PEEPS It's our 1st Annual PEEPS® Photo Contest! Preschoolers all the way up to Adults can enter a photo of a PEEPS® diorama they have created. Gift Cards to Target will be given out in six age categories. Read a little about the origin of the contest at annarbor.com. For full details, rules and guidelines click here! Have fun and celebrate spring!

Did you love Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials? I got on the Golden Compass bandwagon a few years ago when the Amber Spyglass came out, and like so many others, I just loved it. This put Pullman on my radar screen, and I knew that he had written another series about a character named Sally Lockhart, but only recently did I finally take the time to enjoy the audio versions of The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, and The Tiger in the Well. I can't believe I waited this long.... boy are these great stories. They are gripping and imaginative just like His Dark Materials, but what is truly striking is how thoughtfully Pullman weaves historical and social themes into the story. I was not expecting to see characters participating in the early development of photography and motion pictures... or wrestling with drug addictions.... or fighting for the rights of workers and immigrants. One of the lighter motifs of the stories is the character Jim's love of penny dreadfuls: pulpy adventure novels published in serial form. Much like George Lucas and spielberg, steven Steven Spielberg's inspiration for the Indiana Jones stories, it's clear that Pullman had this kind of storytelling in mind when he wrote the Sally Lockhart stories. The fact that he adds so much thought to their telling is a testimony to what a good writer he is. Pullman says on his website that he will write more in this series, and I hope that he means it.

PS. The reader of the audiobooks, Anton Lesser is quite fantastic. He achieves the benchmark of good audiobook storytelling: he reads all genders and ages quite convincingly.

Zoe Fishman's Balancing Acts is timely, warm-fuzzy, and it strikes the right balance in exploring the themes of friendship and self-empowerment.

Fishman is timely for taking on yoga as a lifestyle as well as a cultural phenomenon among the young urban professionals. Recent New York Times articles discussed yoga being the "must-have" amenity in any self-respecting hotel chains in Rolling Out the Yoga Mat. In When Chocolate And Chakras Collide – yoga for foodies sessions are not just popular in NYC, they are coming to a restaurant near you.

Many attribute yoga's popularity to the harsh economy and the disillusionment of the dot-com generation. (See Hard Times are Jamming the Ashrams). In Balancing Acts when Charlie decides to leave her high-paying job as a Wall Street banker to open her own yoga studio, her biggest worry is finding enough customers to keep her business afloat. At her college's 10-year reunion, she reconnects with Naomi, Sabine, and Bess and signs them up for beginning yoga. Many shared oms and Adho Mukha Svanasanas later, they learn to lean on their friendship and newly found confidence as they deal with heartbreaks, disappointments and make positive changes in their lives.

"Fishman combines humor and brutal honesty as she keeps four story lines going and tracks the growing friendship among the women". A debut not to be missed. (Read an interview with Zoe). Zoe Fishman has strong ties to the Ann Arbor community. We are hoping for an author visit this fall.

Readalikes: A Fortunate Age and Everyone is Beautiful for the female friendship/reunion elements. How to be Single and Smart Girls Like Me for single girl/self-empowerment issues.

showcase cinemas

Did you know that you can watch a newly released feature film that is described for people with visual impairments? Showcase Cinema in Ypsilanti shows a film with described video every week. It is noted by the letters RWC or DVS next to the film that will have this feature. Go to nationalamusements.com, enter the zip code for Showcase Cinemas (48197). This week the film being shown is Our Family Wedding. Beginning Friday, March 12th through Thursday March 18. Show times are: 1:45, 4:15, 6:45, 9:15 and 11:45 PM. DVS films are always shown in theater 14. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Rated PG. showcase cinemas

Merlin Olsen, one of the LA Rams' Fearsome Foursome, has died

Merlin Olsen, a real renaissance man with three distinct careers, died earlier today in California.

Olsen, a Hall of Famer (both college and pro ball Halls of Fame) tackle for the LA Rams in the 1960s and 1970s, was part of the Fearsome Foursome. Following his football career, he provided color commentary for NBC pro football games, and for the Rose Bowl.

When that career ran its course, he turned to acting. Among his many roles, he played the lovable giant, Jonathan Garvey on Little House on the Prairie. Later he had his own series, Father Murphy, and was the face of FTD florists' commercials for many years.

Olsen, 69, died of mesothelioma.

prom night take 2

In 1997, Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman offered to pay for the senior prom at Charleston High School in Mississippi under one condition: the prom had to be racially integrated. His offer was ignored. In 2008, Freeman offered again. This time the school board accepted, and history was made. Adults and teens (grade 9 and up) are invited to the Downtown Library Multi-Purpose Room for a special screening of the award-winning documentary which chronicles the events leading up to the ground-breaking prom.

Prom Night in Mississippi will be presented on Thursday, March 18 from 6:30-8:30 pm, and will be followed by an audience discussion led by the film's director, Paul Saltzman. This event is co-sponsored by the UM Community Scholars Program.

Michael Kitchen is well-known for his role as Christopher Foyle in Foyle's War, a World War II life-on-British-home-front series. He plays a very different role as senior doctor Richard Crane in a contemporary marriage-breakup-and-realignment-journey series called Reckless. In either series, Kitchen is a "top-drawer" actor, surrounded by other quality actors, playing very believable and developed characters in scenes which display both comedy and wrenching emotions all at the same time. Both are definitely worth the viewing time.

Granny D., feisty New Hampshire activist, has died

Granny D., aka Doris Haddock, died Tuesday at her home in New Hampshire. She was 100.

Eleven years ago, at age 89, Granny D decide to draw attention to the need for campaign finance reform by walking across America. She began January 1, 1999, averaging about 10 miles a day. It took her 14 months to walk 3200 miles, accompanied by her son, Jim. Despite a host of physical challenges (arthritis, emphysema, and a bad back), Granny D., wearing her signature broad-brimmed straw hat, conquered deserts, mountains, and blizzards.

With the help of Dennis Burke, Granny D. wrote Granny D.: Walking across America in my 90th year (2001). When it was reprinted a few years later, a new subtitle, You're Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell, more accurately reflected her deep love for citizen involvement. Also, Run, Granny, Run (2007), is a delightful documentary of her cross-country trek.

At the time of her death, Granny D. and Burke were working on her latest book,. My Bohemian Century which was expected to be published this spring.

Corey Hiam, '80s teen hearththrob, has died

Corey Haim who, in the 1980s as a mop-haired teenager, made string of popular movies, died yesterday.

His most well-known movie, The Lost Boys (1987), was an instant hit and starred another Corey, Corey Feldman. The pair became known as the two Coreys and made several more films together, including Dream a Little Dream (1989).

Sadly, Haim's decades-long struggle with substance abuse was as much fodder for the gossip columns as was his acting career. His addiction derailed a reality show, The Two Coreys, after two seasons when Feldman insisted that Haim get help before beginning a third season.

A cause of death has not yet been determined.

Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche is a book about how not only does America export modern cultural trends such as strip malls and fast food chains, but it's prevalent maladies from anxiety disorders and depression to anorexia and schizophrenia. The author Ethan Watters is an anthropologist who went to research medical trends in several countries around the world. Watters noticed the re-occurrence of anorexia in Hong Kong, schizophrenia in Zanzibar and depression in Japan. He also discusses how the treatment of these illnesses, whether experimental or otherwise, clashes with the local cultures that fall prey to these trends. Watters feels that the American medicalization of other societies threatens traditions of these cultures: "We should worry about the loss of diversity in the world's differing conceptions of treatments for mental illness in the same way we worry about the loss of biodiversity in nature."