Kick A Tin Can

Offers entries for over six thousand idioms, including seven hundred new to this edition, and provides background information, additional cross-references, and national variants.

Now with a twenty-page study guide. Many people have been helped by this valuable book, first published five years ago, which addresses those of us who desperately want to change but can't stop behaving in ways that hurt us and those we love. The authors assure us that we can change these hurtful patterns. Drs. Stoop and Masteller believe you ca...

'Imaginative, funny and dazzlingly clever.' John Carey, Sunday Times Mankind, scientists agree, is a tiny and insignificant anomaly in the impersonal vastness of the universe. But what would that universe be like if we were not here to say something about it? Would it even be so vast, without the fact of our insignificance to give it scale? This paradox is what Michael Frayn calls 'the world's oldest mystery'. He shows how fleeting and indeterminate our contacts with the world around us are. The world is what we make of it - but what are we? 'The breadth of [Frayn's] reading is awesome and he is fearless in interpreting, and in some cases attacking, the philosophical or scientific dogmas of this or that revered savant. Everywhere he is eminently sensible, especially when he is making nonsense of our illusory certainties.' John Banville 'Brilliant and engaging ... A dazzling and entertaining dialogue between [Frayn] and the reader.' Patrick Masterson, Irish Times

This book presents a unique annotated collection of some 2000 playground games, rhymes, and wordplay of London children. It charts continuity and development in childlore at a time of major social and cultural change and offers a detailed snapshot of changes in the traditions and language of young people. Topics include: starting a game; counting-out rhymes; games (without songs); singing and chanting games; clapping, skipping, and ball bouncing games; school rhymes and parodies; teasing and taunting; traditional belief and practice; traditional wordplay; and a concluding miscellany. Recorded mainly in the 1980s by primary schoolteacher Nigel Kelsey, transcribed verbatim from the children’s own words, and accompanied by extensive commentaries and annotation, the book sets a wealth of new information in the wider historical and contemporary context of existing studies in Britain, Ireland, and other parts of the English-speaking world. This valuable new resource will open new avenues for research and be of particular interest to folklorists and linguists, as well as to those working across the full spectrum of social, cultural, and educational studies.

A collection of humorous and nostalgic Americana stories—the beloved, bestselling classics that inspired the movie A Christmas Story Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant—and utterly hilarious—works of comic art. In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash represents one of the peaks of his achievement, a compound of irony, affection, and perfect detail that speaks across generations. In God We Trust, Shepherd's wildly witty reunion with his Indiana hometown, disproves the adage “You can never go back.” Bending the ear of Flick, his childhood-buddy-turned-bartender, Shepherd recalls passionately his genuine Red Ryder BB gun, confesses adolescent failure in the arms of Junie Jo Prewitt, and relives a story of man against fish that not even Hemingway could rival. From pop art to the World's Fair, Shepherd's subjects speak with a universal irony and are deeply and unabashedly grounded in American Midwestern life, together rendering a wonderfully nostalgic impression of a more innocent era when life was good, fun was clean, and station wagons roamed the earth. A comic genius who bridged the gap between James Thurber and David Sedaris, Shepherd may have accomplished for Holden, Indiana, what Mark Twain did for Hannibal, Missouri.

An Unexpected Honor It happened on May 1, 2011 on Sunday afternoon with about seventy-five friends, former kickers and families of former kickers, coaches, my family, and other friends from the church and community. The Thomasville Athletic Boosters Club, the Thomasville Athletic Department and others from the community had made the arrangements. They had raised enough money to replace the old original post and add one at the other end of the field. This field is not only used for football practice and track and field, but soccer is also played there. It is probably one of the best facilities of its kind around. This facility was named "The Allen Brown Athletic Complex" in honor of retired football coach Allen Brown. So having the goal posts dedicated to me on that Sunday afternoon was a great honor. There were several speakers who said some very complimentary things, pointing out the two beautiful new goal posts that were being dedicated to me. Then my attention was called to a plaque that was placed on the wall of the Allen Brown athletic Complex. I was overwhelmed by all the wonderful things said and the honor I received. I was also amazed at the number of friends who were there to share this moment with me. I really didn't think I deserved this much adulation. As I told them, I have enjoyed it so much because of all the rewards received in seeing these young men progress and become successful in their journey through life.

In an attractive, oversized format, enlivened with illustrations, sidebar quotes, personal accounts, techniques to try, and profiles of leaders in the field, Discovering the Body's Wisdom is a basic resource for well-being and natural health. Body disciplines and therapies have enjoyed phenomenal growth in the past decade, becoming a major alternative to mainstream medicine and traditional psychotherapy. But with more than 100,000 practitioners and dozens of methods available in the United States alone, how can consumers choose the right one for themselves? Mirka Knaster's richly informative guide provides an overview of the principles and theories underlying the major Eastern and Western body therapies, or "bodyways." It shows readers how to befriend their own bodies, getting back in touch with their internal sources of health and wisdom. It also describes more than 75 individual approaches, answering such questions as: How does each therapy work? What can we expect from one session or a series? What are the reasons for selecting this method? How do we find a qualified practitioner? What, if any, are the "consumer-bewares"?