Main Causes of American Intervention in World War I Free Essays

string(88) of 1812 and was roused by lack of bias by â€Å"trying to stay away from superfluous trouble. The war was between the Triple Entente-? Extraordinary Britain, Russia, and France-?and the Central Powers, which was involved Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary. By far most of Americans firmly assigned themselves an unbiased country. They trusted themselves ethically better than war and saw it to be a superfluous, crude arrangement. We will compose a custom article test on Primary driver of American Intervention in World War I or then again any comparable theme just for you Request Now Indeed, even President Woodrow Wilson promptly reported America’s impartiality, after as of late winning the presidential political decision in 1916 for his second back to back term, bearing the battle trademark â€Å"He kept us out of war. In any case, notwithstanding Minimal dissatisfaction with World War l. Numerous questionable occasions and certain expectations made the US waver between the line of detachment and mediation. It was President Willow’s solid direction and wise assessments of remote activities and residential responses that prompted America’s association in the Great War on April 6, 1917. Directly from the beginning, both Germany and Britain immediately started spreading purposeful publicity, endeavoring to advance their own nation intentions and Justify their justification for being in the war. Promulgation Is characterized as data, Ideas, or gossipy tidbits intentionally spread generally to help or damage an individual, gathering, development, Institution, or country. The two countries were influencing general feeling, however in the mid year of 1915, German specialist Heimlich Albert erroneously put an end to Germany’s impact. Albert was a precaution of the German Information Service, an organization that was answerable for scattering gossipy tidbits in the United States. As he immediately raced to board his train, he accidentally left his portfolio, containing German purposeful publicity. After It was recuperated by an American mystery administration specialist, the records and their motivation were immediately known all through the country, giving residents a negative impression of Germany. English publicity was likewise available for use, and in spite of the fact that this chance was known by the American populace, it was rarely demonstrated, making it hard to interpret dependable data from misrepresented. For the most part these thoughts proposed cap it was German hostility that was liable for the incitement of the war In Europe, and the Allies-?the Triple Entente-?were just battling with regards to collocation chivalrous principle Darrell restriction. Germany was salsa to nave utilizes â€Å"ruthless, battle ready war tactics† and to have a totalitarian culture, which challenged America’s law based society. With an end goal to cajole American passage, Britain attested that the war was unfurling in support of themselves, and the result appeared to be encouraging. Notwithstanding, they were very budgetary waterways and attempting to endure, however they didn't need America to think the war was an act of futility. Amusingly, this confirmation opposity affected America’s readiness to help them. The open declared that on the off chance that the Triple Entente anticipated triumph, at that point American mediation would be a silly misuse of cash, assets, and lives. Germany’s war strategies and negligence toward the standards of commitment of war likewise adversely affected America’s Judgment of them. Right off the bat in the war Germany attacked Belgium, a nation that articulated its lack of bias as America did, and battled on the dirt of a reluctant country. While possessing Belgium for over four years, the Germans shot a large number of regular folks, spotted and consumed towns, and expelled regular citizens, constraining them to gather weapons and construct barriers. The German chancellor alluded too harmony settlement written in understanding between the two countries as a â€Å"scrap of paper. † This lack of respect to the desires of Belgium was later called â€Å"The Rape of Belgium† and depicted English-talking nations as protectors of opportunity. To add to Germany’s unfortunate behavior, the strategies that they utilized during the war shocked the American country. They sent â€Å"dirigible† bombardments on urban communities, which was battle through an airship like carrier. This flying assault would stream harmful gas over adversary regions, fairly taking he lives of both blameless regular citizens and warriors. A heartless and dangerous strategy, for example, this had recently been obscure to the world. Likewise, the commitment of submarine fighting, with their recently evolved U-vessels, hurt Germany’s cause in the fight for American help. Germany used their new innovation of U-pontoons to pulverize both adversary warships and dealer vessels of nonbelligerent countries, some of which contained American residents, goading the United States. U-pontoons were little, slow-moving, and defenseless, however they were the main submarines the world had ever observed, so shielding them was troublesome, in any event, for the widely acclaimed British naval force. The Germans utilized this secretive weapon to beat the barricade that was executed by the British armada. The impervious armada viably forestalled all exchange ships containing weapons or food from arriving at nations involved by the Central Power, just as neighboring impartial nations. They additionally cut all undersea correspondence links. The German sinking of American ships the Louisiana and Sussex had the most noteworthy reaction from the United States. It was after this total negligence for U. S. Solicitations that Wilson closed he could no longer suggest disregard Germany’s steady, defiant resistance. He started to understand that war was impending. In 1915, U-pontoons sank the American shipper vessel the Louisiana, murdering 128 American residents. As yet needing to look after impartiality, President Wilson responded by just requesting that Germany comply with convention of limited fighting, notwithstanding outfitting shipper vessels for protection. Germany concurred however afterwards pronounced boundless fighting on all boats, transparently conceding that â€Å"mistakes will be made. † In 1917, the U-pontoons sank another American vessel, the Sussex, executing another 25 Americans. Despite the fact that Germany contended that it was hard to distinguish the boat, Americans were obviously disappointed with their absence of attentiveness. Regardless of this Loosely AT Electroscope, American colleens only constant to stay impartial. I nee contemplated that the couple of Americans taken by German U-pontoons were not worth taking a chance with the lives of the 100 million Americans that were left. Rather, they reprimanded Wilson for the catastrophe. They asserted that he incited the assault by being a â€Å"silent member† of the Allies through uneven exchange and permitting the development of their bar without a political test. Nonetheless, Woodrow Wilson kept up that he was infer gaining from the missteps that prompted the War of 1812 and was propelled by nonpartisanship by â€Å"trying to maintain a strategic distance from pointless difficulty. You read Primary driver of American Intervention in World War I in classification Papers † truth be told, when the United States realized of what later got known as the scandalous Zimmerman Telegram, it was resolved that the assault was hostile and would have happened regardless of whether Wilson had challenged the bar. In January of 1917, British insight captured and deciphered a message sent from the German outside priest, Arthur Zimmerman, to the