A Maid for Two Maestros commences in the Chicago penthouse of Judge Pantalone Englandetti, where festivity is underway to applaud the betrothal of his lovely daughter Clarice to attorney Silvio Lombardi, the handsome son of Dr. Maria Lombardi. As the wedding agreement is being celebrated with song, dance and melodic merriment high above Lake Michigan, the outlandish and amusing Truffaldina enters to announce the arrival of her virtuoso mentor: the great maestro Federico Rasponi of Boston. ...

Science and Religion: Interpersonal Dialogue, Discussion and Debate is a unique handbook for college students and adults interested in exploring the persuasive and rhetorical strategies surrounding todays fashionable topics in science and religion. Offered in three accommodating sections, John Ross presents valuable chapters on Humans, Communication, and Language; the Importance and Meaning of Interpersonal Dialogue; and a very timely chapter entitled Avenues of Dialogue: Dissimilarity, Di...

ATHENS OF AMERICA: A Play in Two Acts with and Epilogue is inspired by and loosely based upon, Il giaco delle parti (Rules of the Game) by Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936). Set in a popular Italian neighborhood simply known as: Boston’s North End, Athens of America explores marital betrayal, worshipful jealousy and boyhood rivalry. Midst Emily Dickenson, foreboding Latin phrases, the paranormal and pious ritual, this new work unites the immortal leitmotifs of classic Pirandellian drama. Here, ...

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. --Albert Einstein Genes, Germs, Geodes and God: Verses Exploring Science, Faith, Doubt & Religion is a plentiful collection of contemporary poems highlighting the ongoing struggle between empirical science, religion, faith and ardent disbelief. Using poems surrounding logic, rhetoric, and experimental data commingled with biblical concepts, John Ross venerates the communicational vectors and conversational strategies whi...

What we understand today as Buddhism, actually began as an off spring of Hinduism in the great Indus Valley. The founder of this great religion is of course our insightful prince, Gautama Siddhartha, He is the focus of this brief poetic biography. An epic saga of persistence, inspiration and mysticism. By no means is it a simple task to provide a precise historical account of the life of Prince Siddhartha, since no actual journalistic account has been accurately documented. As such, there ...

During the Vietnam War Draft Lottery, one young man made a life-altering decision: rather than wait for his number to be called, he chose to serve his country on his own terms. This memoir follows his journey from college student to United States Naval Aviator, offering an inside look at the demanding and often unforgiving training required to earn the coveted Gold Wings.From the first disorienting days of flight school to mastering the complex systems of the P-3 Orion Antisubmarin...

Most leading global militaries, led by the United States, embrace military assistance as an essential tool for achieving their high-priority strategic objectives; yet, in spite of its prominence, military assistance activities are poorly informed by coherent strategy, nor are they rooted in underlying theoretical frameworks that help strategists understand and exploit causal mechanisms that can produce desired behaviors and outcomes. As a result, military assistance has struggled to consis...

Affirming Your Relationship With God is an inspired first book of poetry by Julius M. Ross, Jr. It is a work that captivated the hearts of others before he ever thought of publishing it. As he states: Comments in response to reading my journal entry for Day 20: Restoring Relationships inspired me to begin typing this manuscript. As I read to a friend, she cried and said to me, That was beautiful. When I heard this, my faith in what God was doing through my journal entries of verse was incr...

The narrative framework takes place over a single day—July 4, 1892—in the fictional town of Waycross, Indiana. As 53-year-old small-town teacher and poet John Wickliff Shawnessy participates in Independence Day celebrations and reunites with childhood rivals, he experiences a series of vast flashbacks that recount his life. These include: his early life on the banks of the Shawmucky River and his deep romantic infatuation with his childhood sweetheart, Nell Gaither; his encounter with and ...

Writing became a part of my life at an early age. My first stage of writings was in the first grade. I remember writing a story that I thought absolutely was the greatest story of all time. The story was about a boy "who liked to play with his toys". The story had maybe 10 words in it and mostly pictures. I remember writing that story and I remember that as my first time enjoying writing. As an adolescent in middle school, writing became a big part of my life because I started reading more...

First published in 1993, completely rewritten, this second edition includes a list of all 210 countries of the world and all of the islands, with comments on the existence of insect and spider collections, both public and private. These listings are arranged alphabetically by country, state/province, and city, with private collections listed under the public collection with which they are registered. Part II of the directory is an alphabetical list of the codes assigned to each of the coll...

These are the adventures of Larry, a totally worthless individual. Larry lives off a trust fund and avoids work at all costs. His two passions are golf and women. Larrys other attribute is that he sees a different person in the mirror almost everyday and to some extent takes on that personality, i.e., Steve McQueen, Humphrey Bogart, etc. The old saying that an idle mind is a devils workshop is true because into Larrys world comes demons. To escape these demons Larry travels the world, and ...