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While pitching for Team Italy in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, lefty Dan Serafini began his 22nd season playing as a pro in America, Canada, Japan, and Mexico. With 104 MLB appearances for the Twins, Cubs, Pirates, Padres, Reds, and Rockies under his belt, the bullpen has always been a second home for the Twins' first-round draft pick of 1992. So when when it came time for the San Francisco-born Serafini to choose an appropriate name for his new sports bar located close to the family home at 5215 Vista Blvd. in Sparks, Nevada, it was simply a case of serendipity that he call it The Bullpen at Aspen Glen.
The bullpen at aspen glen come drink kids pic.twitter.com/RxiOO0c8GJ
— Danny serafini (@dannyserafini) June 16, 2013
Dan Serafini has been one of the Bay Area's hometown heroes since the early nineties. In his senior year at Junipero Serra High School in San Mateo, the southpaw pitcher was on every MLB scout's radar after going nearly perfect (11 wins and 1 loss) and setting a single-season school record of 149 strikeouts. In his two seasons playing varsity for the Padres, he went 20-2 with a 1.70 ERA and 271 strikeouts. Perhaps the most appropriate way to leave a legacy that overshadows the numerous accolades that other notable Serra alumni have achieved during their high school campaign, Serafini was named to every All-Star team conceivable including: AII- WCAL, AII- County, All Peninsula, and All Northern California.
He was the 1992 WCAL, County and Peninsula Co-Player of the Year in addition to being named the San Mateo Times County Athlete of the Year.
Roberto: San Mateo's Junipero Serra High School has been known to produce their share of athletes including Barry Bonds and many sports legends. While covering the Australian Baseball League, I learned that Brisbane Bandits' Chuck Lofgren pitched at Serra High School. Having also played there, how does it feel being surrounded by a strong Bay Area professional athlete fraternity at Serra?
Dan Serafini: Serra High School is a great baseball facility and just a great school to go to. We had a lot of great players: Jim Fregosi, Dan Frisella…even some football players: Lynn Swann, Tom Brady. We have quite an athletic history. Some really good baseball players like Gregg Jeffries have come out of my school.
Roberto: Team Italy slugger Chris Colabello followed the same minor league path to MLB playing for Double-A New Britain RockCats. While you played there, you were named to the 1995 Eastern League All-Star team after going 12-9 with a 3.37 ERA.
Dan Serafini: That was a long time ago. I can barely even remember that. At New Britain, Chris got to play in the new stadium. I played in the old Beehive Stadium, which was more like a high school stadium with a trailer park locker room. I had a good year that year, and it got me a call up to Triple-A before the season was over.Roberto: You made your MLB debut on June 25, 1996 in Minnesota against the New York Yankees.
Dan Serafini: It was not an easy team to pitch against for my first time playing in the big leagues, but it was a great memory. It was kind of funny.
The Twins wouldn't let me into the locker room before the game. They didn't want any animosity in the locker room because they hadn't sent anyone down (to Triple-A) yet. I had to stay in a hotel and then on game day I got to show up right before the game started so that I could get ready to play. It wasn't the greatest experience, but it was still a good experience. I got to the big leagues!
Roberto: At least it was a home game when you had to face the intimidating New York Yankees.
Dan Serafini: Although it was a home game in Minnesota, it was still intimidating. It was the New York Yankees—no matter where you are playing them, they are intimidating. Crowd factor definitely helped. I had the crowd on my side. I loved Minnesota. It was very supportive. I had a great time.
Roberto: You also had some more playing time with the Twins in 1997 and 1998. Was it rewarding for you?
Dan Serafini: It was. I got a very brief opportunity with the Twins. You know, going back from starting to the bullpen and starting and bullpen. I was never really able to fill my niche with the Twins. It was fun. It was rewarding. I'm a Major League Baseball player. There is nothing more rewarding than that.
Roberto: The Chicago Cubs bought your contract from the Twins on March 31, 1999. You made four starts for the Cubbies and put together a 3-2 record in 42 appearances with a 6.93 ERA.
Dan Serafini: The ERA was kind of high, but in my defense I actually pitched really well until the all-star break. I think I only had a 3 or 3.50 ERA up until the all-star break. Then my big
league pitching coach, Marty DeMerritt, wanted me to become a left-handed specialist and drop down sidearm and start pitching sidearm only. So I did that, and it completely screwed up the whole rest of my season. I was walking everybody, giving up all kinds of hits and just all kind of happened. I can't blame him. He was just trying to help me out, but to change your pitching mechanics in the middle of the season… It's really hard to make an adjustment to big league hitters. It hurt me pretty good.
Roberto: In the 1999 offseason you were traded to the San Diego Padres and pitched in three games in 2000. How did it feel to come back to your native California to play pro ball?
Dan Serafini: I was there for a long time. I didn't get many opportunities.
I was mostly like a chess pawn. I just kind of sat in the dugout. I'd go a week straight without pitching in a game.
I didn't get as many opportunities as
I would have liked to become a better player than I am today. San Diego is beautiful, and I'm from California–even though it's Northern California where I'm from. Southern California is a beautiful place. I guess I had more fun there off the field than on the field.
Roberto: After being traded to Pittsburgh and playing for the Nashville Sound, you had a 4-3 record with a 2.60 ERA before the call up to the Pirates on August 5, 2000 to make 11 starts.
Dan Serafini: After getting traded from San Diego, I had a really good month or so in Nashville before getting called up.
I made my first start against the San Francisco Giants and won. That could have been probably my favorite time in the big leagues–to be going back home to my hometown and beating San Francisco in San Francisco. I had a pretty good season with Pittsburgh. They were struggling and in last place. I threw well for Pittsburgh. I just didn't fit in their books.
Roberto: Signing with San Francisco must have been a dream come true?
