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Lokk out for City of Secrets coming from Viking on April 26, 2016
Stewart O'Nan's thirteenth novel is another wildly original, bittersweet gem like his celebrated Last Night at the Lobster. Valentine's weekend, Art and Marion Fowler flee their Cleveland suburb for Niagara Falls, desperate to recoup their losses. Jobless, with their home approaching foreclosure and their marriage on the brink of collapse, Art and Marion liquidate their savings account and book a bridal suite at the Falls' ritziest casino for a second honeymoon. While they sightsee like tourists during the day, at night they risk it all at the roulette wheel to fix their finances-and save their marriage. A tender yet honest exploration of faith, forgiveness and last chances, The Odds is a reminder that love, like life, is always a gamble.
|Publisher:||Penguin Publishing Group|
|Product dimensions:||4.90(w) x 7.00(h) x 0.60(d)|
|Age Range:||18 Years|
About the Author
Date of Birth:February 4, 1961
Place of Birth:Pittsburgh, PA
Education:B.S., Aerospace Engineering, Boston University, 1983; M.F.A., Cornell University, 1992
Read an Excerpt
Praise for The Odds by Stewart O’Nan
“Haunting, funny, and gorgeously eloquent . . . O’Nan’s expertly drawn tension builds to a conclusion that’s as surprising and satisfying as an unexpected kiss. In the end, The Odds is a gorgeous fable, a stunning meditation, and a hope-filled Valentine about what is won in love, what falls away, and how truly, it is always, always worth the cost.”
—The Boston Globe
“Stewart O’Nan seems incapable of writing a false line. Whether describing the unimaginable or the mundane, his modest sentences crystallize the lives of ordinary people. . . . O’Nan is an author you learn to trust, no matter what he’s writing about. . . . A few hours with this witty, sad, surprisingly romantic novel might be a better investment for troubled couples than a month of marriage counseling. . . . Odds of enjoying this novel: 1 in 1.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
“What O’Nan has done perhaps better than anybody else the past ten years is deliver us the complexity, heartbreak, and human drama of everyday people living everyday lives. . . . Art and Marion Fowler are nothing if not ordinary people whose lives are disturbed and disrupted by external forces—both economic and social—imposed on them by the larger culture. The result is an intimate and deeply moving portrait of the high-stakes game that we call marriage, one in which the reader is bound, almost obligated, to recognize in some measure, with crystal clarity, their own marriage.”
—Jonathan Evison, Salon.com
“[O’Nan] brings lightness to every scene, while still making the characters tremendously real, recognizable yet fresh. He works in the micro—the novel slips in under two hundred pages—writing close, with fine detail. There is a clarity to O’Nan’s prose: It doesn’t call attention to itself, doesn’t flaunt dazzling sentences or stunning descriptions. . . . Cracking open The Odds is like settling back to watch a film as the theater lights come down: It plays out, brightly, before your eyes.”
—Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times
“Art and Marion have come to see themselves as losers. But with flashes of gentle husband-and-wife humor, O’Nan has created far more than a marital train wreck. . . . [He] is never condescending, ever sympathetic to his main characters. . . . It’s a heartless reader who doesn’t end up rooting for them, despite the odds.”
“Relentlessly honest, O’Nan never averts his eyes from the unpleasant eruptions of the body or soul, nor is he shy of giving affection, admiration, and tolerance their due. . . . O’Nan’s settings—the bus from Ohio, the bridal suite in the hotel, the layers of the casino, the freezing falls, the Heart concert—are rendered with such vivid intelligence that they have the verve of the exotic.”
“Powerful . . . O’Nan is an unfailingly smart and affecting novelist, but never more so, I think, than when he writes about the economic struggles of ordinary folks. . . . [Niagara Falls] is a perfect setting to dramatize the ultimate middle-class nightmare: the fear of falling.”
—Maureen Corrigan, National Public Radio
“This compact page-turner of a novel examines how much good luck a long-term marriage requires, and it dares to suggest that if Art risks everything, he just might win back all he ever really wanted: Marion’s trust and love.”
—Pam Houston, More
“O’Nan is a master of that ambiguity that can never be mistaken for confusion. In cold-as-glacier-melt prose, his quotidian characters grow indelible in Last Night at the Lobster and Emily, Alone, and now The Odds.”
—The Cleveland Plain Dealer
“The Odds is a slim volume, sparse in its language and as finely crafted as the tightest of short stories. Some use a barrage of details to make a point. O’Nan trains his eye on the one or two that, in their nakedness, reveal much. The reader cannot help but recognize the rhythms of [a] relationship, disturbed by the pressure imposed by external forces. O’Nan makes points, but never belabors them. The result is an experience that is colored as much by the reader’s experience as by this fine writer’s craft.”
—The Denver Post
“[O’Nan] deftly captures Art and Marion’s genuine (if mixed) emotions. These heartfelt portraits contrast sharply with those of their tacky surroundings. . . . There are also cannily observed scenes of the casual affection and familiarity in long-term marriages, as well as unexpected surprises.”
—The Seattle Times
“O’Nan . . . captures the emotional machinery that binds and separates two people in love.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Delightful in its candor and moving in its perceptiveness . . . The Odds will strike more than a few chords for long-married baby boomers . . . who will appreciate its honest and raw depiction of what marriage can be like after many years. . . . The novel is not without O’Nan’s trademark humor, subtly sprinkled throughout.”
—The Miami Herald
“The Odds . . . offers a compelling window into the way that the 2008 economic collapse has affected the lives of average Americans.”
—The New Yorker Book Bench
“[The Odds] keeps you on the edge of your seat through the 179 pages of this brisk, pungent journey into a marriage afflicted by the twenty-first century.”
“The odds of the Fowlers reconciling should their marriage fail may be slim (1 in 20,480 that a divorced couple will remarry), but the odds that O’Nan will write winsome fiction—be it long or short-form—are forever high.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“The Odds is a remarkable portrait of a marriage stressed to the breaking point, a husband and wife united and divided by bad luck and their own thorny history. This slender, moving book confirms O’Nan’s status as one of the best writers of his generation, a novelist who can illuminate the drama and complexity of everyday life with compassion, wry humor, and unflinching honesty.”
—Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of The Leftovers
“Stewart O’Nan once drove me too fast through Manhattan at 3 A.M. This book feels just like that. Dangerous, domestic, sad, thrilling, slyly hilarious, and painful. It’s a love song, yes, but a love song to a dying marriage. Read it, please.”
—Sherman Alexie, National Book Award–winning author of War Dances
“Stewart O’Nan is a novelist of the everyday. . . . The Odds . . . concerns people you might run into at Target. . . . O’Nan packs his granular observations about domestic life into a smart, fast-paced romantic-comedy format. . . . Call it Bonnie and Clyde meets the old Albert Brooks’ film Lost in America. . . . What’s portrayed especially well, even in the farcical circumstances, is the everyday negotiations, internal and interpersonal, governing the spouses’ lives: their calculations of what to say when, and how. . . . [It’s] a funny book, too. . . . O’Nan even grants his characters (and readers) that the cheap magic of a tourist trap like Niagara Falls can be magic, nonetheless.”
—Pittsburgh City Paper
“The Odds is a realistic fairy tale about the gravitational pull of an enduring relationship. In deft, knowing strokes, Stewart O’Nan exposes all the tenderness and tension, the compromises and evasions that lie at the heart of any long-term marriage. . . . Anyone who’s experienced those emotions and doesn’t confess to seeing at least a cloudy reflection in the mirror O’Nan has so lovingly crafted isn’t telling the truth.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stewart O’Nan is the author of fourteen novels, including The Odds; Emily, Alone; and Last Night at the Lobster, as well as several works of nonfiction, including, with Stephen King, the bestselling Faithful. He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, where he lives with his family.
ALSO BY STEWART O’NAN
The wheel of fortune goes spinning round Will the arrow point my way?
