What does it mean to 'chew the fat'? Why do we put things in 'apple-pie order'? And what on earth is a 'hat trick'? Readers will learn all this and more in this fun and engaging new addition to the Complete Idiot's Guide® series, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weird Word Origins. This humorous book provides entertaining insight on the often metaphorical, always taken-for-granted phrases and expressions used every day. In it, language expert Paul McFedries takes readers through the sometimes surprising, always amusing world of weird words and expressions, and the fascinating stories that surround them. Presented in a fun, easy-to-read style, this book takes readers on a journey through the bizarre and eccentric origins that make up our everyday speech.

High-Impact Middle Management is designed to address the unique needs of public sector managers. Middle managers in the public sector have more direct impact on results than any other layer of an organization. This book shows you how to become a high-impact middle manager—one who can transform high pressure into high impact business results. This is a sister book to The High-Impact Middle Manager.

Voodoo. Vampires. Jazz. There's no city quite like New Orleans, a city that whispers stories and where writers come to eavesdrop. New Orleans Stories collects the very best writing on the Big Easy by a stellar gallery of writers for whom the city has played host and muse -- from Walt Whitman and William Faulkner to Anne Rice, Truman Capote, Walker Percy, Tennessee Williams, and Zora Neale Hurston. With a striking new cover, this anthology captures the vibrancy -- and variety -- of New Orleans as it casts its most seductive spell.

It's the 1960s in New Hampshire, and Gloria Norris is growing up in the projects with her family. A photo might show a happy, young family, but only a dummkopf would believe that. Jimmy's a wiseguy who relies on charm, wit and an unyielding belief that he's above the law; and his youngest daughter, Gloria, is just like him. Or at least, she knows that she needs to stay on his good side. When an unspeakable act of violence shakes her to her core, Gloria's fiery determination takes shape and she sets herself on a path away from the cycle of violence whirling around her.

Mics, Cameras, Symbolic Action: Audio-Visual Rhetoric for Writing Teachers begins by placing audio-visual writing within established theoretical frames in rhetoric and composition and moves through a variety of applied pedagogical concerns with the aim of helping writing teachers use audio-visual writing assignments to realize a wide variety of learning goals in their writing classes.