Dan Serafini: I didn't get to stay with San Francisco too long. They signed me as a big league player, but they didn't have a roster spot. I went to Triple-A for a little bit. I was making a substantial amount of money for a Triple-A player so when they couldn't find a spot for me I got released about a month after
I signed. So I really didn't get much of an opportunity with San Francisco.
Roberto: You quickly signed with the Mets and played for the 2001 Triple-A Norfolk Tides, where you posted 5-2 record with a 3.31 ERA in 31 games.
Dan Serafini: I didn't waste anytime—maybe two days later signed with the Mets. Went to Triple-A and played there a little bit. I pitched pretty well, but got into an altercation with the GM. I ended up getting released and walking on over to the other clubhouse and signed up with Milwaukee that same day.
Roberto: You finished off the 2001 season pitching for the Brewers' Triple-A affiliate Indianapolis Indians and posted a 2-2 record with a 5.96 ERA. However,
you chose to move on from Milwaukee
and were granted free agency in October, 2001. This opened the door for other opportunities, and you ended up signing a minor league deal with the Anaheim Angels. Was that another short-term engagement by design or a matter of being released? Please clear up all the misconceptions and incorrect information the media has picked up on to make you have to stand up for yourself and clarify.
Dan Serafini: Well you know the thing is…the media–they always say you were released, you were released, you were released. But for a lot of those teams I've actually picked the option for my release.
I didn't get released. They would option me down to Triple-A, and I felt that I didn't deserve to go to Triple-A. So for a lot of those assignments I chose not to go.
Roberto: After opting out of your contract with the Angels, you tried to make a comeback in late 2002 when you signed with the St. Louis Cardinals. You began at Triple-A Memphis, but then on April 21, 2003 you were released.
Dan Serafini: I knew what was going to happen because during the offseason I signed for such a high contract to go to Triple-A. I knew they were using me to fill a spot. So I knew as soon as no one came down from the big leagues or something that I was going to get released.
Roberto: So you expected it?
Dan Serafini: I had signed for a substantial amount of money to go and play in Triple-A. Within the first month when Kevin Ohme was sent down from St. Louis, they got rid of me the next day. I pitched okay there, but it was really hard because I have always been a starter my whole career and I kept bouncing back and forth. I was going from bullpen to starting to bullpen and starting and never got into a rhythm. So for all these teams I played for, I had really a tough time coming out of the bullpen and learning my routine and learning to play. Unfortunately, I didn't really prove myself that well as well.
Roberto: It sounds like the experiment on the big league level of being a sidearm specialist coming out of the bullpen went terribly wrong. It was not exactly the best training ground for trying something new.
Dan Serafini: No. The only chance I had to experiment was on the big stage, which is really difficult if you are not physically or mentally prepared for those things. I wasn't…I was only 21 or 22 at the time. It was a difficult road for me–that's for sure!
Roberto: Did being disillusioned with American pro ball inspire you to head south to Mexico?
Dan Serafini: Yes, I played my first year in 2002. It was winter ball for Mazatlan. I had a great manager and a really fun time there. And they said if I ever had a problem in summer that I was more than welcome to play in Mexico. So after that St. Louis series, I went in 2003 to go play summer ball in Mexico.
Roberto: The Cincinnati Reds noticed and purchased your contract on August 25, 2003.
Dan Serafini: I ended up winning the ERA title. I set the record for the most wins in a row that season. I was a starter. I got back in the my swing of things. I got my mechanics back and pitched really well. I got called up and went straight to the big leagues in Cincinnati.
Roberto: On August 26, 2003, you started against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Dan Serafini: I believe I also started in a game versus St. Louis. Then I went back to the bullpen after I told the GM
I wouldn't go to the bullpen and that I would only start. Because I had already 130 innings pitched in Mexico, I was tired and said I didn't want to get up and down every day out of the bullpen. After I said I only wanted to start, the GM said that was exactly what I was summoned there to do–to start for Danny Graves because he got hurt.
So I went there, got two starts and they stuck me in the bullpen. It was a disappointment. I know it's a business, and I just need to man up and do it. It was just hard. I talked to Bobby Valentine in 2004, and he asked me to go down to Vegas and throw a bullpen for somebody to try out for the team he managed in Japan. I went out there and tried out for the Chiba Lotte Marines. I was hurt at the time. I had a broken collar bone because
I crashed on a motorcycle messing around with my friends. Despite being injured, I still got a good enough report from the try out to go to Japan.
Roberto:: After being granted free agency and playing for Bobby Valentine's Chiba Lotte Marines in 2004 and 2005 as well as the Orix Buffaloes in 2006 and 2007, were you treated with a little bit more respect in Japan?
Dan Serafini: It was really rewarding because I actually got treated like a player that I was. Japan did nothing but give me the highest respect. Bobby Valentine did nothing but give me the highest respect. He kept me on a routine for the full season, and I had a really good career in Japan. I still talk to Bobby off and on the internet. I was happy to see him as an Ambassador for the 2013 World Baseball Classic.
Roberto: Did you follow all the drama that surrounded Bobby Valentine last year when he managed the Boston Red Sox?
Dan Serafini: I did. In fact, before the season began I called him and asked him for a job to see if I could get a Triple-A job or a coaching/ player job. His hands were tied. He said that he couldn't make any moves. But I followed him and saw all the disappointing articles about him and stuff from players that couldn't handle his attitude. I thought it was ridiculous. He's the smartest guy in baseball–hands down. He may want a little more attention than he deserves, but that's his character.
If people don't like it, they try to crucify him. He's a very good man!
Roberto: It's too bad he was the scapegoat for the Red Sox.
Dan Serafini: It really was. I know he's done some things in his past that has rubbed people the wrong way–and we all have. It's just the way different personalities go–especially when you have a bunch of superstars in the one locker room. It's almost like you have to walk on eggshells around these people because they're more sensitive than most people that are not superstars.
