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It is early winter in the year 1942. The United States has just been attacked by a foreign power and the annihilation of our Pacific fleet is complete; the fence-sitting is over and the U.S. has officially entered the war. We will no longer simultaneously send humanitarian aid to the Chinese, and scrap metal and petroleum to Japan. Our country is shaken and enraged. And aroused. Our monumental defense production will soon pull us the rest of the way out of the Great Depression.
This was the background of my life at age 12. I had no brothers, my father began working for defense and was exempt from the draft, as was my stepfather, who was a World War I veteran. No one was missing from my life — I wasn't scared. Soon to come would be rationing, air-raid warnings and blackouts. Our seventh grade class learned to knit and made afghans for the army. There were victory gardens in the cornfields surrounding us, and we bought war bonds a stamp at a time. glider pilots being trained at a nearby airfield practiced landing in a meadow half a mile away, where we watched the small elegant craft come down, gliding indeed, whispering to a stop almost in front of us kids, sitting on the fence watching.
Loss and horror and disaster were worldwide while I stood safe in the middle of my living room one Saturday night in 1942 amidst a circle of admiring relatives. My friend Jean stood beside me. We were wearing our first long dresses and ready to go to a formal dance at the little school we had been attending for several months, and my uncle Alex was filming us with his movie camera. My dress was pink taffeta, with little blue velvet bows going down the bodice front, puffed sleeves and a sweetheart neckline. I wore my mother's pearls. I had on black patent leather pumps with a little heel and silk stockings, held up by a garter belt of fascinating complexity. Something had been done to my straight hair with a curling iron. I carried a tiny gold mesh bag with a hankie in it. Jean was dressed the same, except her dress and bows were pale green to set off her beautiful wavy red hair. Out mothers had made it all. (I was envious of her hair, and not wholly her friend, right on into adulthood and the present moment.)
These family times helped the adults probably, and gave an illusion of normality to a frightened, crazy world. Jobs continued, school continued, the war effort extended right down to the youngest children who saved tin foil and coat hangers for the metal, and had newspaper drives at school. Parties continued, with picnics and family celebrations. We were safe in our own country. I learned to play tennis, and dancing school began.
When a girl was 11 or 12 she was deemed ready for this adventure and was a willing participant because it usually meant dressing up. How boys were coerced into this scene I do not know. Remember Penrod? He turned quite savage and fled, as did a boy I remember as Charles, who walked out one evening never to return. We were not taught deportment, as our mothers and grandmothers would have been; this was not where we acquired our manners — we had already learned them at home sufficiently well in the first place to allow us to join this little masquerade of children copying adults. But it was a social scene and was something to be taken in its turn, like riding a bike and learning to swim.
I was sent to Miss Tommye Choate's Dancing School. It was held in a big room over a movie theatre, being actually a studio for ballet classes and had one side entirely of mirrors. There were benches lined up on either side — no chandeliers, no gold painted chairs, but a pleasant room with nice lighting. Boys on one side, girls on the other. The music consisted of percussion, piano and some kind of horn, maybe a sax.
What did we learn to dance? The fox-trot — that is, ballroom dancing. And the music? Night and Day, Deep Purple, Stardust, Frenesi — what else? It was the big band era, and a few years later when we were teenagers we would need no lessons in dancing cheek to cheek to the music of Glen Miller and Tommy Dorsey in the chandeliered ballrooms of the big hotels where the chairs were gold, and the bands were big.
So Miss Choate then requested (required) the boys to invite the girls to dance — what suspense! What horror. What if you were not asked? This is the classic moment all girls will remember as being one of the worst in their lives. (Worse ones came along when we were older, but then we could cope.) Since there were never as many boys as girls it was bound to happen to each of us sooner or later, and the remaining girls would partner each other. One night a boy named Louie (homely, but tall, which overrode everything), headed toward me where I stood beside my friend Jean. He picked Jean. Added to the beautiful hair was now the insult of not being picked first. How I hated her. (Why didn't I hate Louie?) I cried when I got home that evening and said I would never go back. But I did.
When the evening of the formal dance arrived, there was an extra piece added to our little band and somehow a potted palm had gotten lugged up the stairs to sit beside the piano. We were definitely rising to the occasion! Along one side of the room under the tall windows stood a long table covered with a lace cloth on which was sitting a shining punch bowl with a big chunk of frozen pink sherbet floating in it (this is what one is really learning about at dancing school), and there were pretty plates filled with little cakes and cookies besides. There was a vase of flowers in the center. The girls left their coats in the ante room, but there was no hair combing and checking our lipstick. We didn't wear any. (Tangee natural didn't count.) And whatever had been done to my hair, it was there to stay, till the next morning when, thankfully, it had been mashed out of shape on my pillow. We began to dance, and not too badly; and what is more began to feel like we would really like to dance. (This would eventually mean dips and swirls with our partner, and — as Ginger Rogers was described — in heels and backwards.)
So there we stood in my long-ago living room. The high heels and chandeliers off in the future. Pink and green and young and pretty. No one thought of the war for a while; a moment of rest. We had our pictures taken, our bows adjusted again, and were given a kiss on the cheek as we were bundled into the car and driven off to dancing school. The grown-ups headed back into the house, and resumed their cares — sitting down to listen to the latest war news on the radio.
The dress is gone, the film has disappeared. I kept the little gold bag for years, now it's gone too. But it's okay; I like my sandals and my denim shirt — and I often wear my mother's pearls.
Jeanne Hewett is a fabric artist and writer who lives in Vineyard Haven and contributes regularly to the Gazette.


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How can you expect your dog to show any interest in a boring old tossed stick when you spend your time engrossed with a cutting-edge smartphone? Man's best friend deserves something a little more 21st century, and even we'd be excited to chase around this Go-Go Dog Pal RC toy.
Unlike a stick, which only travels as fast and far as you can throw it, the Go-Go can reach a top speed of almost 22mph. And with a 2.4GHz remote it can be controlled from incredibly far distances, giving your dog a fantastic run. You don't even have to worry about what terrain you use the Go-Go on since it's powered by a couple of high-torque electric motors and has four wheel drive with double suspension. If you're dog can handle it, so can this.
Now, $300 is a lot to spend on a dog toy, particularly given they'll be spending their time chasing it down and doing everything they can to gnaw on it. But its tough outer shell should be able to withstand most attacks, and is easily replaceable ($30-$40) if your pup gets a little too enthusiastic when they catch it. [Go-Go Dog Pal via Engadget]

subset: commoncrawl


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Remembering Grandpa
It's hard to break a six month writing silence. So many stories unfold in a half a year. There really isn't anything else I can write of before acknowledging a monumental loss in our life. I've written before about our beloved Grandpa. We've been crazy blessed to spend most Sunday afternoons with him for the past couple years. It has meant driving two cars to church weekly, so half our family could go sit with him at the lunch table in his memory care facility. Our time couldn't possibly have been spent in any better way. One Sunday in September we went to see him and then by the following Saturday he was gone. Deleting the recurring calendar event that said "Sunday lunch with Gpa" was harder than I could put to words. When you love big, it means feeling the "bigness" of loss as well.
Here are the words I shared at his memorial in October back east in Virginia. I flew with our oldest five children to be a part of honoring him in this way. There is nothing more fitting I could write today than to share those words here….
Good morning friends, I happen to be the eldest of the 9 grandchildren but just because I've been blessed under our grandpa's love and leadership longer than my cousins and sisters doesn't make me any more qualified to share today. We all have our own list of memories tucked in our hearts. The list of contributions of every sort our grandfather made in his lifetime would be impossible for any of us here today to sum up. And as with most of life, it's the intangible things that can't be touched or measured that mattered more than any other.
It was his "whatey" that he brought with him when he flew to Seattle or visited grandkids in Virginia. I don't even know how it started but as little girls as soon as we saw his face, we said "Gpa!" and he said "whatey!". We came to expect the "whatey" and we would ask him to make sure and bring it when he came. The whatey always came with a smile and that's what made it so grand.
It was their heart to share what they deemed "one of the most stunning places in the world" coupled with their radical generosity that took our whole extended Larson family to New Zealand 14 years ago this Christmas. They had seen nearly the whole world over and told us we all had to experience together the beauty and breadth of a place they had so enjoyed. If there's anything more wonderful than being overcome by an incredible land, it's sharing that wonder with the ones you love most. It was the trip of a lifetime for all of us.
It was also his faithful presence, despite having to travel cross country to see any of us in the Sween family at least – he was always there, cheering us on at every big life moment, celebrating graduations and weddings and eventually the births of some 14 great-grandchildren. He and Grandma were intentionally invested in the lives of their family in a way that communicated our value in their eyes and we were all better for it.
It was an unwavering commitment to building family relationships despite distance that brought us all together time and time again from Fort Casey, Washington to Estes Park, Colorado to the Outer Banks, North Carolina and many others in between. This left us feeling connected and like we belonged to something special, even if we lived cross country from our cousins.
It was the fervor and passion and deepest pride he had when he talked about politics and education and great leaders and history and America. He told stories of growing up in the Great Depression and having a tumbleweed for a Christmas tree with a stern face and I knew he still remembered just how unbearable some of those days had been.
It was the constant encouragement that he offered to me every single time he saw me and my six children the past decade or so. He was one of my greatest cheerleaders. These last three years with him living nearby for the first time in my life, my children and I had the privilege of Sunday lunches. After sharing our grandfather with Right to Work, with presidents and Senators, with our nation really, it was this last season of his that will always be of greatest treasure to me. He faithfully, dare I say relentlessly, spurned me onward in the daily, sometimes quite monotonous work of educating our children at home, cultivating character and of serving those around us in ways we were able. His consistent mantra to me as we parted every week was, "You keep up the good work". It was fitting to me that the night before he passed away when I went to say goodbye for the evening, he managed to say quietly "You do good work".
