This 9 x 8-1/2 inch, 120-page manual is well done by practicing architects (Joseph M. Valerio of Chicago, is the principal author, actually) and is, in fact, the outgrowth of the Symposium On The American Movie Palace held at the University of Wis. at Milwaukee in April of 1980 which was well described in the issue of TIME magazine of May 5th of that year in a colorful 2-page spread entitled: "Lighting the Darkened Palaces".

The authors take one on a tour of theatres which have new lives courtesy of the tenacious and far-sighted individuals who had the foresight to look beyond the dust and gloom of often abandoned buildings and sometimes neighborhood decay. Often, these same neighborhoods have been rejuvinated by the rebirth of these sound and ornamental structures! Let this book also introduce you to the complete process of the Proposal which they call "RELIGHTING THE MARQUEE" which is the third chapter of the book: Assembling the renovation team, appraisal and analysis of uses, financing and the feasibility package, government rules and building codes and meeting them.

The chapter "REAL DREAMS" has 22+ case histories described according to the aegis of their rebirth: local performance groups, municipal centers, and private funds sources. It is in this chapter that the only obvious flaws occur with the sixty some black and white photos: the captions are wrong for some of them, due to the book being produced by a publisher and printer widely separated from the authors. Examples: the grand staircase on page 14 is not identified, but it is in the Chicago Th.; the caption for page 32 is correct for the upper photo, but the lower is of Chicago's late-lamented Paradise Th.; page 38 is a great view of the organ screen of the Ohio Th. in Columbus; that for the photos on page 73 is right for the left hand photo, but the other is the foyer of the Oriental in Chicago (now refurbished and open again!); page 96 is Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh; the lobby shown on page 99 is actually the Avalon in Chicago (now the New Regal Th., a glorious case of restoration!); and finally, the shot on page 104 is something the handsome Riverside Th. in Milwaukee could only wish to have, for this is the beautiful (and spacious) grand lobby of the former Stanley Th. in Jersey City, N.J. (now an Asssembly Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses and they give free tours of this magnificently restored theatre.)

While this publication (it was issued only in paperback) contains no color photos, it doesn't need them since it is thorough and comprehensive and a good addition to one's bookshelf. Further information could be obtained from the Theatre Historical Society of America in Elmhurst, Il, or the League of Historic American Theatres.

A stranger comes to visit Mozart. The stranger asks Mozart to help him solve a mystery. It seems that all the muffins in Vienna are being stolen! Indeed, the stranger reveals himself as Inspector LeChat, from France, and tells us that Paris is now muffinless as well! In fact, the Mozart household is without a single muffin! Oh my.

There is even a Municipal Bakery, where those unable to own ovens of their own (or the means with which to buy muffins) can bake their own, for a pittance. There a group of bakers opens the hot ovens, only to find the muffins gone! The muffin fiend steals from the poor as well!

Inspector LeChat and Mozart solve the mystery. Yes, one individual is stealing the muffins. No, he's not eating them.

Great Pinkwater-ish humor is on display throughout this book. The copy I read was 44 pages, half of which are illustrated. This was about a 20 minute read for me. It's probably perfect for children ages 6-10 who like silly humor.

Then again, i'm 33, and I liked it quite a bit.

ken32

This is an excellent book for learning music appreciation. The book starts with the basics of music notation and characteristics of a musical piece, that is, tone, timber, harmony, melody, etc. Subsequently, the book has been very usefully divided into the various ages in history-romantic, baroque, classical and so on till modern day rock and jazz. The concepts and styles of the different ages and their important composers are explained in depth and is beautifully aided by the appropriate audio sections. The most attractive aspect aspect of the book are the accompanying coloured photographs of the paintings, sculptors and various other works of art, to capture the prevailing spirit of each age. History and eccenticities of the important composers and artists make the reading very contextual and interesting. Good use has been of "one-glance" tables to compare the musical styles of the various ages.The book has been written with beginners in mind, those who are not specialising in music but have an yearning to get a foothold in the enchanting world of music. The style of writing is simple and clear with good use of indentations.

