text:
Mornings.  They are the worst.  It’s that time between your last whiskey and your first coffee. Everything feels wrong.  Too loud.  Too bright.  Your head full of regret and anger.  A fresh bruise on your arm from some big lug telling you the hard way that you were no longer welcome in their social club.  It’s nothing but pain.  Especially in a city where whiskey and coffee are the only thing between sanity, and that place where they tie you up in a padded room with a number on your lapel.  But that’s just the way things go when you live in Harlot City, and you're Rex Canon, PI.

I had just poured my third shot of breakfast when my secretary buzzed my office.  “Client to see you, Rex. That is, if you can see after last night.”

Gladys, the only dame in this pit of a city that could talk to me like I was still in kindergarten.  I loved and hated her for her part in this two bit operation we had going.  She was the loving grandmother everyone wanted, I was the dangerous cousin you only called when a certain substance hit the fan.  Together, we were the family everyone wanted, but never wanted to talk about all in one ugly package.

“Send them in.  And put on the coffee, this is going to be a rough one.”

“I got a fresh pot as soon as you can make it out here.”

I loved her more and more as the mornings went on.

The client came through the door like a bolt of red lightning in and ugly sky.  Her posture said uptown, but her face said beat down.  Her dress was the finest linen I had ever seen.  Crimson, and dangerous.  The rest of her outfit told a different tale.  I did my best to not notice the diluted mascara she had wiped on to those lovely bone white gloves of hers, like an oil slick on fresh snow.  She had only one stocking on, and it had seen better days.  It had finger holes around the top, like she had ripped right through it.  It was clear that she couldn’t put it on fast enough.  I could tell her shoes used to be bright red, but they had the telltale signs of a hurried pace, through the rough part of town I called home.  Her feather boa had a frayed end, like she had pulled free in some domestic squabble.  Probably the last thing she got before the door got her on the way out.

She said she was looking for help, but she said it more like she was looking for revenge at the end of a hired gun.  As a gum shoe for 6 years, this was not the first time I was being asked to use my skills for a nefarious end, but it was the first time the requester could have been a cover girl on one of those magazines I refuse to admit that I buy.  Against my better judgments, I poured her a shot of breakfast, and asked her to pour her heart out.  She gulped it down like it was weak milk and let it all spill out.

She said her name was Maria.  She gave the standard line.  Cheating husband.  Unhappy marriage.  The story as old as time itself.  I’m sure the Sheriff of Nottingham heard this same stuff while he was looking for that character in the green tights.  But then the story took a dangerous twist.

Heroin.  Bricks of the stuff.  All stacked up in neat piles in that place she used to call home.  Her old hubby was part of the Vincenzo crime family, sorry, the Harlot City Italian American Business Association.  I forget where to draw the line on these things.

The Vincenzo’s had a strangle hold on the docks and the west side.  Ten years ago, they ran some numbers here and there.  They held up a truck once in a while, but their main bread and butter was the old standard protection racket.  It’s all about money and fear with that family.  Money for them, fear for you.  The only protection they offered was from themselves.  None of the other four families would dare cross into enemy territory unless some made guy was dumb enough to flex their muscles, and most of the dumb ones were pushing up daisies, or wearing prison orange.

She went on and on about the piles of sweet lady H in her ex-old man’s place.  She said she was too afraid to go to the coppers or the G-men.  There were too many bums on the take.  To many jokers trying to be tough guys.  Too many DA’s who were too worried about their own homes in the palisades than what they could prove in a courtroom.  Once those resources were tapped, the only refuge was folks like me.  Folks that would do the right thing, every time, for the right price.

So by the time she ends this sweet story, it’s lunch time.  The standard ham and sadness sandwich is just not looking so good for me.  I decide that Mel’s Diner on 156th street is the better option.  I take a finsky out of the petty cash fund of my wallet and offer her some grub that won’t turn her stomach.  She obliges.  After her journey that brought her to my doorstep, four blocks seemed like a cake walk.

I open the door and lead her down the stairs.  Her perfume finally hits me and I’m in another world.  It's like a punch to the guts that doesn't hurt.  It takes the wind out of you and you think you'll never get it back.  My problem is that I didn't want it back as long as I got a chance to smell that perfume one more time.

The trip down the stairs of my office building seem to take forever.  The trip to Mel's, an eternity.  I was about the get on a bended knee before we got our menus.  I snapped back to reality when I was asked what I wanted to drink.  This skirt had a power about her.   She could command her beauty to do terrible things if she wished.

The man that could make this woman hurt was a dangerous man indeed.  It took everything I had not to spend eternity in those eyes of hers.  Anyone who could make this dame run, would be trouble to every tax payer in the tri-state area.

I set my mind on those facts and order some eggs.  Scrambled, even though I hate scrambled eggs.  I wolf down what is in front on me, trying to keep what cool I have left.  She sees my weakness, and goes in for the kill.  She grabs my hands, we lock eyes, she asks me to help her.  I can't say anything but, “yes”.

She gives me a name, an address, a time, and an envelope full of cash.  She says he's a bad man.  I'd believe it if she said it about the pope.

We part, and it's the saddest I've been in weeks.  I pull what is left of my conscience behind me and hail a cab.  I got a job, I've been paid, and I never go back on my word.  That man is going to find out if there is a God tonight.

It's hours later and I'm cold.  I'm on the docks, waiting for the car she described in perfect detail to show up.  The ship, Lady of The Five Rivers, is still against the dock.  I was told that this was the main source of Lady China for the Vincenzo's.   Nothing happened until a dark blue Cadillac I was told to expect pulled up with a box truck.

It was then that the cranes came to life.  Quick and deliberate, they unloaded pallets of goods and drugs.   Clocks didn't work this well together.  It was like each man had only one job, and they were perfect at it.  In under 5 minutes, the truck was full, the Vincenzos shook hands with the chinamen and everyone seemed perfectly happy.

That's when the bullets started flying.

A chinaman and a Vincenzo went down.  The remaining men started firing in every direction.  More of them went down.  More gun fire barked at the night.  The boss jumped into the back seat of his car and emerged with a tommygun in each hand.  He laid on the trigger and didn't stop until the hammer went click.

By the time the drums ran dry, so did he.  With all the new holes he was gifted I was surprised he lasted as long as he did.  I could hear the sounds of wounded and dying men all over the dock.  To my cowardice, I didn't even fire a shot.  I watched the whole thing happen from the safety of my little hole in the world, waiting for the guns to go silent.

Three men came out of the shadows a minute after the guns went quiet.  They looked like me, tenchcoats, revolvers, fedoras.  Private dicks.  They look confused to see each other.  Almost as confused as I was to see them.  They started arguing, then the guns started barking again.  In as many seconds, the three were on the ground.

I was stunned.  Everyone was dead, and I was there, still with my unlit cigarette in my mouth.  Shock is a tame word for what I was feeling.  That was when I felt the cold barrel of a gun at the back of my head.  I smelled her perfume and knew the whole story.

After the dame in red had given me a sob story, she gave the same story to every would-be-pinkerton in the city.  She wanted an army to take out her old man.  She wanted him and his entire operation gone, and my kind were just the people to do it without figuring out the whole story until it was too late.

Us gumshoes can be real dumb when we start thinking with our crotches instead of our heads.

She said, "Sorry Rex, it's just business."

I replied, "Lady, ain't no one gave me the business like this before."

I hear her laugh, and that's when I moved.  I spun around with a back hand and knocked the gun from her's.  She comes up with a second and plugs me in the leg.  My vision goes white.  Gun shots don't hurt at first.  The docs say it's because the pain it too intense for you brain to sort it all out.  I figure it was  because I still had a job to do.  I was paid to take out the head of the Vincenzo crime family, and she was standing right in front of me.

I grab the gun before a second shot can go off and pull it from her mitts.  With out any guns, she regressed into her former, more dangerous self.

"I was just scared!  I though you would hurt me!  I just wanted to protect myself!"

For a second, I almost believe her.  I wanted to get down on that knee, slap on those gold plated handcuffs and walk into the sunset with her.  But my upstairs head started shouting sense into me.

"Tell it to the judge.  Maybe he's single."  Is what I said when I slapped on pair of regular handcuffs to her and the other to a street lamp.  I made my way to the nearest phonebox and called in the situation to the g-men.  Then I remembered I just got shot and pass out.

Two weeks in a hospital bed with no booze later and I'm feeling that itch.  I demand that they release me, and sign whatever papers they put in front of me to do it.  I would have signed a marriage certificate to the ugly amazon I had as a nurse if she would have carried me to a bar.

After I was properly self medicated I went back to the office.  Gladys had kept the lights running from the reward the police scrapped together.  That and the money that red lightning had given me would keep us in business for a few months.  Maybe it was time for a vacation.  Visit the islands, see Spain and run with the bulls, or maybe just find an even more run down bar that I usually find and spend a few week growing roots in the third stool from the left.

I wanted to come up with more ideas but the buzzer went off.  "Client to see you Rex.  That is, if you can see after last night."