German clergyman of Mexico, von Gerhardt. This happened soon after Germany sunk the Sussex, and it uncovered Germany’s genuine aims toward the U. S. The message an offered American area to Mexico that America won during the Mexican-American War in the late sass’s. Consequently, Germany mentioned that Mexico assault the United States in the event that they ought to enter the Great War on the Triple Entente, and to likewise demand the guide of Japan. This plainly exhibited the sinking of the Sussex was an assault proposed to draw America into the war, and Mexico, too, to battle close by Germany. Before this record was discovered, Wilson despite everything picked lack of bias even with American losses, saying, â€Å"There is such an incredible concept as a man Ewing too pleased to even consider fighting. There is such a mind-bending concept as a country being all in all correct to such an extent that it doesn't have to persuade others forcibly that it is correct. † The message, alongside experiences with Germany before the Great War, made Wilson examine mediation. During the Spanish-American War, in 1898, many saw Germany to be a potential danger to America’s interests and security on account of the similitudes between the two countries. Both were Just starting to build up themselves as extraordinary world powers that were quickly industrialized and looking for abroad markets, normally making a contention. German enthusiasm for the Philippine Islands, West Indies, Galapagos Islands, and Haiti was likewise agitating in light of the fact that it represented a danger to the consummation of the Panama Canal, which was done in August of 1914. Germany’s want to extend toward the Western Hemisphere stressed President Wilson, and the fundamental impediment of this development, until this point, had been from Britain’s power over the Atlantic. Wilson, alongside numerous others, expected that if the Central Powers defeated the Triple Entente, Germany would turn into the new maritime matchless quality, over Great Britain. This end got known as the â€Å"realist examination. The pragmatist examination broadcasted that British triumph was fundamental to American security, since they were required by the United States to give a parity of forces. It was broadly concurred that America and Great Britain had resembled interests. Without this level of influence, Germany would see no obstruction in the event that they chose to assault America. This case was reliable in numerous individuals, including James W. Gerard, the American Ambassador to Germany, who stated, â€Å"We are next on [Germany’s] list,† in the event that they won the war. With this hazard I

Mother Savage & Desirees Baby-Compare and contrast Essay -- essays res

Mother Savage happens in Virelogne during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The storyteller retells the story behind the vestiges of a covered cabin. At thirty-three years old, Mother Savage’s child chipped in the war (on the French side), disregarding his mom. Mother Savage lived alone in her bungalow until the Prussians came one day. Since she was known to have cash, she needed to take four of them. They were by all accounts great young men. Since they saw Mother Savage was a senior woman, they demonstrated thought toward her and assisted with as much as could be expected under the circumstances. She took care of them and treated them well despite the fact that they were the foe and her own child was battling against them. One day she inquired as to whether they know where the French regiment was, since her child was in the 23rd of the line. The Prussians said they don't knew anything.      After one month of living with those four officers, Mother Savage got a letter. In this letter she was educated regarding her child Victor’s demise in detail. She didn't cry a tear from the outset. She was excessively paralyzed by the news. Bleeding pictures of her Victor’s passing went through her head. Never again would she have the option to kiss her lone kid. Victor’s life had been removed like his dad who was slaughtered by the police. Soon after perusing the letter, the Prussians returned home and she welcomed them as though nothing had occurred. In her brain, she had just arranged an approach to seek retribution on the Prussians for her son’s demise. She set her own cabin ablaze after the four Prussians nodded off. At the point when the police came, Mother Savage let them know precisely what had occurred. At that point, she gave the German police a bit of paper with the four Prussians names and addresses so they could contact their fa milies about what occurred. Mother Savage didn't lament what she did. The German police felt free to murder her on the spot.      In Mother Savage we can see savagery all through the story. Above all else, it happens during the Franco-Prussian War. Savagery is exceptionally huge in this story, as a result of the war, however since it is utilized as reprisal for the passing of a friend or family member. Mother Savage got an unfortunate letter educating her regarding Victor’s demise:           Maddam Savage: This letter has a dismal story to let you know. Your kid Victor was killed yesterday ... ...e defining moment of the account of Mother Savage. She comprehended that the four fighters she had living in her bungalow were adversaries, yet she had positively no issue. â€Å"She enjoyed them all around ok, as well, those four foes of hers; for nation individuals don't generally speaking feel energetic contempt those emotions are held for the upper classes† (page 66). In the wake of getting the letter advising her son’s passing, Mother Savage could just consider how lamentable the scene was at the time her child was severely killed by Prussian fighters during fight:           The police had murdered his dad, and now the Prussians had executed her son†¦he had  â â â â â â â â â â â â â â been cut in two by a cannonball. Furthermore, it appeared to her she could see everything, the entire  â â â â â â â â â â â â â â horrible thing: his head falling with his eyes fully open, his teeth despite everything biting the  â â â â â â â â â â â â â â corners of his thick mustache the manner in which he used to be the point at which he was furious. (page 67)

Khan Academy adds apps for young children

Khan Academy adds apps for young children We’re excited to announce that Duck Duck Moose, an award-winning developer of educational apps for young children, is now part of Khan Academy.We believe every child should have access to the best learning resources, so we’re making all 21 of Duck Duck Moose’s apps free. Download the apps for Android from Google Play Download the apps for iPhone or iPad from the App Store Early childhood learning is a natural next step for Khan Academy. It allows us to reach children at a younger age and begin to have an earlier impact on basic literacy and math skills. We’re thrilled to enter early childhood learning with Duck Duck Moose as our partner. We’ve long admired their whimsical children’s apps, which have been downloaded more than ten million times and receive rave reviews.In addition, Duck Duck Moose’s nine-person team is joining Khan Academy to lead a new initiative to develop early learning products for young children. This is possible thanks to philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network, the first underwriter of this new initiative. Like us, Omidyar Network believes early childhood education is critical for long-term success. Together we hope to have a lasting impact on the lives of children.We’re thrilled to welcome Duck Duck Moose to the Khan Academy family, and we hope you love their apps as much as we do.Onward!Sal and the Khan Academy teamP.S. Make a donation today to help us with our mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.

