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HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
AAUW selects Mitcham's The Sweet
Everlasting as 'OB community read
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MITCHAM
Special to the Journal
The 2008 Community
Read novel selected by the
Warner Robins branch of
the American Association
of University Women is The
Sweet Everlasting - Macon
author, Judson Mitcham’s,
first novel.
Per a release from AAUW:
“Members of the commu
nity are urged to secure
a copy of the novel from
local bookstores or librar
ies, read it and join with
other avid readers Feb. 16
at 1 p.m. at Trinity United
Methodist Church, 129 S.
Houston Road, Warner
Robins and enjoy spending
time with this local author
who will speak and auto
graph books.”
Other works of his will be
available for purchase, the
release reads.
Mitcham was born in
Monroe where he grew up
and where much of his work
is centered.
He was not formally
trained as a writer. Instead
he studied psychology at the
University of Georgia, where
he earned his undergradu
ate and graduate degrees.
He received his Ph.D. in
1974. He is retired from
Fort Valley State University,
where he taught psychology
for many years.
He has also served as
adjunct professor of creative
writing at the University
of Georgia and at Emory
University, where he has
directed the Summer
Writers’ Institute and
taught fiction. He currently
teaches writing at Mercer
University.
His poetry has been
widely published, appear
ing in such journals as
Harper’s, Georgia Review,
Stopped dock, big explosion, bird's nest soup and penguins
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Who is this lady?
Literary Quiz
Who wrote a satire about the rise and
fall of an empire of penguins?
Harrison's Sports Quiz
College football is big business. As
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Contributed
The Sweet Everlasting, published in 1996, won Mitcham
the Townsend Prize for fiction and a second Georgia
Author of the Year Award.
Novel synopsis: Ellis Burt, a sharecropper’s son,
mill worker, and ex-convict, surely knows adversity. For
a brief and cherished time there was a woman, and then
a child, who had been a kind of salvation to him. Then
they were gone, leaving Ellis to carry on with the burden
of what he had done to them - the ruin he brought down
upon them all.
Like the hero of William Kennedy’s masterpiece,
Ironweed, Ellis Burt is a man of uncommon personal
dignity and strength, always moving toward, but never
expecting, redemption.
Chattahoochee Review,
Gettysburg Review, Poetry,
Southern Poetry Review, and
Southern Review. His poet
ry collection, Somewhere in
Ecclesiastes (1991), earned
him both the Devins Award
and recognition as Georgia
Author of the Year.
His second poetry collec
tion, This April Day, was
published in 2002. His
most recent book is A Little
Salvation: Poems Old and
New. His novel The Sweet
Everlasting (1996) won
*
the current season ends Monday with
the BCS championship game between
LSU and Ohio State, a total of 209 million
dollars will have been paid out to teams
competing in the 32 various holiday
bowls. Combining the regular season
and a bowl trip, highly successful football
programs can bring in upwards of SBO
million a season . In terms of revenue,
which college football program is con
sidered the most valuable in the country,
and what major factor helps the school
achieve its high number?
History Quiz
A stopped clock beside the bed where
he died Nov. 10, 1938 gives the time as
9:05 a.m. Who was he and in what pal
ace is clock still beside the bed?
Faith Quiz
What is the official name of the
denomination which has on its emblem
a picture of a lamb with the words “The
Lamb has conquered. Let us Follow
Him"?
Centennial quiz
What was the biggest explosion of
1908?
CLUBS
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him the Townsend Prize
for Fiction and a second
Georgia Author of the Year
award.
Mitcham’s second novel,
Sabbath Creek (2004) also
won the Townsend Prize,
the first time an author has
twice won the award.
Mitcham has received fel
lowships from the NEA and
the Georgia Council for the
Arts. He resides in Macon
with his wife, Jean. They
are the parents of two chil
dren.
Weird Quiz
What bird makes a nest is considered
a great delicacy and served in soup?