Life is never easy in Harlot City.  Especially when you are Rex Canon, PI.

title: [MS] Harlot City Mornings

question: What does the text say about Harlot City?

question: What does the text say about what the client is asking the narrator to do?

answer: The client's name is Maria. She wants the narrator (a PI) to investigate her cheating husband. She then tells him that her husband sells heroin illegally. Her old husband was part of the Vincenzo crime family.

question: What does the text say about the narrator?

answer: The narrator is Rex Canon, PI. He takes on a client who reports her husband for selling heroine. As it turns out, her husband was part of the Vincenzo crime family, otherwise also known as, Harlot City Italian American Business Association.


split: test

text:
image copyrightYulia Skripal/Facebook

image captionYulia Skripal and her father Sergei are critically ill in hospital

THE UK WOULD RESPOND "ROBUSTLY" TO ANY EVIDENCE OF RUSSIAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE COLLAPSE OF FORMER SPY SERGEI SKRIPAL, BORIS JOHNSON HAS SAID.

Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, are critically ill in hospital after being found unconscious in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

The foreign secretary said he was not pointing fingers at this stage, but described Russia as "a malign and disruptive force".

Russia has denied any involvement.

Downing Street said Home Secretary Amber Rudd will chair a meeting of Cobra, the government's emergency committee, on Wednesday to discuss the Salisbury investigation.

Counter Terrorism Police have taken over the investigation from Wiltshire Police.

But in a statement, the unit said the inquiry had not been declared a terrorist incident and there was no risk to the wider public.

Family deaths

Relatives of Mr Skripal - a former Russian colonel convicted of spying for Britain - have told the BBC Russian Service that he believed the Russian special services might come after him at any time.

His wife, elder brother and his son have died in the past two years, some in mysterious circumstances, the family believe.

Ms Skripal lives in Moscow and has visited her father in the UK regularly, especially over the past two years.

media captionCCTV footage shows a man and woman walking near the bench where Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found

Mr Skripal and his daughter were found slumped and unconscious on a bench outside a shopping centre on Sunday afternoon.

CCTV footage has been released by police which appears to show the pair walking through an alleyway near a Zizzi restaurant shortly before they collapsed.

Police have since sealed off the restaurant and The Bishop's Mill pub was also cordoned off as a precaution. On Tuesday evening, police extended the cordon and shut off a bridge.

Eyewitness Jamie Paine said the woman he saw was passed out, frothing at the mouth and her eyes "were wide open but completely white".

He added: "The man went stiff, his arms stopped moving but he was still looking dead straight."

Two police officers caught up in the suspected contamination have been treated in hospital for minor symptoms, before they were given the all clear. It is understood their symptoms included itchy eyes and wheezing.

A third member of the emergency services remains in hospital.

Scientists at Porton Down - the UK's secret weapons research facility in Wiltshire - are studying the "unknown substance".

On Tuesday evening, BBC Newsnight's diplomatic editor Mark Urban said there are concerns the pair's conditions could worsen.

Despite the sending of samples, scientists have still not identified the substance and one official at Porton Down said "we are treating symptoms rather than causes", Urban said.

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Mr Johnson said: "Honourable members will note the echoes of the death of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

"I say to governments around the world that no attempt to take innocent life on UK soil will go unsanctioned or unpunished."

Mr Johnson said the UK was "in the lead across the world" in trying to counteract a "host of malign activity" by Russia.

media captionRussian spy attack: What we know so far

Russia has insisted it has "no information" about what could have led to the incident, but says it is open to co-operating with British police if requested.

In a statement, the Russian embassy in London said: "Media reports create an impression of a planned operation by the Russian special services, which is completely untrue."

Responding to Mr Johnson's comments, the embassy added: "Looks like the script of yet another anti-Russian campaign has been already written."

BBC Newsnight's diplomatic editor Mark Urban said Boris Johnson's strongly-worded statement indicates that the Government is "party to some kind of intelligence".

"It's evident from the foreign secretary's statement, and certainly the view in Whitehall is, he would not have gone this far unless the government was party to some kind of intelligence about what had gone on," Urban said.

Who is Sergei Skripal?

image captionCol Skripal, 66, had been living in Salisbury after being released by Russia in 2010

Colonel Skripal, a retired Russian military intelligence officer, was jailed for 13 years by Russia in 2006.

He was convicted of passing the identities of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe to the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6.

In July 2010, he was one of four prisoners released by Moscow in exchange for 10 Russian spies arrested by the FBI as part of a swap. He was later flown to the UK.

According to BBC Newsnight's diplomatic editor Mark Urban, in recent years Col Skripal gave lectures at military academies offering insight into Russia's foreign military intelligence agency, the GRU.

Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, suggested that Mr Skripal would have had many enemies - including many former colleagues

He said: "The fact that he blew a whole range of Russian agents, there may be personal animosities there.

"In most Russians' minds he would be categorised as a traitor. There are people there who would be delighted to see him dead."

The possibility of an unexplained substance being involved has drawn comparisons with the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.

The Russian dissident and former intelligence officer died in London after drinking tea laced with a radioactive substance.

A public inquiry concluded that his killing had probably been carried out with the approval of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

Andrei Lugovoi, the former Russian agent accused of poisoning Litvinenko but who denies the claims, told the BBC that Russia would have considered the matter closed when Mr Skripal was flown to the UK as part of a spy swap in 2010.

media captionAndrei Lugovoi, a suspect in the Litvinenko poisoning, rejects suggestions that Russia was behind Sergei Skripal's collapse

Mr Skripal was pardoned by the Russian President and so the incident was over, Mr Lugovoi said.

Igor Sutyagin, who was one of four agents released by Moscow in the exchange, is now a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

He told the BBC's World Tonight programme that he was not yet concerned for his safety and added: "I don't think that he (Mr Skripal) would be targeted, because he was pardoned."

But Mr Litvinenko's widow, Marina Litvinenko, told the programme that the latest incident felt like "deja vu" - and called for those receiving political asylum to be protected by the UK.

Meanwhile, the Home Affairs Committee has asked for a review into 14 deaths that have not been treated as suspicious by British police but have reportedly been identified as potentially linked to Russia.

The reaction in Russia

Russian state TV's coverage of the possible poisoning in the UK of former agent Sergei Skripal has been eccentric, to say the least. State TV remains the main source of news for most Russians.

The main official TV channel, Rossiya 1, covered the story early in the day, but studiously ignored any comparison with the poisoning in 2006 of former Russian FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, which has been a prominent feature of reports in the UK media.

This evening, the main primetime bulletin on Rossiya 1 and the two other main Russian TV stations, Channel One and NTV, did not touch the story.

The oddities in the coverage did not stop there, though. On Rossiya 24, the country's main news channel and the sister channel to Rossiya 1, the Skripal case was the main story this evening, with a report accusing the UK authorities and media of conspiring to blacken Russia's name. The presenter described the case as a "new classic in British conspirology"

The popular tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda described the case as "another scandal with a dash of Russophobia".

Russian news agencies reported the indignation expressed by officials as they criticised Boris Johnson's warning to Russia.

"The demonisation of Russia", said a Russian embassy press release.

"This is preposterous," the Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as telling Interfax news agency.

Mr Johnson's comments are "unacceptable" and in "extremely bad faith," said Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council of the upper house of parliament.

Analysis

BY NORMAN SMITH, BBC ASSISTANT POLITICAL EDITOR

Although Boris Johnson was careful to stress this was still an ongoing investigation - it's absolutely clear he, and others in government, believe it's highly likely this was a Russian state-sponsored attack.

The big question now - how does the government respond?

A question made more pressing by accusations that ministers were guilty of appeasement in the wake of Alexander Litvinenko's killing.

Mr Johnson suggested there could be targeted sanctions against those close to President Putin.

And, perhaps most significantly, in an indication the government could seek to rally international support to make a stand against Russia, Mr Johnson said there could be a co-ordinated response with Nato allies.

Whatever measures are eventually decided upon - if Russian involvement is proven - it's clear relations between London and Moscow have plunged to new depths.

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More on this story

-   -   -   -

question: What is Russia denying?

answer: They are denying involvement in the public poisoning of one of their former spies and his daughter.

question: Who is Mr. Skirpal?

answer: Sergei Skirpal was a retired Russian spy charged with working with MI6.

question: What did Jamie Paine see?

answer: He saw Skirpal and his daughter passed out and frothing at the mouth.

question: Who's accused of poisoning Litvinenko?

answer: Andrei Lugovoi

question: What does Russian media say about the attack?

answer: They claim that it is anti-Russian propaganda and "conspirology".

question: Write a ~3 sentence summary.

answer: In the wake of the poisoning of Sergei Skirpal, his daughter, and some police officers, the article discusses the popular speculation that the act was carried out on the orders of the Russian government. It is also discussed that official Russian media and the government deny any involvement and calls the reports dishonest. Previous assassinations also reportedly carried out by Russia's government are also mentioned.


text:
ZHANG LIANG (; (died April 17, 646[1]) was a Chinese general and official who served as a chancellor late in the reign of Emperor Taizong in the Tang dynasty. He was eventually accused of using witchcraft – a major taboo in imperial China – and executed in 646.