The Decay Of The Human Mentality - 837 Words

In his poems, Eliot uses psychology to explore the decay of the human mindset in both physical and metaphysical circumstances. Poetry is a form of expression that allows the writer to discuss harsh or tender political and philosophical topics and to vent frustration without directly offending the general public. Eliot’s poetry is exemplifies his belief that the modern person is vulnerable and fragmented, â€Å"the poetry of grapples with the apparent absence of meaning in modern life; it exposes the personal and social fragmentation and disenchantment often masked by assumed conventions in behaviour, communication, and relationships† (O’Dwyer). His work also portrays human subjectivity in terms of judgment and emotion. Eliot is saddened as he watches people interact with one another; their behavior is often detached and nonchalant, â€Å"Sterility, meaninglessness, bleakness and brokenness, are the recurring images pervading Eliot s modernist vision† (Oâ⠂¬â„¢Dwyer), as if society as a whole is indifferent to it’s own circumstances. His poetry also highlights the split-persona that so many people tend to adopt and the difference between one’s public image versus their private image and how this affects their overall mindset. Eliot’s poetry is often difficult to decipher or to pinpoint certain themes within a work. 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Cloud Based Accounting - 1544 Words

Question 1: Sassu is online based accounting software which enables users to remotely access their business transactions from anyplace they want. All one is in need to be wired to the internet and login to their sassu account and start inputting or manipulating their business transactions (â€Å"What is Cloud Accounting,† n.d., parra. 1). Sassu is a market leader in the Asia Pacific software as a Service Accounting industry, thriving with millions of transaction worth billions of dollars with a reach over 10000 customers remotely accessing business transactions (â€Å"Sassu for Business,† n.d., para. 2). And with saasu’s single database, access to data is much faster and relevant. Sassu is the next generation accounting software providing†¦show more content†¦What is Cloud Accounting. (n.d). Retrieved from http://saasu.com/faqs/cloud-accounting/ Question 2: According to the research undertaken to identify three other cloud based accounting systems, three competitive market clinching accounting systems which were similar to Sassu were found. The three other cloud based accounting solution are XERO, WAVE and KASHOO. In the words of Isaac (2009), Xero is a New Zealand cloud based accounting package that has been the eye catcher for the chartered accountants. â€Å"Xero was founded in July 2006 by successful technology entrepreneur Rod Drury and specialist small business accountant Hamish Edwards† (Isaac, 2009). Xero is a fast growing company listed on the New Zealand’s stock exchange and the Australian Securities Exchange. Xero has targeted small entrepreneurs, giving them unlimited users and has real time access to cash flows as it is a cloud based, the users can enter transactions from anywhere in the world by just the use of internet (Beautiful Accounting Software, n.d., para. 1). Secondly, Wave is another free cloud based accounting system that offers all the software tools a small entrepreneur requires to start his business with absolutely easy to use, unlimited invoicing, maintaining payrolls and control its finances ( Meet the Wave Family, n.d., para. 1,3,4amp;5). Wave has a stunning budgeting tools, finance trackers and more comprehensive investment tracking tool which give moreShow MoreRelatedCloud Based Accounting Information System1715 Words   |  7 PagesThe Research of Cloud Based Accounting Information System in Business INTRODUCTION Nowadays, many organizations adopting cloud based accounting information system (AIS) to handle their business. 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Entails personal statements Free Essays

If ever I will be accepted in the program and will be able to finish it, immediately after I graduate I will apply for the position of Hospital Administrator. Eventually, I would want to become a CEO. The program will provide me appropriate knowledge to be able to play the role of a hospital administrator effectively. We will write a custom essay sample on Entails personal statements or any similar topic only for you Order Now Managing healthcare institutions like hospitals, clinics, drug-abuse rehabilitation centers, as well as, overseeing of daily operations will become more convenient as I will be properly equipped with the much needed skills and understanding after going through with the program. I will be able to guarantee the competence of the healthcare institution where and attend to/focus on the adequacy of medical care made available to the patients. In addition to that, because of the program, I will be in a better position to give a hand or support the hospital staff especially those assigned to the medical department. Furthermore, with the training that I will undergo in the program, I will know better how to initiate the assimilation of board members, hospital staff, as well as, the chief of the different departments to function as one. For example, I will be able to sort out, instruct, manage, and bring together policies set by the board of trustees and eventually improve medical and health services provided by the healthcare institution that I will be running/heading. Also, I will also be able to conduct trainings or seminar-workshops for the staff including nurses, physicians, and other subordinates that I am supposed to employ or hire. In case, I will be working for a research hospital then because of the learning experience provided by the program, I will be able to improve programs that involve quality assurance, preventive medicine, medical treatments, etc. In the end, I will be more equipped to function as Chief Executive Officer and be able to properly manage a corporate position as such. Reference* *No reference will be provided for this as this entails personal statements. How to cite Entails personal statements, Papers

