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Bree Miller, a well-liked waitress at an unbelievably good diner in Panama, Vermont, is hit by a car on a snowy night and, during surgery, "dies" briefly. While her heart's stopped, Bree is aware of floating above the operating table and of encountering a loving and gentle bright light. When she wakes up, she also remembers having been given three wishes—although after her third wish is granted, the deal goes, her life will be over. She also, when she wakes up, finds herself being taken care of by Tom Gates, a bestselling author in the John Grisham mold, who has come to little Panama to escape his celebrity status and to try to find himself. Although it wasn't Tom's fault, it was his car that hit Bree, and so this "movie star handsome" guy now finds that the time he spends caring for Bree helps him feel better about himself. He has, in fact, given up his fast-track life out of guilt over his mother's death: He rarely visited her, and when she died (of cancer), he was sailing the Adriatic with his equally famous friends. Bree helps to make him into a much nicer guy. Indeed, he becomes a supremely thoughtful man, fetching and carrying for Bree and listening to her concerns. Eventually, they fall in love, of course, and he gives Bree a really swell diamond engagement ring. Bree finally makes her three wishes—but not very shrewdly. When the white light comes for her (she's found with a serene smile on her face), the bereft Tom manages to go on with the help of his newborn son and the loving small-town Panamanians.
Delinsky rises above gag-me-with-a-spoon melodrama—though just barely.
Publishers Weekly An excellent storyteller.
Kirkus Reviews [A] heartwarming, tear-jerking small-town romance....
Woman's Own I wish you'd read Three Wishes....This charming novel has a fantastical premise, [but] its themes of redemption and love are powerfully earthbound.
It wasn't the first snow of the season. Panama, Vermont, lay far enough north to have already seen several snowdusted dawns. But this wasn't dawn, and these flakes didn't dust. From early afternoon right on into evening, they fell heavy and fat and wet.
Truckers stopping at the diner complained of the roads growing slick, but the warning carried little weight with locals. They knew that the sun would be back, even an Indian summer before winter set in. Snowfall now was simply frosting on the cake of another wildfire fall, thick flakes silencing the riot of colorful leaves, draping a plump white shawl on the town green's oak benches, on marigolds that lingeringly lined front walks, on a bicycle propped against an open front gate.
The scene was so peaceful that no one imagined the accident to come, least of all Bree Miller. Winter was her favorite season. There was something about snow that softened the world, made it make-believe for the briefest time, and while she wasn't a woman prone to fancy -- would have immediately denied it if accused -- she had her private moments.
She didn't bother with a jacket. The memory of summer's heat was all too fresh. Besides, with locals wanting to eat before the weather worsened and with truckers bulking up, the diner had been hopping, so she was plenty warm without.
She slipped out the door, closing it tight on the hum of conversation, the hiss and sizzle of the grill, the sultry twang of Shania Twain. In the sudden hush, she ran lightly down the steps, across the parking lot, then the street. On the far side, she flattened her spine to the crusty trunk of a large maple whose amber leaves hung heavy with snow, and looked back.
The diner was a vision of stainless steel and neon, rich purples and greens bouncing off silver, new and more gallant through a steady fall of snow. Gone were little items on her fix-it list -- the scrape Morgan Willis's truck had put on a corner panel, a dent in the front railing, bird droppings off the edge of the roof. What remained was sparkling clean, warm, and inviting, starting with the diner's roadside logo, concentric rings of neon forming a large frying pan with the elegant eruption of FLASH AN' THE PAN from its core. Behind that were golden lamps at each of ten broad windows running the diner's length and, in booths behind those lamps, looking snug and content, the customers.
The diner wasn't Bree's. She just worked there. But she liked looking at it.
Same with Panama. Up the hill, at the spot where East Main leveled into an oval around the town green, snow capped the steel roofs of the row of tall Federals and beyond, white on white, the church steeple. Down the hill, at the spot where the road dipped past the old train depot, snow hid the stains that years of diesel abuse had left and put a hearty head on the large wood beer stein that marked the Sleepy Creek Brewery.
Panama was ten minutes off the highway on the truck route running from Concord to Montreal. Being neither here nor there was one of its greatest strengths. There were no cookie-cutter subdivisions, no planned developments with architect-designed wraparound porches. Porches had been wrapping around houses in Panama since the days of the Revolution, not for the sake of style but for community. Those porches were as genuine as the people who used them. Add the lack of crime and the low cost of land, and the town's survival was ensured. Bright minds sought haven here and found inspiration. The brewery was but one example. There was also a bread company, workshops producing hand-carved furniture and wooden toys, and a gourmet ice cream factory. Native Panamanians lent stability. Newcomers brought cash.
Bree drew in a snow-chilled breath, held it deep in her lungs, let it slowly out. The occasional snowflake breached the leaves overhead to land in an airy puff on her arm, looking soft, feeling rich, in those few seconds before melting away. On impulse, she slid around the tree trunk to face the woods. Here, the snow picked up the diner's lights in a mystical way. Drifting leaves whirled about, forest fairies at play, Bree fancied. From nowhere came childhood images of carousels, clowns, and Christmas, all more dream than memory. She listened hard, half expecting to hear elf sounds mixed in with those of nocturnal creatures. But, of course, there were none.
Foolish Bree. High on snow. Time to go inside.
Still she stood there, riveted by something that made her eyes mist and her throat ache. If it was wanting, she didn't know what for. She had a good life. She was content.
Still she stood there.
Behind her came a fragment of conversation when the diner door opened, and the subsequent growls, muted by billowing flakes, of one big rig, then a second. By the time the semis had rumbled out of the parking lot, cruised down the hill, and turned toward the highway, the only sound left was the cat's-paw whisper of snow upon snow.
The diner door opened again, this time to a louder "Bree! I need you!"
Brushing tears from her eyes, she pushed off from the bark. Seconds later, she was running back across the road, turning her head against the densest of the flakes, suddenly so desperate to be back inside, where everything made sense, that she grew careless. She slipped, fought for balance with a flailing of arms, landed in the snow all the same. Scrambling up, she brushed at the seat of her black jeans and, with barely a pause to shake her hands free of snow, rushed inside, to be met by applause, several wolf whistles, and a "Way to go, Bree!"
The last was from a trucker, one of the regulars. Another round of applause broke out when she wrapped her icy hands around his bull neck and gave an affectionate squeeze on her way to the kitchen.
Flash, the diner's owner and executive chef, met her at the swinging door. A near-full gallon of milk hung from his fingers. "It's bad again," he said, releasing the door once she was inside. "What're we gonna do? Look of the roads, no delivery's coming anytime soon."
"We have extra," Bree assured him, opening the refrigerator to verify it.
Flash ducked his head and took a look. "That'll be enough?"
"Seventeen's up, Bree," the grillman called.
The diner sat fifty-two, in ten booths and twelve counter stools. At its busiest times, there were lines out the door, but bad weather slowed things down. Barely thirty-five remained now. LeeAnn Conti was serving half. The rest were Bree's.
Balancing four plates holding a total of twelve eggs, twelve rashers of bacon, six sausages, six slabs each of maple nut and raisin toast, and enough hash browns to crowd everything in, she delivered supper to the men in seventeen, the booth to the right of the door. She had known the four all her life. They, too, had gone to the local schools and stayed to work in the area, Sam and Dave at the lumber mill three towns over, Andy at his family's tackle store, Jack at the farm his father had left his brother and him. They were large men with insatiable appetites for early-evening breakfast.
The Littles, two booths down, were another story. Ben and Liz had fled a New York ad agency to run their own by way of computer, fax, and phone from Vermont. Along with seven-year-old Benji, five-year-old Samantha, and two-year-old Joey, they hit the diner several times a week to take advantage of Flash's huge portions, easily splitting three orders of turkey, mashed potatoes, and peas, or biscuit-topped shepherd's pie, or American chop suey. They were currently sharing a serving of warm apple crisp and a large chocolate chip cookie.
At Bree's appearance, the two-year-old put down his hunk of cookie, scrambled to his feet on the bench, and opened his arms. She scooped him up. "Was everything good?"
He gave her a chocolaty grin that melted her heart.
"Anything else here?" she asked his parents.
"Just the check," said Ben. "That snow keeps coming. Driving won't be great."
When Joey squirmed, Bree kissed the mop of his hair and returned him to the bench. At the side counter, she tallied the check, then put it on their table and set to cleaning the adjacent booth, where the drivers of the newly departed big rigs had been. She cleared the dirty dishes, pocketed her tip, wiped down the black Formica, straightened shakers, condiment bottles, and the small black vase that held a spray of goldenrod. She set out new place mats, oval replicas of the frying pan from the logo, with the regular menu printed in its center. Specials -- "The Daily Flash" -- were hand written on each of two elliptical chalkboards high behind either end of the counter.
She moved several booths down to Panama's power elite -- postmaster Earl Yarum, police chief Eliot Bonner, town meeting moderator Emma McGreevy. Before them were dishes that had earlier held a beef stew, a pork chop special, and a grilled chicken salad. All three plates, plus a basket of sourdough rolls, were empty, which was good news. When sated, Earl, Eliot, and Emma were innocuous.
Bree grinned. "Ready for dessert?"
"Whaddya got?" Earl asked.
"Whaddya want?"
