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NOTE TO SELF: Is this story kosher?


Perhaps it's just the cynic in me but I find this a little hard to swallow.

Jones Soda Co., a Seattle-based purveyor of offbeat fizzy water, is selling holiday-themed limited-edition packs of flavored sodas. What makes this story intriguing is that they are proposing a ham-and-latke-flavored soda.

Talk about trying to be everything to everyone!

Jones Sodas Christmas Pack flavors include Sugar Plum, Egg Nog, Christmas Tree and Christmas Ham. They are also claiming that their newest product will be kosher - including the ham!

Actually, the packages are divided up according to the holiday with the Christmas pack featuring such flavors as Sugar Plum, Christmas Tree, Egg Nog and Christmas Ham. The Hanukkah pack will have Jelly Doughnut, Apple Sauce, Chocolate Coins and Latke sodas.

"As always, both packs are kosher and contain zero caffeine," Jones said in a statement.

The packs will go on sale Sunday, with a portion of the proceeds to be given to charity, the company said.

Jones' products feature original label art and frequently odd flavors. Last year's seasonal pack was Thanksgiving-themed, with Green Pea, Sweet Potato, Dinner Roll, Turkey and Gravy, and Antacid sodas.

For its contract to supply soda to Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks, Jones came up with Perspiration, Dirt, Sports Cream and Natural Field Turf. The company -- fortunately or unfortunately -- prides itself on the accuracy of the taste.

Excuse me while I gag...

Jones also makes more traditional flavors, including root beer, cherry and strawberry. I dunno - call me silly but I'll pass on the ham soda.

By Kirsty OUP-UK

Now that we’re in November, it is only 12 months until the next American Presidential Election. With this in mind, I am thrilled to bring you this month’s VSI column on The American Presidency: A Very Short Introduction. Author Charles O. Jones is Hawkins Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a non-resident Senior Fellow in the Governmental Studies Program at The Brookings Institution. He is an expert on the American presidency, and has written or edited some 18 books.

OUP: The US has a President separately elected by the people and who does not necessarily come from the ruling Party. The political leader in the UK, the Prime Minister, is not chosen by the general electorate and does come from the Party in power. How would you compare the two systems? (more…)

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by Carol Foskett Cordsen illustrated by Douglas B. Jones Puffin paperback 2007 Hearkening back to another era, this picture book takes a warm-n-fuzzy look at a day in the life of the old fashioned door-to-door milkman. Told in terse clip-clop rhymes we follow Mr. Plimpton as he readies for and makes his daily deliveries in a town straight out of Robert McCloskey's Centerberg. It begins with

Martin Jones, author of Feast: Why Humans Share Food is the George Pitt-Rivers Professor of Archaeological Science at the University of Cambridge, and specializes in the study of the fragmentary archaeological remains of early food. Feast reconstructs the development of the meal from chimpanzees at a kill to university professors at a formal feast. Jones has a knack for explaining how food has affected both our society and ecology. In the excerpt below he shows how the instinct to share is more biological than we realize.

Food and sex (more…)

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Okay, here's the thing: Carrie Jones is my friend. As in, when I talk to other people, I say things like "I'm so excited that I'm going to see my friend Carrie at the NE SCBWI conference in about two weeks." Or "My friend Carrie's book came out the other day." Or "Excuse me, bookseller. Do you have my friend Carrie Jones's book, Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend?" And so you know, when I say that title aloud, I make "air parentheses" around the "ex" part.

And here's the next thing: I love Carrie's book. But not because Carrie is my friend. Take that, Roger Sutton (whom I happen to admire greatly despite his rather jaded view of bloggers reviewing books, interviewing authors, etc.) In fact, when I first got the ARC of Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend, I was vaguely nauseated at the thought of reading it. Because, you see, Carrie Jones is my friend. And this is her first book. And so it's extra important to her, and I know that, and I want her to be successful, but part of me was thinking what if it isn't very good? And really, I think that part of me was just being empathetic with Carrie's own worries on the very same subject.

