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The Mom Stop: Don't punish good manners
It's not uncommon in Alabama to hear the words "ma'am" or "sir" being uttered by a child still toddling around in diapers.
Like "please" or "thank you," to many Southern parents, saying "ma'am" or "sir" is part of raising your children right, a way to show respect, part of common manners. If it's not said, some believe, then it reflects badly not only on the child, but the parents, too.
And so, I can imagine the shock and dismay that Teretha Wilson must have felt last month, when her 10-year-old son Tamarion was disciplined by his teacher for calling her "ma'am." His punishment: Having to write the word "ma'am" four times on each line of a piece of notebook paper, front and back.
Wilson told the WTVD news station that she first noticed that her son was upset when he came home from North East Carolina Preparatory School. He explained what had happened, showed her his "punishment" and explained that he was required to get a parental signature on his paper.
However, Wilson told WTVD that they had taught Tamarion to use "ma'am" or "sir" as a sign of respect when talking to adults.
After Tamarion was sent home, his mother met with the teacher and the school's principal and asked that her son be transferred to a different school, which was granted.
When the news first broke about the incident, there was outcry on social media, largely from fellow Southern parents. Surely that teacher was new and not from the South, I thought. Bless her heart.
Or perhaps the child may have used the term repeatedly in a way to irritate the teacher after she requested that the boy not use the term. Still, it seems that a little compassion and communication with the parents would have been better than requiring a written punishment for something that, culturally, is seen as a positive behavior.
I might get my "Southern card" pulled for this — but unlike many of my friends and fellow moms, I don't require my children to say "sir" or "ma'am." They know the words, and know that it's a polite thing to say. But it's not something that I institute as mandatory requirement in my own home, especially between my kids to me or my husband, because it's a level of formality that I wasn't raised with.
Perhaps I don't teach it because it wasn't something that was required of me as a child. Blame the fact that my parents aren't Southern, I guess.
But you better bet that I instill "please" and "thank you" with my children. If they ask a question, they better say "may I" and they know they must ask to be excused before leaving the dinner table.
The thing is, manners are a part of preparing your children for the world around them. And it should be up to the parents to decide in which way — whether it's using "ma'am" or "sir" or being taught to say "please" and "thank you." The child should not be punished for using those signs of respect, but instead praised.
It seems as though the teacher needs a few lessons of her own on manners.
— Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Reach her at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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You, Me, and The Sea: A Novel by Meg Donohue (William Morrow, $15.99, 368 pages)
Author Meg Donohue opens You, Me, and The Sea with a rainy morning in Sea Cliff, an exclusive residential neighborhood in San Francisco. Will Langford and Merrow Shawe have carefully planned their engagement party in their home and surrounding garden. They hope for better weather later in the day. What transpires is the beginning of the real story.
Merrow is the narrator for the entire two-part novel. Ms. Donohue gives her a singsong voice when Merrow describes her early childhood on a dirt poor farm. There are warning signs mixed in with a few pleasant events. To make matters worse, older brother, Bear, constantly torments Merrow. There is a bit too much anxiety, anticipation and pain for this reviewer. Unlike How to Eat a Cupcake, a prior work by Ms. Donohue, You, Me, and The Sea lacks balance with its overwhelming tension.
Readers can be sure of Ms. Donohue's knowledge of the Bay Area. She sets up striking contrasts between wealth and poverty using detailed descriptions of the locales where the action takes place. Although the Pacific Coast is the overall setting, this is not a beach novel.
It's a shame that the read is far from being as engaging and fun as Donohue's delightful debut, How to Eat a Cupcake.
Ruta Arellano
A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book was released in trade paperback and hardbound and other versions on May 7, 2019.

subset: commoncrawl


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For kids, birthdays are filled with fantastic JOY and oodles of enthusiastic anticipation. Days and days before the momentous occasion harks the question "Is today my birthday?" Well, FINALLY! The day is here! Our youngest daughter turned 6. It was a day of pajamas and pancakes; cereal and donuts; yogurt parfaits and sugar-ladened cupcakes. 20 or so little kids, dressed in their pjs, playing on our outdoor playset and jumping in the bouncy house.
Never mind the late nights sculpting pancake shaped cupcake toppers, or the frantic frenzy of frying up 8 pounds of bacon the morning of the party. Or, the panicked feeling that the bouncy house may not arrive in time for the party. What would we do with all these kids?! I always think I have these things all planned out… then the night before, I begin to freak out. But just like past festive gatherings… it all turns out just fine. I mean, in the words from my husband, "Come on, these are 6 year olds. They just want to run around, laugh and scream". We've got that covered!
Much to my amazement, we had representation from several food groups: carbs – pancakes, cereal and donuts; dairy – milk, yogurt; fruit – orange juice, berry fruit salad; protein – LOTS of bacon (which disappeared VERY quickly) and of course for the grown ups… strong pots of coffee. Not sure that counts as a food group… but it's a must in my book. Everyone was happy, caffeinated and sufficiently full. We were left with many smiling, tired children. Success!
Note: I simply could not take credit for this wonderful theme. It was easy, fun and who doesn't want to spend their day in pajamas? You can check out the many great ideas here.


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News from Israel, the ostensible LGBT paradise:
D., a 24-year-old student, has reported that the shrink at the National Insurance (Social Security) office in Netanya recommended that she work in prostitution, saying "As a trans woman you can make a living as a prostitute, so I see no reason to give you a Social Security allowance".
Some factoids: According to reported numbers, about 95% of trans* people in Israel have difficulty finding work, making them possibly the most discriminated populations in the labor market. National Insurance policy dictates that trans* people be classified as having a mental disorder – Gender Identity Disorder (GID) (according to the ICD; the DSM has removed GID from its list of disorders). This means that trans* people can receive living allowances under disability law rather than under unemployment laws.
According to D., the psychiatrist told her that living allowances are for the disabled, and that as long as she has the option of prostitution, she can make a living and therefore is not eligible.
The National Insurance Institute has responded that this their policy includes "sensitivity to special populations" and maintaining the dignity of all applicants, and that they are investigating the complaint.


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Life at № 42 by E.M. Coutinho
I must admit I hadn't heard of this movement until very recently- and what an unpleasant surprise it has been. They represent, for all intents and purposes, the opposite of everything I've spent my life believing feminism is about. In fact, the vast majority of their "operation" seems to be a re-hash of classic patriarchy: reducing people to their genitalia and then assigning value based on that.
The most unusual part of all of it is they seem to be blind to the fact that everything they propose regarding the transgendered community is in direct contradiction with what they want for themselves. They take special pleading to a whole new level.
"Applying standards, principles, and/or rules to other people or circumstances, while making oneself or certain circumstances exempt from the same critical criteria."