Roberto: When a player digs into the batter's box and gives you a long grimacing stare, is your best response and message to the hitter simply the delivery of your next pitch?
Dan Serafini: Yes, definitely–without a doubt. There's got to be respect both ways. For me, I've always been tired of being called a cheater or having a dismal career by what some reporters have said. I feel like I have fought the longest just like Bobby Valentine did to get my career to where it is right now.
Roberto: You signed a deal with the Colorado Rockies in 2007 and pitched on September 7th against the San Francisco Giants.
Dan Serafini: It was a great feeling. I was excited. It was tough because I had just come back from Japan. I broke my hand in Japan, and they decided to release me at the last quarter of the season just because they were not going to use me anymore and had no chance of the playoffs. So they sent me home, and
I signed with Colorado. I got called up to the big leagues a couple weeks later and after four years of not having seen a major league game got to pitch to my first batter–Barry Bonds!
Roberto: What were the odds of you facing one of baseball's most feared hitters in your MLB comeback attempt?
Dan Serafini: It was pretty interesting. I had some butterflies.
Roberto: How did you sustain your hand injury overseas?
Dan Serafini: That happened at a game in Japan. I was pitching and lost my footing in the bullpen. It was on my glove hand.
I kind of slipped and fell over. I used my hand to stabilize myself from falling over, and I broke my ring finger, pinky and a couple bones in the middle of my hand.
Roberto: In Japan you also sustained an achilles injury which required medication to help with the healing process and eventually led to a positive test for MLB banned substances when you signed with the Rockies in 2007.
Dan Serafini: I actually got a serious injury and had surgery on my achilles. When I came back from Chiba Lotte, I tore my achilles tendon in the year we won the championship. I signed a two-year contract with the Orix Buffaloes for a substantial amount. My leg with in a cast for four months so they were shooting it up all year long trying to get it balanced back.
After my first year at Orix, I wasn't throwing very well because my body was so out of balance that it started hurting my shoulder and back. So they told me to just take the rest of the year off and come back for 2007. I was still having problems with my leg and the way my muscles were firing in 2007. So again a doctor was giving me a medication that I didn't think much of because I passed all of my drug tests and Olympic testing in Japan. So I didn't even think twice about it. And that's what it was when I got tested on the last day of the season with Colorado. It was still in my system, and I got busted for it.
Roberto: It looks like MLB used you as a scapegoat to fill their 2007 quota and deter players from using banned substances.
Dan Serafini: Yes, I think so. I mean because I tried to fight it.
I had to do a lot of things for my defense. I had to get the doctor from Japan to come and fly to New York to testify for me in court. He wanted $500,000 to do it because it would give Japan a bad name since I never failed a test in Japan. So I said, 'Screw it, I'll take the 50-game suspension and wear it for now.' I didn't think that it would be that bad, but Colorado didn't sign me back. The GM at the time, Dan O'Dowd, didn't give me my National League Championship ring. They gave me my playoff share because I was there for a short time, but they didn't give me a ring because they were disgraced by the fact that I was a cheater and stuff like that. It was just bad. An unnamed journalist tried to say that I was trying to respark my dismal career. My response was like: 'What's so dismal about making over 10 million dollars?' I don't think that's too dismal…
Roberto: If a man can't look at me in the eye and share his theory to my face without the facts in hand—and instead choose to hide behind a computer desk in favor of meeting publishing deadlines, then it's not news worthy in my book.
Dan Serafini: Exactly. You know it's like so many people just wrote stories about me that never even asked me the details or took the details out. Even Tom Verducci and things he wrote in my
article. I said so many things to balance and justify the difference between cheating and other kinds of uses of certain PEDs or whatever. And they don't want to listen to that, but everybody wants to be negative and listen in to CNN nowadays.
Roberto: Not a lot of players want to comment in fear of being blackballed. But you are not afraid to speak your mind and represent Team Italia in the World Baseball Classic. It's your time to shine and be heard.
Dan Serafini: Yes, it is. If people want to call me a jerk, whatever but you know what… I've been around this game for 22 years now. And I know that 90% of the people I have played with have said: 'If I had a chance to use it and make myself better, then I would have too…' You know, that's what we're here for.
Roberto: I don't blame you for having headed south to pitch for the Monterrey Sultanes after all that nonsense.
Dan Serafini: They were a great organization. I played with them for a while and just kept bouncing back and forth. I pitched
well in Monterrey, got to the playoffs a few times and then I got traded.
Roberto: You spent 2008 and 2009 in Mexico before heading to the East Coast to play for the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Atlantic Independent League.
Dan Serafini: Yes, I did that just for a little bit so that I could get a job back in the states. I wanted more people to see me pitch, but nothing came of it.
Roberto: Yet Mexico loved you and you represented the country in several Caribbean Series.
Dan Serafini: Yes, I believe I played three Caribbean Series for Mexico–all during winter ball because the Sultanes play during the summer. In the winter I played for Yaquis de Obregón in
the 2008 Caribbean Series and then again in 2010 and 2011
I played for Mexico in the Caribbean Series.
Roberto: What's the difference between baseball played
abroad and in the U.S.?
Dan Serafini: For one, the United States has the best players in the world in the major leagues. So it's kind of hard to represent the United States because it has so many great players. Mexico and Italy have a lot of great players that have been overlooked by United States. It's hard. With me representing Mexico, I am one of the better players in Mexico because that's just where I am playing at the time. With my experience and talent, I can make those teams and play for those teams. I could possibly pitch for Team USA but that team has so many Americans from all over the country to pick from. So it's really hard to make that team.
Roberto: How were you recruited to pitch for Team Italia?
Dan Serafini: Actually they called me in 2009 and found out
that I was Italian through my agent. After they got the background information about my Italian ancestry, they said that they would love for me to come and try out. I came down, tried out and they said that they could definitely use me as a starter or reliever because of 'my good arm.' So the rest is history as far as that.
