Frank White

I was never particularly interested in 19th-century literature. There were so many things our English teachers didn't tell us, especially when it came to the counterculture underground books of the Victorian era. They never mentioned that Charles Dickens, for instance, wrote his last novel stoned. Several key scenes in The Mystery of Edwin Drood were set in an opium den and hash lounge. Or they'd ramble on and on about John Greenleaf Whittier's "Snowbound," never mentioning his interesting little poem "The Haschich." Sometimes we'd get maybe an hour of English class devoted to an excerpt from Thomas De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater (1822), because it was the first great English drug tale and influenced all the Romantic writers. But we never heard about, America's first great drug writer, Fitz Hugh Ludlow.

Even Donald Trump was once a child. The fact that he still behaves like one doesn’t mean he still is one. To understand the man, it is best to start at the beginning. A young, impressionable Trump was one of five children. Neither the baby nor the eldest, he did not immediately inherit a title other than “one of the other three middle children.” That is not to say he did not show some interesting prowess at a very young age. Never backing down from a rivalry was a part of his DNA. Unafraid of authority, he never saw teachers as a threat and was not afraid to make his points physically. A closer look at the following childhood attributes of the iconic mogul reveals a great deal about the egomaniacal adult.

High tuition, can be a thing of the past for college graduates. When your parents have had enough of you, there is a new daddy or mommy waiting for willing sugar baby wannabes. Apparently I have been a bit busy with a few things recently and didn't realize this old vocation had found a new platform.

An Amazonian Indian paddles a heavy canoe downriver, deep in the hold of South America. The Tunchis, spirits of the dead, call out to him in the medium of bird whistles from the jungle banks. Chullachi, a monster of unequal legs and horrible face, stalks the rain forest in search of victims. Beneath the canoe, in the murky depths, is Yacuruna—the Emperor of the waters and of the Indian dead. He is the devil of Amazonia, an amphibious creature who reigns from an underwater crystal palace. Yacuruna is ensconced in a tortoise Shell throne. He rests in a den of gazelle feathers, protected by a netting of butterfly wings woven by lightning bugs. His servants are a fleet of dolphins which change into human form so they can lure people to the kingdom of the river bed. Yacuruna, himself, often adopts the guise of a Christian spreading sin among the Indians.

An often divisive superhero television series, Gotham is a show to be binged on. It is a fantastic voyage into the setting of the stage for what would be one of the most iconic superheroes ever, from comic book to TV to movies. Batman is a legendary hero. A hall of famer. And so is the city that created him. Gotham the series is less superhero TV than it is cops chasing bad guys. But the bad guys are not your common criminals. The bad guys are the stars of the show, and they are ruthless sociopaths who bask in the violent drama of gang warfare. Gotham is the story of a few good men just beginning a battle that will take many lives and last many years until a boy becomes a man and a city can take no more bloodshed.

Gurus have become synonymous with intellects, leaders or spiritual guides. In Hinduism, a spiritual teacher who passed on the knowledge of the Vedas (a body of liturgical literature) was a guru. Many ancient gurus, were believed to be the living embodiments of a particular deity's spiritual truth. Their words of wisdom ring true in a world where many of us question contemporary leadership and society's spirituality. Guru quotes inspire us to look deeper within ourselves for spiritual guidance.