It was Grandpa's steady, rooted faith in Jesus that was perhaps his greatest contribution to the Larson clan and to an immeasurable many who don't share our family name. His extreme generosity to people and to organizations who were committed to furthering the message of Christ and his Gospel in the world has undoubtedly had impact in ways we will never grasp or fully know on this side of heaven.
There really isn't a role in the world quite like a grandparent. And an adult who fills that unique role with excellence is one in a million in the eyes of their grandchild. Grandpa was indeed, one in a million and the void he leaves is certainly an impossible one to fill.


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Questions, questions, questions. That's our first impressions of the AVerMedia AVerTV Vola HD. It's a budget USB TV tuner that makes us ask things like this: TV on a PC?
Too many random capital letters? Have we fallen through some sort of time vortex to the ancient past? All the cool kids are watching their YouTubes nowadays, aren't they? What's that you say - ruffs should be starched this season?
Apparently, though, despite the best efforts of iTunes, iPlayer, Vimeo, YouTube and of course, BitTorrent, a lot of you can't quite give up broadcast TV and all its linear programming loveliness.
Who can blame you?
There's a certain safety knowing that Doctor Who will be shown on Saturday at tea time, and Match of the Day will be repeated at... some time in the evening.
So, the AVerTV Volar HD makes life as easy for you as possible, with its tiny, memory stick size, miniature aerial and low, low price.
Only one question remains, then: will it both offer and meet with a positive reception?


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Born in Potsdam (Germany). Graduated from the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet in 2012 (class of Gennady Selyutsky). Joined the Mariinsky Ballet the same year.
Repertoire includes: La Sylphide (James, Youths); choreography by August Bournonville, revised version by Elsa-Marianne von Rosen, Giselle (Classical Duet); choreography by Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa, The Sleeping Beauty (the Bluebird); choreography by Marius Petipa, revival of the 1890 production, staging by Sergei Vikharev, The Sleeping Beauty (the Bluebird); choreography by Marius Petipa, revised version by Konstantin Sergeyev, Le Réveil de Flore (Zephyr); reconstruction of the 1894 production by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, revival by Sergei Vikharev, Swan Lake (the Prince's Friends); choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, revised version by Konstantin Sergeyev, Raymonda (Bernard, Grand pas, variation); choreography by Marius Petipa, revised version by Konstantin Sergeyev,Le Corsaire (Ali, Lankedem); production by Pyotr Gusev after the composition and choreography by Marius Petipa, Don Quixote (Basilio); choreography by Alexander Gorsky after Marius Petipa, Le Carnaval (Harlequin), Pétrouchka (Coachman); choreography by Michel FokineGeorge Balanchine's ballets A Midsummer Night's Dream (Oberon, Bottom), Prodigal Son (Friends of the Prodigal), Jewels(Emeralds, Rubies), Symphony in C (I. Allegro vivo), The Fountain of Bakhchisarai (Vaslav, Youths); choreography by Rostislav Zakharov, Spartacus (Satyr); choreography by Leonid Yakobson, The Nutcracker (Nutcracker Prince, Pas de trois, Moor, Rose Waltz); choreography by Vasily Vainonen, Sylvia (slaves); choreography by Frederic Ashton,Romeo and Juliet (Troubadour); choreography Leonid Lavrovsky, The Young Lady and the Hooligan (the Hooligan); choreography by Konstantin Boyarsky, Yuri Grigorovich's ballets The Legend of Love (Ferkhad's Friends), The Stone Flower (Amethysts), Sacre; choreography by Sasha Waltz, Le Parc; choreography by Angelin Preljocaj, 5 Tango's; choreography by Hans van Manen, Alexei Ratmansky's ballets The Little Humpbacked Horse (Danilo, Gavrilo), Cinderella (Prince, Summer), The Nutcracker (The Nutcracker Prince, Cossack); choreography by Kirill Simonov, production by Mihail Chemiakin,Anton Pimonov's ballets Bambi (Ronno), Violin Concerto No 2,Maxim Petrov's ballets Ballet №2, Le Divertissement du roi, Russian overture; The Bronze Horseman (Dutch Sailors, Russkaya); choreography by Rostisla Zakharov, Yuri Smekalov,Paquita (Officers); choreography by Yuri Smekalov, reconstruction and staging of Marius Petipa's choreography (Act III Grand Pas) by Yuri Burlaka, and dances in the opera Mazepa.
Repertoire also includes:SeasonS; choreography by Ilya Zhivoi,Concertino bianco; choreography by Dmitry Pimonov, as part of the project The Dreamers: Motherboard; choreography by Ilya Zhivoi, Lose Yourself to Dance; choreography by Maxim Petrov and Ilya Zhivoi.


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William Elliott Whitmore doesn't believe in a heaven or a hell. He believes in his home state of Iowa, a place kind of halfway between both. He sings ebulliently about cold, black Iowa dirt being tossed onto his coffin lid after he's been levered down into his grave and how it runs through his veins, getting muddy when the skies open up to drop off some precipitation (Whitmore might call it a puker depending on the strength and duration), usually the prayed for kind. He wants to roll around in it and rub it into his teeth. He loves when it's under his feet. During the summer months, he orders his booking agent to keep his schedule light, allowing him the opportunity to savor as many of the summertime days working on his farmer's tan, going fishing barefooted and casting a line into a limpid family pond for whatever might nibble, tug and put up a fight. The great Mark Twain - born in Hannibal, Mo., only a few hours paddle down the Mississippi River from Whitmore's home in aloof little Montrose, Iowa - chronicler of all-American boyhood, could have used him as a character study, then blushed a little as Will grew unpredictably into the tattooed man he is today.
Twain would have proudly worked it into his humble prose as Whitmore would never have let him down. He doesn't let anyone who's followed him through his career down, feverishly picking his banjo - a junky, rusty thing that remarkably sounds sweeter than molasses - stamping his dress-shoed foot for instant heartbeat drums and writing words that make the malaise and the profundity of living all these consecutive days sound like they're not to be feared, but to be seen as the reasons why goodness exists. It doesn't just happen. Whitmore assures us that there's no take without the give. If a loved one is lost, a flower blooms beside a headstone in Whitmore's songs. Deaths, while unfortunate and sad, are grains of salt in the songs on his three Southern Records releases. They exist to steel you, to make room for perspective - to add that meaning to life. Oh, that's nothing new to suggest - that death staggers you and reinforces the need to make everything count - but Whitmore's way of making his point, with a voice as heavy as an anchor and enriched with the husky rawhide of a man four times his age, resounds like a brick dropped down a wishing well. It's darkly lit and it gives his songs, all of which have an unmistakable amble, a timelessness that carries the authority of ghosts.
Whitmore's view of life stems directly from his upbringing. Growing up on a 160-acre horse farm in Lee County, he was intimately attuned to the cycles that exist in nature at an early age. It wasn't the end of the world when an animal died. It was part of the process, not an abstraction. When they planted crops that then got massacred by a drought, sending all those counting on a harvest into the winter scared of how they would pay the bills and put food on the table for their families, it was sad. And when people died, it was sadder, but the sweet follows the sour. He learned that best after he lost his father to cancer over 10 years ago as a sophomore in high school and then lost his mother three years later in a motorcycle accident. Those two events severely bruised and dented a young man who hadn't the faintest idea of what he wanted to do with his life at the time. He began writing songs because he couldn't paint about the things he found loitering up in his head. He found his outlet for all of the feelings that wouldn't stop stinging inside. They manifested themselves into first Hymns for the Hopeless, then 2005's Ashes To Dust and this year's stunner Song of the Blackbird, a work that is affirming. You can feel something light up beneath your skin that is absolutely beyond your control. It might just be a small reflection of the candlelight Whitmore says he reads by in his cabin or the burnt orange of the wood that provides his heat, crackling in his stove. Or, it might just be that you suddenly found yourself taken with a lyric like, "The song of the blackbird is mighty loud/Through the evening mist/The moon is up and it looks so proud/To be looking down on a night/On a night like this." You feel sick with love. You'll be hung over with those words in the morning when you wake up. It won't be because of any corn whiskey or moonshine, no sir.
Whitmore could be a church, a religion in a completely secular way. If a religion could be trusted to tell it like it is without the guilt and the shame and the bullshit, you'd want Whitmore to be an official choice - on the ballot. Sunday mornings would be something, wouldn't they? It would be the best hour spent all week.
The Daytrotter interview:
*You've never paid bills before?*
William Elliott Whitmore: I've been an adult for a long time, but I've lived life in such a way that I never had to pay bills. It's really new to me.
*Do you think you live up to a lot of the images people who listen to your music might have of you? Having a cell phone isn't one of them.*
WEW: I suppose so. I do live up to some of those, but I do drive a mini van. I definitely feel like the way I grew up...I had good things from both worlds. I had the rural and I had the cities. My old man was just a real simple guy in his possessions. My place is so simple. It's just like a tin shack. I've got a wood stove for heat. I love it. I wish everyone could come and see my place.
*How is your cabin coming along?*
WEW: I would say it's 80-percent of the way done. It's just an old corn crib. I don't have a bathroom yet and I don't have electricity. That's kind of the next major thing. I have an extension cord running from the barn to my place now so that I can have my little boombox. But I've got to get electricity so I can have my fuckin' stereo and I can play my records. You've got to have that stereo. Other than that, it's cozy as shit. It just feels so good and that wood heat...I'll just keep working on it. I'll probably build some hallways that go nowhere like the Winchester house. I read about how the widow of the Winchester gun fortune would add on to her house. Ghosts would tell her what to build and she had all this money so she kept adding on. She had all these hallways that didn't go anywhere. I thought that was great.
*How many acres is the farm?*
WEW: It's 160 acres. It's pretty cool because the neighbors on three sides are also family. We had a shrewd, shrewd great grandpa who bought all this land. We've got our area pretty much all to ourselves. It's like a big family compound.
