| Kitchen Favorites: Ex-White House Chef Walter Scheib
From 1994 to 2005, Walter Scheib ran the kitchen at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, preparing both everyday meals for the Clinton and Bush families as well as elaborate menus for state dinners. In January, he published White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen—a book of stories and recipes from his tenure. Despite stints cooking in West Virginia (at the Greenbrier Resort) and Florida (at the Boca Raton Resort and Club), Scheib considers himself a lifelong Washingtonian—his family moved to the area when he was a year old. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in 1979, he started his career in the kitchen of the Hilton at 16th and K streets. Scheib now lives in Great Falls with his wife, also a chef, and their two sons. He stays busy giving speeches, planning special events, and consulting through his company, the American Chef.
Bringing Students Together
Nancy Bondurant Jones cant change the whole world, so she decided to make a contribution to her world. She decided to help Hispanic children and families learn English. Her book, Jeremy the wonderer, or Jeremias el curioso, is a story about a young Hispanic boy whose curiosity about the world is allowed to flourish. The simple story, beautifully illustrated by Margot Bergman, is written in English and Spanish. Jones and the books translator, Ina Mattson, will read the story in English and Spanish at 4 p.m. on April 25 at Massanutten Regional Library. My purpose is to help ease Hispanics into our culture by reading to their children, says Jones, of Harrisonburg. Its not a Hispanic tradition to read to children. Hispanics lean more toward a tradition of storytelling and folklore, says Laura Hodges, assistant principal at Spotswood Elementary School.
City volunteers offer visitors free travel guides
University and college students in HCM City have founded a volunteer group named Sai Gon Hotpot to offer free travel guide services to foreign visitors to the city. "Our objective is to meet foreigners and introduce Vietnamese culture, history and culinary arts to them," Sai Gon Hotpot manager Nguyen Thi Phuong Linh said. "We also want to do our part to promote Vietnamese tourism and to learn other languages from foreign tourists," Linh said. The group, whose slogan is Your Smile Is Our Success, has gathered 11 students from different colleges and universities in the city. They can speak many languages, including English, French, Japanese and Chinese. "We met in a youth volunteer programme last year and then became close friends because we all like volunteer activities," Linh said.
Swedish fights rearguard action against English behemoth
That the future of the Swedish language is in danger from the influence of immigrant tongues such as Turkish or Arabic is a load of hurdy gurdy. So most experts say. But while academics laugh off any threat posed by immigrant patois, it seems Swedish has a far bigger vernacular nemesis to contend with. And its not Finnish. Discount the (for northerners) impenetrable Skne dialect and small pockets of Sami and Finnish speakers, and Sweden has been a fairly monolingual society until recent times. .
The beat goes on - in the brain
DANIEL LEVITIN is about as close to a rock star as a scientist will ever get. He has played alongside Van Morrison and the Steve Miller Band. He's even earned the right to call Stevie Wonder by his first name, having worked closely with Wonder as he compiled his greatest hits album. Throughout the 1980s he was a producer and sound engineer, working with the Grateful Dead, Chris Isaak, Santana, Blue Oyster Cult and (he's less proud to admit) Whitney Houston's back-up band. But it is in his second career, as a neuroscientist, that Levitin has attracted his biggest fan base. Since writing This is Your Brain on Music - a bestseller published in the United States last August - Levitin has become a sought-after public speaker. The book, a lively overview of the emerging "neuroscience" of music, explores everything from the genetic basis of musical talent (apparently it doesn't exist) to the sex appeal of Keith Richards.
Off the Beaten Track: Bringing Relevant Technology to Rural Areas
Agricultural workers in China climb aboard high-tech InfoWagons as Microsoft launches rural-computing pilot programs in China and India intended to fuel social and economic empowerment for the world's underserved populations. ZHENGZHOU, China,(rushprnews) April 23, 2007 – Today in Henan province, Chinese government officials take ownership of two “InfoWagons" designed to open up new avenues of digital literacy for rural citizens. At a small village at Luohe, Henan Province in Central China, Will Poole, corporate vice president at Microsoft, participated in a rollout ceremony marking the delivery of two of six InfoWagons donated by Microsoft as part of an innovative rural computing pilot program. The high-tech buses — each outfitted with 15 student PCs and one instructor PC — will serve as computer training centers on wheels as they circulate to rural villages throughout one of China's most populous province.
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