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk Essay Example

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk Essay I N V I S I B L E M O N S T E R S Chuck Palahniuk W. W. Norton Company New York †¢ London For Geoff, who said, This is how to steal drugs. And Ina, who said, This is lip liner. And Janet, who said, This is silk georgette. And my editor, Patricia, who kept saying, This is not good, enough. CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE CHAPTER THIRTY CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO CHAPTER O N E Where youre supposed to be is some big West Hills wedding reception in a big manor house with flower arrangements and stuffed mushrooms all over the house. This is called scene setting: where everybody is, whos alive, whos dead. This is Evie Cottrells big wedding reception moment. Evie is standing halfway down the big staircase in the manor house foyer, naked inside whats left of her wedding dress, still holding her rifle. Me, Im standing at the bottom of the stairs but only in a physical way. My mind is, I dont know where. We will write a custom essay sample on Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Nobodys all-the-way dead yet, but lets just say the clock is ticking. Not that anybody in this big drama is a real alive per-son, either. You can trace everything about Evie Cottrells look back to some television commercial for an organic shampoo, except right now Evies wedding dress is burned down to just the hoopskirt wires orbiting her hips and just the little wire skeletons of all the silk flowers that were in her hair. And Evies blonde hair, her big, teased-up, backcombed rainbow in every shade of blonde blown up with hairspray, well, Evies hair is burned off, too. The only other character here is Brandy Alexander, whos laid out, shotgunned, at the bottom of the staircase, bleeding to death. What I tell myself is the gush of red pumping out of Brandys bullet hole is less like blood than its some sociopolitical tool. The thing about being cloned from all those shampoo commercials, well, that goes for me and Brandy Alexander, too. Shotgunning anybody in this room would be the moral equivalent of killing a car, a vacuum cleaner, a Barbie doll. Erasing a computer disk. Burning a book. Probably that goes for killing anybody in the world. Were all such products. Brandy Alexander, the long-stemmed latte queen supreme of the top-drawer party girls, Brandy is gushing her insides out through a bullet hole in her amazing suit jacket. The suit, its this white Bob Mackie knock-off Brandy bought in Seattle with a tight hobble skirt that squeezes her ass into the perfect big heart shape. You would not believe how much this suit cost. The mark-up is about a zillion percent. The suit jacket has a little peplum skirt and wide lapels and shoulders. The single-breasted cut is symmetrical except for the hole pumping out blood. Then Evie starts to sob, standing there halfway up the staircase. Evie, that deadly virus of the moment. This is our cue to all look at poor Evie, poor, sad Evie, hairless and wearing nothing but ashes and circled by the wire cage of her burnedup hoop skirt. Then Evie drops the rifle. With her dirty face in her dirty hands, Evie sits down and starts to boo-hoo, as if crying will solve anything. The rifle, this is a loaded thirtyaught rifle, it clatters down the stairs and skids out into the middle of the foyer floor, spinning on its side, pointing at me, pointing at Brandy, pointing at Evie, crying. Its not that Im some detached lab animal just conditioned to ignore violence, but my first instinct is maybe its not too late to dab club soda on the bloodstain. Most of my adult life so far has been me standing on seamless paper for a raft of bucks per hour, wearing clothes and shoes, my hair done and some famous fashion photographer telling me how to feel. Him yelling, Give me lust, baby. Flash. Give me malice. Flash. Give me detached existentialist ennui. Flash. Give me rampant intellectualism as a coping mechanism. Flash. Probably its the shock of seeing my one worst enemy shoot my other worst enemy is what it is. Boom, and its a win-win situation. This and being around Brandy, Ive developed a pretty big Jones for drama. It only looks like Im crying when I put a handkerchief up under my veil to breathe through. To filter the air since you can about not breathe for all the smoke since Evies big manor house is burning down around us. Me, kneeling down beside Brandy, I could put my hands anywhere in my gown and find Darvons and Demerols and Darvocet 100s. This is everybodys cue to look at me. My gown is a knock-off print of the Shroud of Turin, most of it brown and white, draped and cut so the shiny red buttons will button through the stigmata. Then Im wearing yards and yards of black organza veil wrapped around my face and studded with little hand-cut Austrian crystal stars. You cant tell how I look, face-wise, but thats the whole idea. The look is elegant and sacrilegious and makes me feel sacred and immoral. Haute couture and getting hauler. Fire inches down the foyer wallpaper. Me, for added set dressing I started the fire. Special effects can go a long way to heighten a mood, and its not as if this is a real house. Whats burning down is a re-creation of a period revival house patterned after a copy of a copy of a copy of a mock-Tudor big manor house. Its a hundred generations removed from anything original, but the truth is arent we all? Just before Evie comes screaming down the stairs and shoots Brandy Alexander, what I did was pour out about a gallon of Chanel Number Five and put a burning wedding invitation to it, and boom, Im recycling. Its funny, but when you think about even the biggest tragic fire its just a sustained chemical reaction. The oxidation of Joan of Arc. Still spinning on the floor, the rifle points at me, points at Brandy. Another thing is no matter how much you think you love somebody, youll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close. Except for all this high drama, its a really