I first read "Mute Evidence" - a journalistic dissection of the "cattle mutilation" craze of the late 1970's-early 1980's - in 1989, and find much of it fresh today. For roughly a decade following the end of the war in Vietnam, cattle farmers of the southwest reported finding their prized steers dead and, apparently mutilated by forces unknown. Dead cows appeared to have body parts selectively and precisely removed in ways that feral scavengers wouldn't. It's not clear when, but blame for these incidents soon took a turn for the sinister, with sentiment hinting at the use of cattle carcasses for secret experiments by the government, sinister corporations, secret paramilitary organizations, aliens, devil worshippers or some weird combination involving all of them.

With no plan to turn up little green men or pitchfork-weilding imps out for a quick chorizo, Kagan and Summers find that the truth, even when plausible, can often chill more than fiction. In their journeys, they encounter the usual suspects - crackpots and the ambitious small-town meida hounds that exploit them. While the authors wisely refrain from attempts to avoid explaining the phenomenon of cattle mutilation, they also offer competent evidence suggesting that there was no phenomenon - somewhat overzealous reporting that exagerated the number of actual cases combined with slipshod investigating that should have found no indicia of mutilation.

But the author's don't stop there. While the stories of alien scientists probing the southwest night may be entirely fanciful, the fear upon which they rely is very real - a product (the author's are willing to speculate) of uncertainties generated by the Vietnam war, Watergate, Ab-Scam, the oil-embargo, Iran, Stagflation and the other assorted horrors of the Nixon-Carter years. With so many symbols proving all-too unreliable, is it any surprise that people would now see themselves surrounded by amoral aliens?

The X-Files didn't exist when I read this book; It was another two years afterward that I even heard of Roswell or Area-51. Yet, not even Oliver Stone has jaded me enough to rob this primer on conspiracy theories of its impact.

MY FUNNY VALENTINE presents three heart-warming stories to bring a smile, or perhaps a tear, to the holiday. Authors Peggy Daniels, Allison Knight and Deborah Matthews bring their lovely talent together in this trio of treats certain to sweeten the approaching holiday.

CAN I CALL YOU SWEEETHEART? By Peggy Daniels: Four years ago Nicholas Parish left to fight in the Civil War, practically leaving Amber Wade at the altar on Valentine's Day. Now he returns to learn that his sweetheart married his brother and has a son. A tender, evocative tale certain to pluck the heartstrings, CAN I CALL YOU SWEETHEART copes with the pain of abandonment and the sweetness of learning to trust.

WINTER ROSES by Allison Knight: Gavin Sinclair is determined to thwart his younger brother's plans for elopement after the Valentine's ball. He thinks he's kidnapped the bride, but he really has the bride's older sister. WINTER ROSES is a charming regency romance that deftly breaks the rules of society in the most delightful manner.

BE MINE by Deborah Matthews: The Earl of Valentine curses the fool that gave his family their name. Even worse, his Aunt Cupid capitalizes upon her name by bringing lonely hearts together. Val makes a wager with his cousin that he can escape the marriage altar, but finds himself struck by Cupid's arrow aimed from an unlikely direction. A delectable, playful treat, BE MINE brings a comic chuckle to this collection.

Evocative, endearing, and tender, this collection is highly recommended.

Brochu gives valuable insight to his tenure as Expos president and the multiple dismantlings of the team -- including the disintegration of the downtown stadium plan. However, too much of this book is him defending himself from gripings of the limited partners and the media. Brochu's continual passing of the blame gets tiresome, however much truth is in it. I wish there was a book out there with both sides of the story, as the one-sidedness comes through in "My Turn At Bat." I am convinced after reading, however, that Brochu wanted to keep the Expos in Montréal, despite conspiracy theories that state otherwise. The truth is obviously somewhere in between Brochu's account and that observers saw when the team was sold to Jeffrey Loria (whom I think DID want to move the team) in 1999.

