TODAY’S IDEA: We steal this idea from a friend: How great would
it be if every town and city in the United States held a
simultaneous Mardi Gras celebration next year, with the goal of
raising money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina?
A good excuse to party, and for a good cause.
TOP AWARD: We hear that “Mother Love,” the first novel of local
author Cheryl Bazzoui, has been chosen by World Museum of Ashville,
N.C., as a masterpiece book and Review’s Choice for 2004. Cheryl
writes under the pen name of Ann McCauley.
Reviewer Wilma Frana gave the book “four flames” – rare find –
and had this to say:
“Barbara Malone has endured a bad marriage, raised four
children, and then loses her husband to a heart attack. She finds
the courage to join the Peace Corps and is assigned to
Honduras.
“The story follows her work there as well as events happening in
the lives of her children. The reader will rejoice with her as she
finds a new life and a new love.
“I found the book to be very well written, one of those you just
can’t put down until you finish it.”
IN THE NEWS: Dr. Kimberly Young of Bradford, a pioneer in the
field of Internet addiction, is in the news again.
An AP story in an edition of the Daily Herald detailed such
problems being experienced by young people in China, and quoted Dr.
Young in the text. Her book on Internet addiction has been
translated into Chinese.
“They are catching up with a lot of our technology, and
certainly at that juncture, are now able to run into some of the
same difficulties,” said Dr. Young, a clinical psychologist.
Interestingly, the story is accompanied by photos, one of which
shows a nurse inserting an intravenous drip into the arm of a
12-year-old boy who was admitted into the Beijing Military Region
Central Hospital after he quit school and spent four straight days
in an Internet cafe. Another shows mobs of Chinese youth in an
Internet cafe in Beijing.
The hospital apparently is China’s only government-approved
clinic for Internet addiction. Among the treatments are electrical
stimulation – the 12-year-old is shown with some kind of
stimulation devices on his feet – and exercise to combat depression
and other symptoms.
Our thanks to Paul Matouski of Barrington, Ill., for sending the
story along.
