Scribings Vol 6 Regatherings

For as long as our species has existed, humans have always been social creatures. We gather around campfires and tables, sharing meals and stories. Somewhere inside this greater narrative lies a long string of tales that come full circle. People meet, and part, and then at some point they meet again. It seems inevitable, as if this conjunction of lives was always meant to be. In this volume, the Greater Portland Scribists explore these bonds. Whether trying to save a childhood retreat from corporate interests, reuniting with old friends, returning home for a final goodbye, or trying to cope with a dear one who won't depart, these tales are about the twisting journeys of our relationships. Location, context, and pasts are irrelevant--it's the people with whom we connect who help shape our experience on this world.

It is the near future. Most people have a cranial implant for connecting directly to the Net, brain-first. When people die, all of their thoughts, hopes, dreams, and memories are extracted via this interface and encoded in the Soul Bank. Every person is stored indefinitely and made available for anyone to visit. Many partake of this opportunity to learn from the lives and mistakes of others. But the memories are just data stored in a computer system, and one day a hacker learns how to steal those memories. Implanting them into the brains of interested buyers is just as easy, and quite profitable. Meet Jeremiah Jones: visionary, entrepreneur, sociopath. Name your dream. Name your price.

Journey into lands long lost with the Greater Portland Scribists. Delve into an Egyptian pyramid in a peculiar location. See what a Viking boy does when handed the executioner's ax. Find out why sometimes it's too late to learn from your mistakes. Watch a bookbinder as he achieves his dreams. See a civilization vanish through the eyes of a young girl. Scribings Vol 2: Lost Civilizations features eight exciting stories that will take you on a trip through time and space and even through the fabric of reality itself. Scribings Vol 2 features stories from trusted veterans Richard Veysey, Cynthia Ravinski, and Jamie Alan Belanger; as well as stories from new members Christopher L. Weston and Timothy Lynch.

This unique book offers a Catholic view of the Holy Land in the debate that rages among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Alain Marchadour and David Neuhaus, two biblical scholars and priests living in Jerusalem, clearly analyze the Promised Land-as concept, history, and contested terrain-in Catholic teaching and doctrine. They offer an analytical reading of the entire Christian Bible (Old and New Testaments) with reference to the idea of the Land promised by God. They explore early and medieval attitudes, especially with regard to the Holy Places and the Jewish people. Moving carefully to the present day, they focus on anti-Semitism, the tragedy ofthe Shoah, Western colonialism in the Middle East, the creation of the State of Israel, and the birth of the Palestinian refugee problem as they examine Catholic reactions to the tumultuous events of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly the renewal of Catholic thought in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council. Studying the most recent Church documents, Marchadour and Neuhaus confront the ongoing struggle for peace, justice, and reconciliation in the Middle East. This illuminating book is an essential tool for all those struggling to understand the links between the Bible, the Church, and contemporary Middle Eastern realities, especially in Israel and Palestine.

Paul Bern, known throughout the movie business as "Hollywood's Father Confessor," earned a reputation for being a loyal and supportive friend and for becoming one of MGM's most respected and creative directors. After his death, though, he was said to have grown so depressed and despondent over his own apparent sexual inadequacies that he committed suicide, and he would be denounced for attempting to rape his new bride Jean Harlow. In this biography, the author uncovers startling new facts and argues that MGM knew the real story of Bern's death--that an estranged, mentally ill common-law wife murdered him. MGM understood that the earlier spouse rendered Bern's marriage to Harlow, its fastest-rising star, ambiguous if not bigamous, so the studio staged a suicide and embarked on a very public tarnishing of his memory. Included are 93 rare photos, many lost for decades, along with three appendices examining the handwriting on an alleged suicide note and Bern's will and estate.