Roberto: It must have a been a major personal victory for you when Team Italia upset Mexico in the 2013 WBC.
Dan Serafini: Almost everyone on Team Mexico I either played with them or against them. Team Italy asked me to write a
scouting report on the whole team, which I did and gave to the coaches. They watched a few of their games during their exhibition games and said it was 'spot on' as far as the scouting report. That's what we used, and it actually came out well. We pitched well against them. We played great defense against them, and we came out victors.
Roberto: Once Team Italia's manager Marco Mazzieri gave me his cell phone number, I felt compelled to do the same and gave him a scouting report on Team Canada. We all had to do our part.
Dan Serafini: Well, that's it…exactly! We're here to win. Right
now, I'm not an American. I'm an Italian, and I'm here to beat Team USA today. I was there to beat Canada yesterday, and I was there the day before to beat Mexico. Granted I have friends from every team from all over the world, but right now I'm just Italian. I'm here to walk all over every other team.
Roberto: How proud are you to be Italian?
Dan Serafini: I am very proud to be Italian. It's unfortunate because I have always had a strong Italian family growing up, but Italian heritage or history was never really taught. I never learned Italian even though my father speaks Italian and both of my grandparents only spoke Italian. I just wasn't brought up that way. Now doing more research about Italy and possibly thinking later in my career to maybe going to play in Italy for a little bit. I'm really interested in the Italian culture and to visit all around Europe. I'm looking forward to it. Italians are a well-educated culture to begin with. Everyone on our team speaks perfect English and perfect Italian. Some speak Spanish, Italian and English. I think they are just educated people. Unfortunately
when you move to another country and are unable to speak their language fluently, you tend to get away from your native language.
I know when I played in Mexico my whole team spoke English. I didn't have a chance to learn Spanish because people talked to me in English. So it's not as diverse as you think. It's a lot harder, even my wife can tell you it's a lot harder to go there and learn a language because everyone is polite to you and tries to talk to you in your language to make you feel more comfortable. So we have a tendency to get lazy
and not try. But right now I listen to Italian tapes every night because
I want to try to learn Italian.
Roberto: That's because everyone is trying to be hospitable
and speak your native tongue?
Dan Serafini: Yes. I mean the Italians come right over here, and they all speak English right out of the gate. They don't even try to speak Italian. They're like: 'No, we're in America now–we're speaking English.' That's what they do.
Roberto: How does having a coaching staff that includes future Hall of Famer Mike Piazza affect your approach to the game?
Dan Serafini: Mike is a great guy. Look at his story–coming from the 62nd round as a favor to his godfather Tommy Lasorda! Something ridiculous like that and becoming the best
offensive catcher of all time…whatever his statistics are.
Being blessed enough to play against him and talk to him,
it's a great experience. Just because we have one more
person with a ton of experience on our team. He has been
in the spotlight for what…16 seasons! You know, I've been
in the spotlight for seven. Grilli has been the spotlight for
eight. So it's like we have plenty of experience. It's nice to
have someone of that magnitude on our team helping us out.
Roberto: Mike Piazza could be doing something else with his time,
but his heart and soul are committed to Team Italia.
Dan Serafini: You're right. It is…and we appreciate that! He could
be doing anything with his time, and a lot of us could be but we're all here together to represent Italy. We're going to represent the right way this time.
Roberto: Thank you for your time today. I'm sure this story will be continued next time we get together to talk.
Dan Serafini: Yes, definitely…I'm looking forward to continuing it. I will answer any question that needs to be answered. It's nice to be able to explain myself for a change, and hopefully one day people will look at me differently.


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Africa, Ambiguity, Computers, Cross-Cultural Education, Culture, Education, Training, Translation, Vocabulary
Today we have a Guest Post from a friend of mine, Nancy Sypniewski. I met Nancy when when she began doing volunteer work at an animal shelter where I served as PR, but calling her a volunteer doesn't even come close to suggesting her full value to the shelter. She was amazing. And she was also amazing to talk to. I recently asked Nancy to share one of her stories for the Blog, and she has graciously agreed.
I don't know if Nancy will have time to come back and answer any questions, but I wanted to include this story, because it deals with a subject I think about a great deal, teaching something in a cross-cultural setting. The story dates back to a training exercise from her days in the tech industry.
Nancy Sypniewski
We were working in South Africa. Our job was to implement a computer system that would automate the inventory of the power utility. This was back in the day of mainframe computers and big unfriendly user terminals. We first had to understand their business, determine the best method to automate their inventory, modify the "best fit" computer system, convert their existing data, thoroughly test both the modified system and converted data, develop and test customized training materials, and then finally train the people who would be using the system. These steps took thousands of man hours and multiple years.
We were finally ready to start developing our training materials. We were reminded that our audience would be tribesmen, mostly Zulu and Sutu. These men would arrive in the morning wearing a loin cloth and sandals, they would change into company provided blue jumpsuits and steel toe shoes, and then back into their tribal clothing before heading home at the end of the day. It was imperative that our training materials be full of simple language, pictures and diagrams, not because these men were of low intelligence, quite the contrary, the issue was language – English was often the 3rd, 4th or even 5th language they had learned.
Training day arrived. Our instructor had the students lay their arms across the keyboard and watch the letters appear on their terminal screen for every key they had touched. The room was filled with awe. The instructor then told the students to "Hit the key with C L E A R printed on it." Each and every student did just that, they hit the key with the solid blast of their closed fist, causing many of the keys to pop off and fly all over the classroom. Needless to say, the students jumped up and frantically gathered the keys, now totally afraid of the new "machines" they had just destroyed. We assured them that all could be easily fixed and sent them into the break room for early tea and cookies.
Within about 20 minutes we had popped the keys back onto the keyboards and were ready to resume class. Since I had been with most of the students multiple times over the years and was a familiar face, it was decided that I would restart the class and give reassurances.
