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Looks can be deceiving. Hairstylist Aaron Turner doesn't consider himself overweight, just under height. As stylish as he is outgoing, he brings a Carrie Bradshaw like wardrobe in extra large and a fierce attitude to this adventure on the high seas, not knowing that a killer has come along for the week long cruise as well. Friends Aaron Turner and Phillip Baxter have not yet settled in when the bodies begin piling up. The best pals begin to think the passengers of the Titanic booked better tickets when they find themselves linked to the dead bodies. Becoming suspects, they must clear their names before the ship returns to Fort Lauderdale. Without a weapon, Aaron is left with only his wit to try and capture a killer before he becomes part of the body count. Luckily, his tongue is as sharp as his styling razor, so he is up to the task with flair and bravado! Excerpt: "You haven't been on a vacation in six years and have already paid, so take me! It'll be fun. You work way too much and have taken the time out of your schedule. If you don't go now, when? Are you gonna wait until Streisand goes back to Broadway or the Pope begins performing gay weddings?" Aaron had "slept with men, women and the odd piece of furniture." Raised dirt poor in a trailer on the outskirts of Yakima, he had worked his way to the top of Seattle's fierce hairstyling scene and now pampered himself accordingly. While he had grown up with curling linoleum flooring and an outhouse, he now considered arriving without reservations roughing it. Humming, Aaron left the spacious cabin, moving down the long narrow corridor smiling and saying "Hello darling!" to everyone he met, one of his standard greetings. The words worked especially well when he couldn't remember a name attached to a face. Near the end of the long hallway Aaron could not help stopping next to the partially open door of a balcony view cabin. A young shirtless blond was sprawled in one of the club chairs, head back, rosebud shaped lips slightly parted. His radiant beauty caught Aaron's breath. Stepping closer to the doorway, the hairstylist looked in for a moment before clearing his throat. Aaron loved men. His feelings and instincts were as natural as his eye color, as natural as a celebrity needs attention or certain members of congress enjoy bathroom sex. He loved the way men smelled, looked, walked and talked. One would never have been enough and dating all of the men in the world would never have been too many for the somewhat round stylist. He broke men into three categories: those who were convinced they would always be in long term relationships; those who thought Mr. Right was never to be found; and those in his favorite category who knew how to flirt and enjoyed the buffet of men that life offered. As Aaron himself fell into that last group, he changed men with an alarming regularity which his best friend never understood. Aaron could have sex, a date and be engaged with a series of different guys all in the space of one evening out. The popular stylist felt that, like soda and abs, boys should be six packed. Getting no response from the young man in the chair, Aaron stretched out a hand and tapped on the open door. "Helllooo," he called a bit louder, and getting no reply, he stepped into the sunlit cabin. "I hate to be a bother but I seem to be a little lost. Will this corridor lead me to the promenade deck?" While he and Phillip had flown all night from Seattle, this kid must have come in on a high from Thailand or Maui Wowie from the way he was zonked out. Reaching over to stroke a hand onto the bare, tan skin of the young man's muscular shoulder, Aaron smiled, then recoiled his fingers. The sun bronzed flesh was cold to his touch. Stepping in between the wide spread legs of the young blond, Aaron chanced a further peek over into his face to find a pair of bright blue eyes open and staring back at him blankly.

Poems by Brian J. Brock and papers relating to the Brock family.

James A. Kelhoffer examines an often overlooked aspect of New Testament constructions of legitimacy, namely the value of Christians' withstanding persecution as a means of corroborating their religious identity as Christ's followers. The introductory chapter defines the problem in interaction with sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital. Chapters 2-10 examine the depictions of persecuted Christians in the Pauline letters, First Peter, Hebrews, Revelation, the NT Gospels, and Acts. These exegetical analyses support the conclusion that assertions of standing, authority, and power claimed on the basis of persecution play a significant and heretofore under-appreciated role in much of the NT. It is also argued that depictions of persecution can have both positive implications for the persecuted and negative implications for the depicted persecutors in constructions of legitimation.An epilogue considers later examples of early Christian martyrs and confessors, as well as John Foxe's Book of Martyrs . The epilogue also addresses the ethical and hermeneutical problem of asserting the withstanding of persecution as a basis of legitimacy in ancient and modern contexts. This problem stems from the observation that, although the NT authors present their construals of withstanding persecution as a basis of legitimation as if they were self-evident, such assertions are actually the culmination of numerous presuppositions and are therefore open to dissenting viewpoints. Yet the NT authors do not acknowledge the possibility of competing interpretations, or that oppressed Christians could someday become oppressors. Accordingly, this exegetical study calls attention to an ethical and hermeneutical problem that the NT bequeaths to the modern interpreter, a problem inviting input from ethicists and other theologians.