*And it used to be a horse farm, right? Any animals there now?*
WEW: I've got an old quarter horse and I've got an old mule named No. 13. I just kind of keep them around as pets. My uncle calls them hayburners.
*Is the name No. 13 a reference to Mad Jack's burrow named No. 7 in "Grizzly Adams?"*
WEW: Yep, yep, that's exactly where it's from. I think you're the first person to have ever gotten that. I used to love that show. It was actually a real inspiration for me. I'd watch it and I would be like, "Goddamn, he doesn't have to answer to anyone." It's taken me a long time to build up, but I'd always had the vision, as a kid, that this would be the perfect life. Every other job I ever had was just a show job. You know, you get these show jobs and you're like, "I need to get this paycheck so I can leave for tour for a week" or you need that paycheck for art supplies to make your art. They helped me to work toward this. I worked at Hardees for a year when I first started doing the music thing. We'd ride our skateboards in the parking lot until it was time for our shift. It wasn't all bad. We made the best of the situation. It's like anything, you just try to do it the best that you can. I always had dreams of doing stuff with music, but at that time, it was like trying to wrap your arms around the moon. You can do that, but in the meantime, you have to keep the lights on.
*When did you realize that it wasn't like wrapping your arms around the moon, that you could actually do it?*
WEW: We'd drive up to Iowa City and see shows at Gabe's (now The Picador). You could sneak into shows when you were underage and sometimes they'd have all ages shows. There also used to be a church there that would have punk and hardcore shows in its basement. I had never seen things like that before. There were all these kids getting all bloody and crazy in this basement and it was awesome. You could actually do this in a basement. It was the first time that I thought I could do something. I could get a show in a basement and I could get one in the next town over and the next town. Pretty soon you had a tour. I would go up to Dubuque (Iowa). It was just meeting the right folks. I met the Ten Grand guys and those kids had computers and shit. They had all the right connections and they knew the right cats. I tagged along with them. It was always like, "Me too, right?"
*There's so much of it all over your songs. What's your take on life and death?*
WEW: They're equally powerful. You can't have one without the other. I don't believe in a heaven or a hell. I just think there's a certain amount of energy in the universe. I feel fortunate in the lessons I've learned. I learned a lot about life and death growing up on the farm, where your horses die and things die. It's not really a bad thing, it just is. I could talk for hours about this shit. Both of my folks passed away when I was younger. My old man died when I was 16. He had cancer. And my mom died when I was 19. She was a motorcycle rider and someone ran a stop sign. My old man's death was kind of slow and protracted. My mom's was so sudden. That kind of made me go crazy. It just kind of made me go off the deep-end. I just tried to really pull myself together. That's when I really started playing music. If my folks hadn't died, I'd probably be baling hay right now. Not that that would be a bad thing, but my life wouldn't be the same. I think I appreciated that. I just wanted to bury myself. I just wanted to fuckin' die, but I couldn't. I realized that I could become the man I needed to be right now. Everyone's sad, but I've got to man up and saddle up. I was definitely forced to grow up.
*What's your favorite tattoo?*
WEW: My favorites are the ones of the Eastern goldfinch - the Iowa state bird - and the wild rose - the Iowa state flower. I got my first tattoo when I was 18 because you can't really get a tattoo before than, but I wanted to so bad. I thought, "You can put artwork onto your body? How cool is that?" The first thing I got was just something decorative. When you're young, you think you know a lot of shit, but you don't know shit. I still don't know shit. Your tattoos kind of reflect that.
*Why do you love Iowa so much?*
WEW: The area that I live in is very nice. Some parts of Iowa are just flat and full of nothing. When you're less wise, you want to get out of here. I wanted to split. I just wanted to see the world. I just rambled all around and everywhere I went, I found that I missed home super bad because it was my home. There are great nooks and crannies all over the world, but there's only one home. If you're from Eugene, Oregon, then Eugene, Oregon's the shit. I love home because there's no pavement and you've got that Mississippi River right there.
©2023 Bill Graham Archives LLC


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After months of basically fruitless negotiations between Sudan and South Sudan following the latter's independence from the former last July, the countries have recently been flirting with a return to war. South Sudan's seizure of the Heglig oil field from Sudan (now under Sudanese control once more, production at Heglig has apparently resumed) and Sudan's bombing campaigns inside South Sudanese territory have caused worldwide concern. This week, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and the African Union (AU), working in tandem, moved to settle the conflict, the UN by means of threats and the AU with a plan for peace.
Bloomberg on the UNSC:
The United Nations Security Council warned Sudan and South Sudan to halt fighting and settle their differences on splitting revenue from South Sudan's oil reserves within three months or face possible sanctions.
The 15-member council unanimously passed a resolution today calling for withdrawal of all forces from disputed territories, an end to air raids by the north and a negotiated solution to the issue of payments by South Sudan for shipping oil to Port Sudan in the north.
The resolution reinforces a peace plan outlined by the African Union and comes two weeks after troops from the South withdrew from the disputed oil-producing Heglig region. Support for the resolution came from China, a major buyer of Sudan's oil, and Russia, which both generally oppose sanctions.
That the UNSC's resolution applies to South Sudan as well as to Sudan symbolizes for me how much international sympathy South Sudan has lost during the present conflict, although when South Sudan occupied Heglig, the international community's reaction was complex.
Read the text of the UNSC resolution here.
VOA on the AU:
The African Union says Sudan has accepted an AU roadmap for halting violence and resolving issues with neighboring South Sudan.
The roadmap gives the two countries 90 days to settle their issues or face binding international arbitration. The AU said South Sudan accepted the plan earlier this week.
Now we will see how threats and plans from the outside affect the reality on the ground. That the UNSC and the AU are working together improves the odds of peace, it seems to me, as does the fact that the AU has been able to get buy-in, at least in speech, from both sides.


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Kiev: Black-clad Orthodox priests sang solemn hymns, Ukrainians lit thin wax candles and a bell tolled 25 times for the number of years that have passed since the Chernobyl disaster as the world began marking the anniversary on Tuesday of the worst nuclear accident in history.
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill led the nighttime service near a monument to firefighters and cleanup workers who died soon after the accident from acute radiation poisoning.
"The world had not known a catastrophe in peaceful times that could be compared to what happened in Chernobyl," said Kirill, who was accompanied by Ukraine's Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and other officials.
"It's hard to say how this catastrophe would have ended if it hadn't been for the people, including those whose names we have just remembered in prayer," he said in an emotional tribute to the workers sent to the Chernobyl plant immediately after one of its reactors exploded to try to contain the contamination.
Tuesday's service began at 1:23 am (2123 GMT), the time of the blast on April 26, 1986, that spewed a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Europe and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes in the most heavily hit areas in Ukraine, Belarus and western Russia.
The explosion released about 400 times more radiation than the US atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima. Hundreds of thousands were sickened and once-pristine forests and farmland still remain contaminated. The UN's World Health Organization said at a conference in Kiev last week that among the 600,000 people most heavily exposed to the radiation, 4,000 more cancer deaths than average are expected to be eventually found.
Several hundred Ukrainians, mostly widows of plant workers and those sent in to deal with the disaster, came to Tuesday's service to pay their respects to their loved ones and colleagues. Teary-eyed, they lit candles, stood in silence and crossed themselves to the sound of Orthodox chants.
"Our lives turned around 360 degrees," said Larisa Demchenko, 64. She and her husband both worked at the plant, and he died nine years ago from cancer linked to Chernobyl radiation.
"It was a wonderful town, a wonderful job, wonderful people. It was our youth. Then it all collapsed," she said. "If only you knew how much our hearts ache for our children, how many sick grandchildren there are, how many couples without kids.
"We come here to look each other in the face. If it hadn't been for the people buried here, Kiev would no longer exist," Demchenko said.
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have cut the benefits packages for sickened cleanup workers in recent years, and many workers complained directly to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as he handed them awards for their work at a ceremony on Monday in Moscow.
Officials in Bryansk, the Russian region most contaminated by the disaster, have failed to make necessary repairs at the local cancer hospital, worker Leonid Kletsov told the president.
"It's the only place of rest for us," he said. "Officials promised to renovate it, but these promises are still promises."
Medvedev was to join Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych for memorial ceremonies in Chernobyl later Tuesday.
A service similar to the one in Kiev was held at the same time early Tuesday in Slavutich, a town about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Chernobyl that was built for people evacuated from homes close to the plant.
Vladimir Stanelevich, a 61-year-old former cleanup worker, said he came to remember the people who gave their lives to protect others.
"You understand, there (in Japan) it was let's say a natural catastrophe, and here it was a technological one. it's a big difference."
Chernobyl has come into renewed focus since an earthquake and tsunami triggered a nuclear disaster in Japan last month, with the country still struggling to bring the radiation-spewing Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant under control.
Japanese newspapers on Monday highlighted the significance of Chernobyl. The Asahi interviewed a former Chernobyl worker under the headline: "Fukushima, don't tread the same route."
In Germany, thousands of people demonstrated on Monday near several nuclear power plants, demanding a speedy end to the use of atomic energy. Japan's crisis has prompted Germany to freeze plans to extend the life of its plants, order a temporary shutdown of its seven oldest reactors and seek a quicker transition to renewable energy.
In Austria, Chancellor Werner Faymann used an event in Vienna marking the 25th anniversary of Chernobyl to call for a nuclear-free Europe.


text:
Living with Lou: Dudley Clendinen on a Good, Short Life
February 21, 2011 at 8:00 am 61 comments
The Series
Dudley Clendinen, an award-winning author and journalist, was living in Baltimore when he was diagnosed in November 2010 with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease). A former reporter and editorial writer for The New York Times, Dudley wanted to share his experience with "Lou," as he called the disease, with others.
From February 2011 through January 2012, Dudley spoke regularly with Tom Hall about the disease's symptoms, his mental state, and preparing for the end of life. Dudley passed away on May 30, 2012, in hospice care at the Joseph Richey House in Baltimore. He was 67 years old.