Table of Contents
Praise for THE ODDS
About the Author
Odds of a U.S. tourist visiting Niagara Falls:1 in 195
Odds of being killed in a bus accident:1 in 436,212
Odds of a vehicle being searched by Canadian customs:1 in 384
Odds of a U.S. citizen being an American Express cardholder:1 in 10
Odds of a married couple reaching their 25th anniversary:1 in 6
Odds of getting sick on vacation:1 in 9
Odds of vomiting on vacation:1 in 6
Odds of a married couple making love on a given night:1 in 5
Odds of seeing a shooting star:1 in 5,800
Odds of the sun coming up:1 in 1
Odds of surviving going over the Falls in a barrel:1 in 3
Odds of a couple taking a second honeymoon to the same destination:1 in 9
Odds of a U.S. citizen filing for bankruptcy:1 in 17
Odds of surviving going over the Falls without a barrel:1 in 1,500,000
Odds of a marriage proposal being accepted:1 in 1.001
Odds of a 53-year-old woman being a grandmother:1 in 3
Odds of Heart playing “Crazy on You” in concert:1 in 1
Odds of a black number coming up in roulette (European):1 in 2.06
Odds of a couple making love on Valentine’s Day:1 in 1.4
Odds of being served breakfast in bed on Valentine’s Day:1 in 4
Odds of a jazz band playing “My Funny Valentine” on Valentine’s Day:1 in 1
Odds of a married woman having an affair:1 in 3
Odds of a lover proposing on Valentine’s Day:1 in 17
Odds of winning an Olympic gold medal:1 in 4,500,000
Odds of a couple fighting on Valentine’s Day:1 in 5
Odds of the Cleveland Indians winning the World Series:1 in 25,000
Odds of a divorced couple remarrying:1 in 20,480
Odds of a U.S. tourist visiting Niagara Falls:
The final weekend of their marriage, hounded by insolvency, indecision, and, stupidly, half secretly, in the never-distant past ruled by memory, infidelity, Art and Marion Fowler fled the country. North, to Canada. “Like the slaves,” Marion told her sister Celia. They would spend their last days and nights as man and wife as they’d spent the first, nearly thirty years ago, in Niagara Falls, as if, across the border, by that fabled and overwrought cauldron of new beginnings, away from any domestic, everyday claims, they might find each other again. Or at least Art hoped so. Marion was just hoping to endure it with some grace and get back home so she could start dealing with the paperwork required to become, for the first time in her life, a single-filing taxpayer.
They told their daughter Emma they were taking a second honeymoon.
“Plus they’re doing another open house here, so…” Marion, on the other line, qualified.
They weren’t good liars, they were just afraid of the truth and what it might say about them. They were middle-class, prey to the tyranny of appearances and what they could afford, or dare, which was part of their problem. They were too settled and practical for what they were doing, uncomfortable with desperate measures. They could barely discuss the plan between themselves, as if, exposed to light and air, it might evaporate.
With Jeremy, it was enough to say they wanted to see the new casino, a Frank Gehry knockoff featured on the covers of Sunday travel sections and in‑flight magazines. He was impressed with the rate they’d gotten. Art had dug around online to find a bargain.
“Your father the high roller,” Marion joked.
The Valentine’s Getaway Special, it was called: $249, inclusive of meals and a stake of fifty Lucky Bucks toward table games.
They took the bus because it was part of the package, but now, burrowing through a dark wind tunnel of blowing snow somewhere on the outskirts of Buffalo, surrounded by much younger couples—including, frozen zoetropically in the light of oncoming cars, a fleshy pair in Harley gear necking directly across the aisle—they both wished they’d driven.
They’d already made their separate cases at home, so there was no sense going over it again. Art, ever the math major, always bringing matters back to the stingy reality of numbers, had pointed out it would save them fifty dollars in gas, not to mention parking, which Marion thought absurd, and typical. They were so far beyond the stage where fifty dollars might help—like this ridiculous gamble, betting their marriage, essentially, on the spin of a wheel—yet he clung to his old a‑penny-saved‑is‑a‑penny-earned bookkeeping, forgetting the ledger he was tending was drenched in red. Taking the bus represented yet another loss of control, giving themselves up to the hand of fate, or at least a sleep-deprived driver. The only reason she went along with it—besides not wanting to fight—was that she wouldn’t have to worry about Art tailgating people the whole way in this weather, though of course she didn’t say that.
The bus, additionally, was supposed to provide them with cover, as if in gray middle age they weren’t invisible enough. From the beginning Art had conceived of the trip as a secret mission, a fantastic last-ditch escape from the snares of their real life, and while Marion refused to believe in the possibility, as at first she’d refused to believe the severity of their situation, she also knew they’d run out of options. The house had been on the market over a year now without a nibble. They would lose it—had already lost it, honestly. The question was, how much would it cost them?
Everything, barring a miracle. Art had already crunched the numbers, and after a necessary period of denial, Marion had conceded them, which was why they were barreling north on I‑90, Lake Erie a black void beyond the window.
Art just wanted to get there. The Indians gym bag on his lap with the leering, bucktoothed Chief Wahoo made him nervous, as if the banded packets of twenties fitted inside like bricks were stolen. He wouldn’t be able to relax until he’d locked them in the safe, along with the ring he’d managed to keep a secret from Marion. In love he wasn’t frugal, despite what she might say. In another mad surrender to extravagance, for seventy-five more dollars a night, he’d reserved one of the bridal suites on the top floor overlooking the Falls, and despite their guaranteed late arrival, he was afraid the front desk might have lost or ignored his request and given their room away.
Beside him, Marion lowered her mystery and massaged her neck as if she had a crick in it.
“I’m starving,” she said. “Aren’t you hungry?”
It was the only bus of the day, but since he’d made the arrangements he was responsible, just as it was his fault the traffic was bad and the weather ugly, and that night had fallen.
“I’m a little peckish,” he seconded. As in everything this weekend, he wanted them to be on the same side, the two of them against the world.
“What time is our reservation?”
“The earliest I could get was seven-thirty.”
“What time is it now?”
“Just past six. It’s only another twenty miles.”
“I should have grabbed a breakfast bar. I still need to iron my dress. I hope they have one.”
“Should be like a wood bee,” she said.
It was a private joke, a mocking appreciation of the slipperiness of even the simplest hope, a nonce catchphrase like so many others lifted from favorite movies or TV shows that served as a rote substitute for conversation and bound them like shut‑in twins, each other’s best and, most often, only audience. While they’d performed this exchange hundreds of times over the years, en route to graduations, weddings and funerals, and her skepticism was an old routine, delivered lightly, almost without thought, tonight, because he was on a mission to recapture, by one dashing, reckless gesture everything they’d lost, he took it personally. He liked to believe that when he first met her, when she was completely foreign and even more inscrutable, a solemn blonde sociology major freshly graduated from Wooster with granny glasses and a tennis player’s shapely legs, a girlish love of James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg, a cedar chest full of pastel sweaters and a shelf crowded with naked neon-haired troll dolls, she had believed in things—luck, goodness, the inexhaustible possibilities of life—and that her disappointment now was a judgment not of the world but of him and their life together. If the room didn’t have an iron, he would call down to the front desk and go get it himself if necessary. They might be broke come Monday morning, and filing for divorce, but he would never stop trying to provide for her happiness, as impossible as that was.
She addressed her mystery again, tilting it to the beam of light from the overhead console. She read two or three a week, the pile of cracked and yellowing paperbacks on her nightstand dwindling as the one on the marble-topped table by the front door grew until it was time to trade them in at the Book Exchange. “I’m reading,” she’d say when his hand was advancing under the covers, and he would retreat.
