Word: pleasants
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...ages of 4 and 12 through songs they know by heart (Good News, Jesus Died for Me!) and a Bible lesson ("Heaven's a perfect place. And Jesus wants you to live there!"). It sounds and feels like Sunday school, but it's Wednesday. This is the meeting of Pleasant Gap Elementary's Good News Club, a weekly event on school property, run by an outfit called the Child Evangelism Fellowship...
...sustain interest in the club, leaders use every imaginable child enticement: colorful Jesus dolls, cheery songs and mountains of sugar. The Pleasant Gap session starts with a round of cookies. At another club nearby, kids who answer scriptural questions get pelted with candy fired out of a spring-loaded catapult. Children get $1 in fake money for coming and $2 for bringing a friend. Every few months, they can redeem the "money" for--guess what?--more candy...
Detractors are also afraid that young kids might confuse a club event with science class, concluding that school authorities vouch for both. Ashley, a Pleasant Gap fifth-grader who has attended Good News Clubs for four years, does not appear to realize that the club's warnings about damnation are not made by her public school. She says the club is led by "my teachers and members of my church." And in her case, as with some other clubs, she is not entirely wrong--one of the club leaders is also a full-time teacher's aide...
...pardons investigation as well as the probe of New Jersey Sen. Robert Torricelli. In the Marc Rich portion of the pardons inquiry, former White House counsel and Rich lobbyist Jack Quinn testified before the grand jury a total of four times - and none of the occasions were pleasant. Two Texans who claim they were defrauded by Roger Clinton, the former president's brother, are scheduled to testify in June. In the Torricelli probe, prosecutors are trying to amass enough physical and other evidence to overcome the fact that the senator's chief accuser, David Chang, is a known and profligate...
Pink-slip parties have become regular events over the past year in San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Denver and Tel Aviv, Israel, where losing a job is actually the most pleasant type of firing taking place in that country. Back in March, I tried to go to one in Manhattan thrown by a group of Web consultants called the Hired Guns, but when I showed up at Rebar at 8 p.m. I found two guys with power tools and surgeon's masks taking the place apart. You don't have to be Alan Greenspan to know...