Background and service under Li Mi

It is not known when Zhang Liang was born. He was from Zheng Prefecture (roughly modern Zhengzhou, Henan), and it was said that his family was not of a noble lineage. Early in his life, Zhang was a farmer, but was said to have great expectations. He was also said to be appearing to be honest and meek outwardly, but instead was treacherous inside. At the end of the Sui dynasty, the rebel ruler Li Mi conquered Zhang's home region, and Zhang followed him. Initially, he was not regarded highly by Li Mi, but after he revealed a treasonous plot to Li Mi, Li Mi believed him to be faithful, and so made him a general and had him serve under the general Xu Shiji.

In 618, Li Mi was defeated by the Sui general Wang Shichong, and he fled to Tang territory and surrendered to the Tang Empire. The parts of the territory formerly under Li Mi's control was still under Xu's control, and Xu, because Li Mi had already submitted to Tang, decided to submit to Tang as well — a decision that Zhang supported.

During Emperor Gaozu's reign

After the submission of Xu Shiji (who later would be bestowed the imperial clan name of Li and be known as Li Shiji) to Tang, Zhang Liang was made the governor of Zheng Prefecture. However, around the same time, Wang Shichong captured Zheng Prefecture, and Zhang had nowhere to go, and instead took up guerilla warfare in the region. Later, based on recommendations by Li Shiji and Fang Xuanling, the Tang prince Li Shimin (the second son of Emperor Gaozu) invited Zhang to serve on his staff, and Zhang eventually became a trusted advisor.

By 626, Li Shimin was locked in an intense rivalry with his elder brother, Li Jiancheng (the Crown Prince), and he considered actions to take. As Li Shimin contemplated the possibility that he might eventually need to seize Luoyang to serve as a basis of operations against Li Jiancheng, he sent Zhang to Luoyang, with several thousand men, to secretly plan for that possibility, and to distribute wealth to get people to join Li Shimin's cause. However, this was discovered by Li Shimin's younger brother, Li Yuanji (the Prince of Qi), who supported Li Jiancheng, and Li Yuanji accused Zhang of treason. Zhang was briefly put under arrest, but under interrogation refused to reveal Li Shimin's instructions to him, and with insufficient evidence against himself, he was released and allowed to return to Luoyang. Later that year, after Li Shimin ambushed Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji at Xuanwu Gate and killed them, he effectively forced Emperor Gaozu to create him crown prince and then yield the throne to him (as Emperor Taizong).

During Emperor Taizong's reign

For Zhang's contributions, Emperor Taizong enfeoffed him as the Duke of Changping and made him the commandant at Huai Prefecture (, roughly modern Jiaozuo, Henan). In 631, he was made the imperial censor, and then the minister of palace supplies. He was also created the greater title of Duke of Yu. He served several times as commandants, and in 633, when Emperor Taizong made his favorite son Li Tai, the Prince of Wei, the commandant at Xiang Prefecture (, roughly modern Handan, Hebei) but did not actually send Li Tai to Xiang Prefecture, Zhang was made the secretary general at Xiang Prefecture and effectively the commandant. In 637, his title was changed to Duke of Xun.

It was said that when Zhang was at a prefectural post, he would send his subordinates to secretly investigate who are the good and who are the evil people of the locale, allowing him to punish the evil and discover the good. He was also praised for suppressing the local bullies and helping the weak. However, it was also said that he divorced his wife and married a Lady Li as his new wife. Lady Li was said to be promiscuous and jealous, but was greatly favored by Zhang. When they went to Xiang Prefecture, there was a young man who sold pens for a living and was good at singing and dancing. Lady Li carried on an affair with the young man, and, falsely declaring that Zhang had previously carried on an affair with the young man's mother, encouraging Zhang to adopt the young man as a son, to be named Zhang Shenji () — an act opposed by Zhang's son, by his former wife, Zhang Shenwei (), to no avail. It was also said that Lady Li favored witchcraft, engaging many witches, and interfered with Zhang's administration, and from that point on, Zhang's reputation began to suffer.

In 640, Zhang was recalled to the capital Chang'an to serve as the minister of public works. In 641, he was made the head of the household for Emperor Taizong's son and crown prince, Li Chengqian, but was also sent out of the capital to serve as the commandant at Luo Prefecture (i.e., modern-day Luoyang, Henan). The general Hou Junji, who was unhappy that he had been briefly imprisoned on accusations of embezzlement after he conquered Gaochang, tried to instigate Zhang by asking him, “Who squeezed you out?” Zhang, in jest, responded, “Other than you, who can squeeze me out?” Hou responded, “I conquered a kingdom, but I ran into someone throwing a tamper tantrum big enough to overturn a house. What strength do I have to squeeze you out?” He then rolled up his sleeves and yelled, “I am so unhappy that I would rather die. Do you want to commit treason? I will commit treason with you!” Zhang secretly reported this exchange to Emperor Taizong, but Emperor Taizong pointed out that this was a private conversation with no corroboration, and took no action on it.[2] After Hou was revealed to have plotted with Li Chengqian to overthrow Emperor Taizong in 643, Li Chengqian was deposed and exiled, while Hou was executed. Because Zhang had previously warned Emperor Taizong about Hou, Emperor Taizong rewarded him by recalling him to the capital to serve as the minister of justice and also bestowing him the additional designation of _Canyu Chaozheng_ (), making him a _de facto_ chancellor. (Earlier in 643, when Emperor Taizong commissioned the Portraits at Lingyan Pavilion to commemorate the 24 great contributors to Tang rule, Zhang's was one of the portraits commissioned.) [Zhang Liang's campaign during the Tang-Goguryeo war.] In 644, when Emperor Taizong planned a major campaign against Goguryeo, Zhang repeatedly advised against it, but Emperor Taizong did not accept his advice. Zhang himself thereafter requested to be a general on the campaign, and he was put in charge of the 40,000 soldier fleet that would depart from Lai Prefecture to head directly toward the Goguryeo capital Pyongyang. In summer 645, Zhang's fleet attacked and captured Bisa (, in modern Dalian, Liaoning), and then headed to the mouth of the Yalu River in anticipation of the army also arriving there. When his forces subsequently marched past Geonan (, in modern Yingkou, Liaoning), Goguryeo forces made a surprise attack against his forces—shocking him so much that he froze, but his failure to react was interpreted by his own soldiers to be a show of resolve and bravery, and his assistant Zhang Jinshu () subsequently counterattacked and repelled the Goguryeo attack. Later, however, when Emperor Taizong's own main forces became bogged down in sieging Ansi (, in modern Anshan, Liaoning) and was eventually forced to abandon the offensive with winter arriving, Zhang withdrew as well.

Death

Meanwhile, over the years, Zhang had taken some 500 men and called them his sons. He had also become very trusting of sorcerers named Cheng Gongying () and Gongsun Chang (), whose brother Gongsun Jie () was one of Zhang's “sons.” Both Cheng and Gongsun flattered Zhang by suggesting that one day he would be emperor. In 646, one Chang Dexuan () reported to Emperor Taizong these things and suggested that Zhang was plotting treason. Emperor Taizong had the chancellor Ma Zhou investigate, and, although Cheng and Gongsun Chang admitted the allegations, Zhang denied the allegations, stating that Cheng and Gongsun only admitted because they wanted to be spared. Emperor Taizong, however, believed that Zhang was plotting with his 500 “sons.” Most officials also advocated Zhang's death; only Li Daoyu () the deputy minister of construction opposed, stating, “There is no firm evidence that Zhang was committing treason, and he should not be put to death.” Emperor Taizong executed Zhang and Cheng, but later regretted it, and due to his regrets, he promoted Li Daoyu to the post of deputy minister of justice.

Notes and references

-   _Old Book of Tang_, vol. 69.1
-   _New Book of Tang_, vol. 94.2
-   _Zizhi Tongjian_, vols. 191, 194, 196, 197, 198.