"O-kay. We have apple, peach, and blueberry. We have pumpkin. We have strawberry rhubarb, banana cream, maple cream, maple pecan, pumpkin pecan, lemon meringue --"
"Anything chocolate?" Earl asked.
"Chocolate pecan, chocolate mousse, chocolate rum cream --"
"How about a brownie?"
She might have guessed they were headed there. Earl was predictable.
"One brownie," she said, and raised questioning brows at Emma. "Tea?"
"Please." Emma never had anything but tea.
Eliot played his usual game, letting Bree list as many ice cream flavors as she could -- Flash owned part of Panama Rich and stocked every one of its twenty-three flavors -- before ordering a dish of plain old strawberry.
Working around LeeAnn, the grillman, the cook, the dishwasher, and Flash, Bree warmed the brownie and added whipped cream, hot fudge, and nuts, the way Earl liked it, and scooped up Eliot's ice cream. She served a chicken stir-fry to Panama's only lawyer, Martin Sprague, in the six spot at the counter, and pork chops and chili to Ned and Frank Wright, local plumbers, two stools over. With carafes in either hand, she topped off coffees down the row of booths, then worked her way along the counter.
At the far end sat Dotty Hale and her daughter, Jane. Both were tall and lean, but while Dotty's face was tight, Jane's was softer in ways that had little to do with age. Not that Bree was impartial. Jane was one of her closest friends.
LeeAnn had her elbows on the counter before them. In contrast to the Hales, she was small and spirited, with short, spiked blond hair and eyes that filled her face. Those eyes were wider than ever. "Abby Nolan spent the night where? But she just divorced John."
"Final last week," Dotty confirmed, with the nod of a bony chin. "Court papers came in the mail. Earl saw them."
"So why's she sleeping with him?"
"She isn't," Jane said.
Dotty turned on her. "This isn't coming from me. Eliot was the one who saw her car in John's drive." She returned to LeeAnn. "Why? Because she's pregnant."
LeeAnn looked beside herself with curiosity. "With John's child? How?"
Bree smiled dryly as she joined them. "The normal way, I'd think. Only the baby isn't John's. It's Davey Hillard's."
Dotty looked wounded. "Who told you that?"
"Abby," Bree said. She, Abby, and Jane had been friends since grade school.
"Then why'd she spend the night with John?" LeeAnn asked.
"She didn't," Jane said.
"Were you there?" Dotty asked archly.
"Abby just went to talk," Bree said to divert Dotty's attention from Jane. "She and John are still friends. She wanted to break the news to him herself."
"That's not what Emma says," Dotty argued. Emma was her sister and her major source of gossip. "Know what else she says? Julia Dean got a postcard."
"Mother," Jane pleaded.
"Well, it's fact," Dotty argued. "Earl saw the postcard and told Eliot, since he's the one has to keep peace here and family being upset can cause trouble. Julia's family is not thrilled that she's here. The postcard was from her daughter in Des Moines, who said that it was a shame that Julia was isolating herself, and that she understood how upset she had been by Daddy's death, that they all were, but three years of mourning should be enough, so when was she coming home?"
"All that on a postcard?" Bree asked. She didn't know much more about Julia than that she had opened a small flower store three years before and twice weekly arranged sprigs in the diner's vases. She came by for an occasional meal but kept to herself. She struck Bree as shy but sweet, certainly not the type to deserve being the butt of gossip.
"Julia's family doesn't know about Earl," Jane muttered.
"Really." Bree glanced toward the window when a bright light swelled there, another eighteen-wheeler pulling into the parking lot.
"And then," Dotty said, with a glance of her own at that light, "there's Verity. She claims she saw another UFO. Eliot says the lights were from a truck, but she insists there's a mark on the back of her car where that mother ship tailed her."
LeeAnn leaned closer. "Did she see the baby ships again, the squiggly little pods?"
"I didn't ask." Dotty shuddered. "That woman's odd."
Bree had always found Verity more amusing than odd and would have said as much now if Flash hadn't called. "Twenty-two's up, LeeAnn."
Bree stayed LeeAnn with a touch. "I'll get it."
She topped off Dotty's coffee and returned the carafes to their heaters. Scooping up the chicken piccata with angel hair that was ready and waiting, she headed down the counter toward the booths. Twenty-two was the last in the row, tucked in the comer by the jukebox. A lone man sat there, just as he had from time to time in the last seven months. He never said much, never invited much to be said. Most often, like now, he was reading a book.
His name was Tom Gates. He had bought the Hubbard place, a shingle-sided bungalow on West Elm that hadn't seen a stitch of improvement in all the years that the Hubbards' health had been in decline. Since Tom Gates had taken possession, missing shingles had been replaced, shutters had been straightened, the porch had been painted, the lawn cut. What had happened inside was more murky. Skipper Boone had rewired the place, and the Wrights had installed a new furnace, but beyond that, no one knew. And Bree had asked. She had always loved the Hubbard place. Though smaller than her Victorian, it had ten times the charm. She might have bought it herself if she'd had the nerve, but she had inherited her own house from her father, who had inherited it from his. Millers had lived on South Forest for too many years to count and too many to move. So she contented herself with catching what bits of gossip she could about restoration of the bungalow on West Elm.
None of those bits came from Tom Gates. He wasn't sociable. Good-looking. Very good-looking. Too good-looking to be alone. But not sociable.
"Here you go," Bree said. When he moved his book aside, she slid the plate in. She wiped her palms on the back of her jeans and pushed her hands in the pockets there. "Reading anything good?"
His eyes shifted from his dinner back to the book. "It's okay."
She tipped her head to see the title, but the whole front looked to be typed. "Weird cover."
"It hasn't been published yet."
"Really? How'd you get it?"
"I know someone."
"The author?" When he shook his head, the diner's light shimmered in hair that was shiny, light brown, and a mite too long. "Are you a reviewer?" she asked.
He shifted. "Not quite."
"Just an avid reader, then," she decided. Not that he looked scholarly. He was too tanned, too tall, too broad in the shoulders. Coming and going, he strode. Flash bet that he was a politician who had lost a dirty election and fled. Dotty bet he was a burned-out businessman, because Earl told of mail from New York. LeeAnn bet he was an adventurer recouping after a tiring trek.
Bree could see him as an adventurer. He had that rugged look. His buying a house in town didn't mean much. Even adventurers needed to rest sometimes, but they didn't stay put for long. Panama bored men who loved risk. This one would be gone before long.
It was a shame, because Tom Gates had great hands. He had long, lean, blunt-tipped fingers and moved them in a way that suggested they could do most anything they tried. Bree had never once seen dirt under his nails, which set him apart from most of the men who ate here, and while he didn't have the calluses those men did, his hands looked well used. He had cut himself several months back and had needed stitches. The scar was nearly two inches long and starting to fade.
"I just finished the new Dean Koontz," she said. "Have you read it yet?"
He was studying his fork. "No."
"It's pretty good. Worth a shot. Can I get you anything else? Another beer?" She hitched her chin toward the longneck on the far side of his plate. "You know that's local, don't you? Sleepy Creek Pale. It's brewed down the street."
His eyes met hers. They were wonderfully gray. "Yes," he said. "I do know."
She might have been lured by those eyes to say something else, had not the front door opened just then to a flurry of flakes and the stamping boots of four truckers. Shaking snow from heads and jackets, they called out greetings, slapped the palms of the men in seventeen, and slid into sixteen, which meant they were Bree's.
"Nothing else?" she asked Tom Gates again. When he shook his head, she smiled. "Enjoy your meal." Still smiling, she walked on down the line. "Hey, guys, how're you doin'?"
"A regular round for starters?" she asked. When the nods came fast, she went to the icebox on the wall behind the counter, pulled open the shiny steel door, and extracted two Sleepy Creek Pales, one Sleepy Creek Amber, and a Heineken. Back at the booth, she fished a bottle opener from the short black apron skimming her hips and did the honors.
"Ahhhhh," said John Hagan after a healthy swallow. "Good stuff on a night like this."
Bree glanced out the window. "How many inches would you say?"
"Four," John answered.
"Nah, there's at least eight," argued Kip Tucker.
"Headed to twenty," warned Gene Mackey for the benefit of a passing, predictably gullible LeeAnn.
Bree nudged Gene's shoulder. "He's putting you on, Lee. Come on, guys. Behave."
"What fun is that?" Gene asked, hooking her waist and pulling her close.
She unhooked his arm. "All the fun you're getting," she said, with a haughty look. "I'll be back to take your order once I'm done scraping down plates."
"I'll have my usual," T. J. Kearns said fast, before she could leave.
"Me, too," said Gene.
John pointed at himself and nodded, indicating beef pot pie topped with mashed potatoes and gravy, served with hunks of bread for dunking and whatever vegetables Flash had that day, buttered.
Kip was eyeing the specials board. "What's he got up there that I want?"
Bree knew Kip. "Brook trout," she said in a cultured way, "sautéed in butter and served on a bed of basmati rice, with sun-dried tomatoes, Portobello mushrooms, and broccoli."
Kip sighed his pleasure. "One up, right here. Thanks, doll."
Panama lay in hill country. Come the first of November, sand barrels sat on most every corner, trucks carried chains, and folks without four-wheel drive put on snow tires. But this wasn't the first of November. It was the ninth of October, and the snow was coming heavy and fast. By eight, only a handful of stragglers remained.
