- Table View
- List View
Growing Up King: An Intimate Memoir
by Dexter Scott King Ralph WileyHe was just seven years old and watching television in the family's den when a special news bulletin announced that his father had fallen to an assassin's bullet -- a tragedy that would forever scar his adolescence. But as an adult, Dexter Scott King was determined to confront the past, discover the truth about his father's murder, and protect his father's legacy... To a divided country, Martin Luther King, Jr., was a leader who represented shining hope. Yet to his youngest son, Dexter, he was a gentle father who joyfully played with his children. Then the civil rights leader was brutally assassinated...and Dexter found his family's life irrevocably shattered. Burdened by wrenching grief and tremendous expectations, Dexter eventually triumphed over both by proving in a civil jury trial that there was a conspiracy involving governmental agencies to kill his father. Poignant and bracingly candid, GROWING UP KING is an intimate portrait of an unforgettable hero, a loving son, and the unbreakable bond between them. Book jacket.
Growing Up Laughing: My Story and the Story of Funny
by Marlo ThomasGrowing Up Laughing is a compelling autobiographical journey--hilarious and heartfelt, intimate and inspiring. It is a book that only Marlo Thomas could write.For as long as Thomas can remember, she's lived with laughter. Born to comedy royalty--TV and nightclub star Danny Thomas--she grew up among legendary funny men, carved much of her career in comedy and, to this day, surrounds herself with people who love and live to make others laugh. Thomas takes us on a funny and heartwarming adventure, from her Beverly Hills childhood, to her groundbreaking creation of That Girl and Free to Be . . . You and Me, to her marriage to talk-show king Phil Donahue.Her youth was star-studded--Milton Berle performed magic tricks (badly) at her backyard birthday parties. George Burns, Bob Hope, Sid Caesar, Bob Newhart and other great comics passed countless hours gathered around her family's dinner table. And behind it all was the rich laughter nurtured by a close and loving family.Growing Up Laughing is not just the story of an iconic entertainer, but also the story of comedy. In a voice that is curious, generous and often gleeful, Thomas not only opens the doors on the funny in her own life, but in a series of insightful and hilarious interviews also explores the comic roots of today's most celebrated comedians.
Growing Up Muslim: Muslim College Students in America Tell Their Life
by Andrew Garrod Robert Kilkenny Eboo Patel"While 9/11 and its aftermath created a traumatic turning point for most of the writers in this book, it is telling that none of their essays begin with that moment. These young people were living, probing, and shifting their Muslim identities long before 9/11. . . . I've heard it said that the second generation never asks the first about its story, but nearly all the essays in this book include long, intimate portrayals of Muslim family life, often going back generations. These young Muslims are constantly negotiating the differences between families for whom faith and culture were matters of honor and North America's youth culture, with its emphasis on questioning, exploring, and inventing one's own destiny. "--from the Introduction by Eboo Patel In Growing Up Muslim, Andrew Garrod and Robert Kilkenny present fourteen personal essays by college students of the Muslim faith who are themselves immigrants or are the children of immigrants to the United States. In their essays, the students grapple with matters of ethnicity, religious prejudice and misunderstanding, and what is termed Islamophobia. The fact of 9/11 and subsequent surveillance and suspicion of Islamic Americans (particularly those hailing from the Middle East and the Asian Subcontinent) have had a profound effect on the lives of these students. The shift in official policies and everyday habits that occurred subsequent to the attacks on New York and Washington D. C. has had an influence on the lives of these undergraduates, their families, and their communities of origin.
