Head Boy Essay

Hello I’m David Smith and I’m running for eighth head kid. Everyone please hold up! Make one move on your right side. Make one move to one side. Applaud multiple times! Presently plunk down. My folks disclosed to me that on the off chance that I could some way or another â€Å"move the crowd†, at that point I would win! So thank you for your participation. In any case, on a progressively genuine issue, I am here to discuss why I need to run for Student Council President, my experience as a pioneer, and how I can bring numerous new and inventive plans to Viewpoint Middle School. Understudy Council is a path for the understudies to have portrayal in school. It allows them to settle on their own choices, about how they need their school run by deciding in favor of individuals to speak to them. The explanation I need to run for understudy committee President isn't on the grounds that my folks made me, not on the grounds that I need to make wisecracks before individuals, but since I need to make my last year as a center schooler the best one for all the Middle School. Being a President isn't a simple activity, however I trust I meet all requirements for it. I have demonstrated quality inside and outside of school as a pioneer. Inside school, I have accomplished straight As. Outside of school, I have given over $500 to a foundation called World Vision, with the assistance of my companion. I have taken an interest in Community Service on a week after week premise, since I was in seventh grade. I have additionally won piano rivalries, for example, the Bach and Contemporary Festivals for quite a while. By turning out to be President, I would like to take the entirety of my experience from outside of school and carry it to a school level. I will accept my position totally genuinely, yet additionally incorporate your thoughts regardless of how outrageous. On the off chance that you give me a thought, regardless of what it is, I guarantee to take it to Student Council and talk about it. Free dress each day? SURE! I unquestionably will bring that up in a Student Council conversation. Anybody from any evaluation can come up to me, converse with me, and I guarantee what you state will be discussed later in Student Council. Presently I trust I moved you both actually and intellectually. On the off chance that I still haven’t, simply imagine that on the off chance that you vote in favor of me, that’s one less lunch period you’ll see me. Much obliged to you!

Human Resourse Management Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Human Resourse Management This paper will audit the job of human asset the executives (HRM) in the technique procedure. This will remember the capacity of enrollment and preparing programs for HRM, the idea of key fit and how human asset the executives can prompt an upper hand. The way where an organisation’s work force are overseen affects the profitability of the representatives, which at last follows up on the firm’s main concern. Corporate achievement is reliant upon the reconciliation of the human asset plan and the corporate key plan.It has become a broadly held reason that individuals furnish associations with a significant wellspring of supportable upper hand and that the successful administration of human capital, not physical capital, might be a definitive determinant of authoritative execution (Youndt, Snell, Dean, Jr, and Lepak, 1996). The connection between the vital arranging of an organisation’s people and the general procedure is as a rule progressively perceived as one vital. A developing acknowledgment of HR similar to a company’s most significant resource has, and will proceed to, change the focal point of key arranging. It is not, at this point worthy to solely get ready for those advantages that will show up on the asset report. A durable arrangement incorporating human asset the board and the general key arrangement is fundamental, with the end goal that the administration of individuals is certainly not a particular capacity, yet goes about as a medium through which all different business techniques are executed (Armstrong and Long, 1994: p. 42). Generally, the serious, human asset, and auxiliary techniques should all be connected in a fundamental and dynamic manner (Boxall, 1996: p. 61). Unfortunatel... ...y, T.E. (1993), Strategic Human Resource Management, Thomas Nelson Australia: Melbourne. Schuler, R.S., and Jackson, S.E. (1987), ‘Linking Competitive Strategies with Human Resource Management Practices’, The Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 207 - 219. Schuler, R.S., and MacMillan, I.C. (1984), ‘Gaining upper hand through human asset practices’, Human Resource Management, 23 (3), pp. 241 - 255. Skelton, B (1996), Flexible workforce is a business quality, Human Resource Week ‘96, The Age, pp. C10. Torraco, R.J., and Swanson, R.A. (1995), ‘The Strategic Roles of Human Resource Development’, Human Resource Planning, 18 (4), pp. 10 - 21. Youndt, M. A., Snell, S. A., Dean, Jr., J.W., and Lepak, D. P. (1996). Human asset the executives, producing methodology, and firm execution. Foundation of Management Journal, 39 (4), 836-866.

How to Be More Assertive at Work (Without Being a Jerk)

How to Be More Assertive at Work (Without Being a Jerk) One of your colleagues is always having easier times. His needs are recognized and respected even without causing drama or getting into arguments. Whenever there is new work, it is not automatic that it will land on his desk.As a result, he gets enough time to finish his duties without undue pressure. More than that, he also gets time to do some personal work too.But what about you?You also don’t cause drama or get into arguments. You collaborate well with your team members. You finish your work in good time.However, you are always the first one to be considered for new work. It can even be ‘forced’ onto you if no one else is willing to do it. You wonder why your boss can’t understand that you have enough on your hands already. Despite telling him so, he just seems to prefer that you do the job.What do you do to gain respect at work like your colleague?This is obviously affecting you. You are slowly becoming angry with your boss for what you believe is unfair treatment. You a re also getting angry with your colleagues because you see them as being inconsiderate and selfish.Worst of all, you are getting angry with yourself. You can see the situation getting worse but are not doing anything about it. Yet you know you should.You have become a pushover. You are not making your needs clearly known and being firm about them. This makes other people believe that you are okay with what they give you.Since you object too softly, people conclude that you can somehow manage everything. You can handle more work. You can come in during the weekend. Or leave the office late in order to finish a report.Usually, if you’re not okay with something, you are expected to communicate clearly and be firm about it. Otherwise, you will go by what others decide.If you don’t come out strongly enough on the issues which matter to you, you end up suffering. You sacrifice beyond the norm and internally hurt as others enjoy life at your expense.WHAT IS ASSERTIVENESS?Assertiveness is all about communication.As such, it enables you share your thoughts and opinions in a particular manner.As you communicate, your words and body language send out cues picked by those listening and watching you. These cues determine how they understand and interact with you.Sometimes, the cues are clear. At other times, they are vague, forcing your listeners to make their own conclusions.Communication can be done in three different styles. These are assertive, passive and aggressive. Whether initiating conversations, making requests or responding to others, your communication style influences how you deliver your message.AssertiveWhen you are assertive, you communicate clearly and directly. Yo do not leave room for assumptions to be made. Whoever you are talking with will fully understand your position.This makes your needs respected and any decision being made will have to take them into account.While communicating assertively, you recognize and appreciate other people’s needs. You acknowledge that everyone should be given equal opportunity to be heard.While others speak, you therefore listen to them so as to understand the point they are making. It is after understanding and considering their perspectives that you make your thoughts known.Assertiveness is the ultimate show of self confidence and indicates a healthy dose of self-worth. Being assertive shows that you know who you are and are ready to stand up for yourself.You are comfortable with your value system and cannot be easily moved to go against it. If for example you value integrity, you will be opposed to ideas which seek to keep the truth hidden. If it’s a solution suggested at work, you will openly state your position against it then offer a contrary suggestion.Passive or non-assertiveBeing passive means accepting whatever comes your way. Whether good or bad for you, you consent to it. If you are passive, you will prefer making others happy even when it goes against your wishes.Rarely will y ou voice any dissenting thoughts or opinions. If you do, it will be in an overly-soft manner such that it won’t be taken very seriously.When someone asks you for something which will inconvenience you, you decide to make the relevant sacrifices. You prioritize other people over yourself.As a communication style, passivity is exhibited when you are not being true to yourself. You move in the opposite direction from what you actually want.When a solution is suggested and it goes against your beliefs, you override your beliefs and agree with it. This is despite knowing how the solution will affect you.For example, you may have planned a family re-union to be on Saturday. On Friday afternoon, you are requested to come to work on Saturday. Your family has not met together for the past 10 years and this get together party is very important to you. If you are passive, you will most likely commit to a few hours of work.You will change your plans so that you join your family later on. You will thus have prioritized work over family, despite the importance you have placed on the family event.AggressiveThis is the extreme opposite of passive. You are aggressive when you are completely insensitive to other people’s feelings and needs. You are fixated on your own needs and pursue them irrespective of what other people feel.In the workplace setting, you may be making demands of your juniors and colleagues without regard to whether they can actually meet them. It gets worse when you are in a position of power or authority.Aggressive people care very little about other people. All that matters is what they want and that is what has to be done. They bully people, especially the passive ones, and literally trample other people’s needs.They take other people’s opinions as unimportant and unworthy of consideration. They will typically be loud and use demeaning words to try and force people into submission. Anyone resisting them stands to face some rough times as a result. At work, the aggressive colleague undermines other people’s opinions and shoots down their ideas. He typically uses statements like: “This task has to be finished by noon.Ensure it happens,” or “How could you give such a suggestion? Think through your ideas before proposing them.” This can happen even in a brainstorming meeting where ideas should flow freely.Passive people can deny the company great solutions by not voicing their thoughts. On the other hand, aggressive people cause a lot of damage by propagating fear and creating an unhealthy work environment.When you become assertive, you will create the best environment at your workplace. Standing your ground automatically gets the aggressive person to realize that he needs to change his communication approach.Considering that you value other people and respect their needs, you will also encourage passive people to become more assertive. Because of this, you will not just be respected but also loved by those you help sta nd up for themselves.WHAT KEEPS YOU FROM BEING ASSERTIVEIf you’re struggling with being assertive, then it is likely to be as a result of some beliefs which you hold. In most cases, people’s responses to situations are determined by their past experiences.You may for example have been passive ever since you were young. A careful look at your past may probably reveal that you got criticized too much during your childhood years. Or maybe you were brought up in a culture that taught you passivity in the name of submission.It is important that you recognize what is holding you back so that you deal with it. Below are some of the reasons you may have for continuing in passivity.You feel like being assertive is rude.This is caused by having the wrong understanding of what being assertive means. There are clear differences between being assertive and being aggressive. Bossy and pushy people are generally aggressive whereas pushovers are passive. Those who seek to strike a balance with respect to everyone’s needs are assertive.You may have grown up knowing that humility is the quality of accepting unfair treatment without raising objection. This is obviously not true because when you don’t raise relevant objections, many things go wrong. Your current hurt due to disrespect from your boss and colleagues is clear evidence of this.You feel like being assertive will hurt others.You are obviously sensitive to other people’s feelings. As such, you seek to ensure they are handled well. Being assertive cannot hurt others because you will take people’s needs into account while communicating. It will help you be fair to others while considering your own needs. On the contrary, being aggressive is what can hurt others.For you to deal with this belief correctly, you should remember that no-one knows your needs better than you do. People seek to know you from what you communicate to them. It is therefore your responsibility to make your needs known.You feel the need to prioritize other people’s needs over yours.This indicates low self-worth. If you don’t value yourself enough, you will see others as being more valuable than you are. You will go to great lengths to satisfy their needs while ignoring your own. It is important that you check on yourself image. Once you improve yourself image, you will start seeing the value you carry. When you begin valuing yourself, you will know that you have something that the world needs. You will not struggle to see the worth of your ideas and opinions because you know they are valuable.Since you know that your opinions have value, you will give suggestions boldly knowing they can turn situations around.You fear losing friends.If you have gained friends through passivity, then it is time to test those friendships. You most likely have built these friendships by making sacrifices which hurt you. If these people are true friends, then they will respect your needs as you start making them known. They will even congratulate you on your new behavior.If those friends however thrived on exploiting you, you will face resistance from them. This will be the quickest way to differentiate between true and false friends.Such are the ones you should look forward to losing. It is important that you get rid of negative people from your life. They do not add any value to you. Instead, they sap life out of you for their own benefit.There may be other reasons you feel justify the need for you to hold on to passivity. Or they simply hold you back whenever you are about to move into assertiveness.Just take a deep and realistic look at them. You will see that, just like the ones above, they have no truth in them.BENEFITS OF BEING ASSERTIVEOnce learned, being assertive has many benefits. Just as you can benefit from generally expressing yourself, being assertive enables you to focus your communication accordingly.Below are some of the benefits you can expect to enjoy when you start being more assertive at w ork.Less extra workload â€" extra work is possibly the main tell-tale sign that you are passive at work. You simply get to do most or all of the extra work. You may have accepted it at first because it was not much but the work is now too much to handle. When you become more assertive, not only will you speak up against it, but will effectively put a stop to it.More respect from your colleagues â€" your colleagues probably leave a lot of work pending because they know you will take care of it. Or they do a sloppy job leaving you to deal with the mess. Certainly, more respect ought to be coming your way. When you tell them to improve their work and stop doing it for them, they will know that things have changed. Results? You won’t have to do anyone’s job.More respect from your boss â€" bosses should not be feared but respected. On their part, bosses ought to respect the needs of those working under them. Quite understandably, your boss may be under pressure for various reasons. A ll the same, it is his responsibility to ensure all is well in the company. That is one of the reasons he is above everyone else. If your boss is not treating you the way you deserve, then things are not right. When you become more assertive, he will see the need to make changes. He will either adopt a more balanced approach or consult you before doing anything that affects you.A better life in general â€" Most of your waking hours are spent at work. Therefore a more enjoyable life at work will go a long way in ensuring your life is great. When you get the respect you need, you take control of your own life. And it all begins with your communication. Better communication can improve your life.This gives you the confidence to do more. For example, you may get the confidence and even time to take an evening course to further your career.This is due to the feelings of increased self-worth which come from the respect you will be receiving.Something else, as you express yourself more rea dily and openly, you will make more friends. You will also be able to enjoy your friendships more than you used to.HOW TO BE MORE ASSERTIVEYou may be thinking to yourself that you are simply not assertive, while admiring those who are. Contrary to what you think, assertiveness is not a personality trait.It is a communication skill that can be learned. Nobody is born being a perfect communicator. Though some people communicate well naturally, you can also do the same. All you need is some training and the willingness to learn.Going by the benefits which you will enjoy when you become more assertive at work, it is good to learn this skill. Below are ways which will help you become more assertive at work without being a jerk.Recognize that your opinions matterIf people are not respecting your needs and opinions, it is possible that you undervalue them yourself. You think that your opinions are not very important and the company can do (well) without them. If you do not value your own i deas, it is because you don’t value yourself.For example, you may be chosen as part of the team which will spearhead the launch of a new product. In the strategic planning meeting, brainstorming is going on and everyone is giving ideas.You see a potential danger in implementing your colleagues’ ideas. You think through several ideas and come up with a great solution.But when the time comes for you to speak, you end up supporting your colleague’s idea. Just improving on it a little.Your own thoughts and opinions are important. They indicate your originality and enable you showcase what you have inside you. If you don’t share your ideas, your colleagues will conclude that you are of little help in such meetings.The next time there is need for ideas, you will not be asked for any input. It will already be on record that you don’t have ideas. This sets you on the path to oblivion.You should start believing in yourself. Give yourself assurances because you know very well that y our ideas are well thought out. From here, start small. When a colleague is facing a challenge with his work, suggest a way out and explain how you see the suggestion helping them out. When implemented and it brings success, you can be sure your colleague will have a special recognition for you.You can also look into the past for assurances. Ignore any negative words ever spoken to you. Instead, focus on the people you have helped and they gave you compliments.Maybe you advised them and they told you that your idea worked. Maybe you helped them finish an assignment and they recognized your special skills. Build on these and appreciate that you have something that others can benefit from.Moving forward, remind yourself that whatever you have to say is important and therefore you should say it. If you are not given the opportunity to speak, just interject politely and share your thoughts.Know what you wantSince you are communicating, you must be having something in mind. You may want to take the day off tomorrow, a deadline pushed further or you don’t want any extra work. Whatever it is that you want, be clear about it in your mind before communicating it.When it comes to being assertive, you cannot afford to be undecided by the time you are making your point known. You should know what you want before getting into a discussion. If you are not sure what is best for you, postpone the conversation.If you are in a meeting, you may have some minutes to go through your thoughts. If you are however being asked to do extra work, you will need to communicate the first thing that comes to your mind.Just ensure you don’t speak emotionally. Simply inform your colleague or boss that you are not able to handle more work at the moment. When you communicate assertively, you will get the satisfaction that comes with receiving what you want.Avoid apologetic languageYou may have noticed that most of the time when sharing your opinions, you start with an apology. You take it t hat you are interfering with the flow by raising concerns or voicing your thoughts.This often happens when you are in the midst of confident people who are not afraid to state their beliefs and act according to them. It may also happen every time you seek the audience of someone in a higher position than yours.Whereas apologizing for mistakes done shows humility and a sense of responsibility, too much of it can have negative effects. Apologizing too much indicates low self confidence. Because you are not confident about your own thoughts, you anticipate making someone else angry. You therefore apologize in advance so they don’t get angry with you.An example of apologetic language is: “I’m sorry to take you back, but I was thinking that” Even before saying what you want to say, you show that you’re doing something wrong and you know it. Instead, you can simply say, “Taking you back a little, I think” Since you have a good reason to have something re-looked, you can easi ly give the reason if asked to. Just don’t apologize for it. Apologetic language does not paint you in good light. It just sinks you deeper into low self-confidence. The more you go lower in self-confidence the more you will struggle with being assertive.Consider the other person’s point of viewListen to other people and consider their perspectives. This way, you will be able to understand them. Since people love feeling understood, they will feel respected and offer you the same respect.When someone is expressing himself and you do not agree with him, start by showing empathy. Let him know that you listened to him and understood his point of view.You can also mention one or two things he said to show you understood him well. Then proceed to express your dissenting thoughts. Ensure your thoughts have solid basis as evidence that you have thought them through.For example, you may express a dissenting opinion like this: “I know we need to act fast to avert this crisis, but this solution goes against the company’s policy on employee relations.” You will show that while understanding the situation, there is need for a different solution to be agreed upon.This gives you a chance to offer an alternative way of dealing with the situation at hand. If you had a solution in mind, propose it and show why it’s the right one.Align your body language accordinglyWhen speaking assertively, you have to align your body language with your words. All the communication you give must be saying the same thing.For good body language when practicing assertiveness, the first thing is to ensure there is direct eye contact. Also check your posture, whether talking while sitting or standing. If you slouch, you will communicate a lack of confidence, making your communication ineffective.Avoid common body language mistakes. Do not cross your arms because you’ll come across as one not open to discussion. Since you are not being aggressive, you should communicate to show willing ness to hear the other person out. Stay calm to enable you maintain a professional tone.Use the broken record techniqueThis is the last thing you can try if all else fails. In using the broken record technique, you just keep repeating what you have said despite the other person pushing his way.For example, if you are being given more work and don’t want to take it, you can simply say, “I currently have a lot of work and cannot take any more.”With this technique, you repeat your statement while not budging despite any change in tactic by your colleague or boss. You may slightly change the statement but the core of the message must remain the same.For example, you may change the statement to “I already have a lot of work and cannot take any more.” Although they may insist that you do something, if you stand your ground, they will finally get the message.CONCLUSIONCommunication is an important part of your life. At work, you communicate mainly to collaborate with your colleag ues as well as to bond. Collaboration with your colleagues makes a big difference between the success and failure of the projects you are handling. As a result, this has a direct impact on your career growth.If getting your point across is a challenge, then you can be sure your career is at risk. This is the last thing you want. So why not learn today how to be more assertive at work? You will guarantee your career growth while also greatly minimizing work-related stress. Start practicing assertiveness today and enjoy the benefits.

