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IT IS JULY. I'm in Princeton, New Jersey, at Talbots, checking out silver bracelets shoes. While a seductive voice in my head attempts to persuade me that I can always use gold metaUic flats and will never be sorry to have purchased them at their current price, I become aware of a mother and daughter, about six years old, trying on and talking about shoes, lots of shoes, strewn across the floor. I look over, taking a break from my inner voice. The mother returns my smile and says of the daughter, "She already has the woman's disease." Already, her daughter is obsessed with shoes.

That sojourn in Princeton was, in retrospect, more remarkable for other events than the one at the Talbots store, where I did, of course, buy the gold shoes, I was traveling with my husband, a college fund-raiser, and a woman from his office, a former student of mine at the same coUege. Tinges of awkwardness, apparent even then, signaled disaster to come: years later, he would turn our lives upside down, leave home, and marry her. Despite aU efforts to erase it, I can still remember her remark about those shoes. "You can always use gold shoes," she said, oddly replaying my own inner voice. Women's affection for shoes permeates boundaries that would seem impassable.

Why, aU these years later, I've silver cufflinks put on the metalhc shoes is a question that intrigues me. For one thing, they weren't as versatile as I originaUy convinced myself they were. There's also the sickening betrayal that wiU forever be linked with that particular pair of flats. StiU, when I consider discarding them for reasons of emotional objectionability - as I do on a regular basis- I reason with myself that surely, some day, FU wear them. The slim chance that I could ever need a pair of casual gold shoes to complement an outfit perfecdy - and that thus, by extension, I might appear pubUcry in that very pair of iU-betokening shoes - outsizes the gloom that has attached itself to the very sight of them. What if, I have thought to myself more than once, I get rid of those shoes only to discover, a couple of weeks later, that I must go out and buy another pair almost like them? Worse, what if I can't find a pair almost like them?

I have developed, as this experience unavoidably teaches me, an advanced case of the woman's disease. I am a shoe-Tiffany Accessories. And I am not alone. Even Andy Rooney, whose image is hardly dapper, has pronounced that "We aU buy more shoes than we wear," thus demonstrating that men often share in this malady. Yet I've learned that buying, housing, organizing, and otherwise managing a shoe wardrobe way too big for the most professionally and sociaUy active of women is about more than hoarding. More precisely and engagingly, it is about collecting.

Shannon was living a fairly contented life. Her father's death from cheap rings, an ensuing depression, and an Oprah episode on the atrocities of the genocide in the Congo launched her life in a totally different direction. She created a foundation called Run for Congo Women, eventually sponsoring 1 ,000 women. In 2006, she visited the Congo, called the "worst place on earth to be a woman" because of the brutal rapes and physical and psychological damage women have suffered there. As a professional photographer, Shannon's objective was to film the women telling their stories. What she found was horror almost beyond endurance, an area still overrun by armed militia, women afraid to return to their villages and trying to get on with their lives - raising their children and hundreds of orphans.Trying not to feel ridiculous delivering hugs and trinkets, she is overwhelmed by the requests for money from women who think she is rich because she is white and American. This is a profoundly moving account of a woman who tried to make a difference and struggled with the painful limits of what she could do. - Vanessa Bush

