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Hayes said the purpose of the story is to show that when people make assumptions without asking questions, conclusions end up being untrue and look like bigger issues than they actually are. |
If Barry's administrators asked him directly why he was coloring in black, they would have had the answer quickly. Or, if Barry offered up the information when he saw the adults in his life were jumping to conclusions, she said. |
The book includes quizzes for children to complete and an explanation on communication for parents. Hayes said she wants to see children of all reading levels and ages experiencing this book as it's a lesson for all. |
“We’re losing the art of conversation,” Hayes said. |
She said a children's book was a challenge for her as she's used to writing scholarly pieces. She had to make sure the language and story length was easy to consume for younger readers. |
While the writing process was different from her previous works, Hayes said she felt it was necessary this work be published. |
“This I thought had to come out," she said. |
"Once Upon a Black Crayon: Barry's Dilemma" is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. |
When well-regarded automobile enthusiast Jerry Seinfeld stopped by at The Tonight Show last night, he did something he hardly does anymore: picked up the microphone and told a few jokes. |
Seinfeld's brief stand-up set came just after Jimmy Fallon gave everyone in the audience a flat-screen TV for Christmas, and the comic used his host's generosity as a springboard to talk about the shiny, useless junk that piles up and quickly turns to garbage in homes across America during the holiday season. |
"I wish there was a store where I could buy something, pivot, and just throw it down a chute into an incinerator," he says at one point, taking his familiar observational comedy into the realm of the bazillionaire he is. "Walk out, no bags—that's my perfect shopping experience." |
The Bruins were a tough, physical team before the trade deadline. They’ll be even more difficult to play against going forward, as a result of their transactions on Monday. |
The B’s brought in defenseman Greg Zanon from the Minnesota Wild, and forward Brian Rolston and defenseman Mike Mottau from the New York Islanders. |
Each player provides something unique, but they all should fit right into Claude Julien‘s system, as they’re a gritty bunch. |
Rolston and Mottau, in particular, are familiar to those in the Boston area. |
Rolston, of course, spent four-plus seasons in Boston from 2000-2004, while Mottau spent four years at Boston College from 1996-2000, during which he gained a reputation as one of the nation’s elite defensemen. |
Mottau has shown a willingness to drop the mitts over the years as well, something that should have plenty of Bruins fans excited. The B’s already have the three toughest players in the NHL, but adding a guy like Mottau certainly won’t hurt when it comes to doing battle down the stretch. |
Mottau has thrown down with plenty of players over the years, including Sean Avery and Mike Comrie. |
Another reason to follow through with that New Year's resolution: Aerobic exercise keeps the aging brain -- as well as the aging body -- in fighting form. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Illinois, Rice University and Ohio State showed that a program of aerobic exercise, over the course of... |
The hippocampus is known to shrink in late adulthood, leading to memory impairment. |
The results were made public Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They back up earlier research that has shown a correlation between fitness level and brain function. |
To complete the study, the team recruited 120 older people who didn't exercise regularly. Half were randomly assigned to an aerobic exercise program, walking around a track three days a week for 40 minutes per session. The other half embarked on a stretching-and-weights program. Both groups were carefully coached and m... |
The group doing aerobic exercise had increases in hippocampus volume: up 2.12 % in the left hippocampus, and 1.97% in the right hippocampus. The stretching group, on the other hand, had decreased hippocampus volume: down 1.40% on the left and 1.43% on the right. |
The participants also performed spatial memory exercises. Again, the aerobic exercise group had better function by the end of the year of exercise. Blood tests also showed an increase in the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a chemical involved with learning and memory, among the walkers. Increases in hippoc... |
"We demonstrate that loss of hippocampal volume in late adulthood is not inevitable and can be reversed with moderate-intensity exercise," the team wrote, suggesting that a few laps around the track might be a particularly cost-effective way to treat a widespread health problem -- without the side effects of medication... |
And, researchers said, it's never too late. "Starting an exercise regimen later in life is not futile for either enhancing cognition or augmenting brain volume," the team wrote. |
IT was, by any stretch of the imagination, a life less ordinary. |
Back in the mid-1970s, he was given the grand nickname of ‘the lion man of Hayling Island’, he liked to describe himself as ‘Mr self-confessed Kamikaze’, while his stage name was the ‘Great Azala’. |
