http://www.ossweb.com Writing, editing, photography, technology, and Web development for small businesspeople Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:14:06 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Mass marketer General Mills Inc. is carving out a niche in gluten-free food after realizing it could reach eager customers without costly ad campaigns, says today's Wall Street Journal. The company's Betty Crocker brand is rolling out gluten-free mixes for cookies, brownies and cakes. The mixes are the first gluten-free ... http://www.ossweb.com/for-general-mills-wheat-free-items-are-tricky-to-make-cheap-to-market.html Hannah (left) and Bekah of Mossyrock, Washington, take their beloved cat, Patches, on a little summer bike ride. Who ever heard of a cat liking to ride a bike? http://www.ossweb.com/patches-the-cat-that-loves-bike-rides.html Sierra Bland is 10 years old. In her 10 years she has endured more medical tests, procedures and hospitalizations than most people do in a lifetime. She can tell you in detail how to start an IV, replace her colostomy bag, or what needs to be done prior to surgery. ... http://www.ossweb.com/1696.html Have you ever wondered about the differences between "a while" and "awhile"? I like Professor Paul Brians' comments: When "awhile" is spelled as a single word, it is an adverb meaning "for a time" ("stay awhile"); but when "while" is the object of a prepositional phrase, like "Lend me your ... http://www.ossweb.com/a-while-or-awhile.html This just in from my daughter-in-law and son who live near Seattle on five wooded acres... We bought a bell type bird feeder that hasn't attracted any of the birds yet -- although there are many around the yard. I don't think they know it's there. But, today, one ... http://www.ossweb.com/the-chipmunk-and-the-bunny.html http://www.ossweb.com/medieval-helpdesk-with-english-subtitles.html By Amy He threw with all his might, but the third stone came skipping back. Zack called his grampa. All of a sudden a goblin popped out of the lake and chased Annie, Zack’s sister. The goblin was green, hairy, fat, and only had one eye! The green hairy dude ate ... http://www.ossweb.com/a-strange-day-in-july.html Have you ever wondered if a quotation mark can have a punctuation mark outside it? Absolutely. Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, University of Chicago Press, (6.8), says that periods and commas precede closing quotations marks (whether double or single). However, it says that unlike periods and commas, colons, semicolons, question ... http://www.ossweb.com/punctuation-for-closing-quotation-marks.html Written by Benjamin's father. Benjamin Shawa is a special five-year-old who has high functioning autism, or sometimes known as Asperger's. Benjamin has had a rough go in his short life. Benjamin was born with 3 major heart defects. When he was a week old he had open-heart surgery to correct ... http://www.ossweb.com/heart-defects-and-aspergers-fail-to-slow-down-rambunctious-benjamin.html Written by Beverly Wallrauch. Chris Wallrauch is an incredible eight-year-old boy with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. Although he is very bright and loves to be silly, very few know it because he has such a hard time interacting with people. He has managed to capture the hearts of ... http://www.ossweb.com/chris-haunted-by-sensory-overload-sleepwalking-and-poor-social-interaction.html