Across the aisle, in flickering montage, the biker couple clutched at each other like plummeting skydivers, and Art was aware of the space separating him from her. He slipped his hand from atop the gym bag and dropped it to her blue-jeaned thigh, a middle-school move. He squeezed the yielding loaf of her leg, smoothed, patted. It had been weeks since they’d made love, and the last time had been a disappointment, perfunctory on her part, workmanlike on his. He’d had to lobby her for it, imagining ecstasy, the two of them communing, the sweet plenty of her body wiping his mind clean of worry, and then, in the middle, it felt like a chore, and he’d struggled to finish, grudgingly picturing the overly rouged girl who did the traffic on the morning news. Tonight, with the Falls roaring below their window, he would prove that while they’d reached the age where passion sometimes flagged, his love for her was as strong as ever. Didn’t she see? The money, the house, none of it mattered. Since they’d met, with the exception of those few torturous months he’d long since repudiated, she was all he wanted. Mawkish as it sounded, he could say it with a straight face: as long as they had each other, they were rich.
Marion stayed his hand, covering it with her own, and kept reading. With nowhere to focus his attention, he was always needy on vacation, just as he’d been following her around the house all fall since he’d lost his job. He was eager—too eager, really—and normally she could divert him with a list of chores. She put him in charge of the leaves, checking on him surreptitiously from the bathroom window as she would Emma and Jeremy when they were teenagers, glad to have an hour to herself. One of her worries about this weekend was how much time they would spend alone together. At home she could busy herself running errands and making supper, messing around on Facebook and watching TV, and hide behind her mystery in bed. Here he would want more of her, as if this really was a second honeymoon.
To her it was the exact opposite. With every passing mile she was returning to a place where thirty years ago she’d been a different and certainly a better person—if naïve and a bit silly, then relatively untouched by the larger sorrows of life, several of which, later on, were the result of her own decisions, choosing desire over duty only to discover she was wrong about everything, including who she was. The idea of that younger, blameless Marion chastened her, as if once they arrived she would have to meet with her and formally review her regrets once more.
She didn’t care about the money. She was sad about the house, and sorry for Art, but the children were gone and they could live anywhere. Secretly, as horrible as it sounded, she was actually looking forward to moving into a smaller place and starting over, or so she told herself, because sometimes, alone in the car at a stoplight or on the toilet with the door closed, she was subject to moments of trancelike blankness, staring straight ahead at nothing while biting the inside of one cheek as if trying to solve an impossible problem.
She wasn’t in love with him, or not the way she thought she should be. She wasn’t in love with Karen anymore, if she’d ever really been. She wasn’t in love with anyone, especially not herself. At some point, after menopause had robbed her of that bodily need, she’d convinced herself that the great movements in her life were in the past and succumbed to the inertia of middle age—prematurely, it seemed. While Art saw the divorce as a legal formality, a convenient shelter for whatever assets they might have left, from the beginning she’d taken the idea seriously, weighing her options and responsibilities—plumbing, finally, her heart—trying, unsuccessfully, to keep the ghost of Wendy Daigle out of the equation.
Excerpted from "The Odds"
Copyright © 2012 Stewart O'Nan.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
What People are Saying About This
“At his best, O’Nan (Emily, Alone) nails the persistence of betrayal long after wrongs have actually been committed…”—Publishers Weekly
Reading Group Guide
Faced with unemployment, foreclosure, and a drowning marriage, Art and Marion Fowler are a suburban couple struggling to maintain the appearance of the American dream even as their lives slowly disintegrate. Living on credit and looking toward bankruptcy, Art hatches a seemingly impossible plan: take what little money they have left to a Niagara Falls casino and hope that over the course of a weekend, they can win enough back to save themselves. It’s an act that is equal parts desperation and optimism, and it is the interplay between these two emotions that runs like a current through Stewart O’Nan’s novel The Odds. Alternating between Marion and Art’s respective doubts, fears, and hopes, the book delicately traces their weekend together at the edge of the Falls and on the precipice of their future.
Nearly thirty years ago, Art and Marion honeymooned at Niagara Falls and Art hopes that returning will not only recoup their financial losses but also recover the happiness of those early days, erasing the hurt that has accumulated over three decades. In a luxury honeymoon suite and with a new diamond ring in his pocket, Art plans to reignite Marion’s love for him and release them both from the memories of his infidelity twenty years earlier. He is hopeful yet hesitant, hindered by flashes of self–criticism, guilt, and erotic memories of his old lover. Marion, on the other hand, is haunted by the memories of her own mistakes and is preparing to return home ready for divorce.
O’Nan’s novel is a study in the power of last chances, of the value of the crazy gesture in the face of an oppressive reality; the trip is an escape from their old selves, and Art and Marion, for better and for worse, are running away together. Amid the subtle recriminations and regrets that come from decades of marriage, there is also the intimacy of inside jokes and finishing each other’s sentences, the familiarity of each other’s bodies and desires. Art and Marion make love, share old memories, and find themselves cheering each other on in their absurd adventure. They have brought their entire lives to the casino, and neither knows how the gamble will pay off.
ABOUT STEWART O'NAN
Stewart O’Nan was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His novels include Songs for the Missing, Last Night at the Lobster, and Emily, Alone. His nonfiction works include Faithful, a chronicle of the 2004 Boston Red Sox, which he co–authored with Stephen King. He currently resides in Pittsburgh with his family. This is his thirteenth novel.
A CONVERSATION WITH STEWART O'NAN
Q. Many of your novels, such as Last Night at the Lobster and Emily, Alone, focus on the frustrations and dramas of daily life and people’s response to the circumstances that fate assigns them. What is appealing to you about telling these quieter, more intimate stories? Do you see yourself as a chronicler of contemporary American life?
I guess my focus lately has been more on the immediate world around me—the hidden stories that are shared by millions of people every day. My hope is that by showing what’s important to regular people, readers might add their own life experiences to those of my characters so that the book means something to them other than an escape. And, also, that they might spend some meaningful time with a person they’d otherwise never notice.
I wouldn’t say I’m a chronicler of American life, since that seems kind of dry and clinical, though I do seem drawn again and again to very American concepts of success and failure, innocence and experience, faith and despair. And the many layers that make up the country.
Q. What is the significance of the Dinah Washington lyrics that open the novel? Was this song always important to you?
I discovered Dinah Washington’s version of “Wheel of Fortune” just by luck, while I was in the middle of the first draft, and it seemed so much to fit Art and Marion’s situation, especially the romantic’s hope of “If you’ll ever smile on me, please let it be now.”
Q. The Odds is a novel rich in emotion but spare in prose. Do your first drafts begin in this economical style or is your process of rewriting one of paring away unnecessary detail with each revision? How many drafts do you typically write? How long does the process take?
I’d call the prose clear rather than spare, since I did give myself fair leeway in terms of figurative language (anyone dropping “zoetropically” can’t honestly be called spare). But sentence–wise it’s not the winding, clause–clotted Jamesian approach I used in Emily, Alone, and that was a decision I made early on. I only did four or five full drafts of this one, since it’s small and came out pretty clean. It’s essentially a duet, with a contained time frame and unified setting. There are nowhere near as many moving parts as in, say, Songs for the Missing or even Last Night at the Lobster, which had a broad supporting cast. Overall this one took about a year from start to finish, which is pretty quick.
Q. On page 28, Art says, “This is Niagara Falls, nothing’s real here.” Why did you choose Niagara Falls, a destination known as much for its gaudiness as its association with romance, as the setting for this novel?
I liked the idea of using a public space to play out Art and Marion’s private drama. As with the Red Lobster, the reader already has a certain feel for Niagara Falls, and its insistence on romance and splendor is a perfect foil for what Art and Marion are fighting.
Q. This is not just a character–driven novel, but one with a very small cast. Readers are intimately involved with every aspect of Art and Marion’s thoughts and feelings, and their enjoyment of the book succeeds or fails on their emotional connection with these two characters. Did this intense focus feel risky to you? When writing, did you feel a particular sympathy for one character or the other?
