Chocolate A Bitter Sweet Saga of Dark and Light
Comments -
1. Nutella is a chocolaty glop that comes in glass or plastic tubs. It is to be spread on bread, but more often than not, it is licked straight off the knife.
2. The Nutella formula was invented after World War II. Italy was short of chocolate, but it had plenty of hazelnuts and other non - chocolate fillers.
3.There was other good chocolate around. But I could see an overriding attitude toward chocolate in mainstream America. It occured to me when I finally saw the film version of Roald Dahl's classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with Gene Wilder.
4. Consumers must make a basic choice. They decide what they like and hope for no disappointment,
5.There are few enough real experts; in any case, no one can speak for someone else's palate, let alone past life associations. If you like Hershey, count yourself lucky. If you crave Valrhona's best, morgage the house if you must. Life has few enough pleasures.
Questions -
1. Did the author feel as many people do, that Roald Dahl's book was based on the war between Hershey's and Mars?
2. What made nutella so popular in Italy?
3. What chocolate did the author like best after trying chocolate throughout the world?
4. Did the author agree with the other countries that American chocolate was inferior and if not what country had the worst tasting chocolate?
Vocabulary -
1. depicted - To represent in words; describe.
2. astringent - harshly biting; caustic
3. notwithstanding - in spite of; without being opposed or prevented by.
Literary Terms -
1.Setting - Italy and the United States.
2. Exposition -The author talks about nutella and when, where and why it was invented as well as its popularity.
Outline -
Nutella is invented during WWII because of the shortage of chocolate. It becomes very popular. The author also comes back to America to put his knowledge to use. His conclusion is that everyone has their own tastes when it comes to chocolate no matter the price.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Chocolate
Chocolate A Bitter Sweet Saga of Dark and Light
Comments -
1.In the end, a good chocolatier must think beyond borders. Preferences may vary from culture to culture, but taste is universal.
2.Godiva displays are by and large beautiful. At each outlet, bon-bons nestle against golden glitter, skillfully arranged to fire sences.
3.The problem is that so much of this tempting chocolate tasted to me as if someone dumped a lot of sugar into melted candle wax.
4.But Godiva has its enthusiastic fans; plenty of people say they love the stuff.
5.Godiva has siezed unoccupied high growth in an America eager for something more than Hershey and Mars.
Questions -
1. Why did the author seem so against the mass marketing approach companies like Godiva use?
2. Was Godiva the worst chocolate the author sampled?
3.IF Godiva tastes so bad why do so many people love it?
4.Is Godiva a threat to Hershey or Mars?
Vocabulary -
1.optimism- the belief that good ultimately predominates over evil in the world.
2.lurk - to lie or wait in concealment, as a person in ambush; remain in or around a place secretly or furtively.
3.accumulate - to gather or collect, often in gradual degrees; heap up: to accumulate wealth.
Literary Terms -
1 exposition -The author continues sampling and tries to discover the secrets of Godiva chocolates.
2.Setting - Belgium.
Outline - The author continues talking to Belgium chocolatiers and although he doesn't like Godiva, he still explores the company and how they do business.
Comments -
1.In the end, a good chocolatier must think beyond borders. Preferences may vary from culture to culture, but taste is universal.
2.Godiva displays are by and large beautiful. At each outlet, bon-bons nestle against golden glitter, skillfully arranged to fire sences.
3.The problem is that so much of this tempting chocolate tasted to me as if someone dumped a lot of sugar into melted candle wax.
4.But Godiva has its enthusiastic fans; plenty of people say they love the stuff.
5.Godiva has siezed unoccupied high growth in an America eager for something more than Hershey and Mars.
Questions -
1. Why did the author seem so against the mass marketing approach companies like Godiva use?
2. Was Godiva the worst chocolate the author sampled?
3.IF Godiva tastes so bad why do so many people love it?
4.Is Godiva a threat to Hershey or Mars?
Vocabulary -
1.optimism- the belief that good ultimately predominates over evil in the world.
2.lurk - to lie or wait in concealment, as a person in ambush; remain in or around a place secretly or furtively.
3.accumulate - to gather or collect, often in gradual degrees; heap up: to accumulate wealth.
Literary Terms -
1 exposition -The author continues sampling and tries to discover the secrets of Godiva chocolates.
2.Setting - Belgium.
Outline - The author continues talking to Belgium chocolatiers and although he doesn't like Godiva, he still explores the company and how they do business.
chocolate
Chocolate A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
Comments -
1.To make memorable chocolate, you need above all the palate to recognize it.
2.In a world of fast food and junkybshops, the Grand-Sablon is a throwback to a different age.
3."Belgian chocolate is by far the best, no comparison to that stuff in France," Thier told me. "Frenchmen come to Belgium and by chocolate by the kilo."
4.In each of the samples I tasted, chocolate was secondary to other stronger flavors.
5.Belgium chocolatiers feel that quality above all makes the chocolate.
Questions -
1.Why does every chocolatier feel his country makes the best chocolate?
2.Why does Belgiums beliefs about chocolate vary so much from France's?
3.Why was the chocolate not the main taste in the Belgium samples?
4. Why does Belgium give more credit to the customers pallet than France?
Vocabulary -
1.generalities -the state or quality of being general.
2.flamboyant - strikingly bold or brilliant; showy
3.leeway - extra time, space, materials, or the like, within which to operate; margin.
Literary Terms -
1.Setting - Belgium
2. Exposition- The author talks to a Belgium chocolatier and finds out how different their thinking is on making chocolate.
Outline -
Belgium chocolatiers believe in quality and the customers tastes.they also feel they are far superior to France and other coutries in their chocolate making and customer satisfaction.
Comments -
1.To make memorable chocolate, you need above all the palate to recognize it.
2.In a world of fast food and junkybshops, the Grand-Sablon is a throwback to a different age.
3."Belgian chocolate is by far the best, no comparison to that stuff in France," Thier told me. "Frenchmen come to Belgium and by chocolate by the kilo."
4.In each of the samples I tasted, chocolate was secondary to other stronger flavors.
5.Belgium chocolatiers feel that quality above all makes the chocolate.
Questions -
1.Why does every chocolatier feel his country makes the best chocolate?
2.Why does Belgiums beliefs about chocolate vary so much from France's?
3.Why was the chocolate not the main taste in the Belgium samples?
4. Why does Belgium give more credit to the customers pallet than France?
Vocabulary -
1.generalities -the state or quality of being general.
2.flamboyant - strikingly bold or brilliant; showy
3.leeway - extra time, space, materials, or the like, within which to operate; margin.
Literary Terms -
1.Setting - Belgium
2. Exposition- The author talks to a Belgium chocolatier and finds out how different their thinking is on making chocolate.
Outline -
Belgium chocolatiers believe in quality and the customers tastes.they also feel they are far superior to France and other coutries in their chocolate making and customer satisfaction.
chocolate
Chocolate A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
Comments -
1.When I asked Hevin how he did it, he raised an eyebrow and looked at me for a moment. Without a word, he made his answer crystal clear: You couldn't do this with a million years of practice. Why ask?
2.Like so many others who specialize in chocolate, Hevin started out as a pastry chef and then followed his bliss.
3.My own favorite chocolatier, anywhere, is Jacques Genin, who works almost unnoticed in a signless little lab in the seventeenth arrondissement.
4.During 2004, prices fell in the range of fifty dollars a pound for top level chocolatiers with shops of their own. For candy that is a lot.
5. Unlike most fine chocolatiers, Chaudun believes that few consumers can tell the difference if a manufacturer sneaks in a substitute.
Questions -
1. Why do chocolatiers like Hevlin feel he was the only one to make fine chocolates like his?
2. What made chocolate prices fall in 2004?
3.Why does Chaudin feel people can't tell if substitutions are made?
4. What makes the author feel that Chaudin is modest?
vocabulary -
1.rhapsodize - to talk with extravagant enthusiasm.
2.intricate - complex; complicated; hard to understand, work, or make.
3.alcove -a recess or small room adjacent to or opening out of a room.
literary terms
1.setting - France.
2. exposition - The author is asking a chocolatier how he creates his chocolates.
outline -
One chocolatier feels no one can make chocolates as good as him, and another feels that the customers can't tell if he adds substitutes. The author also talks about the price drop of chocolate in 2004 and how it affected the individual shop owners.
Comments -
1.When I asked Hevin how he did it, he raised an eyebrow and looked at me for a moment. Without a word, he made his answer crystal clear: You couldn't do this with a million years of practice. Why ask?
2.Like so many others who specialize in chocolate, Hevin started out as a pastry chef and then followed his bliss.
3.My own favorite chocolatier, anywhere, is Jacques Genin, who works almost unnoticed in a signless little lab in the seventeenth arrondissement.
4.During 2004, prices fell in the range of fifty dollars a pound for top level chocolatiers with shops of their own. For candy that is a lot.
5. Unlike most fine chocolatiers, Chaudun believes that few consumers can tell the difference if a manufacturer sneaks in a substitute.
Questions -
1. Why do chocolatiers like Hevlin feel he was the only one to make fine chocolates like his?
2. What made chocolate prices fall in 2004?
3.Why does Chaudin feel people can't tell if substitutions are made?
