What is the summary for Mink River by Brian Doyle?

As Doyle's first fictional novel, we are introduced here to his very poetic (and often Gaelic) style as we learn about a little town on the coast of Oregon called Neawanaka containing the memorable Mink River. The original edition contains a crow on the cover because that is how the reader is introduced to the characters: as the crow flies. We fly from house to house and area to area learning about the interesting personalities that make Neawanaka the small town that it is.

No sugar, please, just black--Oregon Coffee.

This is probably the best quotation to describe the intimacy we see here.  There are many, many characters and the book is written episodically so that we can experience the most meaningful (and sometimes heartbreaking) events that affect the people in Neawanaka.

Many of the characters make quite an impression. For example, Daniel is 12 and wears three braids of different colors, but his amazing story involves an accident on his bike and his rescue by a bear. "Worried Man" is a more ethereal empath who is able to sense the pain of others. Other episodes involve a threatened police officer who loves to listen to Puccini, a very quiet cigarette-smoking doctor, a logger who can't stop talking, a crow who can talk, and the Mink River that tells us about its journey. Even businesses tend to take on personalities, such as the Department of Public Works (prone to counting insects and providing haircuts). We learn about the love affairs of the people in the town as well as their unstoppable tragedies. 

In conclusion, it is safe to say that we experience the most raw and intimate moments of this small Oregon town. The way it is written mimics poetry. We are meant to share in the sadness and happiness of all the people in each of its memorable episodes.

Is Obama the closest "socialist" in character to Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin?

The short answer, of course, is "No, he is not." And while you're under no particular obligation to like the President or agree with him politically, let's consider the question as it's framed:

Is President Obama close in character to Stalin or Hitler? They were personally responsible for the extermination of millions of their own countrymen (Hitler in the Holocaust, Stalin mostly by forcibly collectivizing food production in the Soviet Union, starving millions to death). If President Obama has anything comparable on his resume, it has not yet come to light.

Then there is the matter of his "socialism." His economic policies have not, as yet, involved any radically significant redistribution of wealth or government seizure of private property, the two literal definitions of Socialism. Trade unions have not thrived under his administration, nor have firearms been seized on any statistically significant scale.

Evidence does not support your thesis.

What does MacArthur mean when he says "appeasement but begets newer and bloodier wars?"

There are some who for varying reasons would appease Red China. They are blind to history's clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier wars. It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than a sham peace. 

The quote above is from Douglas MacArthur's "Farewell Address" to a joint session of Congress on April 19, 1951.  He had just been dismissed by President Harry S. Truman as the commander of American forces in the Korean War . MacArthur was a war hawk, there can be little doubt about that. He was also a fierce cold warrior who wanted to stop communism in its tracks in all corners of the globe.  The passage about appeasement suggests that giving into the enemy or making concessions to the enemy is a policy that will not meet the objective of peace.  He believes that by granting the enemy their way at any point, the end result will be that they will demand more in the future.  MacArthur likens conciliation with your adversary to becoming victims of blackmail.  He believes the rival will keep asking for more until you have no choice but to fight a war that will be more violent.  It will be more violent because you have given the enemy time to recover and your opposition will feel emboldened.  

Compare and contrast Popova and Smirnov within the play "The Bear" by Anton Chekhov.

Popova and Smirnov are both land owners. They both avoid contact with the opposite sex although they end up together in the end. Popova lost her husband, who she later discovered was unfaithful. She had completely dedicated herself to the marriage and was completely faithful to her husband. She did not consider remarrying and instead locked herself up in her home as a show of fidelity. Smirnov avoided contact because he did not trust in the opposite sex. He blamed them for all the trouble that he and men, in general, went through, trying to settle down. Popova and Smirnov were both assertive with regards to their position on the opposite sex.

Popova and Smirnov differed, in that, Popova thought men were unfaithful. Smirnov, on the other hand, thought it was women who were unfaithful. Popova tried to be decent and respectful, but Smirnov was rude and sarcastic from the onset of their conversation.

POPOVA: No, you don't! You're a rude, ill-bred man! Decent people don't talk to a woman like that!

SMIRNOV: What a business! How do you want me to talk to you? In French, or what?

Explain the ‘miracle’ in ‘black ink’ that Shakespeare speaks of in Sonnet 65.

Shakespeare had a deservedly high opinion of his poetic genius. It is a bit uncanny that he seems to be knowing that we will be reading his lines so many years after his death. In quite a few sonnets he claims that his poetry is immortal and in some he assures the person to whom those sonnets are addressed that his poetry's immortality will convey immortality on that individual. This is, of course, a poetic conceit; but Shakespeare's sonnets have been read by millions of people and published in countless volumes in English and translations for some four hundred years and are still popular. Many are so well known that they would exist in people's memories even if every printed copy were somehow destroyed. In that sense they are immortal because they exist independently of the "black ink" in which he wrote them and into which they eventually found their way into print.

