Can I get a “ramen” from the congregation?! Behold the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), today’s fastest growing carbohydrate-based religion. According to church founder Bobby Henderson, the universe and all life within it were created by a mystical and divine being: the Flying Spaghetti Monster. What drives the FSM’ s devout followers, a.k.a. Pastafarians? Some say it’s the assuring touch from the FSM’s “noodly appendage.” Then there are those who love the worship service, which is conducted in pirate talk and attended by congregants in dashing buccaneer garb. Still others are drawn to the Church’s flimsy moral standards, religious holidays every Friday, or the fact that Pastafarian heaven is way cooler: Does your heaven have a Stripper Factory and a Beer Volcano? Intelligent Design has finally met its match—and it has nothing to do with apes or the Olive Garden of Eden. Within these pages, Bobby Henderson outlines the true facts– dispelling such malicious myths as evolution (“only a theory”), science (“only a lot of theories”), and whether we’re really descended from apes (fact: Humans share 95 percent of their DNA with chimpanzees, but they share 99.9 percent with pirates!) See what impressively credentialed top scientists have to say: “If Intelligent Design is taught in schools, equal time should be given to the FSM theory and the non-FSM theory.” –Professor Douglas Shaw, Ph.D. “Do not be hypocritical. Allow equal time for other alternative ‘theories’ like FSMism, which is by far the tastier choice.” –J. Simon, Ph.D. “In my scientific opinion, when comparing the two theories, FSM theory seems to be more valid than classic ID theory.” –Afshin Beheshti, Ph.D. Read the book and decide for yourself!

“An edge-of-your-seat tale of suspense paired with a heart-stopping romance . . . Love blooms amid the gritty realism of Sidney Bell’s harrowing plot.” —Sarina Bowen, USA Today–bestselling author Released after five years in the system for assault, streetwise Edgar-Allen Church is ready to leave the past behind and finally look to his future. In need of a place to crash, he’s leaning on Miller Quinn. A patient, solidly masculine pillar of strength and support, Miller has always been there for him—except in the one way Church has wanted the most. With his staunchly conservative upbringing, Miller has been playing it straight his whole life. Now with Church so close again, it’s getting harder to keep his denial intact. As they fumble their way back to friendship after so many years apart, Miller struggles to find the courage to accept who he really is. What he has with Church could be more than desire—it could be love. But it could also mean trouble. Church’s criminal connections are closing in on the both of them, and more than their hearts are at risk. This time, their very lives are on the line. Don’t miss the next titles in Sidney Bell’s male/male romance series: Hard Line and Rough Trade. “Bell writes a meaty romance that you can’t put down, and it’s a worthy addition to the M/M contemporary romance genre.” —RT Book Reviews (Top Pick) “A friends-to-lovers tender romance, a suspenseful mystery . . . Sidney Bell pulls it all off and makes it appear effortless.” —Gay Book Reviews

Mel Bay is pleased to present the long-awaited publication of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet's "loose" arrangement of the Pachelbel Canon for four guitars. Originally intended as an inside joke for the LAGQ members, this clever andcomical send-up of Pachelbel's beautiful (and somewhat overplayed) melody has become a standard LAGQ encore and an internet sensation. Featured in performance on the Mel Bay DVD LAGQ Live at the Sheldon, this unique arrangement presents the pristine Baroque theme, and then adapts it in a number of unexpected musical styles: Reggae, salsa, bluegrass, jazz, flamenco, disco, and even punk. This is the only arrangement in the LAGQ repertoire that was a true group-project with all four members (John Dearman, William Kanengiser, Scott Tennant and Andrew York) contributing; as a special bonus, new LAGQ member Matt Greif has added an alternative solo for the jazz section. Carefully notated to capture the nuances of LAGQ's stylistic flair, the parts are presented in standard notation as well as in tablature for those less familiar with note-reading. It's a challenging and fun re-imagining of a timeless classic.

From Molière in IKEA to Chekhov in a Taco Bell, this series of short comedies satirizes the world of the American consumer in the style of canonical playwrights. It’s a walk through history…if history were a strip mall.

Traces some of the metaphors and colloquialisms commonly used in contemporary English speech to their nautical origins, documenting the history and meaning of words and phrases from A1 (the best) to wishy-washy (inconstant).

Biography of Brian Brindley, British Anglican brought down by sexual scandal.

Multiculturalism. It has been the subject of cover stories in Time and Newsweek, as well as numerous articles in newspapers and magazines around America. It has sparked heated jeremiads by George Will, Dinesh D'Sousa, and Roger Kimball. It moved William F. Buckley to rail against Stanley Fish and Catherine Stimpson on "Firing Line." It is arguably the most hotly debated topic in America today--and justly so. For whether one speaks of tensions between Hasidim and African-Americans in Crown Heights, or violent mass protests against Moscow in ethnic republics such as Armenia, or outright war between Serbs and Bosnians in the former Yugoslavia, it is clear that the clash of cultures is a worldwide problem, deeply felt, passionately expressed, always on the verge of violent explosion. Problems of this magnitude inevitably frame the discussion of "multiculturalism" and "cultural diversity" in the American classroom as well. In Loose Canons, one of America's leading literary and cultural critics, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., offers a broad, illuminating look at this highly contentious issue. Gates agrees that our world is deeply divided by nationalism, racism, and sexism, and argues that the only way to transcend these divisions--to forge a civic culture that respects both differences and similarities--is through education that respects both the diversity and commonalities of human culture. His is a plea for cultural and intercultural understanding. (You can't understand the world, he observes, if you exclude 90 percent of the world's cultural heritage.) We feel his ideas most strongly voiced in the concluding essay in the volume, "Trading on the Margin." Avoiding the stridency of both the Right and the Left, Gates concludes that the society we have made simply won't survive without the values of tolerance, and cultural tolerance comes to nothing without cultural understanding. Henry Louis Gates is one of the most visible and outspoken figures on the academic scene, the subject of a cover story in The New York Times Sunday Magazine and a major profile in The Boston Globe, and a much sought-after commentator. And as one of America's foremost advocates of African-American Studies (he is head of the department at Harvard), he has reflected upon the varied meanings of multiculturalism throughout his professional career, long before it became a national controversy. What we find in these pages, then, is the fruit of years of reflection on culture, racism, and the "American identity," and a deep commitment to broadening the literary and cultural horizons of all Americans.