4. What makes the author feel that Chaudin is modest?
vocabulary -
1.rhapsodize - to talk with extravagant enthusiasm.
2.intricate - complex; complicated; hard to understand, work, or make.
3.alcove -a recess or small room adjacent to or opening out of a room.
literary terms
1.setting - France.
2. exposition - The author is asking a chocolatier how he creates his chocolates.
outline -
One chocolatier feels no one can make chocolates as good as him, and another feels that the customers can't tell if he adds substitutes. The author also talks about the price drop of chocolate in 2004 and how it affected the individual shop owners.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
chocolate
chocolate
comments -
1.Valrhona is good not because of the machines themselves but rather because they are put to use. And that is only part of it.
2. In the end, Valrhona bon bons might not receive the same personal attention as those made by France's best artisans, but I'd eat them anytime.
3. Valrhona is an odd duck for a corporate subsidary. It was founded in 1924, by the father of Olivier Deloisy, who now owns La Chocolatiere de L'Opera, a Franch company that sell products that are made to specifications by Chocovic in the Catalonian mountains of Spain.
4. The Valrhona product range runs heavily to chips and chunks for big time bakers. But its real pride is a collection of origin - specific chocolates.
5. For chocolate lover's tha Valrhona approach has turned out to be good news. In 1991, an affable Italian perfectionist named Alessio Tessieri visited the plant. His family had a thriving business selling ingredients to Italian bakers. Valrhona made no excuses for why they were not interested in any dealings with Alessio and his family. They trusted no one that wasn't From France.
Questions -
1. What makes Valrhona so much better than its competitors?
2. Why do countries like Denmark and Italy want access to Valrhona chocolate as opposed to others?
3. Why do the French feel other countries are not worthy of Valrhona chocolate?
4. What bakers use Valrhona chocolates and are they sold everywhere including the United States?
Vocabulary -
1. Sanctum - an inviolably private place or retreat.
2 .Artisans - A skilled manual worker; a craftsperson.
3. affable - pleasantly easy to approach and to talk to; friendly; cordial; warmly polite.
Literary terms -
1. Setting - Valrhona plant France.
2. Exposition - A tour of the Valrona plant and a meeting with an Italian businaess man trying to form a partnership.
Outline - Valrhona is not unlike Willie Wonka as the mystery surrounding the chocolates makes them more enticing to the public.Other countries have tried to become part of the Valrona company but are denied because of Frances strong distrust of others.Valrona remains one of the finest chocolatiers in the world.
comments -
1.Valrhona is good not because of the machines themselves but rather because they are put to use. And that is only part of it.
2. In the end, Valrhona bon bons might not receive the same personal attention as those made by France's best artisans, but I'd eat them anytime.
3. Valrhona is an odd duck for a corporate subsidary. It was founded in 1924, by the father of Olivier Deloisy, who now owns La Chocolatiere de L'Opera, a Franch company that sell products that are made to specifications by Chocovic in the Catalonian mountains of Spain.
4. The Valrhona product range runs heavily to chips and chunks for big time bakers. But its real pride is a collection of origin - specific chocolates.
5. For chocolate lover's tha Valrhona approach has turned out to be good news. In 1991, an affable Italian perfectionist named Alessio Tessieri visited the plant. His family had a thriving business selling ingredients to Italian bakers. Valrhona made no excuses for why they were not interested in any dealings with Alessio and his family. They trusted no one that wasn't From France.
Questions -
1. What makes Valrhona so much better than its competitors?
2. Why do countries like Denmark and Italy want access to Valrhona chocolate as opposed to others?
3. Why do the French feel other countries are not worthy of Valrhona chocolate?
4. What bakers use Valrhona chocolates and are they sold everywhere including the United States?
Vocabulary -
1. Sanctum - an inviolably private place or retreat.
2 .Artisans - A skilled manual worker; a craftsperson.
3. affable - pleasantly easy to approach and to talk to; friendly; cordial; warmly polite.
Literary terms -
1. Setting - Valrhona plant France.
2. Exposition - A tour of the Valrona plant and a meeting with an Italian businaess man trying to form a partnership.
Outline - Valrhona is not unlike Willie Wonka as the mystery surrounding the chocolates makes them more enticing to the public.Other countries have tried to become part of the Valrona company but are denied because of Frances strong distrust of others.Valrona remains one of the finest chocolatiers in the world.
chocolate
Chocolate
Comments -
1. For industrial chocolate giant companies like Hershey or Nestle simply pour beans into one end of a factory and truck boxes of finished candy bars out the other.
2. In the end does it matter? Valrhona, by almost any measure makes the best range of commercial sealed chocolate anywhere.
3. Getting permission to visit Valrhona is a little like applying for a North Korean visa. There is seldom an outright refusal, yet ther visit does not take oplace unless someone decides it is in the company's interest.
4. For those who are deemed Valrhona - worthy, or who otherwise manage to weasel their way past the heavy steel gates, there is a pleasant surprise. The haughtiness of the public face is missing in the inner sanctum. Valrhona employs Frenchmen who, as God is my witness, all but whistle while they work. Among a full- time staff of four hundred, thirty - year veterans are common.
5. Confidences are not blithely divulged. Most employees would sooner eat a Mars bar than betray their familytrust. Just in case, Valrhona takes no chances. Sacks of beans are coded with numbers and left unlabled. Only a few senior company officals can determine the country of origin, let alone the specific plantation.
Questions -
1. Why does the world look down on American chocolate companies like Hershey's and Mar's when they are so successful?
2. Was Valrhona actingf like Willy Wonka with their fear of theft or is it a legitimate fear?
3. With modern technology, couldn't someone just take a piece of chocolate and have it duplicated?
4. What makes emplyees during this time remain so loyal to a company like Valrhona and why?
Vocabulary -
1. blithely - joyous, merry, or gay in disposition; glad; cheerful.
2. divulged - to disclose or reveal (something private, secret, or previously unknown).
3. haughtiness - disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious.
Literary terms -
setting - In France at the Valrhona chocolate plant.
exposition- The author is trying to get into the plant and interview workers.
outline -
The Valrhona chocolate company in France is considered to be the finest in the world. It is also a company that while having very satisfied employees, is filled with a lot of distrust of the public. They will not allow any non employee on the premises for fear of theft, unlike companies like Hershey's who encourage tours.
Comments -
1. For industrial chocolate giant companies like Hershey or Nestle simply pour beans into one end of a factory and truck boxes of finished candy bars out the other.
2. In the end does it matter? Valrhona, by almost any measure makes the best range of commercial sealed chocolate anywhere.
3. Getting permission to visit Valrhona is a little like applying for a North Korean visa. There is seldom an outright refusal, yet ther visit does not take oplace unless someone decides it is in the company's interest.
4. For those who are deemed Valrhona - worthy, or who otherwise manage to weasel their way past the heavy steel gates, there is a pleasant surprise. The haughtiness of the public face is missing in the inner sanctum. Valrhona employs Frenchmen who, as God is my witness, all but whistle while they work. Among a full- time staff of four hundred, thirty - year veterans are common.
5. Confidences are not blithely divulged. Most employees would sooner eat a Mars bar than betray their familytrust. Just in case, Valrhona takes no chances. Sacks of beans are coded with numbers and left unlabled. Only a few senior company officals can determine the country of origin, let alone the specific plantation.
Questions -
1. Why does the world look down on American chocolate companies like Hershey's and Mar's when they are so successful?
2. Was Valrhona actingf like Willy Wonka with their fear of theft or is it a legitimate fear?
3. With modern technology, couldn't someone just take a piece of chocolate and have it duplicated?
4. What makes emplyees during this time remain so loyal to a company like Valrhona and why?
Vocabulary -
1. blithely - joyous, merry, or gay in disposition; glad; cheerful.
2. divulged - to disclose or reveal (something private, secret, or previously unknown).
3. haughtiness - disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious.
Literary terms -
setting - In France at the Valrhona chocolate plant.
exposition- The author is trying to get into the plant and interview workers.
outline -
The Valrhona chocolate company in France is considered to be the finest in the world. It is also a company that while having very satisfied employees, is filled with a lot of distrust of the public. They will not allow any non employee on the premises for fear of theft, unlike companies like Hershey's who encourage tours.
Chocolate
Comments-
1. For better or worse, the old style planters with a firm hand and a single minded vision are gone for good. Nothing has yet replaced them.
2. A smart planter shapes a young tree to grow from three main boughs that spread from a short trunk. Branches that extend from the tree uprights find their happiest place between light and shade.
3. pruning is essential not only to shape a tree for easy picking, but also to coax it to maximum production. Done well, it reduces competing branches so that more nutrients reach the most promising limbs. Fertilizer and pesticides might help, but both are expensive.
4. To hear the world's finest chocolatiers tell it, the Valrhona factory at Tain, Hermitage in the heart of France is an earthly equivalent of heaven.
5. From the first moment I began to poke at the edges of chocolate, the name Valrhona seemed to take an outsized place in any conversation. Soon I learned to nod sagely and listen. If you talk jewelry, you should at least pretend you know about Tiffany's. In fact it is more than that. There are other over the top-end jewelers.
