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In an ideal world, we would have been orphans. We felt like orphans and we felt deserving of the pity that orphans get, but, embarrassingly enough, we had parents. I even had two. They would never have let me go, so I didn’t say goodbye; I packed a little bag and left a note. On the way to Pip’s house, I cashed my graduation checks. Then I sat on her porch and pretended that I was twelve or fifteen or even sixteen. At all those ages I had dreamed of this day; I had even imagined sitting on this porch, waiting for Pip for the last time. She had the opposite problem: her mom would let her go. Her mom had gigantic swollen legs that were a symptom of something much worse and she was heavily medicated with marijuana at all times.

We were anxious to begin our life as people who had no people. And it was easy to find an apartment when we got to Portland, because we had no standards; we stood in our tiny new studio and admired our door, our rotting carpet, our cockroach infestation. We decorated with paper streamers and Chinese lanterns and we shared the ancient bed that came with the apartment. This was tremendously exciting for one of us. One of us had always been in love with the other. One of us lived in a perpetual state of longing. But we’d met when we were children and we seemed destined to sleep together like children, or like an old couple who got married before the sexual revolution and are too embarrassed to learn the new way.

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When I went up to check my traps, I saw that the porch lights at the lady’s place were still on, even though it was morning. “That’s an atrocious waste of power,” my dad said when I told him. His breath huffed in the air like he was smoking a cigar. The rabbit carcasses steamed when we ripped the skin off, and it came away like a glove.

Skin the rabbit–that’s what my mum used to say when she pulled off my shirt and singlet for a bath. Mr. Bailey gives me three dollars for every rabbit, to feed his dogs. I take them down to him in the wooden box with a picture of an apple on it. At the butcher’s, rabbits are only two-fifty but Mr. Bailey says he likes mine better. I’ve got fifty-eight dollars saved. I want to get a bike.

Dad thinks it’s good to save up your money. The tourists who stand around the real-estate agent’s window pointing and touching each other on the arm–he reckons they’re loonies. When the lady up the road bought that house, my dad went over after the “Sold” sign got stuck on and everybody had gone. He took one of the clapboards off the side of the house and looked under at the rotting pilings, and made a noise like he was holding back a sneeze. “That lady’s a bloody wacker,” he said. “Those pilings are bloody atrocious.”

He stood there looking at the house and rolled a cigarette. “Throwing good money after bad,” he said, and kicked the clapboard. I kicked it, too.

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Thanks to the power of the internet, advertising is becoming less wasteful and its value more measurable

In terms of efficiency, if not size, the advertising industry is only now starting to grow out of its century-long infancy, which might be called “the Wanamaker era”. It was John Wanamaker, a devoutly Christian merchant from Philadelphia, who in the 1870s not only invented department stores and price tags (to eliminate haggling, since everybody should be equal before God and price), but also became the first modern advertiser when he bought space in newspapers to promote his stores. He went about it in a Christian way, neither advertising on Sundays nor fibbing (thus minting the concept of “truth in advertising”). And, with his precise business mind, he expounded a witticism that has ever since seemed like an economic law: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted,” he said. “The trouble is, I don’t know which half.”

Mr Wanamaker’s wasted half is not entirely proverbial. The worldwide advertising industry is likely to be worth $428 billion in revenues this year, according to ZenithOptimedia, a market-research firm. Greg Stuart, the author of a forthcoming book on the industry and the boss of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade association, estimates that advertisers waste–that is, they send messages that reach the wrong audience or none at all–$112 billion a year in America and $220 billion worldwide, or just over half of their total spending. Mr Wanamaker was remarkably accurate.

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By Larry Brown

Once or twice in a lifetime you encounter something in the woods that is truly strange. How you react will stay with you forever

The dogs were just about to lose their track, and Mr. Richard was losing his patience fast. I shifted my weight from side to side and tried to kick some feeling back into my numb toes. In February, when the clock gets close to midnight, the wind that comes whistling through the hardwood timber sends a shiver down a man’s back. We were standing on the edge of Muckaloon Creek, a small tendril of water that travels slowly through canebrakes and cypress on its way to the Yocona River, the biggest body of water around Tula, Miss., and the bank where we stood was slippery with frozen mud. Ice crystals had been forced out of the ground by the freezing and thawing turns that the water had taken. After three hours of bumping and splashing in and out of the creek, we were convinced that our three experienced hounds had jumped something besides a coon. There was nothing we could do but wait.

“They must be running a cat, Larry.” Mr. Richard said.

“Yes sir,” I answered with another shiver. “They must be. Something’s sure got ‘em messed up.”

We were tired from fighting our way through wicked patches of briers and buckvine that tore at our hands and faces. The only way to get through the worst places was to back in, letting our thick coats take the thorns. Mr. Richard’s waders had a hole punched in the right knee and had already been in water higher than that several times. I could hear ice water squishing between his toes every time he took a step, but he didn’t complain.

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By James B. Daniels

IF EVER THERE WAS A MAN who was always at the wrong place at the wrong time, it was Hemy Wirz. Wirz has become infamous as the commander of Camp Sumter, better known as Andersonville, the most notorious of all Civil War prison camps.

