text:
Empire Console Room Gas Heater - Natural Gas - RH-25-NG
- B-Vented - 25,000 BTU - Beige
Product ID • RH251NG00000
Maximum air flow and heating are the strong points of the RH–25 Console Vented Room Heaters. Delivering warmth to your medium-size rooms, each unit is designed for style and efficiency with up to 25,000 Btu's. The RH-25 Vented Heaters uses B-Vent and is vented vertically up through the roof.
Add the optional internal blower for added circulation. Quiet burners, a vent safety switch, "matchless" piezo ignition, and all the safety features you expect from Empire Comfort Systems® are standard equipment.
Plus, for total reliability, these room heaters include a hydraulic thermostat (needing no electricity to operate). Ideal for medium to large rooms, each unit can be installed anywhere there is access to a vent. Housed in a durable, textured, powder-coated, beige cabinet, these room heaters look as good as they work for years.
Manuals & Docs
Technical Specs
Empire Console Room Gas Heater Beige Natural Gas RH-25-NG Specs
- Color
- Beige
- Gas Type
- Natural Gas
- Input Rating
- Thermostat
- Yes
- Venting
- B-Vent with 4 inch flue Collar through the Roof
- Blower
- DRB-1 Optional
- Safety Features
- Automatic Shut Off
- Required Min Side Wall Clearance
- 6 inch
- Right Side Clearance
- 18 inches suggested for Serviceability to Right Side Panel Area
- Required Min Top Clearance
- 48 inches
- Required Min Floor Clearance
- 0 inches
- Draft Dirverter to Wall
- 2 inches
- Gas Connection
- 1/2 inch NPT
- Depth
- 11 1/2 inches
- Height
- 26 inches
- Width
- 37 inches
- Weight
- 84 lbs
- Warranty
- Combustion Chamber carries a 10-year limited warranty. All other parts carry a 1-year limited warranty
Empire Console Room Gas Heater Beige Natural Gas RH-25-NG Features
- The Empire 25,000 BTU RH-25 is ideal for heating basements, family rooms or anywhere you can put a proper vent
- Hydraulic Thermostat
- Optional blower for proper circulation and even heat distribution
- Hot surface ignition
- Pilot and Main Burners include Automatic Shut-off on All Vented Room Heaters
- Peace of mind safety features built into furnace
- Mobile Home Certified
Info & Links


text:
Back to Index
the silence: Oppression, fear and courage in Zimbabwe
March 29, 2013
There are at least two things to know about Zimbabweans. The first
is that they have an immoderate attachment to their land, and no
wonder. Anyone who has seen the spring-red blush of musasa woodland
at the beginning of the rains, or felt the crackle-hot wind of a
lowveld summer afternoon, or absorbed the scents of sweet potato
and marigold as dusk settles over the bush will know that theirs
is a soul-snagging land. Of course such an attachment to land comes
at a price. For it, and over it, there will be wars and revolutions,
and the inevitable loss of land by the vanquished or the politically
unlucky will be so unendurable that the unmoored people will end
up true ghosts, souls in search of soil.
The second thing
to know about Zimbabweans is that they are a small but persistently
noisy nation of storytellers and musicmakers. The Bhundu Boys were
pop diva Madonna's supporting act at Wembley Stadium in London
in 1987. Thomas Mapfumo, the Lion of Zimbabwe, created a genre of
protest music-chimurenga (uprising). Africa's most prestigious
literary award, the Caine Prize, has twice gone to Zimbabweans in
its 13-year history (Brian Chikwava in 2004, NoViolet Bulawayo in
2011). Charles Mungoshi won two Pen International awards in 1976,
and Dambudzo Marechera won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1979. Doris
Lessing, who spent her formative years in the country, won the Nobel
Prize in literature.
I am not now Zimbabwean,
but for several years in the 1970s my British-born parents owned
a farm on the eastern edge of what was then the rogue state of Rhodesia.
They fought - my father as a conscripted soldier, my mother as a
police volunteer - to keep the country white-run and avowedly out
of the hands of communists. By any calculation, it was a questionable
cause: Ian Smith, Rhodesia's prime minister, campaigned in
1965 on a slogan of "A whiter, brighter Rhodesia," and
for the next decade and a half a decreasing minority of whites (just
over 200,000 in the early '60s to about 150,000 in 1980) tried
to hold on to power in a country populated by a black majority that
grew from about 3.5 million to more than 7 million during that period.
By late 1979 liberation
forces were coming into Rhodesia from camps in neighboring Mozambique
and Zambia faster than government troops could kill them. A peace
was negotiated. The following February general elections were held
and won by the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front
(ZANU-PF). Its leader became Zimbabwe's first prime minister.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe exuded an air of conciliatory magnanimity.
My mother wasn't buying it. My parents moved north to Malawi.
Working along fault lines
well established by the white minority government before him - which
is to say, ethnic, racial, and political - Mugabe went about further
dividing his nation and securing absolute power for himself.
There are two main ethnic
groups in Zimbabwe: the majority Shona and the minority Ndebele.
Mugabe is Shona. In 1983 Mugabe deployed his North Korean-trained
Five Brigade into the west of the country to preempt any Ndebele
political opposition. Over the following five years, an estimated
20,000 Ndebele were massacred. "He understood and manipulated
our weaknesses very well," Wilfred Mhanda, a former ZANU-PF
liberation commander who fought along with Mugabe, told me. "There
is nothing more deadly than someone so profoundly insecure mimicking
the aggression of his oppressors and becoming an oppressor in turn."
Mugabe tolerated corruption
in his cabinet, as long as it came with loyalty to him. The country's
economy was collapsing, and by the mid-1990s there were fuel shortages,
civil servants were striking, and liberation war veterans began
to demand the compensation they had been promised at independence.
Then, in 1998, Mugabe sent troops into the Democratic Republic of
the Congo to prop up the teetering regime of Laurent Kabila, at
an eventual cost equivalent to a million U.S. dollars a day. Zimbabwe's
economic fate was sealed.
The Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) was launched in 1999, headed by a former
labor union leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe countered the new
political outspokenness this came with and the increasing dissatisfaction
among his own supporters by allowing them to appropriate white-owned
commercial farms without compensation. In 2000, with Mugabe's
explicit blessing, unemployed ZANU-PF supporters led by war veterans
armed with axes and machetes invaded the farms, shouting, "Hondo!
War!" Domestic food supplies plummeted. In 2005, after the
MDC won several parliamentary seats, Mugabe retaliated with Operation
Murambatsvina (Operation Clear the Filth). Across the country
market stalls and homes belonging to the urban poor, who constituted
much of ZANU-PF's opposition, were razed. An estimated 700,000
people lost their homes or livelihoods, and more than 2 million
were driven further into poverty.
Then, in a first
round of elections held in 2008, Mugabe's ZANU-PF finally
lost to Tsvangirai's MDC. Calling for a runoff election,
supporters and officials of ZANU-PF went on a vicious state-sponsored
rampage. Hundreds of MDC supporters were killed
and thousands injured, hundreds of women and girls were raped,
and tens of thousands of people became internal refugees. "If
you wanted to commit suicide in 2008, you just wore an MDC T-shirt,"
I was told. By November of that year, Steve Hanke, an economics
professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, had calculated
Zimbabwe's monthly inflation rate at 79.6 billion percent,
second only to Hungary's in 1946.
To avoid worse
bloodletting and even more unimaginable economic collapse, Tsvangirai
withdrew from the race, and Mugabe declared himself the winner.
Thabo Mbeki, then president of South Africa and a bafflingly uncritical
Mugabe supporter, persuaded the two men to negotiate a power-sharing
agreement. Mugabe retained control of the mines, the army, and
the police and intelligence services - in other words, everything
that ensured his continued dominance. Tsvangirai inherited the ministries
of finance, education, health, environment - in other words, everything
that ensured he couldn't run away with power.
A tenuous purgatory
of waiting ensued - waiting for Mugabe's grip on power to
ease, waiting for Mugabe to die (he was born in 1924). But in spite
of rumored puffy ankles - cancer was one of the whispered speculations
- Mugabe appeared as robust as ever. In 2010 Foreign Policy magazine
named Mugabe the second worst dictator in the world, after North
Korea's late leader Kim Jong Il. In 2012 the Washington, D.C.-based
nonprofit organization the Fund for Peace ranked Zimbabwe fifth
in its annual Failed States Index.
Still, when I arrived in the country in mid-October 2012, things
in the capital, Harare, seemed to be business as usual. An influx
of diamond money - the 2006 discovery of diamonds in the east of
the country has been called the biggest find of its kind - had lent
a Botoxed sheen to the place: adoption of the U.S. dollar had simplified
trade, new cars were on the roads, shops were full of South African
imports, mansions mushroomed behind massive walls in the suburbs
beyond State House.
But beneath the impression
of regularity, disquiet remained. Ahead of tentatively scheduled
elections in July 2013, ZANU-PF youth gangs were stirring in densely
populated market centers; on international television ZANU-PF officials
were blatantly threatening that they would not support a Tsvangirai
win. At the same time headlines reported Tsvangirai's domestic
intrigues, culminating in his recent marriage to Elizabeth Macheka,
daughter of a ZANU-PF central committee guru. His position as a
robust alternative to Mugabe seemed in question.
Meanwhile personnel from
the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) were reportedly monitoring
citizens' activities everywhere. "Yes, there are people
who say I should watch out," Tafadzwa Muzondo, a 33-year-old
Zimbabwean playwright told me. "But I have to do my duty.
I am a citizen first. I am an artist second. And isn't it
better to say at the end of your life that you tried to make a difference?"
Muzondo had suggested we meet behind the National Gallery in the
Harare Gardens. It was a steamy morning, and thunderstorms threatened,
but we stayed out in the open, the better to spot any government-sponsored
eavesdroppers, although I didn't see how a dried-up patch
of lawn was going to do much to protect us against the CIO. But
Muzondo had written a play that had provoked the government, and
he was talking to a foreign writer, and to do either of those things
in this place and at this time was to court trouble.
A concerned person can't
help but keep track: In the decade from 2001 to 2011 official oppression
has forced at least 49 Zimbabwean journalists into exile, the fifth
worst record in the world. Within Zimbabwe's borders, scores
of national and a few international human-rights activists, writers,
and photographers have been intimidated or arrested, and one local
cameraman, suspected of passing photographs of a beaten-up Morgan
Tsvangirai to foreign media, was murdered in 2007. Since 2000 Tsvangirai
has been arrested numerous times and once nearly beaten to death
by Mugabe's henchmen. In theory, freedom of speech is protected.
In practice, a series of imaginatively broad laws attempt to ensure
silence. Regardless of when or how Mugabe leaves power, it's
going to take his country a long time to recover from him.
"How do we intend
to solve our violent history if we can't talk about it?"
Muzondo asked. "You combine my poverty with my fear, with
my silence - life is not worth living. They might as well just do
mass killing." Zimbabweans are in the fearful position of
watching themselves become the unspoken, the unheard - the mute,
whose stories will be told only by foreign correspondents and Western
aid workers. Once boasting the highest literacy rate in Africa -
more than 90 percent - some predict that Zimbabwe's literacy
rate will fall to 75 percent by 2020.
"We know this.
Without our voice, we have no choice," Muzondo said. "Without
choice, where are we? We're forever stuck in violence."
But Zimbabwean writers,
artists, and playwrights haven't given up yet. Robust, sometimes
mordantly funny, politically controversial novels, art exhibitions,
and plays appear faster than CIO agents can object to them. In the
past eight years Muzondo has written half a dozen plays dealing
with pressing social and political issues. His latest - No Voice,
No Choice - was banned in August 2012 after an enthusiastically
received run around the country. "People were coming up to
us afterwards and saying, 'We were scared of what would happen
to us if someone noticed us watching your play, but then we noticed
you were not scared of performing it. We felt more courageous because
of your bravery.'"
The letter from the national
authorities banning the play was Orwellian in its nonsensical doublespeak:
"Please be advised that the Board of Censors read your Play
Script and observed that the play is about discouraging youths participating
in political violence … The play is inciteful and against
the spirit of national healing." I turned the letter over,
as if shaking up its words would make it more coherent, to say nothing
of rectifying the unintentional pun (inciteful/insightful). "Someone
felt uncomfortable with the truth," Muzondo said. "But
that truth is this: We're all in this together. Neighbors
have assaulted neighbors. Now we have to sit down together and face
what it is we've done to one another. The government doesn't
want us to have that conversation. But what if we did?"
This was never part of
the political calculation. Eventually Zimbabweans might be brought
together by their common bond of suffering and begin to insist on
their own liberation. In fact, Mugabe seems to have deliberately
turned so many ordinary Zimbabweans - soldiers and police officers,
obviously, but also schoolboys ordered out of their classrooms to
rape and torture - into perpetrators that there is now widespread
fear a change of government might bring with it recrimination. "Victims
of the political violence are afraid it will resurface with every
election; perpetrators of the political violence are afraid it will
end," Rutendo Munengami, an advocate for victims of rape,
told me. "Everyone knows who the culprits are; they are our
neighbors and officials. They are not hard to find. Those people
are afraid of a government who will call them to account."
I met Munengami and fellow
activist Margaret Mazvarira in the garden of a quiet Harare restaurant
a few mornings after my meeting with Muzondo. The sun appeared to
take up the whole sky, and musasa tree pods cracked, showering seeds
on the barely rain-softened earth. The two women spoke over each
other, finishing each other's sentences, confirming the connecting
braid of shared experience between them.
In the early hours of
June 3, 2003, Munengami - whose husband was then an MDC councillor
- was torn from her bed, her nursing nine-month-old son still in
her arms. While soldiers looked on, Munengami told me, she was raped
by a prominent ZANU-PF minister. Afterward, the minister drove her
to a police station in Harare, where she and her son were dangled
over a pit of acid while the soldiers decided whether or not to
kill her. "They wanted to throw the baby to the ground,"
Munengami said. "They shouted, 'He will be the same
as the father. He will want to give the country to the white man.'"
Mazvarira was abducted
in 2000 from her home in Chivhu, a small town south of Harare, and
raped by two ZANU-PF CIO officers after her 17-year-old daughter,
an MDC organizer, was killed by a petrol bomb. Mazvarira contracted
HIV from the assault. "They told me, 'You and your daughter
are Tsvangirai's bitches.'" When Mazvarira went
to the police station to report the attack, the officer in charge
refused to hear her case. "The police are only ZANU-PF,"
she said.
The two women are not
placid about what happened to them, but what converted them from
victims into activists is that they were never able to hold their
attackers to account. "The government won't help us.
No one can help us. It is up to us, ourselves, now. That is where
we are." In 2009 Munengami launched Doors of Hope, a nonprofit
organization that supports and speaks for victims of politically
motivated rape. Doors of Hope now has 375 members from all over
the country. "We are standing for women," Munengami
said. "Those so-called war vets raped so many women during
the liberation struggle, but they don't want to talk about
it. So we are going to talk about it. Whether it's 1975, or
now, we don't want this to continue. We have had enough. We
are sick and tired of being quiet. Where has silence got us?"
In a nearby jacaranda
tree, the call of a cape turtle dove echoed Zimbabwe's eternal
lament, "My mother is dead, my father is dead, all my relatives
are dead." From my recent travels across the country, I knew
that organizations like Doors of Hope existed all over Zimbabwe.
I had spoken to the director of Radio Dialogue, a small station
in Bulawayo that had circumvented a ban on independent broadcasting
by distributing cassettes and CDs to minibus drivers. I had spoken
to survivors of political torture who had organized healing circles
with their erstwhile attackers and were now running a nonprofit,
Tree of Life, which had gone into scores of communities throughout
the country holding workshops to help both victims and perpetrators
recover from past political violence. I had spoken to the editors
of Weaver Press in Harare, which still published brave, politically
sensitive books, and I had picked up copies of poetry published
by amaBooks in Bulawayo. I had spoken to artists and writers and
doctors who were challenging the inevitability of a silent, violent
"I am like that
tree," Mazvarira said suddenly, pointing toward the jacaranda.
"I've had my branches cut, but I am not dead. I am attached
to this soil, and it feeds my roots." She pushed her plate
away. "Today I got to tell my story. I was heard. That is
my rain." She leaned forward with a smile of the kind that
can come only when there is still hope in a nearly hopeless place.
"So please tell your world not to turn the page on us yet.
Tell them to keep hearing us. We are still speaking.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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When setting up your own diner organization, there may be far more towards the whole method than merely deciding on the food that can go into the food list, the décor and set-up of the business, and using the services of your staff. To ensure that your online business is a hit, everything should be at its best, specially the food items you can expect to serve.
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Costs and settlement terms and conditions. A good way to begin your quest is to get cost lists from all of the feasible marketers. You can also ask for a sample commitment to be able to compare their proposed terms and conditions as well as the prices. Upon having these papers, be sure you also provide your value listing of goods you need regularly and calculate how much each item expenses from each dealer separately. Based on business industry experts, in no way acknowledge the very first offer from a representative. Don't forget to negotiate check with what else they are able to offer you on the price they gave you. Don't neglect to produce a kitchen counter-offer as well. Also, when the costs an organization will give you are suspiciously lower, be skeptical. You can consider their offer you by check out the grade of the products they provide along with their shipping and delivery plans as well.
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Inspired by: ezinearticles


text:
Want to Drop Pounds Fast? Try These Tactics
12 tips to lose weight quickly from the latest AARP book, 'New American Diet'
Getty Images/Tetra images
Begin With Sleep
En español | Sleep gives you energy to burn more calories during the day. People who sleep fewer than six hours a night are 27 percent more likely to become obese. Drop that number down to four hours a night, and you're 67 percent more likely to put on pounds at an unhealthy rate.1 of 14
Eat Breakfast
Eating a healthy, nutrient-dense breakfast — one that includes protein, whole grains and fruit — will help keep your insulin level steady all morning and prevent you from overeating later on.
Spiced Breakfast Quinoa2 of 14
AARP Offer: Eat healthy, live well
Find healthy meal ideas and save all of your favorite recipes in one place. Join AARP for discounts on groceries, restaurants and more.3 of 14
Eat More Often
You've grown up on three squares a day but it's time to forget about that. Eating smaller amounts, more frequently helps you lose. You'll feel fuller throughout the day, and are less likely to overeat out of hunger.4 of 14
Pace Yourself
Spend at least 30 minutes eating each meal. It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to realize you're full. Drinking water before and during a meal is a good way to slow yourself down — people who drink two glasses of water before each meal consume 40 fewer calories through the day, some studies show.5 of 14
Drink Coffee
Yes, coffee is good for you, but there are caveats. No cream, sugar or artificial sweeteners. And that mocha java chocolate chip latte? Yeah, that doesn't count. We're talking straight, black coffee here. Twice a day. Caffeinated is better for losing weight, but decaf will do, too.6 of 14
Chew Gum
Yes, chewing sugar free gum can help keep the weight off. It releases hormones that signal your brain that you're full.7 of 14
Snack at Work
Bring two small snacks to work every day — a piece of fruit and a cup of low-fat dairy (cottage cheese, yogurt, etc.) are good choices.8 of 14
Eat Dark Chocolate
Now we're getting to the good stuff, right? Don't go grabbing a candy bar just yet. The healthy choice is dark chocolate (70 percent cacao) and your daily quota is a small piece — about a quarter ounce.
Coconut-Dark Chocolate Truffles9 of 14
Count Steps
Walking won't just get you in better shape — it could cut down your chances of developing dementia as well. Plus, some studies show that people who cannot walk a quarter-mile in five minutes have a higher mortality rate. Buy a pedometer; try to average 10,000 steps a day, seven days a week (but be sure to consult your physician before beginning a new exercise regimen).10 of 14
Drink More Water
We get more calories than we recognize from beverages. Diet sodas may increase the body's cravings for sugar-sweetened, high-calorie foods; diet drinks disrupt our ability to properly estimate the number of calories we're consuming, so we end up eating more than we ordinarily would. Finally, drinking more than two diet sodas a day is associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, as well as stroke and heart disease, according to University of Miami researchers.11 of 14
Getty Images/F1online
Eat at a Table
Studies show that eating at a table makes you eat more slowly, giving your brain a chance to signal to your body that you are full, and causing you to eat less. When you sit down, do it in front of a small plate — it's an easy way to control your portion size.12 of 14
Weigh Yourself
As you lose weight, don't be afraid to step up on the scale once a week — it's the best way to track your progress. Remember to weigh yourself at the same time each day, either first thing in the morning after you empty your bladder or at night just before you go to bed.13 of 14
View More Slideshows
14 of 14
- 'AARP New American Diet': 7-Day Plan
- Superfish You Should Be Eating
- How much do you know about credit and debt?
You May Also Like
- Eat less meat: Try this delicious veggie pad Thai recipe
- 10 wardrobe items every women over 50 needs to own
- Help bring relief to struggling seniors; find volunteer opportunities near you
Go to the AARP home page for news, deals, trivia and more


text:
Europe's woes hit Wall Street
When the U.S. financial markets opened markedly lower Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama's opponents blamed it on Wall Street's lack of confidence in his ability to clean up Washington's fiscal mess.
Actually, the cause is more long term and worrisome: Europe.
Our economic reports - such as last Friday's monthly employment update, with its 7.9 percent jobless rate - tend to show steady, if painfully slow, progress toward recovery.
By contrast, the European Union, our greatest trading partner, has been generating a steady stream of gloomy economic news. It was probably not Obama's re-election - which already had been "baked into" European financial thinking - but European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's observation that the slow-to-zero growth of the EU-wide economy might spread to Germany, Europe's largest and most robust economy.
The EU scaled back its forecasts for the 27-member union's GDP growth from 1.3 percent to an anemic 0.4 percent in 2013. For the 17 nations that use the euro, it predicted a near-moribund 0.1 percent.
And when this year is over, the EU fears its economy will have actually contracted by about 0.3 percent. Another quarter like that and the economic union will officially be in recession.
Nor is the outlook for employment much better. The unemployment rate is at a record 11.6 percent across the eurozone and 10.6 percent in the EU as a whole. The jobless rate is expected to peak at 12 percent in 2013, a long time for Europe's unemployed young people to wait for a job.
Greece is in its fifth year of recession. The zero growth rate predicted in spring now looks like a contraction of 6 percent this year and 4.2 percent in 2013. And for Greece's population, grown restive over austerity measures, there is no end in sight.
Indeed, without the excitement over the U.S. presidential election's outcome, the news from Europe might have had an even bigger impact on U.S. markets.
This editorial was provided by the Scripps Howard News Service.


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|: ECronicon Open Access
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A tale of two ports
I blogged two days ago about how the Sonomans are trying to promote their county's name by passing a new "conjunctive labeling" law that would append the words "Sonoma County" to all the county's sub-appellations. Yesterday the Center for Wine Origins (CWO) launched or rather relaunched its ongoing campaign to prevent purloined place names like Port and Champagne from being used anywhere except in their natural origins, where the name refers to the place where the grapes were grown. The CWO is kicking off "the second phase of its 'Location Matters' campaign in 2010" in order to prevent "American consumers [from] being misled or deceived."
It's perfectly reasonable for regions to want to promote and protect their place-names. If I had a place-name somebody else was using I'd likely do the same. The problem really is one of consumer education, which is badly needed, as some of the comments on my Monday blog made clear. Somebody wrote in to say how he overheard a tourist outside the tasting room tell someone on his cell phone that he was "someplace in Napa" when in fact he was in Sonoma County! In the same way that people need to know Sonoma from Napa, they should understand that real Port is from a delimited area in the Douro region of Portugal and real Champagne is from (or rather in) northern France (and we could add Sherry and a few other wines to the list).
The question, of course, is how to educate Americans about anything these days, when so many of them seem to cherish their ignorance. The obvious answer to the "how to educate?" question is, Through the media. But the media are so fractured that it's hard to know what "the media" even means anymore. Readers of, say, my magazine, or the Wall Street Journal's wine column, or Jon Bonné in the San Francisco Chronicle, probably understand the difference between Portuguese Port and California "Port", but millions of consumers upon whom the industry actually depends probably do not. They will buy what they buy, and the wineries (and distributors) will pocket their profits they can, in these tough times. Let the winners win. So does it really, ultimately matter whether or not people understand the difference between authentic Port and purloined "port"?
The Center for Wine Origins (which if I'm not mistaken is funded by the Champagne and Port producers and is headquartered on Washington, D.C.'s infamous M Street, the world capital of lobbying) certainly believes it matters. I'm less convinced. CWO naturally bases their case on "climate and soil" which "vary extensively by region." This is the old terroir story, the implication being that nowhere but Champagne can you get anything remotely similar to Champagne because nowhere else are the climate and soil exactly the same. That's true beyond arguing, but the case that Champagne is superior to (or even distinguishable from) the best California sparkling wine is not so clear. Portuguese Port, on the other hand, is a very great wine and so far there are no other "port"-style wines to equal them, but that, I think, isn't due solely to the dirt and climate of the Douro but to the fact that the port market is so dead that nobody cares enough to compete. Make Port suddenly a hot, in-demand wine, and you'd see the a real increase in quality
If quality isn't the thing at stake in protecting origin names then what is? I suppose you could say it's a romantic, even nostalgic sense of history. The idea of protecting the names of Champagne and Port is an alluring one, especially to the lover of wine with a sense of tradition who feels himself a sort of guardian of what's right. At the same time, we should keep in mind that, regardless of what the CWO says, their motive is only partly noble. It's primarily an economic one: to protect and preserve not just the names Champagne and Port, but the profits of the Port shippers and the Champenois. That's not to say their arguments are bogus. But they should be taken in context.
In a way the debate is already passé. Under agreements previously installed some wineries are permitted, by grandfather clauses, to go on using "Champagne" and "Port." As for the others, the struggle, which is esssentially between the American wine industry and its E.C. equivalent, goes on inconclusively, rather reminiscent of the trench warfare of WWI in which fights were heavily waged for gains of inches. If I were advising the Europeans, I'd suggest that they not invest too heavily, emotionally or financially, in this contretemps. They're not likely to win it, and it's not the most important battle they could strategically wage anyhow. Far more important for them is to convince Americans that (a) Champagne is not just a drink for weddings and New Year's Eve and (b) sweet red wine has a place on the consumer's table. Both of these battles they could jointly wage with California producers; together the two sides have more to gain than to lose.
I understand the protection of place names like Champagne, Burgundy, etc. I guess I understand the protection of categorical names like Port and Sherry because they are derivative names but I have less sympathy for them because they are simply not place names. Port, for example, is not grown in Opporto, which is the name of a city several hours removed from the place where the grapes are grown and the wines fermented. It is not even stored in Opporto but across the river from Opporto after it has been delivered down the River Douro from its place of origin in the Portuguese outback.
The one that bugs me the most is claret, a perfectly good name that may be associated with wines from Bordeaux but really has no specific meaning. Hock, a name we no longer use here, is another that probably ought not be protected. There are no wines of Bordeaux bottled under the name Claret and there are no wines of Germany bottled under the name Hock, and neither name is derivative.
And here is where I love what Steve wrote. It is important for the Europeans to convince Americans that their wines are of interest. Yet, by denying the use of names like Port and Champagne, even to the extent of not allowing the use of a technical production term like Methode Champenoise, they actually reduce the chances that the names of their products have meaning. Less so for Champagne, of course, but if I were a Port maker, I would want the categorical name kept alive because it calls attention to the place where a particular group of wines of the category come from.
It's $$ and brand dilution that are at stake.
I don't think Napa would be too keen if I made a wine in Boise and labeled it Napa Cabernet.
Okay, as the buyer for both Champagne and Burgundy departments of our store I have some experience with this topic. First of all, as wine educator, (which any good retailer should be) hearing someone ask for a Chablis from Spain, (happened day before yesterday) is like listening to Bush say, "nuclear "…it's just wrong and you want to fix it, help them sound less ignorant. Not because it bugs me, but because it is just wrong and I hate to think of this poor person saying something like that to someone that might be less understanding. It takes less than 5 minutes to explain that Burgundy is a place, a place whose name was stolen and sadly placed on bottles and jugs of our worst plonk. I always have that pang of, "Um, what are they looking for?" when someone comes in and asks for Burgundy….profiling helps a little here as people under 60 seem to know that Burgundy is a place not just red wine.
Champagne is MUCH harder as almost everyone, even my sales reps, use the name Champagne for anything sparkling, just bugs me for some reason. Had a customer yesterday, "what can I help you with Rob?" (he is a regular) I asked and he told me he needed a bottle of Champagne in the $15.00 price range. "Um, is sparkling wine okay?" I asked and he said, "It's the same thing. What's in a name?" so I stood there for a second and asked, "What's your brother's name?" (keeping my fingers crossed that he had one) and he told me, "Michael" so I said, "well okay Michael, let's get you hooked up with a bottle of sparkling wine". I called him Michael 2 more times before he stopped me and said, "My name is Rob, Michael is my brother" to which I said, "Same thing right? What's in a name?".
Now had I not known Rob was a cool guy I would have pulled such a stunt but after calling me a ball buster or whatever he said, "you made your point". It's not just about terroir, it's about calling something what it is. It's not some snobby thing, those of us that wish to protect place names are not implying that the wines from those places are superior, (least I'm not) but I don't think we should be calling Rob "Michael".
I'm sitting here wondering why people spend so much time seeking out good wine and are not content to simply but things and try them. Drinking 'bad' wine has offered me the most memorable occasions. Knowing the difference between a corked wine and a wine with too much volatile acids or a wine with sulfur reductions and being able to tell the difference between H2S and SO2.
May I offer an oxidized cloudy white wine to anyone? 2-4-6 Trichloralanisol taint to the first taker … one whif and your hippocampus will forever be indebted to you, because now you will know what corked really is.
iPhone tells me to get the wine off the bottom shelf that has been sitting in the sun for a year … low and behold, a gem to be cherished.
I thought Burgundy was a color of an Oldsmobile from the early 80's.
I would like to see the CWO successful in their efforts, if not just to get this conversation over and done. Just because a wrong has occurred for a long time, doesn't make it right. Any appellation name is like a trademark and the goodwill that the name holds needs to be protected. I know we would be screaming bloody murder if the shoe was on the other foot.
My guess is it will not make one bottle difference in anyone's sales in the short term, but perhaps over the long term Champagne producers or Port producers can add to their brand and name value. Domestic sparkling wine should feel no impact whatsoever because no Champagne can compete on value.
"Portuguese Port, on the other hand, is a very great wine and so far there are no other "port"-style wines to equal them, but that, I think, isn't due solely to the dirt and climate of the Douro but to the fact that the port market is so dead that nobody cares enough to compete. Make Port suddenly a hot, in-demand wine, and you'd see the a real increase in quality."
What a silly thing to declare Steve.
Would have read better if prefaced by "In my personal opinion……"
You obviously have not tasted in the 1945 adobe cellars of Ficklin Vineyards. In my (46 year) opinion, their 20 year old Tawney and
1957 Vintage Madera California Ports are unrivaled.
Also, may I please remind, Rhenish, Hock, Sherry, Port, Claret, Malmsey, etc. are English words.
"how to educate Americans about anything these days, when so many of them seem to cherish their ignorance…" Bravo Steve, well said, thank you!
As a representative of the Sweet and Fortified Wine Association, I am intimately familiar with the issue of the "semi-generic" place names Port and Sherry in relation to domestic fortified wines. Your blog raises several important issues worthy of discussion.
First, I agree that the ship on the use of "Port" on new domestic fortified wine labels after March 2006 has sailed. While there are numerous reasonable arguments for retaining "Port" on domestic wine labels, the "powers that be" way above my pay grade have made the rules and we must now accept and live with them.
This may not necessarily all bad considering the reputation of domestic fortified "port-style" wines following Repeal and well into the 1960s. Let me empatically emphasize – THOSE DAYS ARE OVER. Today, despite your comment on quality to the contracy, American fortified wine producers are dedicated to making high quality "port-style" wines. Over 200 California wineries form Temecula to Medocino, Paso Robles to Amodor make a "port-style" fortified wine. Granted, the majority of these wines are either limited production or from small wineries but the commitment to produce quality fortified wines from classic or Portuguese varieties in genuine.
I would challenge consumers to discuss the issue of quality when considering fortified wines from California producers like Prager, Quady, Ficklin, J Pedroncelli, Meyer Family, Deaver, Pessagno, Tesouro, or Fesestra. These port-style wines reflect their unique sense of place and are never intended to be Portuguese Port. They American fortified wines made from American grapes and wine spirits.
My final point relates to consumer education. You are correct that the media is the most influencial source of consumer information on wine, wine styles, and related wine issues. In my view, American fortified wine has been almost totally ignored by the media. RARELY do you find any comment or review of domestic fortified wines in media including your own publication. I find it difficult to believe that out of over 200 California wineries producing fortified wines, only a handful are EVER mentioned or reviewed in the press. For the past two years, the Sweet and Fortified Wine Association has conducted a public tasting with special emphasis on inviting the wine media to participate. Only one member of the media attended the event and he was a free-lance wine writer.
Your comment that the domestic fortified wine segement is "dead" and that no one cares enough to compete is not altogether true. If you talk to the tasting rooms, when consumers taste a domestic fortified wine, they buy! Certainly there must be some reason for over 200 wineries to offer fortified wine in there portfolio. Maybe the problem isn't that the industry doen't care, maybe it's media who doesn't care.
Taking this one step further, some of this neglect of domestic fortified wines rests in the lap of so-called "wine educators" who think the only fortified wine of merit comes from Portugal. They need a little education themselves.
So if we can't call these domestic fortified wines "port" anymore, what do we call them? This is a huge issue for American producers made even more difficult by rules, regulations, and "policies" established by the TTB who regulates what can be said on wine labels. Many of these archaic rules date to provision of repeal and have no relevance to the current wine industry. For example, the terms "fortified" and "wine spirits" are prohibted from use on fortified wine labels to describe what is in the bottle. Similiarly, any term with "port" or including p o r t is prohibited as in "port-style" or "Ameriport". The inablility to use common terms recognizable to wine consumers on labels further aggravates the issues of consumer education and awarness.
Finally, the Sweet and Fortified Wine Association is a new organization of producers whose mission is indeed consumer education on domestic fortified and sweet wines but we can't do it alone. We need the help of the media and wine educators to spread the word. Visit our website (sweetandfortifiedwine.org) or contact us at email@example.com with comments or suggestions that will help consumers and the media better appreciate American fortified "port-style wines.
Thanks for the opportunity to respond to your blob.


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Best Things To Do in Mexico City
Local Recommendations from our My Guide Mexico City team
In Mexico City you'll never be at a loss of what to do. With a population of over eight million, this is a city that keeps very busy.
Mexico City is very big on sports and is home to some of the greatest teams and athletes in the country. With that in mind it comes as little surprise that it is the perfect place to catch live sports events. You can watch globally popular sports such as football, but also very culturally specific events like the luchadore fighting.As well as sports Mexico City also offers an array of entertainment for children, for instance its theme parks which will keep the little ones happy all day long.


text:
When I broke down in my midlife crisis car in remotest Kent just before Christmas, a battered white van pulled up on the far carriageway. To help, I thought. But when the driver got out he started taking pictures with a long-lens camera. He came closer to get better shots and I swore at him. Then he offered me a lift the last few miles to my destination. I suspected his motives and swore at him some more. (I'm not entirely sympathetic towards paparazzi.) Then I realised I couldn't get a taxi and was late. So I had to accept the lift.
He turned out to be an ex-News of the World investigative journalist and paparazzo, now running a pub in Dover. He still kept his camera in the car's glove box for just this kind of happy accident.
More than that, he was Paul McMullan, one of two ex-NoW hacks who had blown the whistle (in the Guardian and on Channel 4's Dispatches) on the full extent of phone-hacking at the paper, particularly under its former editor Andy Coulson. This was interesting, as I had been a victim – a fact he confirmed as we drove along. He also had an unusual defence of the practice: that phone-hacking was a price you had to pay for living in a free society. I asked how that worked exactly, but we ran out of time, and next thing we had arrived and he was asking me if I would pose for a photo with him, "not for publication, just for the wall of the pub".
I agreed and the picture duly appeared in the Mail on Sunday that weekend with his creative version of the encounter. He had asked me to drop into his pub some time. So when, some months later, Jemima asked me to write a piece for this paper, it occurred to me it might be interesting to take him up on his invitation.
I wanted to hear more about phone-hacking and the whole business of tabloid journalism. It occurred to me just to interview him straight, as he has, after all, been a whistleblower. But then I thought I might possibly get more, and it might be more fun, if I secretly taped him, The bugger bugged, as it were. Here are some excerpts from our conversation.
Me So, how's the whistleblowing going?
Him I'm trying to get a book published. I sent it off to a publisher who immediately accepted it and then it got legal and they said, "This is never going to get published."
Me Why? Because it accuses too many people of crime?
Him Yes, as I said to the parliamentary commission, Coulson knew all about it and regularly ordered it . . . He [Coulson] rose quickly to the top; he wanted to cover his tracks all the time. So he wouldn't just write a story about a celeb who'd done something. He'd want to make sure they could never sue, so he wanted us to hear the celeb like you on tape saying, "Hello, darling, we had lovely sex last night." So that's on tape – OK, we've got that and so we can publish . . . Historically, the way it went was, in the early days of mobiles, we all had analogue mobiles and that was an absolute joy. You know, you just . . . sat outside Buckingham Palace with a £59 scanner you bought at Argos and get Prince Charles and everything he said.
Me Is that how the Squidgy tapes [of Diana's phone conversations] came out? Which was put down to radio hams, but was in fact . . .
Him Paps in the back of a van, yes . . . I mean, politicians were dropping like flies in the Nineties because it was so easy to get stuff on them. And, obviously, less easy to justify is celebrities. But yes.
Me And . . . it wasn't just the News of the World. It was , you know – the Mail?
Him Oh absolutely, yeah. When I went freelance in 2004 the biggest payers – you'd have thought it would be the NoW, but actually it was the Daily Mail. If I take a good picture, the first person I go to is – such as in your case – the Mail on Sunday. Did you see that story? The picture of you, breaking down . . . I ought to thank you for that. I got £3,000. Whooo!
Me But would they [the Mail] buy a phone-hacked story?
Him For about four or five years they've absolutely been cleaner than clean. And before that they weren't. They were as dirty as anyone . . . They had the most money.
Me So everyone knew? I mean, would Rebekah Wade have known all this stuff was going on?
Him Good question. You're not taping, are you?
Me [slightly shrill voice] No.