We see this over and over again, not least of which was as the title of a post by Roughseasinthemed: If you have a penis, don't tell me what to think. Or something along those lines. That is, of course, coming from someone who never stops giving people tutorials on her variety of feminism. And not just regarding rights, but even the language we are and are not allowed to use. That's not to say, at all, that promoting women's rights is wrong. It isn't. What is profoundly wrong is the twisted way they do it and the perverted variety of logic that goes along with it.
We don't want people to tell us what to think, but we want to impose our exclusive vision of gender on the trans community (and society as a whole.)
We don't want to be judged by our birth sex, but we want trans people (and men in general) to be judged by their birth sex.
We don't want to be segregated or treated differently because of our birth sex, but we want trans people to be segregated and treated differently.
Where have I seen that thinking before?
And worse of all is how they do it. Cult-like doesn't even begin to describe it. After my encounter with the TERF's on Roughseas, I was twitter-bombed. Over 350 messages all along the same lines (and by the same small group of four people, obviously connected to PurpleSage*.) Basically, if you're against trans-segregation, you're a supporter of the Rape and Murder of women.
They've wrapped up their bigotry in the purest form of demagoguery. It's suddenly not that they want to exclude trans-people, it's that they want to "protect women" from transwomen- who of course must be rapists and murderers. Otherwise, they wouldn't need protection, right? Sadly this is eerily similar to what the Christian extremists have done for a very long time to gay men. They had to protect the children, from us. Why? Because they wanted to make homosexuality and pedophilia synonymous. And that's exactly what they're trying to do now by associating transgenderism with rape.
And you don't need to take my word for it that trans people don't represent a danger: 15 Experts Debunk Transgender Bathroom Myth
"Experts in 12 states — including law enforcement officials, government employees, and advocates for victims of sexual assault — have debunked the right-wing myth that sexual predators will exploit transgender non-discrimination laws to sneak into women's restrooms, calling the myth baseless and "beyond specious."
*PurpleSage is the author of this pearl: "The man always seems to have his hand on the woman. Either he puts an arm around her, or just a hand on her shoulder or her arm, or he wraps his arm around her back. At first glance it would appear to be just an affectionate touch, but what interests me is that I never see women doing this to men. I don't think I've ever seen a woman standing with her arm on her boyfriend's arm, or with her hand on his back. Have you ever seen this?…
…"I'm starting to find it gross. I just saw a man doing this today to his female partner who was looking up at him while he talked endlessly and she kept nodding silently and his hand was unnecessarily on her arm. It didn't look affectionate to me, it looked revolting."
Oh the TERFs, these people are vicious and I stand in fear of them. I really do. I read a long story from one of their victims and what they did to that woman was a crime.
They are relatively new, maybe the last four years or so. One of the leaders at the time I read about them is an attorney, a woman, I forget her name and honestly I don't want to remember it. She went after a trans woman. The trans woman had posted enough personal information about herself that the TERF went and contacted the woman's psychiatrist and her employer, that is what I remember, and Inthink I have this right. The poor trans woman was a basket case, the TERF attorney was simply harassing hell out of her, I can't remember much of the details but I seem to recall that the TERF contacted the woman's doctor and told the doc that the trans woman was abusing the prescription drugs.
The TERFs were literally vicious, no other word for it. It took a while between reading the TERF's side of the story and reading the Trans Woman's story to figure it out, as of course the lawyer was highly skilled at obscurification and deceit and we tend to think attorneys don't lie. After reading what that leading TERF did to that Transwoman I vowed to stay away from them and not engage them. They are just to much for me to handle, I don't want nor need that grief in my life.
You remember Robert Oscar Lopez and his main squeeze Bethany Newmark Klein right? She goes by IMHO on Katy Faust's blog and Rivka Edlman as a pseudonym on the Internet and in Supreme Court Amicus Briefs, she may not claim the title but she appears to me to be a TERF, here Jeremy Hooper exposes her, read this,
I'll never forget her writing that Jeremy Hooper was to go through the Internet, well here she is demanding that Jeremy Hooper clean the Internet of negative comments on her,
Yeah, TERFs they are vicious. Now you know.


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A quick hit of assorted news from around the intarwebs while I'm around the world.
Band makes video out of CCTV footage. The Get Out Clause, out of Manchester, performed in front of some of the UK's ubiquitous surveillance cameras, then requested the footage under the Brit equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act, and edited it into the video for their song "Paper" (that's the vid, above). There's some question about how much of it is from CCTVs, but it's still a pretty cool idea. Also, file this one under 'new business models' – getting taxpayers to involuntarily fund your promotion efforts (via Hypebot).
Amanda Palmer makes $19K on Twitter in 10 hours. A few weeks ago, we mentioned Amanda Palmer's online Twitter auction, and we totted up her numbers to report that she made more than $4000. She wrote a letter to Bob Lefsetz, detailing the auction, sales of the #LOFNOTC t-shirt, and a concert. It was a hell of a lot more than $4K (via amanda fucking palmer).
Speaking of Twitter users, apparently we're valuable to the music industry. A new report by marketing firm NPD reports that Twitter users are heavier consumers of music than Twitter users on a number of axes: they're about twice as likely to have purchased music downloads in three months prior to the study (and they spend more money), are much more likely to listen to Internet radio, and more. Ars Technica suggests that these differences may be due to Twitter users being tech-loving early-adopter neophiles, although neither they nor NPD seems to make any attempt to correct for household income, which seems like an obvious possibly confounding factor.
Hype Machine publishes names of bands who tried to manipulate charts. Hype Machine recently reported on bands (or PR teams) attempting to manipulate its 'popular' page, and the efforts they took to limit this. But I thought that the most interesting element, at least sociologically, was that they named names: an alphabetical list of the artists "who[they] believe have attempted to manipulate the charts on the Hype Machine. [They] thought [they]'d publish this list to let everyone make their own judgments about quality, integrity and marketing strategies." You can see the list for yourself here.
Who is the best band in the world today? The Guardian asked a bunch of musicians to name the artist they thought was the best in the world. Geddy Lee of Rush replied, "Describing someone as "the best" is something you do at school in grade 5," which made me smile, and Rush would probably have been my answer in Grade 6 (not in sixth grade). He did eventually reply with 'Radiohead.' You can read the full list here.


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I too find this information very helpful in communicating with parents. I hope that once I become a teacher or Teachers Assistant that I can apply all of this to my daily routine in the classroom and with parents to helpme be an effective teacheer.
Building Parent-Teacher Relationships
Effective communication is essential for building school-family partnerships. It constitutes the foundation for all other forms of family involvement in education.
