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Imagine my surprise to find this article reprinted in Approach Magazine's 2005, 50-year retrospective. I still get goosebumps when I read this story spawned by an "incident", fortunately, not an "accident" in 1978 when I almost flew into the water during night carrier quals aboard the America. Even more ironic: My father was the commissioning CO of America as documented elswhere on this site a book about the (now sunk for USN research) ship.

Having survived the incident, I thought maybe I did fly into the water but it wasn't my time to go, hence the storyline for "Touch and Go with the Grim Reaper" GH December 10, 2006

John's right! Toxicity in the workplace has to be nipped in the bud or else it can lead to health problems and violence. Good article. Very entertaining. A must read for supervisors and employees alike.

A classic tale of travel, intrigue and mystery from De Faoite. This story conjours images of pristine alpine valleys, steam trains from a bygone era and a nostalgic look at how things used to be. Worth a read.

And can honestly say he's actually as tenacious and talented as he appears. But what really speaks to the heart of his nature, and the nature of his heart, is his modest regard, his generous and adventurous spirit. He's' accomplished(now at age 27) what most of us only dream about. Watch this young man! He'll be teaching us how to be our best, full selves if we only listen.

Mr. Eilers has done a fantastic job of telling a little known piece of history. Tying the tribute that Lenwood Holo accomplished in 2004 to the Massey Harris Harvest Brigade of 1944 is very well told. The article tells of how the idea of Custom Harvesting was "born" during WWII. This was the beginning of custom harvesting as we know it today. Anyone interested in the history of either Massey Harris, custom harvesting or the 1944-2004 Custom Harvest Tribute should make this a "must read" article.

This is Elliott Abrams' review of a book "Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions." That book is edited by Robert Rotberg and Dennis Thompson.

As Abrams explains, the issue is clear. What does one do once a bad government is replaced? Does one take revenge? Should there be trials and punishment for the perpetrators of serious misdeeds? Or should there be a focus on truth, even if that means amnesties for some guilty officials?

I have a very simple view on this matter. Without truth, justice is not possible. So there is no choice. One wants both truth and justice. Second best is truth. Worst is neither. Justice without truth is not an option.

Of course, this does not mean that Truth Commissions are a good idea, nor does it mean that they have worked out well. But as Abrams explains, the book does show cases in which people did get a chance to tell their stories. Those stories would have come under serious fire in a trial. But in a Truth Commission, there was less need to challenge them.

Before reading this article, I would have thought it counterproductive to encourage people to simply tell their stories to a truth commission, without fear of being challenged. My guess is this would produce more lies than truths. But now I am less sure about all this. One reason is that some of the accused get to tell their stories as well. And given that they are amnestied, they can very easily confess to genuine transgressions while denying false accusations. So the Truth Commission system may indeed have something going for it.

Still, Abrams concludes that the critics of the Truth Commissions have the better argument. The problem is that justice really is not served. Outright murderers wind up with amnesty, and that is very far from an ideal solution. And here, Abrams makes a good point, namely that if Truth Commissions are indeed worthwhile, the argument has to be that they are a necessary evil. Given the loss of justice, they are not an unmitigated good. And arguments by those who defend such Commissions on the grounds that we need "healing," not "vengeance," do not impress Abrams at all. I have to agree with Abrams here. If people commit terrible crimes, I think we ought to bring them to justice if we have a clear opportunity to do so.

Having lived the corporate life style and truly suffered the effects of too many over indulgent lunches, I had to turn myself around or suffer a lifetime of illnesses and medications' side-effects, for which my cardiologist would have happily prescribed as a cure-all. There was a drug for hypertension, a drug for cholesterol. `Just don't worry about it' said he, we'll give you something for it. What he couldn't give me was a drug to cure the side-effects.

After reading this article, I realized that I needed to make the long trek back to health. I knew what I had to do and did it. Now I can still enjoy lunch, but I enjoy living a lot more. I found this inspirational, confirming, and inspiring. Thank you for writing it.

