Eminem, one of the world’s most controversial rap stars, has remarried his ex-wife, Kim. The two have been in love since they were schoolmates* in Detroit, USA. Their daughter Hailie was born in 1995, and they got married in 1999. It was a troubled marriage.Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, wrote more than one song in which he fantasized about killing her. In “’97 Bonnie and Clyde” he sang “Here, you wanna help da-da* tie a rope around this rock/ We’ll tie it to her footsie* and then we’ll roll her off* the dock.” Then he was arrested* for pulling a gun on a barman who was kissing her, and was sentenced* to 2 years probation*. Shortly after that, she tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists. He has a tattoo on his chest which says “Kim: Rot in Pieces.” They were divorced in 2001. Most of the guests were family members, though several key figures* were either not invited or chose not to attend,* including Marshall Mathers' mother, his maternal grandmother, and Kimberly Mathers' twin sister, Dawn Scott.

Vocabulary:
to threaten - drohen, bedrohen
schoolmate - Klassenkamerade
da-da - daddy
footsie - foot
roll off - abrollen, abwälzen
to be arrested - festgenommen werden
to be sentenced to sth. - zu etwas verurteilt werden
probation - Bewährung
key figure - Schlüsselfigur
attend - beiwohnen,erscheinen

Question for discussion:
Will the 2nd time be better?

Kim and Marshall know each other since high school

Brownies With White Chocolate And Walnuts*

Ingredients:
125 g butter
100 g dark chocolate
100 g plain flour*
200 g sugar
pinch of salt
2 eggs
100 g walnuts, roughly chopped*
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100 g white chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat your oven. Spread* butter in a deep baking dish and line with parchment paper.* Melt* butter and chocolate. Stir* until smooth. Remove the mixture from the heat. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla. Then add nuts and white chocolate, mix gently* and pour into* the prepared pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool* completely. Store* it in an airtight* container.*

Vocabulary:
walnut - Walnuss, Baumnuss (schweiz.)
flour - Mehl
roughly chopped - grob gehackt
to spread - auftragen, bestreichen
parchment paper - Pergament Papier
to melt - schmelzen
to stir - umrühren

Check out the fully loaded gourmet Brownie

Movie Stars and Rock Musicians have a long history of giving their children strange* names. Gwyneth Paltrow has a daughter named Apple. Frank Zappa named one of his sons Dweezil and one of his daughters Moon Unit. Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof does not approve.* “I hate ridiculous* names, my weird name has haunted* me all my life,” the daughter of Rock Star and Live Aid organizer Bob Geldof and British TV announcer* Paula Yates (deceased)* said recently. Peaches, who is 16 years old, writes for newspapers and magazines in England and recently hosted* a TV show. She has two sisters, Fifi Trixibelle, 22, and Pixie, 14, and a half sister, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily, who is 9.

Peaches Geldof on the right

Vocabulary:
to hate - hassen
strange - weird (seltsam)
to approve - befürworten, anerkennen
ridiculous - lächerlich
to haunt - verfolgen
announcer - Ansager, Fernsehsprecher
deceased - verstorben
to host - moderieren, veranstalten
Question for discussion:

Are unusual names good or bad for children?

Would you like to have an unusual name?

Stjepan Lizacic, 56, a Croatian lumberjack* who recently had a kidney transplant, is suing* his local health authority for giving him a female kidney. “The kidney transplant saved my life, but they never warned me about the side effects,” he said. “I have developed a strange passion for female jobs like ironing,* sewing,* washing dishes, sorting clothes in wardrobes and even knitting.*” He says he has become a laughing stock* and his life has changed from enjoying heavy drinking sessions with his friends to preferring housework after the operation. Before the kidney transplant, he said, he would not have been seen dead doing the housework, and expected his wife to do it all, but now found it both relaxing and fulfilling.* He said: “My wife is the only one that is pleased. I do most of the housework now, and I blame* the hospital that transplanted me the kidney of a 50-year-old woman instead of a man’s kidney.” His wife Radmila added: “If the new feminine side to him is confined to* housework I am very happy, I only hope he doesn’t start looking at other men.”