Parent benefits
Positive parent-school communications benefit parents. The manner in which schools communicate and interact with parents affects the extent and quality of parents' home involvement with their children's learning. For example, schools that communicate bad news about student performance more often than recognizing students' excellence will discourage parent involvement by making parents feel they cannot effectively help their children.
Parents also benefit from being involved in their children's education by getting ideas from school on how to help and support their children, and by learning more about the school's academic program and how it works. Perhaps most important, parents benefit by becoming more confident about the value of their school involvement. Parents develop a greater appreciation for the important role they play in their children's education.
When communicating with parents, consider your remarks in relation to the three categories that influence how parents participate. For example, are you communicating about:
- Classroom learning activities?
- The child's accomplishments?
- How the parents can help at home with their child's learning?
Student benefits
Substantial evidence exists showing that parent involvement benefits students, including raising their academic achievement. There are other advantages for children when parents become involved — namely, increased motivation for learning, improved behavior, more regular attendance, and a more positive attitude about homework and school in general.
Teacher benefits
Research shows that parental involvement can free teachers to focus more on the task of teaching children. Also, by having more contact with parents, teachers learn more about students' needs and home environment, which is information they can apply toward better meeting those needs. Parents who are involved tend to have a more positive view of teachers, which results in improved teacher morale.
Good two-way communication
Good two-way communication between families and schools is necessary for your students' success. Not surprisingly, research shows that the more parents and teachers share relevant information with each other about a student, the better equipped both will be to help that student achieve academically.
Opportunities for two-way communication include:
- Parent conferences
- Parent-teacher organizations or school community councils
- Weekly or monthly folders of student work sent home for parent review and comment
- Phone calls
- E-mail or school website
Communication strategies
Personal contact, including conferences, home visits, telephone calls, and curriculum nights or open houses, seems to be the most effective form of communication and may be among the most familiar. However, the establishment of effective school-home communication has grown more complex as society has changed. The great diversity among families means that it is not possible to rely on a single method of communication that will reach all homes with a given message. It is essential that a variety of strategies, adapted to the needs of particular families and their schedules, be incorporated into an overall plan. Some strategies to consider include:
- Parent newsletters
- Annual open houses
- Curriculum nights
- Home visits (where applicable)
- Phone calls
- Annual school calendars
- Inserts in local newspapers
- Annual grandparents or "special persons" days
- Board of Education spokesperson or communications officer at PTA meetings
- Homework hotlines
- Annual field days
- Notices and handouts in local markets, clinics, churches, mosques, temples, or other gathering sites
- Website for the school
- Workshops for parents
- Communications that are focused on fathers as well as mothers
Effective communication strategies involve:
- Initiation: Teachers should initiate contact as soon as they know which students will be in their classroom for the school year. Contact can occur by means of an introductory phone call or a letter to the home introducing yourself to the parents and establishing expectations.
- Timeliness: Adults should make contact soon after a problem has been identified, so a timely solution can be found. Waiting too long can create new problems, possibly through the frustration of those involved.
- Consistency and frequency: Parents want frequent, ongoing feedback about how their children are performing with homework.
- Follow-through: Parents and teachers each want to see that the other will actually do what they say they will do.
- Clarity and usefulness of communication: Parents and teachers should have the information they need to help students, in a form and language that makes sense to them.
Surprise a parent
Parents are not accustomed to hearing unsolicited positive comments from teachers about their children, especially in a phone call from the school. Imagine how you would feel, as a parent, if you were contacted by a teacher or the school principal and told that your son or daughter was doing well in school, or that your child had overcome a learning or behavior problem. When you make calls to share positive information with parents, be prepared for them to sound surprised-pleasantly surprised.
Research shows that school-home communication is greatly increased through personalized positive telephone contact between teachers and parents. Remember, when a phone call from school conveys good news, the atmosphere between home and school improves. When you have good news to share, why wait? Make the call and start a positive relationship with a parent.
Phone guidelines
Sometimes, as a new teacher, it's difficult to make the first call to a parent or guardian. Preparing for the call will make it easier. Before making a call, write down the reasons for the call. One reason can be simply to introduce yourself to the parent or guardian. Here are several guidelines you can use as you prepare:
- Introduce yourself
- Tell the parents what their child is studying
- Invite the parents to an open house and/or other school functions
- Comment on their child's progress
- Inform them of their child's achievements (e.g., "Student of the Week")
- Inform them of their child's strengths or share an anecdote
American Federation of Teachers, (2007). Building Parent-Teacher Relationships. Washington, D.C.: American Federation of Teachers.
This information is on target with our school policies and parent involvement. I really like the idea of making the positive parent call. This would be very helpful in establishing a good working relationship between school and home.
Great information i would also suggest for the educators who have questions concerning the parents who still dont participate after applying these steps, purchase the book Differentiated Parent Support Engaging Parents in Unique Ways to increase Their Involvement in School (author) Fran Hjalmarson. Very helpful book on ways to increase partenal involvement even the ones who will not respond
It was very useful between for both the teachers and parents likewise the school management
this is similar to the techniques used in our classroom.
Very helpful
very informative
Very informative
This was some very useful information.
It is good for both parent and teacher likewise the school management , more grace to your elbow, thanks.
Very time and informative with information for a course I am doing
The information was on point as a parent and educator.
awsome information...
very informative and helpful
the info is really good and that it tells us alot of things we need to know about. so keep up the good work. but it also needs to add more things about effective communication benefits identified by another adult in the early childhood setting. need to add info to that quetion.
Great ideas. We must look for innovative ways to keep the communication open with families like those Sylvia mentioned and those without the flexibility to "match the school's schedule". We must give them a real-life reason to want to be involved. I always encourage teachers to stay off the "academic"channel initially with these families, relationship must come first.
Very helpful suggestions. What can be done to motivate parents who seem to have school phobia to visit the school or to become involved in other ways. I agree that the positive approach will work in some situations, but I am referring to parents who are hard to contact even for minimal communication.


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Amazing Race's Travis and Nicole: Our Bad Moments Were Overblown
Travis and Nicole started The Amazing Race 23 as the ones to beat, but things took a sharp turn after Nicole struggled with the angklung Roadblock in Indonesia, requiring Amy's help and ostensibly incurring her husband's harsh criticism. But the ER doctors, who placed third after Nicole took 21 tries (!) to do a flour drop, insists that their tense relationship in the back half of the season was all editing. "There's definitely a lot more to us that was not aired, and that's fine," Nicole tells TVGuide.com. "But we gave them other material and they ran with it." Find out what you didn't see on the show, why Travis says he was hard on his wife, if they thought they cheated and more.