Who Were Hitlers Supporters Who Backed the Führer and Why

Adolf Hitler not only had enough support amongst the German people to take power and hold it for 12 years while effecting massive change in all levels of society, but he retained this support for several years during a war which began to go very wrong. The Germans fought until even Hitler had conceded the end and killed himself, whereas just a generation earlier they had expelled their Kaiser and changed their government without any enemy troops on German soil. So who supported Hitler, and why? The Fà ¼hrer Myth: A Love for Hitler The key reason to support Hitler and the Nazi regime was Hitler himself. Aided greatly by propaganda genius Goebbels, Hitler was able to present an image of himself as a superhuman, even god-like figure. He wasn’t portrayed as a politician, as Germany had had enough of them.   Instead, he was seen as above politics. He was all things to a lot of people – although a set of minorities soon found that Hitler, beyond  not caring about their support, wanted to persecute, even exterminate them instead – and by changing his message to suit different audiences, but stressing himself as the leader at the top, he began to bind the support of disparate groups together, building enough to rule, modify, and then doom Germany. Hitler wasn’t seen as a socialist, a monarchist, a Democrat, like many rivals. Instead, he was portrayed and accepted as being Germany itself, the one man who’d cut across the many sources of anger and discontent in Germany and cure the m all. He wasn’t widely seen as a power-hungry racist, but someone putting Germany and ‘Germans’ first. Indeed, Hitler managed to look like someone who would unite Germany rather than push it to extremes: he was praised for stopping a left-wing revolution by crushing the socialists and communists (first in street fights and elections, then by putting them in camps), and praised again after the Night of the Long Knives for stopping his own right (and still some left) wingers from starting their own revolution. Hitler was the unifier, the one who halted chaos and brought everyone together. It has been argued that at a crucial point in the Nazi regime the propaganda stopped making the Fuhrer myth successful, and Hitler’s image started making the propaganda work: people believed the war could be won and believed Goebbels carefully crafted work because Hitler was in charge. He was aided here by a piece of luck  and some perfect opportunism. Hitler had taken power in 1933 on a wave of discontent caused by the Depression, and luckily for him, the global economy began to improve in the 1930s without Hitler having to do anything except claim the credit, which was freely given to him. Hitler had to do more with foreign policy, and as a great many people in Germany wanted the Treaty of Versailles negated Hitler’s early manipulation of European politics to reoccupy German land, unite with Austria, then take Czechoslovakia, and still further the swift and victories wars against Poland and France, won him many admirers. Few things boost a leader’s support th an winning a war, and it gave Hitler plenty of capital to spend when the Russian war went wrong. Early Geographical Divisions During the years of elections, Nazi support was far greater in the rural north and east, which was heavily Protestant, than in the south and west (which was mainly Catholic voters of the Centre Party), and in large cities full of urban workers. The Classes Support for Hitler has long been identified among the upper classes, and this is largely believed to be correct. Certainly, large non-Jewish businesses initially supported Hitler to counter their fear of communism, and Hitler received support from wealthy industrialists and large companies: when Germany rearmed and went to war, key sectors of the economy found renewed sales and gave greater support. Nazis like Goering were able to use their backgrounds to please the aristocratic elements in Germany, especially when Hitler’s answer to cramped land use was expansion in the east, and not re-settling workers on Junker lands, as Hitler’s predecessors had suggested. Young male aristocrats flooded to the SS and Himmler’s desire for an elitist medieval system and his faith in the old families. The  middle classes are more complicated, although they have been closely identified with supporting Hitler by earlier historians who saw a Mittelstandspartei, a lower middle class of craftspeople and small shop owners drawn to the Nazis to fill a gap in politics, as well as the central middle class. The Nazis let some smaller businesses fail under Social Darwinism, while those who proved efficient did well, dividing support. Nazi government used the old German bureaucracy and appealed to white-collar workers across German society, and while they seemed less keen on Hitler’s pseudo-medieval call for Blood and Soil, they benefitted from the improving economy which enhanced their lifestyles, and bought into the image of a moderate, unifying leader bringing Germany together, ending the years of violent division. The middle class was, proportionally speaking, over-represented in early Nazi support, and the parties which usually received middle-class support collapsed as their vo ters left for the Nazis. The working and peasant classes also had mixed views on Hitler. The latter gained little from Hitler’s luck with the economy, often found Nazi state handling of rural matters annoying and were only partially open to Blood and Soil mythology, but as a whole, there was little opposition from rural workers and farming did become more secure overall. The urban working class was once seen as a contrast, as a bastion of anti-Nazi resistance, but this doesn’t appear to be true. It now seems that Hitler was able to appeal to the workers through their improving economic situation, through new Nazi labor organizations, and through removing the language of class warfare and replacing it with bonds of shared racial society which crossed classes, and although the working class voted in smaller percentages, they made up the bulk of Nazi support. This isn’t to say working class support was passionate, but that Hitler convinced a lot of workers that, despite the loss of Weimar r ights, they were benefitting and should support him. As the socialists and communists were crushed, and as their opposition was removed, workers turned to Hitler.   The Young and First Time Voters Studies of the electoral results of the 1930s have revealed the Nazis gaining noticeable support from people who hadn’t voted in elections before, and also among young people eligible to vote for the first time. As the Nazi regime developed more young people were exposed to Nazi propaganda and taken into Nazi Youth organisations. It’s open to debate exactly how successfully the Nazis indoctrinated Germany’s young, but they drew important support from many. The Churches Over the course of the 1920s and early 30s, the Catholic Church had been turning towards European fascism, scared of the communists and, in Germany, wanting a way back from the liberal Weimar culture. Nonetheless, during the collapse of Weimar, Catholics voted for the Nazis in far lower numbers than Protestants, who were much more likely to do so. Catholic Cologne and Dusseldorf had some of the lowest Nazi voting percentages, and the Catholic church structure provided a different leadership figure and a different ideology. However, Hitler was able to negotiate with the churches  and came to an agreement in which Hitler guaranteed Catholic worship and no new kulturkampf in return for support and an end to their role in politics. It was a lie, of course, but it worked, and Hitler gained vital support at a vital time from Catholics, and the possible opposition of the Centre Party vanished as it closed. Protestants were no less keen to support Hitler being no fans of Weimar, Versailles, or Jews. However, many Christians remained skeptical or opposed, and as Hitler continued down his path some did speak out, to mixed effect: Christians were able to temporarily halt the euthanasia program executing the mentally ill and disabled by voicing opposition, but the racist Nuremberg Laws were welcomed in some quarters. The Military Military support was key, as in 1933-4 the army could have removed Hitler. However once the SA was tamed in the Night of the Long Knives - and SA leaders who wanted to combine themselves with the military had gone - Hitler had major military support because he rearmed them, expanded them, gave them the chance to fight and early victories. Indeed, the army had supplied the SS with key resources to allow for the Night to happen. Leading elements in the military who opposed Hitler were removed in 1938 in an engineered plot, and Hitler’s control expanded. However, key elements in the army remained concerned at the idea of a huge war  and kept plotting to remove Hitler, but the latter kept winning and defusing their conspiracies. When the war began to collapse with defeats in Russia the army had become so Nazified that most remained loyal. In the July Plot of 1944, a group of officers did act and try to assassinate Hitler, but then largely because they were losing the war. Many n ew young soldiers had been Nazis before they joined. Women It might seem odd that a regime which forced women out of many jobs and increased the emphasis on breeding and raising children to intense levels would have been supported by many women, but there is a part of the historiography which recognizes how the many Nazi organisations aimed at women —with women running them—offered opportunities which they took. Consequently, while there was a strong set of complaints from women who wished to return to sectors they’d been expelled from (such as women doctors), there were millions of women, many without the education to pursue the roles now shut off from them, who supported the Nazi regime and actively worked in the areas they were allowed to, rather than forming a mass block of opposition. Support through Coercion and Terror So far this article has looked at people who supported Hitler in the popular meaning, that they actually liked him or wanted to push forward his interests. But there was a mass of the German population who supported Hitler because they did not have or believe they had any other choice. Hitler had enough support to get into power, and while there he destroyed all political or physical opposition, such as the SDP, and then instituted a new police regime with a state secret police called the Gestapo that had large camps to house limitless numbers of dissidents. Himmler ran it. People who wanted to speak out about Hitler now found themselves at risk of losing their lives. Terror helped boost Nazi support by providing no other option. Plenty of Germans reported on neighbors, or other people they knew because being an opponent of Hitler became treason against the German State. Conclusion The Nazi Party was not a small group of people who took over a country and ran it into destruction against the wishes of the populace. From the early thirties, the Nazi Party could count on a large range of support, from across the social and political divide, and it could do it because of clever presentation of ideas, the legend of their leader, and then naked threats. Groups who might have been expected to react like Christians and women were, at first, fooled and gave their support. Of course, there was opposition, but the work of historians like Goldhagen has firmly broadened our understanding of the base of support Hitler was operating from, and the deep the pool of complicity among the German people. Hitler did not win a majority to be voted into power, but he polled the second greatest result in Weimar history (after the SDP in 1919) and went on to build Nazi Germany on mass support. By 1939 Germany wasn’t full of passionate Nazis, it was mostly  of people who welcome d the stability of government, the jobs, and a society which was in marked contrast to that under Weimar, all of which people believed they’d found under the Nazis. Most people had issues with the government, as ever, but were happy to overlook them and support Hitler, partly out of fear and repression, but partly because they thought their lives were okay. But by ’39 the excitement of ‘33 had gone.

