Here are 690 questions about the history of Pasadena derived from the headlines of Pasadena newspapers, as displayed in the Pasadena Pubic Library's Pasadena News Index (PNI). It started when the then head of Children's Department of the Pasadena Public Library asked the author, the local history librarian at the Library for over 20 years, to put something together for children coming to the library needing some information on the history of Pasadena. Because he felt very strongly that history is a process to be explored, rather than facts to be regurgitated, he conceptualized the work as a series of questions that would both teach some interesting facts about Pasadena, as well as give the students the skills to further explore topics that interest them on their own. Thus attached to each question is a search strategy to get a more complete answer online through the PNI and then at the library. Drawing upon the extensive newspaper archives of the Pasadena Public Library, the PNI is a comprehensive online resource of Pasadena newspaper headlines and subject headings. It provides a unique window into the history of Pasadena as seen by contemporary citizens of Pasadena. Go through all 690 questions and you will be proficient at online searching AND knowledgeable about the history of Pasadena. While the book was initially intended as an aid to teachers and home school parents to find innovative ways to teach Pasadena history, many of the facts and incidents will appeal to readers of all ages. Because each question has a larger story behind it: an 11-year-old boy who helped uncover an Indian burial ground in Pasadena; a Pasadena African-American who passed as white and served as an officer in World War One; a Pasadena woman who won a world chess championship. And 697 other stories waiting to be explored. Enjoy.

It is 2012 and the Republican Party is about to nominate a mime for President, and the Secret Service has 90 minutes to figure out who in his inner circle wants him dead. Brad Tapelson is the perfect candidate. Good looking, and able to project empathetic anger in a non-threatening way, he shows voters only enough so that they are convinced that he thinks like they do. And now that his long-shot candidacy is about to be successful, the people around him are having serious second doubts about the whole enterprise. Among those who have murder in their heart are: His best friend with him since the beginning. Clynell Daggett struggling with Brad's sudden fame and Clynell's equally sudden submersion in the shadows. His corporate handler. Belton Beming struggling with Brad's sudden fortune and Belton's losing control of the image Brad projects. His political team. Dorothy Barrymore struggling with Brad's sudden success and her dawning realization that she could be responsible for the most disastrous President ever. They all know that he would make an awful President. But who is willing to do something about it? More than just voting their conscience. So in order to keep this crime from the public, Secret Service agent John W. Singer has gathered the all suspects together in one room. On the eve of the Republican National Convention, he knows there's only one chance to solve this mystery, cut through the lies and broken dreams, and deal with the one person who could actually silence the Mime. It's time to elect, or kill, the first mime President.

This is the story of an 8 1/2 foot penguin, who is a goddess, who is pursued by two people, who are bureaucrats, through today's America, including Hollywood. This is a comedy. More specifically, this is a fantasy satire of the modern world. A world where a powerful bureaucracy mediates disputes between different gods and their followers. The book introduces two InterDeitific Conflict Resolution Agents (IDCRAs) who spend their days processing requests for personal blessings and curses. But when the resolution agents mix up requests, a Deity No Longer Worshiped Anymore Resulting in Curtailment (DIONWARIC) is summoned to the world to resolve a grade dispute in a religious studies class. To complicate this processing error even further, the ignored goddess comes to Earth in the form of an eight-and-a-half-foot penguin. Armed with their new VOCERA device (Vocal Oversight with Continuously Explained Rules for Action), the two agents venture forth to bring back the oversized, flightless bird. They track her through modern academia where the goddess serves as inspiration, and modern Hollywood where the Goddess proves to be remarkably effective as both an entertainer at children's parties and as a consultant on sword and sorcery movies. They also pass through a modern high school, pie baking competition and an airplane crash. "In a world where religion is seen as a 'wedge' issue, this play finds humor and room for thought for people of all persuasions," author Dan McLaughlin says. "It also looks at what happens to people when filling out forms becomes their life." The book's inspiration comes from questioning of what happens when people of different religious faiths pray for varying results to the same event and why people even bother to pray. "Gott Mit Uns," reflects on a problematic world where powerful bureaucracy exists between different gods and what it does to the people who work there.

"Oh No Not Emily" is a Gilbert & Sullivan-like operetta based very loosely on actual events. It is the story of Molly Writerblock, an aspiring poet, as she enters a graduate English program at a very large public university located next to an ocean. There she meets another newcomer to the department who is attempting to sell a hitherto unknown original poem by Emily Dickinson to the same English Department. There are also supportive parents; older, helpful grad students who have been there a very long time who willingly share how to be a successful grad student; an extremely knowledgeable professor who willingly shares his brilliance and an unseen Dean who communicates entirely through memos. In the end, only one newcomer will remain. With "Oh No, Not Emily " you have the recipe for a show that will have your entire campus buzzing. With "Oh No Not Emily" you get a show that has: 8 strong characters all of whom get their own songs and "time in the sun." A musical score that is continually rich and inventive. One song actually combines each of the chord triads based on the 11 semitones of the Western Musical scale (really). A show that lovingly, yet satirically, through song and dance examines academic life from the inside. People who will especially be attracted by this script are: People who have spent time in an English department. People who know what a paradigm is. People who exist in large bureaucracies. People who are in grad school and need to laugh about it. People who are thinking of going to grad school and want to know what is is really like. People who are paying for grad school and are curious about what they are spending all that money for. In short, a show with something for everyone.

This is a story about language. No. Of language. Of. About. About. Of. Language. Crap. Ok this is NOT a story of grammar. Nor is it a story about grammar. This is a story about the language we use in relationships with friends, family, and lovers. This story highlights the curious phenomena that we are far more polite to people we are socially distant from and can be far nastier to those we supposedly are close to. This is the story of Riley and the language in his life. Fortunately Riley has sense of humor, a verbally sophisticated family and rides the bus. He meets an equally verbally adept lady named Rachel and we read the words used by Riley and Rachel as they meet, fall in love, descend into screaming fights and move, perhaps, beyond. Why bother with Riley? Well this book also reveals to its female readership the long guarded male secret of why men never do what they PROMISE they say they are going to do. Guys get basketball tips.

This Just in Nominated Best Storytelling 2009 Just Plan Folks Thanks to Hans Christian Anderson, you already know the story of the Little Match Girl who froze to death selling matches on a street-corner on New Year's Eve. But what about the managers who woke up the next morning (their day off ) to deal with the mess? How did they get in the situation in the first place? More importantly, how did they get out of it? What is the role "Brainstorming Sessions" and is there really no such thing as a bad idea? Is it possible to be TOO fawning to a boss? How can blaming foreigners for one's problems solve one's crisis? All of these questions are answered in "ICE Girls: What Managers Can Learn from the Story of the Little Match Girl by One Who Was There."