Armed with a laptop computer and her own serving of trout, Bree slid in across from Flash. He was reading the newspaper, alternately sipping coffee and pulling at one of two sticky buns on his plate, no doubt his dinner. She never failed to be amazed that a man who was endlessly artful when it came to creating meals for others had such abominable eating habits himself.
"You're missing good trout," she said.
"I hate bones."
"There aren't any bones. Not in your trout."
"That's what we tell the customers," he said, without looking up, "but I never know for sure if I get them all out, and the fear of it would ruin my meal. Besides" -- he looked up then -- "there aren't usually any sticky buns left after five. Why are there today?"
Bree opened the laptop. "Because Angus, Oliver, and Jack didn't make it in" -- and wisely so, since the three were in their eighties and better at home in a storm.
"Flash?" asked LeeAnn. She shot a look at the last man at the counter. "Gav says he'll drive me home, since I don't have boots or anything, but he can't hang around till we close." Her brows rose.
Flash shot a look at Bree. "Ask her. She's the one who'll have to cover for you."
Bree shooed her off. "No one else is coming in. Not tonight. Go."
LeeAnn went.
"She skips out early too often," Flash said. "You have a soft heart."
"Yours is softer than mine, which is why you didn't say no first. Besides, she has kids at home. I don't."
"Why not?" he asked.
Bree pulled up the supply list. "I think we've been through this before."
"Tell me again. I especially like the part about needing a man to have kids, like you couldn't have any guy who walked in here. Know what turns them on? Your disinterest."
"It isn't disinterest. It's caution."
Caution sounded kinder. Disinterest was probably more to the point. The men who passed through the diner were just fine for conversation and laughs. They gave appreciative looks to her hair, which was thick, dark, and forever escaping whatever she tied it with, and her body, which was of average height and better toned than most. What they liked most, though, was the fact that she served them without argument and, more, that she knew what they wanted before they said it. Her father had liked that, too. She had been his cook, his maid, his tailor, his barber, his social secretary...the list went on and on. In the days following his death, she'd had her very first taste of me time. Now, three years later, it was still both novelty and prized possession.
"Caution. Ahh. Well, that is you, Bree. Cautious to a fault. Have you hired someone to get you a decent heating system, or are you still getting estimates?"
"I'm still getting estimates."
He glanced at the snow. "Time just ran out."
"Give it a day. Sun'll be back."
"You're only postponing the inevitable. Last winter you were racing over here half frozen. Why wait? You have money."
"I have money for a new car. That's first on my list. Heating is second."
"That's crazy."
"Why? I have a woodstove in the kitchen and quilts in every room. I can stay warm whether the furnace works or not. But I can't go anywhere without a car." She tapped the laptop's screen. "We have to talk about getting a new milk supplier."
She softened her tone. "Stafford's local. We both want to support him, but his deliveries are late more often than not, and lately a full quarter of what he brings is bad. Think back two hours. You were in a panic."
"I was tired, is all. Stafford's working the kinks out."
"He's been working the kinks out for two years, but they aren't going away --"
"Give him a little longer," Flash said. He flipped up his paper and resumed reading.
Bree didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Oh, yes, Flash was softhearted, a sucker if the truth were told, though that was a good half of the diner's charm. He was an artist. Try as he might to look like a trucker in the black jeans, purple T-shirt, and bill cap that were the diner's uniform, he couldn't pull it off. Even without the long mane spilling from the hole in the back of his cap, he had too gentle a look, and that was even before he waved off the difference when one of the town's poorest came up short on cash at the end of a meal.
Not that Bree was complaining. Had her boss been anyone else, she would still be waitressing, period. But Flash wasn't hung up on formalities. She was good with numbers, so he had her balance the books. She was good with deadlines, so he had her pay the bills. She worked with the people who printed their place mats, the people who serviced the drink machines, the people who trucked in fresh eggs, vegetables, and fish.
Hungry, she dug into her trout and broccoli. Focusing on the computer screen, she plugged in the week's expected deliveries, noted shortages that had arisen, set up orders to be placed as soon as she hooked the computer to the modem in the back office. Flash was a softie there, too. That modem had been installed within twenty-four hours of her saying it might be nice.
The sound of spinning wheels drew her eye to the window, where a truck was heading out of the lot. After a minute, the tires gained traction, the sound evened out, and taillights disappeared in the thickening snow.
By eight-fifty, the last of the diners had left, fifty-two places had been wiped down and set for breakfast, dishes had been washed, food put away, the grill scraped. Minutes after Flash officially called it a night, the staff was gone.
Bree was pulling on her jacket when he said, "I'll drive you home."
She shook her head. "Driving is slow. It'll be faster if I walk." Tugging up the leg of her jeans, she showed him her boots. "Besides, you live downhill, I live uphill. No need backtracking in weather like this."
But Flash was insistent. Taking her arm, he guided her out the door.
The world had changed dramatically since Bree's earlier foray into the storm. With the exception of bare pavement where others of the staff had parked and just left, everything was pure white, and colder, far colder than before.
"It's too early for this," Flash grumbled as they approached his Explorer. While he dug behind his seat for a scraper, Bree started on the windows with the sleeve of her jacket. When he took over with the brush, she climbed inside. Leaning over the gearshift, she started the engine and, once the windshield was clear, turned on the wipers.
Since the parking lot had last been plowed, another several inches of snow had fallen. Between those inches and what had been left around cars that were parked, the lot was ragged. Flash gunned his engine to back the Explorer over the pile of snow at its own rear, then shifted into drive. The Explorer jolted its way to the street.
Bree stared hard out the windshield. As far as she could tell, the only thing marking the road was the slightly lower level of snow there. The headlights of the Explorer swung a bright arc onto East Main. Flash accelerated. His tires spun, found purchase, started slowly up the hill. They hadn't gone far when the spinning resumed. The Explorer slid sideways. He braked, downshifted, and tried again.
"Bad tires?" she asked.
"Bad roads," he muttered.
"Not if you're going downhill. Let me walk. Please?"
He resisted through several more tries, shifting from drive to reverse and back in an attempt to gain traction, and he always did, but never for long. The Explorer had barely reached the first of five houses that climbed the hill to the town green when, sliding sideways and back this time, he gave in.
Bree pulled up her hood and slid out. "Thanks for trying. See you tomorrow." Shutting the door, she burrowed into her jacket and started up the hill.
At first, with the Explorer coasting backward, its headlights lit her way. When Flash turned at the diner's driveway and came out headfirst, the lights disappeared. Moments later, even the sound of his engine was gone.
In the silence, Bree trekked upward. The snow on the road wasn't deep, rising only to the top of her boots, but she had the same problem the Explorer had. With the drop in temperature, the thin layer of packed snow left by the plow had frozen under the new-fallen stuff. She kept slipping on the steepening incline.
Tightening her hood, she tucked her hands in her pockets and plodded on. When she slipped again, her arms flew out for balance, hands bare and cold. She wished she had gloves, wished it even more in the next instant, when she lost her footing and landed wrist deep in the snow. Straightening, she shook herself off and went on. One more slip, though, and she trudged to the side of the road. The snow was deeper there, well past her calves, which made the walking harder but safer.
Head bowed against the steady fall of snow, she leaned into the climb. She had walked the same route for years, barely had to lift her eyes to know where she was. One foot rose high after the other to clear the drifts. By the time she passed the last of the houses, her thighs were feeling the strain. She felt instant relief when the road leveled off at the top.
Turning left, she started around the town green under the gaslights' amber glow. There were no cars about, just snow-shrouded shapes in driveways. Wood smoke rose from high chimneys to scent the air. Snow slid, with a rush and a thud, down tall steel panels from roof to ground.
The curve of the road took her past the Federal that housed the bank, with smaller offices above for the town's lawyer, realtor, and chiropractor. The one beside it housed the Chalifoux family, the one beside that the Nolans, the one beside that the library. Farther on, in a more modest house, lived the minister and his family. At the end of the oval, spire high, large green shutters and doors finely edged in snow, was the church.
The wood fence circling the churchyard had disappeared under the snow, as had the split-rail one around the town green. But the green wasn't to be missed. A true common area, it had recently been host to sunbathers, picnickers, and stargazers. Now the limbs of maples, birches, and firs hung low to the ground under the weight of the snow, transforming stately trees into weepers.
The sound of an engine broke the silence. At the opposite end of the green, a pickup coasted down from Pine Street and cruised slowly around the oval. When it reached Bree, it stopped.
Curtis Lamb rolled down his window. "Just comin' from work?"
Bree raised an arm to shield her eyes from the snow. "Yeah."
"Want a lift?"
But Curtis lived downhill, not far from Flash. She smiled, shook her head, gestured toward Birch Hill, just beyond the church. "I'm almost there. You go on."
Curtis rolled up his window. The pickup went slowly forward, turned right at the bank, and started down East Main.
Bree resumed the hike. She was making good time now, was actually enjoying the snow. It was cleansing, coming so soon after summer's sweat.
Another engine broke the stillness, with a growing sputter. Bree guessed the vehicle was climbing Birch Hill. Its headlights had just appeared when a second pickup swooped down Pine, far off to her right. It was going fast, too fast. She watched it skid onto the oval, regain traction, and barrel toward her end.