Questions-
1. Was the new technology for farmers really better?
2. If the fertilizers and pesticides would help, why didn't they use them and raise the price?
3. Valrhona is considered to be the best but what chocolates was it compared to?
4. Did the author feel Valrhona was the best of all the chocolates he sampled?
Vocabulary-
1. Sage- Someone venerated for the possession of wisdom, judgment, and experience.
2. Pesticides- A chemical used to kill pests, especially insects.
3. Chocolatiers- A person or firm that makes and sells chocolate candy.
Literary Terms-
1. Setting- The setting takes place in France.
2. Exposition- It starts off with the author explaining how to farm cacao plants.
Outline-
1. Planting and caretaking of the cacao plants are a lot of hard work. Every farm uses their own special technique in how they care for them. From the planting to cutting, watering as well as fertilizing and the use of pesticides, every farmer has his own individual style resulting in different types of cacao beans, which leads to different flavors of chocolate.
1. For better or worse, the old style planters with a firm hand and a single minded vision are gone for good. Nothing has yet replaced them.
2. A smart planter shapes a young tree to grow from three main boughs that spread from a short trunk. Branches that extend from the tree uprights find their happiest place between light and shade.
3. pruning is essential not only to shape a tree for easy picking, but also to coax it to maximum production. Done well, it reduces competing branches so that more nutrients reach the most promising limbs. Fertilizer and pesticides might help, but both are expensive.
4. To hear the world's finest chocolatiers tell it, the Valrhona factory at Tain, Hermitage in the heart of France is an earthly equivalent of heaven.
5. From the first moment I began to poke at the edges of chocolate, the name Valrhona seemed to take an outsized place in any conversation. Soon I learned to nod sagely and listen. If you talk jewelry, you should at least pretend you know about Tiffany's. In fact it is more than that. There are other over the top-end jewelers.
Questions-
1. Was the new technology for farmers really better?
2. If the fertilizers and pesticides would help, why didn't they use them and raise the price?
3. Valrhona is considered to be the best but what chocolates was it compared to?
4. Did the author feel Valrhona was the best of all the chocolates he sampled?
Vocabulary-
1. Sage- Someone venerated for the possession of wisdom, judgment, and experience.
2. Pesticides- A chemical used to kill pests, especially insects.
3. Chocolatiers- A person or firm that makes and sells chocolate candy.
Literary Terms-
1. Setting- The setting takes place in France.
2. Exposition- It starts off with the author explaining how to farm cacao plants.
Outline-
1. Planting and caretaking of the cacao plants are a lot of hard work. Every farm uses their own special technique in how they care for them. From the planting to cutting, watering as well as fertilizing and the use of pesticides, every farmer has his own individual style resulting in different types of cacao beans, which leads to different flavors of chocolate.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Chocolate
Chocolate A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
By Mort Rosenblum
Comments
1. And everyone in this small world is stocking up with chocolate for the holidays - only Hershey's Michael Weller alimni director, takes three bars from his drawer. They owe everything to this chocolate. It may not be the best in the world, but who dares to say so? This is still Hershey's best kept secret.
2. My discovery was no accident. I had gone to the Ivory Coast to find out what war might do to the world's principal cacao crop. Fine chocolate depends on pampered beans from small peoduction plantations in South America and Madigascar. But that was a small part of picture. The big factories like Hershey, consume nearly a million tons a year of foratero from West Africa's chocolate coast.
3. Cacoa farming is hard enough on orderly plantations, where crews can work methodically, with some gasoline - powered help and facilities for drying the beans. For dirt - poor African farmers, conditions range from primitive to prehistoric.
4. "It takes years to build a plantation," he said. "It cannot be forced or pushed too quickly, or there'll be an imbalance. And without balance, it is a disaster. Each step must be taken carefully, with thought toward the next. Above all you have to think of yourself as immortal.
5. Coffee is not easy to grow, but cacao is a killer. The first trees in Africa were planted in 1822, right next to Terreiro Velho, by Portuguese settlers who brought seedlings from Brazil.
Questions -
1. What did the director from Hershey's mean that it was their "Best kept Secret?"
2. What war is going on in Africa that the author was afraid of?
3. Why are the plantations so poor when companies like Hershey's are buying tons of cacao?
4. What made the Portuguese bring the seedlings from Brazil?
Vocabulary -
1. painstakingly - careful and diligent effort.
2. blasphemy - an act of cursing or reviling God.
3. irreparable -not reparable; incapable of being rectified, remedied, or made good: an irreparable mistake.
literary terms -
settings - the Ivory Coast and Madigascar.
exposition - plantations throughout Africa.
Outline -
Next to coffee, the cacao plant is one of the most popular to grow in Africa. It is also the hardest because it takes a lot of hard work and needs the most attention of any plant there is. The farmers work very hard and under extreme conditions. A lot goes into that bar of chocolate we take for granted.
By Mort Rosenblum
Comments
1. And everyone in this small world is stocking up with chocolate for the holidays - only Hershey's Michael Weller alimni director, takes three bars from his drawer. They owe everything to this chocolate. It may not be the best in the world, but who dares to say so? This is still Hershey's best kept secret.
2. My discovery was no accident. I had gone to the Ivory Coast to find out what war might do to the world's principal cacao crop. Fine chocolate depends on pampered beans from small peoduction plantations in South America and Madigascar. But that was a small part of picture. The big factories like Hershey, consume nearly a million tons a year of foratero from West Africa's chocolate coast.
3. Cacoa farming is hard enough on orderly plantations, where crews can work methodically, with some gasoline - powered help and facilities for drying the beans. For dirt - poor African farmers, conditions range from primitive to prehistoric.
4. "It takes years to build a plantation," he said. "It cannot be forced or pushed too quickly, or there'll be an imbalance. And without balance, it is a disaster. Each step must be taken carefully, with thought toward the next. Above all you have to think of yourself as immortal.
5. Coffee is not easy to grow, but cacao is a killer. The first trees in Africa were planted in 1822, right next to Terreiro Velho, by Portuguese settlers who brought seedlings from Brazil.
Questions -
1. What did the director from Hershey's mean that it was their "Best kept Secret?"
2. What war is going on in Africa that the author was afraid of?
3. Why are the plantations so poor when companies like Hershey's are buying tons of cacao?
4. What made the Portuguese bring the seedlings from Brazil?
Vocabulary -
1. painstakingly - careful and diligent effort.
2. blasphemy - an act of cursing or reviling God.
3. irreparable -not reparable; incapable of being rectified, remedied, or made good: an irreparable mistake.
literary terms -
settings - the Ivory Coast and Madigascar.
exposition - plantations throughout Africa.
Outline -
Next to coffee, the cacao plant is one of the most popular to grow in Africa. It is also the hardest because it takes a lot of hard work and needs the most attention of any plant there is. The farmers work very hard and under extreme conditions. A lot goes into that bar of chocolate we take for granted.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Chocolate
Chocolate A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
Comments -
1.By the late 1800's, Europeans were used to chocolate, and they wanted more. It was time for industrial advances. Germans were early masters of big chocolate. Five brothers named Stollwerck were obsessed with finding better ways to do things at their fast growing factory.
2. In the United States, Forest Mars and his sons fought bitterly among themselves before shaping a company that squared off against a common foe, Hershey. Their war was over market share.
3. These days, the company Nestle built now counts $65.5 billion a year in sales, and about 12 percent of that is chocolate. Nestle nearly bought Hershey Foods in 2002 for something close to $11 billion.
4. Big producers use complex production chains to ensure clean and consistent repititions of exactly what is ordered. The Mars family loses no sleep worrying that someone will stamp an off-center m on one of their little candies. A Cadbury bar tastes pretty much the same, anywhere and anytime, over its very long life span.
5. The success of Godiva is partly because so many people believe that Belgian chocolate is superior to all others. From my first day on the chocolate trail, I was obsessed by this obvious and overriding question: Who does make the best chocolate?
Questions -
1. With such a large market, why is there so much competition?
2. What started the feud between Mars and Hershey?
3. Why do people believe that foreign chocolate is superior to American?
4. What is the major difference between dark and milk chocolate?
Vocabulary -
1.inexplicably - not explicable; incapable of being accounted for or explained.
2. genteel - well-bred or refined; polite; elegant; stylish.
3. conglomerates - a corporation consisting of a number of subsidiary companies or divisions in a variety of unrelated industries, usually as a result of merger or acquisition.
Literay Terms -
1.settings - factories throughout Europe and the US.
2.exposition - All throughout Europe, chocolatiers experiment with chocolate and elements from their own country.
Outline -
Chocolatiers experiment and have great success' throughout Europe and the United States. The competition becomes fierce with undercutting and stealing of ideas. Major companies feud with each other while tryingt to become number 1.
Comments -
1.By the late 1800's, Europeans were used to chocolate, and they wanted more. It was time for industrial advances. Germans were early masters of big chocolate. Five brothers named Stollwerck were obsessed with finding better ways to do things at their fast growing factory.
2. In the United States, Forest Mars and his sons fought bitterly among themselves before shaping a company that squared off against a common foe, Hershey. Their war was over market share.
3. These days, the company Nestle built now counts $65.5 billion a year in sales, and about 12 percent of that is chocolate. Nestle nearly bought Hershey Foods in 2002 for something close to $11 billion.
