The Amy Helpenstell Foundation has awarded grants to three local organizations: WQPT, Churches United, and Habitat for Humanity - Quad Cities. WQPT, the Quad Cities' PBS station, received a charitable donation for its "Ready to Learn Literacy Initiative." The $15,000 donation will support activities for the project, including the WQPT First Book Program, which has distributed approximately 85,000 books to children in the region since 1984; Family Literacy Workshops and the Ready to Learn Conference, which provide the latest information on early-childhood practices to area teachers and caregivers; and the Healthy Habits for Life Initiative focusing on healthy foods, exercise, hygiene, and rest. WQPT and its partners will work with child-care centers serving low- to middle-income families. The foundation also awarded $10,000 to support the construction next year of a Moline home by Habitat for Humanity - Quad Cities. The house will be located at 430 and 434 Sixth Street, on lots donated by the City of Moline. And Churches United's Winnie's Place received $15,000 from the Amy Helpenstell Foundation. Winnie's Place is an emergency shelter for homeless women with or without children.

But if a man cheats on his wife, he might explain himself this way: "I couldn't help it. My evolved psychological mechanisms made me have an affair." And he'd be right.

Sort of.

David M. Buss, a psychologist at the University of Texas who will be giving the lecture "Sexual Conflict in Human Mating" at Augustana College on October 30, has spent more than two decades studying sexual desire and behavior. And his research has led to one overarching observation: Across cultures, people's mating strategies are universal.

St. Ambrose University's enrollment continues to rise, with the university achieving a record 3,780 students this fall, according to the official 20th-day count. The record enrollment is the school's ninth in the past 10 years. Founded in 1882, St. Ambrose offers more than 75 majors in undergraduate, master's, and doctoral programs, and maintains a 15-to-one student-faculty ratio. For more information, go to (http://www.sau.edu).

If you visit the Web site for local not-for-profit-organizer-turned-author Jane Wagoner (http://www.janewagoner.com), you'll be able to read passages from her recent historical fiction, Bells of May, which follows five generations of women rooted in the Harz Mountains of Germany. Here's what you'll find on the site's first page:

"The kiss, begun in sorrow, ignited into passion, a passion born of desperation and loss, wild and unstoppable ... . They came together desperately, without nuance or soft caress. But Katherine, still virgin, was no stranger to orgasm and responded wildly to Christoph's thrusts ... ."

And trust me, things just get racier from there.