Eager to be out of its way, she quickened her step. At the corner, she turned onto Birch Hill. The car climbing it -- a bare-bones Jeep -- was twenty feet off but approaching steadily, so she hopped from the street into the deeper snow at the side.
The pickup kept coming. Alarmed by its speed, fascinated in a horrified way, Bree stopped walking. The pickup looked to be dull blue and old. She figured that whoever was driving was either drunk, inexperienced, or just plain dumb.
"Slow down," she warned. At the rate it was going, it would surely skid when it turned. And it was going to have to turn, either right onto Birch Hill or left around the oval. If it went straight, it would hit her head-on.
Suddenly frightened, she moved. Running as quickly as she could through the deep snow, she started down Birch Hill, but it was an ill-timed move. Seconds after she passed the Jeep, she heard the crunch of metal on metal. Then the Jeep was skidding back, sliding faster than she could run and in the god-awful same direction.
Its impact with her was quieter. She felt a searing pain and a moment's weightlessness, then nothing at all.
Bree Miller, the delightful heroine of Three Wishes, is a practical, down-to-earth woman who has everything she needs. Then, one snowy night in her Vermont hometown, she miraculously survives a near-fatal car accident. When she awakens in the hospital, she remembers little of the accident or of the hours afterward, except for a very bright light, a beatific smile, and a mystical force granting her three wishes.
Three Wishes is also Tom Gates's story. Once a successful lawyer and bestselling author who handled success badly, Tom has taken refuge in Bree's small Vermont town. After hitting her with his Jeep that snowy night, he dedicates himself to aiding her recovery and, in the process, finds both great pleasure and redemption. Through his relationship with Bree, Tom regains his self-respect and musters the strength to approach his estranged family and heal his wounds.
For self-sufficient, independent Bree, life changes dramatically when she meets Tom. Suddenly within her grasp are those things she always wanted most -- a home, a soul mate, a family. But there is unfinished business: the mother who abandoned Bree when she was an infant, the family Tom misses deeply, the child doctors say Bree can never have. And there are those three wishes. But are those wishes real? And if they are, at what price?
Not only a wonderfully romantic story, Three Wishes is a novel of redemption, courage, second chances, and the importance of home and putting down roots. With a magnificent cast of characters in a town that revives the true meaning of community, Three Wishes is about people who take risks to live their dreams.
Barbara Delinsky: Thanks so much for the welcome. It's an honor to be here, and yes, there is snow on the ground here, not much yet, but enough to remind us that winter's almost here.
Barbara Delinsky: Bree Miller is strong, as are so many of my other female characters, but she is different, too. She isn't wealthy or a professional. She lives in a small town and works at a diner -- and is quite content with her life. She's a capable woman -- always knows what other people want and provides it. The question is, Who fills her needs?
Barbara Delinsky: I definitely do believe that people deserve second chances -- because I also believe that people sometimes get caught up in a life that isn't them at all. Public people are like that -- actors and actresses, politicians. They are surrounded by people who tell them things and they buy into it hook, line, and sinker. Tom Gates was that way. He bought into the hype of being the successful writer. He got caught up in the whirlwind of it -- until his mother died. I don't believe that high-profile life was really him, which is why he is such a wonderful candidate for that good old second chance!
Barbara Delinsky: Easiest first. I use a computer now, though I didn't when I first started writing 18 years ago. I had young children then, and used to write by hand during the day while I was supervising their play, and type everything up (on a manual typewriter) at night. Now, it's computer all the way! Do I use an outline? Of sorts. Sometimes it's a chapter-by-chapter thing, sometimes a vague list of ten things that must happen, in that order. The important thing is that any outline is only good until something better happens to the story. In other words, sometimes the characters take off on their own and do things I hadn't planned. If those things are better than what I had planned for them, I yield. Yes, I do start with one central idea. In the case of THREE WISHES, it was the near-death experience and those three wishes. By the way, none of that was from personal experience. i actually researched near-death experiences on the Internet -- a first for me. I did find them fascinating, though, all those people having seen and felt similar things!
Barbara Delinsky: I'll bet that coming from NH, Amie, you can appreciate that cover more than some! The artwork was done by Wendell Minor, who does Pat Conroy, among others. I believe he also recently did Doris Kearns Goodwin's book. I knew that I wanted a New Endland-y scene, something giving a feeling of magic, perhaps mysticism. My publisher hired this artist because she felt he was so good. We actually had to wait, because he was booked up for a bit, but the wait was worth it, don't you think?
Barbara Delinsky: I believe that OBEs may happen, though I've never had one. I also believe that there may be life after death, though, clearly, I don't know that for sure. What I do know for sure is that we can deeply affect people here on earth after we die. My mother died when I was eight. She had been sick for five years, so I have precious few memories of her. I got to know her when I was an adult, though, through things that people told me about her. She has been a strong presence in my home, though she has never met either my husband or children. I like to think that she and I would be close. So even that concept -- closeness between parents and children -- comes from her and affects my own life.
Barbara Delinsky: My novels deal with family issues, personal issues -- parent-child relationships, sibling rivalry, friendship, marriage. These things are universal. I have to say, though, that I get a kick out of some of my foreign covers. The issues may be universal, but marketing is as different as night and day from one country to the next!
Barbara Delinsky: I started in romance. Am I a romance author now? When I was writing romance, the love story was 70 percent of the novel. Now it's less than half that. So, no, I don't consider myself a romance author. I write books that have love stories in them, but there's much, much more.
Barbara Delinsky: That's a really good observation. I'm sure it did. They had nobody, then they had each other. I think that if there hadn't been a spark between them, their lack of family wouldn't have done it, but that was one of the elements that "worked" with them. Yes, family is VERY important in THREE WISHES. But you're right -- the town becomes a surrogate family. I wish there was more of that in real life.
Barbara Delinsky: Consider it fact. I have the contracts right here on my desk, all signed. THREE WISHES will be a TV movie (no miniseries), starring Valerie Bertinelli. It could be out as early as next fall. I'd love it to coincide with the paperback release of THREE WISHES, but since that is happening in July, I doubt it will be. A Christmas showing of the TV movie would be nice, I think. This is a good Christmas story!
Barbara Delinsky: Oh, Lord. My NIGHTMARE is having a Vermonter say that I did it all wrong! Actually, it really is fictitious. But I've lived in New England all my life, have vacationed any number of times in VT and traveled through it on other occasions. I also read Vermont magazine and Vermont Life, along with other New England magazines. So I guess Panama is an amalgam of many VT towns. Hence, the familiarity you feel.
Barbara Delinsky: Hi, Rory! I'm not quite sure what "commentaries" are, but what you need to do by way of research is to read a whole lot of them before you write your own! As for writer's block, you write your way through it. In other words, there are some days when I sit down at my computer and don't know what in the world to write, but I FORCE myself to put something down. If it's not right, I change it the next day -- or add adjectives, or delete filler. But I do write something every day. Writer's block is a luxury I could never afford!
Barbara Delinsky: Yes, I think wishes come true, but I think we're the ones who make it happen. I'm a believer in the old saw "God helps those who help themselves." People who are "lucky" are usually ones who take advantage of opportunities. Wishes are the same way.
Barbara Delinsky: I'm a little out of the loop now about getting "romances" published, but as for books like mine, what you do is to go to the bookstore, make a list of the publishing houses that publish people writing things like you've written, and either call or write, telling them that you have a manuscript of such-and-such a length, on such-and-such a topic, and would they like to see it. I have to warn you that publishing is very tight now, and volatile. Houses are bought and sold, personnel are being hired and fired. The whole field of book publishing is changing. Take this right here -- on-line bookstores. A very new thing. Publishers are just learning how to handle them! But aren't they great?
Barbara Delinsky: You hit it on the nose. I think many people are ODing on big-city life. They've made it, and find something lacking. They've also become physically (and emotionally, often) distanced from their families. That takes another something away from their satisfaction in life. I think people are looking for closeness, warmth, intimacy. They're looking to connect with people in ways that the hustle and bustle of urban life precludes. Hence, the interest in small-town life. Mind you, some small towns are brutal. But, of course, I'm writing fiction ...
Barbara Delinsky: I have to tell you -- I don't get much time to read. But I'm in a book group, and we're currently reading Wallace Stegner's ANGLE OF REPOSE. It won the Pulitzer in 1971 and is a remarkable book. So right now, Stegner is my favorite author! Ask next month, and you may get a different answer.
Barbara Delinsky: Only a small part of THREE WISHES takes place during the holidays, and there isn't magic of the David Copperfield type, but there is certainly a magical feel to the book. The issue is those wishes. Are they real? Can wishes really come true? Does Bree get what she wants because of the mystical something to do with those wishes, or were very logical reasons behind those wishes coming true? The warmth of that small town is magical, as is the love between not only Tom and Bree, but so many of the other characters. So I do think that THREE WISHES is the most "magical" of my books!
Barbara Delinsky: I believe that all of my recent books have been translated into French -- but in France, rather than Canada. If THREE WISHES isn't already out, it should be soon!
Barbara Delinsky: I'm not quite sure how to answer your question, Daria. I think that Bree's destiny was a matter of all three of those things -- which is a total cop-out on my part. Oh, dear. But it was. All three. She chose. But the circumstances were such to set her up. And perhaps it was fate...