I approached the book like I would any other. I looked at the cover -- cool, collage-like cover. What's with the duct tape? I thought. (That question is answered inside the book.) I looked at the back cover (after all, it was in paperback, so there wasn't any flap copy to see). Kathi Appelt and Tim Wynne-Jones both liked it -- there're blurbs. And then I read the excerpt, which at the time I liked, but having read the book, I don't think it does the book justice. And now that I said that, I'll have to share the copy and later on, explain myself.

"It isn't every day that my entire world falls apart."

Is it fair to be mad, mad, mad at your boyfriend for being gay? Anything but straight in small town Maine won't exactly be a walk in the park, even for invincible Dylan. Can't heartbroken Belle whine just a little? What should the Harvest Queen do when dumped by the guy who was supposed to be ger soul mate? For starters, she makes a list on how to deal.

By the way -- not only Carrie's website, but also the Class of 2k7's, was on the back of the book. Clever marketing, I think.

Then I read the note to me from "The Flux Crew", explaining why they put this book out and talking about how great they think Carrie is (must check to see if that's in the actual book, or just in the ARC!), and then I read the first few pages, and completely relaxed. Carrie's authorial voice is so assured (even when the MC is conflicted and twisty) that I knew I had noting to fear.

Let me share the first "real" paragraph of the book, and I think the writer types among you will see what I mean:

We walk outside first. We walk outside beneath the October stars and hold hands in the cold, cold air. The dim light from neighbor's windows wishes us well. No cars drive by because there aren't that many people in Eastbrook, Maine driving around at eleven, a sad fact but true.

The repetition of cold in the second sentence is echoed throughout the rest of the scene, and serves as a reminder of the coldness creeping into Belle's life as her perfect boyfriend unravels their relationship -- the relationship that started in 8th grade. The "ever-after" kind of relationship that first love brings.

The book takes place in the span of a single week. On Saturday night, Dylan breaks the news (and Belle's heart). On Sunday, Belle and her best friend Emily (Em) talk it over. By Monday, word of Dylan's sexual preference is all over this small Maine town, and by midweek, Dylan's being threatened and Belle is being bullied because her exboyfriend turned out to be gay -- she's called a "fag hag", among other things. But along the way, Belle receives steady support from Em and from Tom Tanner, yummy soccer star and son of the police chief. And Belle learns that saintly Dylan wasn't so saintly after all (which is where my personal dissonance with the backcopy comes from) and that most people are essentially good (including some of the adults in the book -- most notably her science and German teachers). The novel concludes on the following Friday night at a school dance.

If you remember my Tips on Why You Should Add Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend to your must-buy list, or the interview I did with Carrie for The Edge of the Forest, then you already know some of the other stuff in the novel. Like that Belle has a seizure disorder, and lives in constant fear of having a seizure at school. And that Belle and Em run the school's Amnesty International chapter. And that Dylan and another boy get picked on for being gay, and that Belle gets picked on because Dylan turned out to be gay.

The actual story is about how Belle gets her heart broken and her eyes opened and finds hope and love, all within a week's time. The REAL story, which is never once preached, is how people with seizure disorders are normal folks who have to cope with prejudice, how people who are homosexual are still marginalized and/or threatened in our society, and how teens who come out need support and love, and (surprisingly), about the degradation of constitutional rights in the United States due to the so-called Patriot Act and other decisions by the administration. And the thing is, you're never told to come to any particular conclusions. It's just that, knowing the characters as you do, those conclusions are obvious. As plain as the chapped red nose on my face (I have a cold and allergies -- must buy Puffs with lotion!)

This one is my pick to win the Schneider Family Book Award in the teen category for next year. I'll be tuning in to the ALA announcements as I always do, and hoping to hear that my friend Carrie Jones won an award. Maybe even two.