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Features stories for Sunday, November 22, 2009

Mealtime at Miryam's

When you are a drug user and alcoholic, as Kitty Coleman was for 27 of her 41 years, you hang out in dark places that smell of unwashed people, and the food is junk – convenience store burritos, macaroni flavored with mayonnaise.

Don't ignore the realities

The theoretical dinner party is a Spokane social staple.Mulling the guest list, planning the menu and imagining the conversation are all time-honored steps leading up to the eventual decision to bag it.

No 'Snorah' for Norah

Indie-rock producer Jacquire King had long been an admirer of Norah Jones' smoky, seductive voice.

Look inward to find purpose

Dear Carolyn: My younger sister, "Alexis," is a college sophomore, and in the last year or so has gotten very into drinking with her friends (she is underage). It started because she is in a small town and said there was "nothing else to do on the weekends." In the past when friends drank, she would tell them they were being stupid and irresponsible. She now thinks it is funny to see her friends acting drunk, and has told me about their exploits on occasion.

Horoscope

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009:This year, you are more upbeat and creative than you have been in years. You will verbalize your concerns. Your charisma builds, and you transform your style. One friendship could be strained this year. If single, you'll meet people with ease. If attached, the two of you draw closer together. Aquarius brings out your chatty side.

Standout centerpieces

Thanksgiving is that special time when we gather with family and friends to share a great meal together.

New alarm systems offer peace of mind

This holiday season, many travelers will be able to keep a close eye on home.Thanks to new security system technology, including live video feed, you can monitor everything from the front door to the sump pump from hundreds of miles away.

Channels can seal drafty, loose windows

Q. Our house is about 60 years old and has the original wood, double-hung windows. Several of the windows are drafty and loose, and rattle when the wind blows. A couple of these won't stay open unless I prop them with a stick. I can't afford new windows now and wonder if there is a less expensive way to fix them. Can you help?

Home Calendar

Arts/Crafts
Custer's Christmas Arts and Crafts Show - 33rd annual event featuring more than 300 artists and crafters. Today, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Spokane County Fair and Expo Center, 404 N. Havana St., Spokane Valley. $6/all weekend; free/age 12 and younger. (509) 924-0588

Marlowe lands mobster role in locally filmed 'Big Bang'

The Spokane-filmed Antonio Banderas movie, "The Big Bang," doesn't just have Hollywood names (Sam Elliott), rap stars (Snoop Dogg) and up-and-coming Brits (Sienna Guillory).

Lopez, Lambert acts top tonight's AMA show

Jennifer Lopez plans to include fireworks and an on-stage costume change in tonight's American Music Awards performance.

Movies

In Spokane
2012 - NorthTown Mall: 11:20 a.m., 11:50 a.m., 3:05, 3:35, 6:30, 7:05, 9:55, 10:25. River Park Square: 10:40 a.m., 11:15 a.m., 12:30, 2:05, 3, 4:15, 5:30, 6:30, 7:45, 9, 10. Spokane Valley Mall: 10:05 a.m., 12:25, 1:25, 3:45, 4:45, 7:05, 8:05, 10:25. Airway Heights: noon, 3, 6:10, 9:10. Wandermere: noon, 12:40, 3, 3:40, 6:10, 6:40, 9:10, 9:40.

Social Calendar

Women and Children's Free Restaurant Benefit - Music by Sammy Eubanks. Wednesday, 8 p.m., Bluz at the Bend, 2721 N. Market St. Bring donations of cash or nonperishable food items.

Big Read's pick: 'Mockingbird'

Get ready to immerse yourself in the world of Atticus Finch and Scout.Spokane's Big Read in 2010 will be "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. This community-wide reading project will be supplemented by a number of talks and other activities, beginning Feb. 16 and lasting for a month.

King's latest will leave you shaking

Brought to you this month in popular culture: the apocalypse.On the one hand, there's "2012," the new movie about those Mayan prophesies of doom for Dec. 21, 2012, with stunning CGI effects so realistic and horrifying they'll have you begging for your mommy.

Best sellers

Fiction
1. "Under the Dome," Stephen King (Scribner, $35)

Literary Calendar

Among local literary events over the coming week (free unless otherwise indicated): Sharon Cramer - Signing her book "Cougar Cub Tales: Lost and Alone." Today, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Hastings, 101 Best Ave., Coeur d'Alene. (208) 664-0464

American Life in Poetry

I love poems in which the central metaphors are fresh and original. Here's a marvelous, coiny description of autumn by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck, who lives in Illinois.

Blood money

FORKS, Wash. – For some reason, Randy Lato's "Vampire Voyages" boat trips just haven't brought in the big tourist bucks yet. He hasn't quite worked out a plausible connection between fishing and the fictional "Twilight" series author Stephenie Meyer set in this little Olympic Peninsula town. "I've only read two books in my entire life," Lato said – and "Twilight" wasn't one of them. (Although it's his understanding that heroine Bella's dad was a pretty good fisherman.) So when people ask what fishing has to do with vampires, Lato says, "We're going to float down the damn river looking for vampires climbin' up the trees just like in the movies." He exemplifies the major blessing and slight curse that the "Twilight" book and movie series – "New Moon," the latest installment, opened Friday – has become to this town of 3,000 or so.

Travel the globe? Don't bet on it

Pity the lowly snow globe with white flakes raining down on a snowman or Santa Claus tucked inside its dome.

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