It’s the story of a marriage that’s reached a very shaky middle age, and to show the effect of that on both characters means the reader needs to be intimate with both, trying, by getting and staying close, to understand what they themselves can’t make sense of (love and the loss of love both being mysterious), and not choosing one over the other. The risk is that in trying to make both appealing, you’ll fail to tell the truth of how it really feels to be in that situation. Better to opt for honesty and hope the reader can empathize with both characters. Neither is heroic, and yet, while they’ve made some regrettable, even stupid, choices, I think they’re decent people, and I sympathize with both of them.
Q. The rhetorical device of opening each chapter with the likely odds for the events within that chapter is witty and entertaining. Clearly some are tongue–in–cheek but others are not; how did you come up with these figures?
Most of the figures came from a book called What Are the Odds? Others I tracked down online. The scariest was the one with the Cleveland Indians winning the World Series. As I was finishing the book, they were still in first place. Luckily, the odds caught up with them.
Q. Much of Art and Marion’s financial difficulty stems from their home—the mortgage, the cost of repairs and maintenance, etc.—yet for many people, owning a home is an integral part of the American dream. Why is this? Looking at the state of the economy and the current housing situation, is this aspiration doing us more harm than good?
Because the United States is so vast, it’s natural that having your own little piece of it is part of the American dream. In the past, it was also the best investment you could make. Buy low, take good care of your place and raise the kids there, then sell it and retire on the profits. For several generations that was the formula for success. That hasn’t been true for a while, as the collapse of the real estate market and subsequently the nation’s economy showed. But that doesn’t stop us from wanting a place we can call our own.
Q. The novel ends on a surprisingly positive note. Would you say that you’re an optimist?
I’m definitely an optimist. No matter how bad things are, I’m always hoping something good will happen.
Q. What happens to Art and Marion after the close of the book? Will they both be happy ten years from now?
Originally, I was going to follow Art and Marion home the next morning, and then speed up time to show the reader how this windfall complicates things—how it postpones but doesn’t truly alter what was going to happen to them. But then I thought: life isn’t like that. It doesn’t wrap up and leave us with just a flat end result. Life is the high and the low moments and everything in between, and here’s a special, singular moment, a weird vantage point from which to look back and say, yes, this is wild, but really, those thirty years, with all their hard work and tears and compromise, were the real payoff. Married life.
Q. Although you are primarily a novelist, you have also published nonfiction. In terms of artistic satisfaction or challenge, what does one medium provide that the other does not? What is your next project?
Both fiction and nonfiction provide the pleasure of discovery. With fiction, it’s in the writing and in the daydreaming about the characters and their situations. In nonfiction, more often the discovery’s in the research, the pleasure of unearthing facts or connections you had no idea existed. The writing itself is less revelatory.
Not sure what my next project is. I’ve got several clamoring for the top spot. Typically, one will get hot and nudge the others aside, but I won’t know that till I spend a few months at my desk.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
In all my years as a reader, I’ve never read an O’Nan novel. Boy, have I been missing out. Art and Marion Fowler ditch their soon-to-be foreclosed home for Niagara Falls, hoping to recoup enough money to save their home and their marriage. The odds are against them, in more ways than one but as they rent the “bridal” suite for one last Valentine’s hurrah, one remains hopeful where the other has totally and utterly given up hope. From the very first page, it’s clear that Marion is going along with Art’s plan as a way to humor him, or perhaps…she feels obligated to give it one last shot just so she can say that she tried everything in her power to make it work. Regardless, what she is is a broken woman at the end of her rope, hoping to close this chapter so she can move on to the next stage of her life. She’s not entirely convinced that gambling can save them, but she gives it a go for Art’s sake. Art however, is the opposite. Inside, he knows that the marriage is coming to a close but he’s not ready to throw in the towel. Not quite yet. He’s optimistic to a fault but somehow, you can’t hold that against him. Jobless and wanting nothing more than to provide for his family, he sees this trip as a solution to their problems. Additionally, he has decided to ask Marion to marry him all over again. To start fresh, even if they can never go back to the life they knew so well. Since the odds of recouping what they need to save the house are slim to none, they continue to squander money by way of their maxed-out credit card, living it up until they are basically told that they no longer can. Fine dinners, champagne and visiting all of the tourist traps that looked much more appealing the first time around. It’s heartbreaking, really. But as sad and heartbreaking as so much of it was, I adored it. This story is all about second chances and when O’Nan goes into the heads of these characters, he must come out exhausted because these characters are complex characters with real worries and pressures. Ink on paper one second, living and breathing creatures the next. Amazing. I can’t compare this book to his others since this was my first experience with O’Nan, but if the character development in his other books is anything like it was here, then I will be reading more of his books in the near future.
I've never read a book by Stewart O'Nan, though I have heard good things about him. His latest novel, The Odds: A Love Story, tells the story of Marion and Art, a middle-aged married couple on their way to Niagara Falls. They are in severe financial trouble, about to lose their home to foreclosure and have a plan to hit a casino, with Art's sure-fire system to win enough money to save them. As the story quietly unfolds, we find that Art and Marion are planning on separating, but I wasn't clear if it was related to the finances or because Marion was unhappy. We learn that Art had an affair a long time ago, and Marion has never really forgiven him. Marion recently had an affair with a woman, but Art is unaware of that. Each chapter begins with a statistic, like the "odds of getting sick on vacation 1 in 9", and each statistic relates to the chapter. In this one, Marion gets food poisoning. It's a clever way to tie everything into the gambling theme. This is basically a two-person story, and as I was reading it, I thought it would make a good stage play. We spend much of time getting to know this couple, and the insight into each character is revealing, like this passage of Art describing himself: "If, as he liked to think, his greatest strength was a patient, indomitable hope, his one great shortcoming was a refusal to accept and therefore have any shot at changing his fate." Marion says of herself: "What had she done with her life? For a moment she couldn't think of anything. Become a wife and a mother. A lover, briefly, badly. Made a home, worked, saved, traveled. All with him. For him, because of him, despite him. From the start, because she was just a girl then, she'd thought they were soul mates, that it made them special, better than other couples they knew. She'd learned her lesson. She swore she'd never be fooled again, not by anyone, and yet she's fought for him as if he were hers, and then, having won, didn't know what to do with him." That passage just blew me away. I found the writing to be concise, and so profound. Marion and Art each take chapters sharing their thoughts and moving the story along. The overwhelming tone of the novel is sadness, with Art hoping that his gamble can make this last trip together something memorable, that he can be a hero, and they can regain the intimacy they lost. Marion does not appear to want to reignite their marriage, she sees this as one last reluctant fling. She is an unhappy woman, and the only time she shows any sign of joy is when they get drunk at a Heart concert, reliving her youth. The one nitpicky thing that bothered me about this book is the character names. Art and Marion are about the same age as me, but their names make them sound like they are 70 years old. I don't know anyone my age named Art or Marion. I wonder if the author intentionally did that? Their literal gambling to win enough money to save themselves is a metaphor for the gamble they are taking on their marriage. Can they win at either? Anyone who has been married may see themselves in certain parts of this book. It is an insightful look at a marriage in crisis, and the writing is so brilliant, you'll feel like you are eavesdropping on this couple.
Audiobook......Did you ever want to know the odds of being killed in a bus crash? The odds of being proposed to on Valentine's Day? The odds of honeymooning in the same place twice, with the same man? The odds of surviving going over Niagara Falls with or without a barrel? Do you want to cringe at the realism of this novel about a 30 year old marriage? This is the book for you.As usual, Stewart O'Nan, finds a way to convey to the reader some sense of the small amount of control we have over our lives, over our relationships, and over our feelings. He writes in a manner which makes you cringe, and smile, and cry. Tough to read, but very good.