A Sudden Commotion in the Jungle! is a children's book telling the story of the way many very different animals might react to a unexpected disturbance in the jungle. The story is a metaphor for a topic in general pediatrics; specifically temperament. Human temperament is something that new parents will universally experience with a newborn baby as they care for and adjust to the unique temperament of their new baby. Just like every child is special and unique, each animal in this book also exhibits distinctive behavioral response to the sudden commotion in the jungle. In addition to the metaphorical application parents will notice, this book is sure to spark the imaginations of young animal lovers everywhere! The animals depicted have distinguishing behavior that is described in poems. The story concludes with a powerful message that is meant to offer hope and acceptance for our beloved little 'creatures.' Vivid images of original, photographed oil paintings capture an 'in the moment' look as the animals react to a sudden alarming event on earth.

Dylan James Brock's Dry World is about how close love can be to a psychosis. In this narrative told by a split mind, two love stories about one psychotic narrator are told simultaneously. The first plot, set in 2003, is at the end of a college career and the second plot, set in 2005, is at the beginning of a literary one. Each spirals into violence through the recklessness characterizing the severe mental illness. What results is a patient and realistic Bildungsroman about how to learn through love from madness.

“I didn’t think he’d do it. I really didn’t think he would. I thought he’d say, whoa, hold on, wait a minute. We made a deal, remember, the land, the blessing, the nation, the descendants as numerous as the sands on the shore and the stars in the sky.” So begins James Goodman’s original and urgent encounter with one of the most compelling and resonant stories ever told—God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. A mere nineteen lines in the book of Genesis, it rests at the heart of the history, literature, theology, and sacred rituals of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. For more than two millennia, people throughout the world have grappled with the troubling questions about sacrifice, authority, obedience, and faith to which the story gives rise. Writing from the vantage of “a reader, a son, a Jew, a father, a skeptic, a historian, a lover of stories, and a writer,” Goodman gives us an enthralling narrative history that moves from its biblical origins to its place in the cultures and faiths of our time. He introduces us to the commentary of Second Temple sages, rabbis and priests of the late antiquity, and early Islamic exegetes (some of whom imagined that Ishmael was the nearly sacrificed son). He examines Syriac hymns (in which Sarah stars), Hebrew chronicles of the First Crusade (in which Isaac often dies), and medieval English mystery plays. He looks at the art of Europe’s golden age, the philosophy of Kant and Kierkegaard, and the panoply of twentieth-century interpretation, sacred and profane, including the work of Bob Dylan, Elie Wiesel, and A. B. Yehoshua. In illuminating how so many others have understood this story, Goodman tells a gripping and provocative story of his own.

For 124 years, from 1690 to 1814, Americans were besotted with the notion that it would take "a mere matter of marching" (in Th omas Jeff erson´s words) to seize Canada and add it to their union. Th e marching began in colonial times, in 1690, when Americans, angered by French-led Indian attacks on their frontier outposts, retaliated by sending an expedition to lay siege to Quebec, the capital of New France. Th ey sailed home when they ran out of ammunition and rum. In 1745, another, and much larger, colonial expedition set sail with the help of the British Royal Navy, to attack the great French fortress at Louisbourg, and managed to capture it, leading Americans to believe for years to come they were better soldiers than they really were. Serious marching, this time against the new British rulers of Canada, took place during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Ethan Allen started it all in 1775 by attacking Quebec with a scratch force of untrained soldiers. He was captured and thrown in prison. Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold led armies that seized Montreal, but were turned back at Quebec. Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded. Inept and poorly led American armies invaded Canada again and again during the War of 1812. It wasn´t until Tecumseh was dead and Winfi eld Scott was in command of a well-disciplined army -- the fi rst in American history -- that Yankee soldiers were able to stand up to British regulars. Th e army, in the end, was saved by the navy, which won signifi cant victories om Lakes Erie and Champlain. Canada emerged from the war a distinctive nation that to this day harbors a certain ambivalence in its thinking about its powerful neighbor to the south.