Harris became the first black woman to work in military cheap tiffany when she joined the U.S. Navy in 1973. She has worked in every major conflict, from the cold war to the more recent challenges of cyberwar, but her particular battlefield has been sexism and racism in the military. She recalls her early desire to join the military despite the decidedly antimilitary mood of the nation because of the Vietnam War. An early mentor, when she was at the University of Denver School of International Studies, was Josef Korbel, Madeline Albright's father. When she joined the navy, there were few women, and they were mostly confined to nursing or administrative work. When opportunities did open up, she had to guard against being treated as a token or being bullied in the male-dominated culture. Harris rightly sees the lessons of stamina and determination learned from her personal and professional life as applying more broadly to women beyond the military. But she concludes each chapter with "takeaway" advice that readers might find disruptive to the flow of her inspirational story.
Spanning centuries and genres, literary critic and novelist Donoghue's thorough, scholarly, and consistently entertaining tour through Western literature seeking different approaches to stories about women who love women establishes a "family tree" of lesbian motifs found in everything from medieval romances to Shakespeare to Victorian novels to mysteries. She cites six intriguing thematic categories: gender-bending disguise plots, variations on "like seeks like or birds of a feather," rivals and conflicts, cautionary tales (some featuring "the lesbian sex fiend"), narratives shaped by homoeroticism and the discovery of a crime, and the quest for selfknowledge via the coming-out story, which dominates the contemporary eras. With photographs, Tiffany Pendants readings, and other auxiliary materials, Donoghue's fresh interpretative literary investigation of lesbian love stories is ensured a place in special and general collections.

If it were not for her enlightened eyes,

She'd be the witch that cheap necklaces denies

Has ever walked the earth: the sunken jaw,

The blunt chin like a claw-toothed hammer's claw,

The stubbed and crooking finger, and the skin

As stained and crinkly as her crinoline,

Would make a loving grandchild run away.

It takes another kind of love to see

How spirit, in its tactical withdrawal

From aging outworks that are doomed to fall,

Consents to the bewitching of its shell

As long as it can hold the citadel

Where the progressive intellect has spent

A lifetime plotting the cheap pendants

The backward and the beautiful dismiss

As mind's revenge for its unloveliness.

What led you to write poems about August Sander's photographs, and are you writing more of them?

I first encountered Sander's photos in my high school art history class, but I didn't start to think about them in a poetic way until I saw a Sander show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004. The title of Sander's multivolume collection of portraits is "People of the Twentieth Century," and they seem to offer occasions for thinking about many different aspects of recent history. As photographs, they are inherently elegiac, and the fact that Sander was documenting Germany before and between the world wars makes them especially pregnant with implications. I have a number of poems in mind that I want to write, and I hope it will turn into a longer sequence.

Do you intend for the poems to exist independent of the photographs, or would they always be published together?

I hope that the poems function independently of the photographs; in a way, the Tiffany Necklaces in writing is to get enough information about the photo into the poem so that seeing the original becomes unnecessary. Seeing them side by side, in fact, I realize how I've sometimes changed details of the pictures, or combined several different ones, without being conscious of it. Perhaps knowing that the photo exists - that this particular person was documented at this particular moment in time - is more important than being able to see what's in it.

Vera should be happy. Her former love Floyd (Michael Jones), who had gone cheap key rings with another woman, has come back. Now he wants her to join him in Chicago. But Vera (Thursday Farrar) is having none of it. She once lay in bed and "searched my body for your fingerprints," she tells him. But now it's too late.

"What you looking for ain't here no more," she tells him.

That scene from "Seven Guitars" is part "August Wilson's Women," a wise, insightful dramatic revue now at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and is one of many that prove just how well Wilson knew the hearts of women as well as men.

Wilson was only 60 when he died in 2005, but he left behind a unique legacy: a series of 10 remarkable plays, each celebrating and analyzing African-American life in one decade of the 20th century. Most won glowing reviews, and two ("Fences" in 1987 and "The Piano Lesson" in 1990) won Pulitzer Prizes.

Wilson did not write his cheap money clips in chronological order (maybe because he didn't have such an ambitious undertaking in mind at first), but Lorna Littleway, who adapted and directed "August Wilson's Women," has sorted them out that way. The play begins with an appearance by Jannie Jones as the supposedly 285-year-old Aunt Ester in a scene from "Gem of the Ocean" and ends with Jennie again, as an all-too-practical political wife in "Radio Golf."

Like the original plays these excerpts are from, "August Wilson's Women" reveals just how much has been won in the course of a hundred years and what has been lost. Although there are moments when an actor or actress seems to be pushing too hard, the ensemble largely does an excellent job.