4. Big producers use complex production chains to ensure clean and consistent repititions of exactly what is ordered. The Mars family loses no sleep worrying that someone will stamp an off-center m on one of their little candies. A Cadbury bar tastes pretty much the same, anywhere and anytime, over its very long life span.
5. The success of Godiva is partly because so many people believe that Belgian chocolate is superior to all others. From my first day on the chocolate trail, I was obsessed by this obvious and overriding question: Who does make the best chocolate?
Questions -
1. With such a large market, why is there so much competition?
2. What started the feud between Mars and Hershey?
3. Why do people believe that foreign chocolate is superior to American?
4. What is the major difference between dark and milk chocolate?
Vocabulary -
1.inexplicably - not explicable; incapable of being accounted for or explained.
2. genteel - well-bred or refined; polite; elegant; stylish.
3. conglomerates - a corporation consisting of a number of subsidiary companies or divisions in a variety of unrelated industries, usually as a result of merger or acquisition.
Literay Terms -
1.settings - factories throughout Europe and the US.
2.exposition - All throughout Europe, chocolatiers experiment with chocolate and elements from their own country.
Outline -
Chocolatiers experiment and have great success' throughout Europe and the United States. The competition becomes fierce with undercutting and stealing of ideas. Major companies feud with each other while tryingt to become number 1.
Chocolate
Chocolate A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
By Mort Rosenblum
Comments -
1. A half millenium ago, a canoe full of Indians rowed out to an ungainly floating house anchored at Guanaja, a palm-flecked island off thre Honduran coast. Christopher Columbus had stopped by on the way home from his fourth and last trip to America, still hopeful he might find useful riches beyond an expanse of alien real estate. The Indians offered what he took to be a handful of shriveled almonds. He was mystified when a few dropped to the bottom of their canoe, his son reported later, and "they scrambled for them as though they were eyes that had fallen out of their headfs." But Columbus's Mayan was no better than the natives' Spanish. He returned to Spain empty handed.
2. Beyond industrial candymakers with brands we all recognize, chocolate comes in two flavors. There are those who make chocolate from beans, from the Swiss-based behemoth Barry Callebaut to such specialists as Valrhona. And there are artisansknown as fondeurs - the word means "melters" - who turn this base chocolate into high art.
3. Spain dominated the early cacao trade. As demand increased for chocolate in Europe, kings in Madrid kept close watch on their lucrative crop. After a century, though, their monopoly was threatened. Portuguese colonizers grew cacao in Brazil, and Dutch sailors also brought trees to Southeast Asia.
4. Chocolate, coffee, and tea all captivated Europe at about the same time, and each made its impact. Coffee, the cheapest, was a man's drink, taken in clublike public houses along with another exotic import, tobacco. Tea was twice as expensive as coffee, with more genteel following among both males and females. But, after all, it was only hot water and wet leaves. Chocolate, at double the price of tea, was the noble newcomer.
5. In 1875, after eight years of trying, the Swiss inventor Daniel Peter worked out a way to combine milk with chocolate. He was helped by Henri Nestle, whose dabbling in dairy science evolved into the largest food empire on earth. No 0ne had been able to mix fat in chocolate with water in milk. Nestle condensed milk, eliminating the water.
Questions -
1. Since Columbus' men loved the chocolate so much, why didn't they try to find out what it was or try to get some to bring back with them?
2. What made chocolate such a big deal throughout Europe?
3. What made Nestle think that adding milk to chocolate would make it taste better?
4. Why is chocolate compared to coffee and tea?
Vocabulary -
1. artisans - A skilled manual worker; a craftsperson.
2. alchemy - a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life.
3. lucrative - profitable; moneymaking; remunerative: a lucrative business.
Literary Terms -
1. Setting - most of Europe and the United States.
2.Exposition - Europeans fight to gain control of the chocolate market.
Outline -
Christopher Columbus is offerred chocolate by the Indians while on his last trip home from America. Then chocolate made its way throughout Europe and America where it was transformed in many ways to become a very high commodity. Most countries couldn't keep up with the demand the people had for chocolate.
By Mort Rosenblum
Comments -
1. A half millenium ago, a canoe full of Indians rowed out to an ungainly floating house anchored at Guanaja, a palm-flecked island off thre Honduran coast. Christopher Columbus had stopped by on the way home from his fourth and last trip to America, still hopeful he might find useful riches beyond an expanse of alien real estate. The Indians offered what he took to be a handful of shriveled almonds. He was mystified when a few dropped to the bottom of their canoe, his son reported later, and "they scrambled for them as though they were eyes that had fallen out of their headfs." But Columbus's Mayan was no better than the natives' Spanish. He returned to Spain empty handed.
2. Beyond industrial candymakers with brands we all recognize, chocolate comes in two flavors. There are those who make chocolate from beans, from the Swiss-based behemoth Barry Callebaut to such specialists as Valrhona. And there are artisansknown as fondeurs - the word means "melters" - who turn this base chocolate into high art.
3. Spain dominated the early cacao trade. As demand increased for chocolate in Europe, kings in Madrid kept close watch on their lucrative crop. After a century, though, their monopoly was threatened. Portuguese colonizers grew cacao in Brazil, and Dutch sailors also brought trees to Southeast Asia.
4. Chocolate, coffee, and tea all captivated Europe at about the same time, and each made its impact. Coffee, the cheapest, was a man's drink, taken in clublike public houses along with another exotic import, tobacco. Tea was twice as expensive as coffee, with more genteel following among both males and females. But, after all, it was only hot water and wet leaves. Chocolate, at double the price of tea, was the noble newcomer.
5. In 1875, after eight years of trying, the Swiss inventor Daniel Peter worked out a way to combine milk with chocolate. He was helped by Henri Nestle, whose dabbling in dairy science evolved into the largest food empire on earth. No 0ne had been able to mix fat in chocolate with water in milk. Nestle condensed milk, eliminating the water.
Questions -
1. Since Columbus' men loved the chocolate so much, why didn't they try to find out what it was or try to get some to bring back with them?
2. What made chocolate such a big deal throughout Europe?
3. What made Nestle think that adding milk to chocolate would make it taste better?
4. Why is chocolate compared to coffee and tea?
Vocabulary -
1. artisans - A skilled manual worker; a craftsperson.
2. alchemy - a form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life.
3. lucrative - profitable; moneymaking; remunerative: a lucrative business.
Literary Terms -
1. Setting - most of Europe and the United States.
2.Exposition - Europeans fight to gain control of the chocolate market.
Outline -
Christopher Columbus is offerred chocolate by the Indians while on his last trip home from America. Then chocolate made its way throughout Europe and America where it was transformed in many ways to become a very high commodity. Most countries couldn't keep up with the demand the people had for chocolate.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Easter Rising
Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. "Ireland?" I felt sick at just the thought of it. Ireland was the last place on earth I wanted to see. And now, when I was only calling to borrow money, Grandpa was making me promise I'd use his loan to go there.
2. I couldn't imagine growing up in a place like this instead of Old Colony Project. To me it was like being in a cartoon or a dream. That shade of green I'd never imagined, the bearded goat, the clouds that seemed to move faster than a speeding bus, breaking open to funnel columns of sun, like searchlights that raced across faraway fields.
3. I found out that the Irish didn't really celebrate Saint Paddy's the way they did in Southie but they were starting to bring in the green beer as an American thing, along with the over - the top parades. But corned beef, Oweney told me, was basically meat you might feed the dog.
4. Minuted after we got onto the bus, Ma let out a big sigh."My God, they're really not over it, huh?" In my community work with mothers whose kids had died, I'd learned that talk of getting "over it" was just about the worst thing they could ever hear from friends who didn't have a clue.
5. Just moments before getting out of the car for the church, when I saw Ma still had her accordian slung over her shoulder. I had wanted to ask,"What the hell are you going to do with that on Easter Sunday?" But I no longer had to. I understood that you never know when you'll need to give whatever you've got to give.
questions -
1. Why was Michael so against going to Ireland when his Grandfather suggested it?
2. Why did Michael say he couldn't imagine groweing up in a place like Ireland?
3. Why did Ma bring the accordian to play for strangeres in Ireland?
4. Why didn't Ma feel the connection os loss with the mothers of Ireland who had lost children of their own?
vocabulary -
1. mesmerized -page 188 to hypnotize.
2. elaborate -page 231 worked out with great care and nicety of detail; executed with great minuteness.
3. bamboozled -page 231 to deceive or get the better of (someone) by trickery, flattery, or the like; humbug; hoodwink
literary terms -
1. setting - Ireland, specifically, Kery, Donegal and Castleisland.
2 .exposition - Michael takes his mother to Ireland to see their herritage ands relatives.
outline -
Michael and Ma go to Ireland and visit with and meet relatives for the first time. Michael finds a connection to his family and their homeland that he never dreamed was possible. He also was able to bond and come to have a better understanding of his mother and her ways.
Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. "Ireland?" I felt sick at just the thought of it. Ireland was the last place on earth I wanted to see. And now, when I was only calling to borrow money, Grandpa was making me promise I'd use his loan to go there.
2. I couldn't imagine growing up in a place like this instead of Old Colony Project. To me it was like being in a cartoon or a dream. That shade of green I'd never imagined, the bearded goat, the clouds that seemed to move faster than a speeding bus, breaking open to funnel columns of sun, like searchlights that raced across faraway fields.