Amazing Race's Tim and Marie: The final leg layout was "frustrating"
Why did you have so much trouble with the flour drop,Nicole?
Nicole: I don't know. I was trying to time it. The first time I did it, I was pretty close, so I tried to do that repeatedly, but it didn't work! It took probably an hour. ... We thought there would be another Roadblock that would potentially be more physically intense, so that's why I decided to do it.
Travis, you seemed very agitated waiting.
Travis: I was actually doing fine. Towards the end of the Race, I was more encouraging. What you saw on television was a small portion. But in reality, I was actually very optimistic. I felt then same way I still feel: Nicole's never going to give up. She was going to keep working. My only concern, which I said two or three drops before she got it, was that I don't want her to lose confidence and get flustered. Right after I said that, she put one in the water, and I said, "Oops, I think she lost confidence." And they showed that! In the Race, you never know what's coming, so there's always a possibility [to catch up], so I wasn't that discouraged. I thought it was going to be really difficult because we were down to the toughest teams. They would have to make a mistake for us to catch up, but they didn't.
You guys obviously had high expectations of yourselves. A lot of fans think you,Travis, were too hard onNicole.
Nicole: Well, first of all, it was definitely disappointing to come in third. We went on the Race to win, so yes, I didn't want to disappoint Travis, just like anyone wouldn't want to disappoint their partner. No one wants to disappoint anyone. But as I said [on the show], it's life. Things don't always work out the way you want it to work out. We're very, very happy for Jay and Amy.
Travis: I consider myself pretty darn competitive. The one thing we said in the beginning, which I still believe, is we came on the Race knowing we can win and some other teams came on hoping to win. To not win when you know you have the capability of winning is really tough. Although it appears on TV that I was really, really down on Nicole, I really wasn't. It was just my level of expectation is so high because I've seen Nicole for 14 years excel tremendously at everything. For me, it was unusual to see her struggle at anything. It was me, not her. I think that was the hardest thing for me. Unfortunately, I get caught up in the moment and it takes me longer to bounce back. In our private time is when I'm better able to do so.
You think your bad moments and critical comments ofNicolewere overblown?
Travis: Yes, way overblown. It wasn't portrayed on air, but I think we were the most loving couple around. That's the only disheartening thing about television. Phil, consistently during the Pit Stops, would say, "When Nicole and Travis come up here, we feel like we have to pull a bed out!" None of this aired, and I understand why. One time Nicole and I kissed, and Phil was like, "Oops! I hope there wasn't any tongue involved!" That side of our relationship wasn't really shown.
Nicole: There's definitely a lot more to us that was not aired, and that's fine. But we gave them other material and they ran with it. We get it.
Amazing Race winners Jason and Amy: We're still speechless
Nicole, it seemed like you hit a wall in the last half of the season. You struggled with the Roadblocks, and Amy had to help you. What happened?
Nicole: First, I was really disappointed with the editing [on the finale]. With the robot, I helped Amy first. At one point, she said to me, "Please don't leave me." And I looked at her and said, "I would never leave you." That got cut out. They just showed when she came back to help me. Of course it was "good television." But I don't feel it was accurate. But yes, I definitely struggled with a couple of those Roadblocks. I don't know what happened. I think it was fatigue and frustration. The Race is so different and so much more overwhelming than anything you do in real life.
Was the angklung Roadblock accurate?
Nicole: Oh, that one was a mess! [Laughs] I definitely did not know what to do. I will wholeheartedly admit that. I'm not making excuses because ultimately it falls on me. But at the same time, I think if everyone had followed the rules, I think the outcome would've been different. We were given instructions that we had to sit in the arena, and the Afghanimals went outside. They put their pieces together outside the arena. But it's reality TV and me struggling made it easier to have a dramatic moment, and that's OK.
Travis: There's something we call the Curse of Being First. The great news is you're in first. The bad news is you might have no idea what you're doing and you have nobody else doing it next to you to get an idea. That was a common theme for us. We were at the angklung for a long time with no clue about what we were supposed to do. By the time she started figuring it out, other people got there, saw her and capitalized on it.
Why did you chase Leo? That was great editing: They showed you talking about how you want to set a good example for your kids and then you chasing him trying to copy his model. I talked to the Afghanimals earlier and they said the rules said only one person could be in the answer area. [Ed. Note: Check back Thursday for our interview with Leo and Jamal.]
Nicole: Right. We were also supposed to be in the arena, and he was not sitting in the arena. I don't know why they didn't get a penalty. But I figured, "Well, if he had been in the arena, I would've been able to see what he's doing." That's why I ran after him. Usually on the show, when people are doing a task and other people look at them, that's not considered cheating. The same week on Survivor, they were doing a puzzle and one person didn't want to look at another's, and Jeff Probst said, "You guys are all doing the same thing. Looking at somebody else's is not cheating." Everybody was like, "Oh, [Nicole's] a hypocrite!" Everyone has an opinion, and that's fine. It only looks bad was because [Leo] said, "You can't look at it." But it is what it is.
Were you as hung up as you appeared to be about the Afghanimals lying about the U-Turn? You guys were pretty sneaky about the Express Pass too.
Travis: We were not hung up on them lying. ... We did the Express Pass thing secretly, but I don't think that's sneaky. Yes, we didn't like them lying. But you sit for the interviews and if [producers] asked us about the Afghanimals, the question tended to be, "What do you think about their strategy?" If you ask me that 100 times, I would give you the same answer 100 times. If you air that 100 times, it seems like I'm saying something 100 times about them lying. They asked what we think, so we said it. When we were at the U-Turn, we thought about it strategically and who was closest to us and who would be a threat, and that was the Afghanimals.
You had an alliance with Jason and Amy, but would you have helped them as much as Amy helped you - literally doing a task - if they had been struggling?
Travis: Yes, and we did on little and big things. A number of the things we decided, we advised them. I think that's why in some of their interviews, they say, "We want to run the Race like them." We had been like a big brother, big sister couple to them.
Nicole: Yeah. In Japan, when Marie and Tim were going to do the body bowling, they wanted to go, so we said, "Don't do it. The fish calling is here." Even though we were competitors, we were there to help each other. We had said since the compass that we would help each other as much as we could to ensure that we'll both get to the final. And we all followed through on our word.
You proposed an alliance with Tim and Marie to get the Afghanimals out, so why did you ignore Marie when she asked where the robot model was?
Marie: I can't speak for Amy, but I honestly didn't hear her. I was so in the zone trying to get the pieces together. I've never lied to Marie. She said something later, and I said, "Marie, I really did not hear you." She might still not believe it, but I didn't.
What are you up to now?
Nicole: Back to reality!