He pulled 32-tonne steam locomotives WITH HIS TEETH, and he once dragged a double decker bus in similar fashion along Southsea seafront. While on holiday in Devon, he also pulled a transit van with eight people inside up Paignton high street. Again with his teeth – obviously! |
He designed clothes for rock legends such as Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd – as well as The Beatles – and was once a bodyguard for entertainers Tommy Steele and Frankie Laine and singer Chubby Checker. |
While living in London, he rented a house owned by the Kray twins and briefly worked as a rent collector for the most infamous slum landlord of all-time, Peter Rachmann. |
He designed the first magic box ever owned by Paul Daniels, and during his Army career boxed with ex-British, Commonwealth and European champion Henry Cooper. ‘Our Enery’ once knocked him out cold, but he later took on all-comers at a funfair boxing booth in London. |
He was also a thespian, appearing in programmes such as Minder and the Mayor of Casterbridge, and he also appeared in the Who’s legendary rock musical Tommy. |
He painted murals at a home for elderly people in Fontwell, Sussex, and was once involved in a business selling concrete statues with a metal coating. He regularly made hundreds of pounds a day selling them at Bursledon Market, near Southampton. |
Oh yes, and he also finished third on ITV talent show New Faces in 1976, a forerunner to the likes of today’s hugely-popular Britain’s Got Talent, where comedian Roy Walker took first place. One major part of his act involved pressing a very long sword against his neck. If you think that sounds painful, he was also kno... |
He was also a fire eater, and once claimed to hold the world record for lying on a bed of nails for the longest time – for 46 hours, almost two whole days. Another one, by the sound of it, not to try in your own house. |
He was also a bouncer at a Hayling nightclub, The Beach, a venue which was later known as Blazes and now – unsurprisingly – is a block of flats. |
The opening sentence to this story wasn’t hyperbole, therefore; Raymond Frank Hek, aka Ray Azala, aka ‘the lion man of Hayling Island’, was truly a unique character. |
Born in Enfield, north London, Ray moved with his family to Hayling in 1963. He lived on the Island for the rest of his eventful life, which ended last November when he passed away aged 82. |
I was recently contacted by Stephen Kirby, known to many on Hayling as the chairman of the Eastoke Community Association. Married to one of Ray’s daughters, Julie, Stephen was keen that his former father-in-law received a warm tribute in the pages of his local newspaper, the Hayling Islander. I was happy to agree, thou... |
Don't try this at home, kids? In fact, don't try it anywhere - Ray Hek pictured performing his regular 'sword in the eye' trick in Southsea in the early 1990s. |
Aged 14, Ray – the eldest of seven sons – ran away from home to join a travelling funfair. Three days later his mum found him and dragged the runaway home. Undaunted, a year and a half later he joined a circus as elephant boy and clown. All was well, until his mum caught up with him again! |
Aged 18, he joined the army to help channel his aggression and served in Malaya as a driver. It was during his forces career, as a member of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, that he got in the ring with Cooper, one of the most famous English boxers of all time. |
At 21, Ray was back in the circus – this time as Lolly the Clown. He remained a registered clown until the day he died. Funny faces are serious business. So serious, that in England there is an official registry to document a clown’s unique makeup. Just as no two people have the same look, no two clowns wear the exact ... |
Ray said: ‘I’ve listened to many theories about my abilities. Some people say I practice self-hypnosis. But I follow my own philosophies. Before a performance I put myself in a relaxed state which I like to call “my thing”. |
It was back in 1975 when Julie arrived on Hayling. On the face of it, nothing startling about that. But this Julie was a young lion cub, and she soon became something of an Island celebrity. |
‘Ray brought it home from the circus,’ said Stephen. ‘He just turned up at home one day with it under his arm. |
‘It was really tame, like a pussycat. It used to love lying in front of the fire. |
‘Ray took it to the local schools and it was in the Hayling Carnival once. I’d imagine a lot of people will still remember him as the ‘lion man of Hayling’. |
‘He used to regularly take it for walks on a lead down to Eastoke Corner. Ray was dressed as a clown, and he’d sit on the corner and do pastel portraits for the holiday-makers. |
Often, ahead of his stage show, audience members would be warned that Ray’s sword antics were not for those of a nervous disposition. At times, some people fainted watching what were obviously death-defying stunts. |
Stephen recalled once moment when it almost went tragically wrong. |
‘At the (Portsmouth) Guildhall Square in the late 70s, while doing the sword act, the man holding the other end of the sword fainted when he saw the sword draw blood,’ he recalled. ‘And the blade actually went quite a way into Ray’s neck. |
‘ It took me and Anton Derby (a DJ with one-time Portsmouth station Radio Victory) a while to get it out and staunch the flow the blood. |
‘That afternoon this fearless man came back to my flat in Granada Road, Southsea, and whilst he slept for a while the cut in his neck actually shrank back to almost nothing. |