Should Marijuana Be Legal Every State - 1894 Words

â€Å"Should Marijuana Be Legal in Every State?† Marijuana is also called weed, herb, pot, grass, bud, ganja, Mary Jane, and a lot of other terms in today’s world. It is a greenish- grey mixture of the dried shredded leaves and flowers of Cannabis sativa, which is the hemp plant. Some users smoke marijuana in hand- rolled cigarettes called joints, many use pipes, bongs, or marijuana cigars called blunts. (H. (2016, August). What is marijuana? Retrieved November 07, 2016). Marijuana is not only used for personal use but is sold legally and is consumed for medical purposes by people who have permission to do so. Marijuana is a controversial topic in today’s world because to legalize it in every state has brought up issues. Some states have done so and some still have yet to. Marijuana has been seen more as a recreational drug and not a hard-core drug which is why most people do not see it as a high- risk drug or to have longing effects on a person or the body itself. Since the 20th century, marijuana has been prescribed by doctors for use to deal with glaucoma and cancer. Being that it is legal for medical use but illegal to use on a federal government level will and has always set off two different sides of legalizing or not legalizing marijuana. Marijuana cannot and should not be in categories with drugs that can kill because there are no studies of marijuana killing a person. In addition to, some people think that because it is legal in some states then it is safe. TheShow MoreRelatedWhy Marijuana Should Be Legalized1014 Words   |  5 Pagesreason that marijuana should be legal is that there is no good reason for it not to be legal. Some people ask why should marijuana be legalized? but we should ask Why should marijuana be illegal? From a philosop hical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. The government only has a right to limit those choices if the individuals actions endanger someone else. This does not apply to marijuana, since the individual who chooses to use marijuana does so accordingRead MoreShould Marijuana Be Legalized?972 Words   |  4 PagesMarijuana Legalization For thousands of years, marijuana has been used for a myriad of purposes ranging from medical use to recreational use. Although small steps are being for marijuana legalization across the country, there is still a long way to go. Some folks argue that marijuana is a gateway drug and impairs judgement, causing people to act recklessly. However, extensive studies have been conducted on the effects, risks, and benefits of marijuana, and have proven marijuana to be safer thanRead MoreLegalizing Marijuana1592 Words   |  7 PagesIn any civilized society, it is every citizen s responsibility to obey just laws. But at the same time, it is every citizen s responsibility to disobey unjust laws. Martin Luther King Jr. Many people ask â€Å"why should marijuana be legalized†? when the real question that we should be asking is â€Å"why shouldn’t marijuana be legalized†?. Marijuana also known as hemp is a naturally grown plant that has been around for decades dating ba ck to around 2697 B.C., when the Egyptians would use it to cure manyRead MoreOpposing The Legalization of Marijuana Essay733 Words   |  3 Pagesâ€Å"If marijuana was legal, back-yard marijuana gardens would be in every neighborhood, thus kids would be able to get it as easy as taking fruit off a neighbor’s tree† (Johnathan Greens). According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 62.2 percent of the 14.2 billion people who used marijuana for the first time in one day were under the age of 18 years back in 2003. This increases by nearly 1.3 percent every year. This has become a problem due to Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) being the activeRead MoreMarijuana: Good or Bad?1032 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ Marijuana: Good or Bad? There has been a major debate on if marijuana should be made legal. Statistics show that about 443, 000 people die every year due to a tobacco related illness and there has been no evidence to support that there have been fatalities that are marijuana related. Tobacco is harmful to the lungs and can cause lung cancer, bronchitis, and emphysema. Jacques and van Luling (2013) explained that in 2010, 38, 329 people died from drug overdoses. Sixty percent of those wereRead MoreShould Marijuana Be Legalized?1322 Words   |  6 PagesMarijuana is most often see as a detrimental drug, but to a great deal of people it helps cure diseases and/or relieve the pain from them. It helps relieve stress and anxiety to people who often have anxiety attacks or problems being in a social environment. Making marijuana legal could also help our overall economy if regulated. Most people think smoking cannabis is bad for your health when that is not entirely the case. Any type of smoking is bad fo r your lungs, but conveniently marijuana comeRead MoreThe Legalization Of Marijuan A Positive And Negative Effects On American Society849 Words   |  4 PagesThe legalization of marijuana can have many positive and negative effects on American society. State budgets are constantly looking for new avenues of revenue and ways to create new industry. The legal system in place is exhausted and unable to sustain the current rate of incarceration and enforcement. Our jails and prisons are overcrowded and law enforcement budgets are challenged every year trying to keep up with the enforcement of marijuana use, smuggling and production in addition to its otherRead MoreIt Is Time to Legalize Marijana1700 Words   |  7 Pagesis marijuana, and surprisingly it is all around us. Marijuana is even referred to in today’s media Mainstream media sources that people enjoy, like music, movies, and TV shows, do not even bother to leave the drug out of their system. Now being a young adult and having my own personal experience with the drug and knowing its effects on others, I wonder why it’s not legal. Why is it that this drug has become illegal all over the world? The debate to legalize marijuana in the United States of AmericaRead MoreEssay on The Benefits of Legalizing Marijuana1006 Words   |  5 PagesThe Topic of Legalizing Marijuana has been a very conversational argumentative issue in the American society; moreover in the American politics today. There are many good arguments on why Marijuana should be Legalize and my argument is based on facts and supporting details to prove why Marijuana should be legalize. The Legalization of Marijuana would be profitable to our government and economy, according to Evan Wood who is the founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy; The URead MoreShould Marijuana Be Legalized?985 Words   |  4 PagesLegalize Marijuana Despite what people believe about marijuana, it hasn’t once proved to be the cause of any real issue. It makes you wonder what the reason as to why there is a war on drugs. Why is marijuana the main concern? Since the time that alcohol and tobacco became legal, people wonder why marijuana isn’t legal yet. The fact that marijuana is illegal is mainly caused by the amount of money, jobs, and pride invested in the drug war. Once the government starts anything, they stick to it. At

My Different Kinds of Friends Free Essays

I have formed many friendships in life. Each friend, however, is different. Some are closer than others. We will write a custom essay sample on My Different Kinds of Friends or any similar topic only for you Order Now Some are more important to keep than others. There are friends made out of necessity and some formed as if by fate. Friends, certainly, are of various kinds. I have one best friend. We share many similarities in character and preferences. We have been through a lot since we first met. The best friend is someone whom you think you could trade personalities with. He is someone whom you could share your secrets, dreams and problems. He will accept you for both your good and bad traits and could be depended on in both happy and sad times. The other type of friend I have made is the group-friend. The clique is a group of people whom you go in a group with. I am part of one in school and another in the neighborhood. When I start working in a company, I know I will be part of another. Although the closeness is less than that of the best friend, belonging to a clique means having a group to hang out with, play games with, and sympathize with each other’s life stories. Then, there are the friends I keep in close contact with but am not really close enough to confide in. I keep a good relationship with them because I see them regularly. They are schoolmates, sons and daughters of my parents, neighbors, and other people whom I interact with in a regular basis. Finally, there are the friends whom I make at various stages in my life but whom I lost contact with through the years. For instance, childhood friends who went to different schools or have already moved to other places. I keep in contact with some of them through email and sometimes I see them but a long distance friendship is different to having a regular friend around. Friends change every year or so. Even a best friend can become a mere acquaintance later on in life. There are no permanent friends unless one takes the extra effort. Friends are important to have in life, however, in that they are like life-saving crafts. We need them during fun times, but we need them more during the low moments of life. How to cite My Different Kinds of Friends, Papers

Venus Hair Review Essay Example

Venus Hair Review Paper Essay on Venus Hair The whole world one, communicating vessels. The stronger somewhere in some misfortune, the stronger and sharper than others should be happy. And love is stronger. To balance this world, that it is not turned over, as the boat In the story, the hero -. Interpreter (translator) for the Committee for Refugees of Switzerland, daily recording dozens of horrific stories of people seeking asylum. Among them, the history of the interpreter and read their memoirs the singer Isabella St George and the book was, which in a nutshell, and not tell. She looks like a giant tree trunk, but not solid, and woven of thin shoots billion-lives. A great story of mankind in the history of private, truly horrible, no matter, invented them for refugee status or not they still occurred, nbsp; not with it, so with the other, because the history of hand, you mitten. stories change you as mittens . We will write a custom essay sample on Venus Hair Review specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Venus Hair Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Venus Hair Review specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer And yet, this is a book about the word. We have what we say. We will be what will be recorded in the minutes. The words . Ultimately, if something is written down, it means that it was not; the writing becomes a reality: since people are given new life in the protocols; since the ancient Greeks, retreating to the sea, there are only because Xenophon wrote about them in Anabasis; so the interpreter himself alive for us in the confession letters, addressed to his son. Among the billions of stories were only those that animated the word But this nbsp for me a book about equilibrium:. Nbsp; if someone cut off his head, then someone first love Once everyone to be happy all the same it is impossible so happy to be the one who can right now I must be happy now, today, no matter what someone says he can not be heaven if there is a hell.. . Allegedly, it is impossible to dwell in paradise, if you know that somewhere there is suffering Nonsense () nestydno:.. sing when all around the revolution and civil war, love, when the wound GOVERNMENTAL somewhere finishing off with rifle butts, smile no matter what happens here or there. The larger the circle of death, the more important it countered life, love, beauty! Laugh: Today you plummet in the global balance bowl Why is bezralichen interpreter to the daily horrific stories.? He is heartless? No, he is also his balance. Just here, in Russia, the conditions are. () We have a houseplant, otherwise not survive without human warmth, but here [in Rome] weed So, this is a dead language, denoting living, -.. Adiantum capillus veneris kitchen herbs of the genus maidenhair . Venus hair. God is life. Do not try to keep track of private and history grow into each other, and deliberately confused. Shishkin all may be one. And the life and history, and we are with you. In equilibrium.