Last week’s answers
EyeQ
The little dog was Fala and he
belonged to President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. Getting it right were Carl
Shaw, Larry and Chris Thomson, Olivia
Stachorek, Nancy Braswell, Jim Worrall,
Nelda Tawse, Bill Harrison, Jaloo Zelonis,
Laurie Jones, Mike Stanley and Terry
Everett.
Literary Quiz
“Hie jacet Arthuris, Rex quondam, Rex
futures” is the source of the title “The
Once and Future King,” a novel about
King Arthur by T.H. White. Getting it right
were Larry and Chris Thomson, Olivia
Stachorek, Nancy Braswell, Nelda Tawse,
Bill Harrison, Jaloo Zelonis, Laurie Jones,
Mike Stanley and Terry Everett.
Rose Bowl
Bill Harrison says, “The first Rose
Bowl game, originally known as the
Tournament East-West game, between
way*
The Sweet Everlasting
reader’s guide
1. What is the sig
nificance of the title? What
symbolic value might it have?
What parts of the story might
be seen as having some rela
tion to the title?
2. How does the first
person narration, in the voice
of an uneducated, elderly
Southern white man, affect the
telling of the story? What are
the limitations and advantages
of this particular point of view?
3. What is the “idea as
real as a sharp stick” in the first
line of the novel?
4. What are some con
sequences of the author’s
decisions concerning the use
of racially charged language?
5. Comment on the way
time is handled in the novel.
What techniques does the
author employ to avoid con
fusing the reader?
6. Which earlier scenes
foreshadow Ellis’ extreme
reaction to what Susan tells
him late in the story? (p. 164)
7. What does Ellis giean
by "On that day I’ll know what it
is that I’ve been given to do.”?
(P- 189)
8. How do you interpret
the scene in which Ellis, after
leaving the faith-healing cer
emony, encounters an Isaiah
like figure on the road home?
(p. 56)
9. How would you
describe Susan as a charac
ter? What devices (action,
appearance, speech) does the
author emphasize in drawing
her character?
10. How is the world of
work dealt with in the novel?
What kinds of jobs do these
characters hold? What are the
satisfactions and the difficul
ties?
11. How does Ellis’ use of
a biblical concordance function
as an element in the story?
12. Can the concept of
“tragic flaw” be properly applied
to Ellis Burt?
13. Comment on the sig
nificance of rumor and misun
derstanding in the story.
14. Comment on the
questions posed through
out the novel by Ellis and by
other characters. Are there
answers to these questions in
the novel?
15. Why are some readers
puzzled by the way Ellis reacts
to what Susan tells him? (p.
164). Why are some readers
not puzzled? What does Ellis’
reaction tell us about his char
acter and his world? What do
our reactions tell us about our
own characters and our own
worlds?
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Michigan and Stanford in 1902 resulted
in a lopsided 49-0 Michigan victory. It
prompted the Rose committee to drop
the football game in favor of chariot
races, ostrich races and various other
events. The game returned in 1916
with Washington State versus Brown
University and has continued since.
•Getting it right were Larry and Chris
Thomson, Olivia Stachorek, Nancy
Braswell, Jim Worrall, Nelda Tawse, Bill
Harrison, Jaloo Zelonis, Laurie Jones,
Mike Stanley and Terry Everett.
Myth-maker
Nennius was the early historian who
claimed that King Arthur single-handedly
killed 940 Saxons in one battle. Getting
it right were Larry and Chris Thomson,
Olivia Stachorek, Nancy Braswell, Jim
Worrall, Nelda Tawse, Bill Hairison, Jaloo
Zelonis, Laurie Jones, Mike Stanley and
Terry Everett.
The Grail
Joseph of Arimathea, who offered
the tomb for Jesus’ burial later became
associated through legend with the Holy
Grail. Getting it right were Larry and
Chris Thomson, Olivia Stachorek, Nancy
SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 2008
Things we worry about
Mothers have
many things to
worry about, but
I have found some things
that mothers worry about
needlessly. The first is potty
training.