The Conversations
6.4.12: Remembering Dudley Clendinen
5.31.12: Dudley Clendinen, 1944 – 2012
4.25.12: A Note on Dudley Clendinen 3.7.12: An Update 1.30.12: I Wouldn't Have Missed It A full transcript of this conversation is available here.
1.16.12: The Body is Going Out A full transcript of this conversation is available here.
1.3.12: A Conversation That Will Go On 12.12.11: A Noisy Body 11.28.11: The Chance to Tell a Story 11.14.11: To Be Remembered 10.31.11: To Be Honest 10.17.11: To Be Flawed 10.3.11: Dealing with Condescension
9.19.11: To Be Responsible
9.6.11: The Thing That Might Not Work
8.22.11: A Wonderful Life 8.8.11: A Good Death 7.25.11: A Legacy Worth Attempting7.11.11: Living with Integrity 6.24.11: The Idea of Being Compromised6.13.11: The Mechanics of ALS
5.30.11: The Time Leading Up to It
5.17.11: A Professional Background
5.2.11: The Physical Effects of ALS
4.18.11: A Matter of Priorities 4.4.11: The Freedoms of Terminal Illness
3.21.11: Preparation for Illness
3.7.11: Considering Others
2.21.11: Dealing with Diagnosis
About Dudley Clendinen
Dudley Clendinen worked as a reporter and editorial writer for The New York Times. His books included Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America, on the evolution of the gay rights movement, beginning with the Stonewall riots of 1969. He's also the author of A Place Called Canterbury: Tales of the New Old Age in America, which details the story of his mother's time in the Canterbury Tower in Florida, where the average occupant is 86 years old. He is editor of a book of essays, The Prevailing South, and author of the text for a book of photographs, Homeless in America.
Further Conversations about ALS
7.26.11: A Professional Athlete with ALS
7.25.11: Options at the End of Life
Dealing with Terminal Illness
We also want to involve YOU in the conversation. Are you, or is someone you know, dealing with a terminal illness? What has been helpful to you as you've dealt with this? Are there particular books or websites that have been useful? What about organizations? How do you to talk to people about it? Or is it something that you mainly keep to yourself?
We've gathered a series of resources below, but we'd love to hear your additions.
Let us know your thoughts at email@example.com, leave a comment below, or give us a call at 410-881-3162.
Books and Journalism
I Remember Running: The Year I Got Everything I Ever Wanted – and ALS by Darcy Wakefield
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death by Jean-Dominique Bauby
The writings of journalist Brian Dickinson, who chronicled his battle with ALS in The Providence Journal
"The Cancer Report" in the Columbia Journalism Review
NPR's Patricia Neighmond's series of reports on Archie Harrison, who was diagnosed with AIDS in the late 80s
A Still Life…A Life Still — the writings of two friends, each of whom is caring for a parent with ALS
I Have a Voice, by Baltimore native Barbara Brenner, who has ALS, and uses a technology called NeoKate to communicate. Her essays are periodically broadcast on KQED in San Francisco.
The World Federation of Neurology
Entry filed under: Health, On Air. Tags: ALS, end of life care, Lou Gehrig's disease, terminal illness.
61 Comments Add your own
Dudley's great spirit and the deep thoughtfulness behind his writing and his humor came through during this interview. I can't imagine being so brave and "adult", but then Dudley is a real adult in the full and best sense of the word, and that allows him childlike wonders and pleasures, and a fully rounded existence. Thank you, Dudley.
[…] I can't wait to hear more heroic radio from Dudley Clendinen, but how I wish he didn't have his amazing material. Listen to him here on the Baltimore NPR station, WYPR. […]
ALS is a terrible disease and I was sorry to hear about Mr. Clendinen's diagnosis. There are more than 50 clinical trials enrolling patients today – and I encourage folks to learn more about those via this link: http://als.net/OurResearch/ClinicalTrials.aspx
or listen to a Podcast from experts on this topic conducted recently here: http://als.net/Podcasts/Default.aspx
So sorry to hear about Dudley's illness, but he has a stout soul and a ton of heart, so he will look it right in the eye and prevail.
It was my honor and pleasure to work with Dudley at the St. Petersburg Times for four years. He was, and is, one of the sweetest writers and most competent reporters in the biz.
Good luck and God bless DC.
Dudley has been a dear friend (and hero of mine) since our freshman year at Vanderbilt. He will always be my hero. What a loss his "voice" in the larger sense will be to the world. And what a loss Dudley will be to all of us who know and love him.
My anger overwhelms me. I'm just not sure where to place that anger.
My grief is too deep to describe.
Linda Ellerbee
Dudley Clendenin interviewed me for an article about cults in America when he was at the New York Times and I was involved in combating the destructive effects of cults. We spoke on the telephone and I was thoroughly impressed by his thoughtful questions and delightful responses to my replies. There was something wonderful about this man — I loved talking with him and I did not want the interview to end. Ever. Oh, how sad I am to learn of Dudley's illness.
Molly Brown Koch
So sorry to hear this news. I am the founder of http://www.treatmentdiaries.com which a site aimed at connecting those living with or caring for someone with any type of illness. We have posted this link on our site for our ALS community and their caregivers. Great info!
Thank-you so much for sharing your thoughts and feelings about living with Lou. I've been scouring the internet in search of stories of people who have been affected by this disease. I was formally introduced to Lou last month and look forward to hearing how your relationship with him is faring.
[…] about his decision to end his life. Compelling to say the least (as are his conversations with Maryland Public Radio). He has ALS, has no illusions about what the future holds, and has no plans to let nature take its […]
Dudley gets it. Most of us Westerners don't.
Death is a part of life; an equal part.
Average life spans are just that.
Most people are so busy being afraid of things, including death, that they never really live their lives, regardless of the years.
Rick Shapiro
Do tell, Rick. You're being rather presumptuous, aren't you… speaking for "most of us Westerners"? Most of us are Christians and we absolutely believe that death is part of life. And we don't pick on cultures that don't.
dudley, your support and faith in me when i was starting my book made it possible for me to write it. i hope i made that clear to you then, and not only now when i see where you have "disappeared to," although actually not disappeared but only grown even more inspired and inspirational. i wish for you a rich and easy journey, to the place all of of us are going, which some of us — you —- know more about than others. it is good to know you are surrounded by the people you love, so strong of mind and soft of heart. — jane gross
I am a person with ALS and I have just emailed Dudley the following:
Dear Dudley Clendinen,
I am a participant in a drug trial for ALS that that has caught everyone in the ALS medical and patient community off guard. The drug seems to stop the progression of the disease and improve the condition of those taking the drug. For how many and for how long is unknown but the drug already stands as the single biggest breakthrough in this disease. In some cases the improvements are dramatic. First hand accounts can be found in the ALSforums and PatientsLikeMe discussion groups. I would be happy to provide you with links or excerpts if you would like. There is a small team of dedicated people with ALS trying very hard to raise awareness of this study. Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.
Also, I highly recommend that you join the study. The improvements seem to be most dramatic in those with bulbar onset.
I would like to share with you a letter I have recently written to Paul Cellucci, ex Governor of Massachusetts and person with ALS, and Dr. Robert Miller, principle investigator of the NP001 ALS drug trial:
Dear Dr. Miller,
My name is Ben Harris, I am a practicing medical physicist, husband and father of a 6 year old boy. I was diagnosed with ALS in January of 2011, bulbar onset. On June 20th I began participation in a phase II clinical trial for Neuraltus Pharmaceutical's drug NP001. After only one day of receiving the drug I noticed significant improvements in my condition. I have been in contact with other participants in the trial and it is becoming clear to many of us experiencing the benefits of the drug that it may be unethical for the trial to continue with the placebo arm, and moreover, it may be unethical to discontinue administration of the drug at the end of the trial.
Although this trial like most is 'blinded' there is no restriction on participants to share their experiences. The positive effect of this drug is so profound and so immediate that it is becoming clear at the trial sites who is on the drug and who is not. The effectiveness of the drug may be its biggest hurdle as those on the placebo will figure it out soon enough and become disinclined to continue participating. Moreover, it is going to be difficult for the clinicians administering the drug to watch some participants actually improve while others decline in that heart wrenching way that we are so familiar with. The ethical dilemma will soon be a burden to everyone involved. For these reasons I feel it is important that the placebo arm for this trial be converted to a dosage arm, but as I understand it the only entity that can make that happen is the Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB). Therefore I request that the DSMB convene immediately to review the accrued clinical data and take appropriate action. This may require a thorough review of the notes being taken by the nurses, physicians and research assistants and perhaps require additional interviews with the participants.
The trial was not designed to identify immediate and dramatic results, instead, like most ALS trials it has been designed to measure the rate of change in the Functional Rating Score, i.e., slow and long term differences. The trial has been designed to measure subtle effects over the course of a year while I have experienced dramatic effects in one day. Many of us in the trial are worried that the (DSMB) may not identify the remarkable effect of the drug in a timely fashion and it will take years instead of months for the FDA to approve this drug.
If we thought it was hard living with the thought that there is no cure for ALS, we are soon to experience unendurable defeat of knowing that there is a cure but it is just out of our reach. For many patients in this trial a cure is across the room from them in someone else's IV bag. For me ALS in itself is not torture. Whether by nature or by deity life is a gift, and a short life is still a gift. What makes torture is the knowledge that the assault on your dignity and your life could end if someone so chose. I am convinced that if the DSMB knew what I knew, they would so choose to end the placebo arm, eliminate the 6 month observation period without the drug and urge Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals to offer the drug to participants at the end of the trial.
Thank you,
Ben Harris
Dear Ben,
My husband has ALS, we are in SF, know Dr. Miller but are no longer his patient. Could you send me more information on how to get in a clinical trial for this drug? Anything would be much appreciated. Hope you are still improving and feeling better. Bless you. -M. Andrews
M. Andrews,
The inclusions criterial is onset less than 3 years, and FVC greater than 70%. The trial sites and the contact for each site can be found at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01281631?term=als&rank=27
email me at firstname.lastname@example.com if you need any more help or information.
