Unfortunately all common therapies for allergies tend to treat the symptoms and not the root of the problem, the immune system. Medicated baths, fatty acids, antihistimines, allergy shots (the actual success rate of such injections is less than 50%,and now I know why) did very little to help my itchy dog. The author suggests a food trial and endocrine (hormone) test first and foremost. Apparently some animals change dramatically once they are on a diet of novel protein and a novel carbohydrate. Their symtoms are greatly relieved, once they are no longer eating the offending food. Dr. Plechner's book addresses the improper breeding practices (breeding a dog/cat with allergies thus resulting in a litter with allergies) as a cause of such immune problems. The author gives the reasons why so many animals are allergic to beef, brewers yeast, wheat, eggs, corn, milk, etc. He calls this the hit list of things to avoid. Dr. Plechner explains the relation of estrogen, cortisol and thyroid hormone. If these are not balanced, the immune system cannot function properly. The actual cortisone my dog was receiving was not being absorbed and we would have never known without the endocrine test that the author suggests. I am saddened to think that cats and dogs are being prescribed cortisone without having the absorption level tested. My dog was hypothyroid yet was never previously tested because she did not exhibit classic symptoms. So because of this book, my dog eats a healthy commercially prepared diet of rabbit, venison, and fish and potatoe. I am happy to say she now takes a natural plant derived cortisone daily and thyroid medication daily and no longer scratches, plus her inflamed,chronically infected ears are healed!! Thanks to the author Dr. Plechner and this wonderful book. Even the Scientific Director of the Humane Society gave this book a glowing reccomendation.

This book was not only a life saver but an eye opener as well. The information contained in this book describes the problems, makes you think about the causes and then helps you to find a remedy. It also makes you think a great deal about the question, "If this is what the food we give to the animals we love does to them, what is the food we are giving to ourselves and our children doing to us?" As the doctors mention in the back of the book, many of the allergies and symptoms that humans have can be so closely compared to the allergies and symptoms our animals have. A great book to buy and have on your shelf for reference and review. I have my beloved dog with me today because of this book. Thank you

This booklet contains a mass of valuable and above all comprehensive information to cure allergies. The biggest merit of Plechner is surely the fact that he takes ALL responsible causes of what he calls an epidemic into account (commercial food, breeding practices, etc.). Furthermore, the autor provides a very logical and easy to follow strategy to treat allergies (and the numerous side-problemes, mostly not associated with allergy), based on what seems waterproof scientific fondations. Plechners approach owes a lot of its usefulness to its systematicity in analyzing and correcting the direct causes of symptoms instead of just treating the symptoms in an instinctive-like fashion. Definitely worth buying: a lot of wisdom for 8$...

This book should be required reading for any middle class American.Martin Larson takes us throught the creation of the banking cartel called the Federal Reserve System. Larson shows how the Fed manipuates interest rates and artificially creates depressions and resessions. He shows howthe printing of worthless fiat(paper)money destroys the credit, and true value of a nation.Larson goes through the arguements for and against fiat money and shows how a currency based on metals( gold, silver)is the only true constitutional money. With quotes and a chapter on Thomas Jefferson we see how the Third president was a prophet when it came to debt, inflation and banks. A great buy.

The story of a lonely schoolmaster/cleric on a small island in the Danish archipelago may not sound promising, but this is one of the best novels of the 20th century.

Troubled but humane, the narrator Johannes Vig gives us a wonderful portrait of all aspects of the small society he lives in. Saturated with the sights and sounds of nature (one can almost hear the ice breaking midway through the novel), this book is a treat for the soul. I've read it several times now, and it's as refreshing now as it was the first time I read it. Enjoy!!

Being an adaptation by and with the great Martin Jarvis, I thought it would be absolutely excellent, as I have found his audio efforts to be always. But in his performance there is something lacking, Sir Robert Chiltern should be played with a bit more pathos. Jacqueline Bisset is formidable, and Alfred Molina also as Lord Goring.

As to being a live recording, this is a mixed blessing. This public seems to misunderstand some lines, and there are misplaced laughs, for example when Robert Chiltern says: "I did not sell myself for money. I bought success at a great price. That is all". I'm sure Wilde didn't intend this to be a joke. Chiltern is not bought, he is not changed, it is he who buys something, therefore his character, his person, is not altered. The public dismisses this important nuance and bursts into a hearty fit of laughter.

There are three o four more like that. But on the whole, this recording by L.A. Theater Works is highly enjoyable.

Wilde, in part, attempts to portray the relativity of truth, power, and character, things we often take as absolutes, while also entertaining his audience with witty dialogue and comical mishaps.