3. I found out that the Irish didn't really celebrate Saint Paddy's the way they did in Southie but they were starting to bring in the green beer as an American thing, along with the over - the top parades. But corned beef, Oweney told me, was basically meat you might feed the dog.
4. Minuted after we got onto the bus, Ma let out a big sigh."My God, they're really not over it, huh?" In my community work with mothers whose kids had died, I'd learned that talk of getting "over it" was just about the worst thing they could ever hear from friends who didn't have a clue.
5. Just moments before getting out of the car for the church, when I saw Ma still had her accordian slung over her shoulder. I had wanted to ask,"What the hell are you going to do with that on Easter Sunday?" But I no longer had to. I understood that you never know when you'll need to give whatever you've got to give.
questions -
1. Why was Michael so against going to Ireland when his Grandfather suggested it?
2. Why did Michael say he couldn't imagine groweing up in a place like Ireland?
3. Why did Ma bring the accordian to play for strangeres in Ireland?
4. Why didn't Ma feel the connection os loss with the mothers of Ireland who had lost children of their own?
vocabulary -
1. mesmerized -page 188 to hypnotize.
2. elaborate -page 231 worked out with great care and nicety of detail; executed with great minuteness.
3. bamboozled -page 231 to deceive or get the better of (someone) by trickery, flattery, or the like; humbug; hoodwink
literary terms -
1. setting - Ireland, specifically, Kery, Donegal and Castleisland.
2 .exposition - Michael takes his mother to Ireland to see their herritage ands relatives.
outline -
Michael and Ma go to Ireland and visit with and meet relatives for the first time. Michael finds a connection to his family and their homeland that he never dreamed was possible. He also was able to bond and come to have a better understanding of his mother and her ways.
Easter Rising
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. After Kevin died, I wasn't afraid of death anymore. Eight months after Frankie's death, we were told that Kevin had hung himself in jail. Though Ma didn't believe that, because she said a cop on Whitey's payroll had visited him the night before he was found dead outside his cell.
2. All my life I had struggled with the answers to the question,"How many are in your family?" and it wasn't getting any easier. My mother had lost the baby, Patrick a year before I was born, but we always included him in the count. Since we thought of him as a kind of guardian sibling.
3.On the sluggish trolley race home, all I could think about was that I'd never before seen just how ugly the world was.
4. I was looking at my father for the first time. Ma said he'd come to see me when I was a baby, but I was nineteen now and he hadn't come to see me since. I knew I was looking at him for the last time too. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see the resemblance to myself.
5. "Jesus Christ, what the hell did you go over there for with no money?" Ma wasn't yelling at me, she was just screaming to me since I was all the way across the Atlantic. Ma always yelled through phone lines, but whenever I called her long distance I had to pull the phone away from my ear.
questions -
1. What made Michael's family think Kevin's death was not a suicide?
2. Why didn't Michael try harder to prove that George Fox was his real father after George's sister denied him at the wake?
3. What made Michael leave so suddenly for the trip to Europe?
4. Why didn't Michael tell his family before he took off for England?
vocabulary -
1. condolences -page 129 Sympathy with a person who has experienced pain, grief, or misfortune.
2. trudging - page 168 a laborious or tiring walk.
3. labyrinth -page 170 an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit.
literary terms -
1. settings - Home, the funeral parlor and church in Dorchester and Europe, mostly England.
2. exposition - Kevin's death, then his natural father's death causes Michael to rethink his goals once again.
outline -
Kevin dies under suspicious circumstances, then Michael's "real' father George dies and Michael has to come face to face with a stranger that oddly looks exactly like him. All the strress makes Michael want to get as far away from home and family as possible. Michael packs his bags and with little money heads off to Europe. While in England he looks up family and also is able to see punk bands he only dreamed of seeing.
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. After Kevin died, I wasn't afraid of death anymore. Eight months after Frankie's death, we were told that Kevin had hung himself in jail. Though Ma didn't believe that, because she said a cop on Whitey's payroll had visited him the night before he was found dead outside his cell.
2. All my life I had struggled with the answers to the question,"How many are in your family?" and it wasn't getting any easier. My mother had lost the baby, Patrick a year before I was born, but we always included him in the count. Since we thought of him as a kind of guardian sibling.
3.On the sluggish trolley race home, all I could think about was that I'd never before seen just how ugly the world was.
4. I was looking at my father for the first time. Ma said he'd come to see me when I was a baby, but I was nineteen now and he hadn't come to see me since. I knew I was looking at him for the last time too. And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see the resemblance to myself.
5. "Jesus Christ, what the hell did you go over there for with no money?" Ma wasn't yelling at me, she was just screaming to me since I was all the way across the Atlantic. Ma always yelled through phone lines, but whenever I called her long distance I had to pull the phone away from my ear.
questions -
1. What made Michael's family think Kevin's death was not a suicide?
2. Why didn't Michael try harder to prove that George Fox was his real father after George's sister denied him at the wake?
3. What made Michael leave so suddenly for the trip to Europe?
4. Why didn't Michael tell his family before he took off for England?
vocabulary -
1. condolences -page 129 Sympathy with a person who has experienced pain, grief, or misfortune.
2. trudging - page 168 a laborious or tiring walk.
3. labyrinth -page 170 an intricate combination of paths or passages in which it is difficult to find one's way or to reach the exit.
literary terms -
1. settings - Home, the funeral parlor and church in Dorchester and Europe, mostly England.
2. exposition - Kevin's death, then his natural father's death causes Michael to rethink his goals once again.
outline -
Kevin dies under suspicious circumstances, then Michael's "real' father George dies and Michael has to come face to face with a stranger that oddly looks exactly like him. All the strress makes Michael want to get as far away from home and family as possible. Michael packs his bags and with little money heads off to Europe. While in England he looks up family and also is able to see punk bands he only dreamed of seeing.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Easter Rising
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. The last time I saw Frankie I was walking up Dorchester street, returning home from a long stretch in New York. Only two minutes out of the subway station and staring at the sidewalk, I was in a good mood imagining my future life in New York.
2. Frankie was a big fish in Southie, a star liked by everyone. Every time he saw me even though he no longer complained about my looking " f****d up, " he still stared at me like I was an alien.
3. I never saw Frankie again after that afternoon. It was my secret when people recounted their stories about the last time they saw Frankie.
4. I'd taken my final GED test just before Frankie died. I'd been feeling on track with my goals, but now all I could do to get away from the constant questions in my family about the robbery was wander.
5. I didn't mention the robbery to any of my friends; it was a Southie thing they would never understand. Those who'd read about it in the papers, I imagined, either didn't connect it to me or didv't know what to say. What do you say to someone whose brother was just killed while robbing a bank?
questions -
1. Why didn't the MacDonald brothers trty to do things together? I seemed the only closeness they had was through tragedy.
2. Why would Frankie get involved in a robbery when he had such a promising boxing career?
3. Why did Michael feel that he couldn't talk about his family or his problems with his friends?
4. Why did Michael feel the need to keep his last meeting with Frankie a secret?
vocabulary -
1. danceteria - page123 Is a term used to reference a night club.
2. scenester - page122 a person who is part of an artistic or social "scene"; also, a person who tries to fit into a "scene"
3. assertion - page127 a positive statement or declaration, often without support or reason.
literary terms -
setting- The subway in Boston, and Andrew Square area of Southie. exposition - Michael learn of Frankie's death rigfht after seeing him on the street when he came from the subway.
outline -
Michael tries to get his life on track by taking his GED. Then tragedy hits his family again with the death of his brother Frankie during a bank robbery. This adds on to Michael's already growing scence of frustration and anxiety. It also puit his dreams on hold of having a better life.
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. The last time I saw Frankie I was walking up Dorchester street, returning home from a long stretch in New York. Only two minutes out of the subway station and staring at the sidewalk, I was in a good mood imagining my future life in New York.
2. Frankie was a big fish in Southie, a star liked by everyone. Every time he saw me even though he no longer complained about my looking " f****d up, " he still stared at me like I was an alien.
3. I never saw Frankie again after that afternoon. It was my secret when people recounted their stories about the last time they saw Frankie.
4. I'd taken my final GED test just before Frankie died. I'd been feeling on track with my goals, but now all I could do to get away from the constant questions in my family about the robbery was wander.
5. I didn't mention the robbery to any of my friends; it was a Southie thing they would never understand. Those who'd read about it in the papers, I imagined, either didn't connect it to me or didv't know what to say. What do you say to someone whose brother was just killed while robbing a bank?
questions -
1. Why didn't the MacDonald brothers trty to do things together? I seemed the only closeness they had was through tragedy.
2. Why would Frankie get involved in a robbery when he had such a promising boxing career?
3. Why did Michael feel that he couldn't talk about his family or his problems with his friends?
4. Why did Michael feel the need to keep his last meeting with Frankie a secret?
vocabulary -
1. danceteria - page123 Is a term used to reference a night club.