nice day. This is a warm, sunny day and the front door is open to the porch and the lawn outside. The fire upstairs draws the warm smell of the fresh-cut lawn into the foyer, and you can hear all the wedding guests outside. All the guests, they took the gifts they wanted, the crystal and silver and went out to wait on the lawn for the firemen and paramedics to make their entrance. Brandy, she opens one of her huge, ring-beaded hands and she touches the hole pouring her blood all over the marble floor. Brandy, she says, Shit. Theres no way the Bon Marche will take this suit back. Evie lifts her face, her face a finger-painting mess of soot and snot and tears from her hands and screams, I hate my life being so boring! † Evie screams down at Brandy Alexander, Save me a window table in hell! Tears rinse clean lines down Evies cheeks, and she screams, Girlfriend! You need to be yelling some back at me! As if this isnt already drama, dra ma, drama, Brandy looks up at me kneeling beside her. Brandys aubergine eyes dilated out to full flower, she says, Brandy Alexander is going to die now? Evie, Brandy and me, all this is just a power struggle for the spotlight. Just each of us being me, me, me first. The murderer, the victim, the witness, each of us thinks our role is the lead. Probably that goes for anybody in the world. Its all mirror, mirror on the wall because beauty is power the same way money is power the same way a gun is power. Anymore, when I see the picture of a twenty-something in the newspaper who was abducted and sodomized and robbed and then killed and heres a front-page picture of her young and smiling, instead of me dwelling on this being a big, sad crime, my gut reaction is, wow, shed be really hot if she didnt have such a big honker of a nose. My second reaction is Id better have some good head and shoulders shots handy in case I get, you know, abducted and sodomized to death. My third reaction is, well, at least that cuts down on the competition. If thats not enough, my moisturizer I use is a suspension of inert fetal solids in hydrogenated mineral oil. My point is that, if Im honest, my life is all about me. My point is, unless the meter is running and some photographer is yelling: Give me empathy. Then the flash of the strobe. Give me sympathy. Flash. Give me brutal honesty. Flash. Dont let me die here on this floor, Brandy says, and her big hands clutch at me. My hair, she says, My hair will be flat in the back. My point is I know Brandy is maybe probably going to die, but I just cant get into it. Evie sobs even louder. On top of this, the fire sirens from way outside are crowning me queen of Migraine Town. The rifle is still spinning on the floor, but slower and slower. Brandy says, This is not how Brandy Alexander w anted her life to go. Shes supposed to be famous, first. You know, shes supposed to be on television during Super Bowl halftime, drinking a diet cola naked in slow motion before she died. The rifle stops spinning and points at nobody. At Evie sobbing, Brandy screams, Shut up! You shut up, Evie screams back. Behind her, the fire is eating its way down the stairway carpet. The sirens, you can hear them wandering and screaming all over the West Hills. People will just knock each other down to dial 9-1-1 and be the big hero. Nobody looks ready for the big television crew thats due to arrive any minute. This is your last chance, honey, Brandy says, and her blood is getting all over the place. She says, Do you love me? Its when folks ask questions like this that you lose the spotlight. This is how folks trap you into a best-supporting role. Even bigger than the house being on fire is this huge expectation that I have to say the three most worn-out words youll find in any script. Just the words make me feel Im severely fingering myself. Theyre just words is all. Powerless. Vocabulary. Dialogue. Tell me, Brandy says. Do you? Do you really love me? This is the big hammy way Brandy has played her whole life. The Brandy Alexander nonstop continuous live action theater, but less and less live by the moment. Just for a little stage business, I take Brandys hand in mine. This is a nice gesture, but then Im freaked by the whole threat of blood-borne pathogens, and then, boom, the ceiling in the dining room crashes down and sparks and embers rush out at us from the dining room doorway. Even if you cant love me, then tell me my life,† Brandy says. A girl cant die without her life flashing before her eyes. Pretty much nobody is getting their emotional needs met. Its then the fire eats down the stairway carpet to Evies bare ass, and Evie screams to her feet and pounds down the stairs in her burned-up white high heels. Naked and hairless, wearing wire and ashes, Evie Cottrell runs out the front door to a larger audience, her wedding guests, the silver and crystal and the arriving fire trucks. This is the world we live in. Conditions change and we mutate. So of course thisll be all about Brandy, hosted by me, with guest appearances by Evelyn Cottrell and the deadly AIDS virus. Brandy, Brandy, Brandy. Poor sad Brandy on her back, Brandy touches the hole pouring her life out onto the marble floor and says, Please. Tell me my life. Tell me how we got here. So me, Im here eating smoke just to document this Brandy Alexander moment. Give me attention. Flash. Give me adoration. Flash. Give me a break. Flash. CHAPTER T W O Dont expect this to be the kind of story that goes: and then, and then, and then. What happens here will have more of that fashion magazine feel, a Vogue or a Glamour magazine chaos with page numbers on every second or fifth or third page. Perfume cards falling out, and full-page naked women coming out of nowhere to sell you make-up. Dont look for a contents page, buried magazine-style twenty pages back from the front. Dont expect to find anything right off. There isnt a real pattern to anything, either. Stories will start and then, three paragraphs later: Jump to page whatever. Then, jump back. This will be ten thousand fashion separates that mix and match to create maybe five tasteful outfits. A million trendy accessories, scarves