Oscar Wilde gives us here one of his best plays. He explores the political world in London and how a young ambitious but poor man can commit a crime, which is a mistake, to start his good fortune. But he builds his political career on ethical principles. Sooner or later someone will come into the picture to blackmail him into supporting an unacceptable scheme, by producing a document that could ruin his career if revealed. His past mistake may come back heavily onto him. But he resists and sticks to his moral reputation. He prefers doing what is right to yielding to some menace. He may lose though his political ambition and career and his wife's love. But love is saved by forgiveness and the man's career is also saved by the work of a real friend who recaptures the dubious document and destroys it. In other words love and an ethical career are saved by the burrying of the old mistake into oblivion. In other words love and friendship are stronger than the scheming action of a blackmailer. This is a terrible criticism of victorian society which is based more on appearances than principles and yet able to destroy a man's absolutely ethical present life with a mistake from his youth, throwing the baby along with the water of the bath. It is also a criticism of the victorian political world where you cannot have a career if you are not rich, money appearing as the only way to succeed, at least to succeed fast. But it is a hopeful play because love and friendship are beyond such considerations and only consider the best interest of men and women, in the long run and in the name of absolute purity. Better be a sinner and be forgiven when you have reformed than see a reformed sinner destroyed by the lack of forgiveness. Oscar Wilde advocates here a vision of humanity that necessitates forgiveness as the essential fuel of any rational approach. Real morality is not the everlasting guilt of a sinner without any possible reform. Real morality is the recognition that forgiveness is necessary when reform has taken place. Otherwise society would be unlivable and based on hypocrisy and the death or rejection of the best people in the name of (reformed) mistakes. One must not be that sectarian, because man can learn from his mistakes and improve along the road : one can learn how to avoid mistakes and repair those oen has committed. If condemnation is absolute, no progress is possible. A very fascinating play, a very modern play. And yet when can one be considered as reformed, when can we consider one has really corrected one's mistakes and improved ? And who can deem such elements ? The very core of political and ethical rectitude is concerned here and Oscar Wilde embraces a generous approach.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan

Hammer's is a very advanced grammar book NOT intended for anyone with less than university English grammar knowledge.
A great extent of the examples encompassed within the book are solely in German with no interpretation in English. And that is a major flaw. Some of the explanations can be quite confusing and unintelligible so beware. Furthermore, one should take into consideration that that it serves the function of reference, excluding practice. Therefore, it is insufficient for students in need of practice. In the overall, not very useful for freshmen students.

this is the absolute best grammar book that i have ever seen... but unless you already speak german very well, this book will be too advanced for you... if you already speak good german, but you want to further your knowledge, then this book has EVERYTHING, and in detail... and most of the examples DO have english translations. the ones that do not have them, are done solely for syntactic purposes, where a translation is not needed... anyway, if you are in a 200+ level college course in german, i suggest this book... ive read pretty much every page, and its priceless... absolutely fantastic.

This book is a must for the serious German student. It's wonderful to have as a reference. I also highly recommend the workbook that is sold separately. It will keep you busy for a long time. This book still has German written in the pre-Rechtschreibreform style, but there are notes explaining when certain things are now used or written differently. This is written from a British point of view, so the English in it not necessarily used in America, but that makes no difference. It's an excellent book.

Not only do I own this book, but also his book True Maine Woodland stories. He was my mother's cousin and both my books are autographed. What most people don't know is Al Martin was also a wonderful artist painting with oils on canvas.

HAND-TAMING WILD BIRDS AT THE FEEDER. By Alfred G. Martin with Photographs and Illustrations by the Author and with Cover Art and Illustrations by John Still. 144 pages. Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: Alan C. Hood & Company, Inc., 1991 [1963]. ISBN 0-911469-07-9 (pbk).

Alfred Martin was something of an oddity. When he was ten years old he learned how to tame wild birds by trapping songbirds for the English bird trade. Later he found his way to Maine, built a house in the woods, fished, hunted, practised taxidermy, and cultivated the friendship of wild birds. Although he possessed a great fund of knowledge about birds, we learn that no great knowledge is required to teach a wild bird to feed out of our hand. The method Martin employed, and which
will work with many though not all birds, is simplicity itself and is clearly described in his book. What is required, then, is not knowledge but something far more difficult for us moderns - what is required is a shift of attitude, and a great deal of patience.

The intelligence, skills, and abilities of wild creatures are vastly underrated in our modern world. So puffed up are we with arrogance, so obsessed with the illusion that we are at the tip of a mythical 'evolutionary tree', so proud of our technical achievements and contemptuous of life forms which seem to get along without the aid of technology, it has become almost impossible for the average person to accept the fact that wild creatures, far from being wholly other than us, are our fellows. But for Martin birds were not so much animals as persons, and he emphasizes that without a genuine respect for their intelligence and talents, without fully accepting them as our fellows and equals, they in turn will never come to respect and trust us enough to come to our hand.

