Soup Kitchen

From soup kitchen director Rita Baldwin's perspective, the notion that "homeless people are the scum of the earth" has returned to her Gulf Coast town, which still struggles four years after Hurricane Katrina. Baldwin -- formerly homeless herself -- found that "the storm was a great neutralizer. It put us all on the same level." That social pendulum is swinging back to the pre-Katrina world, she said, but she added that the community has shown a renewed sense of compassion. Baldwin, executive director of the Loaves and Fishes community kitchen in Biloxi, Mississippi, lost her home in Katrina as the storm barreled into the coastal community in 2005.

When printing company owner John Kanis jokingly came up with his "Sore-Loserman" takeoff on the Gore-Lieberman campaign bumper stickers, he had no idea how well his idea might stick with the voting public. He also had no idea how long the presidential contest itself would stick around. But as that contest continues undecided more than three weeks after the election, its longevity has teamed up with Kanis' brainchild to tickle the nation's funny bone while creating a windfall for a Newport, Kentucky, soup kitchen.

Jennifer Staple runs the Unite For Sight program which started in the U.S., but has branched out into working overseas. Regarding sight as a fundamental human right that most people take for granted, the program aims to tackle a range of visual impairments that affect people across the world. Jennifer will be traveling to Ghana and then India, taking volunteers to continue the work of Unite For Sight. Keep up with her experiences in her blogs and video diaries. September 24, 2007 For three years while I was a college student at Yale University, I organized groups of students to provide vision screenings in soup kitchens in New Haven, Connecticut.

Homeless people got a boost in New York City on Christmas Day, receiving coats at one facility for the homeless and a visit at another by Archbishop Edward Egan. And in Los Angeles, Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds were among celebrities who helped serve dinner to the homeless at the Midnight Mission. Egan stopped by the Church of St. Francis Xavier's soup kitchen to greet volunteers, serve food and sit and talk with some of the city's homeless for a while. The soup kitchen served up a turkey dinner on tables adorned with baskets of bread and fruit.

President Bush toured a soup kitchen and social service center Thursday as he made a call to rally "the armies of compassion" through his faith-based funding initiative. "I wish I knew the law that says, 'Love a neighbor like you liked to be loved yourself.' I'd sign it if that would mandate that to happen," Bush told a crowd at St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church. "But I think of all nations of the world, we understand that law comes from a higher calling than government. And the great challenge for our nation is to rally what I call the armies of compassion all across America so that nobody is left behind.

In Harvard Yard, that younger generation, you may have heard, is only interested in money. Here, though, everybody's in training to be an unpaid camp counselor: volunteering their time to do good works, as do fully three out of five college students, according to a new national survey. What 90 percent of the students were not interested in was spending time on politics. College students are disillusioned, distrustful, often downright disgusted about politics, according to a new study, conducted here at Harvard by the Institute of Politics.

Get solutions to tackle the trickiest of holiday situations from this etiquette panel. Friends or family? Question: I'm single, and my siblings are married with kids. I've begun to dread going home to my family and their "why aren't you married?" questions. This Christmas, I want to go to a cabin in the woods with friends, where I will be happier. My mother says I am punishing the family. Am I? Answer: "Your family tradition may have outlived its purpose. Can you make a deal with your mother?

Of all the repellent interpretations of 9/11, Jay McInerney builds his new novel, "The Good Life," a follow-up to 1992's "Brightness Falls," around one of the slimiest: September 11 as soul-cleansing for privileged New Yorkers. "The Good Life" begins on September 10, as Corrine Calloway and her philandering editor husband, Russell (we know he's a rat because he buys pink Peruvian salt and wears a Chez Panisse apron), throw an artsy party in their Tribeca loft. Guests guzzle Italian wine and say things like "I grew up in the era of the existential hero" and "Jim believes in cutting back on necessities, but he can't imagine drinking Moet.

1. Pack your lunch: Instead of spending $10 on a sandwich that you don't really enjoy, bring your lunch from home -- you'll save money (which can then be spent, guilt-free, on martinis at the end of the week), you'll hopefully eat healthier, and you can use up leftovers instead of letting them rot away in your fridge. 2. Call your mom for no reason: It's easy to go days and weeks without phoning home because of how busy we all are with work, but make it your mission to call your mom for no other reason than just to say, "Hi, what's new?"