Barbara Delinsky: I'm SO glad you asked! I'm currently halfway through my next book. It's called COAST ROAD and is actually set on the West Coast (near Big Sur), which is a first for me. My husband and I vacation in Big Sur every summer, so I speak from personal experience when I describe the place. We love it there. Anyway, the book is about a couple who have been married for ten years, divorced for six. He is an architect in SF, and gets a call in the middle of the night from a friend of his ex-wife's, saying that she has been in an accident and is in a coma. He drives down to take care of their daughters (age 13 and 14), and hangs around for old times' sake to be with his ex. The ex, Rachel, is in a coma for the three weeks during which the book takes place, yet she is the main character. Her voice comes through her daughters, her friends, and her art (she's a painter). That's been the challenge for me. So this is the story of the rise, fall, and resurrection of a marriage. P.S. There's a happy ending! COAST ROAD -- coming in July! It has artwork by the same artist who did THREE WISHES!
Barbara Delinsky: Verity was a fun character, and, yes, I did mean it to mean "truth." She was a little voice of conscience, helping Bree to determine what she wanted her own truths to be.
Barbara Delinsky: I believe that the ending is in keeping with the story, that for me to have done anything different would have been a compromise. For what it's worth, those were the hardest pages I've ever written (after 65 books, that says a lot!). I also believe that the ending was a happy one. It's what I said earlier, about the immortality of love.
Barbara Delinsky: No, Ann, fans haven't ever contributed before the fact. After the fact -- that's something else. I have often gotten letters from readers saying that they have lived my story, or that I was describing them. One of the quirks I have is that I can't even bear to have my agent suggest a story line, because I want it to be solely my own. I pour so much sweat and blood into each book that it would be a travesty to use someone else's story. That said, I do get story ideas from newspapers and magazines. I daresay, though, that by the time my book is finished, it is nearly unrecognizable from the story that inspired it!
Barbara Delinsky: FOR MY DAUGHTERS was my all-time favorite -- and Leah the character I loved. But I think I loved her because the whole story worked for me. I still cry when I read that book! As for the future, see my comments on COAST ROAD. After that, I'll write something else. What would I do with myself, if not write?
Posted February 27, 2012
I have to admit that I read this book years ago when it was first published and it quickly became one that i re-read a few times. The characters were engaging and I felt like I was making new friends as I read. The storyline drew me in and I felt the joy of the love that Bree and Tom found...and shed more than a few tears, even after I knew how the story ended. I definitely recommend this book as an excellent read. The story gets 5 stars!
That being said, however, I was disappointed in the quality of the ebook. There was an obvious lack of editing and I can see how the many spelling and punctuation errors would detract from the story if one had never read it before. I have read many books on my nook and this is the first time I have read anything from a well-known author that was so badly published in an elecronic format! So the ebook publishing would get no stars from me!
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Posted January 21, 2012
While this was a great book, the typos & punctuation errors made it difficult at times to read. What happened to proof reading or even spell check?
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Posted January 15, 2012
Thats all.... a must read!
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Posted October 26, 2014
She pads into her den feeling as lonely as ever.
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Posted November 18, 2013
This book did not want to be put down!!! I hope to see it in a movie!Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted October 18, 2013
I loved this book. I found it to be deeply moving, but positive and uplifting.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted August 1, 2013
Im telling you i loved the beginning of three wishes. Then you'd almost get happy, then no not really. Thats confusing and ikno it but thats how this story was slow going. Iwouldnt spend my money on it. But i did already. So i warned you. Happy readiing
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Posted October 11, 2012
Excellant story. I finished reading this book 3 weeks ago & still find myself thinking about it. A wonderful story with a beautiful message. Thank youWas this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted September 12, 2012
If you love the detailed stories that Barbara Delinsky weaves..you will adore this story. This book would be perfect for book club discussions.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted December 23, 2011
I did not expect the ending that I got in this book, its been a long time since I cried while reading a book. It could have ended any other way and still stuck with the plot and had a happier ending. The thing that did upset me the most though was the misspellings and grammatical errors in the book. Lots of typo's that had anyone proffread the book, they would have discovered. I have never read one of Barbara Delinsky's books that had this many errors.
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Posted December 22, 2011
This book had me laughing and crying throughout. Great book! Definitely on my re-read list.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted October 23, 2011
Loved the story but the punctuation, spelling, and grammer are the worst. It was very distracting. Sometimes, I felt as if a child had typed it. Worth it but very distracting.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted October 8, 2011
I liked the book, but my Nook Color had way too many typos and puncuation errors. It was very distracting. My stars are for the book reguardless of the errors.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted April 1, 2011
I have read many books in my life and whenever someone asks for a book recommendation, I say Three Wishes. I will never forget this book. You won't be disappointed.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted January 21, 2011
I truly enjoyed this book. Barbara Delinsky is a wonderful Author. I would recommend this book Highly.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted December 19, 2010
I've read many books in the past 50 years, but a few stand out and make a lasting impression. Three Wishes is the loveliest story and I highly recommend it.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted March 27, 2010
This book is a nice easy read - good for a rainy day or a day at the beach or pool. Plot is somewhat predictable, but nonetheless entertaining.
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Posted March 24, 2008
I really like all the characters she created. A good read!Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted December 30, 2007
I read this book while on a Caribbean cruise. I spent a good part of the trip either up on deck in a quiet spot so I could read, or on my balcony reading. This book touched me like no other I can remember. By the end, I was sobbing....my dinner companions asked why my eyes were so red. A very engrossing novel, and very emotional. Would love Ms. Delinsky to write a follow-up to this book.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted November 23, 2005
Barbara Delinsky writes a story like no other! I felt like I lived in Panama and knew all the people. Wonderful love story.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.


text:
Russia's Yegor Gaidar
[Sorry, the video for this story has expired, but you can still read the transcript below. ]
- Jan. 3, 2000: A background report on Yeltsin's resignation.
- Jan. 2, 2000: An Online NewsHour report on Yeltsin's resignation.
- Dec. 31, 1999: RealAudio: President Clinton responds to Yeltsin's resignation.
- Aug. 9, 1999: Yeltsin appoints a new prime minister
- June 24, 1999: Russians angered over the NATO bombing of Serbia.
- June 17, 1999: Russia's role in Kosovo diplomacy.
- May 12, 1999: President Yeltsin explains his decision to fire his government.
MARGARET WARNER: Between the war in Chechnya and upheavals in the Kremlin, Russian politics are in turmoil. After five months of pounding the breakaway Chechen republic, Russian troops are now battling their way toward the center of the capital, Grozny, but the Russian army is taking more casualties than earlier in the conflict, and criticism of this once popular war is beginning to surface.
In Moscow, political forces are still trying to find their footing with a new parliament and a new president in power. Last month elections to the lower house of parliament, the Duma, diminished the strength of the Communists and increased the seats held by the Reformist Party.
Ten days later, President Boris Yeltsin's surprise New Year's Eve resignation made Prime Minister Vladimir Putin acting president. Already popular for his aggressive prosecution of the Chechen war, Putin immediately became the favorite to win a full term in the upcoming March 26th presidential election. Putin signaled that he and his new Unity Party would join forces with centrists in the parliament like former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar and Former Finance Minister Anatoly Chubais to push economic reform.
But yesterday, to the surprise and dismay of reform backers, Putin struck an alliance with the Communists to reelect Communist legislator Gennady Seleznyov as speaker and to divide up control of the key committees between them. Seleznyov and the Communists have consistently opposed market reforms. The deal drew an angry reaction in the Duma.
YEVGENY PRIMAKOV, Former Prime Minister: (speaking through interpreter) I withdraw my candidacy for speaker. It is profanity, what is happening here.
SERGEI KOVALYOV, Member, Russian Parliament: (speaking through interpreter) All that is happening here resembles an old Soviet slogan, that the KGB is an armed group of the party. Sorry, I cannot participate in this swinishness.
MARGARET WARNER: More than 100 centrist lawmakers walked out of the Duma in protest, boycotting the vote for speaker. And when the Duma reconvened today, the reformers stayed away.
MARGARET WARNER: With us now for an insider's view on these developments is former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar; an economist by training and a free market reformer, he was the first man to hold that job after the collapse of the Soviet Union. He's now a leading member of the reform-minded party in the Russian Duma. He's in the United States promoting his book Days of Defeat and Victory. Welcome, Mr. Gaidar. Explain to us why you think Vladimir Putin made this deal with the Communists.
YEGOR GAIDAR: Well, it was very clear and very pragmatic, and also from my point a very serious mistake. Seleznyov, the person who was elected the chairman of the Duma…
MARGARET WARNER: The new speaker.
YEGOR GAIDAR: The new speaker. He's a political loser.
MARGARET WARNER: A political loser?
YEGOR GAIDAR: Yes. He fled from his constituencies in St. Petersburg because he was afraid to confront competition with Mr. Stepashin. He lost the elections in Moscow region for governorship. He will be weak and easy to manipulate. And then as a prize for the support of Seleznyov, he begins to hoard the control over a lot of the key candidates of the state Duma. So it was very pragmatic and very cleaver. But also from…
MARGARET WARNER: Wait. Let me just ask this question, though. You say pragmatic. I mean, what would be Putin's thinking? Why would he do this?
