The much-loved star of the hit TV series Life Goes On--who has single-handedly transformed America's image of the mentally handicapped--shares his remarkable story. Chris Burke gave extensive promotion to the hardcover through Warner Communications, McDonald's, and the National Down's Syndrome Society. Photographs.

Chris Burke became one of America’s favorite personalities when he starred as "Corky" on the hit ABC television series "Life Goes On." Not since Helen Keller has one person so thoroughly changed the way the world views people with disabilities. Twenty-five years earlier, when Chris was born with Down syndrome, doctors advised his parents to put him in an institution. Instead, they showered him with love, and encouraged him to reach for his dreams. This is Chris’s story, and the story of his family’s love and determination. Here he tells what it’s really like to grow up with Down syndrome…how he pursued his seemingly impossible show business goals...and how he has dedicated his life to helping people with special needs, especially those with what he calls "Up Syndrome." Profoundly inspirational, "A Special Kind of Hero" is a triumphant story of courage and hope that proves Chris’ motto: "Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off your goal." "A poignant, joyful and inspirational story." —Literary Guild "Excellent…fascinating…a realistic portrait of an intriguing individual." —Down Syndrome News

Soon after film came into existence, the term epic was used to describe productions that were lengthy, spectacular, live with action, and often filmed in exotic locales with large casts and staggering budgets. The effort and extravagance needed to mount an epic film paid off handsomely at the box office, for the genre became an immediate favorite with audiences. Epic films survived the tribulations of two world wars and the Depression and have retained the basic characteristics of size and glamour for more than a hundred years. Length was, and still is, one of the traits of the epic, though monolithic three- to four-hour spectacles like Gone with the Wind (1939) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962) have been replaced today by such franchises as the Harry Potter films and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Although the form has evolved during many decades of existence, its central elements have been retained, refined, and modernized to suit the tastes of every new generation. The Encyclopedia of Epic Films identifies, describes, and analyzes those films that meet the criteria of the epic—sweeping drama, panoramic landscapes, lengthy adventure sequences, and, in many cases, casts of thousands. This volume looks at the wide variety of epics produced over the last century—from the silent spectacles of D. W. Griffith and biblical melodramas of Cecil B. DeMille to the historical dramas of David Lean and rollercoaster thrillers of Steven Spielberg. Each entry contains: Major personnel behind the camera, including directors and screenwriters Cast and character listings Plot summary Analysis Academy Award wins and nominations DVD and Blu-ray availability Resources for further study This volume also includes appendixes of foreign epics, superhero spectaculars, and epics produced for television, along with a list of all the directors in the book. Despite a lack of overall critical recognition and respect as a genre, the epic remains a favorite of audiences, and this book pays homage to a form of mass entertainment that continues to fill movie theaters. The Encyclopedia of Epic Films will be of interest to academics and scholars, as well as any fan of films made on a grand scale.

Works created in the period from the Babylonian conquest of Judea through the takeover and rule of Judea and Samaria by imperial Persia reveal a profound interest in the religious responses of individuals and an intimate engagement with the nature of personal experience. Using the rich and varied body of literature preserved in the Hebrew Bible, Susan Niditch examines ways in which followers of Yahweh, participating in long-standing traditions, are shown to privatize and personalize religion. Their experiences remain relevant to many of the questions we still ask today: Why do bad things happen to good people? Does God hear me when I call out in trouble? How do I define myself? Do I have a personal relationship with a divine being? How do I cope with chaos and make sense of my experience? What roles do material objects and private practices play within my religious life? These questions deeply engaged the ancient writers of the Bible, and they continue to intrigue contemporary people who try to find meaning in life and to make sense of the world. The Responsive Self studies a variety of phenomena, including the use of first-person speech, seemingly autobiographic forms and orientations, the emphasis on individual responsibility for sin, interest in the emotional dimensions of biblical characters, and descriptions of self-imposed ritual. This set of interests lends itself to exciting approaches in the contemporary study of religion, including the concept of “lived religion,” and involves understanding and describing what people actually do and believe in cultures of religion.