Travis: Normal lives. Our kids have been extremely excited about the show. I think the fact that it's over is going to be a big disappointment to them. They don't have Sunday night TV time. And despite what some people are saying on social media, our kids loved it. They're very happy and are talking about how when they grow up, they'll go on and which combination of two will go. It was a wonderful experience, and I had a great time spending time with my beautiful wife. Television is one thing. Our reality is different. I love my wife so dearly. Would I love her to be the best at everything? Yes. But she can't be and neither can I. No one can. Do I have high expectations? Yes. Am I very competitive? Yes. Will I always love my wife? Definitely.
(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS.)
View original Amazing Race's Travis and Nicole: Our Bad Moments Were Overblown at TVGuide.com
Related Articles on TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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The teaser (above) starts with the older Bilbo (played by Ian Holm) explaining to Frodo (Elijah Wood) that he may not have been entirely forthcoming about his life in the Shire and beyond.
Cut to the younger Bilbo (Freeman) being approached by Gandalf (Ian McKellen) looking for "someone to share in an adventure." (OK, they use the word adventure twice in the first 30 seconds, but we'll forgive the duplication amidst this week's onslaught of awesome new movie trailers.)
From there things really pick up, with the wizard introducing the dwarves that will accompany Bilbo to the Lonely Mountain, and Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) leading a song from J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy novel, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.
A saliva-inducing montage of the hobbit's journey to take on the dragon Smaug follows. As others have noted, Freeman looks right at home here. And Jackson, who has been filming his movie in 3-D, seems to be continuing his trend of bringing Middle-earth to eye-popping reality.
Naturally, the filmmaker saves the best for last. After a brief glimpse of beautiful elf Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) — no Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), though — that voice we all know and love comes through: "Bagginses? What is a Bagginses? Precious." Yes, Gollum (Andy Serkis) is back, y'all!
This is going to be fun. Now we just have to wait a year to see the movie. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens Dec. 14, 2012.


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As we turned the corner of Northern Blvd and Plandome Road in Manhasset, New York the church on the corner was a familiar site. I had not been here in many years but immediately recognized the store front we needed. Along with my daughter, we came to see my friend Linda Villano who has created the best specialty tea company on the planet. Yes the planet. I say that because I am an avid tea drinker my entire life and tried many specialty teas which kind of makes me an expert. As we entered the smell of store was radiating fresh mouthwatering tea from all over the world. On display were some of the basic necessities for brewing fresh tea. Tea pots, cups, sample packs of tea and tea cloths.
There is a wall filled from floor to ceiling with every tea and tea blend that Linda created. Customers can come in and sample the tea or mix and match for an interesting creation. I have mixed and matched myself. I blend Eve's Temptation with Berry Blueberry for a caffeine free fruity lift. My other favorite is Congo Bongo that has coconut and chocolate and black tea for when I need a boost.
Nearly 20 years ago Linda and her husband Tomoslov started with their love of tea and an opportunity. Their team work gave birth to SerendipiTea. The company imports tea from all over the world including countries previously unknown for their tea gardens. Linda works her magic buy creating unique tea blends and has a thriving wholesale and retail enterprise. To her many credits SerendipiTea's website was nominated for "Best Tea Retail website" by the World Tea Awards (2014) and the proud winner of two American Tea Championship awards (2013)
After heartfelt greetings and the usual formalities, we sat down to talk about teas. Her huge oak desk has her computer, lots of paper and is stained with many previous steaming cups of tea. Linda stepped out of the office to fill two infuser tea pots. As a master tea server she came back with well worn tea cups and tea pots. Each clear glass pot looked as if it had seen many brews steeped in them.
Linda told us she is serving 2 blends: One is a Faux Coca which is a caffeine free based blend of Rooibos, Chocolate & Spice, the other one is called Buccaneer which is a south Indian black tea base blended with Rooibos chocolate and vanilla and coconut for my daughter.
Get ready for an education and welcome Linda Villano of SerendipiTea.
Purely Simple Words (PSW): Here we are in SerendipiTea's home base with the beautiful and talented Linda Villano. What got you started in the tea business?
Linda Villano (LV): Oh boy that's a long story but I will shorten it. SerendipiTea was started in 1995 that is close to 20 years ago. Which is shocking to me. My former partner and husband was from Australia, he was of Slavic background so drinking tea is an everyday occurrence. So we had tea in the house all the time. My husband thought it was an abomination to have tea in bags. So we used loose tea. I didn't know anything but tea bags. I am from an Italian background we drank coffee and tea was for when you were sick, and I didn't know anything but tea bags. So it was an education for me in the beginning just in our home.
My husband was working for a Japanese department store called Felissimo. On the top floor of the store there was an art gallery and tea room. He managed the art gallery. The tea room was a traditional Japanese tea room but not just Japanese teas were sold, there were teas in general. So he would go to the tea room, talk about tea, chime in when there were tea programs…eventually he became known as the Tea Guy.
He met a woman who had a bath and beauty line who asked my husband to develop a line of tea and candle products. He came from a retail background and I came from a restaurant background (my family had restaurants). So we started to experiment with different varieties of tea. The woman was not committed to the line and we already had the foundation so we created our own company. It started in our fifth floor walk-up on the upper west side of Manhattan. Before we knew it we had a business. We started in the food service area and specialty kitchens. Eventually we opened a retail line.
It all happened by an incredible accident. It wasn't anything we planned. It was serendipity.
PSW: How many different types of tea blends do you have?
LV: In tea there are 5 main categories of tea: black, white, green, oolong and pu-erh. Tisanes are Herbals, florals, botanicals, etc. Everything that is not tea. Some tea is re-packed the way they are received. Others are used in blends. The blends represent about 30 percent of what we offer, blends can be both tisane and tea.
PSW: How do you name your tea blends?
LV: Darjeeling for example, is a growing region, Ceylon tea is from Sri Lanka is a growing country. Names of certain teas are what they are. The blends, the ones we make here are named by how they feel, taste, smell, but it should make some sense for example Fiji is a lush green tea with pineapple and papaya…tastes & smells like what I imagine Fiji to be!
Once Upon A Tea was our first chocolate blend. I created this caffeine-free blend for my friend's daughter who was under two years old. She liked to sip tea from her mother's cup, her mom was concerned about caffeine. This has a little chocolate in it, good for kids.
PSW: All of your products are organic and there are no machine used for weighing, measuring and packing is hand done plus your packaging is bio degradable. Everything is hand made , home made and fresh made and that is a very unique thing. Most shoppers go to the grocery store and buy boxed teas. However loose and fresh tea is very different and your product is the real thing. How did you learn so much about tea?
LV: When we started there was no tea education. No formal tea class. Everyone in the industry at the time learned from each other. We are known as the specialty tea industry. In the specialty tea industry now there are a lot of tea training options. And through the Tea Association of the USA there are intense certificate programs. It takes years get to the level of a certified tea specialist. The tea world is different now. Which is a good thing because as tea became more popular here in the US the consumer became more educated about tea so education had to keep up. The same thing happened in the wine industry. There are tea geeks that are passionate about tea, there are meet-ups, tea swaps, tea programs, tea groups, tea books, there's a whole world of just tea drinkers, sharing information, and knowledge. There are some tea courses that are not very reputable. Check them all out before you enroll.
PSW: What countries do you travel to, to pick up your teas?
LV: I actually just got back in May from Guatemala. This is a surprising place to import tea from but we have been importing tea from Guatemala for four years now. They are also suppliers for cardamom. Usually it's the big five India, China, Taiwan, Ceylon and Japan that's where most of our teas come from. But we also carry tea from Kenya and Tanzania. I have not been to the African countries yet. But the others I have visited. I visited the Azores Islands 3 years ago which is part of Portugal and in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, half way between here (USA) and the Portuguese coast line. These are a series of islands that are absolutely beautiful. I was on the big island of Sao Miguel where there are two remaining tea gardens. The tea is great and different because of where it is grown and the salty sea air. I like finding teas from grown from unusual origins.
PSW: Do these companies come to you or do you find them?
LV: Both. The Guatemala garden reached out to us. Other companies have as well. The gardens in the Azores I had known about from a good friend of mine, Pearl Dexter the founder/past owner of TEA Magazine. She introduced me to them.
PSW: How do you think you have grown by having your own business?
LV: It's a lot of responsibility. Shortly after we first started we moved from NYC to Connecticut because we needed space. I am familiar with Connecticut because I went to school there. We knew we could get more if we went to Connecticut as opposed to staying in NYC. Because it was just me and my husband we could take risks and we could wing it. When we started to take on employees it really changed the dynamics, I realized I was not just responsible for my business and making sure it is reputable. But I was taking on someone else's livelihood. And I had a responsibility to them as well. What I do now, Tomoslov is no longer with us, is for everybody's sake. I make calculated decisions and I weight everything very heavily. If I invest in something or make certain purchases, I am conservative by nature but when it comes to the business I am more so to keep the business solvent. My mantra is not to rule the world but to put out a good product and make sure everyone is happy. Then we can all do nicely.
PSW: What is the best part you like about the tea business?
LV: I love to travel. I love experiencing different cultures. Just the relationships we have with the growers in other countries is really enriching, it's really important in order to maintain a sound existence you must be able to see things through other peoples eyes and experiencing life through other people perspective helps in so many decisions making situations. Just in the office here we have folks from Latin America, India, Tibet, Columbia, USA we have a really nice mix of people. We are an international microcosm as it is. We are different origins under one roof. In an ideal world this is how we should be. I enjoy interacting with other cultures because it takes me out of myself.
But I also love working with the tea, the blending process. This part is really, really fun so is the writing. And social media, like FB. Even though sometimes it drives me crazy. And once in a while we do shows where we get to interact with customers. Since we are wholesalers primarily we really don't interact with customers so when we get the chance to do the shows and it's really fun.
PSW: Is there anything that drives you nuts about running this business?
LV: there is plenty that drives me nuts. Doing payroll, taxes, the nitty gritty number crunching. What is moving and what is not. It is all a necessary part of what you have to do when you have a business you have to see every aspect of the business and it gives me a snap shot of what is going on. It is not my favorite thing. I am not a numbers person. To me that part is effort.
PSW: What are your business plans for the future?
LV: One of the things we did about 4 years ago was add a line of tea bags. It was necessary because many of our customers are cafe customers and tea house customers that have fast service like , morning rushes and they kept asking for tea bags and unfortunately we lost a few customers because they went with companies that had tea bags. A number of years ago a certain tea bag became available. (Linda shows us a triangle shaped tea bag). I know there are many types of tea bags available out there some are nylon, some are paper with staples but one became available that is made out of plant based material and over time it is bio-degradable. That was my biggest concern.
All of our packaging is post-consumer recycled content and biodegradable, we are considered artisan and boutique because we do things by hand. When you are so close to a product you see if something is not right or is inconsistent. No machinery is used and no energy is being wasted. So when the soilon tea bags became available I thought "someone is sending me a message" and we have to do it. We introduced a line of tea-bags in bulk for food service a few years ago and it's only increased our sales in this sector. We just finished the Fancy Food Show which is a big trade show at the Javits Center in NYC for Gourmet Food. There we introduced a retail line of the tea-bags.
PSW: Which teas to do put in the tea bags?
LV: We have twelve kinds: everything is organic, Breakfast Tea, Darjeeling single estate, Earl Grey, Black and Blue which is a black tea with blueberries, Marsala Chai, China Green, Jasmine Yin Hao, which is a green tea with jasmine, Passion and Envy, which is passion fruit with straight green tea. Strictly Strawberry which is a caffeine free strawberry fruit blend, Peppermint, Chamomile, Coco Loco Nut which is a rooibos, chocolate & coconut blend.
PSW: Is the majority of your business in wholesale, trade shows or retail?
L. LV: The majority of our business is in bulk wholesale I would say that 75% of our business is food service. Selling to restaurants, cafes, tea houses, any one who uses our tea to serve customers. This is how we started. I feel comfortable in that business I grew up in that business. I am comfortable in and out of restaurant kitchens, that was natural. It was easier to grow the business in the food service area. We have a website and I probably don't pay enough attention to making it more successful but it does OK , I know it could do much better. And that is retail based for the end consumer. We do have a retail line that we wholesale to places like Dean and DeLuca and Zabars and other specialty food stores. That's the segment I am really trying to focus on with places like Fresh Direct, they carry our line. But that is the segment I am trying to figure out to expand because we are New York based and we are recognized in the NYC five boroughs, lower Westchester, and Connecticut. We have good representation on the West Coast and have a broker who has been working with us since 1997 who is great.
In the middle of the country people tend to carry us places. So if someone has worked in a restaurant here and moved out West they tend to take us with them I think if we do more exposure in retail shows people will know about it and ask for us and hopefully will increase sales overall. So that is where my focus has been these days.
PSW: Are most of your sales in the US?
LV: Yes the majority. We also have representation in Japan called SerendipiTea Japan. Also a sister company SerendipiTea Australia which is my late/former husband's brother. He started this company 7-8 years ago, I buy the tea for them because they are basically not tea people, they understand marketing and placement and great sales. We have a long time customer in Seoul South Korea, she a former Julliard student who drank our tea here in NY and opened a tea house in Korea when she returned. We have a customer in Denmark of all places. They just find us in the oddest ways. There's one here and there.