I asked that they restart the exercise by laying their arms across their keyboards while watching the letters appear as before. I then carefully said "Now, I want you to depress the key with C L E A R printed on it." Everyone hesitated. Just then, a man in the front row raised his hand. I asked him what he wanted and he said, "Madame, I do not know what to say to make the key sad." Luckily, everyone laughed and we had learned the lesson of careful word selection. After that, we always reminded one another to never use a $10 word when a $1 word would would do a better job.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tag Archives: Brownies
Chocolatiest Brownies
These are the real deal brownies. The ones you dream about. Classic, fudgy and oh so chocolately. They mix up in the snap and the recipe makes enough for sharing. Though I'm pretty greedy so I've been known to keep … Continue reading
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The Art of Becoming Whole
Art is Margaret O'Brien's way back.
The way was long for this 55-year-old whose suffering from childhood abuse recurred as post-traumatic stress disorder. At Arundel Lodge, she found first a loving home, then help in remaking her past through art.
"It was the atmosphere of praise here," O'Brien says, "that helped me overcome my past."
In the Lodge's Fresh Start program, O'Brien rediscovered herself. Like most discoveries, hers took dead ends, turnarounds and persistence.
Early in 2010, O'Brien ventured into the Deede Miller art program.
Art is one means among many Arundel Lodge uses to help people make a fresh start. "Choosing to begin anew," says executive director Mike Drummond, is the goal of the Lodge, which provides mental health and support services to 700 clients. About 170 live in the Lodge, designed by Annapolis architect Catherine Purple Cherry to resemble a village. A couple hundred more come day by day.
The comprehensive program to help people work their way out of darkness includes case management, treatment, housing, nutrition, education and supportive employment. All this happens in an "atmosphere of praise" that's perceptible as you walk the halls and visit classrooms — including Miller's art studio — where how to get along is both the subject and the practice.
"The art program promotes skill development and enables self-discovery," says Miller, who showcases her students' work in the Lodge's OpenEye Gallery. "It also produces a state of happiness and well-being."
Weaving quickly became O'Brien's art. The feel and colors of the yarn, some muted others vibrant, appealed to her. She took to managing multiple yarns like an old hand, though she'd never before laid her hands on a loom. Volunteer Marge Margulies helped the beginner create her style.
Inspiration came independently. "I capture fond memories from my past in my weavings," O'Brien says.
She created the weavings entitled Lucile in honor of her grandmother.
Her first weaving hangs over the lobby desk, her gift to the Lodge.
In a year and a half, O'Brien has created 15 weavings and sold five — but not Lucile, which is not for sale. She works mainly on commission with customers to whom she offers professional business cards complete with email, website and telephone number.
Now she thinks of herself as an artist, and she thinks of her future.


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Last Sunday, Allyn and I hosted a book launch party at our new home to celebrate the release of my short story collection, WOMAN, RUNNING LATE, IN A DRESS. {You can snag a personalized copy here!}
We'd been planning this party for months. Even before we found our new home, when we weren't even looking at houses yet but were planning to move when our lease was up, I said to Allyn, "You know what would be cool? What if we had a combination housewarming/book launch party when my book is published?" Allyn immediately agreed it would be cool, but said what would be even better is if we left out the housewarming part and just focused on celebrating my new book. He's teaching me more and more how to step into my own spotlight rather than feel like I need to dim my light. One of the 846,748 reasons why I love him so much. 🙂
Once we found our house and signed the lease on our new place, planning really began in earnest. We set a date for the party and made an invitation on Facebook. We spread the word to our friends and family. I ordered cute raffle prizes featuring the book cover {coasters, a tote bag, a puzzle} and made bookmarks. We felt hugely motivated to get all of our boxes unpacked, our pictures hung on the walls, and everything organized before the party. {Which, if you're willing to handle a bit of stress, I would totally recommend — never before have I felt "all moved in" so quickly!}
We planned out the food and the drinks, the seating and the mingling areas. I made a display of my books. Some of our guests volunteered to bring wine; others brought beer; others brought appetizers and veggies and sandwiches. The day of the party, I baked mini pumpkin muffins, set out paper plates and napkins, and organized plastic utensils into cups. I took a shower, dried my hair, carefully applied eyeshadow and mascara.
Everything looked beautiful. Everything was sparkling and clean and ready to go. Everything was exactly the way I had hoped it might be, back when Allyn and I began planning the party a month ago in our crammed-to-the-brim-with-boxes apartment.
I felt that excited, nervous energy that bubbles inside you when you are preparing to embark on something that you have been dreaming about for a very long time. Because this party wasn't just about this one afternoon. Nor was it just about this new house we had claimed as our home, or about the 178 printed pages between two shiny covers of my published book. It was a party that had been years in the making. A party that, for a long time, I had thought would never come.
I sent out my short story manuscript for six long years before it won the Cypress & Pine Fiction Award from Yellow Flag Press and was accepted for publication. Six years of form rejection slips and crushed spirits and doubt. Six years of dreaming that, one day, I would hold this book in my hands and proudly share it with my friends and family. Six years of stubborn hope that these characters in my imagination were meant to leap into the hearts and minds of other people — that they weren't just meant to live inside me.
And now, here I was, standing on the threshold of that day I had gazed at on the horizon of my life for so long.
My mother-in-law arrived first, bearing enormous platters of delicious sandwiches. We arranged them on the kitchen table and the island. We uncorked the wine. Then my grandparents arrived, with a cooler full of beer that we put on the back patio. We gave them the tour of the house. They helped themselves to sandwiches. Our dear friends Justin & Fawn arrived with their adorable baby boy, and it was so nice to visit with them in the kitchen, catching up on life. And yet, laughing there in the sunshine, an urgent panic began to rise within me.
What if no one else showed up? What if this party — that I had been dreaming about and working towards for so long — what if it was a total lame disappointment?
