was born in an old, wooden, two-story hospital in Carrollton, Georgia, in 1949. Some years later it burned to the ground. For the first eleven years of my life, I lived in Bremen, Georgia. I was the oldest child of Alvin and Doris Patterson. Dad and Mother got married soon after Dad returned from Europe in 1946, where he’d served as a .30 machine gunner in the Tenth Mountain Division during World War ll. He was involved in three major battles and received a Presidential Unit Citation and a...

The rags-to-riches saga of a homeless father who went on to become a crown prince of Wall Street—the basis for the major motion picture starring Will Smith.At the age of twenty, Milwaukee native Chris Gardner, just out of the Navy, arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. Considered a prodigy in scientific research, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed ...

Lighten up and laugh your way through the 9-to-5 grind with this mix of hilarious wisecracks, uproarious one-liners, full-color cartoons, and quotations from famous (and not-so-famous) wits. The hundreds of jokes and quips in Laughter the Best Medicine @ Work have been collected from more than eight decades’ worth of Reader’s Digest magazines and are guaranteed to brighten up your workday. You’ll find everything from outrageous resumes to creative excuses for calling in s...

In True Stories: Memories, Musings, Odds and Ends, C.J. Ott tells of the first seven years of his childhood in New York City and the next seven years in the Saugerties area, a hundred miles north of the city. He recounts his experiences as a postulant, novice and scholastic in the Marianist religious order; four years of military service in the U.S. Air Force, and a twenty-five year career as a teacher and principal in Trotwood-Madison City Schools, by Dayton, Ohio. Along the way he recall...

For anyone who has suffered pain, disappointment, or a broken heart, entrepreneur and motivational speaker Rob Hill, Sr. shares the transformational personal story of his struggles and the invaluable lessons those difficult challenges have taught him about looking within to find the power to heal and live a purposeful life.Often the greatest opponent we face in the game of life is ourselves. We spend hours, days, and years searching for answers to the questions...

In the months leading up to the birth of her first child, Hannah Palmer discovers that all three of her childhood houses have been wiped out by the expansion of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Having uprooted herself from a promising career in publishing in her adopted Brooklyn, Palmer embarks on a quest to determine the fate of her lost homes—and of a community that has been erased by unchecked Southern progress. Palmer's journey takes her from the ruins of kudzu-cover...

Giving difficult news clearly and sensitively is no easy task. However, there are ways to say the right thing at the right time. 500 Letters for Difficult Situations offers helpful templates for when you need to say something tactfully and gracefully. Inside, you'll find letters to guide you through the most challenging communications, including how to:Express sympathy for the bereavedExplain why a relationship isn't workingOffer condolences for t...

A hilarious collection of the funniest family-friendly jokes, quotes, stories, cartoons, and anecdotes from the past 100 years of Reader’s Digest magazine. A little chuckle every day will keep the doctor away.Editors have mined the Reader’s Digest archives to bring you Laughter Is the Best Medicine, All-Time Favorites, a collection of the most hilarious jokes and anecdotes we’ve come across over the years. As you turn the pages of our new...

The book takes a lighthearted look back at the authors journey and experiences with the Enron Dinosaurs. Tucker, an ex-Enron pipeline engineer, brings to the reader a lighter side of the events that led up to Enrons collaspe. The term "Dinosaur" was coined by upper management to describe employees who designed, maintained, and operated Enrons gas pipeline systems. It was a derogatory term which expressed old-fashioned, boring, and un-innovative for the new "non-asset" age of Enron. Ultimat...

Old friends from the class of 1960 at an Indiana high school share nostalgic memories as their fiftieth reunion draws near . . .This is the story of sixteen classmates who graduated from Indiana's Columbus High School in May, 1960. With their fiftieth high school reunion on the horizon, the "Columbus Crew" reconnected, and here the guys tell stories about growing up in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, and how those times impacted who they are today—offering both a glimpse...

Where there is stress, there is humor." --John McPherson* Close to Home, syndicated by Universal uClick, lampoons the best of popular culture one controversy at a time.Everything I Need to Know I Learned on Jerry Springer: A Close to Home Collection is a Close to Home collection. Creator John McPherson's sardonic wit creates an innocent hullabaloo with the Center for Nursing Advocacy and earns the accolades of Leavenworth Federal Detention Center'...

Back then the big old house was heated with an old coal furnace. One of my winter chores each morning before walking to school, which was only one block away, was to go down to the basement and shovel coal into the furnace fire box from the coal bin. It was a big responsibility for a six year old boy.