Him Well, yeah. Clearly she . . . took over the job of [a journalist] who had a scanner who was trying to sell it to members of his own department. But it wasn't a big crime. [NB: Rebekah Brooks has always denied any knowledge of phone-hacking. The current police investigation is into events that took place after her editorship of the News of the World.] It started off as fun – you know, it wasn't against the law, so why wouldn't you? And it was only because the MPs who were fiddling their expenses and being generally corrupt kept getting caught so much they changed the law in 2001 to make it illegal to buy and sell a digital scanner. So all we were left with was – you know – finding a blag to get your mobile [records] out of someone at Vodafone. Or, when someone's got it, other people swap things for it.
Me So they all knew? Wade probably knew all about it all?
Him […] Cameron must have known – that's the bigger scandal. He had to jump into bed with Murdoch as everyone had, starting with Thatcher in the Seventies . . . Tony Blair . . . [tape is hard to hear here] Maggie openly courted Murdoch, saying, you know, "Please support me." So when Cameron, when it came his turn to go to Murdoch via Rebekah Wade . . . Cameron went horse riding regularly with Rebekah. I know, because as well as doorstepping celebrities, I've also doorstepped my ex-boss by hiding in the bushes, waiting for her to come past with Cameron on a horse . . . before the election to show that – you know – Murdoch was backing Cameron.
Me What happened to that story?
Him The Guardian paid for me to do it and I stepped in it and missed them, basically. They'd gone past – not as good as having a picture.
Me Do you think Murdoch knew about phone-hacking?
Him Errr, possibly not. He's a funny bloke given that he owns the Sun and the Screws . . . quite puritanical. Sorry to talk about Divine Brown, but when that came out . . . Murdoch was furious: "What are you putting that on our front page for? You're bringing down the tone of our papers." [Indicating himself] That's what we do over here.
Me Well, it's also because it was his film I was about to come out in.
Him Oh. I see.
Me Yeah. It was a Fox film.
[A pause here while we chat to other customers, and then – ] Him So anyway, let me finish my story.
Me Murdoch, yes . . .
Him So I was sent to do a feature on Moulin Rouge! at Cannes, which was a great send anyway. Basically my brief was to see who Nicole Kidman was shagging – what she was doing, poking through her bins and get some stuff on her. So Murdoch's paying her five million quid to big up the French and at the same time paying me £5.50 to fuck her up . . . So all hail the master. We're just pawns in his game. How perverse is that?
Me Wow. You reckon he never knew about it?
Him [pause] I don't even think he really worried himself too much about it.
Me What's his son called?
Him James. They're all mates together. They all go horse riding. You've got Jeremy Clarkson lives here [in Oxfordshire]. Cameron lives here, and Rebekah Wade is married to Brooks's son [the former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks]. Cameron gets dressed up as the Stig to go to Clarkson's 50th birthday party [NB: it was actually to record a video message for the party]. Is that demeaning for a prime minister? It should be the other way round, shouldn't it? So basically, Cameron is very much in debt to Rebekah Wade for helping him not quite win the election . . . So that was my submission to parliament – that Cameron's either a liar or an idiot.
Me But don't you think that all these prime ministers deliberately try to get the police to drag their feet about investigating the whole [phone-hacking] thing because they don't want to upset Murdoch?
Him Yeah. There's that . . . You also work a lot with policemen as well . . . One of the early stories was [and here he names a much-loved TV actress in her sixties] used to be a street walker – whether or not she was, but that's the tip.
Me and Chum MLTVA?!
Me I can't believe it. Oh no!
Chum Really??
Him Yeah. Well, not now . . .
Chum Oh, it'd be so much better if it was now.
Him So I asked a copper to get his hands on the phone files, but because it's only a caution it's not there any more. So that's the tip . . . it's a policeman ringing up a tabloid reporter and asking him for ten grand because this girl had been cautioned right at the start of his career. And then I ask another policemen to go and check the records . . . So that's happening regularly. So the police don't particularly want to investigate.
Me But do you think they're going to have to now?
Him I mean – 20 per cent of the Met has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. So why would they want to open up that can of worms? . . . And what's wrong with that, anyway? It doesn't hurt anyone particularly. I mean, it could hurt someone's career – but isn't that the dance with the devil you have to play?
Me Well, I suppose the fact that they're dragging their feet while investigating a mass of phone-hacking – which is a crime – some people would think is a bit depressing about the police.
Him But then – should it be a crime? I mean, scanning never used to be a crime. Why should it be? You're transmitting your thoughts and your voice over the airwaves. How can you not expect someone to just stick up an aerial and listen in?
Me So if someone was on a landline and you had a way of tapping in . . .
Him Much harder to do.
Me But if you could, would you think that was illegal? Do you think that should be illegal?
Him I'd have to say quite possibly, yeah. I'd say that should be illegal.
Me But a mobile phone – a digital phone . . . you'd say it'd be all right to tap that?
Him I'm not sure about that. So we went from a point where anyone could listen in to anything. Like you, me, journalists could listen in to corrupt politicians, and this is why we have a reasonably fair society and a not particularly corrupt or criminal prime minister, whereas other countries have Gaddafi. Do you think it's right the only person with a decent digital scanner these days is the government? Whereas 20 years ago we all had a go? Are you comfortable that the only people who can listen in to you now are – is it MI5 or MI6?
Me I'd rather no one listened in, to be honest. And I might not be alone there. You probably wouldn't want people listening to your conversations.
Him I'm not interesting enough for anyone to want to listen in.
Me Ah . . . I think that was one of the questions asked last week at one of the parliamentary committees. They asked Yates [John Yates, acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police] if it was true that he thought that the NoW had been hacking the phones of friends and family of those girls who were murdered . . . the Soham murder and the Milly girl [Milly Dowler].
Him Yeah. Yeah. It's more than likely. Yeah . . . It was quite routine. Yeah – friends and family is something that's not as easy to justify as the other things.
Me But celebrities you would justify because they're rich?
Him Yeah. I mean, if you don't like it, you've just got to get off the stage. It'll do wonders.
Me So I should have given up acting?
Him If you live off your image, you can't really complain about someone . . .
Me I live off my acting. Which is different to living off your image.
Him Yeah, but you're still presenting yourself to the public. And if the public didn't know you –
Me They don't give a shit. I got arrested with a hooker and they still came to my films. They don't give a fuck about your public image. They just care about whether you're in an entertaining film or not.
Him That's true . . . I have terrible difficulty with him [points to pap shot of Johnny Depp]. He's really difficult. You know, I was in Venice and he was a nightmare to do because he walks around looking like Michael Jackson. And the punchline was . . . after leading everyone a merry dance the film was shot on an open balcony – I mean, it was like – he was standing there in public.
Me And you don't see the difference between the two situations?
Chum He was actually working at this time? As opposed to having his own private time?
Him You can't hide all the time.
Me So you're saying, if you're Johnny Depp or me, you don't deserve to have a private life?
Him You make so much more money. You know, most people in Dover take home about £200 and struggle.
Me So how much do you think the families of the Milly and Soham girls make?
Him OK, so there are examples that are poor and you can't justify – and that's clearly one of them.
Me I tell you the thing I still don't get – if you think it was all right to do all that stuff, why blow the whistle on it?
Him Errm . . . Right. That's interesting. I actually blew the whistle when a friend of mine at the Guardian kept hassling me for an interview. I said, "Well if you put the name of the Castle [his pub] on the front page of the Guardian, I'll do anything you like." So that's how it started.
Me So, have you been leant on by the NoW, News International, since you blew the whistle?
Him No, they've kept their distance. I mean, there's people who have much better records – my records are non-existent. There are people who actually have tapes and transcripts they did for Andy Coulson.
Me And where are these tapes and transcripts? Do you think they've been destroyed?
Him No, I'm sure they're saving them till they retire.
Me So did you personally ever listen to my voice messages?
Him No, I didn't personally ever listen to your voice messages. I did quite a lot of stories on you, though. You were a very good earner at times.
Those are the highlights. As I drove home past the white cliffs, I thought it was interesting – apart from the fact that Paul hates people like me, and I hate people like him, we got on quite well. And, absurdly, I felt a bit guilty for recording him.
And he does have a very nice pub. The Castle Inn, Dover, for the record. There are rooms available, too. He asked me if I'd like to sample the honeymoon suite some time: "I can guarantee your privacy."


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Poor Wonder Woman. Her television show got scrapped without even airing one episode, and her movie's been in development hell since the early 1990s. Batman and Superman both get big-screen reboots, but Diana Prince can't even get booted up for the first time.
It's not for lack of trying. Many attempts have been made to adapt Wonder Woman to other media over the years, besides her successful 1970s TV show. Everybody tried to reinvent Wonder Woman, from the creator of Lois and Clark to the inventors of She-Ra. Here's the complete history of failed Wonder Woman adaptations.
The 1950s
Wonder Woman first appeared in comics in 1941, and there were attempts as early as the 1950s to get Hollywood to create a live-action Wonder Woman serial, according to The Superhero Book by Gina Renée Misiroglu. But the tide was probably against Diana Prince — in the 1950s, anti-comic crusader Fredric Wertham accused Wonder Woman of being a lesbian with a "a sadistic hatred of all men." Plus people sort of noticed how full of weirdly sexy bondage her comics were in the early days, something creator William Moulton Marston admitted to openly.
Also, after World War II, Wonder Woman was retooled in the comics to make her less of a war hero and more of a traditional woman — she worked as a fashion model, movie star, and a "lonely hearts" columnist in the newspaper, according to the book Female Action Heroes by Gladys L. Knight. She spent more time on romance, and less time fighting bad guys — and at one point, she actually married a monster. So Hollywood producers may well have looked at the 1950s comics and seen less potential for a live-action adaptation — until the popularity of Emma Peel and other similar heroines changed their minds in the 1960s.
The 1960s
In 1966, the first Wonder Woman story appeared outside of the comics: an audio story, released on a seven-inch single. And it was apparently atrocious, judging from the description in Wonder Woman: The Complete History by Les Daniels. Side one is basically taken up with a "groovy" theme song featuring copious electric guitar and organ, with the lyrics:
Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman,
How I wonder 'bout the wonder,
The wonder, the wonder, the wonder,
Of you.
Side two introduces a brand new villain named Brunhilde, who mostly fights Steve Trevor — Wonder Woman barely appears at all.
And then in 1966 or 1967, depending on which source you consult, the first abortive pilot was filmed for a show called Who's Afraid of Diana Prince?. William Dozier (Executive producer for Batman, The Green Hornet) wanted to do a "campy series," but never got past the pitching stage. Dozier apparently made a four-minute short film to show Warner Bros., starring Ellie Wood Walker as a plain woman who, when she looks into the mirror, sees Wonder Woman — and the implication is that she's delusional. Not exactly promising stuff.
In 1969, Wonder Woman sort of shows up in Midnight Cowboy, the only X-rated movie to win an Oscar for Best Picture. At one point, a little girl covers her face with an issue of the Wonder Woman comic.
The 1970s
In 1972, Wonder Woman made her first broadcast, and first animated appearance, as a guest on The Brady Kids, a cartoon spinoff of The Brady Bunch. In the episode, the Bradys time travel to ancient Greece, win the Olympic Games, and qualify for the Marathon. Wonder Woman tells them they must disqualify themselves to avoid changing history.
And then starting in 1973, Wonder Woman was a founding member of the Super Friends in the animated series of the same name.
And then in 1974 came Wonder Woman's first live-action appearance on actual TV. The made-for-TV movie featuresCathy Lee Crosby starring as a blonde Wonder Woman who wears a costume that deviated from the comics. Plus she has no special powers, and doesn't keep her identity very secret. She helps government agent Steve Trevor to pursue villain Abner Smith — who, as MinervaAlpaca points out in the comments, is played by Ricardo Montalban... aka Khan! The pilot aired twice that year, and then ABC chose not to make a full-blown show using that pilot, and the studio said updating Wonder Woman was a mistake. And apparently, this is the version that Angela Bowie auditioned for, but lost out on because she wouldn't wear a bra.
In 1975, Wonder Woman appeared in more audio adventures, including "The Return of Brunhilde," "The Amazons from Space," "The Secret of the Magic Tiara" and "Wonder Woman Versus the War-God" At left, listen to "Prisoner of Christmas Island," which was released as a standalone record as well as an LP with Superman and Batman stories.
Wonder Woman's actual live-action TV series aired from 1975-1977, and it's easy to forget just how much the show's concept kept changing over that time. The show went from a World War II setting in its first season to a present-day United States setting in the second season, to a more teen-friendly disco-tinged revamp in the third season — and finally, a fourth revamp in the last episodes of season three, where Diana moves to L.A. and gets a whole new supporting cast. Sadly, all of these endless reinventions didn't help the show survive for a fourth season.
The 1980s
There was an entire episode of the Muppets in 1980, dedicated to Wonder Woman, and Lynda Carter appeared on the show. Miss Piggy dresses up as "Wonder Pig," and all the Muppets have superhero-related skits.
In 1982, Fischer Price released a new Wonder Woman storybook and tape, "Cheetah on the Prowl," featuring art by Ross Andru and others. And some obliging soul has turned it into a kind of motion comic on Youtube, which you can watch at left.
And in 1988, Wonder Woman was a guest on CBS' animated Superman series. Watch at left.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Warner Bros. was working on a big budget live-action Wonder Woman film, with seven or more scripts in the hopper. Jennifer Aniston and others were supposedly in the running for the lead. Sandra Bullock was "locked" to the part, but she left the project because she didn't want to wear the costume. (Even though Lynda Carter said Bullock would make a "great" Wonder Woman.) Ivan Reitman was set to direct as of 1996, but he eventually left.
In 1991, a reporter dresses up as Wonder Woman in a Filipino, fanmade Batman comedy called Alyas Batman en Robin. (See clips, not featuring Wonder Woman, here.)
In 1993, Mattel wanted to make a toy line starring Wonder Woman, so they started making storyboards for an animated tie-in called "Wonder Woman and the Star Riders." No pilot was ever made because they decided not to do the Wonder Woman toys. They did, however, manage to get a cereal box comic out to the public.
In the cartoon, the Star Riders are four girls who can control nature, and they work with a young Wonder Woman save the world. (The other girls are Dolphin, Ice, Solara, and Starlily.) They go to the Starlight Castle on winged horses and receive costumes, names, different hair, etc. from the disembodied voice, Starlight. With Wonder Woman leading the way, they have to stop Purrsia from stealing all of the Star Jewels protecting the earth. The girls have to balance fitting in as regular teenagers with battling Purrsia.
The heroines were billed as "sparkling super heroes," and in the same breath, they were described as being "designed to challenge the gender stereotypes prevalent even in today's toy marketing."
In 1997, NBC tried to launch a live-action series with Deborah Joy Levine (Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman). Diana would have been a Greek history professor at UCLA. A casting call was issued, but they couldn't find an actor who could live up to Lynda Carter's portrayal. In an interview at the time, Levine said her Wonder Woman would have "a hard time juggling her personal life with her work. It's like, 'I'll save the world, come home, pop a Lean Cuisine in the oven, and watch the soap I taped this afternoon.' In many ways, she's like a real woman, a real person." Of the fighting aspect, Levine said, "I think this is not a show that's totally about her fighting bad guys, and certainly not, as it was in the comic books, where she has to fight monsters. No monsters here."
The 2000s
In 2001, Wonder Woman became a member of the Justice League in the first of several animated Justice League series. She also turned up in Justice League Unlimited, where she didn't want to hear people's opinions about her costume.