Edge Habitats

Edge Habitats Across the globe, human development has fragmented once-continuous landscapes and ecosystems into isolated patches of natural habitat. Roads, towns, fences, canals, reservoirs, and farms are all examples of human artifacts that alter the pattern of the landscape. At the edges of developed areas, where natural habitats meet encroaching human habitats, animals are forced to adapt quickly to their new circumstancesand a closer look at the fate of these so-called edge species can give us sobering insights into the quality of the wild lands that remain. The health of any natural ecosystem depends significantly on two factors: the overall size of the habitat, and what is happening along its edges. For example, when human development cuts into an old-growth forest, the newly exposed edges are subjected to a series of microclimatic changes, including increases in sunlight, temperature, relative humidity, and exposure to wind. Plantlife and Microclimate Create New Habitats Plants are the first living organisms to respond to these changes, usually with increased leaf-fall, elevated tree mortality, and an influx of secondary-successional species. In turn, the combined changes in plant life and microclimate create new habitats for animals. More-reclusive bird species move to the interior of the remaining woodland, while birds better adapted to edge environments develop strongholds on the periphery. Populations of larger mammals like deer or big cats, which require large areas of undisturbed forest to support their numbers, often decrease in size. If their established territories have been destroyed, these mammals must adjust their social structure to accommodate the closer quarters of the remaining forest. Fragmented Forests Resemble Islands Researchers have found that fragmented forests resemble nothing so much as islands. The human development that surrounds a forest island acts as a barrier to animal migration, dispersal, and interbreeding (its very difficult for any animals, even relatively smart ones, to cross a busy highway!) In these island-like communities, species diversity is governed largely by the size of the remaining intact forest. In a way, this is not all bad news; the imposition of artificial constraints can be a major driver of evolution and the flourishing of better-adapted species. The problem is that evolution is a long-term process, unfolding over thousands or millions of years, while a given animal population may disappear in as little as a decade (or even a single year or month) if its ecosystem has been wrecked beyond repair. The changes in animal distribution and population that result from fragmentation and the creation of edge habitats illustrate how dynamic a cut-off ecosystem can be. It would be ideal if- when the bulldozers have disappeared- the environmental damages subsided; unfortunately, this is rarely the case. The animals and wildlife left behind must begin a complex process of adaptation and a long search for a new natural balance. Edited on February 8, 2017, by Bob Strauss

Mayflower Compact of 1620

Mayflower Compact of 1620 The Mayflower Compact is often cited as one of the foundations of the U.S. Constitution. This document was the initial governing document for the Plymouth Colony. It was signed on November 11, 1620, while the settlers were still aboard the Mayflower before they disembarked at Provincetown Harbor. However, the story of the creation of the Mayflower Compact begins with the Pilgrims in England. Who the Pilgrims Were Pilgrims were separatists from the Anglican Church in England. They were Protestants who did not recognize the authority of the Anglican Church and formed their own Puritan church. To escape persecution and potential  imprisonment, they fled England for Holland in 1607 and settled in the town of Leiden. Here they lived for 11 or 12 years before deciding to create their own colony in the New World. To raise money for the enterprise, they received a land patent from the Virginia Company and created their own joint-stock company. The Pilgrims returned to Southampton in England before sailing for the New World. Aboard the Mayflower The Pilgrims left aboard their ship, the  Mayflower, in 1620. There were 102 men, women, and children aboard as well as some non-puritan settlers, including  John Alden and Miles Standish. The ship was headed for Virginia but got blown off course, so the Pilgrims decided to found their colony in Cape Cod in what would later become the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They called the colony Plymouth after the harbor in England from which they departed for the New World. Since the new location for their colony was outside the areas claimed by the two chartered joint-stock companies, the Pilgrims considered themselves independent and created their own government under the Mayflower Compact. Creating the Mayflower Compact In basic terms, the Mayflower Compact was a social contract whereby the 41men who signed it agreed to abide by the rules and regulations of the new government in order to ensure civil order and their own survival. Having been forced by storms to anchor off the coast of what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts, rather than the intended destination of the Colony of Virginia, many of the Pilgrims felt it unwise to continue with their stores of food quickly running out. Coming to grips with the reality that they would not be able to settle in the contractually-agreed-to Virginia territory, they â€Å"would use their own liberty; for none had the power to command them.† To accomplish this, the Pilgrims voted to establish their own government in the form of the Mayflower Compact. Having lived in the Dutch Republic city of Leiden before beginning their journey, the Pilgrims considered the Compact to be similar to the civil covenant that had served as the basis for their congregation in Leiden. In creating the Compact, the Pilgrim leaders drew from the â€Å"majoritarian model† of government, which assumes that women and children cannot vote, and their allegiance to the King of England. Unfortunately, the original Mayflower Compact document has been lost. However, William Bradford included a transcription of the document in his book, Of Plymouth Plantation. In part, his transcription states: Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these present solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. Significance The Mayflower Compact was the foundational document for the Plymouth Colony. It was a covenant whereby the settlers subordinated their rights to follow laws passed by the government to ensure protection and survival.   In 1802, John Quincy Adams called the Mayflower Compact â€Å"the only instance in human history of that positive, original, social compact.† Today, it is generally accepted as having influenced the nation’s Founding Fathers as they created the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Pollution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Pollution - Essay Example This condition of remaining free of ice is highly dependent on the water currents and states of the weather. The Polar Bears usually favor such areas which enable them to hunt for seals in these spots of leads and makes use of the sea ice to be their podium (Sea World, â€Å"Distribution and Habitat†). In the similarly context, polynyas are water areas which are bounded by ice all around the year because of tidal currents, winds and upwelling. These areas are considered to be significant as they serve as major food supplying and breeding regions for wintering marine mammals such as the Polar Bears. Few of the Polar Bears were learnt to chase the lower border of the floating sea ice throughout the year and makes widespread relocations according to the retreats and proceeds made by the ice (Sea World, â€Å"Distribution and Habitat†). The population of the Polar Bears has been found to be declining at an alarming pace because of their disappearing habitat owing to global warming. The various reasons accounting for the alterations in the climate has resulted in speedy loss of ice in the Arctic sea. The ice in the Arctic sea was found to turn down by 7.7 percent every decade along with a turn down in the sea ice in the perennial sea region by 9.8 percent every decade. To add more to this problem, in few of the areas, a contraction of the ice in the Arctic sea was found to be 32 percent from the periods of 1960 and 1970 to 1990. This huge decline in the ice areas have resulted in jeopardizing their habitat of the Polar Bears which is posing to be a severe threat to their population (World Wildlife Fund, â€Å"Polar Bear: This icon of the North Is Losing Ground As Global Warming Melts its Sea Ice Habitat†). Moreover, the ice is examined to melt quite before time in a year and is taking more time to develop owing to the alterations in the climate. This

Changing for Better Outcome Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Changing for Better Outcome - Essay Example As application of CASS procedure would significantly reduce VAP cases, and any nurse working in units with vent-dependent clients should support the application of this procedure. Nursing accountability to clients would mean that they are accountable for implementing this practice safely. The application of the CASS procedure requires proper staff training, and nurses who care for vent-dependent clients should attend these training courses and in-services. Moreover, when nurses are competent to perform this procedure, they should strictly follow its guidelines. The additional mechanical suctioning apparatus only takes effect when monitored on hourly basis by nurses. The tubes may be disconnected due to built up pressure or by being accidentally hit by other staff members, thus frequent monitoring is a must. The aspiration function also stops automatically when the collection bottle for secretions is full. The negative pressure of the suctioning apparatus is set at proper level accord ing to secretion status of a particular client. Following evidence-based practice would guarantee for uninterrupted application of CASS procedure. To exemplify, the following sections present a potential client for such practice, as well as an understanding of my accountability as his nurse. VAP was not new to a vent-dependent client in my unit because this 59 year old male client had VAP almost monthly, if not biweekly. This client was in a comatose state. He had a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The YMCA Essay -- essays research papers

The YMCA The YMCA has a very clear and concise mission statement. Their mission is "to put Christian principles into practice through programs thta build healthy spirit, mind, and body for all". The YMCA is the nation's largest not-for-profit community service organization in America. With more than 2,500 YMCAs, they are able to meet the health and social service needs of 18.9 million men, women and children in over 10,000 communities in the United States. No one is turned away from the Y. It is a place for people fo all faiths, races, abilities, ages and incomes. Inability to pay is never a reason for the YMCA to turn someone away. Their strength lies in fulfilling their goal of bringing people together. Not every community is the same. Therefore, each YMCA is different to accomadate these differing needs. The YMCA in your community may offer child care or teen leadership clubs. In the next town over, swimming lessons or drawing lessons may be of bigger concern. Every Y makes theri won decisions based on the needs of the community around them. They decide which programs to offer and how to operate. The YMCA was founded in London, England, in 1844 by George Williams and some friends who lived and worked as clerks in a drapery, a forerunner of drygoods and department stores. Their goal was to help young men like themselves find God. The first members were evangelical Protestants who prayed and studied the Bible as an alternative to vice. The first U.S. YMCA...

E-bay Case Study

At least 30 million people will buy and sell well over $20bn in merchandise (in 2003) – more than the gross domestic product of all but 70 of the world's countries. More than 150,000 entrepreneurs will earn a full-time living selling everything from diet pills and Kate Spade handbags to  £30,000 BMWs and hulking industrial lathes. More automobiles, of all things, sell on eBay than even no. 1 US dealer AutoNation. So what does this add up to? ‘This is a whole new way of doing business,' says Whitman. ‘We're creating something that didn't exist before.It wasn't planned, but as users plunged into consumer electronics, cars, and industrial gear, eBay followed. Today, eBay has 27,000 categories, including eight with gross sales of more than  £1 billion each.eBay’s business modelValue in eBay is created by proViding a virtual world ¬wide market for buyers and sellers and collecting a tax on transactions as they happen. The business model of eBay relies on it s customers being the organisation's product-development team, sales and marketing force, merchandising department, and the security department.The organisation, headed by Meg Whitman, was founded in 1995, when Pierre Omidyar launched a basic site called Auction Web. His girlfriend wanted to trade her collection of Pez dispensers, but Omidyar had a broader vision in mind, namely empowering everyday consumers to trade without the need for large corporations. He even wanted traders to be responsible for building the community and deciding how to build the website. It worked; soon he found himself answering e-mails from buyers and sellers during the day and rewriting the site's software at night to incorporate their suggestions, which ranged from fiXing software bugs to creating new product categories.Some 100,000 messages from customers are posted per week in which tips are shared, system glitches are pointed out and changes are lobbied for. The COO, Brian Swette, is quoted as saying, ‘The trick is to keep up with what  buyers and sellers want. We've had to constantly change how we run. We start from the principle that if there's noise, you better listen.' Currently the technology allows every move of every potential customer to be traced, yielding rich information.Structurally, the business model is realised through 5,000 employees, roughly half of whom are in customer support and a fifth in technology. A key role in eBay is ‘category manager', a concept Whitman brought to eBay from her days in marketing giant P&G. Category managers direct the 23 major categories as well as the 35,000 subcategories, from collectibles to sports gear, to jewellery and watches, and even jet-planes.Conventional companies might spend big money on getting to know their customers and persuading them to provide feedback, but for eBay such feed ¬back is often free and offered without the need for enticement. Even so some of the company's most effective ways of getting us er input do not rely on the Net and do not come free. eBay organises Voice of the Customer groups, which involve flying in a new group of about 10 sellers and buyers from around the country to its San Jose (Californian) every few months to discuss the in depth. Teleconferences are held for features and policies, however small a change involve. Even workshops and classes are held teach people how to make the most of the site. Participants tend to double their selling activity on after taking a class.The company is governed from both outside and The eBay system has a source of automatic control in the form of buyers and sellers rating each other on each transaction, creating rules and norms. There's an educational system that offers classes around the country on how to sell on eBay. Both buyers and sellers build up reputations which are valuable, in turn encouraging further good behaviour in themselves and others.When that wasn't quite enough, eBay formed its own police force to patro l the listings for fraud and kick out offenders, the Trust and Safety Dept, now staffed by several hundred eBay employees worldwide. They do every ¬thing from trolling the site for suspicious listings to working with law enforcement agencies to catch crooks. eBay also has developed software that recognises patterns of  behaviour common to previous fraud cases, such as sellers from Romania who recently started selling large numbers of big-ticket items.eBay’s managementMeg Whitman's style and past has heavily influ ¬enced the management of eBay. When she joined the company in 1998, it was more of a collection of geeks, handpicked by the pony-tailed Omidyar, than a blue-chip – something which underpinned Omidyar's recruitment of Meg. Meg, an ex-consultant, filled many of the senior management roles includ ¬ing the head of the US business, head of interna ¬tional operations and vice-president of consumer marketing with consultants.The result: eBay has become data and metric driven. ‘If you can't measure it, you can't control it', Meg says. Whereas in the early days you could touch and feel the way the organisation worked, its current size means it needs to be measured. Category managers are expected to spend their days measuring and acting upon data within their fiefdom.Some measures are standard for e-business and include how many people are visiting the site, how many of those then register to become users, how long each user remains per visit, how long pages take to load and so on. A measure Meg likes is the ‘take rate', the ratio of revenues to the value of goods traded on the site (the higher the better). She meas ¬ures which days are the busiest, directing when to offer free listings in order to stimulate the supply of auction items. Noise on the discussion boards is used to understand whether the community is in ‘supportive' or ‘ready to kill you mood' on a scale of 1 to 10. Normal for eBay is around3.  Ca tegory managers in eBay, unlike their counter ¬parts in Procter and Gamble, can only indirectly control their products. They have no stock to reorder once levels of toothpaste or washing-up liquid run low on the supermarket shelves. They provide tools to buy and sell more effectively. ‘What they can do is endlessly try to eke out small wins in their cate ¬gories – say, a slight jump in scrap-metal listings or new bidders for comic books. To get there, they use marketing and merchandising schemes such as enhancing the presentation of their users' products and giving them tools to buy and sell  better.'Over and above this unusual existence, the work envir-onment can be tough and ultracompetitive, say ex-eBayers. Changes often come only after PowerPoint slides are exchanged and refined at a low level, even ¬tually presented at a senior level and after the change has been approved in a sign-off procedure which includes every department. An advance in the ways shoes could be searched for took ten months to happen. Aware that analysis can mean paralysis, Meg commissioned consultants (who else) to benchmark the rate at which change is indeed implemented in eBay.eBay was rated as average amongst the com ¬panies surveyed. Over time eBay has upgraded its ability to ensure the technology does not rule. Until the late 1990s, the site was plagued with outages, including one in 1999 which shut the site down for 22 hours courtesy of software problems and no backup systems. Former Gateway Inc. Chief Information Officer Maynard Webb, who joined as president of eBay's technology unit, quickly took action to upgrade systems. Now the site is down for less than 42 minutes a month, despite much higher traffic.Meg is a leader who buys into the company in more ways than one. Having auctioned some $35,000 worth of furnishings in her ski condo in Colorado to understand the selling experience, she became a top seller among the company's employees and ensured that her learning from the experience was listened to by fellow top execs. Meg is also known for listening carefully to her employees and expects her managers to do the same. As the business is as much, if not more, its customers, any false move can cause revolts within the community that is eBay.Most of all eBay tries to stay aware and flexible.Nearly all of its fastest-growing new categories emerged from registering seller activity in the area and quietly giving it a nudge at the right moment. For example, after noticing a few car sales, eBay cre ¬ated a separate site called eBay Motors in 1999, with special features such as vehicle inspections and shipping. Some four years later, eBay expects to gross some $1 billion worth of autos and parts, many of which are sold by professional dealers.The democratic underpinning of eBay, whilst easily embraced by customers, can, however, take some getting used to. New managers can take six months to understand the ethos. ‘Some of the terms you learn in business school – drive, force, commit  ¬don't apply', says former PepsiCo Inc. exec William C. Cobb, now senior vice-president in charge of eBay's international operations. ‘We're over here listening, adapting, enabling.'