Good luck!!
Saw today's WSJ article mentioning your name. If your ALS is of the non-mutant SOD variety, it may be caused by toxicity of the reduced glutathione (GSH) precursors glutamate and cysteine, and sulfite (a metabolite of cysteine), which accumulate when one or more of the enzymes needed for GSH synthesis are defective. See my wife's case study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2007.0781. Avoid sulfite (in wines, used as a preservative in many foods such as tilapia, in Vivonex Plus by Novartis, etc.) at all costs!
Thank you for the information. Has this been posted on any of the ALS discussion forums that you know of?
Dear Ben,
This is Roy Woolsey's wife Patty responding to your reply to him. No, as far as I know this has not been on any ALS chat forum. Perhaps you could advise me on what ALS chat forum would be best. Most of the correspondence that I have received on my article has been from outside the United States.
The interesting part about this drug NP001, if it is indeed sodium chlorite, is that sodium chlorite is neutralized by sodium sulfite. It appears to me that chlorite and sulfite neutralize each other. See http://www.water.siemens.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Product_Lines/Wallace_and_Tiernan_Products/Brochures/WT.085.272.001.IE.AN.0409.pdf
If chlorite and sulfite neutralize each other, then that is an important point if sulfite toxicity is indeed a cause of ALS as I outlined in my article.
On the other hand, I do not know what the long term effects of taking sodium chlorite internally would be, but they must not be too good if there are laws about maximum chlorite concentration allowed in the water supply. Also, it's possible that the good effects that you have noticed could "wear off" when the sulfite level builds up again.
Sulfite interferes with biosynthesis of ATP in mitochondria (see A Mechanism of Sulfite Neurotoxicity, by Xin Zhang et al): http://www.jbc.org/content/early/2004/07/23/jbc.M402759200.full.pdf
If sodium chlorite neutralizes the sulfite then it would perhaps restore a better environment in the mitochondria for the ATP to be produced at least temporarily. ATP is used to transport energy to cells for biochemical processes.
If sulfite is indeed the problem, then another approach can be to cut down the level of sulfite. Sources of sulfite in our bodies are both from what we eat as well as generated in the body. Use of sulfite on meat is apparently banned, but it is in surprising places such as on vegetables like those cute little bright orange carrots in a bag and other vegetables/salad bars to keep them brightly colored, or on fish such as tilapia and flounder, or in wine etc, with no labels regarding sulfite required. In the ALS case outlined in my article, we discovered the sulfite toxicity after about 9 months of effort (testing, diet changes, supplements etc), and when we reduced her cysteine and sulfite load with diet changes and increased her glutathione with ChemDefense (glutathione buccal), she did not decline further and her tests were normal. All of her food was prepared fresh and tested for sulfite by her husband, but when she would take trips she would use the tubal feeding powder supplied by her neurologist for convenience, and she would immediately know she was declining NOW as she wrote. We checked the tubal feeding powder for sulfite and it was worse than red wine.
You can check your sulfite at home and also order a test to check your glutathione and cysteine and other oxidation measures. Let me know if you would like more information on that.
Best regards,
Patricia B.E. Woolsey, R.Ph., N.C.
Registered Pharmacist/Nutrition Consultant
ALS and M.S. share many similar symptoms and a documentary on Netflix titled 'Under Our Skins' controversially links both with Lyme disease citing through one physician in Seattle, WA that females with Lyme disease tend to contract M.S. while males tend to contract ALS and that I.V. of I think it was amoxycillin allows elimination of the Lyme spirochete from hiding places in the human body providing cure and relief with regression of symptoms!
Dudley, perhaps there is a chance at stopping the progression of your symptoms if you are able to consult with the Dr. in Seattle mentioned in the documentary?? (Since I saw this at a friend's and am too broke/unemployed I can't retrieve the information since I am not a Netflix subscriber.)
I remember you from when I was a freelance illustrator for the Floridian, the magazine for the St Pete Times. Also, I illustrated the 8 booklets anyone gets from the ALS foundation, upon diagnosis. To do that, I had to learn about the disease. Recently, I lost a friend who also worked for the St. Pete Times, named Jim Carnaham. to ALS. I just wanted to tell you how touched I was by your story in the NYTimes. I read it and remembered you and your candor and your courage reached my heart.
[…] and knew when to leave. What else is there? I spend a lot of time writing letters and notes, and taping conversations about this time, which I think of as the Good Short Life (and Loving Exit), for WYPR-FM, the main NPR station in […]
Thank you Dudley for sharing. My mom also had Lou and the bulpar. It was very interesting to hear your perception, and listen to the tapes you have done. I know what you mean by not wanting to extend your life, my mom also did not want to and I wish there was some way I could of ended it for her sooner as that what she wanted. She died peacefully in her sleep (what is what I hope for you). Your in my prayers. God speed to you.
[…] and knew when to leave. What else is there? I spend a lot of time writing letters and notes, and taping conversations about this time, which I think of as the Good Short Life (and Loving Exit), for WYPR-FM, the main NPR station in […]
This is the second time within a month's time I have "met"…become
aware of and been blessed with the wisdom of a person I wish I had had the pleasure of knowing earlier in my life. Thank you
Dudley for allowing me to know you even a little through this conversation about death. It is an imperative discussion I so wish I could have had with my father who could not embrace his terminal diagnosis. I intend, if at all possible, to design my own passing with
grace and good humor. I realize there is beauty and honor and hopein a good death if one has the wherewithal to accept it as part of the beauty and honor and hope contained in a good life. Thank you for your example in life and death.
My Dad died five months after his diagnosis with melanoma cancer. When my Dad died I had been up with him for seven weeks straight. Well not quite, but I had been up two or three times a night with him for seven weeks. In between I slept, sort of, as he slept, sort of. He was dying and I was watching and waiting and, helping him, die. Is there such a thing? Helping means assisting towards a goal. If dying were the goal I would have killed him, as he more or less suggested I do. So not believing that to be my role, I guess I was helping him live. Live with the goal of dying? Wishing for his death without causing it in any way? I just Loved him too much to let him go, and loved him too much not to do every thing possible to help him live through the torment that was his final weeks. So my goals were simple. Give him a shower. Help him to the toilet. Convince him his dreams were not real. Or convince him the truck bed full of salmon he dreamed he caught in Alaska and was outside, had been filleted and frozen while he was sleeping. All is well Dad; we are on top of it.
When I was younger the question was, why are we alive? What's the meaning? Now I know, we are here to love each other, this whole reality, and ourselves. Now I can't understand why we die. It seems unfair. Why am I allowed to love someone so much if they just go away? I suppose that's the gamble, that's the risk, you gotta give it all away to truly have it in the first place. But it hurts. I hurt. Love hurts.
I read your story you may change your mind after reading Bob s Book reviewed in the NYTimes I am married to Bob for 43 years enjoy Maureen Paulson email@example.com
Bob s BLOG. Below
NY TIMES BOOK REVIEW below.
Dudley; my niece, who lives in Baltimore, sent me the Good Short Life article. She was not aware that you and I had some water under "The Bridge to Nowhere" in Jacksonville, Florida.
Your idealogy on life is remarkable. A simple and proper outlook that is absolutely the only game in town. Just like your St.Petersberg Times columns. Right on target.
Please send your email address.
Hartley Lord – Las Vegas –
Taking one's own life is not necessary if Hospice Care is engaged to relieve the physical, emotional, and other symptoms associated with terminal illnesses. There may not be a better way to travel the last distance of life as we know it. Mr. Clendinen, please at least see if Hospice could serve your needs with support and medications and with your full participation and control.
[…] and knew when to leave. What else is there? I spend a lot of time writing letters and notes, and taping conversations about this time, which I think of as the Good Short Life (and Loving Exit), for WYPR-FM, the main NPR station in […]
I clicked on the title (The Good Short Life) since it immediately reminded me of my husband, age 49, died of ALS in May. I wish that he had heard your recordings; maybe he did. Your speech is amazingly good considering your bulbar onset and date of diagnoses. Sorry to say I don't know your work, but I am familiar with what you and your family are experiencing. My husband had limb and bulbar onset simultaneously; was using voice simulation within 8 mos. of diagnoses, feeding tube within a year. Never did assistive breathing/cough assist, couldn't stand it. Looking back, breathing was the last to go, all else was gone. I can tell you that those who love you and see you regularly will always see you for the person you are inside. You will not be a burden. They will not feel relieved when you die, even if they are your primary care-givers, while trying to run a business, a household and getting a daughter ready for college. Trust me, I know. Like you, we expected pneumonia to be the culprit; I was almost happy about it because I would know what to expect. But in the end, he went to sleep one night and did not awaken the next morning. I was in the next bed, beside him. He could not have suffered, for I heard nothing. Your death will not be messy or painful. You should consider hospice. I hear they are wonderful, although we never made it there (insurance reasons – needed equipment not covered while in hospice and not available until health care reform kicked in). I respect your attitude towards death and am grateful that you're getting your views out there. God bless
Thank you for your authentic and insightful article in the NYT and your brave interviews on NPR. My husband of 20 years died of ALS at 46, 10 years ago. Sharing with dignity the progress of his disease and death taught many of our family and friends how to live. I recommend the book, "Learning to Fall," by Philip Simmons. Bless you.
When I came to the place where I realized that more than half my life was over, I started looking for acceptance of that disagreeable fact. This man's writing mirrors much of my own thinking and I appreciate it plus the many comments of those who are also dealing with that time of life. It is indeed good for now but I would like not extend into the "bad" for myself and for the sake of those who do not need to see my suffer. Approaching 87 and still grateful to be in the 'good life" phase. Sam Wade Sears
Dudley, sorry to interrupt you admittedly graceful way of dying but there is a clinical trial for a drug called NP001 from Neuraltus Pharmaceuticals that is the most promising drug for ALS ever. Many of the participants are experiencing reversal of their progression (including myself). Just wanted to let you know.