We mothers love to brag
about how early our chil
dren are potty trained. You
know the scenario. A group
of mothers and toddlers are
at playgroup and one very
proud and obnoxious moth
er tells the others that her
child is now potty trained
at 18 months old.
The other mothers won
der if their children are
not normal because they
are still in diapers. When
this happens to you just
ask yourself if you’ve ever
seen a child starting first
grade in diapers. You know
the answer. I came to the
realization that if we try
to potty train our children
early, then we are actually
only training ourselves.
“Do you need to potty?”
becomes our mantra. We
ask our child this more
"Your son or daughter may love to pick their
nose but after picking it one time in front of
their friends you no longer have this problem
to worry about. I can just hear the kids say,
'Ooh! He's picking his boogers!' See, your
problem is instantly solved."
Winter officially here
Making leaves work for you
It is officially winter
now, and the leaves
have really fallen
from the trees, especial
ly after the recent rains.
Some folks will get out and
rake the leaves, carry them
off, or even bag them up
for someone else to carry
off. Others will mulch
them with the lawnmower
as if they were a centipede
lawn.
Still others will do the
smart thing and make them
work for them; that is, by
taking them to the garden
spot and tilling them into
the soil.
How will tilling them into
the soil be beneficial? In
order to understand this,
we must first examine the
soil.
Soil is composed of
organic matter (carbon
compounds), mineral mat
ter (sand, silt, and clay),
and pore spaces filled with
air and water.
Angela
Lineberger
Me and the Bovs
Another thing we tell our
children is, “Stop picking
your nose”. There is abso
lutely no reason at all we
even have to concern our
selves with this distasteful
habit. •
Your son or daughter may
love to pick their nose but
after picking it one time
in front of their friends
you no longer have this
problem to worry about.
I can just hear the kids
say, “Ooh! He’s picking his
boogers!” See, your prob
lem is instantly solved.
We are also constantly
reminding our children to
wear their jackets.
See LINEBERGER, page 4B
Tim Lewis
Garden
Columnist
The
very
best soil
might
consist of
about 45
percent
mineral
matter, 5
percent
organic
matter
and 50 percent air and
water. We would all do well
to strive for this composi
tion in our soils.
What is this organic mat
ter? Many times we think
of organic matter as the
plant and animal residues
we incorporate into the soil,
such as leaves, manure, or
other plant parts.
But these materials are
only organic materials-not
organic matter. Organic
material is anything that
was alive and is now on or
in the soil.
See LEWIS, page 4 B
“Are you
mtari enough ”
By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
Braswell, Jim Worrall, Nelda Tawse, Bill
Harrison, Jaloo Zelonis, Laurie Jones,
Mike Stanley and Terry Everett.
Dark manor
Dark matter, according to Astronomers
Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams
in “The View from the Center of the
Universe,” makes up most of the mass
in the universe. I’m also accepting dark
energy and neutrinos, as this seems to
be a matter astronomers are still dis
cussing. Getting it right were Larry and
Chris Thomson, Olivia Stachorek, Nancy
Braswell, Jim Worrall, Nelda Tiwse, Bill
Harrison, Jaloo Zelonis, Laurie Jones,
Terry Everett and Mike Stanley.
Spiny creature
The Echidna is a spiny animal that
lays eggs and lives as long as an
elephant. Getting it right were Larry and
Chris Thomson, Olivia Stachorek, Nancy
Braswell, Jim Worrall, Bill Harrison, Nelda
Tawse, Jaloo Zelonis, Laurie Jones, Terry
Everett and Mike Stanley.
Send answers to hhjquiz@yahoocom, or
leave a message for Charlotte Perkins at 987-
1823, Ext. 234. The submission deadline is 10
p.m. Wednesday.
3B
times a
day than
we can
count.
The
kid final
ly goes to
the potty
just to
get us to
shut up: