Penn Jillette’s New York Times bestselling account of his “extremely funny and somewhat profane journey to discovering a healthy lifestyle…that will motivate others to seek weight-loss solutions” (The Washington Post). More than three hundred and thirty pounds and saddled with a systolic blood pressure reading at dangerous heights, legendary magician Penn Jillette found himself at a crossroads. He needed a drastic lifestyle change if wanted to see his small children grow up. Enter Crazy Ray. A former NASA scientist and unconventional, passionate innovator, Ray Cronise changed Penn Jillette’s life with his wild “potato diet.” In Presto, Jillette takes us along on his journey from skepticism to the inspiring, life-changing momentum that transformed the magician’s body and mind. He describes the process in hilarious detail, as he performs his Las Vegas show, takes meetings with Hollywood executives, hangs out with his celebrity friends and fellow eccentric performers, all while remaining a dedicated husband and father. Throughout, he weaves in his views on sex, religion, and pop culture, making his story a refreshing, genre-busting account. Outspoken, frank, and bitingly clever, Presto is an incisive, rollicking read. In the end, it is “undeniably inspiring” (Booklist).

Presto, a magician, and his assistant, Alec the rabbit, play mean tricks on each other during a show after Presto ignores his assistant's desire for a carrot.

Perform fast interactive analytics against different data sources using the Presto high-performance, distributed SQL query engine. With this practical guide, you�?�¢??ll learn how to conduct analytics on data where it lives, whether it�?�¢??s Hive, Cassandra, a relational database, or a proprietary data store. Analysts, software engineers, and production engineers will learn how to manage, use, and even develop with Presto. Initially developed by Facebook, open source Presto is now used by Netflix, Airbnb, LinkedIn, Twitter, Uber, and many other companies. Matt Fuller, Manfred Moser, and Martin Traverso show you how a single Presto query can combine data from multiple sources to allow for analytics across your entire organization. Get started: Explore Presto�?�¢??s use cases and learn about tools that will help you connect to Presto and query data Go deeper: Learn Presto�?�¢??s internal workings, including how to connect to and query data sources with support for SQL statements, operators, functions, and more Put Presto in production: Secure Presto, monitor workloads, tune queries, and connect more applications; learn how other organizations apply Presto

A brother and sister's competitiveness gets them into trouble when a magic trick goes dreadfully wrong.

Mitch Albom creates his most unforgettable fictional character—Frankie Presto, the greatest guitarist to ever walk the earth—in this magical novel about the bands we join in life and the power of talent to change our lives. In his most stunning novel yet, the voice of Music narrates the tale of its most beloved disciple, young Frankie Presto, a war orphan raised by a blind music teacher in a small Spanish town. At nine years old, Frankie is sent to America in the bottom of a boat. His only possession is an old guitar and six precious strings. But Frankie’s talent is touched by the gods, and his amazing journey weaves him through the musical landscape of the 20th century, from classical to jazz to rock and roll, with his stunning talent affecting numerous stars along the way, including Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Carole King, Wynton Marsalis and even KISS. Frankie becomes a pop star himself. He makes records. He is adored. But his gift is also his burden, as he realizes, through his music, he can actually affect people’s futures—with one string turning blue whenever a life is altered. At the height of his popularity, Frankie Presto vanishes. His legend grows. Only decades later, does he reappear—just before his spectacular death—to change one last life. With its Forest Gump-like romp through the music world, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto is a classic in the making. A lifelong musician himself, Mitch Albom delivers a remarkable novel, infused with the message that “everyone joins a band in this life” and those connections change us all.

Presto is a very talented magician. And his friend Monty is a very confident performer. So when they start a magic show at the carnival, things look good for the dazzling duo. But as their success grows, so does Monty's head. Soon, he's the one who's always in the spotlight, and he's becoming bossier and more demanding: "Hey, Presto! Get my hat!" "Presto! These bunnies don't work." "I need chocolate ice cream with extra sprinkles—and I need it NOW!" When Presto gets fed up and decides to leave, what will happen to the show? And more importantly, to their friendship? Hey, Presto! is a delight: adorable characters, a fresh, appealing art style, spot-on humor, and a touch of magic on each spread.

Do you feel like your thoughts, ideas, and plans are being suffocated by a constant onslaught of information? Do you want to get those great ideas out of your head, onto the whiteboard and into everyone else's heads, but find it hard to start? No matter what level of sketching you think you have, Presto Sketching will help you lift your game in visual thinking and visual communication. In this practical workbook, Ben Crothers provides loads of tips, templates, and exercises that help you develop your visual vocabulary and sketching skills to clearly express and communicate your ideas. Learn techniques like product sketching, storyboarding, journey mapping, and conceptual illustration. Dive into how to use a visual metaphor (with a library of 101 visual metaphors), as well as tips for capturing and sharing your sketches digitally, and developing your own style. Designers, product managers, trainers, and entrepreneurs will learn better ways to explore problems, explain concepts, and come up with well-defined ideas - and have fun doing it.

Expertly arranged Flute Solo by Georges Enesco from the Kalmus Edition series. This is from the 20th Century era.

WHAT HAPPENS when a magician’s assistant decides he’s not going to go along with the act? Find out in this magical Little Golden Book is based on an original animated short featured on the DVD release—in stores fall 2008.