I've never read a book by Stewart O'Nan, though I have heard good things about him. His latest novel, The Odds: A Love Story, tells the story of Marion and Art, a middle-aged married couple on their way to Niagara Falls.They are in severe financial trouble, about to lose their home to foreclosure and have a plan to hit a casino, with Art's sure-fire system to win enough money to save them.As the story quietly unfolds, we find that Art and Marion are planning on separating, but I wasn't clear if it was related to the finances or because Marion was unhappy. We learn that Art had an affair a long time ago, and Marion has never really forgiven him. Marion recently had an affair with a woman, but Art is unaware of that.Each chapter begins with a statistic, like the "odds of getting sick on vacation 1 in 9", and each statistic relates to the chapter. In this one, Marion gets food poisoning. It's a clever way to tie everything into the gambling theme.This is basically a two-person story, and as I was reading it, I thought it would make a good stage play. We spend much of time getting to know this couple, and the insight into each character is revealing, like this passage of Art describing himself:"If, as he liked to think, his greatest strength was a patient, indomitable hope, his one great shortcoming was a refusal to accept and therefore have any shot at changing his fate."Marion says of herself:"What had she done with her life? For a moment she couldn't think of anything. Become a wife and a mother. A lover, briefly, badly. Made a home, worked, saved, traveled. All with him. For him, because of him, despite him. From the start, because she was just a girl then, she'd thought they were soul mates, that it made them special, better than other couples they knew. She'd learned her lesson. She swore she'd never be fooled again, not by anyone, and yet she's fought for him as if he were hers, and then, having won, didn't know what to do with him."That passage just blew me away. I found the writing to be concise, and so profound. Marion and Art each take chapters sharing their thoughts and moving the story along. The overwhelming tone of the novel is sadness, with Art hoping that his gamble can make this last trip together something memorable, that he can be a hero, and they can regain the intimacy they lost.Marion does not appear to want to reignite their marriage, she sees this as one last reluctant fling. She is an unhappy woman, and the only time she shows any sign of joy is when they get drunk at a Heart concert, reliving her youth.The one nitpicky thing that bothered me about this book is the character names. Art and Marion are about the same age as me, but their names make them sound like they are 70 years old. I don't know anyone my age named Art or Marion. I wonder if the author intentionally did that?Their literal gambling to win enough money to save themselves is a metaphor for the gamble they are taking on their marriage. Can they win at either? Anyone who has been married may see themselves in certain parts of this book. It is an insightful look at a marriage in crisis, and the writing is so brilliant, you'll feel like you are eavesdropping on this couple.
The Odds is a sweet story about an almost-retired couple in financial and marital distress who try to make extra cash gambling in Niagara Falls. Before the beginning of the book, the husband has convinced the wife that getting divorced may be a smart financial decision. She agrees, but unbeknownst to him, because she thinks that their marriage is unrecoverable. It's a slender book, but the few days in Niagara Falls are rendered in loving detail, from the thoughts of the protagonists to the scenery of the Falls.I liked Last Night at the Lobster better, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps I should visit Niagara Falls.
Any introduction to writing or literature class will include the theory that most (if not all) books follow a pattern of escalating peaks that reach a climax before drifting off into a denouement. In a line graph, the crux of the book, regardless of the genre, would stand above everything else. The pattern of plot denotes a clear beginning, middle and end.But what if a book chooses to disregard this tried-and-true formula? What if the book chops off the traditional beginning and end? What if the middle the book portrays would be more of a flat line in a traditional book¿s graph?If the book is The Odds by Stewart O¿Nan, you¿re in luck. And, under close observation, the flat line displays fractal properties of the traditional plot graph. Readers meet Art and Marion Fowler as the couple travels to Niagara Falls. A whole other novel could take place before page 1: The Fowler marriage and finances are already dissolving, with only legal steps remaining before both are wiped out, when we meet them.The two return to the site of their honeymoon with what remains of their savings in a last-ditch attempt to regain financial solvency at the casinos. The plan is Art¿s idea; Marion goes along with it because she doesn¿t have a better idea. Art¿s other idea is to win back Marion¿s heart, to return to the passion of their younger years. Marion just wants the weekend to be over.Like O¿Nan¿s Last Night at the Lobster, it¿s easy to say not much happens in The Odds. Instead both novels offer a glimpse of a couple of almost ordinary days in the lives of ordinary people.What other authors might treat as a peak to build tension ¿ say, a bus accident ¿ O¿Nan uses to build character. Art wants to comfort Marion, but isn¿t sure how it would be received given her constant rejections of intimacy. Marion wonders how the accident will delay their trip.ONan tells the story from a third-person point of view that shifts perspective between Art and Marion. The transitions in perspective work seamlessly and serve to fill in some of the back story that led the couple to page 1.While Art saw the divorce as a legal formality, a convenient shelter for whatever assets they might have left, from the beginning she¿d taken the idea seriously, weighing her options and responsibilities¿plumbing, finally, her heart¿trying, unsuccessfully, to keep the ghost of Wendy Daigle out of the equation. How much easier it would be if Wendy Daigle were dead ¿. She¿d lost her spot on the page and read the same sentence again, sighed and kneaded the bunched muscles of her neck.¿Want a neck rub?¿ Art offered.¿I¿m just tired of sitting.¿ She shifted and went back to her book, ignoring him again.These little rebuffs, he would never get used to them. Years ago he¿d come to accept that no matter how saintly he was from then on, like a murderer, he would always be wrong, damned by his own hand, yet he was always surprised and hurt when she turned him down.Art and Marion are masters of masking their reactions. Inside, they may question what the other is doing, imagine unsaid conversations and untaken actions. On the surface they remain calm, even though, and sometimes because, that calmness frustrates the other.The Odds ends when the Fowlers¿ weekend at the Falls does. What happens to them after the casino is left to the reader decide. O¿Nan¿s approach may not be the traditional peak-and-valley storytelling, but his quieter approach is worth spending time with.
My second read by O'Nan. He conveys so much with a sparing use of words. I recognized perfectly some of the thoughts and emotions of Marion as she remembered Art's infidelity 20 years prior. Art and Marion drain their savings account and max out the American Express card for a weekend in Niagara Falls with the intention of gambling their way out of their financial and marital woes. O'Nan nailed the marriage perfectly in the small details. I plan to read more by him.
Classic O'Nan. I couldn't put it down even though a pervasive sense of pessimism hangs over the whole operation. And yet will actors find some last minute redemption? O'Nan is a master of the human terrain.
A brisk read about a married couple who are financially insolvent and on the brink of divorce; they travel to Niagara Falls in the husband¿s hopes of rekindling their relationship and parlaying the money they have at the Roulette tables into a sum that will cover their debt. The deterioration of their relationship stems back to an affair the husband had twenty years ago which affects them both to the present day, often occurring in their inner thoughts. In desperation on both fronts, they gamble on a weekend to the place they took their honeymoon. In keeping with the gambling theme and the title of the book, chapter headings are the odds of various events, some of which are interesting (odds of a married couple reaching their 25th anniversary: 1 in 6; odds of a marriage proposal being accepted: 1 in 1.001), others of which are forced and banal (odds of the sun coming up: 1 in 1). The book is not horrible, but it¿s pretty ordinary.Quotes:On trust:¿His blitheness disturbed her, as if once again he¿d become that other person, the one who would say or do anything to get what he wanted. Did he understand how hard it was to believe a word he said when he lied so easily?¿On marriage, and a mismatch in desire:¿Often when he was affectionate she accused him of just wanting to cop a feel, as if he were a teenager. The charge hurt worse because he was at least partly guilty. He¿d always loved to touch her. He¿d thought it was a compliment, his ardency, but somehow, now, it was a burden for her to be desired.¿¿Right up until she lifted her nightgown, he hadn¿t been sure she would have him. After thirty years she was still inscrutable, and while normally that was frustrating, it produced in moments like this an abject gratitude, a feeling of having been rewarded spectacularly for enduring those long, brittle stretches of indifference.¿On love, and adultery:¿It was the Who¿s `Love Reign O¿er Me?,¿ disorienting here, a complete surprise. As a teen he had been skeptical of the anthem, too inexperienced and self-conscious to buy the idea. Now, on the far side of romance, he wasn¿t sure it was realistic, or was he unworthy of the sentiment, split as he¿d been? It made him think of Wendy and the beach, the lunch hours they¿d sat at the chained-down picnic tables, necking and planning a future that never happened.¿And:¿Because Marion needed to be home to cook dinner, their time was brief, and usually these breakdowns took place as she was getting herself together to leave, making the transition back to the other world and the other person she was that much harder. Instead of feeling doubly wanted or torn, she only felt more alone. She wondered how he¿d done it for so long. In a twisted way, she envied ¿ in retrospect ¿ how effortlessly he¿d carried his secret, and, when it grew too heavy for him, confessed, unburdening himself by dumping it on her.¿
a couple facing financial and marital problems solves all their problems gambling in canada.... a little boring for me sorry
It¿s painful to watch a couple who have lost their connection attempt to interact. That¿s the focus of this new Stewart O¿Nan book. You may or may not know that I have loved Stewart O¿Nan¿s books, Emily, Alone, and Last Night at the Red Lobster. This book shares some of the qualities of his earlier works. The couple that is at the heart of this story are just working people, barely able to keep going in this crazy world. The world is seemingly spinning too fast, suddenly, so fast that it just might careen off its axis, so fast that we working people are not doing so well these days, and there is no cure in sight.It¿s a painful story. The two are angry at the world that threatens their home and their financial stability, and they are angry at each other for various transgressions, violations of trust. They do not talk so much as hurl words at each other.It won¿t be for long, though. They have a plan.They are headed to Niagara Falls, the spot they spent their honeymoon oh-so-long ago, and the two fully intend to blow what remains of their cash in the biggest way possible.It¿s a plan. A desperate plan for desperate people living desperate lives.Which makes for a painful book. A painful, yet thoughtful book.
Stewart O¿Nan takes the same spare, compact style he used to write his very popular Last Night at the Lobster and perfects it in this story of a marriage. Art and Marion, long married with adult children and a debt load that is about to bring them to bankruptcy, embark on a Valentine¿s Day weekend trip to Niagara Falls and its big stakes casino. The site of their honeymoon will now be where Art will make a last ditch attempt to win back some cash and his wife. Marion, along for the ride, humors her husband and just wants to be done. She takes their imminent divorce seriously wherein Art thinks it¿s only being done out of financial necessity. Changing perspective lets us get into the heads of both characters, and although the book takes place in a single weekend, we learn quite a bit about Marion and Art. The ending is ambiguous and O¿Nan lets the reader decide how happy, or not, their bus ride home will be.
O'Nan has a singular knack of making the commonplace and mundane of vast interest and importance. Loved the odds statistics he gave at the start of each chapter. The hidden meanings he derives from everyday events, especially those that occur within a long marriage where each character has his or her own secrets, longings and expectations. Another very good read from this author.
The Odds: A Love story is written by Stuart O'Nan. It takes place in Canada's part of The Niagara Falls. It's about a man and woman who are deeply in debt. They are on the verge of getting a divorce and declaring bankruptcy. They decide to take what little money they have and go to the place they went on their honeymoon and gamble it to try to double their profit and get out of debt. Though this is a very well written book, it really wasn't something I was very interested in. I had to push myself to finish this book. For others, this may be a wonderful book. I'm not in any way putting it down. It just wasn't my taste. I did, however, love the statistics that was added at the beginning of every chapter. I think one of the biggest things I didn't like about this book was that it wasn't really detailed enough. They kind of left so many things to be interpreted by the reader. While I like this in some ways, I don't like it to this extent. I'm sure that other readers will love it for this though. I encourage anybody who's into this genre to read it. I'm sad to say that it wasn't my style of reading. I hope there are others who find more enjoyment out of this book than I did.
The characters and premise were interesting, and I enjoyed all the details about Niagara Falls. However the story needed a bit more details about their motivations. I was a little bewildered as to why they felt they had to resort to such an extreme plan.
Marion and Art Fowler are at the end of life as the knew it. Married for thirty-one years, their marriage is pretty much over. Marion just can't forgive Art for cheating on her and, with their children grown and gone, she's ready to begin a life of her own. Compounding their marital problems, the Fowlers are one step away from foreclosure on their home and on the verge of bankruptcy. Art is still deeply in love with Marion and he has convinced her to spend Valentine's weekend in the honeymoon suite of the poshest Indian casino on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. While revisiting the local sights as they did on their honeymoon decades ago and enjoying lavish dinners together, Art has a simple sink-or-swim plan for the weekend. He has withdrawn all of their remaining money to try to win enough to get their lives back on track financially at the high stakes roulette table and at the same time, repair their marriage. Like LAST NIGHT AT THE LOBSTER, Stewart O'Nan's characters in THE ODDS tug at your heartstrings. In this wonderfully written and poignant tale, the author brings Art and Marion to life in a touching story of love, hope and redemption. O'Nan creates beauty in the everyday and THE ODDS is a delightful book...not to be missed! Lynn Kimmerle
The highlight of this book is that it's a quick read. The characters and storyline are not developed. Art & Marion are so unlikeable that you will not really care how the story ends.
Fast read great characters an adult true to life relationship with ups and downs and lots of gray areas. If your over 35 odds of liking this book 99 to 100.
I'd love to write a review, I'd like to read the book but I won't purchase it when the sample ends at the table of contents. Give us at least part of the first chapter!


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Rights & Tenure in the News »
Wangari Maathai - on equal distribution of land and natural resources
In a recent opinion piece published in the Washington Post, Kenyan Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai discussed the steps to acheiving a lasting peace and good governance in Kenya.
Maathai is also a former Kenyan MP and the founder of the Green Belt Movement. She discusses the importance of understanding and addressing the underlying tension and injustice that have fueled the recent ethnic and political conflict in Kenya, highlighting in particular the importance of equal distribution of land and natural resources:
"Even as we struggle to resolve the current crisis, we need ot know why these clashes recur. Only then can wounds begin to heal and poeple look to the future with hope. One main trigger is the inequitable distribution of natural resources in Kenya, especially land."
Maathai goes on to discuss the history of land displacement and imperialism in Kenya and the importance of the many "micro-national" identities that define Kenyans. She concludes:
"To create a more cohesive nation-state, ruling elites must devote time, energy and resources to ensuring universal freedom, security and equitable distribution of resources. And far from trying to destroy micro-nationalities, Africans should embrace their distant cultures, languages and values. By bringing the best of the micro-nationality to the nation, they would enrich all."
Posted By Megan Liddle at 1:04pm on February 08, 2008
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domain: sociology


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Did the Narendra Modi government did the right thing by deciding to shut the banks the day after surprising the country by abruptly banning Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes from public use. The answer probably is another question.
According to the announcement made on Tuesday, the government has banned the use of high value currencies Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 in its bid to control terrorism financing, fake currency circulation and black money generation.
While doing this, the government has said the banks will remain shut today and also warned that some of the ATMs may not function for two days - on 9 November and 10 November.
The objective definitely seems to be to prepare banks to deal with the rush they are likely to face tomorrow. Customers, who already have Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes with them, are sure to run to the banks to deposit the cash they have and also exchange the notes to lower denominations.
Rush they will, for, as per RBI data, as much as 86 percent of the total value of the currency in circulation is Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. That amounts to Rs 14 lakh crore. In other words, currency notes worth this much will have to be exchanged or deposited with the banks.
Clearly, lakhs are going to throng the banks and ATMs when they open tomorrow (the customers have time until December 30 to exchange or deposit their notes). It is not clear whether banks are equipped to deal with this huge task.
