Are your olfactories overjoyed by oenology? We called wine director Jennifer Malone-Seixas, sommelier at New York's elegant Fleur De Sel restaurant, to ask her about words related to wine:

Legs. "They're a factor in examining a wine, something you discover before you taste it. When you swirl a glass you'll see the drips of wine sheeting off the sides -- those are the legs."

Weight. "When I'm talking about a full bodied wine or a wine moving in that direction I'll say it has a lot of weight to it. It's a palette-related comment."

Texture. "When we say a wine is surprisingly smooth or surprisingly velvety we're referring to its texture."

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Jon Franklin is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning writer and distinguished journalism professor at the University of Maryland, and the author of the classic writing book Writing for Story. He's a pioneer in applying the literary techniques of fiction to nonfiction stories. We had a fascinating conversation with Jon about writing creative nonfiction.

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Garr Reynolds, the author of a terrific blog on communicating through presentations called Presentation Zen, posted a list of some of his favorite reads on the subject. But he says, "ironically, the books are not about presentations." The following are a few of his suggestions. To read the entire list please click here.

The Zen of Creativity

If You Want to Write

The Laws of Simplicity

A Whole New Mind

I am an incurable optimist by trade. But even I began to see visions of glasses half-full when first one, then two, then three, then four, then five years passed without a book sale. During that time, I was losing my beloved maternal grandmother, on top of some other personal stressors. Let's just say, I was safely off the chart on sad.

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Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle board of directors, lists its members' favorite books of 2006. Critic Bruce Allen talks about his:

"The one book of 2006 that I would urge readers not to miss is Edward P. Jones's second short story collection All Aunt Hagar's Children. It's easy to lose track of Jones, who publishes so infrequently. But his first collection Lost in the City and Pulitzer-winning novel The Known World are genuine classics: richly detailed, brilliantly imagined explorations of Afro-American life, both as history and as images of the here and now, that are unsurpassed in our fiction."

To read about more books, check out the website here.

When Miguel Guhlin isn't spearheading groundbreaking technology-in-the-classroom initiatives as Director of Instructional Technology Services for the San Antonio, Texas, school system, he publishes his views on 21st century learning on his respected blog, Around the Corner, read by thousands of educators around the world. We caught up with Miguel for a provocative, and inspiring, discussion.  Continue reading...

Miguel Guhlin, the innovative educator we interview in this week's "Teachers at Work" feature, recommends these "must read" blogs on technology in the classroom and other topics:

Moving at the Speed of Creativity

2cents

The Savvy Technologist

Remote Access