Martin's book is written in a rather rambling style and contains much else besides his method of hand-taming wild birds. His book is rich in personal anecdote, and in addition to the many good stories about his experiences with numerous species of birds and other animals there is also a great deal of information and practical advice for anyone who may be thinking of setting up a bird-feeding station to attract birds to their backyard. Among the many topics he covers are how to build a birdbath, how to build houses and feeders, how to select appropriate foods, how to care for injured birds, and so on.

Given modern society's strict insistence on the otherness of nature, however, Martin's most important lesson for us is his seemingly outrageous notion that birds are every bit as worthy and deserving of our respect and compassion as are our fellow humans. He assures us that once we begin to see wild birds, not so much as 'animals' but as little people in their own right, it won't be long before we experience the thrill of them landing on our hands to receive the gift of food. But before this can happen it is absolutely essential that we drop all feelings of superiority.

The prevailing ideology insists on our separateness from nature. But the idea that we are essentially different, being false, runs contrary to our nature and leads to
real suffering, the suffering of an alienation that issues in boredom. Martin points out that birds rightly consider man as their worst enemy. Terror is the form their suffering takes. Martin's achievement is to have given us a book which demonstrates how easily both the bird's terror and man's boredom can be replaced with real joy.

I am originally from the state of Maine where Mr. Martin hailed from. This book is terrific and not only gives insight on how to hand-feed wild birds, but also gives helpful information about them. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in birds.
And don't let Karen Seichevilch's review get you down; she just didn't have the patience to go through all the steps to get birds to feed from her hand. It took me 6 months to get a bird - a chickadee - to feed from my hand.

Attention Alfred Hitchcock Presents fans: Death on Television, edited by Francis M. Nevins, Jr. and Martin Harry Greenberg in 1989, is a great companion to the reruns of the late 50s and early 60s TV mystery anthology series. This is a collection of short stories by Henry Slesar that were produced on the Hitchcock show. Mr. Slesar is one of the most prolific TV writers ever. He was involved in more than 40 of the AHP shows, writing both stories and teleplays. In his introduction to this book, he states that Hitchcock is usually referred to as the Master of Suspense but Mr. Slesar renames him as the Master of Irony. The stories in this book all have the signature ironic twist endings for which Alfred Hitchcock TV is famous. His stories often show the frailties of the human condition and relationships. "The Test" and "A Woman's Help" show that blood is thicker than water and apparently morality. In "The Final Vow" a young nun is tested and in "The Second Verdict" a young lawyer has gotten a guilty man acquitted. In both of these stories, help comes from unlikely sources, hardened criminals. It is fun to read the stories in this book and follow along with the show. For aspiring writers, this book can be a primer showing how the written word is brought to the small screen. Stories also include "Cop For a Day" which starred Walter Matthau and "Starring the Defense" which starred Richard Basehart when produced. Another book that I recommend is Hitchcock in Prime Time, also edited by Martin Harry Greenberg, which is a similar book that collects more of original stories that were later produced on Hitchcock's TV shows. They are written by various authors and include comments by the authors about how they felt about the teleproduction of their stories.

There is a lot to like about this book." It provides excruciatingly detailed coverage of Java, written in a clear, intelligent way. The author does an effective job of tempering the extensively technical content with a friendly writing style that is never flip or insulting to the reader. I also appreciate the abundance of examples, illustrations, and diagrams, which support the text well and are easy to read. Pertinent code samples are well documented, which enhances readability. Diagrams are clear and and are supported with well-written callouts.

Although the book's title is "Java : A Framework for Program Design and Data Structures".it could be daunting to readers with little or no programming background, especially as they progress beyond the first two chapters. Chapter 1 provides an excellent introduction to Java and object-oriented programming concepts. The first part of Chapter 2 provides a good introduction to variables and data types. About the middle of Chapter 2, however, when the author begins discussing additional mathematical concepts, the reader is led into deeper waters and at this point, "absolute" beginners may start to feel overwhelmed. This doesn't mean that they should abandon the book, but they may need to take additional time to absorb the concepts.

Each chapter concludes with a summary of its content and several practice exercises. Although such practice is certainly valuable, I would have liked to see an additional appendix with "answers" to the exercises so that readers could check their work and benefit from the author's expertise. Without such author feedback, the exercises are less effective as learning tools.

Overall, I see the book as a potentially valuable addition to the bookshelf of any programmer new to Java especially to data strutures. I recommend it with some caution to "absolute" beginners -- although with patience, determination, and a commitment to learn, they, too, may find the book very beneficial

Povh, Rith, Scholz, and Zetsche have written an exceptional book about nuclei and particles. It is comprehensive, but not too elaborate to confuse the reader, it is up to date, but provides a thorough guide to the contemporary topics, and it has an unusual structure that is very compelling: In part one, the decomposition of matter down to the structures of elementary particles is presented, in part two, the synthesis of composite systems out of these fundamental particles and their interactions is discussed. This approach is - from a structural point of view - a brilliant idea.