What is suspense, and why do we feel it? These questions are at the heart of the first part of this study. It develops and defends the ‘imminence theory of suspense’ – the view that suspense arises in situations that are structurally defined by something essential being imminent. Next, the study utilizes this theory as an interpretative key to Søren Kierkegaard’s seminal work ‘Frygt og Bæven’ (‘FB’). FB is an exploration of what it means to take the story of Abraham and Isaac as a paradigmatic example of faith. The study argues that a core aspect of how Kierkegaard conceptualizes faith through the figure of Abraham is suspense. The argument is built upon the observation that to have faith is to be a hero. To be hero means to belong to a story. Stories manifests different conceptualizations of time. Abraham’s story, as FB frames it, is radically geared towards something imminent – it is characterized by an essential relation of suspense. The study then explores how suspense not only forms part of the conceptualization of faith, but is also part of how this conceptualization is communicated. Thus, the study argues that there exists a symmetry of suspense between the rhetorical and the conceptual levels of the text.

"'Shroom! " is a nine-foot tall talking mushroom that mysteriously appears to give Arnold Miracle something called Allpowers, but doesn't tell Arnold what they are or how they work. Soon, Arnold finds himself on a twisted adventure of discovery and nearly ultimate power that transcends time, space and good taste. The story bounces backward and forward in time from Los Angeles to NYC, from 1930s depression-era Hollywood to the depths of Loch Ness, from vintage '50s Vegas to the Cretaceous Era, from the moon to an infamous Dallas day in November '63, from the Amazon river to the plains of Iceland to, finally, shocking revelation on the shores of Maui. " 'Shroom! " features an extraordinary supporting cast that includes Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra, Martin & Lewis, James Bond, Laurel & Hardy, JFK, John Lennon, William Randolph Hearst, Bettie Page, Charlie Chaplin, Lucky Luciano, God and a few surprises. One of them is that Arnold isn't the only one with Allpowers. A villain named Kling also has them and he wants Arnold Miracle way totally dead. It all ends with an epic Allpowers battle between Good and Evil, a beautiful girl in lingerie, some man-eating fish, Charlton Heston in a loincloth and rum smoothies. It's a comedy.

Many television critics, legions of fans, even the president of the United States, have cited The Wire as the best television series ever. In this sophisticated examination of the HBO serial drama that aired from 2002 until 2008, Linda Williams, a leading film scholar and authority on the interplay between film, melodrama, and issues of race, suggests what exactly it is that makes The Wire so good. She argues that while the series is a powerful exploration of urban dysfunction and institutional failure, its narrative power derives from its genre. The Wire is popular melodrama, not Greek tragedy, as critics and the series creator David Simon have claimed. Entertaining, addictive, funny, and despairing all at once, it is a serial melodrama grounded in observation of Baltimore's people and institutions: of cops and criminals, schools and blue-collar labor, local government and local journalism. The Wire transforms close observation into an unparalleled melodrama by juxtaposing the good and evil of individuals with the good and evil of institutions.

Relates how, after years of unhappiness and hospitalizations for alcoholism, Bill Wilson followed his inner vision and co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935.

Edited by Mary Louise Lord after the author's death, The Singer Resumes the Tale focuses on the performance of stories and poems within settings that range from ancient Greek palaces to Latvian villages. Lord expounds and develops his approach to oral literature in this book, responds systematically for the first time to criticisms of oral theory, and extends his methods to the analysis of lyric poems. He also considers the implications of the transitional text - a work made up of both oral and literary components. Elements of the oral tradition - the practice of storytelling in prose or verse, the art of composing and transmitting songs, the content of these texts, the kinds of songs composed, and the poetics of oral literature - are discussed in the light of several traditions, beginning in the ancient world, through the Middle Ages, to the present. Throughout, the central figure is always the singer. Homer, the Beowulf poet, women who perform lyric songs, tellers of folktales, singers of such ballads as "Barbara Allen", bards of the Balkans: all play prominent roles in Lord's book, as they have played central roles in the creation of this fundamental literature.