Why Learn Geometry Definition and Uses

Simply put, geometry is a branch of mathematics that studies the size, shape, and position of 2-dimensional shapes and 3-dimensional figures. Although ancient Greek mathematician Euclid is typically considered the Father of Geometry, the study of geometry arose independently in a number of early cultures. Geometry is a word derived from Greek. In Greek, geo means earth and metria means measure. Geometry is in every part of a students  curriculum from kindergarten through 12th grade  and continues through college and postgraduate study. Since most schools use a spiraling curriculum, introductory concepts are re-visited throughout the grades and advances in the level  of difficulty as time goes on. How Is Geometry Used? Even without ever cracking open a geometry book, geometry is used daily by almost everyone. Your brain makes geometric spatial calculations as you step your foot out of bed in the morning or parallel park a car. In geometry, you are  exploring spatial sense and geometric reasoning.   You can find geometry in art, architecture, engineering, robotics, astronomy, sculptures, space, nature, sports, machines, cars, and much more. Some of the tools often used in geometry include a compass, protractor, square, graphing calculators, Geometers Sketchpad, and rulers. Euclid A major contributor to the field of geometry was Euclid (365-300 B.C.) who is famous for his works called The Elements. We continue to use his rules for geometry today. As you progress through primary and secondary education, Euclidean geometry and the study of plane geometry, are studied throughout. However, non-Euclidean geometry will become a focus in the later grades and college math. Geometry in Early Schooling When you  take geometry  in school, you  are developing spatial reasoning and problem-solving  skills. Geometry is linked to many other topics in math, specifically measurement. In early schooling, the geometric focus tends to be on shapes and solids. From there, you move to learning the properties and relationships of shapes and solids. You  will begin to use problem-solving  skills, deductive reasoning, understand transformations, symmetry, and spatial reasoning.   Geometry in Later Schooling As abstract thinking progresses, geometry becomes much more about analysis and reasoning. Throughout high school there is a focus on analyzing properties of two- and three-dimensional shapes, reasoning about geometric relationships, and using the coordinate system. Studying geometry provides many  foundational skills  and helps to build the thinking skills of logic, deductive reasoning, analytical reasoning, and  problem-solving. Major Concepts in Geometry The main concepts in geometry are lines and segments, shapes and solids (including polygons), triangles and angles, and the circumference of a circle. In Euclidean geometry, angles are used to study polygons and triangles. As a simple description, the fundamental structure in geometry—a line—was introduced by ancient mathematicians to represent straight objects with negligible width and depth. Plane geometry studies flat shapes like lines, circles, and triangles, pretty much any shape that can be drawn on a piece of paper. Meanwhile, solid geometry  studies three-dimensional objects like cubes, prisms, cylinders, and spheres. More advanced concepts in geometry include  platonic solids,  coordinate grids,  radians,  conic sections, and  trigonometry. The study of the angles of a triangle or of angles in a  unit circle  forms the basis of  trigonometry.

The Evolution Of The Education - 1566 Words

Michael May Mr. Hoelzle Academic Writing 4 January 2015 Major Research Paper The Evolution of Education in America Education plays the most crucial role in the quality of life any person will ever live. Before a set structure, or a standard of education was made, education was not considered a necessity. Once the importance of education was established and more people began attending school, the race to a higher education became more intense than ever. People even began saving up to send their children away from home for their best chance at succeeding in life with a good education (Public Schools in the Great Depression.). It is clear that a quality education for everyone will not only lead to the better life on one person, but to the†¦show more content†¦Sometimes, the males of an upper class family would go to a boarding school in England to be taught, while the girls would usually stay home and learn from her mother or sometimes even a governess, who was typically from England and somewhat educated, how to maintain the home (The History of Education in America.). Girls did not get th e opportunity to study in England because a quality education was not considered important for them. They would study art, music, French, standard social etiquette, spinning, weaving, needlework, cooking, and nursing. Academic wise, they were taught enough reading, writing, and arithmetic to read their Bibles and record the expenses of the household. The subjects in which males and females were educated in directly reflects on what they were expected to contribute to their families when they got older (â€Å"Colonial Women†). In 1636, Harvard College was established as institute of higher education in America. Soon after Harvard, places of higher education began to pop up everywhere, including the English Academy, known today as the University of Pennsylvania, founded by Benjamin Franklin in the early 1700’s (University of Pennsylvania.). By this time, many parents taught their children at home with a bible and a hornbook. A hornbook was a wooded board with a handle that usually had a string that allowed it

Learning Plan 2 - 2696 Words

Learning Plan 2 - Short Answer Activity (10 points each) Write and submit 1 - 2 typed paragraphs for each question. Please remember to: ↠ Reflect, in your own words, the content of textbook lessons. ↠ Use complete sentences with proper paragraphing. ↠ Use standard grammar, punctuation, and spelling. ↠ Show good logic and organization, amplifying definitions with examples. 1. Briefly explain the importance of paralanguage. Give three distinct examples of how paralanguage might (1) contradict, (2) supplement, or (3) complement your verbal message. Paralanguage is important because the 6 vocal charactistics that it is composed of portray what type of person you are or how you are feeling. When you use a higher†¦show more content†¦Note: You must do ALL options under the activity you choose. 4. Artifacts are ornaments or adornments that communicate messages about us. a. Try wearing something unusual or carrying an unusual prop. Try pinning a tootsie roll pop to your shirt or carrying a rubber ducky around with you for the day. What kinds of reactions do you get from others? What comments do people make? This is an intriguing way to meet people, by the way. b. Observe at least five strangers. Note their artifacts. What conclusions can you draw from the person who uses a cellular phone, carries a clipboard or an umbrella, or holds a folded Wall Street Journal vs. a Playboy magazine? Do you think that the people that you are observing are aware of the messages that they are sending? Are you aware of the messages that you are sending? How much consideration do you give to your clothing, jewelry, hairstyle and other elements of your appearance? What kinds of conclusions would people draw from your appearance and artifacts right now? Employers often report that this is an important factor in their job interview process. Nonverbal communication plays an important part in any interpersonal transaction. 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Black House Chapter Fifteen Free Essays