Category:646 deaths Category:Sui dynasty people Category:Tang dynasty generals at war against Goguryeo Category:Chancellors under Emperor Taizong of Tang Category:People executed for witchcraft Category:People executed by the Tang dynasty by decapitation Category:Executed Tang dynasty people Category:7th-century executions by the Tang dynasty Category:Politicians from Zhengzhou Category:Executed people from Henan Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Tang dynasty generals from Henan Category:Tang dynasty politicians from Henan Category:Transition from Sui to Tang

[1]

[2] The _Old Book of Tang_, in Hou's biography, reported this event to be in 643, and the _Zizhi Tongjian_ adopted that dating. See _Old Book of Tang_, vol. 69 ; _Zizhi Tongjian_, vol. 196. However, the _Old Book of Tang_ biography for Zhang Liang, in the same volume, dated this event as occurring in 641.

title: Zhang Liang (Tang dynasty)

question: Summarize the background and service of Zhang Liang under Li Mi.

answer: Zhang Liang was from Zheng Prefecture and was a farmer in his early life. When Li Mi conquered Zhang's home region, he followed him. Li Mi didn't take notice of him earlier but when Zhang pointed out a treason plot against him, he realized that Zhang is faithful and made him a general.

question: Summarize Zhang's life during Emperor Gaozu's reign.

answer: Zhang became the governor of Zheng Prefecture and Wang Shichong captured the region. So, Zhang took up guerilla warfare but later, Li Shimin invited him to serve on his staff. Li Shimin sent Zhang to Luoyang with thousands of men to plan to seize the place. Zhang was arrested for treason but he didn't reveal anything so he was released.

question: Summarize Zhang's contributions during Emperor Taizong's reign.

answer: Emperor Taizong named Zhang as the Duke of Changping and made him the commandant of Huai Prefecture. He also became the imperial censor and the minister of palace supplies. Zhang was later made the secretary-general at Xiang Prefecture and his title was later changed to Duke of Xun. Zhang was praised for stopping the local bullies and helping the weak. He was then recalled to Chang'an to serve as the minister of public works and was made the head of the household for Emperor Taizong's son. For his effort at reporting treason, Zhang was made the minister of justice and a de-facto chancellor.

question: Summarize Zhang's education.


text:
“I don't know about this.” Mark said, pacing back and forth in his sheik but shaggy boardroom while

 scrolling up and down on his phone. He placed the phone down on the boardroom table.

	“What do you think, Tom?”

	Tom sighed. This was the 15th time he'd been asked what he thought in the last hour. He

 grabbed the phone off of the table. There hadn't been any changes that he could tell from the last

time he had chimed in.

        “Looks fine, Mark.” Tom replied.

        “Are you sure? You don't think it's too aggressive?”

        “I think if that's what you want to do then you should do it.”

        “Right. I should do it.” Mark reassured himself. He grabbed the phone from Tom's hands. “But I

don't know. Maybe it's too much. Maybe this is too much.”

	Tom rubbed his eyeballs. The other nine employees sitting around the table had long lost

 interest in Mark's concerns or their standings in the company. They all just wanted to go home.

	“I mean, do you think maybe it makes me come off as controlling? Cause I want to sound

confident, but I don't want to be controlling, you know? Does it make me sound like a dick? Pete,

what do you think?”

        Pete's left eyelid slid open from his nap.

        “It's fine.” he mumbled and then slipped back to sleep.

        Mark let out a frustrated whimper. He walked towards the double pane glass window and

thumped his head against it. The San Diego city lights twinkled below.

       Elaine, a first year web design supervisor who Mark had hired just a month ago, adjusted herself

in her seat.

      “Mark?” she called out softly. “If I were you I wouldn't give it so much thought. People gravitate

to you for who you are, so just be who you are. I think that's important.”

      Mark took a deep breath. He looked down at his phone one last time.

      “You're right.”

His thumb tapped the phone. The board members unanimously rolled back in their chairs.

      “If she doesn't think the Chinese place is a good place to go for a first date, big deal. She can

suggest another place. I'm open. But at least now someone's made a decision and we're not playing

the 'I don't care where we go' game.”

      Tom yawned.

      “Did you look over the new app update, Mark?”

      “The what?”

      “The new update. It takes effect tonight.”

      “Oh, yeah, yeah. Sounds good. Get that going. Can't believe we haven't been requiring social

security numbers this whole time.”

       The board members sauntered out of the room.

title: New Facebook Update Eve [HM]

question: Explain the twist in the tale.

answer:
We are led to believe that Mark and his co-workers are coming to a tough decision regarding their company, however Mark's main focus is revealed to be a message he is sending to a prospective date.

the narrator takes us down a path of expectation only to flip the expectation on its head.

question: Why are the people in the story willing to endure Mark's neurotic behaviour?

answer: They are there to discuss an update they are making to an app which will start taking people's social security numbers.

question: Write a ~1 sentence summary.

answer: A seeminly tough decision in boardroom turns out to be the simple question of where Mark is going to eat dinner on a first date.


text:
there once was a boy with knives stuck in his voice. No matter what he said, it hurt the people around him, the boy just couldn't help it. Even if he didn't say anything offensive to someone, it still hurt them, just the sheer noise produced, a high, cutting pitch, something never heard by the likes of man before, would make the inner workings of your ears bleed, if you listened to it long enough.

All he wanted was a little affection. just somebody, for once to actually love him. a mother, a father, a friend would have sufficed. he should have known the first time a whole village abandoned him in the middle if a woods; no one wanted him, or his foul remarks. but he didn't learn, he had the simple mind of a child. the boy would walk during the days, crawl in the darkness of night, just to find a home. but every town he found, just kicked him out again. but he didnt learn, he had the simple mind of a child.

his cry's pierced the silence of the forest at night, birds flew away in fear, his shrill scream lured hunters to him, believing it was an animal, dying in their traps. but all they could hear when they saw him was, just as ghastly as his voice.

the poor child, he was just an unidentifiable bulk. you could hardly call him a bulk though, he was nothing but a remnant of his former self. the boy hadnt eaten for days from the looks of it, his skin was peeling, hair grew in patches. his ribs, they were hypnotic, just watching them stretch the pale, brittle skin. scabs were beginning to form, at nearly every inch of his body.

the two hunters felt pity for the boy. they left some food for him, and then left as fast as they could, they were horrified of the grotesque child. if they really felt pity for him, they would've killed him.

the night the boy ate was the first night the forest heard true silence for so long, no one actually knew.that night the boy actually slept.

the dreams were the sweetest thing he had ever experienced. the dreams gave him a new feeling of life, he didn't have the will to death any more. or was that the food?

the boy learnt to fend for himself. he admired those hunters, he wanted to impress them, be like them. to him, they were to first people to show him any compassion. but the boy was as much a terrible hunter, as the villagers were terrible humans. he never learnt. his voice scared of every single one of his prey. except the fish.

the boy was expert in catching fish from a river. the joy on his face was unmatched, as he pulled his first fish out of the stream with his bare hands.

many nights passed after the night with the hunters, and many dreams accompanied them. the boy had found something to cherish. night after night he went to his den, night after night a scream let out, sounding so much like a childish laugh.

his den was a crude piece of art. tightly packed under the roots of a relatively young oak in the forest of elders, its roots resembled aching joints submerged in the depths of the river, the boy used grass for a simple beading. old fish bones were hung up from the tops of the roots. oh he was proud of his fish bones.

one day, the boy was out “fishing”. there was one fish he had his eye on. it was too fast for him, even heading upstream. up and up they  went, the boy wasn't going to give up.

before he knew it, night had fallen. the boy was scared, he had come a long way from his little den, so far upstream he was on a slope. that was the first night the forest had heard the boys crys for so long.

he didn't sleep at all, he was scared he just wanted to be home, to be loved again. after the progress the boy made, it was undone in just one single, sleepless night.

the following morning, he woke in a pile of golden red leaves. autumn had arrived. the ground was damp and boggy. he tried to set for home, following the river downstream.

the boy dragged his feet through the mud. for hours, he walked and walked and walked, still no where closer to home. he was surprised at the distance he traveled the day before chasing the fish.

Then he heard it, a scream,a cry for help. it was a sharp noise, but it didn't make the boy cover his ears, only pay more attention to it. at first he thought it was himself, but how could it be, if he was here, and the noise was over there.

the boys childish nature made him curious. step by step, he trekked through the mud. it soon began to dry out as he made it closer to the noise

the forest was thinning, the noise was increasing. he thought he could hear voices thrown in hear and there, laughing, tormenting.

the boy had reached a clearing on a plateau. it was most likely the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, or will ever see. the field had patches of scarlet poppy's in between patches of long white grass.

and in the middle of that, the noise. a black cloud, dancing around in a single fluid motion. the boy got closer and saw ravens, hundreds of them, words flying from their beaks, taunts and insults thrown to the centre of the mass.

and in the centre, a single carrion crow, half the size of the ravens, and not able to fully form words like them, but screams, the same screams that caught the boys attention.

he screamed. the child screamed, drowning out the noise of the ravens. the crow joint in. the boy started running in and out of the group, trying his best to scare the ravens off. but they laughed at his futile attempts.

this made him scream louder and run faster. eventually the crows got bored with picking on the crow, and lost all interest in the child, waving his arms about like a madman.

they were gone. it was just the boy with knives stuck in his voice and the crow that couldn't sing.

the screams lessened and lessened, until all you could hear was the far of call of the ravens caught in the wind, and the slow steady breathing of both boy and bird.

on closer inspection, the crow was actually much bigger, but in poor condition. still not as big as the others, it had fresh blood dripping from where the ravens talons took swipes at him. its feathers were torn out in patches. and it was weak, malnourished.

they boy tried to pick him up as gentle as he could, but the crow struggled. finally the boy got hold of him. the boy could see he was hungry, but he had no food.

he had the next best thing a carrion crow could wish for; living human flesh. the boy bit his finger, making it bleed, only with a small yelp of pain. he tried stuffing it into the crows face, but that didnt work.