Dudley, thank you for your courageous article "The Good Short Life." Count me among the many supporters on this thread who want to make sure you've considered every option—including hospice and NP001. Ultimately, it is your life, your death, and your choice. As you wrote, "I've done my homework. I have a plan." You also wrote, "I have found the way. Not a gun. A way that's quiet and calm."
My wife Jeri was 56 when she died from ovarian cancer two years ago. She fought the cancer non-stop for nearly ten years. However, as death approached, she too was looking for a self-deliverance method that was "quiet and calm." Because of the prohibition against physician-assisted dying in our state, she did not have access to the better euthanasia drugs like Nembutal. The not-so-lethal drugs she found on the Internet required a plastic bag for backup. Jeri did not want to die that way. Also, she did not want me to help her complete the act in case of failure. It would have incriminated me. As a result, she did not have a workable plan.
Because of Jeri's dilemma, I spent the last two years researching our end-of-life system. I just published a book called "Death with Dignity" that makes a strong case that assisted dying complements hospice. By providing both, Oregon has the best palliative-care system in America. My tribute to Jeri is to make the e-book available for $0.99 which is as close to "free" as Amazon now allows it (see http://www.DeathwithDignityBook.com). My hope is that the e-book will go viral and help legalize physician-assisted dying everywhere. Again, thank you for making it easier to talk about the "quiet and calm death." It would be wonderful if you would issue a plea to make it a legal option for all terminal patients. Please let me know where I can send you a copy of my book. It clearly explains why this cruel prohibition must be lifted. I hope you can add your powerful voice to this cause.
Robert Orfali, Author of "Death with Dignity: The Case for Legalizing Physician-Assisted Dying and Euthanasia."
You seem like a thoughtful enough person to consider trying something simple yet untested that might save your life. It probably won't work, but it might. My grandmnother died of ALS. At the age of 47, after I had emergency appendectomy surgery, I came down with a rare infectioin–a systemic fungal infection. I treated it with medication but it kept coming back. Most disturbingly, the symptoms were markedly similar to early ALS–muscle twitching, general weakness, pain in joints,etc. I spend a lot of time in online ALS chat rooms. I became convinced that ALS and many other diseases where the body attacks the myelin (sp) coating on nerve cells are the result of fungus living on that myelin that the body's anitbodies are trying to wipe out and they take out the nerves in the process. I also decided that the reason that no one knows this is because it is almost impossible to diagnose fungal infections. They have to take a blood sample and culture it for weeks. And I kept telling them that it probably wasn't in my blood anyway, at least when I wasn't really sick with it.
My "cure" is simple, and I encountered it by accident. Sunshine, and staying away from sugar as much as you can (feeds fungus–go with a "Sugarbeaters" kind of diet if you can). You can win the battle against fungus with a lot of natural sunshine. (I found out by the accident of a Mexican vacation.) I don't know if it is because the body is producing vitamin D or the sun is just killing the fungus the way it would on a piece of concrete. But it worked, and it might work for you if my crazy notion is correct. And if you prove my crazy notion is correct, then you might save hundreds of thousands of lives, including your own. What have you got to lose?
Good luck in any event. You seem like a great person. I hope that you are the first of many ALS patients who are saved. You never know.
Lee Terry
Read, "Living and Dying", St. Peterburg Times, July 24. Three years ago, I was misdagnosed (I had a brain homorrhage), and spent two days trying to convince physicians and ER that something was wrong. I now suffer from mistrust regarding the medical profession, along with panic attacks. I have tried therapy, medications, etc. All the medical people can say is "a miracle". I guess so. But I sure did arrange all of my death affairs; joined Hemlock Society of Florida, Inc.; support Death with Dignity legislation; and checked-out Swiss and Netherlands options. Everyday, I try to focus "hurrah I'm free to enjoy one more day"…if only my sub-conscious would cooperate! Thanks for your insight. Karen Lynn
I've been inspired by your interviews here at WYPR and your writing in the New York Times. Listening to your wonderfully honest interview this morning about your equivocations about pursuing a book or a lovely and fulfilling end visiting with friends, I was sympathetic to your antipodes. But here I have to say, with no right, as an acquaintance or as a writer, the following: I hope you will choose the thornier and less certain path of writing your book, whatever the personal sacrifices you perceive would be made. Our predictions are rarely accurate, and you have a gift of time and circumstance rarely afforded to writers. Whatever you choose, thank you for your courage in continuing your honest interviews and writing.
NYTimes 7/10/2011 article by Dudly Clendinen, "The Good Short Life" – thankfully an opinion about a self-determined good death. I forward this info for Mr. Clendinen – http://www.endoflifechoices.org
1 -800 247.7421 Denver, CO – The Hemlock Foundation for End of Life Choices. Native peoples recognized 'a good day to die' and while life is what we cherish most, the quality of a good death is not an acknowledged option. Bravo for Mr. Clendinen, a rare man of courage & insight. I wish you a successful journey.
Suzanne M. Milliron
Saranc Lake, NY 12983
Both my partner's mother and her stepmother died from ALS – deaths 40 years apart but both devastating. Specialty care, the improvements in patient devices and such simple things as lighter-weight wheel chairs and handicapped parking have made enormous positive changes over those decades both for patients and for caregivers. Hopefully someday there will be equivalent improvements in treatment. But until that day arrives one of the largest contributions is from thoughtful and articulate patients and caregivers such as Dudley Clendinen, Dr. Jeffrey Rothstein and Lora Clawson and courageous folks such as those at WYPR "Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast" and especially Tom Hall.
I could say more – far more – but it would only be redundant of a simple but heartfelt "Thank you".
John Blinn
Austin, TX 78731
i want to set up an account for dudley at the bank of dudley in georgia so he'll be able to cash that check. i just called this bank and they said that whoever sets up such an account must finalize it in person. problem is, i'm in paris france at the moment. will be back in baltimore late sept. in any case, it would be extremely inconvenient for me to travel to georgia. if there is a volunteer i could have a check sent to you almost immediately. if you or anyone you know would/could do this for me please contact me at email@example.com.
I can't help with the Bank of Dudley… much more modestly I can contribute few seats for The Daily Show. Jon Stewart and Garrison Keillor are also favorites of mine, and I happen to have 4 tix for the Sept 29th taping, which I'm happy to share, or give entirely.
Thanks so much for writing, and for your generous offers. Dudley would like to contact you to explore the possibility of the Daily Show tickets. Please send me your contact info (firstname.lastname@example.com). Thanks again.
Tom Hall
Thank you, rather, for the great show, Tom. I just replied to Ms. Withney directly.
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Blessings, blessings, and thank you again for being here and
for sharing the process.
Just an update for everyone. I have been in the NP001 trial for over 3 months. My ALS progression has stopped and I am in a better physical state today than I was before I started the trial. I am one among many with the same story.
It pains me to see so much press about esoteric gene research and ALS fundraisers when it is clear that a cure for ALS is surfacing. And no one seems to give a crap.
[…] wondered whether Clendinen speaks the way he writes, so I listened to some of the wonderful interviews he mentioned, from the "Maryland Morning" program on Baltimore's main NPR station. Listen to […]
I have been following the interviews with Dudley all year on NPR and was fortunate to hear his last interview with Tom Hall this morning. His insight and courage is inspirational. He has set the standard educating us on every aspect of living with ALS. A remarkable man who should be highly commended for his bravery. His words, written and spoken, are and will be a valuable tool for helping others deal with this incurable disease. Thank you Dudley and NPR for broadcasting this incredible series. Sally Miller
Bravo, Dudley.
This inquiry is from a cousin of Mr. Clendinen's. Friends have asked if it is possible to purchase CD's of all of the conversations you have had with Dudley in this series.
If these are available, we have a sincere interest in them. If you have not thought about such an offering, I can assure you that your survey would surprise you. Please advise. See ID below:
This inquiry is from a cousin of Mr. Clendinen's. Friends have asked if it is possible to purchase CD's of all of the conversations you have had with Dudley in this series.
If these are available, we have a sincere interest in them. If you have not thought about such an offering, I can assure you that your survey would surprise you. Please advise.
Dudley, thank you for the conversations. You've been a great teacher. The book is next. Thank you my friend.
[…] and knew when to leave. What else is there? I spend a lot of time writing letters and notes, and taping conversations about this time, which I think of as the Good Short Life (and Loving Exit), for WYPR-FM, the main NPR station in […]
[…] can listen to all of the series in "Living with Lou: Dudley Clendinen on a Good, Short Life" at this link. Like this:LikeBe the first to like this […]
Is Dudley still alive,?
What a wonderful and brave soul!
I lost my twin sister to ALS three months ago.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine anything do horrible could come between us.
She was my best friend, my soul mate, my better half. And now shes gone.
This is a mean and vengeful disease, she fought it hard until she had no fight left.
I think of her every minute of every day.
I hope Dudley is fighting a good fight and finishing his book.
Sherry chew
I am a singer and would like to meet Dudley and sing for him. I normally sing at funeral however I want to give him his roses while he is still alive to receive them. Please contact me at http://www.Godsmusicwithwisdom.com or call me at 202-328-6002.