PSW: Would you like to add advice to anyone who wants to be in this business and what have you learned about being in business?
LV: The tea business is booming. It is a wide open area and if you truly love tea and would like to get into the business. There's lots of opportunity, you can go to Linked-in where there are tea enthusiastic, FB, meet-ups and you can reach out to your local tea purveyor. You can contact them and see if they need help in any capacity.
Once you are in remember business is business is business, so we are not hanging around talking about tea all day. We are in a business. I love the enthusiasm of tea but if all you want to do is sit around and talk about tea it is not productive the business needs to run and to be successful and to operate it has to run like a well-oiled machine.
I am pretty strict about when we do have tastings. It is usually in the mornings. I will call and invite staff to taste and explain why and what I am doing. I have a library in the hallway with tons of information, books videos, for staff to borrow and increase their tea knowledge. We have periodicals also from time to time we will do crash talks about tea specifically. Enthusiasm about the product is wonderful and necessary, but most of the time it is a business.
Consider I did it at a time when I did not have any major responsibility so I could take risks and I knew I could shift gears and find a job if it didn't work. Be cautious, plan, have more than one contingency plan. Just in case things don't work out. Be positive. And hope for it to work out and do your darnedest to make it. There are so many resources available, take advantage of them! And where there is a will there is a way I firmly believe that and I am stubborn as they come. If I am told No it won't work out I say Yeah you want to try me. You will figure it out, where there is a will there is a way. My other mantra is "Know your limitations". That is for me to know when to ask for help. You can't do everything, you can't know everything. For example, I rely heavily on my accountant to answer questions. I am not an accountant I was never trained in business I come from an art background. So a lot of this is learning as you go along. Sonam (my assistant) is amazing with computers technology and software systems. She is fantastic and I rely on her heavily for a lot of those things. And other things like customer relations. It's important to know where you need to be bolstered. And look for that in different people especially those who want to go along for the ride.
PSW: So there is no way I want this interview to end. But is there anything you want to add?
LV: I am so glad to see you and happy you are following your dreams of interviewing. It is your turn now. I am thrilled and honored to be one of your interviewees. Thanks and so nice to see you and your daughter.
PSW: Thank you so much for your time and I love you because you have been so nice to us. We will certainly remain in touch.
Absorbing the atmosphere and finishing our tea I sense an intimate family feel, everyone is happy and Linda is generous with her time and knowledge. She is personable and that is one of her greatest qualities besides her knowledge of the tea world. On the SerendipiTea website the knowledge continues. The Shop tab will bring you an extensive array of teas and blends. Click on Tea World and find: Tea Culture, Tea Recipes, Tea and Health, Universi-Tea, Tea Tips and Articles by SerendipiTea.
For more information and happy tea drinking go to: http://www.serendipitea.com
Twitter @SerendipiTeaUSA


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Deep Drawable Steels: Part One
Thermo-Mechanical Treatment (TMT) of Non-Ferrous Alloys: Part One
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Crack growth occurs in most materials through intense plastic deformation possibly combined with void growth and void coalescence. The region where these processes take place is very small or of about the same size as the crack tip opening displacement.
It is difficult to study these processes experimentally and to model them analytically in any greater detail. For this reason the goal in fracture mechanics is to avoid using detailed information concerning the fracture process zone in a crack growth criterion.
Crack growth occurs in most materials through intense plastic deformation possibly combined with void growth and void coalescence. The region where these processes
take place is very small or of about the same size as the crack tip opening displacement. One realizes that it is very difficult to study these processes experimentally
and to model them analytically in any greater detail. For this reason the goal in fracture mechanics is to avoid using detailed information concerning the fracture
process zone in a crack growth criterion.
Most important is to find one parameter which determines uniquely the state of stress and strain outside the fracture process zone say on a circle of radius ro around
the crack tip, Figure 1, and which is related to external boundary conditions, i.e. load and geometry. This parameter will act as a "single parameter" boundary condition
for the inner region. If we solve the boundary value problem for the inner region, Figure 1, including the fracture process zone, the state of stress and strain there
will be functions of material properties and of the single parameter defining the state at r = ro. The conclusion is then that for each material this parameter
uniquely describes the conditions in the fracture process zone and thus may be suitably used in a crack growth criterion. Parameters of this type are under certain
conditions the stress intensity factor K and the J-integral.
Figure 1: Boundary conditions for inner region given on circle r with intensity defined in terms of K or J
The failure of a component or a specimen with an elastic plastic material behavior proves to be much more complex than under linear elastic conditions. For the thinner
specimens the formation of large plastic zones at the crack tip and crack extension by slow ductile tearing give rise to strongly non-linear load/displacement-curves.
First indications of stable crack growth have been found down to 60 % of the maximum load Fmax. The external load can obviously be increased far beyond this
point until the load carrying capacity of the remaining ligament is exceeded and tearing and final catastrophic failure can progress under reducing load. For such a
plateau type of behavior it is hard to detect the achievement of maximum load and the corresponding values of crack length and displacement because COD or J
determination depend besides geometry and size on machine stiffness and loading rate.
Looking at the crack tip on a microscopic scale reveals even more complex details. Figure 2 summarizes some of our knowledge about the successive stages of the ductile
failure process. Starting from a natural sharp defect or an artificial crack of length ao introduced in advance by fatiguing at a low
a plastic zone is formed under increasing load F and the crack blunts through local sliding processes. This developing stretch zone, which afterwards can be
measured as a definite step on the fracture surface, grows proportional to the load until a critical crack opening displacement δi is reached and a crack
advance occurs ahead of the original blunted crack.
The mode of extension at the beginning and further on may be unstable or stable through cleavage or through a continuous process of nucleation, growth and coalescence
of voids in the crack tip strain field. This whole process may best be described by plotting a parameter that characterizes the stress/strain-field at the crack tip
(J or δ may be chosen for elastic plastic conditions and K or G for linear elastic conditions) against crack growth Δa.
In the lower load regime of crack blunting a linear relationship between J and crack growth Δa is found. But this quasi crack growth is small as
compared to that due to tearing at loads near to and at maximum load. The change of slope of the resistance curve is used to define and to measure critical values
of δ and J.
Although new concepts are being developed many problems still exist today to describe quantitatively the further crack growth and the final point of tearing instability.
Therefore elastic-plastic fracture toughness values are derived for microscopic crack initiation mainly and the safety philosophy is based on critical values δi
and Ji for the onset of stable crack growth which appear to represent true material properties.
The simultaneous registration of either the elastic compliance, electrical resistance, acoustic emission, or ultrasonic transmission of the specimen together with load
and displacement may be used. The change of either one of these physical properties with crack length allows for the evaluation of critical values of load and displacement.