‘Then, after tea, we went to the Stage Door Club at the Strand where he did his act over again - placing the sword just half an inch from the previous wound and successfully completed the act! |
Once his daredevil days were over, Ray became an accomplished artist. Back in the 1990s, he was selected to create lavish murals at the 18th century Watergate House in Fontwell. He busied himself at the once grand Regency-style building painting popular West Sussex scenes such as Chichester Cathedral, Dell Quay and Aru... |
Ray was certainly artistic in more ways than one. For a while, and as mentioned earlier, in the late 1960s he designed clothes for Pink Floyd while the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrex wore a leather waistcoat made out of an old Egyptian pouffe. Ray also designed clothes that The Beatles wore on their trip to India in ... |
Frank left his wife Patricia, children Sharon, Julie, Sally, Amanda, Gemma and Ray junior, nine grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren. His five daughters all live on Hayling, while Ray junior also lives on an Island - but in his case one off Belizes in Central American. |
‘He had a pretty varied life, you might say,’ said Stephen, a classic under-statement if ever there was one. |
‘He was just a great man. In recent years he would travel on the bus to Portsmouth to play Father Christmas. He would hand out sweets and toys to the kids that he’d bought out of his own pocket. If you look on social media, there’s comments along the lines that Ray was ‘the best Father Christmas ever’ and somebody wrot... |
Sharon has inherited some of her father’s entertainment genes, and regularly performs around the south coast as one half of (impressively-named) acoustic musical act Magenta Bling. |
In the case of Ray Hek, though, it is unarguably true. |
Heath and safety is somewhat different in 2019 to what it was in Ray’s entertainment heydays. |
Performers don’t, as a rule, stick huge swords in their throats or eye sockets anymore, wild animals are rarely found in travelling circuses, and - I stand to be corrected on this - no-one keeps young Lion cubs on Hayling anymore, regularly taking them on walks to Eastoke Corner while dressed in a clown’s outfit. |
Possibly for the best, it has to be said. |
Cherished images, medals, letters, all kinds of items are left at the bases of military memorials, but the Navy Memorial rarely sees such tributes, according to Navy Memorial Foundation curator Mark Weber. It’s not as secluded as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where hundreds of thousands of items have been left by fami... |
The memorial has nearly 2,800 Twitter followers — if you’re not one, become one — and before any of them had the chance to reply on Monday, Navy Memorial intern Brendan Carr solved at least part of the mystery, finding this 2008 Associated Press story in the Denver Post. |
The man in the photo, taken in 2008, is Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Jason Witty. He is spreading the ashes of his grandfather, Boatswain’s Mate 2nd Class Eugene Morgan, near the site of the sinking of the cruiser Indianapolis — CA-35, the last major U.S. ship sunk by the Japanese during World War II. A sinking that took... |
A crew of 1,199 was aboard Indianapolis when the ship went down. Between the Japanese torpedo and the wait for rescue — survivors weren’t spotted for days, and the recovery took more than a week — fewer than 320 men survived, including Morgan. |
Morgan died shortly before Witty’s deployment aboard the guided-missile submarine Ohio, according to the AP report. As a final wish, he wanted to rejoin his shipmates. Witty asked for permission to perform the ceremony and got it almost immediately. |
Here’s a crystal-clear version of the photo — the photographer, Lt. Gabriel Hernandez, captures Witty as he stares into the sea, emptying the ashes in a final tribute to a member of a generation slowly fading away. |
Fifteen survivors are expected to attend the group’s reunion in Indianapolis, a four-day event that begins Thursday, Campo said. The oldest is 92, coming from Arizona. The youngest, 86, is the group’s chairman, Harold Bray. Campo’s father, Seaman 2nd Class Don McCall, falls somewhere in the middle. |
Don McCall attended the group’s first reunion in 1960. Its mailing list includes survivors, families of survivors and those who were lost at sea, members of the rescue teams and their families, and others with an interest in the ship and its crew. It’s helping to keep a piece of Navy history alive through the generatio... |
Learn more about it here. And if you left a photo at the feet of the Lone Sailor, send us a note. |
Lynn McDonnell, left, mother of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim Grace McDonnell; Jimmy Greene and Nelba Marquez-Greene, center, parents of victim Ana Marquez-Greene; and Jennifer Hensel, right, mother of victim Avielle Richman, stand with other victims' families as they address the media on Dec. 9, 2013, i... |
Around the country, "Newtown" has become shorthand in policy discussions for the horrific act everyone is trying to prevent. |
But in Newtown, Conn., the site of the Dec. 14, 2012, school massacre, leaders refer to the events of that day simply as "12/14." |
A year after the shooting, the flurry of passionate calls for "national conversations" and changes to state and federal laws related to guns, school security, and mental health that were spurred by the tragedy has yet to produce a sea change in policy. While an undetermined number of districts across the country respon... |