Former child star RJ Stone has made the transition from kid actor to having a huge career in major movies as a young adult. Handsome, talented, and not the brightest bulb on the string, he is sweet, kind, and smart enough to follow the directions of his crack staff. Roman heads up public relations and basic living skills, teaching RJ things like putting soiled clothing into a hamper, as in real life there is no wardrobe department. Silent, sexy (and deadly) Roy is in charge of security for the star, keeping stalkers at a distance and a secret to himself. Lupe runs everything else home related, from cooking and cleaning to rotating food out of the freezer, which leads Roman chasing across LA to retrieve what could be a very embarrassing item if it turned up as a spot on TMZ or Entertainment Tonight. From neighbors who resent living next to the star, to a possible black market poultry ring and some of his staff finding love in all the wrong places, the life of RJ Stone is overflowing with Star Power. Excerpt: Roman Wilson, RJ's assistant - that's me. Meaning, I'm also his teacher, stalker tender, companion, hand holder, sometimes friend, and frequently, reverse pimp. Yeah, I know. What is a reverse pimp? See, my employer, one of America's little sweethearts, has a huge schlong he would dip into every man and woman he met in place of a handshake if he could. Oh, RJ isn't gay or even bi. He's just a horny little toad who has been so isolated from the rest of the world and how it works that he doesn't know that not everyone gets pie and 'a little something extra' for dessert just because they are in the movies. ****** I had just fallen into a light sleep when my phone rang, making me jump bolt upright like it was the Bat Signal being shot into the sky. I had the phone to my ear when all I heard was a scared, anxious RJ managing to get out "Help!" I got him calmed down enough to know that he was not bleeding and that he was not out in public. If he was drunk or on anything, the shock of whatever was going down was killing his buzz. "Stop talking, take a deep breath, and calm down," I commanded. "Now tell me where you are and what's going on." The part of town I ended up in was seedy and run down. I left the car and made my way through a maze of alleys to a small dark house with the number on it that RJ had given me. The door was swung open a crack by a shivering RJ. Without lecturing, I followed him through the silent house to a bedroom in the back. From a lamp beside the bed I could see that the room was disheveled, drug paraphernalia spread out on the small night stand. The only thing that made the scene more unpleasant was the still figure lying across the rumpled tangle of bed covers. Slipping my fingers to his wrist, I checked for a pulse while RJ trembled in a corner of the room. After a moment of futile fumbling, I was certain the guy was dead, so I dropped his wrist and reached into my pocket for my phone. "NOOOOOOO!" RJ howled like a wounded animal, snatching at my telephone and wrapping his fingers around it. "Give me the phone," I said with gritted teeth. "Can't we just fix it?" "He's not a watch, RJ; he's a dead guy," I said softly, patience wearing thin as I reached out slowly for the phone, hoping not to startle him. "C'mon man, you can take care of this." There was a pause as the sexy young actor looked at me thoughtfully, then smiled. "I'll give you one of my cars." "Just give me the phone please, RJ." "Can't we just leave him?" "We could, but we aren't going to." "You know I've had sex with a lot of people," he began as a sudden change of course, curling the corner of his lip in the practiced seductive way I had seen employed many times, "but you've never hit on me. Ever wondered what it would be like?"

Is it the central purpose of American antitrust policy to encourage decentralization of economic power? Or is it to promote "consumer welfare"? Is there a painful trade-off between market dominance and economic "efficiency"? What is the proper role of government in this area? In recent years the public policy debate on these core questions has been marked by a cacophony of divergent opinions--theorists against empiricists, apostles of the "new learning" against defenders of the traditional structure-conduct-performance paradigm, "laissez-faire" advocates against "interventionists." Utilizing a distinctively innovative format, Walter Adams and James Brock examine these issues in the context of a courtroom dialogue among a proponent of the new learning (Chicago School), a prosecuting attorney, and a U.S. district judge. In contrast to bloodless "scientific" treatises or ideologically inspired polemical tracts, this book lays bare the central arguments in the debate about free-market economics and the latent assumptions and disguised terminology on which those arguments are based. The dialogue is both gripping and entertaining--designed by the authors to be reminiscent at times of the Theater of the Absurd. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.