Rainbow Over Portland

An Amtrak train is bound from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest. Nick meets Colleen in the dining car when the porter seats them at the same table. He is from Chicago and she is from Ireland. They are immediately attracted to each other and continue their conversation for many hours before arriving at her destination in Portland, Oregon. Nick continues on to Seattle and Vancouver. Later, Colleen returns to Ireland. They begin corresponding and agree to see each other again, but every time they try to do so, something goes terribly wrong. The obstacles they experience are strange and even border on the bizarre. Nick becomes obsessed with seeing Colleen and being with her, but he begins to believe that destiny has a different plan for them. He keeps trying to connect but she is mysteriously out of reach. Somehow, somewhere, he had to find her. From Seattle to Florence and from Dublin to Munich the story evolves into events of deception, betrayal, murder and the Irish Republican Army.

A fictional re-creation of a day in the life of a Rainbow character named Sunflower begins the book, illustrating events that might typically occur at an annual North American Rainbow Gathering. Using interviews with Rainbows, content analysis of media reports, participant observation, and scrutiny of government documents relating to the group, Niman presents a complex picture of the Family and its relationship to mainstream culture - called "Babylon" by the Rainbows. Niman also looks at internal contradictions within the Family and examines members' problematic relationship with Native Americans, whose culture and spiritual beliefs they have appropriated.

The infant city called The Clearing was a bald patch amid a stuttering wood. The Clearing was no booming metropolis; no destination for gastrotourists; no career-changer for ardent chefs — just awkward, palsied steps toward Victorian gentility. In the decades before the remaining trees were scraped from the landscape, Portland’s wood was still a verdant breadbasket, overflowing with huckleberries and chanterelles, venison leaping on cloven hoof. Today, Portland is seen as a quaint village populated by trust fund wunderkinds who run food carts each serving something more precious than the last. But Portland’s culinary history actually tells a different story: the tales of the salmon-people, the pioneers and immigrants, each struggling to make this strange but inviting land between the Pacific and the Cascades feel like home. The foods that many people associate with Portland are derived from and defined by its history: salmon, berries, hazelnuts and beer. But Portland is more than its ingredients. Portland is an eater’s paradise and a cook’s playground. Portland is a gustatory wonderland. Full of wry humor and captivating anecdotes, Portland: A Food Biography chronicles the Rose City’s rise from a muddy Wild West village full of fur traders, lumberjacks and ne’er-do-wells, to a progressive, bustling town of merchants, brewers and oyster parlors, to the critical darling of the national food scene. Heather Arndt Anderson brings to life in lively prose the culinary landscape of Portland, then and now.

An ordinary soldier’s day-by-day account of the Great War Vernon E. Kniptash, an Indiana national guardsman who served in the Rainbow Division during World War I, observed firsthand some of the Great War’s fiercest fighting. As a radio operator with the Headquarters Company of the 150th Field Artillery, he was in constant contact with French and British forces as well as with American troops, and thus gained a broad perspective on the hostilities. Editor E. Bruce Geelhoed introduces and annotates Kniptash’s war diaries, published here for the first time. With clarity and compelling detail, Kniptash describes the experiences of an ordinary soldier thrust into the most violent conflict the world had seen. He tells of his enthusiasm upon enlistment and of the horrors of combat that followed, as well as the drudgery of daily routine. He renders unforgettable profiles of his fellow soldiers and commanders, and manages despite the strains of warfare to leaven his writing with humor. Readers will share Kniptash’s ordeals as he participates in the furious effort to stem a major German offensive, followed by six months of violent combat and the massive Allied counteroffensive that ended the war. Because Kniptash was called to remain with the Army of Occupation in Germany after his unit was shipped home, his diaries cover the full extent of American participation in the war.

Instant New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller! An intimate and light-hearted memoir by viral sensation and three-time Emmy-nominated musical comedian Randy Rainbow that takes readers through his life—the highs, the lows, the lipstick, the pink glasses, and the show tunes. Randy Rainbow, the man who conquered the Internet with a stylish pair of pink glasses, an inexhaustible knowledge of Broadway musicals, and the most gimlet-eyed view of American politics this side of Mark Twain finally tells all in Playing with Myself, a memoir sure to cause more than a few readers to begin singing one of his greatest hits like “A Spoonful of Clorox” or “Cover Your Freakin’ Face.” As Randy has said, “There’s so much fake news out there about me. I can’t wait to set the record straight and finally give people a peek behind the green screen.” And set the record straight he does. Playing with Myself is a first-hand account of the journey that led Randy Rainbow from his childhood as the over-imaginative, often misunderstood little boy who carried a purse in the second grade to his first job on Broadway as the host at Hooters and on to the creation of his trademark comedy character. In chapters titled “Pajama Bottoms” (a look back at the days when he wore pajama bottoms on his head to pretend he was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz), “Yes, It’s My Real Name, Shut Up!” (no explanation necessary...) and “Pink Glasses” (a rose-colored homage to his favorite accessory), Playing with Myself is a memoir that answers the question “Can an introverted musical theatre nerd with a MacBook and a dream save the world, one show tune at a time?”

The three decades after the end of World War II saw the rise and fall of a particular version of liberalism in which the state committed itself to promoting a modest form of economic egalitarianism while simultaneously embracing ethnic, racial, and religious pluralism. But by the mid-1970s, postwar liberalism was in a shambles: while its commitment to pluralism remained, its economic policies had been abandoned, and the Democratic Party, its primary political vehicle, was collapsing. Schiller attributes this demise to the legal architecture of postwar liberalism, arguing that postwar liberalism's goals of advancing economic egalitarianism and promoting pluralism ultimately conflicted with each other. Through the use of specific historical examples, Schiller demonstrates that postwar liberalism was riddled with legal and institutional contradictions that undermined progressive politics in the mid-twentieth-century United States.

Greek immigrants came to Chicago in droves in the early 1900s, and most of them made immediate contributions to the city. Greek men grew up learning that theyd need to own and operate their own businesses to be successful. As a result, most of them were tough, individualistic and hard working. The fact that they were raised in poor and remote mountain villages, where mere survival was considered an accomplishment, contributed to their character, personality, and individualism. When a shop owner was asked why he was successful, he replied, Just hard workthats all. Nobody can move you, no matter how strong they are. He was among the Greeks who worked and struggled to open up their own businesses, with names like The Petropulos Range Co., the Collias and Menegas Restaurant, and Rusetos and Company Ice Cream. Other company names were based on Greek cities or mythological and historical characters. Celebrate the history of a hardworking people, and learn lessons about business and life by studying The Entrepreneurial Spirit of the Greek Immigrant in Chicago, Illinois: 1900-1930.

For author Alexander Rassogianis, spending the summers with his family in southwestern Michigan during his school years in the 1950s brought the greatest joy and the fondest memories. In Return to Glenlord, he reminisces about this era of old-fashioned resorts, quaint little cottages, sandy beaches, long walks on country roads, and the permeating scent of pine. In this memoir, Rassogianis recalls being a part of a vibrant Greek community that transported itself from Chicago every year. He includes anecdotes about memorable and humorous characters and events, including getting into mischief with his three buddies, falling in love six times before the age of twelve, and going on excursions to Glenlord Beach, the outdoor movie theater, the amusement park, Deer Forest, and the House of David. Return to Glenlord shares the remembrances of a carefree time and of being part of a beautiful world that no longer exists. Although the resorts and cabins of Rassogianis's youth are a thing of the past, his memories of summers spent in Stevensville, Michigan, can never be replaced.