Figure 2: Successive stages of ductile failure and schematic crack resistance curve
Ductile fracture in metallic alloys usually proceeds by the four stages of:
1. Void interaction, which promotes void growth and principally depends on the initial void volume fraction. Void interaction becomes effective mainly
during the void coalescence process.
2. Strain hardening, which must be adequately introduced in void growth models or, more precisely, which must be accounted for from proper micromechanical
analysis of the enlargement of a void in a strain-hardened material.
3. Void shape, which greatly influences void coalescence. It has been proven that initially spherical voids assume, in the direction of straining,
a prelate ellipsoidal shape during growth under low stress triaxiality and an oblate ellipsoidal shape under high stress triaxiality. The initial void shape is
imposed the inclusion shape.
4. The presence of the inclusion at which the void nucleates, which, at low stress triaxialities or in cases large shear strains, may hinder contraction
of the void. When a void initiates through the fracture of second-phase inclusion, the presence of the inclusions, also affects void growth considerably.
5. Heterogeneity and anisotropy in the distribution voids, which play a key role in the onset of void coalescence or shear localization and explain
importance of variations of the ductility of a material when tested in different directions.
6. Elastically driven void growth instabilities, which develop at high stress triaxialities.
7. Inhomogeneous boundary strain rate, which are en countered at crack tips, or local strain gradient, which may develop for very small voids.
8. Plastic anisotropy, which slightly influences void growth.
Most often void growth models have been assessed on ideal materials with a high content of large inclusions created by powder metallurgy. In these materials,
quantitative measurements of porosity distribution are possible. However, in industrial alloys, voids frequently remain very small (<10 μm) and porosity
is always very low. In steel, void size can be directly measured metallographically by unloading after some extent of straining and by breaking the strained
specimen below the brittle-ductile transition temperature. This method preserves void size. In other industrial alloys, direct evaluation of void size in the
bulk is less accurate.
Indeed, polishing changes void size. Indirect porosity measurements are, thus, necessary. Porosity distribution and local void dimensions must then be recovered
from experimental data, which usually refer to a porosity averaged in a large volume. The determination of the real evolution of porosity distribution is important
in order to physically identify the parameters of the void growth models. Prediction of void coalescence by micromechanical criteria requires quantitative modeling
of the void interdistance and mutual arrangement.
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Cho, faith, finances, goats, health, Hee, Hope, Jacob, Kong Hee, laban, magic, Metaphysical Cult, money, New Age, new thought, occult, occultism, pagan, paganism, Phil Pringle, realisation, realization, scam, sheep, the secret, visualisation, visualising, visualization, Visualization-To-Abundant, Visualization-To-Abundant Realization, visualizing, wealth, witch craft, Yonngi, yonngi cho
Teaching "Visualization-To-Abundant Realization" Methods Aint Christian
A quick search on "Visualization-To-Abundant" in Google produces information on the following.
The title for this youtube video is "Secret Tool of Visualization to Manifest Abundance in all areas of your Life" with the following blurb:
"Secret Tool of Visualization to Manifest Abundance in all areas of your Life- Apply this Secret tool of Visualization to Attract ABUNDANCE IN YOUR LIFE , Manifesting with Ease and Joy : Money – Happy Relationships- Success – Achievement -My first Best-Selling Book – Beautiful Cars- Dream homes – Supportive Friends – Loving Partner – Vibrant Health – Wisdom – Happiness – Love – Gratitude Satisfaction – Easy Fun Travel – Giving and Receiving – Sharing – Consciousness – Much More – What Else is Possible?" – EduaPotor, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSy9pQE639U, 01/08/2009. (Accessed 25/01/2013.)
You will also come across New Age, occult or scam websites saying things like, "Blending the practical with the magical", "visualize the abundance you so desire", or "if we regularly visualize our desires, send positive messages (affirmations) about our desires to our sub conscious mind and have faith that our desires are acheivable and then persevere – our desires will materialise". You should also come across websites that promote the secret laws of attraction. Simply by doing a Google search, alarm bells should be going off when these sites pop up. Why is a Christian pastor teaching things that are connected to demonic teachings?
We've already discovered how Pringle's faith is not founded on Christianity at all but on New Age, New Thought and occultic sources. This should concern any genuine Christian who attends the C3 Movement.
'The Secret' to Phil Pringle's Doctrine of 'Faith'
Phil Pringle Influenced By Occult/ New Thought/ Metaphysical Cult Teachings
Phil Pringle And David Yonggi Cho (Revisited)
'The Secret' to Phil Pringle's Doctrine of 'Hope'
While we have examined Pringle's doctrine on faith, his doctrine on 'hope' is no different. In his latest book 'Hope' (endorsed by Yonngi Cho and Kong Hee), Pringle teaches readers how to practice the New Age technique of visualisation… through goats.
Yes, from goats. You've got to read it to believe it.
Pringle writes,
"Jacob's Spotted and Speckled Sheep
In Ephesians 3:20, Paul says, "God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." The Greek word for "think" here is no'eo, which literally means "to conceive and perceive." So, once we are visualizing something, God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above it. An example of this "visualization-to-abundant realization" is exemplified in the spotted and speckled sheep of Jacob."
(Phil Pringle, Hope, South Australia: Hyde Park Press,2011, pg. 40.)
Pringle decides to write a personalised narrative of the Genesis story of Jacob and Laban's goat/sheep deal. Pringle narrates the following:
"In the heat of the next morning, he calls the great flock of Laban to the watering troughs. However, the goats and sheep arrive to a different scene than ever before. A spotted and speckled wall rises before them just behind the troughs. The larger, healthier, stronger sheep jostle easily to the front. The rams rise on the ewes as they drink, all of them mating with a full vision of spots and speckles before them. When the small and weak finally have their chance at the water, Jacob removes the wall. Every day, morning and night, he follows the same clever procedure."
(Phil Pringle, Hope, South Australia: Hyde Park Press,2011, pg. 41-42.)
Pringle's conclusion?
"But Jacob knew that his God had given him hope through a dream, a strategy-and all of it by the power of vision. As Jacob saw the spotted and speckled sheep, and as the sheep themselves saw spots and speckles, their vision had become a reality.
What we see is what we get. What fills our imagination is what will fill our lives. This is the power of hope!"
(Phil Pringle, Hope, South Australia: Hyde Park Press,2011, pg. 42.)
After reading what Pringle had to say on visualisation, do you honestly think Genesis 30-31 is trying to teach Christians how to visualise abundance like Laban's goats supposedly did? Don't you think it's odd that Pringle doesn't actually quote the biblical story?