So why do I rate this book with 4 stars only? Maybe because I personally like Donald Perkins' book on high-energy phyics even better (and if the new edition is as good as announced it will probably remain my preferece). The nuclear physics content (my personal field of interest) is also only briefly addressed in the book by Povh et al. (Perkin's book of course contains no introduction to nuclear structure at all, even on a very rough scale, but it has its focus clearly only on high-energy physics whereas Povh et al. also address nuclear structure issues). Clearly, Povh et al. focus on the introduction to a wide field where addtional reading is required anyway.

It would be highly desirable if the authors could enlarge their interesting introductory textbook by a few topical results of nuclear structure physics. But all in all, it is a very good approach to the world of nuclei, particles, and their interactions.

First, let me say that there's a lot to like about this book. It's very obvious that an exhausting amount of effort was involved in researching it, and for that the authors are to be warmly commended. One would guess that every scintilla of data related to "TV Hitchcock" has been unearthed and accounted for. This project was very obviously a labor of love.
However, this book has an amateurish flavor that's very distracting. For one thing--as has been mentioned by other reviewers--the illustrations are evidently photocopies of photographs; they're really nasty. However, that's not the worst of it.
These guys can't write. PERIOD.
Not only is this work rife with typos, but the prose itself is awful. Grammatical errors abound, punctuation is tossed about with abandon (particularly commas), and vocabulary is misused. An editor brandishing a blue pencil in one hand and a whip in the other is DESPERATELY needed to pull this book into shape.
It hurts me to trash this book, as so much work went into it. But the fact of the matter is that literature (even popular) needs to be held to standards, and this book just doesn't meet them. I see a lot of this deterioration in contemporary writing--it's scarier than anything Hitchcock ever committed to celluloid, that's for sure. Please, bring back good editors. If one had been available to the authors of this work, it would probably have merited a 5-star rating.
Addendum--I'm editing my previous review by way of self-defense: "James Barton creditable as Hobbs (or rather Hobbs' body - since he's actually playing Fortnum for much of the show), and convinces you that he's actually suffering. Most of the acting from him was showing emotion and facial features, since the most of the dialogue was from thoughts, more so a recording of his voice."
Oh, my.
The above passage was chosen by opening the book to a random page; I believe this is from page 75 (many of the pages aren't numbered--go figure). I seem to recall encountering even more obtuse examples, e.g., the synopsis of [the original] Specialty of the House, but I thought my case was stronger for having used the method described. I took the time to revise my review in response to somewhat puzzling assertions from other reviewers (which, astonishingly, bear a remarkable stylistic similarity to each other) that this book represents a pinnacle of grammatical perfection and "proper" usage of our fair tongue. I'm willing to entertain the possibility that my own copy is unique, but common sense dictates that the odds don't favor it. Turn to any page--the whole book (my copy, anyway) is like this. And if despite all this I still haven't convinced you, check out Amazon's own review "From the Publisher." Clearly, given the laughable prose, "publisher" and "authors" are one (two?) and the same. Believe them when they say that they "spent no expense on a project that is highly agreed by all to be long over-due."
Sigh.

This has to be one of my three favorite books. The other two are "The Twlight Zone Companion" by Marc Scott Zicree and "The Outer Limits Companion" by David Schow. Like those books, The Alfred Hitchcock Companion covers the complete background production, synposis and episode guide, rare photos, and magnificent documentary approach. The style or writing is scholarly and a few notables from Sweden and Germany wrote short brief essays that explore the program in detail. Mad Magazine spoofs, AHP collectables and even Hitchcock's appearance on the show "Tactic" for the cancer relief fund with William Shatner was the most interesting. This book came to my attention through the book review in FILMFAX magazine last month and they are right. This is the final word on the subject of the Hitchcock show. To make it short and sweet (and I mean this literally) this the hands-down, ultimate book on the subject. Buy it!

This is a must have for any of you Hitchcock fans. Like The Outer Limits Companion, this book covers every aspect of the Hitchcock television series. Almost every episode has memories from the writers or actors or directors, trivia, bloopers, and other goodies. I ordered the book for myself but when it came in the mail Boy was I shocked! It's 660 pages thick! There are various chapters written by scholars covering Hitchcock TV show spoofs, Hitchcock TV collectables, Hitchcock TV shows that were produced and directed by Mr. Hitchcock that wasn't part of the series. All of the Hitchcock anthologies are listed. As an English teacher, I also noticed how well this book is gramatically correct - using the proper English as Hitchcock would have. This makes translations in other countries far easier to read. With the exception of a few hazy photos that are a little difficult to see, this is superb. Did I also mention the index is almost 40 pages thick? I only wish other television programs received the same treatment as Grams and Wikstrom have done.