at long last, the crow got the taste of blood, and pecked at the boys hand until he was satisfied, all the while, the boy screamed. but he tolerated the pain, not flinching his hand away during the feeding.

the path back to the river was a long and tiresome one, the boy was feeling faint. the crow wanted to stay with the boy, so he let it sit on his shoulder. they screamed at each other the whole way, having some strange conversation in the most bizarre of tongues.

he had finally found someone to love, and to love him in return.

the boys dreams had come true.

that night, he fell asleep with a smile on his face, and blood on his neck from success. a dreamless sleep soon fell upon him.

the boys body became entangled in the branches of a relatively young oak tree in a forest of eldars, its fingers submerged in the waters of the river. the crow was perched above. it flew down and landed on the corpse, pecking strips of flesh away from the bones of the bloated, floating body.

title: In Absentia

question: Why were the hunters horrified of the child?

answer: The boy's voice was a high, cutting pitch. If you listened to it long enough it would make your ears bleed.

question: What did the boy dream of?

answer: The boy dreamed of having someone to love and be loved.

question: Why did the boy scream?

answer: The boy screamed out of frustration to find love and a home.

question: Why did the boy not live in with the villagers?

answer: No one wanted him because of his foul remarks.

question: Write a ~6 sentence summary.

answer: There lived a boy in the forest with knives stuck in his voice. Abandoned by the village, all he dreamed of was affection and a home. One day he finds Ravens attacking a carrion crow, and the boy saves it. He then takes the crow with him. The boy is finally satisfied that he has someone to love and be loved in return. He dies in peace and the crow pecks at strips of his flesh.


text:
AGLOW INTERNATIONAL is an interdenominational organization of Christian women and men. Formerly known as WOMEN'S AGLOW FELLOWSHIP, it has more than 200,000 members meeting together each month through local Aglow groups in 171 nations.[1][2] More than 21,000 Aglow leaders worldwide minister in their communities.[3] An estimated 17 million people each year are ministered to through over 1,250 community, neighborhood and workplace groups in the US, as well as 3,101 local groups internationally.[4] The organization was born in 1967 out of the charismatic movement that swept the US in the 1960s. The name _Aglow_ is taken from the book of Romans 12:11.[5]

Although Aglow has an overarching mission and identity, each local group is allowed to develop ministries which are best suited to the immediate needs and social characteristics of its community. Aglow is concerned with every aspect of believer's lives, and this is reflected in a diversity of ministry programs.[6] Aglow's activities include small group studies, care (support) groups, retreats, and annual conferences. Aglow groups also offer practical gifts of clothing, food, house cleaning, and babysitting, as well as the mentorship of young people. They impact their communities by reaching out to people in prison, in senior homes, inner city neighborhoods, and mental institutions; to single moms, as well as to the next door neighbor.

Aglow International is a non-profit organization and is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).[7] It is headquartered in Edmonds, Washington.

History

Aglow began in 1967 with four women who expressed a desire to meet together as Christians without denominational boundaries.[8] The four women were wives of members of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International. The women wanted a similar women's devotional association, “one where 'those coming into the charismatic renewal could meet to pray, fellowship, and listen to the testimonies of other Christian women.' In a few months the women had formed the Full Gospel Women's Fellowship which spread rapidly.”[9] The first general meeting in Seattle drew more than 100 women to the Meany Hotel close to the University of Washington campus. It did not take long for women who attended that first meeting to invite their neighbors and friends to regular meetings in other communities surrounding Seattle. Word spread, and new groups began springing up around Washington.

By 1972, more than 60 local groups held monthly meetings around the U.S.,[10] and the Full Gospel Women's Fellowship was incorporated as the Women's Aglow Fellowship International.[11] Within the next year, groups began in Canada, New Zealand, and The Netherlands, making Aglow an international “network of caring women.”

In 1981, Aglow's President, Jane Hansen, began to speak and write about the restoration of women according to the significance of their created role as outlined in the Bible. This grew into Aglow's teaching on the importance of male/female reconciliation in the Church.[12] In 1991 and 1995, Aglow began focusing on ministering to Muslims.[13] Aglow tries to bring awareness about Islam to Christians and also sponsors an Arabic Language television show that is geared specifically for Muslim women.[14] Women's Aglow Fellowship changed its name to Aglow International in 1995. This change was instituted to encompass the growing global nature of the organization.

In 2001, Aglow decided to stand with and support the nation of Israel and the Jewish people in the following areas:[15]

:*To expose anti-Semitism and false doctrines which seek to destroy the Jewish people such as Replacement Theology or Supersessionism, calling for repentance in the Church at large;

:*To love, support, honor, and esteem the Jewish people as the root from which Christianity has grown (Romans 11:18)[16]

Aglow marked its 40th year in 2007. More than 200,000 Aglow members celebrated worldwide, and many attended commemorative events including an international conference September 20–23 in the organization's founding city, Seattle, and a tour of Israel - the group's seventh such journey to the Holy Land since 2000.[17]

Structure

Aglow International has a hierarchical leadership structure. Within the United States, local Aglow groups are called Lighthouses.[18] Outside the US, these groups are called Candlelight groups.[19] The local groups are composed of women who come together for Bible Study, teachings, and also to perform community outreach tasks and events. Meetings can take place in any location from homes to community halls to prisons.[20] Lighthouses and Candlelight groups are under the leadership of local women who have undergone the requisite leadership training. These leaders are in turn under the authority of Area Teams. Area Teams give oversight to multiple groups in a particular region or area. National Directors or Presidents oversee all the Area Teams in a nation. All the leaders in these offices are indigenous women who have also undergone leadership training. In keeping with its charismatic roots, Aglow requires all its leaders to show evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit by being able to speak in tongues.[21]

In addition, each region in the world has a Prayer Coordinator who oversees and coordinates the prayer ministry under the oversight of the Prayer Director. The entire structure of Aglow is under the leadership of the International Board of Directors, of which Jane Hansen is the President. This International Board is composed of 11 women of different nationalities who are Aglow national leaders within their own countries as well. Each Aglow group also has at least one male advisor – usually a person of some prominence within an evangelical church. “This structure, together with leadership seminars for specific regions as well as national and worldwide conferences, comprises an international support network and helps to ensure that each local group reflects Aglow's essential identity.”[22]

All of the persons in these positions of leadership give their time voluntarily. The only exception is the paid staff of thirty two at the Aglow Worldwide Headquarters in Edmonds, Washington. This staff is responsible for the financial well-being of the organization, the implementation of its goals and purposes, the organization of national conferences and events, and all promotional and advertising materials.

An individual becomes a member of Aglow by entering into what is known as a “covenant partnership”.[23] This partnership involves the commitment of regular prayer for the organization as well as financial support in free-will donations. However, people are free to attend Aglow meetings without becoming a covenant partner. Aglow International receives most of its funding from covenant partner donations, individual donations, conference fees, and grants from foundations. A current financial report can be found in the ECFA's web site.[24]

Beliefs and practices

Mission

Aglow's mission is threefold:[25]

:#To restore and mobilize women and men around the world

:#To promote gender reconciliation in the Body of Christ as God designed

:#To amplify awareness of global concerns from a biblical perspective

Restoration and mobilization of women

Aglow believes that in order to be restored, a woman must first be saved and restored to relationship with God. Part of restoration is discipleship, prayer, encouragement, emotional healing – all of which come through relationship. Aglow believes that true restoration of a woman can only occur after she has reached a place of desperation and is willing to turn completely to God for help.[26] After this act of surrender, God is able to work through her and heal her emotionally and spiritually. In addition to the spiritual restoration of women, Aglow also believes in their physical restoration and empowerment and works to elevate the status of women worldwide.

To mobilize is “to gather together, to activate, to assemble.” Aglow mobilizes women to be servant leaders its international prayer network and leadership development. Any leader within Aglow first has to go through training before she is allowed to take a leadership post.[27]

Gender reconciliation

In 1981, the issue of restoration of women led Hansen to the issue of male and female reconciliation in the Church. According to Hansen, this issue seeks to restore the biblical view of God's purpose for creation which Aglow bases on . Aglow believes this purpose was to have a family, a people who would share God's life, nature, spirit, vision, and purpose, and through whom God would express his life, power, and glory in the earth.[28] Hansen believes that it takes male and female together to fulfill this purpose and that the restoration of this foundational relationship is necessary before the Church as a whole can fulfill its destiny to express God's image.[29]

Hansen believes that women were “uniquely and specifically designed to stand before the man in an intimate, face-to-face relationship.”[30] However, although women were meant to look to God to find their life, identity, value and significance, since the fall of Eve in the dawn of creation, they have looked instead to men to fulfill these needs. Hansen states that only when “a woman's heart is turned back to God to meet her needs, she is…free to be the help God intended her to be: to draw the man out of his aloneness by relating on a level that moves past the surface and touches the deep places of his heart. She is then able to stand in a healthy, face-to-face relationship with him.”[31]

Aglow offers seminars and workshops to help women in the practical application of male-female reconciliation. The seminars teach women how to find “fulfillment and joy in their daily relationships…to create families full of joy and marriages free from resentment.”[32] Participants report that these teachings have helped to restore their marriages and other significant relationships.[33]