[…] knew when to leave. What else is there? I spend a lot of time writing letters and notes, and taping conversations about this time, which I think of as the Good Short Life (and Loving Exit), for WYPR-FM, the main NPR station in […]
[…] and knew when to leave. What else is there? I spend a lot of time writing letters and notes, and taping conversations about this time, which I think of as the Good Short Life (and Loving Exit), for WYPR-FM, the main NPR station in […]
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Unlockables and Secrets
Assassin's Creed III has a large amount of unlockables to find in the game. Below is a list of all of the mementos that can be unlocked, and how to unlock them. For more unlockables and secrets, see the the following sections:
Story Unlockables
These unlockables are all earned simply by playing through the Main story. They can be found in the Homestead, either in the basement or on the second floor.
|Unlockable item
|How to unlock
|Johnson's Memento
|Complete Sequence 6
|Pitcairn's Memento
|Complete Sequence 7
|Hickey's Memento
|Complete Sequence 8
|Charles Lee's Memento
|Complete Sequence 12
|Benjamin Church's Memento
|Complete The Foam and the Flames in Sequence 9
|Haytham's Memento
|Complete Sequence 11
|Nicholas Biddle's Memento
|Complete the Biddle's Hideout Naval mission
|The Battle of Trenton Newspaper
|Complete Sequence 12
|The Great Fire of New York Newspaper
|Complete Sequence 12
|Kaniehti:io Memento
|Complete Sequence 4
|The Boston Massacre Newspaper
|Complete A Trip to Boston in Sequence 5
|First Expedition Painting
|Complete The Hard Way in Sequence 5
|The Boston Tea Party Newspaper
|Complete The Tea Party in Sequence 6
|Robinson Tea Chest
|Complete The Tea Party in Sequence 6
|Paul Revere's Ride Newspaper
|Complete The Midnight Ride in Sequence 7
|The Battle of Lexington Concord Newspaper
|Complete Lexington and Concord in Sequence 7
|The Second Continental Congress Newspaper
|Complete Lexington and Concord in Sequence 7
|The Battle of Bunker Hill Newspaper
|Complete Battle of Bunker Hill in Sequence 7
|The Declaration of Independence Newspaper
|Complete Public Execution in Sequence 8
|Valley Forge Newspaper
|Complete Missing Supplies in Sequence 9
|Brewery Memento
|Complete The Foam and the Flames in Sequence 9
|Naval Painting
|Complete A Bitter End in Sequence 9
|The Battle of Monmouth Newspaper
|Complete Battle of Monmouth in Sequence 10
|The Battle of Chesapeake Newspaper
|Complete Battle of the Chesapeake in Sequence 11
|The Battle of Chesapeake Naval Map
|Complete Battle of the Chesapeake in Sequence 11
|Know it All
| Complete all sequences with 100% synchronization
Side Mission Unlockables
To unlock these, play through the Side Missions. Some will require specific side missions, but to earn them all (especially the More Than Stories memento), you will need to complete all of the side quests. These can be found on the second floor of the Homestead.
|Unlockable item
|How to unlock
|Scale Model of the Aquila
| Oak Island Naval Location
|Privateer Memento
|All Privateer Contracts completed
|Boston Brawlers Memento
| All Brawler Challenges completed
|Thief's Club Memento
| All Thieves Missions completed
|Hunting Society Memento
|All Hunting Society Missions Completed
|The Frontiersman
|All Frontiersman Missions completed
|Bear Memento
|Complete the Man-eater mission
|Bobcat Memento
|Complete the Feline Feet mission
|Deer Memento
|Complete the Patriarch mission
|Wolf Memento
|Complete the Pack Leader mission
|Cougar Memento
|Complete the Acute Cat mission
|Elk Memento
|Complete the Elk Bachelor mission
|More Than Stories
|All Side Missions 100% completed
|Anchors Aweigh
| All Naval Locations 100% complete
|New York Liberation
|New York Liberation Missions 100% complete
|Boston Liberation
|Boston Liberation Missions 100% complete
|Free the People
|Liberate all Forts
|Spoils of War
|Attack 10 Convoys
Homestead Mementos
To unlock these, you must do specific tasks around the Homestead, as well as the rest of the world. To remove the fog from maps quicker, move through each area from a higher point, be it on roof tops or through trees. These mementos can also be found on the second floor of the Homestead.
|Unlockable item
|How to unlock
|The Art of Conversation
|All ambient conversation with Connor complete
|A Place Called Home
| Upgrade all workers completely
| All Ship Upgrades purchased
|Friends in High Places
| All Recruits to Assassin rank
|Boston Exploration
| Map of Boston with no more fog
|New York Exploration
| Map of New York with no more fog
|Frontier Exploration
| Map of the Frontier with no more fog
Ben Franklin Room
The Ben Franklin Room is located on the second floor of the Homestead. There are many Ben Franklin mementos that can be added to the room, and to unlock them, you must craft them. To see what each item needs, see the Inventions page. The Ben Franklin painting will be unlocked when you complete Sequence 12 of the Main missions.
- Ben Franklin Painting
- Kite and Key
- Electrostatic Generator
- Joseph Priestley Soda Apparatus
- Franklin Stove
- Orrery
- Busybody
- Leyden Jar
- Glass Armonica
- Watt Steam Engine
The Almanacs are composed of the Almanac Pages that you have been collecting throughout the whole game. When all of the pages are collected, all of the books will be found on the second floor of the Homestead. See the Interactive maps for all page locations.
- Poor Richard's Almanack - 1733 (Vol. 1)
- Poor Richard's Almanack - 1733 (Vol. 2)
- Poor Richard's Almanack - 1736 (Vol. 1)
- Poor Richard's Almanack - 1736 (Vol. 2)
- Poor Richard's Almanack - 1737 (Vol. 1)
- Poor Richard's Almanack - 1737 (Vol. 2)


text:
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July 26, 2009 — -- Sarah Palin officially stepped down as Alaska's governor late Sunday, saying she thought she could more effectively serve the people of the state by leaving office.
She went out with a bang, delivering a fiery 15-minute long speech to a crowd of supporters in Fairbanks, Alaska, in which she lambasted the media and touted Alaska's history of energy independence.
Midway through her speech, it sounded as if Palin was back on the vice presidential campaign trail, stumping for fiscal conservatism, the development of natural energy resources, and moral conservatism.
Yet she gave no hint as to her future in politics, saying only she stepped down in order to spare Alaskans "politics as usual" from her governorship turning into a "lame duck session," with a year-and-a-half to go.
The decision to step down has bewildered even some of her most loyal supporters.
Analysts say she is now in uncharted political territory.
She is scheduled to appear at the Reagan Library for an event in August. But, what else? Will she seek higher office or cash in on speaking engagements and a TV deal?
If anyone truly knows, they're not saying -- including Palin's husband Todd, the so-called "first dude."
"It's been an awesome experience and she's very happy to serve the residents of Alaska and onto the next chapter of life," he told ABC News.
But again, the question everyone's asking: What next?
"I guess well just have to wait and see," he said.
Earlier, not even her father, Chuck Heath, seemed to know to know her plans.
"I'm sure she has something else in mind," Heath said. "[But] I don't know. I spent two days with her over the Pale River, and she'd be a good poker player -- she didn't lead on to what she wants to do."
Palin herself had little to say about her post-weekend plans.
"Come Monday, I'm going to be finding new avenues to keep working hard for Alaskans," she told ABC News.
Even as she served up hot dogs Saturday at an event in Anchorage in her last weekend as governor, a smiling Sarah Palin remained mum about what those "new avenues" might be -- unless you count her brief tweets on the social networking site Twitter.
Foreshadowing the freedom to speak her mind as a private citizen, she recently wrote, "ten days till less politically correct twitters fly from my fingertips."
She also wrote about listening to a country song called "Rollin," by the country duo Big & Rich, and quoted the lyrics, "ain't gonna shut my mouth -- I know there's got to be a few hundred million like me -- just trying to keep it free."
As she headed off Saturday evening to the final stop on her farewell tour -- Fairbanks, Alaska -- Palin tweeted again about what she'll be listening to in her camper: "RdTrip7 hrs wKid Rock/Martina McBride/Big&Rich/Grtchn Wilson/Billy Currngtn/Hank/Toby/VanP/Blk I P's/Greenwd/Straight/etc&USO artists=heaven"
Lost in all the smiles is the odd fact that she will leave office and step down early for no stated reason other than a vague notion of trying to save Alaskans the cost of her many legal battles over ethics complaints.
On stage Friday night, Palin said, "This being my last time to speak to the valley community as your governor, I do want to tell you sincerely that I love you, I appreciate you and your support, the support that you've shown my family. God bless you and God bless America."
Palin has easily embraced her weekend "picnic tour" of Alaska, which kicked off Friday in her hometown of Wasilla before moving on to Anchorage and ending today in Fairbanks before handing over power to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell.
"I'm very happy to get to be here in Wasilla," Palin told ABC News early Saturday. "I'm in my hometown and looking forward to spending more time in my hometown."
The Wasilla crowd was hopeful of greater things to come for their local Republican heroine.
"I think Sarah should be president," said town resident Becca Buyse. "I think she would do a much better job. She has the people's interest."
Larry J. Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said that success is in the cards for the soon-to-be former governor.
"What's she heading to is a lot of money and continuing fame," he said. "So she's not giving up anything, she's gaining a great deal."
But an increasing number of people feel pessimistic about the self-proclaimed hockey mom: According to a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll, 40 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of her overall, down from a high of 58 percent. Fifty-four percent don't see her as a strong leader and 57 percent don't think she understands complex issues.
Her numbers shot up among Republicans, however: 70 percent view her positively.
Some political strategists still see a future for Palin in politics, should she choose to pursue one.
"I always thought Sarah Palin had very strong candidate skills, and I think if she wants to run for office there are clearly Republicans out there that like what they hear. She'll certainly have a receptive audience if she runs for office," said Republican strategist Terry Nelson, who has advised President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain in the past.
Still, the current poll numbers are not insignificant, Sabato said.
"What's driving it is the resignation and all the controversy," he told ABC News. "Palin's become a grand soap opera that's playing out in places where a presidential candidate does not want to be."
Palin's Resignation a Head-Scratcher
Palin's bombshell July 3 announcement that she would quit as governor this Sunday, July 25, spurred speculation about a grassroots presidential run in 2012.