string(52) " a round coffee table \?\? has also been abandoned\." 15 BY EVENING, the temperature has dropped fifteen degrees as a minor cold front pushes through our little patch of the Coulee Country. There are no thunderstorms, but as the sky tinges toward violet, the fog arrives. It’s born out of the river and rises up the inclined ramp of Chase Street, first obscuring the gutters, then the sidewalks, then blurring the buildings themselves. We will write a custom essay sample on Black House Chapter Fifteen or any similar topic only for you Order Now It cannot completely hide them, as the fogs of spring and winter sometimes do, but the blurring is somehow worse: it steals colors and softens shapes. The fog makes the ordinary look alien. And there’s the smell, the ancient, seagully odor that works deep into your nose and awakens the back part of your brain, the part that is perfectly capable of believing in monsters when the sight lines shorten and the heart is uneasy. On Sumner Street, Debbi Anderson is still working dispatch. Arnold â€Å"the Mad Hungarian† Hrabowski has been sent home without his badge in fact, suspended and feels he must ask his wife a few pointed questions (his belief that he already knows the answers makes him even more heartsick). Debbi is now standing at the window, a cup of coffee in her hand and a puckery little frown on her face. â€Å"Don’t like this,† she says to Bobby Dulac, who is glumly and silently writing reports. â€Å"It reminds me of the Hammer pictures I used to watch on TV back when I was in junior high.† â€Å"Hammer pictures?† Bobby asks, looking up. â€Å"Horror pictures,† she says, looking out into the deepening fog. â€Å"A lot of them were about Dracula. Also Jack the Ripper.† â€Å"I don’t want to hear nothing about Jack the Ripper,† Bobby says. â€Å"You mind me, Debster.† And resumes writing. In the parking lot of the 7-Eleven, Mr. Rajan Patel stands beside his telephone (still crisscrossed by yellow police tape, and when it will be all right again for using, this Mr. Patel could not be telling us). He looks toward downtown, which now seems to rise from a vast bowl of cream. The buildings on Chase Street descend into this bowl. Those at Chase’s lowest point are visible only from the second story up. â€Å"If he is down there,† Mr. Patel says softly, and to no one but himself, â€Å"tonight he will be doing whatever he wants.† He crosses his arms over his chest and shivers. Dale Gilbertson is at home, for a wonder. He plans to have a sit-down dinner with his wife and child even if the world ends because of it. He comes out of his den (where he has spent twenty minutes talking with WSP officer Jeff Black, a conversation in which he has had to exercise all his discipline to keep from shouting), and sees his wife standing at the window and looking out. Her posture is almost exactly the same as Debbi Anderson’s, only she’s got a glass of wine in her hand instead of a cup of coffee. The puckery little frown is identical. â€Å"River fog,† Sarah says dismally. â€Å"Isn’t that ducky. If he’s out there â€Å" Dale points at her. â€Å"Don’t say it. Don’t even think it.† But he knows that neither of them can help thinking about it. The streets of French Landing the foggy streets of French Landing will be deserted right now: no one shopping in the stores, no one idling along the sidewalks, no one in the parks. Especially no children. The parents will be keeping them in. Even on Nailhouse Row, where good parenting is the exception rather than the rule, the parents will be keeping their kids inside. â€Å"I won’t say it,† she allows. â€Å"That much I can do.† â€Å"What’s for dinner?† â€Å"How does chicken pot pie sound?† Ordinarily such a hot dish on a July evening would strike him as an awful choice, but tonight, with the fog coming in, it sounds like just the thing. He steps up behind her, gives her a brief squeeze, and says, â€Å"Great. And earlier would be better.† She turns, disappointed. â€Å"Going back in?† â€Å"I shouldn’t have to, not with Brown and Black rolling the ball â€Å" â€Å"Those pricks,† she says. â€Å"I never liked them.† Dale smiles. He knows that the former Sarah Asbury has never cared much for the way he earns his living, and this makes her furious loyalty all the more touching. And tonight it feels vital, as well. It’s been the most painful day of his career in law enforcement, ending with the suspension of Arnold Hrabowski. Arnie, Dale knows, believes he will be back on duty before long. And the shitty truth is that Arnie may be right. Based on the way things are going, Dale may need even such an exquisite example of ineptitude as the Mad Hungarian. â€Å"Anyway, I shouldn’t have to go back in, but . . .† â€Å"You have a feeling.† â€Å"I do.† â€Å"Good or bad?† She has come to respect her husband’s intuitions, not in the least because of Dale’s intense desire to see Jack Sawyer settled close enough to reach with seven keystrokes instead of eleven. Tonight that looks to her like pardon the pun a pretty good call. â€Å"Both,† Dale says, and then, without explaining or giving Sarah a chance to question further: â€Å"Where’s Dave?† â€Å"At the kitchen table with his crayons.† At six, young David Gilbertson is enjoying a violent love affair with Crayolas, has gone through two boxes since school let out. Dale and Sarah’s strong hope, expressed even to each other only at night, lying side by side before sleep, is that they may be raising a real artist. The next Norman Rockwell, Sarah said once. Dale who helped Jack Sawyer hang his strange and wonderful pictures has higher hopes for the boy. Too high to express, really, even in the marriage bed after the lights are out. With his own glass of wine in hand, Dale ambles out to the kitchen. â€Å"What you drawing, Dave? What â€Å" He stops. The crayons have been abandoned. The picture a half-finished drawing of what might be either a flying saucer or perhaps just a round coffee table has also been abandoned. You read "Black House Chapter Fifteen" in category "Essay examples" The back door is open. Looking out at the whiteness that hides David’s swing and jungle gym, Dale feels a terrible fear leap up his throat, choking him. All at once he can smell Irma Freneau again, that terrible smell of raw spoiled meat. Any sense that his family lives in a protected, magic circle it may happen to others, but it can never, never happen to us is gone now. What has replaced it is stark certainty: David is gone. The Fisherman has enticed him out of the house and spirited him away into the fog. Dale can see the grin on the Fisherman’s face. He can see the gloved hand it’s yellow covering his son’s mouth but not the bulging, terrified child’s eyes. Into the fog and out of the known world. David. He moves forward across the kitchen on legs that feel boneless as well as nerveless. He puts his wineglass down on the table, the stem landing a-tilt on a crayon, not noticing when it spills and covers David’s half-finished drawing with something that looks horribly like venous blood. He’s out the door, and although he means to yell, his voice comes out in a weak and almost strengthless sigh: â€Å"David? . . . Dave?† For a moment that seems to last a thousand years, there is nothing. Then he hears the soft thud of running feet on damp grass. Blue jeans and a red-striped rugby shirt materialize out of the thickening soup. A moment later he sees his son’s dear, grinning face and mop of yellow hair. â€Å"Dad! Daddy! I was swinging in the fog! It was like being in a cloud!† Dale snatches him up. There is a bad, blinding impulse to slap the kid across the face, to hurt him for scaring his father so. It passes as quickly as it came. He kisses David instead. â€Å"I know,† he says. â€Å"That must have been fun, but it’s time to come in now.† â€Å"Why, Daddy?† â€Å"Because sometimes little boys get lost in the fog,† he says, looking out into the white yard. He can see the patio table, but it is only a ghost; he wouldn’t know what he was looking at if he hadn’t seen it a thousand times. He kisses his son again. â€Å"Sometimes little boys get lost,† he repeats. Oh, we could check in with any number of friends, both old and new. Jack and Fred Marshall have returned from Arden (neither suggested stopping at Gertie’s Kitchen in Centralia when they passed it), and both are now in their otherwise deserted houses. For the balance of the ride back to French Landing, Fred never once let go of his son’s baseball cap, and he has a hand on it even now, as he eats a microwaved TV dinner in his too empty living room and watches Action News Five. Tonight’s news is mostly about Irma Freneau, of course. Fred picks up the remote when they switch from shaky-cam footage of Ed’s Eats to a taped report from the Holiday Trailer Park. The cameraman has focused on one shabby trailer in particular. A few flowers, brave but doomed, straggle in the dust by the stoop, which consists of three boards laid across two cement blocks. â€Å"Here, on the outskirts of French Landing, Irma Freneau’s grieving mother is in seclusion,† says the on-scene correspondent. â€Å"One can only imagine this single mother’s feelings tonight.† The reporter is prettier than Wendell Green but exudes much the same aura of glittering, unhealthy excitement. Fred hits the OFF button on the remote and growls, â€Å"Why can’t you leave the poor woman alone?† He looks down at his chipped beef on toast, but he has lost his appetite. Slowly, he raises Tyler’s hat and puts it on his own head. It doesn’t fit, and Fred for a moment thinks of letting out the plastic band at the back. The idea shocks him. Suppose that was all it took to kill his son? That one simple, deadly modification? The idea strikes him as both ridiculous and utterly inarguable. He supposes that if this keeps up, he’ll soon be as mad as his wife . . . or Sawyer. Trusting Sawyer is as crazy as thinking he might kill his son by changing the size of the boy’s hat . . . and yet he believes in both things. He picks up his fork and begins to eat again, Ty’s Brewers cap sitting on his head like Spanky’s beanie in an old Our Gang one-reeler. Beezer St. Pierre is sitting on his sofa in his underwear, a book open on his lap (it is, in fact, a book of William Blake’s poems) but unread. Bear Girl’s asleep in the other room, and he’s fighting the urge to bop on down to the Sand Bar and score some crank, his old vice, untouched for going on five years now. Since Amy died, he fights this urge every single day, and lately he wins only by reminding himself that he won’t be able to find the Fisherman and punish him as he deserves to be punished if he’s fucked up on devil dust. Henry Leyden is in his studio with a huge pair of Akai headphones on his head, listening to Warren Vach? ¦, John Bunch, and Phil Flanigan dreamboat their way through â€Å"I Remember April.† He can smell the fog even through the walls, and to him it smells like the air at Ed’s Eats. Like bad death, in other words. He’s wondering how Jack made out in good old Ward D at French County Lutheran. And he’s thinking about his wife, who lately (especially since the record hop at Maxton’s, although he doesn’t consciously realize this) seems closer than ever. And unquiet. Yes indeed, all sorts of friends are available for our inspection, but at least one seems to have dropped out of sight. Charles Burnside isn’t in the common room at Maxton’s (where an old episode of Family Ties is currently running on the ancient color TV bolted to the wall), nor in the dining hall, where snacks are available in the early evening, nor in his own room, where the sheets are currently clean (but where the air still smells vaguely of old shit). What about the bathroom? Nope. Thorvald Thorvaldson has stopped in to have a pee and a handwash, but otherwise the place is empty. One oddity: there’s a fuzzy slipper lying on its side in one of the stalls. With its bright black and yellow stripes, it looks like the corpse of a huge dead bumblebee. And yes, it’s the stall second from the left. Burny’s favorite. Should we look for him? Maybe we should. Maybe not knowing exactly where that rascal is makes us uneasy. Let us slip through the fog, then, silent as a dream, down to lower Chase Street. Here is the Nelson Hotel, its ground floor now submerged in river fog, the ocher stripe marking high water of that ancient flood no more than a whisper of color in the fading light. On one side of it is Wisconsin Shoe, now closed for the day. On the other is Lucky’s Tavern, where an old woman with bowlegs (her name is Bertha Van Dusen, if you care) is currently bent over with her hands planted on her large knees, yarking a bellyful of Kingsland Old-Time Lager into the gutter. She makes sounds like a bad driver grinding a manual transmission. In the doorway of the Nelson Hotel itself sits a patient old mongrel, who will wait until Bertha has gone back into the tavern, then slink over to eat the half-digested cocktail franks floating in the beer. From Lucky’s comes the tired, twanging voi ce of the late Dick Curless, Ole Country One-Eye, singing about those Hainesville Woods, where there’s a tombstone every mile. The dog gives a single disinterested growl as we pass him and slip into the Nelson’s lobby, where moth-eaten heads a wolf, a bear, an elk, and an ancient half-bald bison with a single glass eye look at empty sofas, empty chairs, the elevator that hasn’t worked since 1994 or so, and the empty registration desk. (Morty Fine, the clerk, is in the office with his feet propped up on an empty file-cabinet drawer, reading People and picking his nose.) The lobby of the Nelson Hotel always smells of the river it’s in the pores of the place but this evening the smell is heavier than usual. It’s a smell that makes us think of bad ideas, blown investments, forged checks, deteriorating health, stolen office supplies, unpaid alimony, empty promises, skin tumors, lost ambition, abandoned sample cases filled with cheap novelties, dead hope, dead skin, and fallen arches. This is the kind of place you don’t come to unless you’ve been here before and all yo ur other options are pretty much foreclosed. It’s a place where men who left their families two decades before now lie on narrow beds with pee-stained mattresses, coughing and smoking cigarettes. The scuzzy old lounge (where scuzzy old Hoover Dalrymple once held court and knocked heads most every Friday and Saturday night) has been closed by unanimous vote of the town council since early June, when Dale Gilbertson scandalized the local political elite by showing them a video of three traveling strippers who billed themselves as the Anal University Trio, performing a synchronized cucumber routine on the tiny stage (FLPD cameraman: Officer Tom Lund, let’s give him a hand), but the Nelson’s residents still have only to go next door to get a beer; it’s convenient. You pay by the week at the Nelson. You can keep a hot plate in your room, but only by permission and after the cord has been inspected. You can die on a fixed income at the Nelson, and the last soun d you hear could well be the creaking of bedsprings over your head as some other helpless old loser jacks off. Let us rise up the first flight, past the old canvas firehose in its glass box. Turn right at the second-floor landing (past the pay phone with its yellowing OUT OF ORDER sign) and continue to rise. When we reach the third floor, the smell of river fog is joined by the smell of chicken soup warming on someone’s hot plate (the cord duly approved either by Morty Fine or George Smith, the day manager). The smell is coming from 307. If we slip through the keyhole (there have never been keycards at the Nelson and never will be), we’ll be in the presence of Andrew Railsback, seventy, balding, scrawny, good-humored. He once sold vacuum cleaners for Electrolux and appliances for Sylvania, but those days are behind him now. These are his golden years. A candidate for Maxton’s, we might think, but