Heinrich Hartmann Wirz, as he was originally christened, was bom in Zurich, Switzerland. His father was a tailor who pushed his son to go into a merchant career that would take advantage of Zurich’s business-friendly environment. Young Heinrich, however, had set his sights on medicine. Unable to gain his family’s support for medical school, he had to settle for working as an attendant in a bathhouse—at the time, doctors believed strongly in the medicinal value of baths. Despite his efforts, young Wirz was forced to work with his father from 1823-1826. In addition to the ongoing debate regarding his profession, Wirz quarreled over religion. Although Catholics and Protestants were no longer killing each other in the 1840s, religious prejudice was strong. As he had with his choice of professions, Heinrich flew directly in the face of family traditions when he abandoned Cahdnism and converted to Catholicism.

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With these surefire guidelines, students can boost their scores on the new generation of standardized assessments

Today, many standardized tests require more than multiple choice; students are asked to provide written answers to open-ended questions. Integrate these 10 test-taking strategies into your regular curriculum, and get students prepared to take on the tests and come out on top!

1. Read all directions carefully to make sure you know what you are supposed to do. In language arts tests, for example, some directions will tell you to find the sentence that is written correctly. Others will tell you to pick out the mistakes or errors yourself.

2. Take a quick look at the questions before you read a story or article so you know what to look for in the text. If, for example, all the questions about a story are concerned with the characters and the sequence of events, then you must pay closer attention to those two elements as you read.

3. Look for key words (such as who, what, when, where, why) to help you decide how to answer the question. For example: Why did Randall go back to the railroad station? The key word here is why. It tells you to look for a cause or a reason.
How are zebras different from horses? The key word in this question is different. You will need to concentrate on explaining how the creatures differ.

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By Morgan Felchner

State legislatures across the country are facing a challenge that will impact their congressional districts and those around the nation: redistricting.

In forty-four states, the legislatures are responsible for redrawing the congressional districts, and whoever has the majority in the state House or Senate at that time could influence which party has the advantage after the redistricting. Prompted by the 2006 Supreme Court decision that gave states the right to redistrict whenever they want, rather than every 10 years in conjunction with the Census, states and organizations are starting to prepare for the redistricting battles to come.

Much of the nation’s attention is focused on the 435 House races, 33 Senate races and 36 gubernatorial races, but down-ballot races this cycle have a large impact (in some cases, even more of an impact) on the partisan balance of the nation and the presidential race in 2008 and beyond.

Just like the U.S. House and Senate, Republicans hold the majority of governorships (28 to 22). In the legislatures, Republicans hold a majority in both houses in 20 states and Democrats in 19. Ten are split by chamber between Republicans and Democrats and one (Nebraska) is unicameral.

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Party Control: Republican Republican: 232 Democrat: 202 Independent: 1

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for re-election this year and Democrats need a net gain of 15 to take the majority. Although so many races are up for re-election only a handful are competitive, and open seats dominate the top of list.

These are the hottest races as we see them (in alphabetical order).

Arizona District 8 — Open Seat — Former state Rep. Randy Graf (R) won a competitive primary in September, as did former state Sen. Gabrielle Gibbons (D). U.S. Rep. Jim Koble (R) currently holds the seat and the district went for Bush in 2004, so Graf should have the advantage. But the DCCC began running ads in the primary that likely ended the chances of another Republican candidate and will continue to play in the race.

Colorado District 7 — Open Seat — This district was created in 2002 and won by U.S. Rep. Bob Beauprez (R), who is leaving to run for governor. State Higher Education Commission Chair Rick O’Donnell (R) faces former state Sen. Ed Perlmutter. The district voted for Kerry in 2004, and this is a top target for Democrats. The immigration debate will likely have a large role in the outcome.

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Party Control: Republican Republican: 55 Democrat: 44 Independent: 1

This year thirty-three U.S. senate seats are up for re-election. Of those, 15 are currently Republican-held seats, 17 Democratic and one independent (Vermont’s U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords). There are four open seats, one is the seat currently held by retiring GOP U.S. Sen. Bill Frist, one is Jeffords and two Democrats, Paul Sarbanes of Maryland and Mark Dayton of Minnesota are calling it quits. Democrats need a net gain of six seats in order to take the majority. Republicans are facing a tough election year with issues such as the war in Iraq, an unpopular president and charges of ethical violations creating somewhat of an anti-Republican tide across the country. This atmosphere is favorable to Democrats who, in large part, are seeking to nationalize the election to take advantage of low approval ratings. Democrats are in a position to pick up a few seats, especially with the commonly held most competitive races in Republican-held seats, but they certainly have some seats to defend. Here is a list of races that are among the most competitive in the country.

Missouri Senate — In this race, incumbent U.S. Sen. Jim Talent (R) faces a stiff challenge from state Auditor Claire McCaskill. A close race regardless, Talent is trying to stave off potential trouble from a stem cell initiative that, at time of press, McCaskill and Missouri voters supported; Talent does not. Both candidates are bringing in big names. Former President Bill Clinton campaigned for McCaskill in early September, and President Bush campaigned for Talent.

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It’s an oxymoron. Although homicides and robberies sky-rocketed this past summer in Newark, Mayor Gory Booker says his highly touted anti-crime Safe Summer Initiative made this the safest summer in more than a decade for the residents in the city.

In an interview with the Amsterdam News, Booker said he is committed to reducing the overall crime rate and based on the latest statistics from the Newark Police Department (NPD), he has accomplished a piece of that goal.

According to statistics released last month by the NPD, the overall crime rate in Newark dropped by 14 percent in July and August. There were a total of 2,582 incidents of major crime — including homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults and shootings — reported during July and August compared to nearly 3,000 for the same period in 2005. There were 21 murders in Newark between July and August of this year compared to 14 in 2005.

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