Global concerns

Aglow women conduct outreach efforts, specifically in refugee camps and war-torn nations. Aglow Relief, a subsidiary of Aglow International, has been incorporated for humanitarian and compassion purposes and is in the process of applying for 501(c)(3) status with the federal government.[34]

Aglow has partnered with many organizations worldwide to further its humanitarian interests. In May 2006, more than $30,000 and half a ton of humanitarian supplies were carried to Israel in suitcases by 600 men and women in an Aglow-sponsored solidarity tour. This aid was disseminated to many organizations in Israel such as the Yemin Orde Youth Village near Haifa, the Magen David Adom blood donation center in Jerusalem, the Ethiopian Absorption Center in Mevaseret Zion and the Ma'aynei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak.[35]

More than $20,000 was also donated to Aglow members who were victims of Hurricane Katrina. CEO and President, Jane Hansen, made a personal visit to the affected areas to distribute these monies.[36] Over $40,000 and humanitarian supplies were also donated for the relief of victims of the tsunami that hit Asia in December 2004.[37]

Aglow also partners with charitable organizations in the cities where their yearly conferences are held. Conference locations vary from year to year. In 2006, Aglow partnered with the City on a Hill,[38] an organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, dedicated to meeting the needs of the central city by providing hands-on missions training, faith-based multicultural education, community outreach, economic empowerment, housing developments, and health and social services.[39] Participants at the Aglow conference prayed specifically for this charity and also made sizeable donations to further its outreach.[40]

Aglow has also received many grants and funding from secular organizations. A donation of $40,000 was made in September 2006 to the Ghana branch of Aglow by Western Union Money Transfer. This money was given in aid of the construction of a women's vocational institute. The vocational institute will offer training in Craft and Handiwork, Management and Catering, Dressmaking, Batik Making, Hairdressing, Secretarial Studies, Bookkeeping, Accounting, Communication Skills, Basic Education, as well as Snail and Mushroom Farming. Western Union made this donation to assist Aglow in their mission to empower women in the community of Ghana.[41]

Prayer

Aglow believes God has called the organization to be a “Global House of Prayer.” Aglow women pray in small groups and in large national and international gatherings.[42] In her book about Aglow International, _God's Daughters,_ R. Marie Griffith states that, “God calls his daughters to perform mighty acts and inaugurate prodigious transformations through their prayers, rendering Christian women vital instruments of regeneration and healing to a broken and dying world.”[43]

Tax issues

There exist 920 Aglow International entities that are classified by the IRS as churches.[44] They are not required to file annual reports (form 990) with the IRS which are otherwise available for public view. Moreover, by an act of Congress, they are virtually audit-proof. That all of these should qualify as churches is somewhat questionable.

Criticism

MinistryWatch.org, an independent organization that acts as a “watchdog” for Christian ministries points out the following issues that some people have with Aglow International:[45]

:*"Aglow's emphasis on speaking in tongues, particularly in requiring this of its leaders, seems to be out of line with the teachings of Scripture, which do not make tongues-speaking a criterion for leadership.

:*Aglow's focus on gender reconciliation within the Church seems to involve accepting women's ordination to pastoral ministry, a recent innovation which many Christians believe is unbiblical.

:*Some people might think that Aglow's teaching on relationships… is heavy on pop psychology and light on Christian doctrine.

:*Some Christians have criticized what they perceive as Aglow's ecumenism, particularly the organization's openness to Roman Catholics.

:*Some people are wary of Aglow's claims to be an apostolic and prophetic ministry, especially as this entails ongoing special revelation from God."

Further reading

_The Journey of a Woman_, Jane Hansen, Regal Books, 1998. _Fashioned for Intimacy_, Jane Hansen with Marie Powers, Regal Books, 1997. _God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission_, R. Marie Griffith, University of California Press, 1997.

[1]

[2] 1 (Aglow's Web Site)

[3]

[4] 2 (Aglow's Web Site)

[5] 3 (Aglow's web site)

[6] MinistryWatch.org's Summary Report on Aglow International

[7] MinistryWatch.com's Summary Report on Aglow International

[8] “Aglow Spreads Faith, Community of Women Conference set for Milwaukee” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 29, 2006

[9] ''God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission. ''R. Marie Griffith, University of California Press, 1997

[10]

[11] _God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission_, R. Marie Griffith, University of California Press, 1997

[12] _Fashioned for Intimacy_, Jane Hansen with Marie Powers, Regal Books, 1997

[13] “Aglow International: Still Shining Bright After 40 Years” A. Larry Ross Communications, March 15, 2007

[14]

[15] Why Aglow and Israel (Aglow's Web Site)

[16] Romans 11:18

[17]

[18] Aglow's Leadership and Team Structure in the US (Aglow's web site)

[19] Aglow's Leadership and Structure Outside the US (Aglow's Web Site)

[20]

[21]

[22]

[23] Covenant Partnership (Aglow's web site)

[24] Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability Member Profile

[25] Aglow's Mission Statement (Aglow's web site)

[26] _God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission._R. Marie Griffith, University of California Press, 1997

[27]

[28] “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:27, N.K.J.V.

[29] _Fashioned for Intimacy_ Jane Hansen with Marie Powers, Regal Books, 1997

[30] “Jane Hansen on Male Female Reconciliation” Jane Hansen, October 24, 2004

[31]

[32] ''God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission. ''R. Marie Griffith, University of California Press, 1997

[33] ''God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission. ''R. Marie Griffith, University of California Press, 1997

[34] “Aglow International: Still Shining Bright After 40 Years” A. Larry Ross Communications, March 15, 2007

[35] “Through Fire and Water - Aglow International: A Compassionate Touch” Jerusalem Post Christian Edition, October 2006

[36] “Voices from the Gulf” (Aglow's web site)

[37] “Tsunami Relief Report” (Aglow's web site)

[38]

[39] City on a Hill Vision Statement

[40]

[41] “Western Union donates $40,000 to Aglow International” The Statesman, September 16, 2006

[42]

[43]

[44]

[45] MinistryWatch.org's Summary Report on Aglow International

title: Aglow International

question: What does the text say about how to be a good Christian?

question: Summarize what the text says about Aglow International.

answer: Aglow International is an interdenominational organization of Christian women and men formerly known as Women's Aglow Fellowship. Formed in 1967, it has more than 200,000 members meeting together each month via local Aglow groups in 171 countries. There are 21,000 Aglow leaders worldwide who minister to an estimated 17 million people spread over 1,250 communities, neighborhoods, workplace groups, and 3,101 local groups internationally. The name "Aglow" is taken from the book of Romans 12:11. Aglow International is a non-profit organization with headquarters in Edmonds, Washington. It is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

question: What does the text say about good Aglow International does for the community?

answer: Each Aglow local group is allowed to develop ministries that are best suited to the social characteristics and immediate needs of the community. Aglow is concerned with every aspect of believers' lives reflected via the diversity of its ministry programs. The organization's activities include care & support groups, small group studies, retreats, and annual conferences. Aglow groups offer gifts of clothing, food, house cleaning, babysitting, and even mentorship of young people. Aglow members impact their communities by reaching out to next-door neighbors and single moms, as well as people in senior homes, mental institutions, prisons, and inner-city neighborhoods.

question: Summarize some of the criticisms leveled at Aglow.

answer: Aglow critics have pointed out the questionable existence of 920 Aglow International entities that are classified by the IRS as "churches", which means they are not required to file annual reports (form 990) with the IRS. These Aglow "churches" are also audit-proof. MinistryWatch.Org, an independent organization that acts as a "watchdog" for Christian ministries also points out several issues with Aglow. The organization's requirement of leaders to speak in tongues seems to be out of line with the teachings of Scripture. Aglow's focus on gender reconciliation within the Church involves accepting women's ordination to pastoral ministry, which many Christians believe is unbiblical. Aglow's teachings on relationships are heavy on pop psychology and light on Christian doctrine. Some Christians have questioned Aglow's openness to Roman Catholics. People are wary of Aglow's claims to be an apostolic and prophetic ministry, especially if it entails special revelations from God.