Allyn squeezed my hand. The minutes ticked by. The doorbell was silent. My phone beeped with text messages from friends and family members, explaining that they were so sorry but they could no longer make it. My panic gained strength, whispering in my ear like a mean girl in middle school:
This was a stupid idea. You never should have planned this party. You never should have put yourself out there like this. Now everyone is going to feel sorry for you. No one wanted to come to your party and no one cares about your book. You should have just stayed quiet and kept to yourself. Why did you even take this risk?
Panic doesn't only visit us before we throw a big party. It comes whenever we try something new — when we step out of our comfort zones, launch a new venture, share something that is important to us. It comes when we express excitement about a new opportunity or decide to make a change in our lives — take time off work to travel; sign up for Whole 30; start a side-hustle; pursue a passion project. It comes when we plant our flag in the sand, stand tall in our truth, and say boldly, "This matters to me!" Because in doing so, we make ourselves vulnerable. Our high hopes might be crushed. Our beautiful plans might be met with lonely disappointment.
This inner voice of panic was familiar to me. I had felt it before many times in my life, which was actually a blessing because it helped me recognize what was happening. I spoke back to my panic. I talked my nervous heartbeat down from the ledge.
Shhh, shhh, calm down. It's going to be okay. Look at these people around you. They came a long way to be here with you today. They're happy for you. They're proud of you. Focus on savoring these moments with them and loving the hell out of this experience while it is happening. This is precious and special. Right here. Right now. All the rest is just white noise from your ego. Let it go.
I think it is natural to feel that panic-before-the-party in many aspects of our lives. We make a decision focused on all the wonder and magic that might unfold, and then when we're confronted with the messy reality we feel panicked that maybe we made the wrong decision. But I think that our inner voice of panic is actually a clue that we're on the right path. That we're growing.
The truth is, it would be easier to stay safe. To never risk that panic. But I don't think "easy" is an ingredient in the recipe for a satisfying adventure in this one wild and precious life you have been given.
Another truth: so often, panic is short-sighted. It is focused on the immediate moment and spirals into despair. But so often, even when the reality is messier than you anticipated or there are a few bumps in the road, eventually things level out. You look back and realize that everything turned out even better than you had imagined it would. You are so grateful you made that leap and took that risk and tried that newness on for size. The voice of panic is completely washed away and it is easy to forget that it was ever there… until you plant another flag in the sand and the panic comes to visit again in full force.
I think panic loses its power when we recognize it as part of the process. It is simply part of the journey and we don't have to listen to it. We can turn our head away and focus on the other voices in our hearts that are cheering us on.
Even if no one else had showed up to my party, it would not have been a disaster. It would have been a lovely intimate gathering with six of my favorite people. But more people did show up. First a slow trickle; then guests arrived all at once. Before I knew it, I looked up from arranging a bowl of fruit salad and realized our kitchen was crammed full of people, talking and eating and enjoying the afternoon. Later, everyone gathered in the living room and I read an excerpt from my book, and then champagne and Martinelli's were poured and toasts were made. As I gazed around the room so filled with love and support, I felt tears prick my eyes. I kept thinking, This is it. This is it. This is it.
This is what was waiting on the other side of the shore, during those years I swam through the cold waves of doubt and disappointment, wondering if I would ever reach that land I was striving towards.
This is what was waiting through the moments of panic and fear, uncertainty and envy, hopelessness and frustration.
This is what was waiting. And it was more than worth it.
When you finally do reach the shore — when the train does finally come — the struggle of the journey makes the celebratory champagne taste so much sweeter.
Your turn {if you want}:
Grab your journal or open a new document on your computer and freewrite about the questions below that speak to you:
- When is a time you have felt the "panic before the party" in your life? What did the panic say to you? What actually happened?
- Write about a time you took a risk, felt doubt, but pushed through to a new opportunity.
- What is a risk you long to take in your life now? How do you yearn to grow?


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With five days to go before the grand inauguration of the Beijing Olympics on August 8,2008, the scenario relating to possible securitythreats to the Olympic Games is as follows:
TIBETAN GROUPS IN TIBET OR OUTSIDE: They have been quiet for the last one month. There is so far no information or indication of likely demonstrations or incidents of violence. However, the authorities of the Government of India should strengthen physical security outside Chinese diplomatic and consular missions and other major Chinese establishments in India to prevent any incidents by angry sections of the Tibetan youth.Low to medium probability of fresh demonstrations in Lhasa.
UIGHUR GROUPS:Medium to high probability of acts of violence, including terrorism, by Uighur elements in Xinjiang, the Central Asian Republics, Pakistan and Turkey. Uighurs do not have a demonstrated capability for major acts of terrorism in Beijing, Hong Kong anf Shanghai, where the main events of the Olympics will be held, but have a high capability in Xinjiang, the CARs and Pakistan.. The main threat, if any, will be from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which operates from North Waziristan in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. On July 25,2008, a private security consultancy agency of the US claimed to have intercepted a three-minutes Olympics-specific video message by one Sayfallah, who claimed to belong to an organisation called the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) in which he threatened acts of violence directed against the Olympics. He claimed that his organisation was responsible for the explosions in buses in Shanghai in May last and in Kunming in Yunnan in July. There is no way of verifying his claim. It is intriguing that neither he nor his organisation made any such claim immediately after the explosions took place. He said that his group is planning to attack Chinese cities"using previously unused methods". He said: " This is our last warning to China and the rest of the world. The viewers and athletes, especially those who are Muslim, who plan to go to the Olympics should change their plans and not go to China. The Turkistan Islamic Party plans military attacks on people, offices, arenas, and other activities that are connected to the Chinese Olympic Games." Some Western analysts have said that the TIP is identical with the ETIM, but there is no evidence in support of this. However, this message, even if its purpose is assumed to be to create fear and nervousness, shows that sections of Uighurs in Xinjiang as well as in Pakistan, the CARs and Turkey have been thinking of some incidents before and during the Olympics to draw attention to their cause. Likely threats from them have already been taken seriously by the Chinese authorities and have been factored into in their security planning.