In 2004, fans decided that if Warner Bros. wasn't going to greenlight a live-action Wonder Woman film, they would take matters into their own hands. The fan film was called Wonder Woman: Battle for Justice. They also made a sequel in 2006, called Wonder Woman: Balance of Power.
In 2005, Joss Whedon was hired to direct a live-action Wonder Woman film, but ended up bailing off the project in a couple of years. Later, he told Entertainment Weekly:
I in no way want this to be a slam on Warner Bros., but the fact of the matter is, it was a waste of my time. We [never] wanted to make the same movie; none of us knew that." He was also having trouble writing the film after coming off of Serenity, and Warner and producer Joel Silver weren't being very helpful in clarifying what they wanted…other than something that wasn't what he'd written.
Also, Warner Bros. purchased a World War II-set spec script, written by Matthew Jennison and Brett Strickland. Silver said they bought the script just because it had good ideas, and they "didn't want it floating around." But he didn't actually intend to make Wonder Woman a period piece.
And then around 2007, Warner Bros. hired Kieran and Michele Mulroney to script a live-action Justice League film, including Megan Gale as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. George Miller was set to direct, and Barrie Osborne would have produced. The project was put on hiatus in April 2008. There were rumors that Warner Bros. would make four solo films reintroducing the main members of the Justice League before teaming them up, similar to the way Marvel handled the Avengers. Miller left the project in December 2008, and in 2010, it was cancelled.
Later, Miller explained:
That was a whole bunch of complex events. It was the middle of a writers strike. There was Australian rebate legislation that was required to get the film going. It was just o whole complex series of events. It was no one particular's fault that it didn't happen.
In 2009, DC and Warner Bros. released the direct-to-DVD animated feature film called Wonder Woman, starring Keri Russell as Wonder Woman and Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor. Watch some clips at left. Wonder Woman also appeared in the direct-to-DVD animated film, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.
The 2010s
Rumors of a live-action Wonder Woman film have continued to circulate occasionally. As recently as March 2011, Warner Bros.' Jeff Robinov said that a Wonder Woman film was in development, along with Flash and Justice League movies. The failure of last summer's Green Lantern movie may have poured cold water on that notion, however.
Meanwhile, other reports suggest Lauren Shuler Donner wants to produce a live-action version for release in 2013, and David S. Goyer could write or direct. Best take this info with a heaping spoonful of salt.
In 2010, Warner Bros. Television slated David E. Kelley to write and produce a Wonder Woman series, and a pilot was shot in 2011 starring Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman. In this pilot, Wonder Woman attempted to balance three identities: crime fighter, executive, and "modern woman." We watched the unaired pilot, and found that it was "bad in the ways that we were all expecting, but it's also bad in other, more fundamental, ways." At left, fan-made opening credits.
After the pilot was shot down, Warner Bros. TV CEO Peter Roth said, in response to a question on whether Wonder Woman would be seen in another form, "To be determined. I'm just not sure yet; we haven't given it a lot of thought."
But at least Wonder Wonder did appear on television in 2011 — she guest-starred in "Triumvirate of Terror," an episode of the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold.


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"DJ EZ (Pronounced DJ EEE ZED) is widely regarded as being one of the best DJ's to grace planet earth, he can only be described as a charming music phenomenon. Saluted by the industry for being one of the most creative mixers with instinct and technical prowess, not forgetting the mentions of owning one of the quickest fingers in the trade with his trademark cue action displays during his sets! A set of decks simply isn't the same without DJ EZ."
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1. Why do Americans find prefabricated houses so intriguing?
If my gamble is right, this show will engage not only design professionals, but the broad public. That's because a prefab house promises instant gratification -- the fantasy is that you buy a piece of land, and the house is dropped out of the sky.
2. And yet that fantasy has rarely become a reality in spite of all the buzz about prefab in recent years.
Americans say they want personalized houses. So they avoid prefabrication. And yet the houses they build are personalized within an incredibly narrow range. It's all about maintaining resale value.
3. So shouldn't we admit that prefabrication, at least in America, has been a failure?
I prefer to think about it as a disappointingly interrupted research project.
4. Is that about to change?
The digital revolution promises that, for the first time, houses can be produced on assembly lines but still be customized, in the same way that clothes made in factories reflect the latest fashions. So you could have customization, which is what consumers want, while preserving the economies of mass production.
5. Are you expecting crowds this summer?
Yes, because everybody likes looking at other people's houses. The most popular architecture show in MoMA's history was The House in the Garden -- homes erected behind the museum from 1949 to 1954.
6. Is prefabrication more popular outside the U.S.?
In Japan, factory-built housing is the norm. Six corporations produce something like 90 percent of the houses. Toyota has an ultra-modern factory; it looks like the BMW factory in Munich. And yet the houses are uniformly uninspiring.
7. But at least prefab houses are cheaper, right?
Not always. In fact, if saving money is your sole reason for buying a prefabricated house, you'll probably be disappointed. But there are other advantages. You can get a higher quality product: a better-constructed, more energy-efficient building from the controlled conditions of factory production than you often can from local contractors.
8. So prefab may have the greatest potential where construction standards are low?
Absolutely. One of the houses in the show, by Larry Sass, can be shipped flat and assembled by three people using rubber mallets. In a global economy, things can be made where one set of skills is available and assembled somewhere else. This has enormous potential for the third world.
9. How about the first world? Will we see more prefab houses in American suburbs?
That's hard to answer, because we really shouldn't have more wasteful suburbs in the first place. That's why four of the five houses in the show aren't really houses but systems that can be configured in lots of different ways, even as apartment buildings. I wouldn't want to do a show that seems to suggest that everyone should own a single-family house, which is not an option for many people and is not a way to deal with the world's population crisis.
10. What can Americans learn from this show?
People who want to be ecologically and socially responsible should have an awareness of how things are made. This show will help provide that.
The museum is chronicling the creation of the houses at


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HONG KONG, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Stuart Manley had a 17th-hole birdie Saturday that gave him a one-stroke lead going into the final round of the European Tour's Hong Kong Open.
Manley, looking for his first European Tour title, ended up with a 4-under-par 66 in the third round, which left him at 10-under 200 for the tournament. Shiva Kapur and Wade Ormsby, who both also shot 66 Saturday, are tied for second at 9-under.
A trio -- Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jose Manuel Lara and Steve Webster -- tied for fourth at 8-under all had 5-under 65s for the third round.
Second-round leader Jbe Kruger suffered through a 3-over 73 and fell into a tie for 21st at 4-under.
Manley had three birdies and a bogey on each side Saturday. He tied for the lead with a long birdie putt at the seventh hole and had his tee shot at the 188-yard, par-3 eighth stop inches from the cup. A tap-in there put him in the lead alone.
He added birdies at Nos. 10 and 13 but slipped to bogey at 16. A 10-footer for birdie at 17 gave him the outright lead with one round to play.


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Rihanna Edgy, Short Hairstyle
Rihanna's pixie has extra-long jagged layers on top and short sides, which offers versatility to do softer rolled looks, or here, a sexy, edgy style. What to do:
1. Spray damp hair with thickening spray (if it's fine) or light hair gel (if it's thick). Comb through to distribute it evenly.
2. Blow dry hair with a vent brush in a forward direction until it's smooth and dry. As you dry it, direct hair across your face.
3. Run a flat iron over hair.
4. Use styling wax to add texture and spike up the bangs.
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Rihanna Edgy, Long Bob
Rihanna's long bob has an edgy, jaggedy look that can be achieved with a razor cut. The front is also longer than the back, which adds even more cool-ness. To get the look:
1. Spray damp hair with thickening spray (if it's fine) or light hair gel (if it's thick). Comb through and create a side part.
2. Blow dry hair with a round brush until it's smooth and dry. Work in two to three layers (like a layer cake) from the bottom up -- doing this plays up the layers and the choppy vibe.
3. Run a flat iron over it using the same 3-layer technique.
4. To finish, smooth a little shine serum over the ends.
See More Rihanna Hairstyles