November 19, Saturday, 10-4pm
27^th Annual Chappaqua Craft Fair
Robert E. Bell Middle School
50 Senter Street
Chappaqua, NY 10514

November 20, Sunday, 11:30-5:30pm
Holiday Boutique a la Russe
Holy Virgin Protection Church
38 S. Mill Street
Nyack, NY 10960

December 3, Saturday, 10-4pm
23^rd Annual Christmas Fair
St. Augustine Catholic Church School
381 No. Highland Avenue on Rt. 9
Ossining, NY 10562

December 4, Sunday, 9-4pm
2011 Christmas Fair
St. Theresa Catholic Church School
300 Dalmeny Road
Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510

You say you want a Federal government that is smaller, spends less, balances its budget? You say you want rights returned to the States? Let’s take this one step further. How about NO Federal government and the States having ALL the rights. I propose that our 50 states become 50 independent countries, and that these 50 new countries be tied together, like the EU ties European countries together, and be named the United Countries of America. The United Countries of America would be made up of 50 small and manageable countries. When America first began, we were 13 colonies. Now we’re 50 states. We are geographically too big and our society is too out of control.

Radical, yes, but if we continue on the current track of bigger Federal government, out of control Federal spending, out of control American society, we might find ourselves ready to think about doing this.

1. The current 50 states would become 50 sovereign countries.
2. All the new countries would keep their current borders.
3. Keeping big countries like China and Russia in mind, the UCA would be united militarily. We would have one large military to protect and defend each and every UCA country from foreign threat. However, each country would defend itself with its own law enforcement from domestic threat and crime within its own borders.
4. The UCA would also be united economically to ensure the good economic health of each country as it pertains to their relationship with global countries outside the UCA. We would keep the dollar as the UCA currency.
5. The UCA would have open borders, so no citizen from one UCA country would need a passport to enter another UCA country.
6. A UCA country could govern and manage its society in quick and sensible ways that are right for them. For example, a progressive state like New York wouldn’t be thwarted by an outside Federal government or feel the pressure from conservative states if it wants to enact a progressive law, and vice versa. America is a huge land mass and each region is very different from each another. For our current Federal government to try to enact laws for progressive states and conservative states, cold weather states and hot weather states is often not practical, unsatisfactory for all or futile.
7. Each UCA country can adopt the current Constitution and the Declaration of Independence or amend them as they see fit.
8. Because each UCA country is small, its leaders will be able to comfortably manage the
   country’s laws, income, expenses, spending, balance its budget and manage its society.
9. As small countries, they can be more creative in developing their growth, new ideas and products for their people.
10. As small countries, they can aggressively achieve a greater potential of income when dealing with other UCA countries and foreign countries, not being hampered by an outside Federal government’s guidelines they might not agree with.
11. The UCA countries will automatically become richer because they would no longer have to contribute to an outside Federal government.
12. So many current Federal agencies and seats of power can now be abolished because the individual UCA countries would provide for themselves: Presidency, Congress, Justice, Defense, Tax, Federal Reserve, Education, Housing, Transportation, Energy, Civil Rights, Commerce, etc.
13. Each country can have its own immigration and gun laws.
14. Lobbyists would be greatly diminished and controlled because one company would have 50 countries to contend with instead of just one.
15. Washington DC could become a 51^st country or it can merge with a surrounding country. The White House and its property and the other current Federal government buildings  could become housing and recreational developments and commercial buildings.

This is a partial list. More benefits to 50 separate new countries are forthcoming.

Shelley Gilbert, Ossining, NY

“Charming children’s book. The stories are beautifully written and morally relevant.” Little, Brown and Company (Michael Pietsch recommended).

Land of Sooj, Six Seahorse Stories, by award-winning author Shelley Gilbert, is a book of fiction for young adults and children aged 7-19.

Land of Sooj is an early land where seahorses live. Each of the six seahorse stories is independent to read but all are connected by a seahorse family of God and Angels. Romantica and her Angel children look after and protect the seahorses. Each supergraphic story conjures up vivid and beautiful images. Themes are moral and timeless and much needed for our children in our modern era. Fantasy and virtue are twin currents entwined throughout the flow of the stories. The six seahorse stories are :

APOLLA SEAHORSE
A seahorse discovers her purpose in life.

CHERRY SEAHORSE
A tiny seahorse finds her power.

VANILLA AND CHOCOLATE SEAHORSES
This is the story of twin seahorses. One likes the getting there, the other likes the being there.

MARSHMALLOW SEAHORSE
Sometimes the gentlest seahorse must protect her heart.

YESNO SEAHORSE
In the Land of Sooj, a seahorse always pays for a wrongdoing.

SEA3 SEAHORSE
To one seahorse, creating is everything.

View all my books on my Amazon Author Page: http://tinyurl.com/6z7t2ob

Available on Amazon, Kindle, Ebay.

A poem from Shelley Gilbert’s Islands, A Coloring Book for Adults, 30 Drawings, 30 Poems Amazon.com

A guy I was dating in the ’70s showed me where my G spot was.

What it is: The G spot is the super orgasmic area inside your vagina.

Where it is: If you’re lying down on your back, the G spot is located at the beginning part of your vagina, in the vagina wall at the top, opposite your clitoris. I’m guessing the G spot shares the same nerve endings that the clitoris has because the clit is directly above the G spot.

How to feel it: Masturbate while lying on your back. Rub the G spot area I’ve described with your finger or a vibrator. You will soon begin to get very aroused and start to feel a bulge about the size of a nickel. That bulge is the G spot. Keep rubbing that area, and doing whatever else you like, and you should reach a very intense orgasm.

If you want to read the details of my encounter with this guy who really taught me about my G spot, you’ll have to wait for the sequel to my novel, Swimming Naked with Jellyfish, which I’m still writing. But there is great sexual material available right now in the current Swimming Naked with Jellyfish on sale on Amazon. Enjoy!

I authored and illustrated  this second coloring and poem book in response to the enthusiastic reaction to my first book Islands, A Coloring Book for Adults, 30 Drawings, 30 Poems, 2001, Amazon.com.

Islands, A Coloring Book for Teens and Kids is a unique, super-creative activity, learning and thinking book. Islands books are about being an individual, about being yourself.

The drawings contain a great variety of space sizes to color—large, medium, small. The abstract drawings will engage a young person’s own imagination because the shapes look like different things to different people and will evoke personal thoughts, emotions. The drawings have poems that interpret them (1^st Grade + ). The poems’s messages will entertain and intrigue young people to think about life. The poems contain many themes: butterflies, moons, connection, fruit, saving money, feelings, blizzards, the importance of thinking, brick walls, artists, Vivaldi, egos, squares, violence, trees. There are also 4 simple and fun recipes.

I am currently working on the third book in the series, a Volume 2 for adults.

Although my books say they’re for adults or teens and kids, the truth is that my abstract drawings and timeless poems transcend age.

“Swimming Naked with Jellyfish”

“The best piece of writing on orgasm I have ever in my life read. It’s hard to write a great sex scene. It was raw, quirky, individual, original, impossible to forget, and contains the best description of the experience of having an orgasm.”

SUSAN GROSSMAN
EDITOR