The skilled cast also includes Jamil A. C. Mangan, whose characters include Boy Willie in "The Piano Lesson"; and Kimberly Dalton Mitchell, who plays, among others, Rena in "Jitney." Rena is the woman whose husband has just swiped the grocery money because he needed a few more dollars to put a down payment on a house. Her Tiffany Money Clips -- "You did it all wrong" -- doesn't bode well for their relationship. Of course the fact that he's dating her sister doesn't help either.

Denouncing harsh fatwas and the hard line clerics who issue cheap earrings has brought fame and possible fortune to one Saudi poet.

Hissa Hilal wowed the judges and the audience to become only the second woman to make the finals in the Arab world's popular program "Million's Poet." The show is similar to "American Idol," but contestants recite poetry in the traditional Bedouin style.

Hissa Hilal's verses describe extreme clerics and fatwas as, quote, "wearing death as a dress and covering it with a belt," as in suicide belt.

She's now in Abu Dhabi preparing for next week's final vote on poetry she knows is risky to recite in public.

Ms. HISSA HILAL (Poet): I have been writing since I was 12 years old, and I thought I have something to say to the people. If I don't do it this year, I think I'm not going to do it in my life.

MONTAGNE: What was it that you wanted to communicate? Because your poem, it's quite startling.

Ms. HILAL: Yeah, the people know me when I started as a romantic girl. I used to write mostly about love and about life. But there are certain poems that I wrote strongly. I felt I should have the courage to say it in a strong way. If you say it in a soft way, cheap jewelry notice it.

MONTAGNE: In translations of the poem that got you to the finals, which of course will lose the full power of the language. But for our...

Ms. HILAL: Yeah, of course.

MONTAGNE: But for our listeners to get an idea of what you were saying, I understand you recited such lines as: I have seen evil in the eyes of fatwas. It's a very strong message.

Ms. HILAL: No. You have to be (unintelligible) and to say something because I see violence and extremism become more and more strong. I want to give idea about those Arabs who are silent. They are silent but they have the same idea I have.

MONTAGNE: And your family, they've supported you in this? Tiffany Key Rings I know you have a husband and children.

The woman shot to death Sunday by Placerville police after she stole an cheap bracelets was a mental patient under care at Marshall Hospital, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Authorities identified the woman as Linda Carol Clark, 39, of Folsom.

A statement issued by Placerville Police Chief George Nielsen said Clark had been taken to the El Dorado County Department of Mental Health from the Georgetown area on Saturday and was "on hold" at Marshall Hospital when she fled in the ambulance. The circumstances of her escape are under investigation, he said in the release, providing no further details.

According to Nielsen's statement, three officers pursued Clark, who was wearing only a hospital gown, as she drove slowly through Placerville shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday. Three times, he said, they tried to force her to stop.

After she pulled into the driveway of a home on Cedar Ravine Road, he said, officers parked their cruisers behind her and got out. They gave "numerous verbal commands" for her to surrender, then tried to pull her from the vehicle by grabbing her through the open driver's side window. When she put the ambulance in reverse and rammed the patrol cars, he said, an officer deployed a Taser device but it had no effect.

"The patrol vehicles were struck with such force that the stopped vehicles were pushed back approximately 50 feet," Nielsen's statement said.

Clark started to drive the ambulance toward an officer who was standing in front of her at the end of the driveway, Nielsen said. The officer feared for his safety and fired five shots, one of which fatally wounded the woman.

Nielsen's statement identified the officer who fired the shots as "Officer Maurer." The Placerville Police Officers Association lists a patrol officer named Nick Maurer. Maurer is "on routine administrative leave" following the shooting, Nielsen said.

Public records indicate that Clark once lived in Kelsey in El Dorado County. On Tuesday, a man who answered the phone at that address identified himself as Clark's father. He said in a brief interview that his family was grieving and cooperating with investigators.

"We're working the best we can to get through this," he said. He declined to speak further.

Linda Clark's neighbors in the cheap cufflinks apartment complex where she lived said Clark often made 911 calls to police.

