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Pop art to ballet, reach for a nonfiction read when choosing holiday gifts

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A good book packs power. A good book thoughtfully chosen as a gift can add a layer of joy.The holidays are a great time to track down just the right coffee table reads for loved ones. There’s a wide array this time of year. Some options:“Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection,” photographs by Slim Aarons, text by Shawn Waldron. The World War II photographer turned Hollywood insider had incredible access to the uber rich, from the pools of Palm Beach to the ski slopes of Gstaad. But he was so much more, shooting war orphans in Rome to tailgaters in Aiken, South Carolina. This hefty career-spanning collection has meaty text and includes more than 100 previously unpublished photos. Getty Images purchased his archive in 1997. Abrams. $175.“The Christmas Book,” by Phaidon editors, with essays by David Trigg, Sam Bilton and Dolph Gotelli. The holiday, in festive cultural imagery. This is a jolly look at Christmas via design and artifacts. There’s a history of Ch...

Movie Review: Disney’s musical fairy tale ‘Wish’ is beautiful, but lacking magic

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

Walt Disney Animation’s “Wish” is stunning to look at with textured and rich watercolor-inspired animation and easter egg treasures for audiences nostalgic for the classics. But it is also more concept than story: A strained and forgettable attempt to pay homage to the studio’s 100 years. The origin of the wishing star is as fine a motivation as any for a jumping off point, but “Wish,” directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, seems to have been drawn not from someone’s earnest imagination and dreams, but a corporate board trying to reverse-engineer magic and charm.Case in point: In one of the awfully generic songs, “I Am a Star,” a cute, talking rabbit chirpily sings to our heroine Asha that “when it comes to the universe, we’re all shareholders.” Ugh.I’m probably not alone in having learned several vocabulary words from Disney songs as a child, but there is something so dispiriting about hearing the word “shareholders” in what is supposed to be a rallying, i...

From saving elephants to pleasing football fans, here are some holiday gift ideas for all

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Staring down a hefty holiday gift list? There’s something for everybody out there. Artisan gifts can be a hit. Head to Etsy.com to tap into the global handmade marketplace’s trends for the season. This year, they include “grandpa chic,” a counterpoint in home decor to the “granny chic” and “coastal grandma” vibes of recent years. In homage to gramps, think rich tones of burgundy, olive green and tobacco brown, and lots of dark woods, plaid textiles and leather. “The interest in adding more texture and depth to the home is more important than ever,” said Etsy trend expert Dayna Isom Johnson.If you haven’t got time for that or any other gift hunt, consider one or more of these:SAVE AN ELEPHANT: The women founders behind The Elephant Project donate 100% of their proceeds from the plush elephants they sell to organizations that help fight poaching and care for injured and orphaned elephants. A choice of four different stuffies or a bundle of three...

Carlton Pearson, influential Oklahoma megachurch founder who rejected hell, dies at age 70

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The founder of a former megachurch in Oklahoma who was branded a heretic and lost one audience — but gained a new one — after he rejected the idea of hell and supported gay rights has died, his agent said Monday.Bishop Carlton Pearson died Sunday night in hospice care in Tulsa due to cancer, said his agent, Will Bogle. Pearson was 70.Early in his ministry he was considered a rising star on the Pentecostal preaching circuit and frequently appeared on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, bringing him to an international audience.From a ministry he started in 1977, Pearson in 1981 founded Higher Dimensions Family Church in Tulsa — later known as New Dimensions Church, whose membership numbered about 6,000 by the turn of the century.Membership plummeted to a few hundred by 2008 after Pearson began teaching what he called “the gospel of inclusion,” a form of universalism, which does not recognize hell.Bogle said Pearson told him that he did not believe he had made a mis...

USPS shipping changes coming in January

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

(WHTM) - The U.S. Postal Service's recently announced pricing changes for shipping will take effect on Jan. 21, 2024.According to the USPS, the following changes, which were announced Nov. 15, will be made:USPS Ground Advantage prices would increase by 5.4%Priority Mail service prices would increase by 5.7%Priority Mail Express service prices would increase by 5.9%"The Postal Service has upfront pricing and does not add surcharges for residential and regular Saturday delivery, nor fuel," the USPS said in a release.The USPS is also seeking price adjustments for such products as post office box rentals and international mail services. The Postal Regulatory Commission will review the prices. This Pennsylvania roller coaster turns 100 next year Pricing for USPS Connect Local, which provides businesses with local same-day and next-day delivery, will stay the same.The current pricing for USPS Shipping Services is as follows:Priority Mail Express - The item you ship should arrive within...