and belts, shoes and hats and gloves, and no real clothes to wear them with. And you really, really need to get used to that feeling, here, on the freeway, at work, in your marriage. This is the world we live in. Just go with the prompts. Jump back twenty years to the white house where I grew p with my father shooting super-8 movies of my brother and me running around the yard. Jump to present time with my folks sitting on lawn chairs at night, and watching these same super-8 movies projected on the white side of the same white house, twenty years later. The house the same, the yard the same, the windows projected in the movies lined up just perfect with the real windows, the movie grass aligned with the real grass, and my movie-projected brother and me being toddlers and running around wild for the camera. Jump to my big brother being all miserable and dead from the big plague of AIDS. Jump to me being grown up and fallen in love with a police detective and moved away to become a famous supermodel. Just remember, the same as a spectacular Vogue magazine, remember that no matter how close you follow the jumps: Continued on page whatever. No matter how careful you are, theres going to be the sense you missed something, the collapsed feeling under your skin that you didnt experience it all. Theres that fallen heart feeling that you rushed right through the moments where you shouldve been paying attention. Well, get used to that feeling. Thats how your whole life will feel some day. This is all practice. None of this matters. Were just warming up. Jump to here and now, Brandy Alexander bleeding to death on the floor with me kneeling beside her, telling this story before here come the paramedics. Jump backward just a few days to the living room of a rich house in Vancouver, British Columbia. The room is lined with the rococo hard candy of carved mahogany paneling with marble baseboards and marble flooring and a very sortof curlicue carved marble fireplace. In rich houses where old rich people live, everything is just what youd think. The rubrum lilies in the enameled vases are real, not silk. The cream-colored drapes are silk, not polished cotton. Mahogany is not pine stained to look like mahogany. No pressed-glass chandeliers posing as cut crystal. The leather is not vinyl. All around us are these cliques of Louis-the-Fourteenth chair-sofa-chair. In front of us is yet another innocent real estate agent, and Brandys hand goes out: her wrist thick with bones and veins, the mountain range of her knuckles, her wilted fingers, her rings in their haze of marquise-cut green and red, her porcelain nails painted sparkle pink, she says, Charmed, Im sure. If you have to start with any one detail, it has to be Brandys hands. Beaded with rings to make them look even bigger, Brandys hands are enormous. Beaded with rings, as if they could be more obvious, hands are the one part about Brandy Alexander the surgeons couldnt change. So Brandy doesnt even try and hide her hands. Weve been in too many of this kind of house for me to count, and the realtor we meet is always smiling. This one is wearing the standard uniform, the navy blue suit with the red, white, and blue scarf around the neck. The blue heels are on her feet and the blue bag is hanging at the crook of her elbow. The realty woman looks from Brandy Alexanders big hand to Signore Alfa Romeo standing at Brandys side, and the power blue eyes of Alfa attach themselves; those blue eyes you never see close or look away, inside those eyes is the baby or the bouquet of flowers, beautiful or vulnerable, that make a beautiful man someone safe to love. Alfas just the latest in a year-long road trip of men obsessed with Brandy, and any smart woman knows a beautiful man is her best fashion accessory. The same way youd product model a new car or a toaster, Brandys hand draws a sight line through the air from her smile and big boobs to Alfa. May I introduce, Brandy says, Signore Alfa Romeo, professional male consort to the Princess Brandy Alexander. The same way, Brandys hand swings from her batting eyelashes and rich hair in an invisible sight line to me. All the realty woman is going to see is my veils, muslin and cut-work velvet, brown and red, tulle threaded with silver, layers of so much youd think theres nobody inside. Theres nothing about me to look at so most people dont. Its a look that says: Thank you for not sharing. May I introduce, Brandy says, Miss Kay Maclsaac, personal secretary to the Princess Brandy Alexander. The realty woman in her blue suit with its brass Chanel buttons and the scarf tied around her neck to hide all her loose skin, she smiles at Alfa. When nobody will look at you, you can stare a hole in them. Picking out all the little details youd never stare long enough to get if shed ever just return your gaze, this, this is your revenge. Through my veils, the realtors glowing red and gold, blurred at her edges. Miss Maclsaac, Brandy says, her big hand still open toward me, Miss Maclsaac is mute and cannot speak. The realty woman with her lipstick on her teeth and her powder and concealer layered in the crepe under her eyes, her preta-porter teeth and machine-washable wig, she smiles at Brandy Alexander. And this . . . , Brandys big ring-beaded hand curls up to touch Brandys torpedo breasts. This . . . , Brandys hand curls up to tou ch pearls at her throat. This . . . , the enormous hand lifts to touch the billowing piles of auburn hair. And this . . . , the hand touches thick moist lips. This, Brandy says, is the Princess Brandy Alexander. The realty woman drops to one knee in something between a curtsy and what youd do before an altar. Genuflecting. This is such an honor, she says. Im so sure this is the house for you. You just have to love this house. Icicle bitch she can be, Brandy just nods and turns back toward the front hall where we came in. Her Highness and Miss Maclsaac, Alfa says, they would like to tour the house by themselves, while you and I discuss the details. Alfas little hands flutter up to explain, . . . the transfer of funds the exchange of lira for Canadian dollars. Loonies, the