Vocabulary:

kidney - Niere
lumberjack - Holzfäller
to sue - verklagen
to iron - bügeln
to sew - nähen
to knit - stricken
laughing stock - Witzfigur
fulfilling - erfüllend
to blame - beschuldigen, vorwerfen
to be confined to - an etwas gefesselt sein

A lumberjack is often considered a masculine job

Question for discussion:
Is this a frivolous lawsuit?

Stockholm is going to put library book dispensers* on the city’s underground rail system to encourage* commuters* to read. Automatic book dispensers will be installed on station platforms.* Commuters will be able to stick* their library card into the ‘bookomatic’ and choose from up to 700 titles. Martin Hafström, a spokesman for the City Library, said the idea was to reach out* to people who don’t normally read books. He said: “We want to expand* interest both in reading and in literature in general. I think that this is an interesting experiment, since Stockholm has the country’s biggest public transport network.”

A book dispenser in Santiago de Chile

Vocabulary:
dispenser - Austeiler, Automat
to encourage - anregen, ermutigen
commuter - Pendler
platform - Bahnsteig, Perron (schweiz.)
stick - reinstecken
to reach out - to try to connect with
to expand - ausbauen, ausweiten

Question for discussion:

Do you read books when you are using public transportation?

A kindergarten teacher in Dresden, Germany may lose her job because school authorities don’t approve of* her other job. Denise Proell works at night as a striptease dancer.
Proell, 19, works for a nursery school that is run by a church during the day and wants to make a life-long career out of working with children. But she also enjoys her job as a stripper. “It turns me on when lots of men admire* my naked body. It’s a total contrast to my main job,” she said. “Denise is one of my best girls, and is naturally talented. Her garter* is always stuffed* with notes,” her boss at the strip club, Wolle Foerster, 51, said. But her boss at the indergarten, Kate Gorecki, 59, does not see things the same way. “This is unacceptable behavior* for one of our teachers, we cannot tolerate it. There are going to be serious consequences.” Proell would like to continue doing both jobs. “As well as working at the kindergarten, I’m also studying to become a fully qualified teacher so that I can one day open my own nursery school, which is why I need the extra money,” she said.

Vocabulary:
to be fired - gefeuert werden
to approve of - etwas akzeptieren
to admire - bewundern
garter - Strumpfband
stuffed - gefüllt
unacceptable behavior - unzumutbares Benehmen

Should teachers be allowed to strip?

Burrowing* moles have led* archaeologists to the discovery of a Romano-British villa. Researchers found farm buildings and an ornate* bath house while they were investigating* mosaic tiles* which were brought to the surface by a colony of Cotswold moles. They were particularly surprised to find the 3rd or 4th century settlement* because it is only 280 meters from another large villa from the same period. It is very unusual for two to be so close together. Experts working for a British TV program made the discoveries after Roger Box, a former forensic archaeologist, notified* them about the Roman mosaic tiles in a field at the end of his garden. Mr. Box believes that the complex could be comparable in size to the Chedworth villa, which the National Trust runs as a tourist attraction five kilometers away. He said: “The moles can be a real pain. * Those that wreck* my garden are sworn* enemies but those on the other side of the river have turned out to be* amateur archaeologists and so, they are my friends.”

Vocabulary:
to discover - entdecken
burrowing - verbergende
lead (past: led) - führen
ornate - verziert
to investigate - untersuchen, erforschen
tile - Dachziegel
settlement - Siedlung
to notify - benachrichtigen
pain - problem
to wreck - zerstören, vernichten
sworn - eingeschwört
turn out to be - sich erweisen, sich als etw./jmnd herausstellen
digger - Ausgräber

Question for discussion: Do you like moles?