text:
Alan washed his pale face under cold crispy water that flowed out of the dingy bathroom sink. The bathroom smelled of sweet lavender and cigarettes. While not a pleasant combination this scent is the only scent Alan knew and and the only scent he ever wanted to know.
Alan grabbed a towel that was hanging from the dusty towel holder and dried off his face. He then grabbed his wedding ring from the bathroom counter and slipped it on his finger. Alan glanced in the mirror as he was just about to walk out of the bathroom. The quick glance lured him in and Alan found himself standing in front of the mirror studying his reflection.
It was obvious he needed sleep. The dark purple circles under his eyes gave him an unforgettable look of sickness matched with his pale complexion. His soft blue eyes seemed to fade into the rest of his face only becoming noticeable when they were bloodshot from crying. The dark brown curls that sat neatly on top of his head gave him a boyish look. Instead of 25 he looked 18. According to his wife, every attempt at growing facial hair to try to enhance his age was pity and only made him look homeless and dirty. The desire to please her was the only thing that had not been replaced with the sadness that she left behind so he was freshly shaven every day in hopes of her return.
After studying the man Alan no longer knew in the mirror he slowly slumped out of the bathroom into his bedroom. The bedroom was quiet and dark. A quick flip of the night stand lamp switch illuminated the room with a dark glow. Alan unhurriedly and thoughtfully walked around the room so careful as not to touch a single item. He wanted to preserve the room as it always has been. A messy yet organized room that could only be created by one person, but never recreated by another.
Alan slipped off his clothes in the usual spot that he always did and neatly put them into a laundry hamper he had just bought. As he made his way to the bed he switched off the light, careful not to bump anything on his way.
The bed smelled of fresh lavender. As Alan laid on his back to start the nightly routine of staring at the blank ceiling for hours he could feel the scent creeping its way into his lungs and eventually into his memories ever so easily. Nothing got to Alan more than this scent. As he laid in bed the flow of tears silently trickled down the sides of his burning cheeks and onto the white satin pillow. These eerie reminders of everything he once had always sent a flood of emotions through his fragile body.
As hours went by Alan gave up on waiting for the apartment door to open bringing in what once was the meaning of his life and now was the cause of his pain; he turned over and went to sleep.
	As the birds sang their morning songs outside the window the next morning little light was shed into the apartment through the tightly closed blinds. Alan turned over and looked at the clock facing towards him on the night stand. It read 9:37 a.m. This was too early to be awake. Especially since Alan’s days now only consisted of waiting.
	Alan got on his feet and quietly made his way to the shower as if not to disturb anyone in their sleep, a habit since he was always the first to be awake. Alan turned on the shower, took off his wedding ring which he set on the counter, and hopped in.
	The water felt cold and rigid running down Alan’s spine sending false feelings of refreshment through his body. After half an hour of standing silently in the shower letting the water turn his entirety into a weak and cold figure Alan decided it was time to wash his hair. He grabbed the light purple bottle of lavender shampoo and squeezed a small sized amount onto the palm of his hand, barely enough to wash his full head of hair. It was the last of the shampoo. Disregarding the full bottle of men’s shampoo that sat right next to the empty bottle of lavender shampoo, he washed his hair quickly and stepped out onto the cold tile. The empty bottle of shampoo meant that Alan had to make the rare occasion of leaving his apartment to go to the store.
	Alan got dressed carefully making sure not to disturb anything in his path while looking through dirty clothes, searching for an outfit that could pass as clean. He needed to do laundry.
	After a long search for a “clean” outfit Alan settled for jeans and an old t-shirt.
	Pacing back and forth he did not know whether or not the trip to the store was worth the risk of leaving his apartment. Alan found himself becoming anxious when he left his lonely sanctuary, worrying that at any moment his wife would return and Alan would miss his chance to see her again.
	Except this time Alan knew he had to go. He ran out of coffee two days ago and even though Alan didn’t have an appetite anymore he knew he needed to buy some food. Most importantly, Alan did not want the smell of the sweet, sweet lavender that he loved so dearly to fade from the apartment and escape his lungs. For that smell of lavender was the only thing Alan had left.
	Finally, after a long moment of debating himself Alan grabbed his wallet and started his short walk to the grocery store at the corner of the block. Before he left, however, Alan made sure to leave the door unlocked and cracked open just an inch to give his wife an inviting message, in case of her return. Alan wanted her to know he wasn’t mad about her leaving and that she could come back home where he needed her at any time.
	In the store Alan picked up the few essentials he thought he needed to last him a couple of weeks so that he would not have to venture out again for a while. Canned soup, bread, coffee, toilet paper and lavender shampoo filled the bottom of his cart as he walked up to the cash register to pay. A quick swipe of his credit card and Alan was on his way back home.
	As Alan approached the door to his apartment he noticed that it was now open a lot more than just an inch. His heart began to beat fast as he made quick steps towards his door. Excitement and adrenaline started to replace any sadness and anxiety that was once there. Alan flung open the door. Practically throwing the bags of goods he had just purchased at the store Alan looked around the room wildly. The living room was empty. Alan could feel the familiar burning of his cheeks approach as he ran to the kitchen only to find a room full of emptyness. As anger and disappointment was slowly rising inside of Alan he ran to the door of his bedroom. Before he opened the door Alan took a deep breath and squinted back the tears that were fighting to be set free. He opened the door to find his usual company named Loneliness attempting to eat away at everything in the room. Loneliness had a history of leaving nothing left, not even an ounce of hope.
	Out of a fit of rage Alan headed back towards the living room and punched the bare white wall. After a couple seconds of pure anger he collapsed on the floor and laid there absorbing all of the small details around him. The door gently swayed from the wind out in the hallway as Alan had realized that he had sent himself on an emotional roller coaster ride for nothing.
	As the door continued to sway gently back and forth, back and forth through the day and night, Alan let himself eventually fall asleep on the floor of his living room making no noise but an occasional whimper of sorrow.
	The next morning Alan woke to an uncomfortable feeling. The feeling of being watched. As he turned over on his stomach the light felt warm on his heavy body that was sprawled out on the wooden floor. Alan peered through the shining light looking for the entity that made him feel watched, knowing just what he would find.
	Sitting across from Alan on the reclining chair was Loneliness. Alan looked Loneliness dead in the sinister eyes. Loneliness did not just consist of loneliness, Loneliness consisted of anxiety, depression, fear and hate. This had not been the first time Loneliness had overstayed his welcome.
	As the two stared at each other with blank expressions Alan felt as if he was sinking deeper and deeper into the ground. A whole day went on with Alan not eating, crying, moving, or thinking. The two just existed with no purpose or meaning attached to their existence. As hours passed and the night grew longer. Alan decided it was finally time to give in.
	Alan slowly picked his stiff body up off of the floor. Paying no attention to Loneliness who had already consumed half of the living room he made his way to the kitchen. On the counter sat the phone that hadn’t been used in weeks, waiting for a phone call that would never go through. Alan picked up the now unfamiliar device in his hand and dialed.
	“Nancy, I’m sorry. I know you’re probably sleeping... Yes, it’s happening again. I’m sorry. Yes… I’m sorry. Okay, I’ll be here. Goodbye.”
	Alan took a seat on the kitchen floor and began to cry. His shoulders heaved up and down as he began to scream through the short gasps of breath that were barely escaping his dry lips. Alan’s realization of the situation began to set in as his neighbors called the cops due to the shrilling screams dancing down the apartment hallway making their routinely appearance.
	Although Alan was repeatedly told to let go he couldn’t. He repeatedly held onto the hope that always transformed itself into the monster that lead him to his insanity.
	The door shot open as Nancy came in to see Alan in his state of weakness.
	“Get up Alan.” She stated as she gently coaxed him into a chair.
	“How long have you been like this?” Nancy looked around the house. It looked the same as it usually did when she came over. Alan was back to his old antics.
	“I don’t know. I thought she was coming back. I’m sorry. I just thought she was coming back.” Alan whispered as he buried his head into his lap.
	It pained Nancy to see Alan this way. Ever since her sister had died Alan had had these occasional episodes of whatever it was that made him think her sister would return. No one was hurt by the loss more than Alan was. He had always said his love for her was undying. But he had taken that expression too seriously, she thought, as she looked down at the man who she no longer recognized.
	“Let’s go, Alan. Grab your things and we’ll go see Dr. Hoffman. She has been waiting for a visit from you. I called her. Let’s go.” She grabbed her bag and waited for Alan to get up. Without a single care for grabbing his belongings he walked to the door awaiting Nancy to follow.

	Three weeks later Alan opened the door to the apartment; returning from the mental institution. Not to his surprise the apartment was cleaned up, everything was not in its usual place. The apartment no longer smelled of lavender and cigarettes, instead it was replaced with the strong smell of bleach. Nancy always cleaned up the apartment when Alan was away. She didn’t think it was healthy for him to live in an environment that he tried so hard to preserve.
	Alan set down his belongings that he got from the mental institution at the foot of the door and started the interminable process of setting everything back just the way his wife had left it before she died. Undoing all of the hard work that Nancy did Alan carefully wandered around the apartment moving things to match the pictures that were engraved in his mind of what it used to look like when she was alive.
	After everything was back in its usual place Alan sprayed the last of his wife’s lavender perfume around the rooms. He inhaled the smell as if getting a high off the memories the scent brought to him.
	In his bedroom Alan laid on the left side of the bed. The right side was reserved for his wife. As Alan fiddled with the ring on his middle finger he began to doze off to sleep. While sleeping Alan heard the front door of his apartment creek open and shut quietly.
Soft familiar footsteps made their way to Alan’s bedroom and opened the door. Alan didn’t have to open his eyes, he knew who it was. As she got into the bed in her self proclaimed spot Alan felt like he could finally breathe again. A flood of relief made Alan’s body almost tingle as he turned on his side, careful not to open his eyes. “I’ve missed you,” he said as he dozed back off to sleep to the sweet smell of lavender and cigarettes.

title: [RF] Untitled

question: What does the story say about Alan's emotional state?

answer: Alan is in need of sleep and has dark purple circles under his eyes and a pale complexion. His eyes are bloodshot from crying. He insists on preserving the bedroom the way his wife had kept it despite the fact that she is dead. He becomes anxious whenever he leaves his house, thinking he might miss his chance to see his wife again. At home, his only company is loneliness. He flies into a fit of rage when he's disappointed. His loneliness consists of anxiety, depression, fear, and hate.

question: What does the story say about Alan's wife?

answer: Alan's wife smelled of sweet lavender and cigarettes. She kept their bedroom messy yet organized. She washed her hair with lavender shampoo. She has been dead for a while. Her sister is named Nancy. She slept on the right side of the bed.

question: What does the story say about how Alan's wife died?


text:
“Brother Bear, me-oh-my.” He followed this with a wheeze on his harmonica and then threw a grenade at me.

