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10. Mother’s Day is not a day. It covers the entire weekend from Thursday 6 p.m. through 9 a.m. Monday.

9. Instead of escorting spiders, ants, mosquitoes, earwigs, etc…out of our home, I will kill them on the spot. 

8. You are not allowed to cry over said insects bereaved family members or wonder aloud about how said insects’ parents feel.

7. Don’t correct my grammar. I worked at the Chicago ‘effin Tribune, for God’s sake.

6. Do not, under any circumstances, say, “Mom look!” unless you are skydiving or graduating from high school.

5. I do not know where anything of yours is located.

4. I will change the TV channel at the drop of a dime to “The Dog Whisperer” or HGTV.

3. The words “Harry” and “Potter” are banned.

2. Play with those &%$ Zhu Zhu pets that I went insane trying to find for Christmas.

And my Number One  rule on Mother’s Day……

1. Ask Daddy.

A shout out to MOMS — let’s make this list gigantic and laugh! Add some rules. Your day starts tonight.

A little picture from "Just One More, Mom" with Kaeden Books done a couple years ago. All you Mama's know that call from the next room. Of course after "I want something to drink, read me a story" and other such things. So Happy Day to you! ( Mother or not )

Happy Mothers Day! Why God made mothers. Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions: Why did God make mothers? 1. She’s the only one who knows where the scotch tape is. 2. Mostly to clean the house.. 3. To help us out of there when we were getting born. How did God make mothers? 1. He [...]

When I am working on B&W line illustrations, as I am now for a new Chapter book, I often need to take a break by creating something in color.

Heidi Strawser, an E-book reviewer for the Schoolhouse Store and a Marketing Assistant for Old Schoolhouse magazine and a homeschooling mom, had this to say about DOGGIE DAY CAMP at Take Root and Write-- Reviews by, Heidi:

Doggie Day Camp: Verb and Adverb Adventures is part of a series of books that Cynthia is writing called "Pet Grammar Parade". This book not only contains a cute little story about a dog named Bubba, but it's also a very educational book. As a homeschooling mother, these are the types of books I enjoy!
At the beginning of Doggy Day Camp, Cynthia explains what verbs and adverbs are. Verbs are explained in blue and adverbs in red. Then, throughout the book, every time a verb or adverb is used, it is written in that same color, for easy recognition and identification. Kids won't even realize that they are learning, but their brain will be putting the colors together with the parts of speech, and they'll be learning in a fun way!
After the story, there is more explanation (a "study guide") on verbs and adverbs and their usage.The book also contains 6 worksheet-style activities (such as word search, fill-in-the-blank, and scrambled words). And, the best part for parents - the answer key!

To read all of the review, click here.

Marhsall Goldman is a Professor of Economics Emeritus at Wellesley College and Senior Scholar at the Davis Center for Russian Studies at Harvard University. In his forthcoming book, Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia , Goldman chronicles Russia’s dramatic reemergence on the world stage, illuminating the key reason for its rebirth: the use of its ever-expanding energy wealth to reassert its traditional great power ambitions. In the article below Goldman reflects on Medvedev’s recent victory in the Russian elections and on what it means for Russia.

Dmitri Medvedev’s election (or more accurately, selection) as president of Russia was not much of a cliffhanger. By eliminating any viable contender, his patron, Vladimir Putin did all he could to ensure his protégé’s election. For many Russians, there was little point in even bothering to show up at the polling station–everything had been decided in advance. Except for Medvedev, no other candidate (or even a potential candidate) was allowed meaningful access to TV, much less campaign funding. Large public rallies were restricted, if not banned outright. (more…)

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Lomonosov Ridge, Arctic Ocean

Coordinates: 88 0 N 140 0 E

Approximate length: 1,240 miles (1,996 km)

Over the centuries explorers from many nations have laid claim to islands, mountains, and swathes of territory of varying sizes; we’ve even witnessed astronauts planting a flag on the moon. But each symbolic gesture leaves less land available, causing countries to squabble over smaller and smaller patches of the planet. Then again, governments can be quite creative. Russia, for example, recently dispatched a submarine to the Arctic Ocean to leave a titanium version of their flag on the steep-sided Lomonosov Ridge. (more…)

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Lake Baikal, Russia

Coordinates: 53 0 N 108 0 E

Total area: 12,160 square miles (31,494 sq km)

Overshadowed by its more immodestly-named North American cousins the Great Lakes, Russia’s Ozero Baykal, or Lake Baikal, is no less a remarkable expanse of water itself. At 5,714 feet (1,743 m), the deepest lake also happens to be the oldest freshwater body on the planet. (more…)

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Everyday this week we are posting part of a series from author Lynne Viola, The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements. Check out part one and part two and part three.

Luck and serendipity combined to provide unique and rich sources for the book. I was continually amazed at the degree of detail in the documents. Essentially, the Soviet secret police had documented some of its worst atrocities. The Soviet archives were marvelously intact.

(more…)

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Yesterday we presented part 1 in a 5 part series about The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements by Lynn Viola. Today Viola takes us inside the archives in Moscow.

I could not have carried out the research for this book without access to archives, for the entire terrain of Stalin’s special settlements had remained a state secret throughout the Soviet era; even use of the term special resettlement was forbidden. Neither the word, nor the world of the special settlements, existed officially. (more…)

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Stalin’s reign over the Soviet Union has left many unanswered questions but in The Unknown Gulag: The Lost World of Stalin’s Special Settlements Lynne Viola answers one: what happened to millions of peasants in the 1930’s. Viola, a Professor of History at the University of Toronto, has captured the day-to-day life of Stalin’s first victims by conducting research in the previously closed archives of the central and provincial Communist Party, the Soviet State, and the secret police.The OUPblog is proud to host Viola for the next five days as she brings us inside the archives and explains to us just how she was able to write this book. (more…)

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http://martinklasch.blogspot.com/2007/03/animation-winnie-pooh-in-soviet-union.html

http://thinkingpictures.blogspot.com/2006/11/winnie-pooh-in-russia.html

This is my piece in the Real Illustrators travelling sketchbook. Our very loose theme is 'Travel'

I learned that a small moleskin will take fairly liberal amounts of acrylic washes, caran d'ache, pencil and collage - providing a dry brushed acrylic ground is applied first

We don't hear too much about book banning in Russia but the story of the publication of a book accusing Russia of blowing up an apartment building to justify the war against Chechnya by ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky gives one pause. Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror may never have been published except for the death of its author, a former KGB spy who died from a lethal dose of radioactive poisoning last year.



The book accuses Russia of detonating explosives in four apartment buildings in 1999, killing more than 300 people, then blaming Chechen rebels.

The New York Times article claims,

...Litvinenko was not the first former or current Russian official associated with the book to be assassinated. The authors chronicle the slayings of three of their principal sources, all members of parliament. Two were shot dead; the third was poisoned.