As Firstpost columnist Madan Sabnavis says "ATMs are bound to crash and unrest will unfold if banks are unable to provide the currency to those coming to change the same".
"We don't know yet what is the situation going to. As far as this issue is concerned. A clear picture will emerge only when the branches open tomorrow. We will do everything possible to make this process smooth," said a branch manager with one of the state-run banks in Mumbai.
However, one thing is for sure. As this report in The Indian Express report says, the whole exercise would mean banks will have to replace about 2,300 crore of banknotes, which is most likely be a "logistical nightmare".
Banks will see a ruckus.
Are you prepared?
Data from Kishor Kadam
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button.
Updated Date: Nov 09, 2016 15:19:06 IST

domain: politics


The drumstick tree, also known as Moringa oleifera, is a tree that predominantly grows in tropical and subtropical regions with a steppe climate. People also refer to it as the ‘miracle tree’ due to the high nutritional value and medicinal properties of its leaves and fruits. In South Africa, for example, the leaves are used to combat malnutrition. Because of these properties, Moringa oleifera is cultivated on a large scale on plantations.
Moringa oleifera thrives best in dry sandy soil and is highly resistant to drought, leading to rapid tree growth. Originally, this plant is found in the hills on the southern side of the Himalayas in Northwest India. However, nowadays, Moringa oleifera is also cultivated on plantations spread across Africa, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Central and South America, and Sri Lanka.
This tree is generally considered the most useful tree in the world because almost every part of it can be used for food or other practical purposes.
The immature, green fruits of the tree are primarily used, especially in South and Southeast Asia, where they are often incorporated into various dishes. The seeds of matured fruits can be eaten like nuts or peas, and vegetable oil, called behen oil, can be extracted from these seeds (38 to 40%).
The flowers of the tree are edible when cooked, and the root can be ground and used as a flavoring agent.
The leaves of the tree are particularly nutritious, with high levels of beta-carotene, vitamin C, protein, iron, and potassium. These leaves can be cooked like spinach or dried and ground to be added to meals.
Due to its pronounced nutritional value, Moringa oleifera is increasingly used to combat malnutrition in developing countries. Various organizations, including Save the Children, the Hunger Organization, and Volunteer Partnerships for West Africa, utilize this tree for this purpose.
The seeds of Moringa oleifera have the ability to purify water by removing up to 98 percent of impurities and microorganisms from water. Additionally, the leaves and fruits are processed into medicines, and the leaves are also used to make tea.


UnNews:U.S. sanctioned by IAEA
From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia
U.S. sanctioned by IAEA
Truth doesn't "live here" — It's just camping out
Monday, March 19, 2018, 13:01:UTC)(
19 December 2006
NEW YORK, New York - The IKEA (International Kids Energy Agency), part of the UN (Ununited Nations), sanctioned the U.S. (Unintelligent States of America) for its possession and use of nuclear weapons. The U.S. has called for sanctions against Iran, a country in the process of developing nuclear weapons, but instead was sanctioned themselves. UN inspectors are expected to assume posts in all U.S. nuclear facilities within the next week.
"We finally got through all the paperwork and found the U.S.'s history of nuclear weapons, and we were just appalled," said IKEA spokesperson A. Tommy Le'Ponn. "The U.S. developed and used nuclear weapons without provocation on the nuclear, biological, or chemical level. It deliberately incinerated thousands of Japanese civilians more then sixty years ago. We just found that out after working through the miles of paperwork."
Le'Ponn declined to comment on the effectiveness of the UN bureaucracy.
"They also neglected proper safety measures when using nuclear technology as a power source, as demonstrated by the Three Mile Island accident. We only unearthed the report for that last week."
President George Bush of the U.S. commented on his country's use of nuclear power plants. "We don't need no newfangled nuclear energy from splitting molecules. We're doin' a heckuva job buyin oil from our Arab friends. I'm sure they'll put that money for a good cause."


Throughout its history, UML has meant many things to many people. Its biggest general use is as a form of notation....
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Some hot-shot coders would like it left at that, but UML tools have in fact evolved to support code generation. Its wide support has made UML a lingua franca for modeling.
This ubiquity of UML in modeling helps a vendor like IBM when it acquires companies. For example, it recently acquired System Architect tools along with its purchase of Telelogic. Soon thereafter, IBM announced the integration of the System Architect 11.1 enterprise architecture and business modeling set with Telelogic Change 5.0 software for problem tracking, change request and workflow management. Certainly, UML support helps System Architect hook into this and a variety of other modeling technologies in the IBM portfolio.
This integration was said to promote governance of enterprise architecture projects, including service-oriented architecture undertakings. The two-way integration between System Architect and Tau is emblematic of how models can be shared between business and IT departments.
Just this week IBM discussed links between what it now calls IBM Telelogic System Architect and Rational Software Architect. A new Web client supports dashboard views that give executives a view on IT portfolios and projects.
When deploying a SOA, tools like System Architect can help an organization better understand risk, according to Andrew Jensen, manager product marketing, Telelogic, IBM. He said the tool set improves communication within the enterprise, and allows harvesting of information about the state of present technology portfolio, as well as planning for future states.
"Different domains have different people and they do different modeling," he said, admitting that System Architect itself has evolved to cover different domains since its first inception at Popkin Software (purchased by Telelogic in 2005).
"System Architect at one point was used as a CASE tool, whether it was data modeling or [application] modeling," said Jenson. At the time the whole concept of enterprise architecture was being developed [the company then known as Popkin] took different models sets and built a repository around this."
Jensen said lessons learned in early SOA development have shown the value of enterprise architecture tools.
"SOA is becoming one of the more important application types of enterprise architecture," he said. "What was found as SOA was deployed in the beginning was that it was deployed as a technology. It was deployed but it might not have had the right match of technology and business needs."
"Enterprise architecture is about understanding the different layers of the organization and establishing the link between business and IT. It allows you to see what would make good services," said Jensen.
"Reuse is a big value of both 'EA' and SOA," he said. "When you understand the present environment using enterprise architecture [tools], then you can find where similar services exist, and where they can be reused.
The Telelogic purchase is just one of many indicators that IBM, among others, sees modeling and architecture as a means to achieve better SOA development and integration outcomes.
Dig Deeper on Microservices and DevOps


Are you looking for great English activities for your children? Sparkle and Shine – Living English Stories presents “A Christmas to Remember”. Kenn ‘Sparkles’, from Disney’s World of English, and children’s music composer and entertainer, Brian ‘Funshine’ are hosting hour long children’s Christmas events like you have never seen before. Live music, singing and dancing, puppet shows, Christmas crafts and a free musical instrument will have your kids enjoying Christmas like never before. Join us and make this Christmas, “A Christmas to Remember.”
December 6th, Beitou District – 10:30 – 11:30 am / 1:00 – 2:00 pm
December 23rd, Banqiao District – 5:00 – 6:00 pm
December 24th, Taipei City – 3:00 – 4:00 pm
Visit www.sparkleandshinekids.com for more details, or email email@example.com or call 0926-768-508.
Sparkle and Shine Kids


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Northern Arizona Suns
On April 12, 2016, the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association bought the club, moved it to Prescott Valley to assume the name Northern Arizona Suns. The team logos were unveiled on May 11, 2016.
| Atlantic Division:|
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domain: sports


Julia Palmore and Christopher Shaida were married yesterday at the Columns in New York. Jean Kotkin, a leader of the American Ethical Union, officiated.
Mrs. Shaida, a daughter of Dr. Erdman Palmore of Durham, N.C., and Dr. Barbara Silverstone of New York, is a faculty member at the Laban-Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies, a dance research group in New York. She and her husband attended Bennington College. Her father is a professor of medical sociology at Duke University. Her mother is the executive director of the Lighthouse, the New York Association for the Blind, and her stepfather, Dr. Stanley Silverstone, is a psychoanalyst in Manhattan.
