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Voices of History, from British Library

Voices of History, from British Library.

Voices of History

Hear the voices that made history. This two CD set features historic recordings from the British Library Sound Archive of some of the most famous and influential people active from the early days of sound recording to the middle of the twentieth century. Forty speakers are represented, starting with a rare 1888 recording of Prime Minister Gladstone and other politicians, as well as other international figures such as Lenin and Roosevelt. Suffragette Christabel Pankhurst, and the first sitting woman MP Nancy Astor and a wide variety of other icons such as Gandhi and philosopher Bertrand Russell cover a range of topics. The booklet explains the background and history of each item together with a translation where necessary. Running time 145 minutes. Publisher: British Library Publishing ISBN: 0712343253; audio CD, Not yet published. View track listings (on site)...

See also this story on the new CD recordings, from the Telegraph (UK)...

Oxford University Press Announces New Online Scholarly Reference Program

Oxford University Press Announces New Online Scholarly Reference Program

NEW YORK, NY, November 19, 2004 -- Oxford University Press is pleased to announce the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf, offering librarians and end-users web-based access to Oxford's leading scholarly reference titles never before available online.

Providing a new "purchase" option for reference collection development programs, the titles offered through the Oxford Digital Reference Shelf will be available for a one-time purchase fee, including remote and unlimited user access. Libraries can purchase any number of titles offered to fit their collection needs and discounts will be offered for multiple title purchases. Print/electronic packages will also be available, as well as reduced prices for libraries that already own print editions and wish to purchase the electronic edition. Oxford University Press will offer hosting services for an annual fee or will provide customers with digitized files for self-hosting. MARC21 records will be provided to customers at no charge to allow for linking through a library's OPAC. ...

For more information, please contact Lisa Nachtigall at Oxford University Press at 212-726-6425 or lisa.nachtigall@oup.com, or see http://www.oxfordonline.com/

Posted today on several mailing lists, including LIBREF-L.. interesting option for libraries.. no direct online posting of this press release (?) that I could easily locate...

The New York Times > Movies > Movie Review: NATIONAL TREASURE

The New York Times > Movies > Movie Review: NATIONAL TREASURE.

FILM REVIEW
A Secret Treasure Map That Ends in Manhattan

By STEPHEN HOLDEN, Published: November 19, 2004, Friday

Maybe, just maybe, an 8-year-old could pick up an interest in American history from watching ''National Treasure,'' that is, if the child could stay awake for this sluggish two-hour trudge through landmarks in Washington, Philadelphia and New York. It's far more likely, however, that a child who could stay awake through this fanciful reality game show (a Grade C ''Amazing Race'') would come away believing the bogus mythology that detonates it with a squishy thud.

The reviewer didn't see the same movie I did, nor like it as much as I did.. but then again, I went with my 13-year-old son and we enjoyed the history and ended up discussing history together afterwards --along with myths, legends, and treasure-hunting.. yes, it was a bit padded in areas, but I enjoyed the ride and fun.. it was just an escapist pleasure, and it succeeded in that genre and vein.. I was surprised to see that Benjamin Melnicker and Michael Uslan (of Batman films) were involved in this as producers; I worked with them in the 1980s on the first "Swamp Thing" film in South Carolina.. they've come a long way, and much credit to their comic vision for the successes along the way.. now, how much is 1/2 of 1% of $10Billion? Inquiring minds want to know...

NPR : Bid to Fix Up Hemingway's 'Finca' Hits Snags

NPR : Bid to Fix Up Hemingway's 'Finca' Hits Snags.

People & Places

Bid to Fix Up Hemingway's 'Finca' Hits Snags
Weekend Edition - Sunday, November 28, 2004

A house once owned by the writer Ernest Hemingway is a tourist attraction in Cuba. But it has long been in a state of disrepair. Americans who want to restore the house are blocked by the U.S. government's strict policy against aid to Cuba. NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports.

The audio link to listen is on the NPR site.. good piece on an issue that continues to perplex.. why can't we support the artistic and historic issue for Hemingway's home, without the politics? ...

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Living / Arts / Love, practically

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Living / Arts / Love, practically.

Love, practically
Men are seeking out mates with careers. Women? They want someone who can cook.

By Patricia Wen, Globe Staff | November 27, 2004

In this day of Internet matchmaking and speed dating, Doug Mitchell and Jill Burns fell in love the old-fashioned way.

They went on a blind date to a Lowell Spinners minor-league baseball game. Mitchell stared at Burns's thick, layered brown hair; Burns liked that Mitchell stood more than 6 feet tall. He appreciated her spunky style; she sensed his tenderness. They were both 21.

But when it came to contemplating marriage this year, the Dracut couple approached the decision with modern-day practicality. Mitchell was impressed that Burns was pursuing a career in business and planned to work even if they had children. And Burns, who now works at Fidelity Investments, said she liked the fact that Mitchell was a man with career ambitions but would also "go to the laundromat and start dinner."