YEGOR GAIDAR: Well, because he will get the speaker of the Duma who is easy to work with, because the payment for this support will be the support of the Communists in the division of the key Duma opposition. So from the short-term point of view, clever decision, but also serious mistake because it's easy to make a deal with the Communists about nominating Seleznyov as the speaker, but then government for instance will have to push a new land quota with the private property and land. And Communists, I can assure you, will not support this idea. And then the government to have to ask for the support of a part of exactly those part the Duma which it isolated from the key Duma opposition during the last two days. And it will not be very easy.
MARGARET WARNER: Would you… If you'd been in parliament yesterday, would you have walked out?
YEGOR GAIDAR: Yes, of course, as our party go.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, all of you reform-minded legislators, even though you're in different parties, you all expressed hopes of working with Putin on reform. I mean, what do you think now? What do you think about his intentions?
YEGOR GAIDAR: Well, I think that in no way he would like to danger markets or private property.
MARGARET WARNER: He would like to what?
YEGOR GAIDAR: He would not like to put in danger markets or private property. So the worst scenario with Putin is a scenario status quo: Increased political stability, less danger for the market mechanisms, but absence of a clear for-reform strategy is worst-case scenario. Best-case scenario is that he will be able to implement the program of economic change, which was discussed in Russia during few last years, which was impossible to push through the present parliament, which is probably possible to push with the support of the government through this parliament. And of course our hope is that he will support this program.
MARGARET WARNER: But do you think now that he's made this deal with the Communists it is possible for him still to push the reform plan that they've been opposing all this time?
YEGOR GAIDAR: Of course, because it was the very concrete deal, involved one very concrete matter, connected wholly with the chairman of the Duma. He thinks that, probably thinks, of course; it's better to ask him. He probably thinks that it's quite another matter of what kind of legislative program he would like to push through Duma. And to some degree it's true.
MARGARET WARNER: Okay, let's turn to the war in Chechnya, and we've read here that the Russian public supports it, liberals like yourself have been supporting it, or at least not speaking out, as a fight against terrorism. But now of course the causality figures are mounting. How long do you think Putin can maintain political support for this war?
YEGOR GAIDAR: Well, I think for substantial amount of time. You see, Russian public attitude towards events in Chechnya change drastically in August of last year, even before the bombing, during the Dagestan events and invasion from Chechnya to Dagestan territory. Now, from this moment, it was strong perception of the major part of the Russian society that it is the duty of the state to defend life and security of Russian citizens. And it hasn't changed basically during last few months.
MARGARET WARNER: Do you and other centrist members of parliament share that feeling and still believe that?
YEGOR GAIDAR: Yes, I think so. The war is terrible thing, and I was strongly opposing the previous Chechen war because then it was first of all the war connected with threat of whether Chechens have a right to form independent states or not. And we discussed this matter. But from my point of view, it's not a matter that should be decided on a battlefield. Now it's another matter.
It's a matter of whether the Russian citizens have the right for the protection, have the right that their freedom and their life be protected by their own state. And here the position is quite different, of course. It's the obligation of our state. Of course, those who do think that the war is nice, splendid adventure, that it's some noble adventure, they just do not understand anything about wars.
Wars are always terrible, nasty, bloody things, and I would like very much this war to stop as rapidly as it could. I do understand also that the conflict will not be eliminated – we will have long problems like in Lebanon, like in Northern Ireland, but the elimination of a big, well-organized, well- armed regiments, detachments of the terrorists of course should be done.
MARGARET WARNER: That is one of the… President Clinton not only criticized of course the tactics, but he is saying it's bad for Russia, that it is going to be a Vietnam, another Afghanistan, that there is no military solution.
YEGOR GAIDAR: Well, I do agree with this absolutely. There is… It will be bad for Russia and it is bad for Russia. And I as a Russian politician would like to do a lot to avoid it and I have tried to do a lot to avoid it. But just imagine, well, attitudes in Russia toward Chechnya War in '94-'96 were exactly like American attitudes toward Vietnam War: Nasty, unnecessary, dirty, casualties, et cetera. And that's why Russian public opinion pushed the government to stop this war.
But let you imagine that Vietnam is not 10,000 kilometers from here, it's here in Texas. And then after you stop the war, you are having invasion in Russian territory– in American territory. I would assure you that the attitude of the American public opinion would be quite different.
MARGARET WARNER: So what, if any, impact does the criticism from the West, the U.S. and Europe, have on thinking in Moscow on this matter?
YEGOR GAIDAR: On Chechnya, not very serious. I think no position of the west could change seriously attitudes in Moscow toward the fact that organized detachment of Hatab and Musav should be destroyed. Of course, we as Russian public, as Russian politicians, should push our government, our military to care more about human rights of those, about the humanitarian side of the conflict, about the refugees and the problems and about the support of the refuges, and I think if Russian public opinion concentrated on these issues which are absolutely real, it would be much more positive.
MARGARET WARNER: All right. Finally, how different do you think the U.S.-Russia relationship would be under Putin than under Yeltsin?
YEGOR GAIDAR: Well, under Yeltsin, our relationship with the States were very different at different stages.
MARGARET WARNER: Yes.
YEGOR GAIDAR: I think that with Putin there will be less enthusiastic, less ideological, more pragmatic. I don't like the present trend in the relationship between Russia and the United States. I think that they are moving in the wrong direction. I hope it will be shot down. I think that Putin, being pragmatic, will not… Would very rapidly understand that the campaign that you have to have a good, working, concrete, efficient relationship with the States. I hope that will happen also on the American side after presidential elections.
MARGARET WARNER: But as you know, American policy-makers are trying to figure him out, and they're saying, "here's a guy that was in the KGB. For, what, 15 or 20 years. On the other hand, he was a reformed-minded deputy mayor in St. Petersburg." Which of those is more important?
YEGOR GAIDAR: Well, everything in Russia is complicated. He really was in the KGB for 17 years, in intelligence. He really was working in a rather liberal St. Petersburg city government, and was also associated with a lot of reformers, and his views on the economy are genuine and open. I am quite sure that he will not be bad on economic policy. I don't think that he will be not pragmatic enough, not understand the realities of the modern world. How much the more or less inevitable thinking in the terms of plots will influence his decision-making process, we will see.
MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well thank you, Mr. Gaidar, for being with us.
YEGOR GAIDAR: Thank you.

subset: commoncrawl


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Designed by our staff for the Litchfield Jazz Festival, this lively ensemble will create fanfare at your home, too. The bicolor spires of purple-and-white Angelonia rise above a flowing rhythm of fuchsia, blue, and yellow blooms like a solo flourish. Grow in full sun. One plant each of Angelonia Angelface® Wedgwood Blue ('Anwedg' PP 16,696) Calibrachoa Superbells® Saffron (PP 19,493), Petchoa SuperCal® Violet (PPAF), Lantana Landmark™ Rose Sunrise (PP 19,151), 2 of Nemesia fruticans Bluebird (PP 12,014). 6 plants total.
Please note that the pot is not included with the plants.
Shipment begins in early April to the warmest zones
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Height: 24"
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Cooking Pollution
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Brett Singer, Staff Scientist and Principal Investigator in the Environmental Energy Technologies Division of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, talks about indoor air pollution caused by cooking.
Guests:Brett Singer
Comments [6]
A /tissue/, from a box kept well away from any toilet, would be a more sanitary choice than a piece of /toilet paper/ for the test suggested by the guest.
Another theme of the Ubells that is especially relevant for the kitchen: Monitor the relative humidity level with a hygrometer.
How about when you want to clean the oven at high temperatures?
Is the smell from striking a match bad for you?
Re: Range hoods: Make sure they actually vent to the outside!
The Gurus of How-To (Ubells) said that some were never installed properly and therefore do not actually vent to the outside.
How bad can the air be when re-glazing a tub? If chips there could be lead in the bath water, if glazing then it's the air from the process.
What to do.
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when we arrived in Las Vegas, we had received coupon 2 for 1 from an other company, but our reservations was done, except this fact everithing was perfect, the pilot was very "sympathique" he give us a lot of information, we had also the pleasure to get some information in french and for us it was important, the meal was so good, i was very afraid ad the Sky... the personal in place was very helpful, we recommend you won't regretted
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Kit contains a blend of sterilized, enriched sawdust, fully colonized with a select Chinese strain. Can be harvested at 2-week intervals, up to 16 weeks. 50°-80°F environment is ideal. Comes with detailed instructions. 8 x 8 x 8.
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Avatar Fortress Fight by Jack Attack
10,000 - 50,000 downloadsAdd this app to your listsTweets por @Appszoom
An RPG turn based game where you must defeat your enemy before they defeat you. Use magic and physics and don't die, good luck!
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The youngest of two children injured in a serious crash near
Whakatane yesterday has died.
Whakatane Sergeant Yvonne Parker said the baby, believed to
be 4 months old, was flown to Starship Hospital last night
but has since died.
The crash happened on the Thornton Bridge, on Thornton Rd
near East Bank Rd and West Bank Rd about 2pm yesterday.
A doctor, who was one of the first people at the scene of the
crash, worked on the baby for close to an hour on the bridge
and continued during the ambulance journey to the hospital.
The baby was one of four people in a car that collided
head-on with a small truck.