PRO-UIGHUR GROUPS: In this category will come the Chechens, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), the Islamic Jihad Union or Group, which is also an organisation of Uzbecks, the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Likely threats from them can also be categorised as medium to high. The Chechens are angry with China because of its anti-terrorism co-operation with Russia. The IMU and the IJU have close networking with the ETIM and have been training their cadres in North Waziristan. Recent reports from the tribal areas of Pakistan speak of the arrival of some Uighurs from Turkey in the IJU camps to undergo training. The Taliban and Al Qaeda have been supportive of the ETIM. Unlike the Uighur groups, none of the pro-Uighur groups have held out in public any Olympics-related threats. This should not mean that likely threats from them can be discounted.
JUNDULLAHS FROM THE UMMAH: Jundullah means a Soldier of Allah. Jundullahs are angry young Muslims, not belonging to any organisation, who give vent to their anger by indulging in acts of terrorism, including suicide terrorism. We had seen this phenomenon in the past in Chechnya and Indonesia and it has now spread to Pakistan. Most of the acts of suicide terrorism in Pakistan since the commando raid into Islamabad's Lal Masjid in July last year were committed by Jundullahs, who also attacked some Chinese nationals in Peshawar and unsuccessfully tried to attack some Chinese engineers in Hub in Balochistan. They believed that the Chinese protests over the kidnapping of some Chinese women working in Islamabad beauty parlours by students studying in the two madrasas attached to the Lal Masjid made Pervez Musharraf order the commando raid. Participants in the Olympics from the Islamic countries could turn into Jundullahs and indulge in acts of terrorism against participants from Denmark, the US and Israel. Likely threats from Jundullahs have to be taken seriously in the security planning. It can be categorised as medium to high.
2. This is the second Olympics being held since 9/11. The threat levels at the 2004 Athens Olympics were also assessed as medium to high,but the Olympics went off peacefully due to the effective security measures taken by the Greek authorities with the co-operation of thesecurity agencies of other NATO countries. The Chinese authorities have drawn from the experience of the Greek authorities andsupplemented it with their own experience and insights and put in place an effective security machinery. The entire internationalcommunity should wish them success in ensuring an incident-free Olympics. Their success in preventing any threats from the terrorists willbe an important step in the global fight against terrorism.The international community should wish them well and extend to them whateverco-operation they need. (3-8-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For TopicalStudies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com )


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Lenawee Christian girls stumble in district final
The Lenawee Christian girls basketball team had its season come to a halt in Wednesday night's Class D district final, losing to Camden-Frontier 45-28.
The Cougars played hard for all 32 minutes of the contest, but fell into one of those nights in which they couldn't find the bottom of the net.
LCS had other glaring problems throughout the game, but its offensive struggles were the major factor of this loss.
"When you don't shoot well, that's what the outcome will look like," said Lenawee Christian coach Joe Long. "We tried driving to the basket, tried cutting, tried mid-range and tried the long ball. It was just one of those nights that nothing will go down."
From the tip-off, it did not look as if the Cougars would struggle as much as they did. They opened up the game with a free throw, followed by a Laurel Schaaf 3-pointer. However, following those four points, the Cougars would only find the basket once more in the opening quarter.
As LCS played aggressive defensively by double-teaming the Redskins' ballhandlers, Camden-Frontier would find the open player in most cases, ending with an easy lay-up.
When the Cougars dropped back on defense, the Redskins became aggressive and emphasized their post game, as the last two field goals of the first quarter would be traditional 3-point plays.
After the first quarter, the Cougars were in a slim 13-6 hole, but it would only get worse from there. Camden-Frontier started its rebounding dominance in the second quarter, especially on the offensive glass. The Redskins were getting multiple second-chance points and capitalizing on the offensive rebounds with kick-out passes to open 3-point shooters.
The Cougars were unable to make a field goal in the first seven minutes of the second quarter. As the offense struggled more, they became sloppy with the basketball. The Redskins would capitalize on this with steals that led to transition buckets. After scoring a total of three points in the second quarter, the Cougars trailed 21-9 at halftime.
The start of the second half looked promising for the Cougars as they hit two consecutive jump shots to open the third quarter. However, just like the first quarter, the Cougars were able to score just one more basket for the remainder of the quarter.
With the lead, the Redskins established their post game even more, as they passed the ball multiple times each possession to eventually find one of their forwards or center in the post. The Redskins did not finish many easy looks, but were sent to the free-throw line quite often.
At no point did the Cougars quit in this game or look lackadaisical, but just like the first three quarters, they would simply be outmatched. Every time LCS would hit a shot to boost its confidence, the Redskins would go right back down and answer. The Cougars were able to tally 14 points in the final quarter, but Camden-Frontier continued their strategy to slow the game down and emphasize their bigs.
Each team fought hard to the final buzzer. Girls were diving on the floor for the basketball with just under a minute left to play and still playing hard on defense. In the end, Camden-Frontier advanced to next week's regional tournament at Morenci.
The Cougars finished the season with a final record of 4-17.
"We improved a lot this year," said Long. "Each week and each game we improved. We grew a lot and not just on the floor. We're a very young team, and we will look to improve even more next season."
In her final time wearing a Cougar basketball jersey, Schaaf led the team in scoring with 10 points. Emily Gordon contributed seven points, while Klara Nieto totaled six points and four rebounds.


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Play began at this year's U.S. Open tennis tournament on Monday, August 29, 2011, with 21 Russians represented in the main draws. Only France and the USA had contingents of equal or larger size at the year's final grand slam event, so Russia might have taken some pride in the achievement.
But within days, Russia probably wished it had skipped the tournament entirely.