Andy Railsback knows that place, and places like it. Not for him, thanks. He’s sociable enough, but he doesn’t want people telling him when to go to bed, when to get up, and when he can have a little nip of Early Times. He has friends in Maxton’s, visits them often, and has from time to time met the sparkling, shallow, predatory eye of our pal Chipper. He has thought on more than one such occasion that Mr. Maxton looks like the sort of fellow who would happily turn the corpses of his graduates into soap if he thought he could turn a buck on it. No, for Andy Railsback, the third floor of the Nelson Hotel is good enough. He has his hot plate; he has his bottle of hooch; he’s got four packs of Bicycles and plays big-picture solitaire on nights when the sandman loses his way. This evening he has made three Lipton Cup-A-Soups, thinking he’ll invite Irving Throneberry in for a bowl and a chat. Maybe afterward they’ll go next door to Lucky’s and grab a beer. He checks the soup, sees it has attained a nice simmer, sniffs the fragrant steam, and nods. He also has saltines, which go well with soup. He leaves the room to make his way upstairs and knock on Irv’s door, but what he sees in the hallway stops him cold. It’s an old man in a shapeless blue robe, walking away from him with suspicious quickness. Beneath the hem of the robe, the stranger’s legs are as white as a carp’s belly and marked with blue snarls of varicose veins. On his left foot is a fuzzy black-and-yellow slipper. His right foot is bare. Although our new friend can’t tell for sure not with the guy’s back to him he doesn’t look like anyone Andy knows. Also, he’s trying doorknobs as he wends his way along the main third-floor hall. He gives each one a single hard, quick shake. Like a turnkey. Or a thief. A fucking thief. Yeah. Although the man is obviously old older than Andy, it looks like and dressed as if for bed, the idea of thievery resonates in Andy’s mind with queer certainty. Even the one bare foot, arguing that the fellow probably didn’t come in off the street, has no power over this strong intuition. Andy opens his mouth to call out something like Can I help you? or Looking for someone? and then changes his mind. He just has this feeling about the guy. It has to do with the fleet way the stranger scurries along as he tries the knobs, but that’s not all of it. Not all of it by any means. It’s a feeling of darkness and danger. There are pockets in the geezer’s robe, Andy can see them, and there might be a weapon in one of them. Thieves don’t always have weapons, but . . . The old guy turns the corner and is gone. Andy stands where he is, considering. If he had a phone in his room, he might call downstairs and alert Morty Fine, but he doesn’t. So, what to do? After a brief interior debate, he tiptoes down the hall to the corner and peeps around. Here is a cul-de-sac with three doors: 312, 313, and, at the very end, 314, the only room in that little appendix which is currently occupied. The man in 314 has been there since the spring, but almost all Andy knows about him is his name: George Potter. Andy has asked both Irv and Hoover Dalrymple about Potter, but Hoover doesn’t know jack-shit and Irv has learned only a little more. â€Å"You must,† Andy objected this conversation took place in late May or early June, around the time the Buckhead Lounge downstairs went dark. â€Å"I seen you in Lucky’s with him, havin’ a beer.† Irv had lifted one bushy eyebrow in that cynical way of his. â€Å"Seen me havin’ a beer with him. What are you?† he’d rasped. â€Å"My fuckin’ wife?† â€Å"I’m just saying. You drink a beer with a man, you have a little conversation â€Å" â€Å"Usually, maybe. Not with him. I sat down, bought a pitcher, and mostly got the dubious pleasure of listenin’ to myself think. I say, ‘What do you think about the Brewers this year?’ and he says, ‘They’ll suck, same as last year. I can get the Cubs at night on my rah-dio ‘ â€Å" â€Å"That the way he said it? Rah-dio?† â€Å"Well, it ain’t the way I say it, is it? You ever heard me say rah-dio? I say radio, same as any normal person. You want to hear this or not?† â€Å"Don’t sound like there’s much to hear.† â€Å"You got that right, buddy. He says, ‘I can get the Cubs at night on my rah-dio, and that’s enough for me. I always went to Wrigley with my dad when I was a kid.’ So I found out he was from Chi, but otherwise, bupkes.† The first thought to pop into Andy’s mind upon glimpsing the fucking thief in the third-floor corridor had been Potter, but Mr. George I-Keep-to-Myself Potter is a tall drink of water, maybe six-four, still with a pretty good head of salt-and-pepper hair. Mr. One-Slipper was shorter than that, hunched over like a toad. (A poison toad, at that is the thought that immediately rises in Andy’s mind.) He’s in there, Andy thinks. Fucking thief’s in Potter’s room, maybe going through Potter’s drawers, looking for a little stash. Fifty or sixty rolled up in the toe of a sock, like I used to do. Or stealing Potter’s radio. His fucking rah-dio. Well, and what was that to him? You passed Potter in the hallway, gave him a civil good morning or good afternoon, and what you got back was an uncivil grunt. Bupkes, in other words. You saw him in Lucky’s, he was drinking alone, far side of the jukebox. Andy guessed you could sit down with him and he’d split a pitcher with you Irv’s little tte-? ¤-tte with the man proved that much but what good was that without a little chin-jaw to go along with it? Why should he, Andrew Railsback, risk the wrath of some poison toad in a bathrobe for the sake of an old grump who wouldn’t give you a yes, no, or maybe? Well . . . Because this is his home, cheesy as it might be, that’s why. Because when you saw some crazy old one-slipper fuck in search of loose cash or the easily lifted rah-dio, you didn’t just turn your back and shuffle away. Because the bad feeling he got from the scurrying old elf (the bad vibe, his grandchildren would have said) was probably nothing but a case of the chickenshits. Because Suddenly Andy Railsback has an intuition that, while not a direct hit, is at least adjacent to the truth. Suppose it is a guy from off the street? Suppose it’s one of the old guys from Maxton Elder Care? It’s not that far away, and he knows for a fact that from time to time an old feller (or old gal) will get mixed up in his (or her) head and wander off the reservation. Under ordinary circumstances that person would be spotted and hauled back long before getting this far downtown kind of hard to miss on the street in an institutional robe and single slipper but this evening the fog has come in and the streets are all but deserted. Look at you, Andy berates himself. Scared half to death of a feller that’s probably got ten years on you and peanut butter for brains. Wandered in here past the empty desk not a chance in the goddamn world Fine’s out front; he’ll be in back reading a magazine or a stroke book and now he’s looking for his room back at Maxton’s, trying every knob on the goddamn corridor, no more idea of where he is than a squirrel on a freeway ramp. Potter’s probably having a beer next door (this, at least, turns out to be true) and left his door unlocked (this, we may be assured, is not). And although he’s still frightened, Andy comes all the way around the corner and walks slowly toward the open door. His heart is beating fast, because half his mind is still convinced the old man is maybe dangerous. There was, after all, that bad feeling he got just from looking at the stranger’s back But he goes. God help him, he does. â€Å"Mister?† he calls when he reaches the open door. â€Å"Hey, mister, I think you got the wrong room. That’s Mr. Potter’s room. Don’t you â€Å" He stops. No sense talking, because the room is empty. How is that possible? Andy steps back and tries the knobs of 312 and 313. Both locked up tight, as he knew they would be. With that ascertained, he steps into George Potter’s room and has a good look around curiosity killed the cat, satisfaction brought him back. Potter’s digs are a little larger than his, but otherwise not much different: it’s a box with a high ceiling (they made places a man could stand up in back in the old days, you had to say that much for them). The single bed is sagging in the middle but neatly made. On the night table is a bottle of pills (these turn out to be an anti-depressant called Zoloft) and a single framed picture of a woman. Andy thinks she took a pretty good whopping with the ugly stick, but Potter must see her differently. He has, after all, put the picture in a place where it’s the first thing he looks at in the morning and the last thing he sees at night. â€Å"Potter?† Andy asks. â€Å"Anyone? Hello?† He is suddenly overcome with a sense of someone standing behind him and whirls around, lips drawn back from his dentures in a grinning snarl that is half a cringe. One hand comes up to shield his face from the blow he is suddenly certain will fall . . . only there’s no one there. Is he lurking behind the corner at the end of this short addendum to the main corridor? No. Andy saw the stranger go scurrying around that corner. No way he could have gotten behind him again . . . unless he crawled along the ceiling like some kind of fly . . . Andy looks up there, knowing he’s being absurd, giving in to the whim-whams big time, but there’s no one here to see him, so what the hey? And nothing for him to see overhead, either. Just an ordinary tin ceiling, now yellowed by age and decades of cigar and cigarette smoke. The radio oh, excuse me all to hell, rah-dio is sitting on the win-dowsill, unmolested. Damn fine one, too, a Bose, the kind Paul Harvey always talks about on his noon show. Beyond it, on the other side of the dirty glass, is the fire escape. Ah-hah! Andy thinks, and hurries across to the window. One look at the turned thumb lock and his triumphant expression fades. He peers out just the same, and sees a short stretch of wet black iron descending into the fog. No blue robe, no scaly bald pate. Of course not. The knob shaker didn’t go out that way unless he had some magic trick to move the window’s inside thumb lock back into place once he was on the fire escape landing. Andy turns, stands where he is a moment, thinking, then drops to his knees and looks under the bed. What he sees is an old tin ashtray with an unopened pack of Pall Malls and a Kingsland Old-Time Lager disposable lighter in it. Nothing else except dust kittens. He puts his hand on the coverlet preparatory to standing up, and his eyes fix on the closet door. It’s standing ajar. â€Å"There,† Andy breathes, almost too low for his own ears to hear. He gets up and crosses to the closet door. The fog may or may not come in on little cat feet, as Carl Sandburg said, but that is certainly how Andy Railsback moves across George Potter’s room. His heart is beating hard again, hard enough to start the prominent vein in the center of his forehead pulsing. The man he saw is in the closet. Logic demands it. Intuition screams it. And if the doorknob shaker’s just a confused old soul who wandered into the Nelson Hotel out of the fog, why hasn’t he spoken to Andy? Why has he concealed himself ? Because he may be old but he’s not confused, that’s why. No more confused than Andy is himself. The doorknob shaker’s a fucking thief, and he’s in the closet. He’s maybe holding a knife that he has taken from the pocket of his tatty old robe. Maybe a coat hanger that he’s unwound and turned into a weapon. Maybe he’s just standing there in the dark, eyes wide, fingers hooked into cl aws. Andy no longer cares. You can scare him, you bet he’s a retired salesman, not Superman but if you load enough tension on top of fright you turn it into anger, same as enough pressure turns coal into a diamond. And right now Andy is more pissed off than scared. He closes his fingers around the cool glass knob of the closet door. He squeezes down on it. He takes one breath . . . a second . . . steeling himself, getting ready . . . psyching himself up, the grandkids would say . . . one more breath, just for good luck, and . . . With a low, stressful sound half growl and half howl Andy yanks the closet door wide, setting off a chatter of hangers. He crouches, hands up in fists, looking like some ancient sparring partner from the Gym Time Forgot. â€Å"Come outta there, you fucking â€Å" No one there. Four shirts, one jacket, two ties, and three pairs of pants hanging like dead skin. A battered old suitcase that looks as if it has been kicked through every Greyhound Bus terminal in North America. Nothing else. Not a goddamn th But there is. There’s something on the floor beneath the shirts. Several somethings. Almost half a dozen somethings. At first Andy Rails-back either doesn’t understand what he’s seeing or doesn’t want to understand. Then it gets through to him, imprints itself on his mind and memory like a hoofprint, and he tries to scream. He can’t. He tries again and nothing comes out but a rusty wheeze from lungs that feel no larger than old prune skins. He tries to turn around and can’t do that, either. He is sure George Potter is coming, and if Potter finds him here, Andy’s life will end. He has seen something George Potter can never allow him to talk about. But he can’t turn. Can’t scream. Can’t take his eyes from the secret in George Potter’s closet. Can’t move. Because of the fog, nearly full dark has arrived in French Landing unnaturally early; it’s barely six-thirty. The blurry yellow lights of Maxton Elder Care look like the lights of a cruise ship lying becalmed at sea. In Daisy wing, home of the wonderful Alice Weathers and the far less wonderful Charles Burnside, Pete Wexler and Butch Yerxa have both gone home for the day. A broad-shouldered, peroxide blonde named Vera Hutchinson is now on the desk. In front of her is a book entitled E-Z Minute Crosswords. She is currently puzzling over 6 Across: Garfield, for example. Six letters, first is F, third is L, sixth is E. She hates these tricky ones. There’s the swoosh of a bathroom door opening. She looks up and sees Charles Burnside come shuffling out of the men’s in his blue robe and a pair of yellow-and-black striped slippers that look like great fuzzy bumblebees. She recognizes them at once. â€Å"Charlie?† she asks, putting her pencil in her crossword book and closing it. Charlie just goes shuffling along, jaw hanging down, a long runner of drool also hanging down. But he has an unpleasant half grin on his face that Vera doesn’t care for. This one may have lost most of his marbles, but the few left in his head are mean marbles. Sometimes she knows that Charlie Burnside genuinely doesn’t hear her when she speaks (or doesn’t understand her), but she’s positive that sometimes he just pretends not to understand. She has an idea this is one of the latter times. â€Å"Charlie, what are you doing wearing Elmer’s bee slippers? You know his great-granddaughter gave those to him.† The old man Burny to us, Charlie to Vera just goes shuffling along, in a direction that will eventually take him back to D18. Assuming he stays on course, that is. â€Å"Charlie, stop.† Charlie stops. He stands at the head of Daisy’s corridor like a machine that has been turned off. His jaw hangs. The string of drool snaps, and all at once there’s a little wet spot on the linoleum beside one of those absurd but amusing slippers. Vera gets up, goes to him, kneels down before him. If she knew what we know, she’d probably be a lot less willing to put her defenseless white neck within reach of those hanging hands, which are twisted by arthritis but still powerful. But of course she does not. She grasps the left bee slipper. â€Å"Lift,† she says. Charles Burnside lifts his right foot. â€Å"Oh, quit being such a turkey,† she says. â€Å"Other one.† Burny lifts his left foot a little, just enough for her to get the slipper off. â€Å"Now the right one.