A 4-year-old girl was airlifted to Tauranga Hospital while
the driver and front seat passenger were taken to Whakatane
Hospital by ambulance.
- Rotorua Daily Post
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History shades Arkansas' gay marriage debate
Tuesday - 5/13/2014, 6:00pm EDT
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Fifty-seven years after federal troops escorted nine black students into Little Rock's Central High School as a white mob jeered, Arkansas again finds itself in the center of a debate over civil rights. This time, the issue is gay marriage, but the 1957 desegregation crisis still casts a shadow.
More than 200 gay couples have been issued marriage licenses in the Bible Belt state since a judge struck down Arkansas' same-sex marriage ban.
Gay rights supporters regularly invoke the 1957 desegregation battle, warning opponents that history may not look kindly on them. At the same time, those concerns may not resonate throughout Arkansas, where recent polling still shows heavy opposition to gay marriage.
Nearly a week before the ban was struck down, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel cited the state's spotty civil rights history as he declared his support for marriage equality. While vowing to defend the ban in court, McDaniel became the first statewide elected official to endorse same-sex marriage.
McDaniel said he voiced his opinion because he wanted to avoid following the legacy of former Attorney General Bruce Bennett, who is little remembered after he didn't fight then-Gov. Orval Faubus' efforts to keep Little Rock's schools segregated in 1957.
"(Bennett) would have lost the election in '58 if he had done so, but his place in history ... would be different," McDaniel said.
McDaniel, a Democrat serving his final year in office, is now asking Arkansas' highest court to put on hold the decision that allowed gay couples to get married, saying it's his job as the state's top lawyer to defend the law even if he disagrees with it personally.
The fear of being judged harshly by history is a powerful one in a state that is still trying to shake off the effects of the Central High fight, including a desegregation settlement with three Little Rock-area school districts that has cost the state more than $1 billion over the past 25 years. A federal judge in January approved a wind-down of those payments.
At the same time, McDaniel's worries about opposing gay marriage may not resonate throughout Arkansas. Attitudes about gay marriage haven't moved significantly in the state in recent years, even as opinions have shifted nationwide.
The head of the group that campaigned for Arkansas' marriage ban says he doesn't view this debate as part of the civil rights struggle that led to Central High's desegregation.
"I grew up in the segregated South, and while I was never a victim of racial discrimination, I saw racial discrimination. I witnessed it," said Jerry Cox, president of the Arkansas Family Council. "The difficulties that African Americans faced in this part of the country in the 1950s and 60s, in my opinion, do not compare with what we're talking about today with same-sex marriage."
Other than McDaniel, none of the state's top Democrats have said they support gay marriage. And Republicans are already using Pulaski County Circuit Judge Piazza's ruling to rally their base.
"One member of the judicial system deciding that he is superior to the law is not only dangerous, but it is unconstitutional," the GOP said in a fundraising email Monday.
In his ruling, Piazza cast gay marriage as part of a broader struggle over civil rights, rejecting the idea that the ban could stand because 75 percent of voters approved it in 2004 as an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution. He cited the U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision that denied citizenship and constitutional protections to blacks before the Civil War.
"The court is not unmindful of the criticism that judges should not be super legislators," Piazza wrote. "However, the issue at hand is the fundamental right to marry being denied to an unpopular minority. Our judiciary has failed such groups in the past."
Jack Wagoner, an attorney for the couples who sued to overturn the ban, said that history -- and the way Arkansas' image was shaped by Faubus' refusal to integrate Little Rock schools -- immediately came to his mind.
"If the Arkansas Supreme Court wants to cement this state's image for the next 50 years, they can be the only court that goes against the trend here," Wagoner said Monday. "I would hope and pray that doesn't happen."
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Queen Charlotte was a patroness of the arts, known to Johann Christian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others. She was also an amateur botanist who helped establish Kew Gardens. George III and Queen Charlotte had 15 children, 13 of whom survived to adulthood.
She was a granddaughter of Adolf Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (19 October 1658 – 12 May 1708) by his third wife, Christiane Emilie Antonie, Princess of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen (March, 1681 – 1 November 1751). Her father's elder half brother reigned from 1708 to 1753 as Adolf Friedrich III.
For a woman marrying the sovereign of one of the most powerful countries of the time, her descent from kings was somewhat remote. All her ancestors up to the level of great-great-great-grandparents were solidly princes, dukes and counts (or the equivalent) with no kings. While her 58 closest ancestors (rather than 62, four of her great-great-great-grandparents are counted twice) included some reigning princes, one might observe that she was of ducal and princely blood, rather than royal blood. Only two of her great-great-great-great-grandfathers were kings: Gustav I of Sweden and Frederick I of Denmark and Norway. Other royal monarchs are found in her earlier ancestry.
Charlotte's brother Adolf Friedrich IV of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (reigned 1752–94) and her widowed mother actively negotiated for a prominent marriage for the young princess. At the age of 17, Charlotte was known as "plain faced", and was selected as the bride of the young King George, although she was not his first choice. He had already flirted with several young women considered unsuitable by his mother, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, and by his political advisers. He also was rumored to have married a young Quaker woman named Hannah Lightfoot, though all later claims to prove this marriage were deemed unfounded and the purported supporting documents found to be forgeries.
Princess Charlotte was collected at Cuxhaven by a squadron of British yachts and warships under Admiral Anson (including the specially renamed HMY Royal Charlotte), but on its return the squadron was subjected to westerly gales and took ten days to reach Harwich, which it did in early September 1761. Charlotte then travelled to London, where the couple were married at the Chapel Royal in St. James's Palace, London, on 8 September of that year. Her mother-in-law did not welcome her with open arms, and for some time there was a slight tension between the two. However, the king's mother had yet to accept any woman with whom he was alleged to have been involved, therefore it seems that the young king cared little for her approval by this time.
Despite not having been her husband's first choice as a bride, and having been treated with a general lack of sympathy by her mother-in-law, the Dowager Princess of Wales, Charlotte's marriage was a happy one, and the king was apparently never unfaithful to her. In the course of their marriage, they had 15 children, all but two of whom (Octavius and Alfred) survived into adulthood. As time went on, she wielded considerable power within the realm, although she evidently never misused it.
Queen Charlotte was keenly interested in the fine arts and supported Johann Christian Bach, who was her music teacher. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then aged eight, dedicated his Opus 3 to her, at her request. The queen also founded orphanages and a hospital for expectant mothers.
In 2004, the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace staged an exhibition illustrating George and Charlotte's enthusiastic arts patronage, which was particularly enlightened in contrast to that of earlier Hanoverian monarchs; it compared favorably to the adventuresome tastes of the king's father, Frederick, Prince of Wales. Among the royal couple's favored craftsmen and artists were the cabinetmaker William Vile, silversmith Thomas Heming, the landscape designer Capability Brown, and the German painter Johann Zoffany, who frequently painted the king and queen and their children in charmingly informal scenes, such as a portrait of Queen Charlotte and her children as she sat at her dressing table.
The queen also was a well-educated amateur botanist and helped establish what is today Kew Gardens. Her interest in botany led to the magnificent South African flower, the Bird of Paradise, being named Strelitzia reginae in her honour.
The education of women was a great importance to the queen, and she saw to it that her daughters were better educated than was usual for young women of the day. However, she insisted that her daughters live restricted lives close to their mother, and refused to allow them to marry until they were well-advanced in years, with the result that none of her daughters had legitimate issue (one, Princess Sophia, may have had an illegitimate son).
|George IV
|12 August 1762
|26 June 1830
|married 1795, Princess Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel; had issue
|Frederick, Duke of York
|16 August 1763
|5 January 1827
|married 1791, Princess Frederica of Prussia; no issue
|William IV
|21 August 1765
|20 June 1837
|married 1818, Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen; no surviving issue
|Charlotte, Princess Royal
|29 September 1766
|6 October 1828
|married 1797, Frederick, King of Württemberg; no surviving issue
|Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent
|2 November 1767
|23 January 1820
|married 1818, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; had issue (Queen Victoria)
|Princess Augusta Sophia
|8 November 1768
|22 September 1840
|Princess Elizabeth
|22 May 1770
|10 January 1840
|married 1818, Frederick, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg; no issue
|Ernest Augustus I of Hanover
|5 June 1771
|18 November 1851
|married 1815, Princess Friederike of Mecklenburg-Strelitz; had issue
|Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex
|27 January 1773
|21 April 1843
| (1) married in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act 1772, The Lady Augusta Murray; had issue; marriage annulled 1794
(2) married 1831, The Lady Cecilia Buggin (later 1st Duchess of Inverness); no issue
|HRH The Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge
|24 February 1774
|8 July 1850
|married 1818, Princess Augusta of Hesse-Cassel; had issue
|Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester
|25 April 1776
|30 April 1857
|married 1816, Prince William, Duke of Gloucester; no issue
|Princess Sophia
|3 November 1777
|27 May 1848
|may have had issue
|Prince Octavius
|23 February 1779
|3 May 1783
|Prince Alfred
|22 September 1780
|20 August 1782
|Princess Amelia
|7 August 1783
|2 November1810
|Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
| Father:
Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
| Paternal grandfather:
Adolf Frederick II, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
| Paternal great-grandfather:
Adolf Friedrich I of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
| Paternal great-grandmother:
Maria Katharina of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
| Paternal grandmother:
Christiane Emilie of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
| Paternal great-grandfather:
Christian Wilhelm I of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen
| Paternal great-grandmother:
Antoine Sybille of Barby-Muhlingen
| Mother:
Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen
| Maternal grandfather:
Ernest Frederick I of Saxe-Hildburghausen
| Maternal great-grandfather:
Ernest III of Saxe-Hildburghausen
| Maternal great-grandmother:
Sofie of Waldeck
| Maternal grandmother:
Sofie Albertine of Erbach-Erbach
| Maternal great-grandfather:
Georg Ludwig I of Erbach-Erbach
| Maternal great-grandmother:
Amelie Katherine of Waldeck-Eisenberg
Valdes y Cocom says that Sir Allan Ramsay, a noted abolitionist, frequently painted the Queen in works said to emphasize the alleged mulatto appearance of Charlotte, and that Ramsay's coronation portrait of Charlotte was sent to the colonies and was used by abolitionists as a de facto support for their cause. Valdes y Cocom goes on to state that, along with descriptions of a "mulatto face", the Queen's features had also been described as Vandalic, as exemplified by a poem written for the occasion of her marriage:
All this has lead Mario de Valdes y Cocom to inquire about her ancestry and research her genealogy. Still according to Valdes y Cocom, one of the possibilities for Queen Charlotte's supposed racial features is that they were a concentration of traits inherited through three to six lines from a nine times removed ancestor of hers, Margarita de Castro e Souza, a 15th century Portuguese noblewoman who traced her ancestry six generations earlier to King Afonso III of Portugal and one of his lovers, Madragana.