realty woman says. Brandy and me and Alfa are all flash frozen. Maybe this woman has seen through us. Maybe after the months weve been on the road and the dozens of big houses weve hit, maybe somebody has final ly figured out our scam. Loonies, the woman says. Again, she genuflects. We call our dollars Loonies, she says and jabs a hand in her blue purse. Ill show you. Theres a picture of a bird on them, she says. Its a loon. Brandy and me, we turn icicle again and start walking away, back to the front hall. Back through the cliques of chairsofa-chair, past the carved marble. Our reflections smear, dim, and squirm behind a lifetime of cigar smoke on the mahogany paneling. Back to the front hallway, I follow the Princess Brandy Alexander while Alfas voice fills the realtors bluesuited attention with questions about the angle of the morning sun into the dining room and whether the provincial government will allow a personal heliport behind the swimming pool. Going toward the stairs is the exquisite back of Princess Brandy, a silver fox jacket draped over Brandys shoulders and yards of a silk brocade scarf tied around her billowing pile of Brandy Alexander auburn hair. The queen supremes voice and the shadow of LAir du Temps are the invisible train behind everything that is the world of Brandy Alexander. The billowing auburn hair piled up inside her brocade silk scarf reminds me of a bran muffin. A big cherry cupcake. This is some strawberry auburn mushroom cloud rising over a Pacific atoll. Those princess feet are caught in two sort of gold lame leg-hold traps with little gold straps and gold chains. These are the trapped-on, stilted, spike-heeled feet of gold that mount the first of about three hundred steps from the front hall to the second floor. Then she mounts the next step, and the next until all of her is far enough above me to risk looking back. Only then will she turn the whole strawberry cupcake of her head. Those big torpedo, Brandy Alexander breasts silhouetted, the wordless beauty of that professional mouth in full face. The owner of this house, Brandy says, is very old and supplementing her hormones and still lives here. The carpet is so thick under my feet I could be climbing loose dirt. One step after another, loose and sliding and unstable. We, Brandy and Alfa and me, weve been speaking English as a second language so long that weve forgotten it as our first. I have no native tongue. Were eye level with the dirty stones of a dark chandelier. On the other side of the handrail, the hallways gray marble floor looks as if weve climbed a stairway through the clouds. Step after step. Far away, Alfas demanding talk goes on about wine cellars, about kennels for the Russian wolfhounds. Alfas constant demand for the realty womans attention is as faint as a radio call-in show bouncing back from outer space. . . . the Princess Brandy Alexander, Alfas warm, dark words float up, she is probable to remove her clothes and scream like the wild horses in even the crowded restaurants The queen supremes voice and the shadow of LAir du Temps says, Next house, her Plumbago lips say, Alfa will be the mute. . . . your breasts, Alfa is telling the realty woman, you have two of the breasts of a young woman . . . Not one native tongue is left among us. Jump to us being upstairs. Jump to now anything being possible. After the realtor is trapped by the blue eyes of Signore Alfa Romeo, jump to when the real scamming starts. The master bedroom will always be down the hallway in the direction of the best view. This master bathroom is paneled in pink mirror, every wall, even the ceiling. Princess Brandy and I are everywhere, reflected on every surface. You can see Brandy sitting on the pink counter at one side of the vanity sink, me sitting at the other side of the sink. One of us is sitting on each side of all the sinks in all the mirrors. There are just too many Brandy Alexanders to count, and theyre all being the boss of me. They all open their white calfskin clutch bags, and hundreds of those big ringbeaded Brandy Alexander hands take out new copies of the Physicians Desk Reference with its red cover, big as a Bible. All her hundreds of Burning Blueberry eye shadow eyes look at me from all over the room. You know the drill, all her hundreds of Plumbago mouths command. Those big hands start pulling open drawers and cabinet doors. Remember where you got everything, and put it back exactly where you found it, the mouths say. Well do the drugs first, then the makeup. Now start hunting. I take out the first bottle. Its Valium, and I hold the bottle so all the hundred Brandys can read the label. Take what we can get away with, Brandy says, then get on to the next bottle. I shake a few of the little blue pills into my purse pocket with the other Valiums. The next bottle I find is Darvons. Honey, those are heaven in your mouth, all the Brandys look up to peer at the bottle Im holding. Does it look safe to take too many? The expiration date on the label is only a month away, and the bottle is still almost full. I figure we can take about half. Here, a big ring-beaded hand comes at me from every direction. One hundred big hands come at me, palm up. Give Brandy a couple. The princess is having lower back pain again. I shake ten capsules out, and a hundred hands toss a thousand tranquilizers onto the red carpet tongues of those Plumbago mouths. A suicide load of Darvon slides down into the dark interior of the continents that make up a world of Brandy Alexander. Inside the next bottle are the little purple ovals of 2. 