As the GOP wunderkind wraps up her abortive single term as governor, political analysts are scratching their heads over just what Palin is up to, and whether leaving public office could possibly improve her future electoral fortunes.
"This is a major blow to any presidential aspiration she may have, whether she recognizes it or not, because it's deadly," Sabato said of Palin's surprise resignation. "Her Republican opponents -- and a Democrat, if she's a nominee -- can say she up and quit."
Nevertheless, supporters say Palin, who already has a lucrative book contract in hand, has plenty of options.
"Her future is whatever she wants it to be," Republican strategist Carl Forti told ABC News. "If that's TV entertainment or politics. But running for president takes more than charisma. It's a hard road she can't do alone. If she intends to run she needs to build a team and get better educated on the issues."
"She could be a commentator," Nelson said. "Other things I'll be looking for: What is the focus of her book? Does she get involved with some foundation? Does she try to do something that puts some thought leadership into some issues? Right now she's defined as a personality -- not a lot of people would ascribe issues to her other than personality."
Sarah Palin Faces More Negative Image
Palin's official explanation for her surprise July 3 statement that she would leave office with a year-and-a-half left in her first term is that she wants to spare Alaska the cost of multiple ethics complaints.
But she also invited Americans to join her in a little-explained campaign to pursue her conservative priorities of free enterprise, smaller government, increased drilling for oil and muscular national security. If that were to end in a presidential bid, the governor would have to overcome increasing skepticism.
"As she packs up the Alaska governor's mansion and pushes back against the latest ethics brouhaha, Sarah Palin's got other problems: A more negative public image than she held during the 2008 campaign -- and broader questions about her grasp of complex issues," ABC polling director Gary Langer writes.
The increasingly critical scrutiny follows grousing by former McCain aides that Palin focused little on major issues in the 2008 campaign, the disclosure shortly after she joined McCain's presidential run that her unmarried teenage daughter was pregnant, the tit-for-tat arguments in the press between her daughter and her now-estranged boyfriend, and Palin's surprising exodus from the job that elevated her national profile.
And then there are the ethics complaints that have reportedly run up $500 million in legal fees, which spawned a legal aid fund that led to yet another ethics complaint. In October, a legislative panel found said Palin had abused her powers as governor by trying to get her ex-brother-in-law fired from the state patrol.
Media reviews have also been largely unfavorable. In one particularly devastating analysis, Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum declared Palin the "sexiest and riskiest brand in the Republican Party." The article went to call her 2008 vice presidential run "disastrous" and her family a "rogues gallery" that makes "Billy Carter, Donald Nixon, and Roger Clinton seem like avatars of circumspection."
Reviews like that could actually help, some Republicans say.
"Palin can use the bias against the media in the conservative community in her favor," the GOP's Forti said. "She can claim she gets a bad rap in the media and that echoes. It's been a long time since the Republicans have had a plain-talking charismatic candidate like Palin. It's very easy to see why people like her. Her obstacle now is to take that charisma and prove that a three-quarters-term governor from Alaska is qualified to be president of the United States."
Republican Still View Sarah Palin Favorably
By leaving office, Palin steps down from a position that could subject her to continued public pillorying by Democrats. Just today in The Washington Post, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and former presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., assail Palin's energy policies in an op-ed titled "What Palin Got Wrong About Energy Policy."
"Maybe she's just tired of all the drama and simply wants to stop the madness surrounding her," Republican operative Mark McKinnon, who coached Palin during the campaign, recently wrote in the blog The Daily Beast.
One major deficit the former beauty queen, sports reporter and Wasilla mayor would have to overcome in any future electoral bid would be the perception of her leadership. Just 40 percent see her as a strong leader -- compared to 71 percent for President Obama -- and 54 percent do not see her as a strong leader.
But despite those troubles, Palin still fares well in perceptions by Republicans, 70 percent of whom view her positively, compared with 40 percent of independents and 20 percent of Democrats. Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents voicing an early preference for the 2012 presidential nomination, 26 percent in the ABC News/Washington Post poll favor former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 21 percent prefer former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and 19 percent back Palin.
The telephone poll, carried out July 15-18, 2009 among a random national sample of 1,001 adults, had a 3.5-point margin of error.
Amid all of the speculation and the negative turn in the public's perception of her, the real truth surrounding her final weekend as governor is that Palin herself is the only person who truly knows what's in store for her future.
"Maybe she wants to focus on her family. Maybe she may wants to make a lot of money giving speeches. Maybe she wants to host her own TV show. Maybe she wants to start a Barry Goldwater-like movement. And maybe she wants to run for President in 2012. Or, maybe she's got a boyfriend in Argentina," McKinnon quipped. "Only one thing is for sure when it comes to Palin: There is more to come. Probably much more."
ABC's Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.


text:
As election nears, a flood of nastiness
Harsh attack ads flourish in tight races as control of Congress hangs in the balance.
A taxpayer-funded call to a fantasy sex hot line. Support for using Taser weapons on 7-year-olds. Votes in Congress to deny modern body armor to US troops in Iraq.
These are but a few of the charges leveled in campaign ads against candidates for office this fall, in what some experts say is probably the most negative US election campaign in modern times.
Nasty, misleading ads have been around for decades, and it's impossible to prove empirically that the 2006 campaign tops them all, but the wave of over-the-top claims has caught the attention of both casual observers and professionals.
"Politics has always been a contact sport, but it really does feel like the rhetoric has crossed a line," says Evan Tracey, a campaign ad analyst at TNS Media Intelligence in Arlington, Va. "We've had ads with baby-crying noises from dumpsters, Playboy mansions, criminals coming over the border creating crime and mayhem. And that's the tame stuff."
Control of Congress hangs in the balance, and in many cases, the highly negative ads are coming out of close races where strategists – either for the campaigns or from the parties and independent groups that are trying to help – believe they will make a difference. They can also be seen as a sign of desperation. In some cases the ads appear to work and in others they backfire (see story below), but when a candidate is trailing badly, strategists often feel there's nothing to lose.
Perhaps the most talked-about ad of this cycle took shots at Rep. Harold Ford (D) of Tennessee, who is running for the Senate. The ad – which ended with a blond, scantily clad woman saying, "Call me" – was perceived by some viewers as racially motivated, since Mr. Ford is black and the woman in the ad is white. If nothing else, the uproar over the ad demonstrated that sensitivities about possible racial innuendo are alive and well in American politics.
As distasteful as negative ads can be to the viewing public, many campaign experts defend them for their ability to provide useful information to voters.
"There's nothing inherently wrong with negative advertising, if it's accurate," says Brooks Jackson, a former journalist and director of the Annenberg Political Fact Check project. "A positive ad can also be inaccurate and misleading. That's political disinformation that's also a bad thing."
Often, though, negative ads contain a kernel of truth that is distorted beyond the point of fairness. Take the "fantasy hot line" ad unleashed against Michael Arcuri (D), district attorney in New York's Oneida County, who hopes to fill the seat of retiring Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R). The National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) created a spot accusing Mr. Arcuri of billing taxpayers for a phone call to a sex hot line, and depicting Arcuri with the silhouette of a dancing girl. According to records released by Arcuri's campaign, the truth is that someone misdialed the hot line in a call from Arcuri's hotel room, hung up in seconds, and dialed the intended number – the state Department of Criminal Justice Services in Albany.
Arcuri's Republican opponent, state Sen. Ray Meier, also denounced the ad and called on the NRCC to pull it, but by law, political campaigns are barred from conferring with groups that make independent expenditures on candidates' behalf. Ultimately, the ad did not air on most stations in that part of New York, according to the local press.
Democrats are also producing their share of negative ads deemed unfair by watchdog groups. Mr. Jackson's group, which posts its findings at www.factcheck.org, found 11 ads by Democrats that accused Republican incumbents of voting against a $1,500 bonus for US troops.
One such ad, produced by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and aired in New Mexico to support House challenger Patricia Madrid, accused her opponent of voting against the bonus (and for a congressional pay raise) – but failed to note that the bonus would have come at the expense of reconstruction funds for Iraq. Rep. Heather Wilson (R), the incumbent, is locked in a tight race with Ms. Madrid, state attorney general.
Between the two House campaign committees, the Republicans are beating the Democrats in the race to the bottom. According to a report released last week on Factcheck.org, the NRCC so far this cycle has spent $41.9 million attacking Democrats and $5 million supporting Republicans – about 8 to 1 negative versus positive advertising. The DCCC has spent $18 million on attacks and $3.1 million on positive ads – a 5 to 1 ratio.
Looking at all campaign spending for all races – projected to come in at $2.6 billion, a record for a midterm election – ad-watchers cannot say for certain which party is more guilty of attacks. "I would guarantee you it's equal opportunity," says Mr. Tracey. "The Republican Party is not Darth Vader and the Democrats are not Luke Skywalker. It's basically, once one goes negative, everybody goes negative."
Whether negative ads drive down turnout is open to debate. But if it does, says Tracey, that's not the ads' fault. "This is America, where you've got this great right people die and bleed for. If you're going to let a bunch of silly commercials stop you from voting, it's your fault."
Still, any political candidate knows that blaming voters for their decisions – including whether or not to vote – is a losing proposition. And so, aware of the public's distaste for negativity, many see the good-cop bad-cop routine at work in Missouri. There, Senate candidate Claire McCaskill (D), locked in a close race to unseat Sen. James Talent (R), says she will not air negative ads, knowing well that the party and surrogates will do the dirty work.
But Ms. McCaskill has herself attacked Senator Talent's positions, his loyalty to President Bush, and his campaign donations, notes David Robertson, a political scientist at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. She also approved ads featuring actor Michael J. Fox, who is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and who favors embryonic stem-cell research, in which Mr. Fox asserts that Talent wants to "criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope."
But, Mr. Robertson adds, Talent's ads have been perceived to be more personal and mean-spirited than McCaskill's. "These ads have hurt his image as a nice-guy, conservative, policy wonk," he says.