Critics of this theory argue that Margarita's and Madragana's distant perch in the queen's family tree, respectively 9 and 15 generations removed, makes any presumed African ancestry, Northern or sub-Saharan negligible and no more significant in Charlotte than in any other member of any German royal house at that time, and therefore that Charlotte could hardly be accurately described as "mulatto" or "African".
Even more, Valdez y Cocom assumed that Madragana was a Black African woman, because a single author, Duarte Nunes de Leão, described her as a Moor, that is to say, in the context of the Iberian Reconquista, someone of Islamic religion, regardless of actual ethnic origin (and that could have been Arab, North African Berber, or Muladi - native Iberian European Christians who converted to Islam after the arrival of the Moors, all of whom can be described as Caucasian or White). Modern research, however, believe Madragana to have been a Mozarab, that is to say an Iberian Christian living under Muslim control, of Sephardi Jewish origin.
Valdez y Cocom has also argued, trying to defend the African origin of Queen Charlotte, that the Royal Household itself, at the time of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1952, referred to both her Asian and African bloodlines in an apologia it published defending her position as head of the Commonwealth. This is denied by Buckingham Palace. The issue remains important to those concerned with the history of the African diaspora.


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Remove the jackfruit, peel and then tear into strips.
In a mixing bowl, combine the jackfruit strips, tofu, carrots, fresh mint, Asian basil, perilla leaves, sesame seeds, and shallots and dress with 4 tablespoons salad dressing.
Transfer to a serving plate and garnish with coriander.
Get Cooking Channel on your TV.


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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10355/4700
|Critical pluralism: a new approach to religious diversity
|Konieczka, Matthew P.
|University of Missouri--Columbia
|The world's religions provide a wide range of competing religious claims. The problem of religious diversity is that, while many of these claims are inconsistent with one another, they often seem to rest on roughly equal evidence. For this reason, it is not clear which religion, if any, is true. My dissertation examines the various responses to this problem and proposes a unique solution. While some claim that the wide disagreement on religious matters is reason to discard all religious claims as false, I provide an extensive argument in favor of a particularly religious position I call "Critical Pluralism." Critical Pluralism occupies a middle ground between those who claim that all major religions are somehow equally true and those who claim that one religion alone is true. On my view, religious belief systems often provide inadequate yet partially true accounts of a transcendent reality. Many religions approximate the truth to some degree. Some even do so a great deal better than others. Nonetheless, there is not a single religion that exclusively captures the truth.
|Other Identifiers:
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text:
A staff sergeant with the California Army National Guard died Wednesday night after showing signs of a heart attack during a training exercise at Camp Roberts, officials say.They say Raul Escobedo, 41, from Fullerton, was taken to a San Luis Obispo hospital after soldiers tried to revive him around 10:30 p.m. They say he was on an off-shift at the time.
Earlier that evening, they say Escobedo was taken to another hospital in the area after having chest pains, but was checked out and released.Officials say Escobedo's wife, who is also a National Guardsman, was flown to the hospital shortly after he died. Escobedo was taking part in annual training at Camp Roberts. There are about 5,0Read More »


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Welcome to your discussion forum: Verified accounts are now required for immediate posting. Please verify your e-mail address in Disqus, or sign in with your social networking account. You may also post using your e-mail address (which will remain private), but those posts will first need to be approved by the moderator. Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion or approval of the Manchester Journal. This forum encourages open, honest, respectful and insightful discussions; there is no need to be offensive. Read the guidelines.
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(Gene J. Puskar/AP)
Suit: Competitor's smiley face cookies 'confusingly similar'
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The cookies may be smiling, but the restaurants are not. A Pennsylvania chain says in a lawsuit that the smiley face cookies made by a Chicago-based baker are "confusingly similar" to its own trademarked treats. Full Story
(Scott Gries/Scott Gries/Invision/AP)
Michael Fassbender on making 'Macbeth': 'the Scottish film'
CANNES, France (AP) — Michael Fassbender doesn't know if the "Macbeth" curse carries over to movie adaptations, but he'd rather not test it. Full Story
( Randy McMullen )
Duggar son apologizes after molestation accusations surface
Josh Duggar, one of the cast members of the TLC reality show '19 Kids and Counting,' was accused of molesting five young girls, including his sister, as a teenager; no charges were filed. He reportedly takes responsibility in an issued statement.


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JamBase Features, Newswire & Reviews
Toubab Krewe Tour
Just saw Toubab tonight in Pittsburgh. They were one of the most unique acts I've seen in a long time. Their blend of island ryhthms with "drum-circlesque" percussion along with a driving bass and unique stringed instruments played in a momentum-driven show, this band has a very wide appeal. I look for this band to make some serious noise at Rothbury and Bonnaroo. If you have not yet seen these guys, do yourself a favor.
These guys tore it up at Summer Camp too. I think what is great about the "world" or "afrobeat" genres is that is appeals to a wider age range than most bands in the jam scene. You could bring your children and your parents to this show. I highly recommend this band. Nice people as well.
They played an awesome show at Pittsburgh! Can't wait for them to come back to Greensburg, PA in August! These guys are so talented! Check them out!
Check out Toubab Krewes last.fm station to check an upcoming show in your area http://www.last.fm/music/Toubab+Krewe such as the Baltimore one Tuesday, October 4th.
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Unless you have added knowledge and experience in at least one investment venture, sometimes finding alternative means to stabilize your finances might not be as easy as you may think. When you consider an investment vehicle such as options trading, you must be prepared to spend agood amount of time learning in order to be able to make a profitable investment. Failure to learn, whether formal or informal, will be like casting your investment in the wind.
Having said that, getting a specialized options trading class would be a good idea. Attaining a good level of training in option trading is one of the most reliable and effective ways of attaining the requisite knowledge that will help you secure your stock options investment.
The web is becoming a vital resource for finding valuable information and tutorials to enhance your knowledge in trading options. If you are familiar with the Internet, you will appreciate the values of online forums, and online communities, especially when you want to learn something about options.
Every investment has a risk aspect pegged to it, and options are not any different. However, it should concern you when the risk involves you losing your money within a very short period of time.
Yes! In options trading, just the same way as it is possible to make profitable returns fast, losses can also be made that fast. Nevertheless, with the right training, you should be able to develop the skills required to help you prevent such losses.
Although you might not be able to grasp every taught strategy, especially if you are a beginner, it is advisable to identify one and become very good at it. You might be surprised by how much a basic lesson in options trading can help you achieve. However, as you move on in your investment, you will see the need of advancing your knowledge. One thing that you will notice is that options trading can be more complex compared to trading stock. At this level, it is important to identify the specific areas in which you want to improve and then try locating the appropriate classes for your training.
The beauty with most options trading trainings is that they are versatile enough to accommodate various specific trader's needs. Therefore, whether you are looking for classes that will give you the basics of option trading or advanced techniques of market analysis, it is possible to find an appropriate class to accommodate your training needs. Probably the main question to ask at his point would be, how do you get reliable options trading training that will meet your specific needs?
In order to get a training program that will meet your specific needs, you will need to spend your time researching on the available classes. A quick Internet search will give you a list of training that you can compare against your specific needs. Your broker and other experts in the industry might also be very resourceful when it comes to imparting such specific skills, so you should consider consulting with them.


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HOUSTON --The Buffalo Soldiers National Museum has a new home in Houston.
A ribbon cutting was held Thursday at the Houston Light Guard Armory in the Museum District.
The U.S. Army created all black soldier units after the Civil War. They became known as the Buffalo Soldiers for their tenacity and hair texture.
It s the only exhibit of its kind in the country.
I started with a little section in my garage and onto the kitchen table, and we ended up here. --It s beyond my wildest dreams, said the museum s founder Cpt. Paul Matthews.