It was not the first time a grenade has been thrown at me. Not by a long shot.

The first time a grenade was thrown at me was when I was 11. I was walking with my mother in a safe zone and BOOM. Totally out of nowhere, my mother and I got in a doorway and heard the hollow sound of a skull rolling passed just in time to look away. It’s about the 11th worst situation I’ve been in.

The next time was after the final round of nukes and I didn’t really care about it. I think I was hoping to get hit, but I can’t really remember. It was years ago. Everyone just walked around like zombies then…I don’t even know why anyone had any reason to throw a grenade. It could have been an accident.

But this guy – the harmonica guy – was trying to kill me. I had seen him in the Free Zone before. I had stepped over him more than once and he had shouted obscenities at me every time. That’s why I was surprised that he had a grenade. That’s why I didn’t have time to duck. That’s why my leg is over there.

Everyone is homeless now, but this guy was really homeless. He slept on streets. I slept in abandoned apartment complexes, but I needed money to do it. Money is typically food or drugs or weapons. How did he get the grenade?

I’m thinking all of this as I stare at my leg across the street and watch him slowly move towards me. He’s still playing the harmonica. “Oh, say, can you seeeeeeeee, the sweet afterbirth, that so proudly declared our true country’s worth.”

“You sing like an angel!” I’m yelling.

He grins.

Across the street there used to be a McDonald’s. It’s like this big hole now. Above me used to be sky, now it’s just this big hole now.

The pain seeps in and I vomit. I try to think of anything. Like the pitch black night before the war when everyone was just waiting to see who would fire first, secretly thinking that nothing bad would happen like usual…that first news report that America had actually been attacked with artillery…with advancing soldiers…schoolyard empty…teachers crying.

He’s standing above me and pulling out a cigarette. How did a homeless guy get a cigarette. “I bet you want your leg back? Sorry, Jack.”

“Why did blow my leg off, Mister?” I’m like 40-years-old or something. I haven’t eaten a cheeseburger in a quarter of a century. I have a cat somewhere around here that has managed to not be eaten. I think that’s a sense of pride. That I somehow raised a cat in all this. There’s barely rats left. My mother’s name was Vickie. “I said, why did you blow my leg off?”

He blows on the harmonica and then shouts “BECAUSE!” right into my face.

The last book I read was a Skymall catalogue. It fell out of a tree one day. I think it was a book. It could have been a magazine. There were about five pages of it left. The last book I ever saw. There was a sky up in the sky once.

The cat’s on my lap now. I’m pretty sure the homeless guy is going to kill it somehow. My mother died of suicide. I never met my Dad. I think I used to have a sister. It’s all very cold out now. My cat is dead.

title: My Cat is Dead

question: What does the story say about the narrator's being thrown grenades at him?

answer: When the narrator was 11, a grenade was thrown at them when they were walking with their mother. Then, a grenade was thrown at them after the final round of nukes years ago. They did not understand why anyone had any reason to throw a grenade. Now, the narrator thinks that the harmonica guy is trying to kill them with a grenade. He blows the narrator's leg off by the grenade, and the narrator does not know the reason for the attack.

question: What does the story say about the harmonica man?

answer: The harmonica man is homeless and he throws a grenade at the narrator that blows their leg off. When the narrator asks the man why he did that, he does not want to answer. He just says 'because'. It seems that he is going to kill the narrator's cat.

question: What is the motivation behind the harmonica man's attack?


text:
MAYGENE FROST DANIELS (b. March 31, 1948) is an American art historian who was President of the Society of American Archivists.[1] She was the chief archivist at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and has written books on being an archivist and art history.

Early life and education

Maygene Daniels attended Carleton College in Minnesota and graduated in 1970 with a major in Art History.[2] She attended Yale University for a Master's in Art History.[3]

Career

Daniels began her career as an archivist with the National Archives and advocated for the preservation of building permits of historic Washington, DC buildings.[4]

When she left the National Archives, Daniels began serving at the National Gallery of Art and founded their archives.[5] Among many of her projects and exhibits she has curated is a project on the art of _Monuments Men_.[6] Daniels has done several interviews with the National Gallery of Art for many of their podcast episodes.

Daniels worked at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC for over 30 years and is the founder of the Gallery's archives. She served as Chief of Gallery Archives, Archives Technician, and Head Archivist.[7][8] She has spoken and lectured at many conferences and institutions and has served with the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration.[9][10]

Daniels served as a member of the Society of American Archivists Council from 1987-1990.[11] She later served as vice president from 1993-1994 and served as the Society's 50th President from 1994-1995.[12]

In 2016, she took over for John Franzen in leading the Ruth Ann Overbeck History Lecture Series, part of the Capitol Hill History Project.[13] She has been the senior adviser for the project's archival issues and was central in researching the Old Naval Hospital and creating the biographical plaques there and elsewhere.[14] Daniels is currently serving on the board and is a co-organizer of the Overbeck Lecture Series.

Personal life

She has been a community activist member of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society. In 2014, Maygene, her husband Steve, and their daughter Leah were honored by the Capitol Hill Community foundation for their contributions to the community.[15]

She and her husband, Steve, are fundraisers for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC.[16]

Publications

Daniels has authored books and articles over the course of her career, including many guides published through the National Archives, the National Gallery of Art, and the Academy of Certified Archivists.[17][18] In 1984, she co-wrote the archival handbook, _A Modern Archives Reader: Basic Readings on Archival Theory and Practice_, co-authored with Timothy Walch. The book is often listed among many others to provide guidance and instruction for archivists.[19] Other writings include:

-   _National Gallery of Art Architecture & Design_ with Susan Wertheim (2014)
-   _Designed for America : the National Gallery of Art_ (2014)
-   _The Chester Dale Collection_ with Kimberley Jones (2010)
-   “The East Building: A History in Documents,” _Studies in the History of Art (Washington, D.C.)_ (2009)
-   _A Guide to the Archival Care of Architectural Records 19th-20th Centuries_ (2000)
-   “Developing New Museum Archives,” _Curator_ (1999)
-   “On Being an Archivist,” _The American Archivist_ (1996)
-   “The Ingenious Pen: American Writing Implements from the Eighteenth Century to the Twentieth,” _The American Archivist_ (1980)[20]
-   _Federal Register Published Documents in the National Archives: Special Study_ (1974)

[1]

[2]  Class of 1970 {{!}} Carleton College|website=apps.carleton.edu|access-date=2020-02-26}}

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]  Audio|website=www.stitcher.com|language=en|access-date=2020-02-26}}

[9]

[10]

[11]  Society of American Archivists|website=www2.archivists.org|access-date=2020-02-26}}

[12]  Society of American Archivists|website=www2.archivists.org|access-date=2020-02-26}}

[13]

[14]

[15]  Capital Community News|website=www.capitalcommunitynews.com|access-date=2020-02-26}}

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

title: Maygene Daniels

question: Summarize Maygene Frost's contributions to art archives in the United States of America.

answer: Maygene Frost is an American art historian and archivist who is the President of the Society of American Archivists. She started her career as an archivist with the National Archives. While working there, she advocated for the preservation of building permits of historic Washington DC buildings. She founded the National Gallery of Art archives and curated a project on the art of Monument Men. Frost is also a contributor to the National Gallery of Art podcast and a member of the Society of American Archivists Council from 1987 to 1990. She leads the Ruth Ann Overbeck History Lecture Series and is an activist member of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society.

question: What convinced Frost to become an archivist?


title: New Facebook Update Eve [HM]

question: What does the story say about the advice Mark's friends give?

answer: Tom says the message looks fine and that Mark should do what he wants to do. Pete saus that it's fine. Elaine tells Mark not to give it so much thought, as people like him for who he is.

question: What actions does Mark take throughout the story?

answer: Mark paces back and forth in the boardroom, scrolling on his phone. He places his phone on the boardroom table. He grabs the phone from Tom's hands. Then he walks toward the glass window and thumps his head against it. He takes a deep breath and looks down at his phone before tapping it.

question: What does the story say about Mark's girlfriend's identity?