5milligram—sized Premarin. Thats short for Pregnant Mare Urine. Thats short for thousands of miserable horses in North Dakota and Central Canada, forced to stand in cramped dark stalls with a catheter stuck on them to catch every drop of urine and only getting let outside to get fucked again. Whats funny is that describes pretty much any good long stay in a hospital, but thats only been my experience. Dont look at me that way, Brandy says. My not taking those pills wont bring any baby horses back from the dead. In the next bottle are round, peach-colored little scored tablets of 100-milligram Aldactone. Our homeowner must be a junkie for female hormones. Painkillers and estrogen are pretty much Brandys only two food groups, and she says, Gimme, gimme, gimme. She snacks on some little pink-coated Estin yls. She pops a few of the turquoise-blue Estrace tablets. Shes using some vaginal Premarin as a hand cream when she says, Miss Kay? She says, I cant seem to make a fist, Sweetness. Do you think, maybe you can wrap things up without me while I lie down? The hundreds of me cloned in the pink bathroom mirrors, we check out the make-up while the princess goes off to cat nap in the cabbage rose and old canopy bed glory of the master bedroom. I find Darvocets and Percodans and Compazines, Nembutals and Percocets. Oral estrogens. Anti-androgens. Progestons. Transdermal estrogen patches. I find none of Brandys colors, no Rusty Rose blusher. No Burning Blueberry eye shadow. I find a vibrator with the dead batteries swollen and leaking acid inside. Its an old woman who owns this house, I figure. Ignored and aging and drugged-out old women, older and more invisible to the world every minute, they must not wear a lot of make-up. Not go out to fun hot spots. Not boogie to a party froth. My breath smells hot and sour inside my veils, inside the damp layers of silk and mesh and cotton georgette I lift for the first time all day; and in the mirrors, I look at the pink reflection of whats left of my face. Mirror, mirror on the wall, whos the fairest one of all? The evil queen was stupid to play Snow Whites game. Theres an age where a woman has to move on to another kind of power. Money, for example. Or a gun. Im living the life I love, I tell myself, and loving the life I live. I tell myself: I deserved this. This is exactly what I wanted. CHAPTER T H R E E Until I met Brandy, all I wanted was for somebody to ask me what happened to my face. Birds ate it, I wanted to tell them. Birds ate my face. But nobody wanted to know. Then nobody doesnt include Brandy Alexander. Just dont think this was a big coincidence. We had to meet, Brandy and me. We had so many things in common. We had close to everything in common. Besides, it happens fast for some people and slow for some, accidents or gravity, but we all end up mutilated. Most women know this feeling of being more and more invisible everyday. Brandy was in the hospital for months and months, and so was I, and theres only so many hospitals where you can go for major cosmetic surgery. Jump back to the nuns. The nuns were the worst about always pushing, the nuns who were nurses. One nun would tell me about some patient on a different floor who was funny and charming. He was a lawyer and could do magic tricks with just his hands and a paper napkin. This day nurse was the kind of nun who wore a white nursing version of her regular nun uniform, and shed told this lawyer all about me. This was Sister Katherine. She told him I was funny and bright, and she said how sweet it would be if the two of us could meet and fall madly in love. Those were her words. Halfway down the bridge of her nose, shed look at me through wire-framed glasses, their lenses long and squared the way microscope slides look. Little broken veins kept the end of her nose red. Rosacea, she called this. It would be easier to see her living in a gingerbread house than a convent. Married to Santa Claus instead of God. The starched apron she wore over her habit was so glaring white that when Id first arrived, fresh from my big car accident, I remembered how all the stains from my blood looked black. They gave me a pen and paper so I could communicate. They wrapped my head in dressings, yards of tight gauze holding wads of cotton in place, metal butterfly sutures gripping all over so I wouldnt unravel. They fingered on a thick layer of antibiotic gel, claustrophobic and toxic under the wads of cotton. My hair they pulled back, forgotten and hot under the gauze where I couldnt get at it. The invisible woman. When Sister Katherine mentioned this other patient, I wondered if maybe Id seen him around, her lawyer, the cute, funny magician. I didnt say he was cute, she said. Sister Katherine said, Hes still a little shy. On the pad of paper, I wrote: still? Since his little mishap, she said and smiled with her eyebrows arched and all her chins tucked down against her neck. He wasnt wearing his seatbelt. She said, His car rolled right over the top of him. She said, Thats why hed be so perfect for you. Early on, while I was still sedated, somebody had taken the mirror out of my bathroom. The nurses seemed to steer me away from polished anything the way they kept the suicides away from knives. The drunks away from drinks. The closest I had to a mirror was the television, and it only showed how I used to look. If I asked to see the police photos from the accident, the day nurse would tell me, No. They kept the photos in a file at the nursing station, and it seemed anybody could ask to see them except me. This nurse, shed say, The doctor thinks youve suffered enough for the time being. This same day nurse tried to fix me up with an accountant whose hair and ears were burned off in a propane blunder. She introduced me to a graduate student whod lost his throat and sinuses to a touch of cancer. A window washer after his three-story tumble head first onto concrete. Those were all her words, blunder, touch, tumble. The lawyers mishap. My big accident. Sister Katherine would be there to check my vital signs every six hours. To check my pulse against the sweep second hand on her mans wristwatch, thick and silver. To wrap the blood pressure cuff around my arm. To check my temperature, shed push some kind of electric gun in my ear. Sister Katherine was the kind of nun who wears a wedding ring. And married people always think love is the answer. Jump back to the day of my big accident, when everybody was so considerate. The people, the folks who let me go ahead of them in the emergency room. What the police insisted. I mean, they gave me this hospital sheet with Property of La Paloma Memorial Hospital printed along the edge in indelible blue. First