The New York Times > Travel > Practical Traveler: Women's Tours Turn Indulgent

The New York Times > Travel > Practical Traveler: Women's Tours Turn Indulgent.

PRACTICAL TRAVELER

Women's Tours Turn Indulgent
By SUSAN CATTO, Published: November 28, 2004

SHOPPING trip. Those words used to mean an afternoon at the mall, but now women-only travel companies are turning the shopping trip into a global undertaking. Travelers can fly to Paris to search for bargains at designer outlets or head to West Africa to browse for local handicrafts.

In recent years, companies specializing in women's tours emphasized adventure: the chance to surf, climb mountains or sail in all-female groups. Adventure is still popular, but sybaritic pursuits are gaining ground. A raft of new tours promises to get women in touch with their feminine side, and shopping, spas and spirituality head the itineraries.

"Though I hate to admit it, we like to shop," said Phyllis Stoller, owner of the Women's Travel Club. This year, its sold-out Christmas Markets expedition will visit holiday markets in Germany and Prague.

At the end of the article are some good links for travel related companies offering these special trips...

BBC NEWS | Magazine | The never-ending search

BBC NEWS | Magazine | The never-ending search.

The never-ending search
Friday, 26 November, 2004, 11:07 GMT
By Brendan O'Neill

Fascination with the Holy Grail has lasted for centuries, and now the Bletchley Park code-breakers have joined the hunt. But what is it that's made the grail the definition of something humans are always searching for but never actually finding?

Could an obscure inscription on a 250-year-old monument in a Staffordshire garden point the way to the Holy Grail - the jewelled chalice reportedly used by Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper?

That is one theory entertained by Richard Kemp, the general manager of Lord Lichfield's Shugborough estate in Staffs.

Kemp has called in world-renowned code-breakers to try to decipher a cryptic message carved into the Shepherd's Monument on the Lichfield estate.

The monument, built around 1748, features an image of one of Nicholas Poussin's paintings, and beneath it the letters "D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M."

It has long been rumoured that these letters - which have baffled some of the greatest minds over the past 250 years, including Charles Darwin's and Josiah Wedgwood's - provide clues to the whereabouts of Christ's elusive cup.

Fascinating brief article about the long-sought Holy Grail and its mysteries...

The New York Times > Books > 'I Am Charlotte Simmons': Peeping Tom

The New York Times > Books > 'I Am Charlotte Simmons': Peeping Tom.

'I Am Charlotte Simmons': Peeping Tom
By JACOB WEISBERG Published: November 28, 2004

I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS By Tom Wolfe. 676 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $28.95.

It's hard to imagine a tougher assignment for an aging journalist than explaining undergraduate life at a big American university.

The project is not hard in the ways Tom Wolfe's other subjects have been hard. It's not technical, like space flight, or scary, like the Black Panthers, or closed to outsiders, like the inside of a Wall Street investment bank. But the seemingly accessible world of college students is more difficult to explicate because of the way the nuances of youth culture turn invisible, if not utterly incomprehensible, across the barrier of generations.

In his new novel, Wolfe approaches this difficulty by devising a character who is as much a Martian on campus as, say, a 74-year-old dandy in an ice-cream suit. Charlotte Simmons arrives at Duke, I mean Dupont University, from a God-fearing hamlet nestled so remotely in the Blue Ridge Mountains that she hems her own dresses, is flabbergasted by the $3.99 cover price of Cosmopolitan and is actually impressed by her first sight of a hotel atrium. Despite her brilliance in French literature, Roman history and all other academic subjects, Charlotte is not shocked, shocked but really and truly shocked by what she finds. Not all of the undergraduates at Dupont, our innocent country gal discovers, have come to partake of the life of the mind. As she would twang it, they're goin' to these fraternity parties and gettin' der-unk. They're walkin' around in these re-vealin' clothes. They're usin' pro-fanity. And -- oh my God! -- They're havin' say-yex!

Everything TypePad!: Avoid the Malls: Give the Gift of a TypePad

Everything TypePad!: Avoid the Malls: Give the Gift of a TypePad.

Avoid the Malls: Give the Gift of a TypePad

For those of you not wanting to venture off into the mad post-Thanksgiving Holiday Shopping sprees in your local stores and malls, Six Apart has the perfect excuse for you to stay home, feast on Thanksgiving Day left-overs, and still get all of your holiday shopping done.

Starting next week, TypePad customers will be able to visit TypePad.com and purchase “the gift of a TypePad” for anyone on their holiday shopping list at a special holiday promotional price. An annual subscription of our TypePad Basic, Plus and Pro services will be reduced to just $39, $69, and $99 respectively, allowing you to save up to 55% off a yearly subscription to be given as a gift to anyone you know.

