the extreme.She carries a Bible, goes to Bible study, and her Facebook posts are all about God.She says she wants to move on from her past and yet she then posts: “In search of a Hot Christian Man, because I am a Hot Christian woman.”Yes, she is definitely a “babe” (and she dresses like one), but I’ve suggested a milder route in her search for purity.She disagrees, and says that I just don’t get it.Maybe I don’t get it, but if she got a job and dialed God back a few notches, I think “Hot Man” would find her.While entertaining, after more than 20 years we’re getting tired of the drama.Any thoughts on where God is going with this?Is this another addiction running its course?— SpiritualDear Spiritual: As healthy as m...Bridge: March 26, 2023
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
Unlucky Louie came to me in the club lounge with another tale of self-inflicted woe.“A two-way guess for a missing queen is a 50-50 proposition, isn’t it?” Louie asked.I nodded cautiously. An expert declarer will guess right at least 75 percent of the time. Clues or “table feel” will point his way.“I’m in a slump,” Louie said. “I couldn’t locate a missing queen if I were armed with a search warrant. I’m going wrong every time.”Louie made me look at one deal. He had been declarer at four hearts. West led the K-A and a third club, and luckily for Louie, his queen won the third trick.“I forced out the ace of trumps,” Louie told me, “and West led a diamond. Dummy’s queen won, and I drew trumps, but I still had to guess the queen of spades. Naturally, I led a spade to dummy’s ten, playing the opening bidder for the queen … and East won. I would do better if I just finessed in the d...Horoscopes March 26, 2023: Kenny Chesney, trust your instincts
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Keira Knightley, 38; Kenny Chesney, 55; Martin Short, 73; Steven Tyler, 75.Steven Tyler (Evan Agostini/Associated Press archives) Happy Birthday: The pendulum swings, and it’s your turn to play. Choose your tools wisely, and make kindness, consideration and honesty your preferences. Work diligently toward your goal, but don’t present or display your progress prematurely. If you want to make an impact, using the element of surprise works best. Trust your instincts, follow your heart and turn your actions into a springboard for success. Your numbers are 5, 17, 21, 28, 30, 34, 47.ARIES (March 21-April 19): Things will start piling up if you aren’t savvy in handling money, people and prospects. Be on guard to make a move, change direction or start anew at the snap of a finger. Know your worth, set high standards and finish what you start. 4 starsTAURUS (April 20-May 20): Get everything in place before you start something new. How you ...After Tide of Memoirs From Americans, an Iraqi Journalist Offers Inside Account of War’s Destruction
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
American journalists and soldiers have published countless memoirs about their experiences in the Iraq War. But a new book by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad provides a radically different perspective: that of an ordinary Iraqi who witnessed firsthand the decimation of his country.“The occupation was bound to collapse and fail,” Abdul-Ahad writes of the U.S. invasion in his remarkable memoir, “A Stranger in My Own City: Travels in the Middle East’s Long War.” As Abdul-Ahad goes on to explain, “A nation can’t be bombed, humiliated and sanctioned, then bombed again, and then told to become a democracy.”Abdul-Ahad is among a generation of Iraqi writers and journalists who lived through the conflict and, two decades later, are finally being heard. What he has to say not only confronts the self-serving narratives of the war’s supporters and revisionists, but also bitterly confronts how the Iraqi people were used as pawns in a war that was launched in their name.“We were all merely potential coll...Kyiv and Berlin slam Putin’s plan to station nuclear weapons in Belarus
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
Officials in Kyiv and Berlin condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement that Moscow would station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.The Kremlin “took Belarus as a nuclear hostage,” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, tweeted on Sunday.Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, added that the move was a violation of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, something that Putin denied in his announcement on Saturday. Podolyak tweeted that Putin “is afraid of losing & all he can do is scare [us] with tactics.”Putin said on Saturday that Russia would construct a storage facility for tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus by July. He likened the plans to the U.S. stationing its nuclear weapons in Europe, and said Russia would retain control of the nuclear arms stationed in Belarus.“The United States has been doing this for decades,” Putin w...Police investigating stabbing at Jackson Square MBTA station
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
Transit police are investigating a stabbing at the Jackson Square MBTA station in Jamaica Plain late Saturday night.Officers responding to a reported stabbing around 9 p.m. found a man suffering from apparent stab wounds and assisted in transporting him to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.Anyone with information is asked to call police.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.Garage goes up in flames in Lawrence
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
Lawrence firefighters extinguished a garage fire that broke out late Saturday night.Crews responding to a reported garage fire in the area of 4 Champlain Ave around midnight found flames threatening to spread to other garages, officials said.Multiple vehicles were damaged and the garage suffered heavy fire, water, and smoke damage. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.No additional information was immediately available.This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.Patrick Beverley relishes the old and new in his return to Chicago: ‘Wherever I’m going, I’m going home,’ the Bulls guard says
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
When Patrick Beverley finally came home, it wasn’t to the Chicago he used to know.This is a natural progression for any NBA athlete. Hometowns become a stop in the offseason calendar, stuck as a childhood memory as the city evolves without the athletes it raised.Now that he’s back, Beverley finds Chicago familiar and foreign all at once. He lives on a different side of the city than he grew up on, commutes each day to work at the arena where he used to sneak into games as a kid.But even with the novelty created by spending a decade away from home, Chicago is still the place that defined Beverley, a place he never really left.“I feel it every time I come into practice. I feel it every time I leave practice,” Beverley, 34, said. “I feel it every time I come into a game the same as when I leave the game. Wherever I’m going, I’m going home. I just can’t believe I’m in Chicago. It almost feels too good to be true.”It is somethin...Travel disruption hits Germany on eve of transport strike
Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:05:16 GMT
BERLIN (AP) — An increased number of travelers in Germany boarded trains and planes on Sunday, a day before a major one-day strike that aims to bring the country’s transportation system to a standstill.But even advance travel was met with disruption in some places as Munich airport already shut down because of the impending strike on Monday, and technical problems affecting German airline Lufthansa in Frankfurt led to flight delays and cancellations at the country’s biggest airport.Munich Airport, the country’s second-busiest, said that the ver.di union was hitting it with two days of strikes and it has no regular passenger or cargo flights on either Sunday or Monday. A total of around 1,500 connections were affected, and takeoffs and landings were only possible for emergency humanitarian flights, German news agency dpa reported.German unions have called on thousands of workers across the country’s transportation system to stage a one-day strike as employees in many sect...Latest news
- Biden sends military to help with brutal Hawaii wildfires. Follow live updates
- Anti-corruption presidential candidate slain at campaign event in Ecuador’s capital
- With 30+ home runs and doubles, Chicago White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr. keeps building on career highs
- Busted light on Green Monster a curveball at Red Sox game [+gallery]
- A wildfire on Maui kills at least 6 as it sweeps through historic town, forcing some into the ocean [+gallery]
- 2 killed in collision identified as husband, wife
- Maui wildfire kills at least 6 as it sweeps through historic town, forcing some into the ocean
- Disney to boost prices for ad-free Disney+ and Hulu services and vows crackdown on password sharing
- Michael Lorenzen throws 14th no-hitter in Phillies history in 7-0 victory over Nationals
- Presidential candidate in Ecuador shot, killed at campaign event