Among the many mysteries of life is a curious one which some people come to sense in themselves: an odd but compelling feeling of relationship to someone from another time, place and maybe another sex. This peculiar feeling, as reported by those who experience it, makes us wonder about the basic nature of any assumed relationship which traverses space and time. Is it real? Can relationships traverse time and space? Or are such intimations simply odd reflections or symbols of convergent personal interests which animate us to act in patterned ways? Or do they verge on being like actual Doppelgngers; repeated embodiments of energy which are transformed into so many patterns through time that inevitably repetitions occur which draw persons together? The novel Alexandre and Simone, The Two Musketeers makes no attempt to answer these unanswerable questions, but chips away at the fundaments of the idea that shared human patterns and values can and do transverse time and geography to be repeatedly embodied. Every life, no matter how simple, has drama; and sometimes the drama resembles a replay of previous lives, whether this idea is recognized and accepted or not. Those of like interests are drawn to one another across time. The two main characters of the novel include: Alexandre Dumas, the famous writer and passionate rake who lived in late revolutionary France, and Simone Dahlgren, a passionate young California scholar, dedicated collector and dealer in fine antiquarian books, artists books and manuscripts. These two characters share parallel interests, flaws and compelling obsessions which are expressed differently, but which also converge, seem similar, conflict and ultimately cause pain as well as great joy. Alexandre, a prodigious word-master and extravagant lover of the arts, food and women, stalks through his life like a Titan of verbal expression and flaming erotic passions. Simone, whose passions include art and words in literature, shares many of Alexandres peculiar obsessions and, yes, some of the same flaws. Both are extravagant, intelligent but generally non-reflective about themselves, and thus lack personal insight. They are profligate with money, but generous and basically loving, even when stubbornly foolish. But most of all they love words, often reducing and deflecting life-experiences and problems into mere words and aesthetic satisfactions. Words, in one form or another, occupy their days and shape their struggles and relationships. Alexandres compulsive writing is fed by two linked drives: the need to earn money, and his intrinsic obsession to spill words into tales and romantic dramas about acts of derring-do and erotic passion. Simones compulsive word-orientation provides escape from personal chaos through aesthetic and intellectual satisfaction, and feeds her depleted finances at the same time. She becomes a fine art and antiquarian book dealer/collector. The sum of these ingredients creates curious emotional joys and quandries as they both fall on the sword of frustrated love, tragedy, failure and even success. Alexandre rushes through life, writing and loving day and night, and acting in ways which require exile to escape political censure. But he finds that his travels are shadowed by murders, even in that haven for political refugees, Switzerland. He cannot escape his obsessions which entrap him in plots of eruptive social and political change wherever he travels. Indeed, in spite of his fertile imagination in creating and resolving plots, he is only able to discover the murderer of his best friends at the point of a pistol aimed at him. Alexandres travels, love affairs, his wild imagination and political dedications are reflected in his written dramas and novels which continue to thrill readers with their romantic escapades long after his death. Oddly, most of his problems and their solutions emanated from his passionate dedication to written or spoken words. As such, his legacy

We all work at homeeven if we arent telecommuters, entrepreneurs or stay-at-home parents. Whether were paying the bills, helping children with homework, or operating a home-based business, time at home often requires us to spend hours at home workstations. Most of the time, we dont realize were using our equipment in unhealthy ways. Fortunately, you can reduce the wear and tear on your body by learning about ergonomics. In this guidebook, a longtime medical anthropologist shares tips and strategies that enable you to develop habits to work efficiently and comfortably; conserve your energy and work smarter; and use your brain in order to save your body. By tweaking your environment and the ways you use office equipment, you can change your life in all sorts of ways. Taking steps to reduce aches and pains can immediately improve your relationship with your significant other, children, family, and friends. Its essential to be smart about how you use sophisticated machines, especially the ones you use for prolonged periods. Overcome minor and even severe physical problems with Ergonomics for Home-Based Workers.

A Promise Kept: Memoir of Tibetans in India is a collaborative work between Germaine Krull and her friend Marilyn Ekdahl Ravicz. Although a great photographer, Germaine was European and wrote English poorly. For this reason, she entrusted her memoir manuscript to Marilyn. Germaine requested that Marilyn promise to edit and rewrite it for publication so others could share her experiences. As promised, Marilyn offers Germaine’s A Promise Kept to you. Enjoy reading about his holiness Sakya Trizin, his family, and their lives in India. Share their trials, adaptations, and amazing social and religious rebirth as refugee Tibetans.

CRAZY FEASTS is a culinary history cookbook that includes descriptions of ten banquets that were quite crazy or bizarre in several senses. Each feast is preceded by a short description of the location and historical setting in order to give a background for the dishes served, as well as for the particular kind of craziness involved. The feasts vary in historical depth from the Roman Empire period to the first decades of the twenty-first century. The locations include cities from Rome to other European capitals, as well as Mexico City, when it was called Tenochtitlan as the Spanish conquistadores entered it in the early sixteenth century. Each feast described was either an actual historical incident, or is an imagined banquet that could well have occurred given the culture and habits of the time. Each feast described is followed by recipes garnered from that culture and historical period. CRAZY FEASTS is a salute to human folly and the happy circumstances of glorious banquets meant to stimulate your sense of fun and folly should you decide to create a crazy feast of your own.

From archaic ochre marks on stones and Paleolithic cave murals of animals and hunters to modern art museums, humans have created many styles and forms of visual art. Some were created to enjoy, and others to enhance social occasions, after which they were discarded or destroyed. Ephemeral art or durable, it never mattered if it was aesthetic. This is the first comprehensive study of ephemeral visual art - an heir of the human evolutionary background that made it possible for us to create and appreciate art. Ephemeral artworks still permeate life, and this study honors their heritage.

Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, and The Man in the Iron Mask, is the most famous French writer of the nineteenth century. In 2002, his remains were transferred to the Panthéon, a mausoleum reserved for the greatest French citizens, amidst much national hype during his bicentennial. Contemporary France, struggling with the legacies of colonialism and growing diversity, has transformed Dumas, grandson of a slave from St. Domingue (now Haiti), into a symbol of the colonies and the larger francophone world in an attempt to integrate its immigrants and migrants from its former Caribbean, African, and Asian colonies to improve race relations and to promote French globality. Such a reconception of Dumas has made him a major figure in debates on French identity and colonial history. Ten tears after Dumas’s interment in the Panthéon, the time is ripe to re-evaluate Dumas within this context of being a representative of la Francophonie. The French re-evaluation of Dumas, therefore, invites a reassessment of his life, works, legacy, and previous scholarship. This interdisciplinary collection is the first major work to take up this task. It is unique for being the first scholarly work to bring Dumas into the center of debates about French identity and France’s relations with its former colonies. For the purposes of this collection, to analyze Dumas in a “francophone” context means to explore Dumas as a symbol of a “French” culture shaped by, and inclusive of, its (former) colonies and current overseas departments. The seven entries in this collection, which focus on providing new ways of interpreting The Three Musketeers, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo, and Georges, are categorized into two broad groups. The first group focuses on Dumas’s relationship with the francophone colonial world during his lifetime, which was characterized by the slave trade, and provides a postcolonial re-examination of his work, which was impacted profoundly by his status as an individual of black colonial descent in metropolitan France. The second part of this collection, which is centered broadly around Dumas’s francophone legacy, examines the way he has been remembered in the larger French-speaking (postcolonial) world, which includes metropolitan France, in the past century to explore questions about French identity in an emerging global age.