But wait! That’s not all. For a limited time, TypePad customers can get a free TypePad subscription to give as a gift this season. Simply renew your subscription to TypePad on an annual basis, and you will receive a free yearly subscription (at the same level) to give to someone on your holiday shopping list this season.

A good holiday option for online shoppers.. I might try the annual renewal plus a free blog to gift away...

Telegraph | News | Lost chronicle of Spain's civil war agonies reappears after 60 years

Telegraph | News | Lost chronicle of Spain's civil war agonies reappears after 60 years.

Lost chronicle of Spain's civil war agonies reappears after 60 years

By Isambard Wilkinson, Madrid Correspondent
(Filed: 25/11/2004)

A highly acclaimed account of the Spanish Civil War written by a distinguished English correspondent was republished yesterday after being "lost" for more than 60 years.

The Life and Death of the Spanish Republic, by The Daily Telegraph's Henry Buckley, has obtained mythical status among historians as much for its fate as its contents.

Henry Buckley at work during the Spanish Civil War Buckley, who was born near Manchester, arrived in Spain six years before the outbreak of the 1936-39 conflict.

He knew its protagonists, witnessed more battles than any other journalist and befriended Ernest Hemingway. He left Spain with the remnants of the Republican forces that fled over the Pyrenees after defeat by Franco.

AP Wire | 11/25/2004 | Best-Selling Novelist Arthur Hailey Dies

AP Wire | 11/25/2004 | Best-Selling Novelist Arthur Hailey Dies.

Posted on Thu, Nov. 25, 2004
Best-Selling Novelist Arthur Hailey Dies

ADAM JANKIEWICZ Associated Press

NASSAU, Bahamas - Arthur Hailey, author of "Airport," "Hotel" and other novels that became hit movies, has died, his wife said Thursday. He was 84.

Hailey, who plucked characters from ordinary life and threw them into extraordinary ordeals, died in his sleep Wednesday at his home in Lyford Cay on New Providence island, his wife Sheila said.

She said doctors believe he had a stroke. "It is obviously a shock to wake up to, but it was peaceful," she said. "Arthur was a very humble man, but was delighted with the letters he used to get from readers praising his books. He was incredibly proud of them."

Hailey's knack for turning the mundane into thrilling tales brought 11 books published in 40 countries and 38 languages, with 170 million copies in print.

Scotsman.com News - Top Stories - Code cracked as hunt for Grail goes on

Scotsman.com News - Top Stories - Code cracked as hunt for Grail goes on.

Code cracked as hunt for Grail goes on
by KAREN MCVEIGH, Fri 26 Nov 2004

IT is one of the most enduring myths of Western European literature, a cryptic message which has inspired tales from Arthurian legends to Dan Brown’s best-selling crime novel The Da Vinci Code.

But after months of research, experts believe they may now hold the key to the 250-year-old code, which is carved on a monument at the Earl of Lichfield’s Shugborough Hall estate in Staffordshire.

The Shepherd’s Monument, commissioned in 1748 by the then earl, Thomas Anson, features a carved image of a Nicolas Poussin painting with the letters D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M. underneath.

The cryptic inscription was rumoured to point to the location of the Holy Grail - the cup Jesus is said to have used at the Last Supper.

Capital News 9 | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Capital News 9 | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
11/25/2004 11:20 AM
By: Capital News 9 web staff

Thousands crowded the Manhattan streets for the sounds of marching bands from across the country and the sights of gigantic balloons floating high in the sky.

The annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade kicked off to mild temperatures, minus the winds that parade organizers had feared.

Chicken Little was anything but -- a balloon that loomed over Herald Square in its very first parade appearance. Other new balloons this year were SpongeBob SquarePants and red and yellow M&Ms. Among balloons returning to the parade were the popular Little Bill and an enormous Ronald McDonald.

William J. Clinton Presidential Library

William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

Welcome to the official NARA website of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library. The Clinton Library is the eleventh Presidential Library administered by the Office of Presidential Libraries within NARA.

The Clinton Library "is responsible for preserving and processing in perpetuity the official Presidential records, audiovisual materials, and artifacts of the Clinton Administration." The site includes biographies of Bill and Hillary Clinton, many photographs of the Clinton family, and links to related information. From the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which administers the library. Source: http://lii.org?recs=008014 .. Another item from LII New This Week.. they always find the best stuff...

Clinton Presidential Center

Clinton Presidential Center.

This center in Little Rock, Arkansas, includes a library and museum and other functions. The site features a photo timeline of Bill Clinton's time in office and the full text of statements, press briefings, radio addresses, appointments, and other documents from the Clinton presidency. Also includes information about the architecture and design of the building, photos and video clips, and speeches and press releases from 1993 to the present. Browsable and searchable. Source: http://lii.org/?recs=023945

From LII New This Week, a couple of good links for the Clinton Library, this post and the next one.. Happy Thanksgiving to all...