From Moscow Bureau Chief Eileen OConnor;SARAJEVO, BosniaHerzegovina CNN They line up every morning Serbs, some Muslims and Croats in a Sarajevo soup kitchen. They are wars most vulnerable the old.;Now a measure of help is finally arriving. The German Red Cross GRC, under the auspices of the International Red Cross, has been there before. But since April, with their supply lines cut by Bosnian Serb forces, there was little they could do.;The GRCs Anne Maria Kost said that even now they cannot do enough.

From soup kitchen director Rita Baldwin's perspective, the notion that "homeless people are the scum of the earth" has returned to her Gulf Coast town, which still struggles four years after Hurricane Katrina. Baldwin -- formerly homeless herself -- found that "the storm was a great neutralizer. It put us all on the same level." That social pendulum is swinging back to the pre-Katrina world, she said, but she added that the community has shown a renewed sense of compassion. Baldwin, executive director of the Loaves and Fishes community kitchen in Biloxi, Mississippi, lost her home in Katrina as the storm barreled into the coastal community in 2005.

Get solutions to tackle the trickiest of holiday situations from this etiquette panel. Friends or family? Question: I'm single, and my siblings are married with kids. I've begun to dread going home to my family and their "why aren't you married?" questions. This Christmas, I want to go to a cabin in the woods with friends, where I will be happier. My mother says I am punishing the family. Am I? Answer: "Your family tradition may have outlived its purpose. Can you make a deal with your mother?

Jennifer Staple runs the Unite For Sight program which started in the U.S., but has branched out into working overseas. Regarding sight as a fundamental human right that most people take for granted, the program aims to tackle a range of visual impairments that affect people across the world. Jennifer will be traveling to Ghana and then India, taking volunteers to continue the work of Unite For Sight. Keep up with her experiences in her blogs and video diaries. September 24, 2007 For three years while I was a college student at Yale University, I organized groups of students to provide vision screenings in soup kitchens in New Haven, Connecticut.

Of all the repellent interpretations of 9/11, Jay McInerney builds his new novel, "The Good Life," a follow-up to 1992's "Brightness Falls," around one of the slimiest: September 11 as soul-cleansing for privileged New Yorkers. "The Good Life" begins on September 10, as Corrine Calloway and her philandering editor husband, Russell (we know he's a rat because he buys pink Peruvian salt and wears a Chez Panisse apron), throw an artsy party in their Tribeca loft. Guests guzzle Italian wine and say things like "I grew up in the era of the existential hero" and "Jim believes in cutting back on necessities, but he can't imagine drinking Moet.

President Bush toured a soup kitchen and social service center Thursday as he made a call to rally "the armies of compassion" through his faith-based funding initiative. "I wish I knew the law that says, 'Love a neighbor like you liked to be loved yourself.' I'd sign it if that would mandate that to happen," Bush told a crowd at St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church. "But I think of all nations of the world, we understand that law comes from a higher calling than government. And the great challenge for our nation is to rally what I call the armies of compassion all across America so that nobody is left behind.

Homeless people got a boost in New York City on Christmas Day, receiving coats at one facility for the homeless and a visit at another by Archbishop Edward Egan. And in Los Angeles, Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds were among celebrities who helped serve dinner to the homeless at the Midnight Mission. Egan stopped by the Church of St. Francis Xavier's soup kitchen to greet volunteers, serve food and sit and talk with some of the city's homeless for a while. The soup kitchen served up a turkey dinner on tables adorned with baskets of bread and fruit.

When printing company owner John Kanis jokingly came up with his "Sore-Loserman" takeoff on the Gore-Lieberman campaign bumper stickers, he had no idea how well his idea might stick with the voting public. He also had no idea how long the presidential contest itself would stick around. But as that contest continues undecided more than three weeks after the election, its longevity has teamed up with Kanis' brainchild to tickle the nation's funny bone while creating a windfall for a Newport, Kentucky, soup kitchen.

In Harvard Yard, that younger generation, you may have heard, is only interested in money. Here, though, everybody's in training to be an unpaid camp counselor: volunteering their time to do good works, as do fully three out of five college students, according to a new national survey. What 90 percent of the students were not interested in was spending time on politics. College students are disillusioned, distrustful, often downright disgusted about politics, according to a new study, conducted here at Harvard by the Institute of Politics.

From Moscow Bureau Chief Eileen OConnor;SARAJEVO, BosniaHerzegovina CNN They line up every morning Serbs, some Muslims and Croats in a Sarajevo soup kitchen. They are wars most vulnerable the old.;Now a measure of help is finally arriving. The German Red Cross GRC, under the auspices of the International Red Cross, has been there before. But since April, with their supply lines cut by Bosnian Serb forces, there was little they could do.;The GRCs Anne Maria Kost said that even now they cannot do enough.