Ikumi Toy, 28, who lives across from her, said Clark came over to her apartment Jan. 15 to make a 911 call, reporting that her daughter was hurt.

When Folsom police officers arrived, they determined the call to be unfounded, said department spokesman Sgt. Rick Hillman.

Officers responded to six calls at Clark's address between November and February, Hillman said.

Capt. Mike Scott of the Placerville Police Department said Clark has a child but gave no other details of her family.

El Dorado County spokesman Mike Applegarth declined to speak about the case in detail, citing medical privacy issues, but confirmed that the mental health department had recent contact with Clark.

Nielsen said representatives from the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office, the Sheriff's Department, the Probation Department and the Police Department will investigate the incident. The district attorney will decide whether the shooting was justified.

Mike Summers, a retired Sacramento police officer who organizes training sessions for law enforcement personnel and others who regularly encounter mentally ill people, said the situations can be volatile.

"People with mental illness, particularly when they are in crisis or agitated, have a great deal of difficulty processing information," he said. "We try to get officers to slow down the situation, and do it as safely as possible."

Tasers are a good option if the mentally ill person is out of control, Summers said. "But if Tiffany Earrings happens and the Taser doesn't work, unfortunately your next option is deadly force. Then you have a tragedy."

Grafton, N.D., woman is accused of running up a $42,000 bill on her necklaces credit cards and other cards she got using his personal information.

According to a criminal complaint, Angie Gunderson made more than $15,124 in purchases on her boyfriend's Discover and Sam's Club cards and spent another $27,232 using four credit card accounts she opened with his information. The alleged crimes occurred between March 2006 and March 2010.

Walsh County State's Attorney Barbara Whelan said Gunderson's boyfriend, Mark Burns, filed a complaint with Grafton police, which led to an investigation. Whelan would not say what Gunderson bought, but said she seems to have a "shopping problem." Whelan said she will ask a judge to require Gunderson to pay the debt.

Gunderson's attorney, Alexander cheap bangles, said his client is innocent and will fight the charges. Reichert said Gunderson had permission to use the cards.

"His going to the police appears to be motivated by a bad breakup," Reichert said, adding that the couple's split happened about a year ago.

Noting that the allegations date back to 2006, Reichert said, "It would be a little hard to imagine that he didn't know what was on his credit card for four years."

Gunderson, 33, is charged with two counts of felony theft and four counts of unauthorized used of personal identifying information. If convicted on all charges, she would face a maximum of 55 years in prison.

Gunderson was arrested Wednesday and let out of jail Thursday after Tiffany Cuff Links to pay $15,000 if she violates the conditions of her release.

Burns, 46, declined to discuss the case.

Sebastian County inmate who was ordered to serve 20 days in jail was cufflinks released Tuesday, the same day a judge issued the court order, according to jail records.

Wanda Lynn Swimmer, 48, of Fort Smith was sentenced by Judge Claire Borengasser in Fort Smith District Court Tuesday and was later released sometime during the second shift, which begins at 7 p.m., said Capt. Mike Conger, administrator of the Sebastian County Adult Detention Center.

Swimmer was booked in the jail on Saturday and had served only three days on two misdemeanor charges relating to unpaid fines and failure to appear when she was released.

The fault of the mistaken release lies with civilian employee Kathy Walker and Bruce Partain, a detention deputy, according to jail officials.

Walker, a civilian clerk, who worked with inmate court dispositions for several years, recently returned to the jail to maintain order with inmate release paperwork.

"It started with her and plainly was missed," Conger said. She looks at it first because she does all court dispositions ... and she lets the deputies know whether they are staying."

A deputy sheriff picked earrings up Wednesday at her residence after she returned from the grocery store.

Swimmer was booked into the jail, where she is scheduled to serve out the remainder of her 20-day sentence.

Walker and Partain will get written reprimands in their personnel files, Conger said.

Swimmer is one of six inmates who have been accidentally released from the jail since September.