2. scenester - page122 a person who is part of an artistic or social "scene"; also, a person who tries to fit into a "scene"
3. assertion - page127 a positive statement or declaration, often without support or reason.
literary terms -
setting- The subway in Boston, and Andrew Square area of Southie. exposition - Michael learn of Frankie's death rigfht after seeing him on the street when he came from the subway.
outline -
Michael tries to get his life on track by taking his GED. Then tragedy hits his family again with the death of his brother Frankie during a bank robbery. This adds on to Michael's already growing scence of frustration and anxiety. It also puit his dreams on hold of having a better life.
Easter Rising
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. I hadn't slept in two days because I had to help Kevin hide out from Ma and from the cops who'd come to the door to ask about him.
2. "God, what was up with that white - trash yahoo you were talking to?" Rona asked. "Just a neighbor," I said not thinking. "You're from Southie?" she asked."Well, um... I used to be" I hesitated. "More like the border between Southie and Dorchester.
3. "In what way does everything look different?' The admissions lady asked me. I didn't want to tell her how it felt to come from Southie and what it would be like to go back home. I just told her that things made me worried in Boston seemed okay here and I didn't have to worry about any of it.
4. "Forget about it now," Grandpa kept repeating, even though I wasn't the one bringing it up. "Forget it ever happened at all." That's what he'd been saying every time I visited him in the City Point condo be'd been living in alone since Nana died. He said I should get on with my life, tell no one about Frankie getting killed in a bank heist. He said to forget I was from the projects, even though I still lived there.
5.I had spent years trying to find a life beyond Old Colony, and now after Frankie died, I felt guilty for not having been close to my family.
Questions -
1. Why didn't Mike tell any other family members that Kevin was hiding in his room when he left him alone to go to New York?
2. Why didn't Michael stop his friends from stealing from Whitey's store, when he knew how dangerous it was?
3. Why would Michael's grandfather tell him to forget about his own brothers death and where he came from?
4. Why did the family lie about the way Frankie died when it was in the paperws and on the news?
vocabulary -
1.contradictions -page116 A denial.
2. depictions - page116 to represent or characterize in words; describe.
3. catacomb -page125 an underground passageway, esp. one full of twists and turns.
literay terms -
setting - New York City, the Ratclub and Grandpa's condo in City Point.
exposition - kevin tries to steal a car and ends up hurt and on the run from the police. Michael hides him in his room.
outline -
Michael is spending a lot more time in New York until his brother Frankie dies during a bank robbery. Now Michael feels he needs to spend more time at home with his family and his Grandfather, who tells him he has to move on past the tragedy.
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. I hadn't slept in two days because I had to help Kevin hide out from Ma and from the cops who'd come to the door to ask about him.
2. "God, what was up with that white - trash yahoo you were talking to?" Rona asked. "Just a neighbor," I said not thinking. "You're from Southie?" she asked."Well, um... I used to be" I hesitated. "More like the border between Southie and Dorchester.
3. "In what way does everything look different?' The admissions lady asked me. I didn't want to tell her how it felt to come from Southie and what it would be like to go back home. I just told her that things made me worried in Boston seemed okay here and I didn't have to worry about any of it.
4. "Forget about it now," Grandpa kept repeating, even though I wasn't the one bringing it up. "Forget it ever happened at all." That's what he'd been saying every time I visited him in the City Point condo be'd been living in alone since Nana died. He said I should get on with my life, tell no one about Frankie getting killed in a bank heist. He said to forget I was from the projects, even though I still lived there.
5.I had spent years trying to find a life beyond Old Colony, and now after Frankie died, I felt guilty for not having been close to my family.
Questions -
1. Why didn't Mike tell any other family members that Kevin was hiding in his room when he left him alone to go to New York?
2. Why didn't Michael stop his friends from stealing from Whitey's store, when he knew how dangerous it was?
3. Why would Michael's grandfather tell him to forget about his own brothers death and where he came from?
4. Why did the family lie about the way Frankie died when it was in the paperws and on the news?
vocabulary -
1.contradictions -page116 A denial.
2. depictions - page116 to represent or characterize in words; describe.
3. catacomb -page125 an underground passageway, esp. one full of twists and turns.
literay terms -
setting - New York City, the Ratclub and Grandpa's condo in City Point.
exposition - kevin tries to steal a car and ends up hurt and on the run from the police. Michael hides him in his room.
outline -
Michael is spending a lot more time in New York until his brother Frankie dies during a bank robbery. Now Michael feels he needs to spend more time at home with his family and his Grandfather, who tells him he has to move on past the tragedy.
Easter Rising
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. As bad as Southie was, I was glad I was never allowed to feel sorry for myself the way these kids seemed to do in the pissed-off shouts and chants in unison that made you feel like you were at a football rally.
2. When two cars crashed, the Boston crowd gathered in awe to watch the bloody drivers get out to fight each other. None of the New York kids seemed startled by the crash.
3. When Ma discovered that I hadn't been going to school that year, she told me I'd have to be up every day at the crack of dawn to find a job. But instead of looking for work I went to a stoop on Queensberry street that had become a gathering spot for young punks from all over Boston.
4. The streets of Southie, too were getting worse. The neighborhood I'd once agreed was heaven on earth now felt like hell.
5. More and more, the only talk at home was about who was serving time, or the previous nights gunshots, or who was seen at which kid's wake, and who didn't show up because they were related to the shooter.
Questions -
1. Why did Michael become so down on Southie but not on the people that were creating all the problems like his neighbors and even his own family?
2. How could a whole year go by without Michael's mother or other family members noticing that he quit school, didn't they asdk about report cards?
3. What made Southie seem so much worse to Michael than the rest of the city?
4. Instead of complaining about it, why didn't Michael try to do something about his neighborhood troubles?
vocabulary -
1. transcendent -page108 going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding.
2. awe -page108 an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful.
3. denizens -page117 One that frequents a particular place.
literary terms -
Setting - The Old Colony Project and New York City, where Michael started to sneak, with his new friends.
Exposition - Michael spends more time away from his famil;y by driving with friends to New York City where he spend days at a time.
Outline -
After Michael is caught by his mother for quitting school, she telld him he has to get a job. Michael instead starts sneaking to New York City with his friends but tells his mother he is staying in Jamaica Plain.
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
comments -
1. As bad as Southie was, I was glad I was never allowed to feel sorry for myself the way these kids seemed to do in the pissed-off shouts and chants in unison that made you feel like you were at a football rally.
2. When two cars crashed, the Boston crowd gathered in awe to watch the bloody drivers get out to fight each other. None of the New York kids seemed startled by the crash.
3. When Ma discovered that I hadn't been going to school that year, she told me I'd have to be up every day at the crack of dawn to find a job. But instead of looking for work I went to a stoop on Queensberry street that had become a gathering spot for young punks from all over Boston.
4. The streets of Southie, too were getting worse. The neighborhood I'd once agreed was heaven on earth now felt like hell.
5. More and more, the only talk at home was about who was serving time, or the previous nights gunshots, or who was seen at which kid's wake, and who didn't show up because they were related to the shooter.
Questions -
1. Why did Michael become so down on Southie but not on the people that were creating all the problems like his neighbors and even his own family?
2. How could a whole year go by without Michael's mother or other family members noticing that he quit school, didn't they asdk about report cards?
3. What made Southie seem so much worse to Michael than the rest of the city?
4. Instead of complaining about it, why didn't Michael try to do something about his neighborhood troubles?
vocabulary -
1. transcendent -page108 going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding.
2. awe -page108 an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful.
3. denizens -page117 One that frequents a particular place.
literary terms -
Setting - The Old Colony Project and New York City, where Michael started to sneak, with his new friends.
Exposition - Michael spends more time away from his famil;y by driving with friends to New York City where he spend days at a time.
Outline -
After Michael is caught by his mother for quitting school, she telld him he has to get a job. Michael instead starts sneaking to New York City with his friends but tells his mother he is staying in Jamaica Plain.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Easter Rising
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1. "Well, geez, where the heck have you been,
mister... um ..." Flaherty said.
2. He began by saying how incredible it was that in this great country someone like me could be afforded the type of education Boston latin offered for free.
3. As I walked across town, it started to sink in that I wasn't going back to school again. It was official: I was a dropout.
4. When Kathy woke up on Easter Sunday, I felt we experienced a real miracle, just like in Grandpa's stories about Lourdes.
5. But Kathy was alive again, against all medical predictions, and against my conviction that my family was cursed.
Questions -
1. Why didn't the assistant headmaster or the guidence counsellor trty to stop Michael from leaving the building the day he walked out of school for good?
2. Why did Michael feel that walking around Boston was better for him than going to school?
3. Why did Michael steal the black patent leather shoes from the thrift store?
4. Did Kathy have a complete recovery?
Vocabulary -
1.stance - page 95 the position or bearing of the body while standing: legs spread in a wide stance; the threatening stance of the bull.
2 afforded - page 95 To make available; provide.
3.billowing - page 102 To swell out or bulge.
Literary Terms -
1.Setting - Boston latin, City Hospital and the Paradise club.
2.Exposition - Michael goes to the hospital everyday with his grandfather to visit Kathy after he quits school, although he has no hope because he feels his family is cursed.
Outline - Michael attemps to go back to school but quits after being questionded by the Guidence counsellor. Kathy finally comes out of the coma on Easter Sunday which everyone thinks is a miracle. This also makes Michael think his family's curse is broken. Michael also starts sneaking into concerts at other places besides the rat and steals shoes at the Goodwill store.