2 women critical, 2 kids injured in North suburban crash; alcohol found

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

LAKE COUNTY, Ill. — Two women are in critical condition and two children were injured following a head-on crash Monday morning in unincorporated Round Lake.Officers responded to the area of Fairfield Road and Nippersink Road at around 6:30 a.m. Police at the scene found a Chevrolet Equinox, driven by a woman, and a Acura MDX, driven by a 39-year-old Wauconda woman. The Acura had two middle-school-aged children in the vehicle, police said.Following a preliminary investigation, police believe the driver of the Equinox veered into southbound lanes of traffic and struck the Acura head-on. Both women were transported in critical condition.The children suffered serious but non life-threatening injuries.An open container of alcohol was found inside the Chevrolet, police said.The crash is under investigation.

You can order more free COVID tests ahead of the holidays: Here's how

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans can order more free COVID-19 tests online for home delivery.The U.S. government is offering to send another round of four at-home virus tests ahead of the typical surge in cases during the winter holiday season.Anyone who did not order a batch of four COVID-19 tests in September can secure up to eight of them this time around starting Monday at COVIDtests.gov. The U.S. Postal Service will deliver them for free.The government is mailing out the coronavirus tests as the flu season kicks off and a spike in RSV cases has been reported in some spots around the country. Hospitalizations for COVID-19, which has killed more than 1 million people in the United States, were on the rise this fall but have stayed steady in recent weeks. Immunity from previous vaccinations and infections has kept case counts lower compared with other years. The flu is spiking in 7 states – see where cases are rising The new release of free COVID-19 nasal swab tests also comes ahead ...

Here's what Thanksgiving meals cost at most major U.S. grocery stores

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

(NEXSTAR) — Preparing a Thanksgiving meal can be stressful enough, but it's made extra-stressful when buying everything you need takes too big a chunk out of your wallet. It can be daunting figuring out where to buy what, but it helps if you have a breakdown.Thankfully, just in time for the holiday, financial data outlet FinanceBuzz has compared prices among the U.S.' major grocery stores to find who has the most expensive and least expensive Thanksgiving prices. These major retail stores will be closed on Thanksgiving For shoppers who intend to make the meal themselves, Whole Foods was found to have the most expensive meal, with an average of $84.84 for eight people. Meanwhile, Wegmans was found to have the least expensive groceries, with an average of $32.94 for eight people.Here's the full list of stores and items by price:StoreTurkeyPotatoes/gravyStuffingVegetablesOther sidesPumpkin pieTotalAlbertsons$7.08*$5.97$3.99$12.32$9.07$6.99$45.42Aldi$15.24$2.53$1.50$4.21$6.79$5.19$35....

A win and the Longhorns are in the Big 12 title game, but what happens if they lose?

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) — A win Friday over Texas Tech sends the Texas Longhorns to the Big 12 Conference championship game with the No. 1 seed, fulfilling the team's goal it set out to achieve at the beginning of the season. However, a loss to the Red Raiders and things get wacky.Before the final week of Big 12 play, the Longhorns are alone in first place at 7-1 with three teams a game behind at 6-2. Oklahoma, Kansas State and Oklahoma State are all within striking distance to potentially claim a spot in the title game through the conference's tiebreaker rules. Since the league schedule is unbalanced and not every team plays each other, it creates potential chaos when trying to break ties. Texas Longhorns are No. 7 for 5th consecutive week in AP Top 25 The Big 12 Conference laid out some title game scenarios Sunday night after sports writers and fans across the country couldn't understand the head-scratching tiebreaker protocols. Oklahoma and TCU also play on Friday while the rest of the c...

Hundreds of thousands of turkeys are sick. How could that impact your holiday plans?

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 12:36:00 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Avian influenza is once again sweeping across poultry farms in the U.S. and bringing the risk of disrupted holiday meals with it.While Thanksgiving meal prices will mostly be spared, Texas A&M Department of Poultry Science Professor Greg Archer said Christmas celebrations may not be as lucky. "Prices are probably going to start going up with all the turkey that we're losing," Archer said. "It's possible that it's just going to keep getting worse."In October, the avian flu had already killed more than 1.4 million poultry nationwide, including 800,000 turkeys. In November, we reached those same numbers just halfway through the month. Archer said the bird flu is spread by wild birds, including waterfowl, migrating south from Canada. Those birds then interact with birds on poultry farms and spread the virus."We generally see more and more as the wild birds start migrating down," he said. Some farmers will try to secure their gaggle from outside invaders. Once infect...