Mr. Shaida, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Shaida of Lancaster, Pa., is the director of information services at Lehrer McGovern Bovois, a construction management company in New York.Continue reading the main story


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No surprise here, for readers of this blog that have been following the news about the dangers of taking heartburn medication. Not only are ranitidine-based drugs like Zantac linked to cancer, they have also been shown to cause harm to the stomach’s gut lining, causing the condition referred to by natural health practitioners as leaky gut disorder.
An increasing body of evidence is piling up on proton-pump inhibitors, a class of drugs that lower the amount of stomach acid secretion.
According to the British news website, Daily Mail, a study of 300,000 people who took PPI drugs for months or years on end experienced a 65% increased risk of developing digestive disturbances such as diarrhea.
Taken for acute heartburn or indigestion after a very heavy, fatty meal, PPI drugs can work quite effectively. However, they weren’t necessarily intended to be taken on a chronic basis. Taking PPI drugs such as omeprazole and lansoprazole, could even explain a recent surge in diagnoses of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), suggests the Daily Mail report.
Research shows that taking antacids and stomach-acid blockers long-term may decrease the ability of the digestive juices in the stomach to break down food; this creates the Catch-22 situation of heartburn drugs. In other words, the long-term use creates the problem they were intended to solve.
The most common reasons heartburn occurs is overeating and the overconsumption of acidic foods and drinks, such as soda, coffee, and meat.
A long-term complication of heartburn drugs is that they kill off the friendly bacteria in the gut. So-called ‘gut health’ is linked to immune function, mood regulation, energy levels, inflammation, and, of course, digestion. People with chronic metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes have been shown to lack enough beneficial bacteria.
And it’s not only a lack of good bacteria that’s the problem with long-term PPI use. If you take heartburn or antacid remedies frequently, it can cause a buildup of harmful bacteria in the small intestine.
Your gut is home to trillions of bacteria. The overwhelming majority of them should reside in your colon (large intestine), not the small intestine. A buildup of bacteria in the small intestine may cause a condition known as SIBO, or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. Symptoms of SIBO include bloating, cramps and other digestive disturbances. The Daily Mail references a study by Harvard in 2013 that associates frequent PPI usage with a seven times higher risk of developing SIBO.
A doctor interviewed in the Daily Meal feature suggests that people with a history of PPI use who experience digestive disturbances ask their doctors for a hydrogen breath test and a sample of bacteria taken from the small bowel for diagnosis.
Otherwise, says the doctor, a catch-all diagnosis of “irritable bowel syndrome” is given rather than the more appropriate SIBO. If a patient is diagnosed with SIBO, more targeted and effective treatment is possible.
The doctor interviewed in the article recommends taking antibiotics and avoiding eating foods that cause bloating, which includes legumes (beans) and fruit. However, not all health experts would agree with these recommendations. For starters, taking an antibiotic, although it can eliminate small intestinal bacteria, would also kill beneficial bacteria. Furthermore, legumes and fruit are nutrient-dense foods.
An alternative to taking antibiotics is taking a symbiotic probiotic/prebiotic fiber. Prebiotic fiber supplements (or foods) act as fertilizer for beneficial gut bacteria.
If you suffer from heartburn, eat smaller meals, don’t eat late at night, go for short walks after meals, and take over-the-counter stomach-acid neutralizers (example: Gaviscon) instead of stomach acid blockers such as PPI drugs. that work to neutralise acid rather than stop its production, can also help, as can simply going for a short walk after meals.
If you want to discover the root cause of your heartburn and take natural remedies, seek the advice of a functional medicine doctor.

domain: medical


Ammunition will eventually go bad and corrode. The shelf life of ammunition can depend on several factors such as the caliber, the type of cartridge, and the manufacturing process. Generally speaking, centerfire rifles and pistol ammunition have a longer shelf life than rimfire rounds.
Manufacturers typically list a recommended shelf life for their products, but it’s always a good idea to check the date stamp on the ammo itself to be sure. Ammo that has been exposed to high heat, moisture, or air can corrode more quickly. So if you’re not going to use your ammo for an extended period it’s a good idea to store it in a cool, dry place free from excessive heat and humidity.
How long can ammo be stored?
Ammo can be stored indefinitely if the conditions are ideal. Temperature and humidity play the biggest role in ammunition storage. Extremes of either will hasten the deterioration of ammo. Heat speeds up chemical reactions, moisture causes corrosion. corrode gunpowder and embrittle metals. Store your ammo in a cool, dry place away from sunlight for best results.
With modern manufacturing processes and materials, ammunition doesn’t degrade much over time. Ammo manufacturers use corrosion-resistant brass casings, and gunpowder is sealed in a waterproof container. Ammo can last for decades if stored properly.
We also recommend that you watch a video on how to store ammunition
Any type of ammo has the potential to expire, though the likelihood and consequences vary based upon the ammunition in question. Handgun ammunition is more likely to experience problems due to moisture than rifle ammunition, for example. All ammo contains brass cases that can corrode and centerfire primers which can become brittle and fragmented over time.
Ammunition that’s been properly stored in a dry environment will usually last much longer than the stated “shelf life.” Nevertheless, it’s always a good idea to err on the side of caution when using old ammo. If possible, take your expired ammo to a gunsmith or experienced reloader for an inspection before firing it.
Here are a few general tips for storing ammo:
- Keep it in a cool, dry place. A fridge or freezer is ideal.
- Avoid exposure to sunlight or extreme temperatures.
- Store Ammo in an airtight container. Ammo cans work well for this purpose.
- Inspect your Ammo regularly, and don’t hesitate to replace old or damaged rounds.
Yes, ammunition can go bad over time. It’s important to store ammo in a cool, dry place and to keep it away from moisture and heat. Ammo that’s been exposed to high temperatures or moisture can become corroded or defective.
It’s also important to handle ammo carefully and not to drop it or hit it with hard objects, as this can damage the rounds and make them less effective when fired.
How long can ammo be stored?
Assuming you’re talking about storing ammunition for firearms, there are a few things to consider:
- What type of ammunition are you looking to store? Handgun ammunition tends to have a shorter shelf life than rifle ammunition due to the higher pressures involved in firing handgun rounds.
- How dry and cool is the environment where the ammunition will be stored? Ammo should be stored in a cool, dry place away from any possibility of moisture or extreme temperature changes.
- What type of container will the ammo be stored in? It’s best to use an airtight container, such as a plastic bucket with a lid, or sealable ammo can.
With those factors in mind, here are some general guidelines for how long different types of ammunition can be safely stored:
- Handgun ammunition: 3-5 years
- Rifle ammunition: 5-10 years
- Shotgun ammunition: 10+ years
Of course, these are just general guidelines. Ammo that is well-made and stored properly can last much longer, while ammo that is of poor quality or not stored properly will degrade much faster.
We also recommend that you watch this video
There are a few things to consider when determining how long ammo can be stored:
1. Different types of ammunition have different storage life spans. For example, live ammo will not last as long as blanks.
2. The type of gun also matters. Rifles and pistols typically have longer storage life spans than shotguns.
3. The climate and humidity in which the gun is stored also play a role in how long the ammunition will last.
With all of that said, it is generally accepted that most types of ammo can be safely stored for at least five years. Some experts even say that you can get up to 10 years out of Ammo if it’s stored properly. So, if you have an Ammo that is more than five years old, it’s probably still good to go.
Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. If you live in a very humid climate, for example, your ammunition may not last as long as it would in a drier climate. Also, if you are storing Ammo in an unventilated area, it will not last as long as it would if it was stored in a well-ventilated area.
In short, there are a lot of factors that play into how long Ammo can be stored. However, if you follow the general rule of thumb, you should be able to safely store Ammo for at least five years.
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