In Sonnet 65 the poet tells his paramour that he may be able to perform a miracle of preserving that person's beauty against the ravages of time through the magic of his words, whereas there is nothing else that can hold out against Time. Beauty is frail and time is implacable. One wonderful line in Sonnet 65 is:

Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?

The image is that Time owns a jewel chest into which it places everything that is beautiful just as a woman keeps her jewels in such a chest. The poet's paramour is Time's best jewel, having been produced in the course of time and therefore belonging to Time. 

Shakespeare does not say positively that his Sonnet 65 will perform the miracle of saving his beloved--or at least saving the essence of his beloved's beauty--from Time. The poet does not sound as confident in this sonnet as he does in some other sonnets, such as Sonnet 19 and the marvelous Sonnet 55. In Sonnet 19, which begins with the startling line:

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws...

he concludes with this very confident couplet:

Yet do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong
My love shall in my verse live ever young.

In Sonnet 55, which begins with these famous lines"

Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmeared with sluttish time

the poet concludes with this couplet:

So till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

The loved one will remain alive in this sonnet until Judgement Day, and then be resurrected in the flesh as promised in The Book of Common Prayer:

...we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life...

The beautiful Sonnet 18 which begins with the famous line:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

concludes with this couplet:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

What does author James Hurst mean when he added the scarlet ibis dying in front of Doodle?

James Hurst’s use of the dying bird in “The Scarlet Ibis” is both symbolic and demonstrates foreshadowing.

The scarlet ibis is a rare bird that was pushed to its limits by a storm. It was exhausted from being blown many miles from its native home. It was sick and out of its element. After it landed in the bleeding tree it died in front of the family.

Sadly, we all looked back at the bird. A scarlet ibis! How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree.

Doodle took pity on the beautiful, red bird and gave it a proper burial. Aunt Nicey tells the family dead birds, especially red ones, are bad luck. This foreshadows Doodle’s death. Brother pushed Doodle to his limit, he achieved things that were never expected of him. He was tired and afraid of the storm when he sought shelter in the bleeding tree. He was a rare, delicate child who died under the same tree in which the bird died. James Hurst parallels the two incidents.

What does Bernice say that betrays how shallow she is?

Although Holden Caulfield is too young to be served drinks in the Lavender Room in Chapter 10 of The Catcher in the Rye, he is more sophisticated than the three girls from Seattle, Washington who laugh at him when he asks if any of them would like to dance. Bernice is the one he favors because she is the best looking and a very good dancer. In those days most girls wanted to get married and have families. The pretty ones could stay at home, wherever "home" was, and have sufficient opportunities to mate. But homely ones like Marty and Laverne, and just so-so ones like Bernice, might have to circulate more before Mr. Right came along. Holden seems funny to them because he is obviously still a kid and definitely not Mr. Right. But he is perhaps better than nothing, and he is willing to spend money on them, and they probably think it looks better to be sitting with one male rather than looking like wallflowers and what they are--three girls hoping to find husbands somewhere, anywhere. And all of them probably will.

Bernice hardly says anything that doesn't sound shallow, but the thing that Holden singles out as a betrayal of her shallowness pops out, apropos of nothing, while they are dancing. 

The funny thing is, I thought she was enjoying it, too, till all of a sudden she came out with this very dumb remark.

"I and my girl friends saw Peter Lorre last night," she said. "The movie actor. In person. He was buyin' a newspaper. He's cute."

It is typical of tourists who come to New York or Los Angeles to expect to see celebrities on every corner. But celebrities tend to stay away from tourist spots such as the Lavender Room. Most celebrities do not like to be stared at, although there are some exceptions. Holden considers Bernice's remark dumb because he has probably seen many famous people in Manhattan and is no longer thrilled or impressed. He probably has learned not to gape at people because he has gotten that peculiar cold stare that speaks volumes. It is not pleasant to meet celebrities as a rule. It is a disappointment. But still there are thousands of people who want to do it, and most of them are likely to mistake ordinary passers-by for famous personalities.

Holden is a very desperately lonely young man. He keeps trying to make contact with a variety of strangers and casual acquaintances in Manhattan and keeps getting disappointed and disillusioned. That is the main theme of this novel. His experience with the "three witches" from Seattle is just one of the many examples of his mistakes. He even invites one of the cab drivers to have a drink with him. His worst mistake is accepting Maurice's offer to send a girl to his hotel room in Chapter 13. Instead of having a fun time and losing his virginity with the girl called Sunny, Holden ends up feeling depressed. He feels even worse when Sunny and Maurice come back in Chapter 14 to extort another five dollars from him.

Sunny is another dumb girl who keeps expecting to see movie stars on every corner. In Chapter 13, she tells Holden he is cute and that he looks like a guy in the movies. 

"What the heck's his name?"

"I don't know," I said. She wouldn't get off my goddamn lap.

"Sure you know. He was in that pitcher with Mel-vine Douglas? The one that was Mel-vine Douglas's kid brother? That falls off this boat? You know who I mean."