"People asked 'How can we really protect our students? How can we ensure that something like this won't happen?' " said Pamela L. Goins, the director of education policy for the Lexington, Ky.-based Council of State Governments. "The message that we've heard is that we need to be as prepared as possible." |
A year after the deadliest K-12 school shooting in American history, Newtown is still trying to regain a sense of routine. District leaders, fearing a rush of media attention leading up to the anniversary, rejected all requests for interviews about the attack, in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot his way into Sandy Hoo... |
Meanwhile, deaths from school violence remain statistically rare. Between the 1992-93 and 2010-11 school years, violent deaths that occurred while the victim was at school, on the way to school, or at a school-related activity peaked at 63 in the 2006-2007 school year, and nine of those were classified as suicides, acc... |
But statistical realities may not calm the fear of anxious parents after tragic events that are widely covered by national media, said Michael S. Dorn, the executive director of Atlanta-based Safe Havens International, a school safety consulting group. He said school-related actions after Sandy Hook came from a sense m... |
The armed security that some districts added in the wake of Sandy Hook came in all forms: police officers, contracted guards, even volunteer military veterans. |
At a Newtown school board meeting after the shooting, a mother asking board members for a long-term police presence in the schools put it this way: "We feel this has gone from a want to need." Newtown has assigned police officers to all of its schools, First Selectman Pat Llodra said in a June blog post. |
A school bus drives past a lamppost decorated for the holidays in Newtown, Conn. With winter on their doorstep once again, the people of Newtown are bracing for the day everyone there simply calls “12/14”— referring to the day last year when 26 people were killed by a gunman inside Sandy Hook Elementary School. |
School security data from the National Center for Education Statistics do not include the two most recent school years, so it is impossible to track how many schools have added school resource officers since the shooting. But school security organizations have said an increased demand for training courses and tactical ... |
Such a response is common after a large-scale event of school violence, Mr. Dorn said. But adding armed officers at the elementary level is an element of the Sandy Hook response that is atypical, he said. |
As schools have added officers, critics of "zero tolerance" discipline policies have feared that the additional police presence will lead to excessively harsh discipline, said Matthew M. Cregor, an assistant council for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. |
"As more officers have been placed in our schools and more funding removed for counselors, we've found that school resource officers are being misused to address the types of matters that are better handled by parents and educators," he said. |
Many educator groups, including the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the National Association of Elementary School Principals, have said only police officers should carry weapons in schools, but some districts have instead opted to train and arm staff members—including teachers. Alternatives to s... |
After Newtown, lawmakers in 29 states filed 62 bills that would have allowed teachers to bring guns to school, permitted local school boards to designate employees who could be armed, created training programs for school employees, and eased other restrictions. Of those bills, just six have passed. |
A new law in Texas, for example, created school marshals, a designation for existing school employees who will be authorized by their school boards to be trained to confidentially carry weapons in schools. New laws in Kansas, Mississippi, South Dakota, and Tennessee allow districts to authorize employees with concealed... |
Districts also used existing laws and loopholes to arm their staffs. |
The school board of the 1,000-student Montpelier, Ohio, district voted shortly after the Newtown shootings to allow some staff members to carry their own firearms on school grounds. A year later, Montpelier Superintendent Jamison J. Grime won't say how many employees carry guns on the district's single campus, but he c... |
"We just don't have the resources to hire somebody just to be here in case of an emergency," he said. |
Education Week's Commentary team asked experts from different fields whether American schools are safe, and how they can be made safer. Several weighed in, with their responses being published in the OpEducation blog. |
In Arkansas, some school districts quietly acquired private security guard credentials for staff members and teachers. A state licensing board for security guards has since halted the practice, allowing the dozen districts involved to keep their existing guard credentials for two years. |
But few widely followed discussions of arming school employees led to broad policy change, said Ms. Goins of the Council of State Governments. And that's also true of other proposals related to school safety, she said. |
"We really didn't see the major outcome after all that flurry of initial activity," Ms. Goins said. |
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