Michael attemts to go back
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1. "Well, geez, where the heck have you been,
mister... um ..." Flaherty said.
2. He began by saying how incredible it was that in this great country someone like me could be afforded the type of education Boston latin offered for free.
3. As I walked across town, it started to sink in that I wasn't going back to school again. It was official: I was a dropout.
4. When Kathy woke up on Easter Sunday, I felt we experienced a real miracle, just like in Grandpa's stories about Lourdes.
5. But Kathy was alive again, against all medical predictions, and against my conviction that my family was cursed.
Questions -
1. Why didn't the assistant headmaster or the guidence counsellor trty to stop Michael from leaving the building the day he walked out of school for good?
2. Why did Michael feel that walking around Boston was better for him than going to school?
3. Why did Michael steal the black patent leather shoes from the thrift store?
4. Did Kathy have a complete recovery?
Vocabulary -
1.stance - page 95 the position or bearing of the body while standing: legs spread in a wide stance; the threatening stance of the bull.
2 afforded - page 95 To make available; provide.
3.billowing - page 102 To swell out or bulge.
Literary Terms -
1.Setting - Boston latin, City Hospital and the Paradise club.
2.Exposition - Michael goes to the hospital everyday with his grandfather to visit Kathy after he quits school, although he has no hope because he feels his family is cursed.
Outline - Michael attemps to go back to school but quits after being questionded by the Guidence counsellor. Kathy finally comes out of the coma on Easter Sunday which everyone thinks is a miracle. This also makes Michael think his family's curse is broken. Michael also starts sneaking into concerts at other places besides the rat and steals shoes at the Goodwill store.
Michael attemts to go back
Easter Rising
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1. We didn't know exactly what happened to Kathy. She had been staying with her friend Joanie after a fight with Ma.
2. "My sister went off the roof last night. She's in critical condition," I said."Oh, my God, your family's sooooo craaaaaazy!" Sculley said, Holy S**T, Im tripping my brains out and you look like a pineapple!"
3. " Remember she stopped that girl from being raped?" I said . Frankie hadn't heard about that one. When Kathy first went into the coma, and I was sure she'd die, I went through the stuff in her room and tried to remember who she was and all the good things.
4. Frank had some skinny rock'n' roll Ramones type by the collar and tossed him to the curb, "Mike!" he said recognizing me in spite of the pulled down har. His backups stood behind him, ready to pounce if the rock'n' roll guy tried to get back inside. I was shocked when Frankie called me to the doorway and explained to his friends that I was his brother.
5. I hadn't been to school in weeks---I couldn't rememberhow long. I walked toward the gigantic Corinthian columns of Boston Latin and joined the mass of kids getting off the buses. I thought the assistant headmaster, Mr. Vara, was probably standing in my path to congratulate me sarcastically on coming back-- until he took the folded arm stance of one of Frankie's bouncers at the Rat.
Questions -
1.Why was Kathy allowed to quit school so easily?
2. Why didn't anyone try to get more information on Kathy's fall to see if her boyfriend really had pushed her?
3. What made Frankie change his mind about hiding the fact that Michael was his brother?
4. Why did it take a tragedy like kathy falling off the roof, for the father to come back into their lives?
Vocabulary -
1. gauntlet - page 87- a glove with an extended cuff for the wrist.
2. fluctuation -page93- continual change from one point or condition to another.
3. vulgarians - page 93 - vulgar person, especially one who makes a conspicuous display of wealth.
Literary Terms -
1. Setting - The Gardner Museum, Boston City Hospital, Boston Latin and the Rat.
2. Exposition -
Michaels sister falls or is pushed off the roof and is in a coma, Michael stops going to school again and begins hanging out with his grandfather at the museum when he is not at the rat with his friends.
Outline -
The tragedy of kathy's fall is yet another setback in the lives of the MacDonald family. Michael stops going to school. The only positive things that happened was that Michael begins to reveal his true self to his friends and his brother Frank stops being ashamed of him.
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1. We didn't know exactly what happened to Kathy. She had been staying with her friend Joanie after a fight with Ma.
2. "My sister went off the roof last night. She's in critical condition," I said."Oh, my God, your family's sooooo craaaaaazy!" Sculley said, Holy S**T, Im tripping my brains out and you look like a pineapple!"
3. " Remember she stopped that girl from being raped?" I said . Frankie hadn't heard about that one. When Kathy first went into the coma, and I was sure she'd die, I went through the stuff in her room and tried to remember who she was and all the good things.
4. Frank had some skinny rock'n' roll Ramones type by the collar and tossed him to the curb, "Mike!" he said recognizing me in spite of the pulled down har. His backups stood behind him, ready to pounce if the rock'n' roll guy tried to get back inside. I was shocked when Frankie called me to the doorway and explained to his friends that I was his brother.
5. I hadn't been to school in weeks---I couldn't rememberhow long. I walked toward the gigantic Corinthian columns of Boston Latin and joined the mass of kids getting off the buses. I thought the assistant headmaster, Mr. Vara, was probably standing in my path to congratulate me sarcastically on coming back-- until he took the folded arm stance of one of Frankie's bouncers at the Rat.
Questions -
1.Why was Kathy allowed to quit school so easily?
2. Why didn't anyone try to get more information on Kathy's fall to see if her boyfriend really had pushed her?
3. What made Frankie change his mind about hiding the fact that Michael was his brother?
4. Why did it take a tragedy like kathy falling off the roof, for the father to come back into their lives?
Vocabulary -
1. gauntlet - page 87- a glove with an extended cuff for the wrist.
2. fluctuation -page93- continual change from one point or condition to another.
3. vulgarians - page 93 - vulgar person, especially one who makes a conspicuous display of wealth.
Literary Terms -
1. Setting - The Gardner Museum, Boston City Hospital, Boston Latin and the Rat.
2. Exposition -
Michaels sister falls or is pushed off the roof and is in a coma, Michael stops going to school again and begins hanging out with his grandfather at the museum when he is not at the rat with his friends.
Outline -
The tragedy of kathy's fall is yet another setback in the lives of the MacDonald family. Michael stops going to school. The only positive things that happened was that Michael begins to reveal his true self to his friends and his brother Frank stops being ashamed of him.
Easter Rising
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1. "They say the guy was a snitch," Kevin said, "and Whitey got wind of it." "No one ever asked how Whitey got wind of it. " No one ever asked how Whitey got wind of anything, but one thing was for sure, nothing could happen in Southie that our gangster boss Whitey Bulger didn't know about.
2. But as we approached the Lenox I heard a voice from behind me. "Mike, what the Christ are you doing out of school?" Ma, of all people, was in Copley, of all places!
3. Even though I was underage, I was becoming an expert at getting in "by hook or by crook," as they said in Southie.
4. I tried to focus again when I heard, "What's up with your family and roofs? I was so distracted though, I didn't know who said it.
5. I told Reme quickly, my sistrer went off the roof." I wanted to keep walking, so I wouldn't have to answer any more questions about it.
Questions -
1.Why did Michael's mother allow her children to steal and bring the strolen items into the house?
2. What made the kids in Southie like Michael's brothers have so much respect for mobsters like Whitey Bulger?
3. Why didn't Michael's mother try to get him to achieve more in school?
4. Why did Mrs. MacDonald give Michael a different last name than his actual father's name?
Vocabulary -
1. Armageddon - page 69 any great and crucial conflict
2. entaranced - page 75 to fill with delight or wonder; enrapture.
3. hemorrhaging - page 81 a profuse discharge of blood, as from a ruptured blood vessel; bleeding.
Literary Terms -
1. Setting - The Rathskellar club in Kenmore Square, Southie/ Old Colony Projects.
2. Exposition - This chapter starts out in Kenmore Square with Michael trying to sneak into a club and discovering his brother Frankie is the bouncer. Although his brother allows him to sneak into the club whenever he wants, he forbids him from telling anyone they are related because he is embarrassed by him.
Outline -
Michael works very hard to keep his new friends from finding out about his neightborhood. He learns meny ways to sneak into clubs to see New Wave concerts. He also begins to skip school to meet up with his friends in Copley Square. Then one day he gets caught by his mother and her boyfriend and he becomes too afraid to skip, until his sister falls or is pushed from the same roof Davey fell from.
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1. "They say the guy was a snitch," Kevin said, "and Whitey got wind of it." "No one ever asked how Whitey got wind of it. " No one ever asked how Whitey got wind of anything, but one thing was for sure, nothing could happen in Southie that our gangster boss Whitey Bulger didn't know about.
2. But as we approached the Lenox I heard a voice from behind me. "Mike, what the Christ are you doing out of school?" Ma, of all people, was in Copley, of all places!
3. Even though I was underage, I was becoming an expert at getting in "by hook or by crook," as they said in Southie.
4. I tried to focus again when I heard, "What's up with your family and roofs? I was so distracted though, I didn't know who said it.
5. I told Reme quickly, my sistrer went off the roof." I wanted to keep walking, so I wouldn't have to answer any more questions about it.
Questions -
1.Why did Michael's mother allow her children to steal and bring the strolen items into the house?
