| Cupcakes runneth over
Most popular are the store's mini cupcakes, just a bite or two. "It's just enough." In a way, this rediscovered love of cupcakes makes sense. In postmodern America, where everybody grows up too fast, nostalgia for the carefree days of youth begins to hit before age 20. People are overwhelmed by work, can't escape e-mail, are attached to the Internet. Why not close your eyes and indulge in a tiny taste of childhood, of innocence, of celebration? People whose childhoods are distant may have forgotten the genius of the cupcake -- that little cake, barely a few mouthfuls, but with enough sugar and sentiment to give you goosebumps. Plus the cupcake is too small to carry guilt. Today, it's not just the cupcake, but the experience, and boutique bakeries are popping up everywhere -- sometimes with boutique prices to match.
Son's fatal experiment
When we got home he asked if he could go on the laptop, we said no and he said he was going upstairs to play on his playstation." A while later, Sue called Michael for dinner, but there was no answer. Steve, said: "Sue went upstairs and I heard her scream so I rushed upstairs. "Michael was sort of kneeling underneath his bunk bed and his lips were blue. "I grabbed him and took him downstairs to give him CPR while Sue rang for the ambulance, but I could tell from the way his lips were he seemed to have already gone. "We know the police have taken a skipping rope from the room." At the inquest on Friday, January 25, Black Country Coroner, Robin Balmain, recorded a verdict of accidental death. He said: "Michael's death was due to hanging.
Multimedia Index
After spending 445 days in a nursing home under 24-hour care, she wanted out. Now, with a 4.2-mile trip four floors down an elevator, across the city's East End in an Access van, she is home at last. Video by Steve Mellon • • • Jan. 6, 2008 Video: Columnist Barbara Cloud reflects on storied career .
Marching on Washington
I've been living in London since the end of 1994 and as the years passed I'd been finding the United States an increasingly strange place to be. Its huge appetites were increasingly bland, turning distinctive neighbourhoods into generic shopping malls, distinctive music into repetitive tripe, and seemed to have reduced the American spirit and energy to an ignorant, arrogant torpor. With the inauguration of George Bush and the horror of 9/11, independent thought seemed to have become unpatriotic anathema. However, during that Thanksgiving visit I'd felt a seismic shift. During the previous year, much of the press appeared to have rediscovered the independent workings of its hind legs. Ordinary Americans had begun bridling at the Bush administration's gross hypocrisies, ham-fisted actions and cavalier attitudes to the welfare, physical and social, of all beyond their intimate circle.
Sac-Joaquin section lowers some penalties against Stockton school
Franklin football officially finished School board places Franklin High athletic director on paid leave Franklin football coach says he'll play ineligible athletes School to forfeit wins, endure playoff ban Section says Franklin paid for air fare, housed players Franklin coach is players' landlord Report: High school football players' expenses were paid High school football probe stretches to Samoa Section busts Franklin football Stockton goes to bat for Franklin Franklin players sit out defeat Franklin, MC: What's the difference? Section had to come down hard .
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