Austrian mountain climber* Heinrich Harrer, whose life was portrayed in his book and the film “Seven Years in Tibet,” died recently in hospital, at the age of 93. Among mountain climbers, he is famous as the first person to climb the difficult north face of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps in 1938. For everyone else in the world, he is famous for his book, which was made into a film starring Brad Pitt. Harrer was interned in northern India by British authorities in 1939 during an expedition in the Himalayas but escaped* in 1944 and fled over the mountain range to Tibet.
He struck up* a close friendship with the Dalai Lama when staying at the Tibetan capital of Lhasa from 1946 to 1951, before China annexed the country. He and the Dalai Lama remained friends for life. British independent researcher* Roger Croston, who has written about Tibet and knew Harrer personally, said the Austrian mountain climber spent much of his life supporting* the cause of the Tibetan people.

Vocabulary:
mountain climber - Bergsteiger
to escape - flüchten
fled - past tense of flee
struck up - past tense of strike up (to start)
researcher - Forscher
support - Unterstützung

Question for
discussion:
Did you see “Seven Years In Tibet”?

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"

Brad Pitt (star of “7 years in Tibet,” “Legends of the Fall,” and “Meet Joe Black”) and Angelina Jolie (“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”), who many people consider* the most beautiful couple in the world, are expecting* a baby. The two have been close since Pitt’s divorce from “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston last year, although they denied* the relationship for a long time and still deny that Jolie was the cause of the divorce. Pitt and Jolie met while filming “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” an action comedy about professional killers. Jolie already has two adopted children. The boy is Maddox, 4, from Cambodia. She adopted him while she was married to actor Billy Bob Thornton (“Slingblade,” “ Bad Santa”). The girl is Zahara, 2, from Ethiopia. Their last name was recently legally changed to Jolie-Pitt, even though Brad and Angelina are not yet married. It has been reported that they plan to name their baby, which is due* in May, William if it is a boy, but Pitt and Jolie have not confirmed* that. Pitt’s real full name is William Bradley Pitt Jr. So, how did Jennifer Aniston react? According to someone close to Ms. Aniston, Brad called to tell her himself. "Jen's a class act,*” the source* said. “She told Brad she wished him and Angie all the happiness in the world, and said she hoped the baby would be healthy and Angie's pregnancy* would go smoothly, too. But after she hung up she cried her eyes out." It was rumored* that the reason for the Pitt/Aniston break up was her reluctance* to have children, which she has strongly denied.

Vocabulary:
to consider - in Betracht ziehen, betrachten als
to be expecting - erwarten
to deny - abstreiten, dementieren
to be due - fällig sein
to confirm - bestätigen
class act - a high class person
source - Quelle
pregnancy - Schwangerschaft
hang up (past: hung) - aufhängen
to cry one's eyes out - sich die Augen aus dem Kopf heulen
rumor - Gerücht
reluctance - Abneigung, Widerstreben

Question for discussion:
Who is better looking: Aniston or Jolie?

Jennifer Aniston	Angelina Jolie

Growing a home from living trees instead of building a home from trees which have been cut down is the goal* of a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the USA. Architects Mitchell Joachim and Javier Arbona, along with ecological engineer Lara Greden, propose* a home that is actually an ecosystem. The new home is more than just so-called green design — building with materials that have a low impact* on the environment* and human health.
"Not only does it do zero damage,* but it will hopefully clean the air," said Joachim. The home is based on an ancient* gardening method known as pleaching, which weaves* together tree branches to form living archways,* lattices* or screens.*

Vocabulary:
goal - Ziel
to propose - beabsichtigen, bezwecken
impact - Auswirkung, Einfluss
environment - Umwelt
damage - Schaden
ancient - alt, altertümlich
weave - Bindung
archway - Bogengang, Torbogen
lattice - Gitterwerk, Netz
screen - Abschirmung, Sieb

Question for discussion?
Would you like to live there?