2. What made the kids in Southie like Michael's brothers have so much respect for mobsters like Whitey Bulger?
3. Why didn't Michael's mother try to get him to achieve more in school?
4. Why did Mrs. MacDonald give Michael a different last name than his actual father's name?
Vocabulary -
1. Armageddon - page 69 any great and crucial conflict
2. entaranced - page 75 to fill with delight or wonder; enrapture.
3. hemorrhaging - page 81 a profuse discharge of blood, as from a ruptured blood vessel; bleeding.
Literary Terms -
1. Setting - The Rathskellar club in Kenmore Square, Southie/ Old Colony Projects.
2. Exposition - This chapter starts out in Kenmore Square with Michael trying to sneak into a club and discovering his brother Frankie is the bouncer. Although his brother allows him to sneak into the club whenever he wants, he forbids him from telling anyone they are related because he is embarrassed by him.
Outline -
Michael works very hard to keep his new friends from finding out about his neightborhood. He learns meny ways to sneak into clubs to see New Wave concerts. He also begins to skip school to meet up with his friends in Copley Square. Then one day he gets caught by his mother and her boyfriend and he becomes too afraid to skip, until his sister falls or is pushed from the same roof Davey fell from.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Easter Rising
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1."You need to get on with your life," he said, leaning back and folding his hands on his crossed leg. I wasn't even thinking about Davey or feeling bad about him that day.
2. " I don't know," I snapped back. "I just felt like it." Which was the truth. "i guess I was bored. "Who knows? Who cares?" I said, standing now just wanting to get out of there.
3. When I came out of the bathroom, everyone in my family burst into laughter. "Who f***** up your head?" Kevin asked, like he was ready to give my barber a beating.
4. "You think you're King Shit," Kevin told our supervisor one year, "just because you live up the Point."
5."Mother of Christ!" Ma yelled when she walked in on me covering my windows with cloth. She asked me if I was having a nervous breakdown.
Questions -
1. Although the mother was educated in psychology, why didn't she seek treatment for her children, especially Michael who was showing obvious signs of depression?
2. Why were these children as well as other children growing up in the projects allowed to do whatever they wanted too, such as Michael cutting his hair and going out to clubs at 13 and 14 years of age, and his sister drinking and doing drugs?
3. Why didn't Boston Latin recognize that this family was in trouble and get them or at least Michael help?
4. Why was Michael's brother Frankie so ashamed of him and why did he continue to allow his friends to beat up people like Michael?
Vocabulary -
1. anarchist - page 33 a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom.
2. blasphemy - page24 A contemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity.
3. recitation - page 24 a reciting or repeating of something from memory, esp. formally or publicly.
Literary Terms -
1. Simile - Usually a huge jock or thug who didn't know any of the clubgoers stood in front of the entrance lokking like a brick wall.
2. Simile - She hit the back of her shoe like it was a ketchup bottle.
1. Outline -
After the tragic death of his mentally ill brother Davey, Michael and his family seemed to all seperate into their own worlds. Michael began to rebel against everything that up until now had been a comfort to him. His family, his friends and the projects all began to be a burden to him. His escape was to go to a new extreme, with a new goth-like appearance and a liking for dark music and odd friends. No-one from Southie, including his family could understand or accept what Michael now felt was his new life. For Michael, Southie was no longer his hometown.
By Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1."You need to get on with your life," he said, leaning back and folding his hands on his crossed leg. I wasn't even thinking about Davey or feeling bad about him that day.
2. " I don't know," I snapped back. "I just felt like it." Which was the truth. "i guess I was bored. "Who knows? Who cares?" I said, standing now just wanting to get out of there.
3. When I came out of the bathroom, everyone in my family burst into laughter. "Who f***** up your head?" Kevin asked, like he was ready to give my barber a beating.
4. "You think you're King Shit," Kevin told our supervisor one year, "just because you live up the Point."
5."Mother of Christ!" Ma yelled when she walked in on me covering my windows with cloth. She asked me if I was having a nervous breakdown.
Questions -
1. Although the mother was educated in psychology, why didn't she seek treatment for her children, especially Michael who was showing obvious signs of depression?
2. Why were these children as well as other children growing up in the projects allowed to do whatever they wanted too, such as Michael cutting his hair and going out to clubs at 13 and 14 years of age, and his sister drinking and doing drugs?
3. Why didn't Boston Latin recognize that this family was in trouble and get them or at least Michael help?
4. Why was Michael's brother Frankie so ashamed of him and why did he continue to allow his friends to beat up people like Michael?
Vocabulary -
1. anarchist - page 33 a person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against any established rule, law, or custom.
2. blasphemy - page24 A contemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity.
3. recitation - page 24 a reciting or repeating of something from memory, esp. formally or publicly.
Literary Terms -
1. Simile - Usually a huge jock or thug who didn't know any of the clubgoers stood in front of the entrance lokking like a brick wall.
2. Simile - She hit the back of her shoe like it was a ketchup bottle.
1. Outline -
After the tragic death of his mentally ill brother Davey, Michael and his family seemed to all seperate into their own worlds. Michael began to rebel against everything that up until now had been a comfort to him. His family, his friends and the projects all began to be a burden to him. His escape was to go to a new extreme, with a new goth-like appearance and a liking for dark music and odd friends. No-one from Southie, including his family could understand or accept what Michael now felt was his new life. For Michael, Southie was no longer his hometown.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Easter Rising
by Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1)Downtown Boston was only three stops but world's away from the Old Colony Project.
2) In the project wew were lucky to have cool concrete floors, and to me lying low was just about the smartest thing to do during an August heat wave.
3) A woman screamed, "He jumped!" And more hellish cries followed. My eyes caught Frankie's, and in that moment I knew everything had changed.
4.) That lazy afternoon beforew Davey jumped, when all anyonecould think about was how hot it was, was the last time I felt like a kid with nothing much to worry about.
5.) At his graveside I had promised myself, and Davey, that I would think of him every day for the rest of my life. I wanted never to forget him, and I was afraid that I could.
Questions -
1.) Why did Micheal and his brother feel the need to go on shoplifting sprees in Downtown Boston?
2.) Why didn't they make sure their Schizophrenic brother was taking his medications or have a backup doctor while his was on vacation?
3.) Why did the mother pay more attention to the accordian than to the death of her oldest son?
4.) Why does Michael refer to Davey's death as suicide, when he was mentally ill?
Vocabulary -
1.) nonchalantly - page 5, coolly unconcerned, indifferent, or unexcited; casual.
2.)Schizophrenic - page 9, a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the following features: emotional blunting, intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations.
3.) commotion - page 9, violent or tumultuous motion; agitation; noisy disturbance.
Literary Terms
1.) Simile - "For Chrissake, you look like Mother Hubbard," Ma would snap when Nana complained about Ma's miniskirts and spiked heels.
2.) Personification - After we pressed the button, the escalator would stutter in its climbing motion and then come to a rolling stop.
Outline -
Michael Patrick MacDonald's sequel to All Souls begins with him reflecting on the aftermath of busing on South Boston children and the lives they had to endure living in the project without a father, money or proper guidence. The hardships also included the tragic death of his older brother Davey. These are just the beginning experiences that Michael, his family and many of the other children in his neighborhood were exposed to, leading to somewhat tragic futures.
by Michael Patrick MacDonald
Comments -
1)Downtown Boston was only three stops but world's away from the Old Colony Project.
2) In the project wew were lucky to have cool concrete floors, and to me lying low was just about the smartest thing to do during an August heat wave.
3) A woman screamed, "He jumped!" And more hellish cries followed. My eyes caught Frankie's, and in that moment I knew everything had changed.
4.) That lazy afternoon beforew Davey jumped, when all anyonecould think about was how hot it was, was the last time I felt like a kid with nothing much to worry about.
5.) At his graveside I had promised myself, and Davey, that I would think of him every day for the rest of my life. I wanted never to forget him, and I was afraid that I could.
Questions -
1.) Why did Micheal and his brother feel the need to go on shoplifting sprees in Downtown Boston?
2.) Why didn't they make sure their Schizophrenic brother was taking his medications or have a backup doctor while his was on vacation?
3.) Why did the mother pay more attention to the accordian than to the death of her oldest son?
4.) Why does Michael refer to Davey's death as suicide, when he was mentally ill?
Vocabulary -
1.) nonchalantly - page 5, coolly unconcerned, indifferent, or unexcited; casual.
2.)Schizophrenic - page 9, a severe mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily all, of the following features: emotional blunting, intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations.
3.) commotion - page 9, violent or tumultuous motion; agitation; noisy disturbance.
Literary Terms
1.) Simile - "For Chrissake, you look like Mother Hubbard," Ma would snap when Nana complained about Ma's miniskirts and spiked heels.
2.) Personification - After we pressed the button, the escalator would stutter in its climbing motion and then come to a rolling stop.
Outline -
Michael Patrick MacDonald's sequel to All Souls begins with him reflecting on the aftermath of busing on South Boston children and the lives they had to endure living in the project without a father, money or proper guidence. The hardships also included the tragic death of his older brother Davey. These are just the beginning experiences that Michael, his family and many of the other children in his neighborhood were exposed to, leading to somewhat tragic futures.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