Arron Lewis

I know this author very well - he is a CPA with a wealth management firm that has extensive experience in the life settlement field. The piece ran last year in the premier magazine for accountants and financial professionals, The Journal of Accountancy. Author Jim Warring consulted with one of the top life settlement providers, Maple Life Financial, to author this piece that spotlights the many uses of life settlements. For those who are unfamiliar with the financial service discussed in this article, a life settlement allows a senior citizen to sell a life insurance policy that they no longer need or want and receive a lump sum cash payment greater than the surrender value. Although life insurance agents have been offering this service and making a substantial residual income from existing clients for some time, CPAs and other financial planners are now beginning to take advantage of this valuable option as well. This is definitely the place to start investigating this topic.

HOWEVER...why pay $5.95 for it when you can view the article for free elsewhere? I doubt the file here is a high-quality PDF stripped of advertorials that ran alongside it in the magazine, and if you need something of that high a quality, you will need to order it from ReprintBuyers online anyway. Just do a Google search for the title and enjoy the article!

It's hard to know whether this short intriguing article is a spoof or a true artistic attempt to play on the the modern graphic artist's transformation of "found objects" into fine art. Either way, it's tremendous fun while being semi-scholarly in its own way. The author's commentaries are gems of faux literary exegesis. And this reviewer cannot think of a better use for e-mail spam than to turn it on its smarmy head.

Tyler Perry, the once homeless New Orleans native triumphed in his film of reconciliation, "Diary of A Mad Black Woman," grossing over $22.7 million in its first weekend. This first-time viewer of any of Tyler Perry's works found it a "good laughter medicine for healing the universal issues of American dysfunctional families." With three plots needing resolution, one experiences interchanging moments to laugh and to cry -- a "dra-me-dy!'

No doubt a draw for a large segment of African-American moviegoers, Tyler Perry intricately weaves in "Diary" a leitmotif of reconciliation through forgiveness, ultimately mending hurts and wounds and bringing new hope to life. Perry, in the movie, uses the award-winning Cicely Tyson as a matriarch of spiritual wisdom who plants this seed that takes root and blooms in "Diary's" end.

Cleverly using the therapeutic diary method, Perry's main character Helen McCarter played in the movie by Kimberly Elise, married to a wealthy Atlanta attorney who kicks her out of their mansion after 18 years of marriage, writes describing her pain. Helen, devastated and dependent, has to return to her grandmother for solace though previously isolated from her because of her high-profile marriage.

"Diary" maintains Perry's centerpiece character of his genre, Madea. Madea is the infamous smoking, big-breasted, pistol-toting grandmother who brings the audience to the dichotomy of the real world versus the spiritually-challenged life as well as the "ghetto versus the classy." Madea, beloved by Perry's devoted fans who Perry plays himself in the movie, shows Perry's desire to include laughter as a means to getting to the moral of the reconcilation film: FORGIVENESS. Madea is a non-stop hoot every time she appears in a scene.

Playwright, producer, director, and actor, Perry also manages to play the role of Brian, his cousin's attorney, demythologizing the stereotype of the "gangsta hardcore" black man often portrayed on screen. Rather, all of the men in "Diary" are contrary to typical African-American men portrayed on film. Charles McCarter, Helen's husband, played by Steve Harris, emulates more characteristically his white-male counterpart: he's arrogant, domineering, and selfish. Orlando, who becomes Helen's beau, is a kind, loving and thoughtful blue collar worker, not the typical black man seen in film and movies. And Brian, her cousin and lawyer, appears as a family-loving, Christian man, raising two kids alone, atypical of black men on screen.

Each of the simultaneous plots is resolved through what appears to be Perry's history in all of his works: engage his audiences in Aesopic or didactic conclusion. In "Diary" forgiveness makes the popular, money-grossing movie a film of reconciliation.

The heartfelt comedic film or "dra-me-dy," if nothing more, causes one to laugh out loud amid a few too many profane words. "Diary" for sure will be housed in African-American familial libraries for years to come.

Yes! An Absolute "Dra-me-dy!"

Terrence Maurice Cummings