"Land of the worldÆs largest prairie chicken, birthplace of Spam, and home of the worldÆs oldest rock, this is Minnesota, where summers are short, winters are long, and back-road wonders abound. This entertaining guide wastes no time with descriptions of scenic lakes, pristine bike trails, or quaint cafTs. Instead it directs travelers (and residents) to the spot where Tiny Tim strummed his last notes on the ukulele; to the Cold Spring chapel where two grasshoppers bow down to the Virgin Mary; and to the McLeod County Museum, where the mummy on display could be from Peru or outer space. While ordinary tourists are fighting off mosquitoes in the Boundary Waters, oddball travelers can size up the worldÆs largest ear of corn and admire the fourth Zamboni ever built. And one last thing: there arenÆt 10,000 lakes in Minnesota; there are 14,215. For travelers who are in search of the unusual, there is no better reason to park the bike and hiking boots in the garage, fill up the gas tank, and hit the road to Minnesota, where weirdness awaits."

Only in Minnesota can you snap a Polaroid of a fifty-five-foot-tall grinning green man with a size seventy-eight shoe or marvel at the spunk of a Swede who dedicated his life to spinning a gigantic ball of twine. The world’s largest hockey stick, as well as the biggest pelican, prairie chicken, turkey, fish, otter, fox, and loon also make Minnesota their home. Where else can you ponder the mysterious "miracle meat" of Spam in a museum dedicated to pork products or have your head examined by the phrenology machines at the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices? Minnesota Marvels is a tour of the inspired, bizarre, brilliant, scandalous, and funny sites around the state. Look up in wonder at the several Paul Bunyan statues, including the original (Bemidji), the tallest (Akeley), and the largest talking version (Brainerd). Ease on down the road to visit the first home of the heel-tapping native of Grand Rapids, Judy Garland, or walk the "main street" of Sauk Centre immortalized by native son Sinclair Lewis. See the birthplaces of Charles Lindbergh, the Mayo brothers, the Greyhound bus, the snowmobile, and the ice-cream sandwich. Minnesota is also the home of such attractions as the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden and the world’s largest aerial lift bridge in Duluth, and architectural wonders such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s modernist gas station in Cloquet and Frank Gehry’s arresting Weisman Art Museum. Stunning mansions with histories of ghost sightings, the hangouts and lairs of infamous gangsters, and old-fashioned breweries dot the state. Conveniently organized by town name and illustrated throughout, Minnesota Marvels is the perfect light-hearted guide for entertaining road trips all over the state.

More than 11,500 entries, first English-Russian, then Russian-English, containing exact idiomatic translations for over 30,000 phrases and sentences. Also includes 15,000-word grammatical introduction. Focus is on phrase or sentence as basic unit of communication, method now recognized as best.

Argues that conventional writing methods actually stifle creativity, presenting illustrative stories and the author's personal writing techniques that are designed to unlock one's creative powers

Examines the pencil and the secret of its survival against today's competitors such as the pen, typewriter and today's state of the art computers

Examines Japanese thought through the traditions of Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, liberalism, nationalism, and socialism from earliest times to the present

After the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity in the early fourth century, his mother the Empress Helena ordered the excavation of the Holy Sepulchre, the purported site of Christ's tomb in Jerusalem. During the excavation a cup was found, which many believed to be the vessel used by Jesus himself at the Last Supper. According to the fifth-century historian Olympiodorus, it was smuggled out of Rome when the city was sacked by the barbarian Visigoths in 410 AD. What became of the sacred relic is unknown, but well into the Middle Ages the legend survived that it was safely taken to the last outpost of Roman civilisation in western Europe - the isle of Britain. In legend, the cup became the most sacred relic of all - the Holy Grail. It was believed to hold miraculous healing powers, and in medieval literature the search for the Grail became an eternal quest for King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Then, in the early 1600s, the Shropshire landowner Robert Vernon claimed to have discovered the true hiding place of the Grail. On his deathbed Vernon said that he had learned of its whereabouts from a medieval ecclesiastical narrative called the Peverel. He died without revealing his secret, or producing the document as proof. In 1994, historical detective Graham Phillips discovered an astonishing confirmation of Vernon's claim. The Peverel did exist, surviving in a fourteenth-century manuscript in the vaults of the British Library. Listed as the Historia Anglicarum: Regem XII the manuscript tells how the Grail was kept by an order of monks at an abbey in Shropshire just a few miles from Vernon's home at Hodnet. Remarkably, the work did not refer to the Grail as a mythical relic, but as the historical artefact discovered by the Empress Helena in Jerusalem in the year 327. This new evidence for the existence of the sacred cup initiated a twentieth-century search for the Holy Grail, an incredible adventure following a trail of mysterious clues left years ago in the English countryside. The Search for the Grail is the remarkable true story of a modern-day quest.

Completely revised and enlarged based on the recent Fourth Edition of Webster's New World College Dictionary, this perennial bestseller now includes more than 37,000 entries. Clear, concise definitions instantly provide reliable information about thousands of terms and meanings in every area of contemporary language. Updated reference supplements make this the most readable and useful pocket dictionary available today.

An ultimate reference book for blues lovers contains more than 650 entries profiling every important blues artist, including in each entry a discussion on the artist's style, musical contributions, and more.

Covers structure, viewpoint, voice, rhythm, rhyme, and setting, identifies common song writing problems, and provides writing assignments