Growing Up Patton
by Benjamin Patton Jennifer ScrubyThe grandson of the legendary World War II general George S. Patton Jr., documentary filmmaker Benjamin Patton, explores his family legacy and shares the inspirational wit and wisdom that his grandfather bestowed upon his only son and namesake. In revealing personal correspondence written between 1939 and 1945, General Patton Jr. espoused his ideals to Benjamin's father, then a cadet at West Point. Dispensing advice on duty, heroism and honor with the same candor he used ordering the Third Army across Europe, Patton shows himself to be as dynamic a parent as a military commander. Following in those famous footsteps, Benjamin's father became a respected and decorated hero of both the Korean and Vietnam wars. Ironically, as he rose to major general, he also proved himself just as brave, flamboyant, flawed and inspiring as his father had been. A study of a great American original, Growing Up Patton features some of the pivotal figures in Benjamin's father's life, including Creighton Abrams, the WWII hero who became his greatest mentor; Charley Watkins, a daredevil helicopter pilot in Vietnam; Manfred Rommel, the son of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel; Joanne Patton, the author's mother and a resourceful fighter in her own right; and Benjamin's mentally challenged brother, George. Growing Up Patton explores how the Patton cultural legacy lives on, and in the end, reveals how knowing the history of our heritage--famous or not--can lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves. INCLUDES NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED LETTERS BETWEEN GENERAL GEORGE S. PATTON AND HIS SON DURING WORLD WAR II INCLUDES NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS
Growing Up Pedro: How the Martinez Brothers Made It from the Dominican Republic All the Way to the Major Leagues
by Matt Tavares<p>The love between brothers is key to Matt Tavares's tale of Dominican pitcher Pedro Martinez, from his days of throwing rocks at mangoes to his years as a major-league star. <p>Before Pedro MartInez pitched the Red Sox to a World Series championship, before he was named to the All-Star team eight times, before he won the Cy Young three times, he was a kid from a place called Manoguayabo in the Dominican Republic. Pedro loved baseball more than anything, and his older brother Ramon was the best pitcher he'd ever seen. He'd dream of the day he and his brother could play together in the major leagues--and here, Matt Tavares tells the story of how that dream came true. In a fitting homage to a modern day baseball star, the acclaimed author-illustrator examines both Pedro Martinez's improbable rise to the top of his game and the power that comes from the deep bond between brothers.</p>
Growing Up Roosevelt: A Granddaughter's Memoir of Eleanor Roosevelt (Excelsior Editions)
by Nina Roosevelt GibsonWhen Nina Roosevelt was just seven years old, her family moved from California to live with her grandmother at the small cottage, Val-Kill, in Hyde Park, New York. It was at Val-Kill Farm that Nina shared her childhood years with her remarkable grandmother, the woman who would change her life. To Nina, she was Grandmère, but, to most everyone else, she was Eleanor Roosevelt. Few people realize how important Val-Kill was for Eleanor Roosevelt. Returning "home again" nourished her, allowed her time for reflection, planning, and rejuvenation so that she could continue pouring her heart and soul into the needs of so many people the world over.Growing Up Roosevelt gives an intimate picture of life at Val-Kill as well as Nina's wide-ranging experiences traveling as a teenager with her grandmother. Included are portraits of the family, staff, famous friends, people in need, and world leaders as disparate as Nikita Khrushchev, Haile Selassie, and John F. Kennedy. This book will appeal to anyone interested in the life and times of Eleanor Roosevelt, her work as a trailblazing political and feminist leader, and the intimate behind-the-scenes details that only her granddaughter can tell.
Growing Up So High: A Liberties Boyhood
by Sean O'ConnorSeán O'Connor was born in Francis Street, in the Liberties of Dublin, a neighbourhood famous over the centuries for the sturdy independence of its people.Now, in this evocative and affectionate book, he recollects the unique and colourful district of his childhood: the neighbours who lived there, their traditions, talk and lore, the music and poetry of the laneways and markets.Remembrances of the 1940s classroom, of bird-watching in Phoenix Park, of roaming towards adolescence in the streets of his ancestors are mingled with tales of ancient ghosts and the coming of change to the Liberties.O'Connor, father of the novelist Joseph, tells his story with honesty, warmth and style, and the often wry wit of his home-place. This tenderly written testament of one Liberties boy builds into a vivid and heart-warming picture of his own extended family as part of a proud community and its all-but-vanished way of life.
Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words
by Dr Lindsay Herriot And Kate FryWhat does it mean to be young and transgender today? Growing Up Trans shares stories, essays, art and poetry created by trans youth aged 11 to 18. In their own words, the works illustrate the trans experience through childhood, family and daily life, school, their bodies and mental health. Together the collection is a story of the challenges, big and small, of being a young trans person. At the same time, it’s a toolkit for all young people, transgender or not, about what understanding, acceptance and support for the trans community looks like. In addition to the contributed works, there are questions and tips from experts in the field of transgender studies to challenge the reader on how to be a trans ally.Growing Up Trans came out of a series of workshops held in Victoria, British Columbia, to bring together trans youth from across the country with mentors in the community.
Growing Up True: Lessons from a Western Boyhood
by Craig S. BarnesWritten in a compellingly simple style, Growing Up True evokes the struggles of a boy stretching for manhood. Whether describing the dares of taunting schoolmates, his perfectionist father's attempts to true a fence by adjusting the posts just a "whisker more," a prissy aunt caring for a freezing lamb in the family kitchen, or his own coming to terms with a suicide, Craig Barnes offers readers a hopeful message in which integrity, hard work, kindness, and tolerance remain bedrock.
Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York
by Steven HellerAn entertaining coming-of-age memoir from Steven Heller, award-winning designer, writer, and former senior art director at the New York Times. Featuring 100 color photographs, Growing Up Underground takes readers on a visually inspired look back on being at the center of New York's youth culture in the 1960s and 1970s. Steven Heller's memoir is no chronological trek through the hills and valleys of his comparatively "normal" life, but instead, a coming-of-age tale whereby, with luck and circumstance, he found himself in curious and remarkable places at critical times during the 1960s and ‘70s in New York City. Heller's delightful account of his life between the ages of 16 and 26 shows his ambitious journey from the start of his illustrious career as a graphic designer, cartoonist, and writer. Follow his journey through stints at the New York Review of Sex, Screw, and the New York Free Press, until he became the youngest art director (and occasional illustrator) for the New York Times Op-Ed page at age twenty-three.
Growing Up Urkel
by Jaleel WhiteAn incisive and insightful memoir by one of the most beloved icons of nineties television Jaleel White, the actor who portrayed Steve Urkel on the hit sitcom Family Matters.At the tender age of twelve, Jaleel White auditioned for the role of Steve Urkel, the socially inept genius, who was in love with his next-door neighbor, Laura. Though Steve Urkel was intended to be in only one episode, Jaleel&’s indelible performance catapulted Urkel into the pantheon of American pop culture. But success can cost as much as it pays. After nine years on the popular sitcom Family Matters, Jaleel is twenty-one, a UCLA undergrad, and adjusting to a world and industry that sees him as the nasally nerd in high water pants, suspenders, and coke bottle glasses. In this wise and witty memoir, Growing Up Urkel takes you on a memorable journey through the peaks, valleys, and plateaus of fame and fortune.
Growing Up X: A Memoir by the Daughter of Malcolm X
by Ilyasah Shabazz"Ilyasah Shabazz has written a compelling and lyrical coming-of-age story as well as a candid and heart-warming tribute to her parents. Growing Up X is destined to become a classic."-SPIKE LEEFebruary 21, 1965: Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem's Audubon Ballroom. June 23, 1997: After surviving for a remarkable twenty-two days, his widow, Betty Shabazz, dies of burns suffered in a fire. In the years between, their six daughters reach adulthood, forged by the memory of their parents' love, the meaning of their cause, and the power of their faith. Now, at long last, one of them has recorded that tumultuous journey in an unforgettable memoir: Growing Up X.Born in 1962, Ilyasah was the middle child, a rambunctious livewire who fought for-and won-attention in an all-female household. She carried on the legacy of a renowned father and indomitable mother while navigating childhood and, along the way, learning to do the hustle. She was a different color from other kids at camp and yet, years later as a young woman, was not radical enough for her college classmates. Her story is, sbove all else, a tribute to a mother of almost unimaginable forbearance, a woman who, "from that day at the Audubon when she heard the shots and threw her body on [ours, never] stopped shielding her children."From the Trade Paperback edition.
Growing Up Yinzer: Memories from Beloved Pittsburghers (The History Press)
by Dick RobertsIn the Steel City, "Yinzer" is a term of endearment, reserved for the city's most beloved and embraced by locals as a symbol of the grit and determination that Pittsburgh endows anyone from there. The city's undeniable impact on the character and life of those who grew up there has shaped iconic figures of American sports, entertainment and culture. Legends of the gridiron such as Jim Kelly, Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino and Joe Namath forged their football prowess in Western Pennsylvania. Business pioneers including Mark Cuban, Ray Werner and Bill Strickland were ingrained with the value of hard work in the Steel City. Music and movie stars like Jeff Goldblum, George Benson and Billy Gardell found creative inspiration in Pittsburgh that led to new heights. Author Dick Roberts presents profiles, interviews and memories from some of the most famous and adored Pittsburghers.
Growing Up in Italy in a Time of War
by Gioietta VitaleThe wonderful reality is that there is no escape. It is our maturity which keeps us linked to our past like prisoners. Sometimes we tend not to remember, and we lock up our memories in the most remote place in our brain cells. Memories fill up our minds, together with our sensations, images, and impulses. I am determined to dedicate my time to recalling the years of my childhood before and during World War II. It seems ages since my childhood in Italy. In my memory, however, it feels like yesterday. Good and bad memories are as vivid as ever, imprinted on my mind. It is amazing how quickly they come back. All it takes to make them click into focus is a smell, a sound, a snapshot, a sensation . . . feelings, smells, colors, words of the past are all recorded in our memory and will never leave us. They are part of us, who we are, even if we do not realize it. The past as well as the present will mold the future.I will try to capture those images of everyday life that are kept locked in my memory, not only for my personal satisfaction, but for my children and grandchildren, so that they may learn how life used to be. Everything changes in the span of one lifetime, some for the better, some for the worse. However, memories, like knowledge, cannot be taken away from you.So here are my memories, recaptured for those who are curious to know how life was in Italy before, during, and after the Second World War.
Growing Up in La Colonia: Boomer memories from Oxnard's barrio
by Margo Porras Sandra PorrasLa Colonia is half a square mile of land separated from the rest of Oxnard by the railroad tracks and home to the people who keep an agricultural empire running. In decades past, milpas of corn and squash grew in tiny front yards, kids played in the alleys and neighbors ran tortillerias out of their homes. Back then, it was the place to get the best raspadas on Earth. It was a home to Cesar Chavez and a campaign stop for presidential candidate Robert Kennedy. As one Colonia native put it, "We may not have had what the other kids had, but we were just as rich." Through the voices of the people, the authors share the challenges and triumphs of growing up in this treasured place.
Growing Up in Slavery
by Sylviane A. DioufA childhood spent in slavery was dismal and frequently heartbreaking. Some children came to be slaves when they were kidnapped from their homes in Africa and brought to North America. Others were born enslaved and knew no other life. Despite the hardship and suffering, the children of slavery never quite lost their spirit -- and as we recognize today, the traditions they started and perpetuated enrich us to this day.
Growing Up in Sussex: From Schoolboy to Soldier
by Gerry WellsThis compelling memoir starts with a boy's journey through the early years of the 1930s: days of the rag and bone man, street lamplighters, Hercule Poirot, and in the background, Hitler. Then life gets real: at school where cane and cricket bat rule and where the mustard sandwich fills a hungry corner, and even more real with army call-up and training. Then, in 1944/45, comes the crunch of combat in Operation Overlord - a boy's growing-up time. And after all that, with his ears still ringing a bit, comes the blessed call of demob and a taste of new delights: days of farming and finding a woman daft enough to marry him before settling on a farm to start his life as a man. In this nostalgic book evoking recollections of childhood and wartime in Sussex, the memories are the author's, however the sights and events are those that will be remembered by many others, and readers will warm to the narrator, who has found the perfect balance of humour and sensitivity.
Growing a Farmer: How I Learned to Live Off the Land
by Kurt Timmermeister"Charming . . . . [Kurt Timmermeister] narrates his personal journey with an open, straightforward spirit." --Wall Street Journal When he purchased four acres of land on Vashon Island, Kurt Timmermeister was only looking for an affordable home near the restaurants he ran in Seattle. But as he slowly settled into his new property, he became awakened to the connection between what he ate and where it came from: a hive of bees provided honey, a young cow could give fresh milk, an apple orchard allowed him to make vinegar. With refreshing honesty, Timmermeister details the initial stumbles and subsequent realities he faced as he established a profitable farm for himself. Personal yet practical, Growing a Farmer will entirely recast the way we think about our relationship to the food we consume.
Growing in to Autism
by Sandra Thom-JonesFrom the outside looking in, Sandra Thom-Jones was living a successful life: she had a great career, a beautiful home, a caring husband, two loving sons and supportive friends. But from the inside looking out, she was struggling to make sense of her place in the world, constantly feeling overwhelmed and exhausted, and convinced that her challenges with daily life just meant that she had to try harder. In Growing In to Autism, Thom-Jones tells the story of gradually realizing that she was autistic, and that she experienced the world in ways which were markedly different from neurotypical people. This was a profound awakening - throughout her life she had been masking her true self and this effort had come at great physical, mental and emotional cost. Applying her skills as an experienced and expert researcher, Thom-Jones delved into the literature on autism in adults, learning much more than she already knew as a parent of two autistic boys. Part personal, funny, endearing and enlightening memoir, and part rigorous explication of the nature of autism, Growing in to Autism is a book for all people, memorably conveying the need for better understanding and ways of making space for a group of individuals in our society who have so much to offer.
Growing to One World
by Eileen JanzenJ. King Gordon's story is one of youthful vision and high ideals sustained throughout a life of concrete action at home and abroad. Grounded in his father's social gospel and given intellectual heft and hue by exposure to radical politics at Oxford and in New York, he returned to Canada as a self-described "Christian radical" and threw himself into the emerging social and political ferment of the 1930s. In Growing to One World, Eileen Janzen details a life spent championing progressive politics in Canada and a commitment to peace and diplomacy on the international stage. As a founding member of the League for Social Reconstruction, Gordon was one of the authors of the Regina Manifesto for the newly formed Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the forerunner of today's NDP, and worked tirelessly on the party's behalf. Later, he realized his vocation as a member of the United Nations' division of human rights, serving in Korea, the Middle East, and the Congo as both an eyewitness to and participant in formative events shaping those regions. Exhaustively researched and informed by a sophisticated analytical grasp of political theory and international affairs, Growing to One World is a compelling look at an important supporter of peace, justice, and human rights across the globe.
Growing with Grace: A journey into self-discovery, wellbeing and the art of living consciously
by Simone CallahanSimone Callahan&’s wellness journey was instrumental to her healing process when her marriage ended. Now, she&’s determined to guide and support others in their search for inner peace during difficult times. In Growing with Grace, Simone explores the power of self-care, resilience, bravery and positivity. She also shares the skills she has learned as a qualified yoga instructor – skills that have transformed her physically and emotionally.Growing with Grace uncovers the holistic relationship between yogic wisdom, inner peace, nature, and spiritual wellbeing. This book offers meditation and breathing techniques, hour-long yoga sequences and tips for healthy, conscious living.
Growing, Older
by Joan Dye GussowMichael Pollan calls her one of his food heroes. Barbara Kingsolver credits her with shaping the history and politics of food in the United States. And countless others who have vied for a food revolution, pushed organics, and reawakened Americans to growing their own food and eating locally consider her both teacher and muse. Joan Gussow has influenced thousands through her books, This Organic Life and The Feeding Web, her lectures, and the simple fact that she lives what she preaches. Now in her eighties, she stops once more to pass along some wisdom-surprising, inspiring, and controversial-via the pen. Gussow's memoir Growing, Older begins when she loses her husband of 40 years to cancer and, two weeks later, finds herself skipping down the street-much to her alarm. Why wasn't she grieving in all the normal ways? With humor and wit, she explains how she stopped worrying about why she was smiling and went on worrying, instead, and as she always has, about the possibility that the world around her was headed off a cliff. But hers is not a tale, or message, of gloom. Rather it is an affirmation of a life's work-and work in general. Lacking a partner's assistance, Gussow continued the hard labor of growing her own year-round diet. She dealt single-handedly with a rising tidal river that regularly drowned her garden, with muskrat interlopers, broken appliances, bodily decay, and river trash-all the while bucking popular notions of how "an elderly widowed woman" ought to behave. Scattered throughout are urgent suggestions about what growing older on a changing planet will call on all of us to do: learn self-reliance and self-restraint, yield graciously if not always happily to necessity, and-since there is no other choice-come to terms with the insistence of the natural world. Gussow delivers another literary gem-one that women curious about aging, gardeners curious about contending with increasingly intense weather, and environmentalists curious about the future will embrace.