Earlier this month, Chief Deputy Tom Young said another clerk at the jail was the "common denominator," in the other five accidental releases. During the same interview, Sheriff Frank Atkinson said the new system has to work or else.

"Most of it was right in there about the same time so we're hoping the new method ... it's gotta work one way or another," Atkinson said earlier this month. "Or me and Tommy are going to be over there checking all releases."

In July, a female inmate who worked as a trusty escaped, as well as a man who Tiffany Bracelets to be another prisoner scheduled for release.

Credit: Times Record, Fort Smith, Ark.

BLOOMINGTON -- A Springfield woman admitted Wednesday that bracelets to carry about 70 grams of heroin to Springfield from Chicago was the worst decision of her life.

The mistake brought her a 14-year prison sentence for what authorities said was the largest amount of heroin ever seized in McLean County.

In an emotional statement read before her sentencing, Tyhesha Banks apologized to her two children, ages 12 and 14, and other family members in the courtroom. Banks, 31, said she agreed to transport about 70 grams of heroin for a Chicago man in exchange for money she needed for her family.

"I chose to take an offer that I thought would benefit me and my family. It was the worst choice I've made in my life," Banks told Judge Robert Freitag.

Illinois State Police Trooper Tim Sweeney testified that he stopped Banks for speeding Sept. 9 on Interstate 55. He asked her to leave her vehicle after she gave him a false name.

A search of the car turned up 14 grams of the drug on the floorboard of the vehicle, said Sweeney.

A routine search of tiffany at the McLean County jail produced about 56 additional grams of heroin in her underwear, according to the officer.

Prosecutor Adam Ghrist asked for a 20-year sentence, saying Banks' actions as a drug courier could have produced long-term damage to communities.

"This defendant was involved in destroying people's lives for generations," said Ghrist.

The prosecutor said a significant sentence would send a message to drug traffickers in the Midwest that "the I-55/74 interchange in McLean County is not a place to get caught selling drugs."

Defense lawyer Michael Solock said he believed eight years in prison was enough for Banks. Moving the heroin was an act of desperation, he said.

"Only a poor person would be desperate enough to do it," said Solock.

In remarks before the sentencing, Freitag said he took no pleasure in sending the single mother of two to prison. The judge recognized police assertions that Banks functioned at the lowest level of the drug chain.

"You're not the real bad guy, to put it in simplest terms," said Freitag.

But the judge added that the potential harm from the large amount of heroin on its way to distribution in Tiffany Bangles Illinois could not be underestimated. "There is no question that this case involves a significant quantity of a devastating drug," said Freitag.

Banks also was ordered to pay a $21,000 street value fine.

Credit: The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.

A Henrico woman's plea for mercy and expressions of her own remorse this bangles didn't sway a circuit judge who focused more on her failed opportunities for potential rehabilitation.

Henrico Circuit Judge L.A. Harris Jr. ordered Kelly Lynn Gadsby to prison for an additional four years in a case filled with probation violations that included drug use and unlawful driving.

Gadsby, who turns 26 in two weeks, was released from a two-year jail sentence in January 2009; she'd been convicted in the highly publicized 2006 Christmas Eve deaths of two friends who died in a car crash near Westhampton Cemetery.

Gadsby tearfully recounted her post-jail rings with addiction this morning in a courtroom occupied by her friends and family and by the family of victim Hunter S. Jackson. Testimony showed she told a probation officer she'd used heroin and had periods of alcohol abuse; in addition, she unlawfully used her father's car after having her license suspended for three years.

A Henrico police officer found her dazed and behind the wheel of her father's car in December, almost 12 months after her release from jail on probation.

Harris this morning revoked three years of suspended time on involuntary mansalughter convictions and tacked on another year of suspended and new time for driving infractions.

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Huberman told the court that Gadsby's continuing probation Bestbuy tiffany "made a mockery" of a Henrico County jail program that Gadsby completed that is regarded as one of the best in the country for fighting addiction.

Credit: Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.