This book contains 163 questions and indepth answers about the IRS and the law, and should serve as a handbook for dealing with the IRS in nearly every situation you will encounter. Although the IRS is auditing less than before, if you are one of the "lucky and chosen" ones, this book will be a help in understanding the threats and intimidation that the IRS likes to wield on taxpayers. Daniel Pilla is the best author on the subject of the IRS - his books are easy to read, get to the point, and are a real aid to taxpayers.

Easy to follow field guide of the major plants of the Austin, Texas area. Good line drawings. This will not replace Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of Texas by Robert Vines, but it certainly easier to carry

This is a funny book that both parents and kids will enjoy - the humor is very sophisticated. I use it with kids who are reluctant readers and the silly storyline really hooks them. It's a nice alternative to books like Captain Underpants, because the book is funny without being mean. Captain Underpants has it's place (the kids love these books), but it's nice to find a book with similar appeal that isn't so anti-school!

The publication provides in eight quite independent chapters much broader (sometimes surprising) range of topics than its title suggests. After the introductory chapter similar to 80-page executive overview covering all what follows (including an extensive description of I/O technologies), the actual topics for discussion start at layer 2 LAN bridging and switching (with an overview of standard LANs principles, stopping very briefly at still advancing gigabit local networks and VLANs).

Next chapter moves into the wide area deeply discussing the ATM principles and switching. The following two chapters are dedicated first to the deployment of the ATM for IP carriage, IETF's solution for classical IP over ATM (CIOA), and second to the support of LAN native services across the ATM network, the ATM Forum's LAN emulation (LANE) and its advanced ancestor, multiprotocol over ATM (MPOA). Both ATM basics and communication of various types across the network are very well explained and described. What is very appreciable is the clear distinction among the three de facto standards, putting their deployment in right perspective and in comparison even through repeating the main features several times throughout the chapter. To briefly summarize, the ATM related chapters cover inherent ATM switching at ATM layer, bridging (layer 2 interconnection of ELANs) used in LANE and MPOA, and also touches routing (layer 3 interconnect) used within CIOA and MPOA. MPOA shows the first combination of bridging and routing services. Gradually the reader gets to the chapter dedicated to truly network layer switching technologies, describing the two proposed proprietary approaches: flow-based switching represented by Ipsilon's IP switching, and topology-based switching represented by Cisco Systems' tag switching.

The remaining two chapters are a little out of the publication scope which is also supported by the fact that they were contributed externally, one describes physical layer switching and the other is dedicated to the detailed presentation of Fibre Channel, an ANSI standard suggested for high performance LANs. To summarize, these two chapters get the reader back to the layer 1 and layer 2 switching.

The contents of the book covers much more than (the advertised in the title) switched services at network layer, and more understandable (but perhaps less attractive) title for reader could be "bottom layers switched services". The main text is not accompanied by any glossary or list of abbreviations (deciphered occasionally through the text) which would be extremely useful. The references are attached to each individual chapter and mostly consist of authors' previously published books. There would be also strong need for a complete reference list of the (draft) standards and de facto standards related to the topics, for further study and for checking the new developments.

Network layer switched services would satisfy all networking specialists who need a better and qualified understanding of ATM, LANE and MPOA, and would also like to get the background of proposals for layer 3 switching as per end of 1997. The other topics, like I/O technologies and namely Fibre Channel fall outside the scope of the network layer switched services discussion and also may be found elsewhere. As the authors clearly prefer switching to routing, the book does not cover routing principles, routing algorithms and protocols even as a primer (unlike the included LAN basics or I/O technologies description). Although routing is extensively described in other available publications, what is missing in the Network layer switched services is an explanation of the major differences between switched and routed networks.