Grown Woman Talk: Your Essential Companion for Healthy Living
by Sharon Malone M.D.NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • &“A must-read for anyone who cares about their quality of life . . . Dr. Sharon Malone is the first person I turn to for a whole host of issues, especially my health.&”—MICHELLE OBAMAA practical guide to aging and health for women who have felt ignored or marginalized by the medical profession, from a leading OB/GYN and expert on menopausal and post-reproductive healthAN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEARThere&’s not enough talk around women&’s health, and what little there is rarely helps. Women are routinely warned, lectured, or threatened about their health. Or they are ignored, dismissed, or shamed. But they are rarely empowered. And empowerment, more than anything, is what women—and women of color, in particular—need.Grown Woman Talk is for every woman who has felt marginalized or overwhelmed by a healthcare system that has become more impersonal, complex, and difficult to navigate than ever. It&’s also for any woman who is simply standing at the intersection of aging and health, anxious and wanting solutions.Part medical handbook, part memoir, and part sister-girl cheerleader, this book is filled with useful resources and real-life stories of victory and defeat. It not only highlights the current data around women&’s health issues, but it also places that data in a helpful context.In a tone that is lively and intimate but unflinchingly direct, Dr. Sharon Malone details how to live better, age better, and get better medical treatment, especially when it&’s most needed. This is not a medical activism book designed to fight the power. This is a book designed to show women that they already have the power—they need only to increase their capacity and willingness to use it.Most important, Grown Woman Talk seeks to eradicate the silence that surrounds women&’s health by facilitating discussion between women of all ages and encouraging more accurate and productive medical insights. It is Dr. Sharon&’s belief that giving women more agency can, literally, give them life.
Grown-Up Anger: The Connected Mysteries of Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Calumet Massacre of 1913
by Daniel WolffA brilliantly intertwined account of two revolutionary musicians, a miners’ strike, and a deadly tragedy: “Reads like a historical detective story.” —The New York Times Book ReviewAt thirteen, when he first heard Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” Daniel Wolff recognized the sound of anger. When he later discovered “Song for Woody,” Dylan’s tribute to folk musician Woody Guthrie, Wolff fixed on it as a clue to a distinctive mix of rage and compassion. That clue led back to Guthrie’s “1913 Massacre”—a memorial song about the horrific conclusion to a union Christmas party in Calumet, Michigan.Following the trail from Dylan to Guthrie to a tragedy that claimed seventy-four lives, Wolff found himself tracing a century-long line of anger. From America’s early industrialized days up to the present, the battle over economic justice keeps resurfacing: on a freight car in California, on a joyride through New Orleans, in a snowy field in Michigan. At the stunning conclusion—as the mysteries of Dylan, Guthrie, and the 1913 tragedy connect—the reader discovers a larger story, purposely distorted and buried in time.A tour de force of storytelling years in the making that chronicles the struggles between the haves and have-nots, Grown-Up Anger is both a dual biography of two legendary songwriters and a murder mystery. It also serves as a history of labor relations and socialism, big business and greed in twentieth-century America—all woven together in one epic saga.“A fascinating and relevant whirlwind examination of music, economic injustice, and two American icons.” —Booklist (starred review)“A masterful tale of music, social, and economic history . . . A dazzling, richly researched story impeccably told.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Grumpy Old Rock Star: and Other Wondrous Stories
by Rick WakemanAround about August 1948, Mr and Mrs Cyril Wakeman had an early night and some time later, at Perivale in Middlesex, Mrs Wakeman produced a bonny baby son. They named him Richard, but he quickly became known as Rick. Rick was a likeable little fellow who had a talent for the piano and for making trouble. Music became Rick's life - he joined a popular music group called Yes and became a legend. Much later he became a Grumpy Old Man who appears on Countdown, hosts a hugely popular radio show on Planet Rock and performs a one-man show telling stories about his rather extraordinary life.Which is where this book you are holding comes in. Mr Wakeman is simply one of the great storytellers of our age - let's face it, he has some fabulous material. It seemed a shame that some of the funniest yarns should not be more widely known. So he accepted some cash and here we are.Curl up by the fire with a Grumpy Old Rock Star and your nearest and dearest. We defy you not to want to read it aloud and laugh.