After facing the realization I was going to become a grandfather to a great little boy, it seemed important to tell him something about his family history that occurred before he was born. With as busy as he is now in college, it may be awhile before he slows down long enough to inquire.I simply started at the beginning with the first memory I ever had, and chronicled many of the meaningful things in my life as I remembered them. I documented grade school, high school, and college experiences. I then moved on to my time in the military and in the working world, all the while starting a family with a special woman, Trudy, my wife of nearly forty-seven years. The highlights in my life get a treatment, including my travels and the events that affected me deeply enough to shape my thinking, because I also share my many opinions. Here then is Grandpa’s Backstory: Because Somebody Might Need to Know!

This is the story of a young boy asking his grandfather about how life was long ago. So many times, children ask about the "olden days." This story explains a little about the 1940s to the young boy. Party line phones, radios with dials, books such as The Lone Ranger, chicks sent through the US Mail to the Post Office, farm life, neighborhood blacksmiths who fix the bicycles of children are all part of the story.

Generations have fallen in love with this classic story of a grandson and grandfather whose visit to a family farm with a special tractor brings back memories. Don't miss the new companion title Grandma's Farm — now available! Grandpa Joe takes his grandson Timmy back to the site of his family’s farm, where the old house and a ramshackle barn still stand. The visit stirs up memories for Grandpa Joe—in particular, the majesty of his own father's shiny red tractor, now rusting in the forgotten fields. An ideal gift, this picture book evokes nostalgia while demonstrating a special bond between a grandparent and grandchild.

As children, Ida loves looking after her younger sister, Nora, but when their beloved father dies in 1926, everything changes. The two young girls move in with their grandmother who is particularly encouraging of Nora's musical talent. Nora eventually follows her dream of a brilliant musical career, while Ida takes a job as a nanny and their lives become quite separate. The two sisters are reunited when Nora's life takes an unwelcome direction and she finds herself, embittered and resentful, isolated in the Tasmanian bush with a husband and children. Ida longs passionately for a family and when she marries Len, a reliable and good man, she hopes to soon become a mother. Over time, it becomes clear that this is never likely to happen. In Ida's eyes, it seems that Nora possesses everything in life that could possibly matter yet she values none of it. Set in rural Tasmania over a span of seventy years, the strengths and flaws of motherhood are revealed through the mercurial relationship of these two very different sisters. The Sisters' Song speaks of dreams, children and family, all entwined with a musical thread that binds them together.

My story finds me a somewhat frustrated genealogist, simply because of the meager success I experienced in my search for the origins of my family namesake. Okay, I did find him. He is Bartolomeo Tagliaferro, born in Venice in 1530. Beyond that, only a few snippets of his life’s journey are available from the usual research sources. Indeed, I found very little. What I did learn was that he liked the music of the age, and he was taught all the rules and practices of the local businesses by his father. He found a lovely young lady and, somehow, got selected (by her father) to go abroad to represent the interests of the Doge. The court of Elizabeth I was where he made his stand for the long term, becoming a managing musician at the royal court. His life included touching the music, politics and literature of the late 1500’s, contacting the likes of Francis Walsingham, William Shakespeare, and Thomas “Kit” Marlowe, to say nothing of the beautiful and talented Aemelia Bassano. His stay in England saw him marry and father a brood of children, most not surviving him to their adulthood. A son, Francis, was the exception. He was relatively successful in the local area and with his wife fathered a couple of children. His daughter was a stay at home body, never marrying. His son, Robert, was the exact opposite. He found his comfort level in the entourage of the new king, Charles I, the son of the famous King James I of Bible fame. Charles went on to infamy by losing his crown to a very frustrated parliament. The king was imprisoned, and eventually lost his head in the Tower of London. Robert and his best, life-long friend, Lawrence Smith, found themselves on a wanted list of associates of the king. They quickly, but prudently, planned their escape to the new world from the docks at Stepney, aboard the ship “The Honor”. Their successful arrival in Virginia was just the start of a new phase of life in America. There it is. The story of how the Taliaferro’s moved from Venice through the court of Elizabeth I, and on to the new world – Virginia. IL VIAGGIO!

This book uses a historical and modern lens to reimagine the role that Extension could potentially play in catalyzing reciprocal, co-learning relationships between Land-Grant Universities and their diverse local constituencies. The establishment of statewide extension systems was once seen as a way to ensure that Land-Grant Universities would be accessible and responsive to all of a state’s residents. Extension systems continue to offer a front-door to a major public university in almost every county of the United States, but they tend to be viewed primarily as a way to translate science or distribute information from the university to the public. This books argues for the importance of Extension and shows that we are conceiving of this system too narrowly. Only by retelling the stories of the Extension and getting people to see themselves as part of the story can we imagine a different future in which state universities and land-grant colleges engage more authentically and equitably in two-way relationships with their local constituents.in catalyzing reciprocal, co-learning relationships between Land-Grant Universities and their diverse local constituencies. Chapter “Palatable disruption: the politics of plant milk", chapter “Feeding the melting pot: inclusive strategies for the multi-ethnic city", chapter "A carrot isn't a carrot isn't a carrot: tracing value in alternative practices of food exchange", chapter “Virtualizing the 'good life': reworking narratives of agrarianism and the rural idyll in a computer game" and chapter "'Workable utopias' for social change through inclusion and empowerment? Community supported agriculture (CSA) in Wales as social innovation" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license via link.springer.com.

Winner of the 2016 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction “I read The Life and Death of Sophie Stark with my heart in my mouth. Not only a dissection of genius and the havoc it can wreak, but also a thunderously good story.”—Emma Donoghue, New York Times bestselling author of Room “This novel is perceptive, subtle, funny and lingers in unexpected ways. The analysis of a woman who puts her art above all else is equal parts inspiration and warning story. Anna North makes prose look easy.”—Lena Dunham Who is Sophie Stark? A brilliant filmmaker, a lover, a wife, a friend, a traitor. A troubled misfit who becomes a star, at great cost to the people who love her and, ultimately, to herself. Gripping and provocative, The Life and Death of Sophie Stark is a story of the power of art to transform lives and to destroy them, and of an artist’s drive to create something greater than herself, even if it means sacrificing everything—and everyone—she loves.