† Unseen by Vera, who is looking at his feet, Burny pulls his penis from the fly of his loose pajama pants and pretends to piss on Vera’s bowed head. His grin widens. At the same time, he lifts his right foot and she removes the other slipper. When she looks back up, Burny’s wrinkled old tool is back where it belongs. He considered baptizing her, he really did, but he has created almost enough mischief for one evening. One more little chore and he’ll be off to the land of dreamy dreams. He’s an old monster now. He needs his rest. â€Å"All right,† Vera says. â€Å"Want to tell me why one of these is dirtier than the other?† No answer. She hasn’t really expected one. â€Å"Okay, beautiful. Back to your room or down to the common room, if you want. There’s microwave popcorn and Jell-O pops tonight, I think. They’re showing The Sound of Music. I’ll see that these slippers get back to where they belong, and you taking them will be our little secret. Take them again and I’ll have to report you, though. Capisce?† Burny just stands there, vacant . . . but with that nasty little grin lifting his wrinkled old chops. And that light in his eyes. He capisces, all right. â€Å"Go on,† Vera says. â€Å"And you better not have dropped a load on the floor in there, you old buzzard.† Again she expects no reply, but this time she gets one. Burny’s voice is low but perfectly clear. â€Å"Keep a civil tongue, you fat bitch, or I’ll eat it right out of your head.† She recoils as if slapped. Burny stands there with his hands dangling and that little grin on his face. â€Å"Get out of here,† she says. â€Å"Or I really will report you.† And a great lot of good that would do. Charlie is one of Maxton’s cash cows, and Vera knows it. Charlie recommences his slow walk (Pete Wexler has dubbed this particular gait the Old Fucks’ Shuffle), now in his bare feet. Then he turns back. The bleary lamps of his eyes regard her. â€Å"The word you’re looking for is feline. Garfield’s a feline. Got it? Stupid cow.† With that he continues his trip down the corridor. Vera stands where she is, looking at him with her own jaw hanging. She has forgotten all about her crossword puzzle. In his room, Burny lies down on his bed and slips his hands into the small of his back. From there down he aches like a bugger. Later he will buzz for the fat old bitch, get her to bring him an ibuprofen. For now, though, he has to stay sharp. One more little trick still to do. â€Å"Found you, Potter,† he murmurs. â€Å"Good . . . old . . . Potsie.† Burny hadn’t been shaking doorknobs at all (not that Andy Railsback will ever know this). He had been feeling for the fellow who diddled him out of a sweet little Chicago housing deal back in the late seventies. South Side, home of the White Sox. Blacktown, in other words. Lots of federal money in that one, and several bushels of Illinois dough as well. Enough skim available to last for years, more angles than on a baseball field, but George â€Å"Go Fuck Your Mother† Potter had gotten there first, cash had changed hands beneath the proverbial table, and Charles Burn-side (or perhaps then he’d still been Carl Bierstone; it’s hard to remember) had been out in the cold. But Burny has kept track of the thief for lo these many years. (Well, not Burny himself, actually, but as we must by now have realized, this is a man with powerful friends.) Old Potsie what his friends called him in the days when he still had a few declared bankruptcy in La Riviere back in the nineties, and lost most of what he still had hidden away during the Great Dot-Com Wreck of Double Aught. But that’s not good enough for Burny. Potsie requires further punishment, and the coincidence of that particular fuckhead washing up in this particular fuckhole of a town is just too good to pass up. Burny’s principal motive a brainless desire to keep stirring the pot, to make sure bad goes to worse hasn’t changed, but this will serve that purpose, too. So he traveled to the Nelson, doing so in a way Jack understands and Judy Marshall has intuited, homing in on Potsie’s room like some ancient bat. And when he sensed Andy Railsback behind him, he was of course delighted. Railsback will save him having to make another anonymous call, and Burny is, in truth, getting tired of doing all their work for them. Now, back in his room, all comfy-cozy (except for the arthritis, that is), he turns his mind away from George Potter, and begins to Summon. Looking up into the dark, Charles Burnside’s eyes begin to glow in a distinctly unsettling way. â€Å"Gorg,† he says. â€Å"Gorg t’eelee. Dinnit a abbalah. Samman Tansy. Samman a montah a Irma. Dinnit a abbalah, Gorg. Dinnit a Ram Abbalah.† Gorg. Gorg, come. Serve the abbalah. Find Tansy. Find the mother of Irma. Serve the abbalah, Gorg. Serve the Crimson King. Burny’s eyes slip closed. He goes to sleep with a smile on his face. And beneath their wrinkled lids, his eyes continue to glow like hooded lamps. Morty Fine, the night manager of the Nelson Hotel, is half-asleep over his magazine when Andy Railsback comes bursting in, startling him so badly that Morty almost tumbles out of his chair. His magazine falls to the floor with a flat slap. â€Å"Jesus Christ, Andy, you almost gave me a heart attack!† Morty cries. â€Å"You ever hear of knocking, or at least clearing your goddam throat?† Andy takes no notice, and Morty realizes the old fella is as white as a sheet. Maybe he’s the one having the heart attack. It wouldn’t be the first time one occurred in the Nelson. â€Å"You gotta call the police,† Andy says. â€Å"They’re horrible. Dear Jesus, Morty, they’re the most horrible pictures I ever saw . . . Polaroids . . . and oh man, I thought he was going to come back in . . . come back in any second . . . but at first I was just froze, and I . . . I . . .† â€Å"Slow down,† Morty says, concerned. â€Å"What are you talking about?† Andy takes a deep breath and makes a visible effort to get himself under control. â€Å"Have you seen Potter?† he asks. â€Å"The guy in 314?† â€Å"Nope,† Morty says, â€Å"but most nights he’s in Lucky’s around this time, having a few beers and maybe a hamburger. Although why anybody would eat anything in that place, I don’t know.† Then, perhaps associating one ptomaine palace with another: â€Å"Hey, have you heard what the cops found out at Ed’s Eats? Trevor Gordon was by and he said â€Å" â€Å"Never mind.† Andy sits in the chair on the other side of the desk and stares at Morty with wet, terrified eyes. â€Å"Call the police. Do it right now. Tell them that the Fisherman is a man named George Potter, and he lives on the third floor of the Nelson Hotel.† Andy’s face tightens in a hard grimace, then relaxes again. â€Å"Right down the hall from yours truly.† â€Å"Potter? You’re dreaming, Andy. That guy’s nothing but a retired builder. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.† â€Å"I don’t know about flies, but he hurt the hell out of some little kids. I seen the Polaroids he took of them. They’re in his closet. They’re the worst things you ever saw.† Then Andy does something that amazes Morty and convinces him that this isn’t a joke, and probably not just a mistake, either: Andy Railsback begins to cry. Tansy Freneau, a.k.a. Irma Freneau’s grieving mother, is not actually grieving yet. She knows she should be, but grief has been deferred. Right now she feels as if she is floating in a cloud of warm bright wool. The doctor (Pat Skarda’s associate, Norma Whitestone) gave her five milligrams of lorazepam four or five hours ago, but that’s only the start. The Holiday Trailer Park, where Tansy and Irma have lived since Cubby Freneau took off for Green Bay in ninety-eight, is handy to the Sand Bar, and she has a part-time â€Å"thing† going with Lester Moon, one of the bartenders. The Thunder Five has dubbed Lester Moon â€Å"Stinky Cheese† for some reason, but Tansy unfailingly calls him Lester, which he appreciates almost as much as the occasional boozy grapple in Tansy’s bedroom or out back of the Bar, where there’s a mattress (and a black light) in the storeroom. Around five this evening, Lester ran over with a quart of coffee brandy an d four hundred milligrams of OxyContin, all considerately crushed and ready for snorting. Tansy has done half a dozen lines already, and she is cruising. Looking over old pictures of Irma and just . . . you know . . . cruising. What a pretty baby she was, Tansy thinks, unaware that not far away, a horrified hotel clerk is looking at a very different picture of her pretty baby, a nightmare Polaroid he will never be able to forget. It is a picture Tansy herself will never have to look at, suggesting that perhaps there is a God in heaven. She turns a page (GOLDEN MEMORIES has been stamped on the front of her scrapbook), and here are Tansy and Irma at the Mississippi Electrix company picnic, back when Irma was four and Mississippi Electrix was still a year away from bankruptcy and everything was more or less all right. In the photo, Irma is wading with a bunch of other tykes, her laughing face smeared with chocolate ice cream. Looking fixedly at this snapshot, Tansy reaches for her glass of coffee brandy and takes a small sip. And suddenly, from nowhere (or the place from which all our more ominous and unconnected thoughts float out into the light of our regard), she finds herself remembering that stupid Edgar Allan Poe poem they had to memorize in the ninth grade. She hasn’t thought of it in years and has no reason to now, but the words of the opening stanza rise effortlessly and perfectly in her mind. Looking at Irma, she recites them aloud in a toneless, pauseless voice that no doubt would have caused Mrs. Normandie to clutch her stringy white hair and groan. Tansy’s recitation doesn’t affect us that way; instead it gives us a deep and abiding chill. It is like listening to a poetry reading given by a corpse. â€Å"Once upon a mih’nigh’ dreary while I ponnered weak ‘n’ weary over many a quaint ‘n’ curris volume of forgotten lore while I nodded nearly nappin’ sun’ly there came a tappin’ as of someone gen’ly rappin’ rappin’ at my chamber door â€Å" At this precise moment there comes a soft rapping at the cheap fiber-board door of Tansy Freneau’s Airstream. She looks up, eyes floating, lips pursed and glossed with coffee brandy. â€Å"Les’ser? Is that you?† It might be, she supposes. Not the TV people, at least she hopes not. She wouldn’t talk to the TV people, sent them packing. She knows, in some deep and sadly cunning part of her mind, that they would lull her and comfort her only to make her look stupid in the glare of their lights, the way that the people on the Jerry Springer Show always end up looking stupid. No answer . . . and then it comes again. Tap. Tap-tap. â€Å"‘Tis some visitor,† she says, getting up. It’s like getting up in a dream. â€Å"‘Tis some visitor, I murmured, tappin’ at my chamber door, only this ‘n’ nothin’ more.† Tap. Tap-tap. Not like curled knuckles. It’s a thinner sound than that. A sound like a single fingernail. Or a beak. She crosses the room in her haze of drugs and brandy, bare feet whispering on carpet that was once nubbly and is now balding: the ex-mother. She opens the door onto this foggy summer evening and sees nothing, because she’s looking too high. Then something on the welcome mat rustles. Something, some black thing, is looking up at her with bright, inquiring eyes. It’s a raven, omigod it’s Poe’s raven, come to pay her a visit. â€Å"Jesus, I’m trippin’,† Tansy says, and runs her hands through her thin hair. â€Å"Jesus!† repeats the crow on the welcome mat. And then, chipper as a chickadee: â€Å"Gorg!† If asked, Tansy would have said she was too stoned to be frightened, but this is apparently not so, because she gives out a disconcerted little cry and takes a step backward. The crow hops briskly across the doorsill and strides onto the faded purple carpet, still looking up at her with its bright eyes. Its feathers glisten with condensed drops of mist. It bops on past her, then pauses to preen and fluff. It looks around as if to ask, How’m I doin’, sweetheart? â€Å"Go away,† Tansy says. â€Å"I don’t know what the fuck you are, or if you’re here at all, but â€Å" â€Å"Gorg!† the crow insists, then spreads its wings and fleets across the trailer’s living room, a charred fleck burnt off the back of the night. Tansy screams and cringes, instinctively shielding her face, but Gorg doesn’t come near her. It alights on the table beside her bottle, there not being any bust of Pallas handy. Tansy thinks: It got disoriented in the fog, that’s all. It could even be rabid, or have that Key Lime disease, whatever you call it. I ought to go in the kitchen and get the broom. Shoo it out before it shits around . . . But the kitchen is too far. In her current state, the kitchen seems hundreds of miles away, somewhere in the vicinity of Colorado Springs. And there’s probably no crow here at all. Thinking of that goddamn poem has caused her to hallucinate, that’s all . . . that, and losing her daughter. For the first time the pain gets through the haze, and Tansy winces from its cruel and wiry heat. She remembers the little hands that sometimes pressed so tidily against the sides of her neck. The cries in the night, summoning her from sleep. The smell of her, fresh from the bath. â€Å"Her name was Irma!† she suddenly shouts at the figment standing so boldly beside the brandy bottle. â€Å"Irma, not fucking Lenore, what kind of stupid name is Lenore? Let’s hear you say Irma!† â€Å"Irma!† the visitor croaks obediently, stunning her to silence. And its eyes. Ah! Its glittering eyes draw her, like the eyes of the Ancient Mariner in that other poem she was supposed to learn but never did. â€Å"Irma-Irma-Irma-Irma â€Å" â€Å"Stop it!† She doesn’t want to hear it after all. She was wrong. Her daughter’s name out of that alien throat is foul, insupportable. She wants to put her hands over her ears and can’t. They’re too heavy. Her hands have joined the stove and the refrigerator (miserable half-busted thing) in Colorado Springs. All she can do is look into those glittering black eyes. It preens for her, ruffling its ebony sateen feathers. They make a loathsome little scuttering noise all up and down its back and she thinks, â€Å"Prophet!† said I, â€Å"thing of evil! prophet still, if bird or devil!† Certainty fills her heart like cold water. â€Å"What do you know?† she asks. â€Å"Why did you come?† â€Å"Know!† croaks the Crow Gorg, nodding its beak briskly up and down. â€Å"Come!† And does it wink? Good God, does it wink at her? â€Å"Who killed her?† Tansy Freneau whispers. â€Å"Who killed my pretty baby?† The crow’s eyes fix her, turn her into a bug on a pin. Slowly, feeling more in a dream than ever (but this is happening, on some level she understands that perfectly), she crosses to the table. Still the crow watches her, still the crow draws her on. Night’s Plutonian shore, she thinks. Night’s Plutonian fuckin’ shore. â€Å"Who? Tell me what you know!† The crow looks up at her with its bright black eyes. Its beak opens and closes, revealing a wet red interior in tiny peeks. â€Å"Tansy!† it croaks. â€Å"Come!† The strength runs out of her legs, and she drops to her knees, biting her tongue and making it bleed. Crimson drops splatter her U of W sweatshirt. Now her face is on a level with the bird’s face. She can see one of its wings brushing up and down, sensuously, on the glass side of the coffee-brandy bottle. The smell of Gorg is dust and heaped dead flies and ancient urns of buried spice. Its eyes are shining black portholes looking into some other world. Hell, perhaps. Or Sheol. â€Å"Who?† she whispers. Gorg stretches its black and rustling neck until its black beak is actually in the cup of her ear. It begins to whisper, and eventually Tansy Freneau begins to nod. The light of sanity has left her eyes. And when will it return? Oh, I think we all know the answer to that one. Can you say â€Å"Nevermore†? How to cite Black House Chapter Fifteen, Essay examples