Before play had begun on Wednesday, August 31, a mere two days in, 11 of those 21 Russians were gone. Only the USA saw more players eliminated from the draws in the first two days, but the USA had one-third more entries in the draw and as a result lost only one-third of its contingent. It had twice as many active players going into day three as Russia. Russia's contingent had been cut by more than half and the tournament had hardly even begun.
And it wasn't just Russia's second-rate players who were cut down. Russia's top-seeded male player, Mikhail Youzhny, lost his first-round match to an unseeded opponent in woefully noncompetitive fashion, showing the way to ten of his fellow Russians out the U.S. Open's swinging door.
Russia's next major humiliation was provided by Maria Sharapova, the country's second-highest-seeded female player, in the third round.


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Go shortcuts are a great browsing tool that we have implemented. They've been around for a while, but we still get asked about them a lot. Here are some of the key things you should know.
What they are: go shortcuts provide short URLs that redirect you to other pages. For example, you don't have to remember the URL for the helpdesk website (http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/technology/help); you only have to remember go/helpdesk.
Where they are: type "go" in your browser. This will take you to the "GOtionary," the list of all go shortcuts that have been made.
How to use them: you can log on at go/admin to create new shortcuts or edit one's you've already made. You can create shortcuts to anywhere on the web. Just choose what fills in the blank in go/_____ and tell it where to go.
Benefits of go: you can use go links from off campus too. Instead of typing go/*, use go.middlebury.edu/*. Sending a link to people off campus? Send them a go link. This way, if the address changes, just update your go shortcut. There's no need to send out a new link.


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|Posted by Avaknight on November 15, 2011 at 6:10 PM
After the trials and tribulations that go hand-in-hand when embarking on a female boxing career, newly crowned champion 23-year-old Ava "Lady of Boxing" Knight (7-1-3 4KOs) has hurdled the obstacles and reached the pinnacle of the sport by scooping up former champion Arely "Amatralladora" Mucino's (14-1-1, 8KOs) IBF Flyweight strap in scintillating fashion via 2nd round KO in Colima, Mexico nearly two weeks ago.
This was the Chico, Californian's second world title bid — coming up short against Ana Maria Torres in 2009 for the WBC Super Flyweight belt — and the "Lady of Boxing" crossed the border into Mexico prepared for a short night of fist-a-cuffs.
"The first round was just a feel out round for me. I just wanted to see where she [Mucino] was at and what she wanted to do as far as her look. In the second round I saw that she didn't want to get in and exchange with me, so I started bringing it to her and once I caught her she went down but they called it a slip. Once she got back up and we were told to fight I came in with a combination and knocked her out."
Knight, a 112 pound champion, has fought as high as bantamweight, 118, and low as junior flyweight, 108. Often bouncing around the division's because as a woman gladiator on the rise that's just what you have to do if you want to ply your trade on a regular basis.
"112 pounds is actually a natural weight for me. I walk around at 114 so it's not hard at all, she [Mucino] actually came in heavier than me that day. I feel strong and the speed is about the same as well as feeling lighter on my feet. I saw after I hit her with the jab she didn't really want to come in so I knew she felt it."
In 2009 when Knight traveled to Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico to unsuccessfully challenge for Ana Maria Torres' super flyweight title in a spirited effort, Ava was less than impressed by the way she was treated by those hosting the event in the boxing rich country. There were failures by the organizers to notify Team Knight on issues of importance and the "Lady of Boxing" felt she was disrespected and placed under bad conditions.
"Mexico went a lot better, a better experience and better people. It was just a good situation and we got treated a lot nicer this time. There was a little bit of a language barrier but everybody tried their best for us to be comfortable and they did everything they could to make sure things went smoothly."
In a recent piece by Ryan Maquinana of BoxingScene — "Ava Knight on Her Shock KO of Arely Mucino, IBF Title Win" — he points out that Knight is now among an elite list of NorCal world champions. Stars like WBC/WBO Bantamweight boss Nonito Donaire, WBA Super Middleweight champ Andre Ward, WBA/WBO Interim Lightweight titlist Robert Guerrero and WBO Female Jr. Featherweight kingpin Ana Julaton. Upon query about what it feels like to be part of that group of stars, Knight was less than shy about where she feels she stands.
"It feels good, I think I should have been in that group a long time ago because I've been here. I've been in Northern California doing my thing, doing my best and doing what I do without any help [promotional] but now with the championship belt it gives me more recognition."
Ava has had an uphill battle trying to entice top fighters into the ring opposite her and I asked if she thought her new trinket would change that struggle.
"I really hope so and I think it opens doors for other fighters to maybe call me out. I want to fight the best, I do not want to go backwards. I don't want to fight girls with losing records unless they have something to offer or prove. I don't have any business being in there with lesser opponents, I want to be in there with champions and see what I can do with this flyweight title and with the other girls ahead of me in the rankings, you know, see where we stand."
Imploring on whether she had a hit list, this is what the IBF Flyweight queen had to say.
"Anyone ahead or above me is on the list. I want to fight women as good as me or ranked better because that's what I want to prove; whose the best?"
When I touched on whether Knight wanted to unify against the other two champions in her division — Mariana Juarez (WBC) and Susi Kentikian (WBA/WBO) — her answer spoke volumes as to who she is as a fighter.
"I would love to, I'll even go to their towns."
Ava Knight is still seeking a promotional company to call her home and with her impressive victory on the 29th to capture the world title, these outfits ought to take notice and discontinue missing out on this diamond in the rough.
"I want to say thank you to Improve Balance, they helped me with the training cost and it's greatly appreciated. I also want to say thank you to the people at SFC for the sparring and training help, and a big thank you to the fans and all the people that support me."
You can follow Ava at OfficialAvaKnight.com and visit MyImproveBalance.com
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Inspired by the ballroom scene in the movie Labyrinth, which is a forever favorite for many of us, this project was extra-special for many of the vendors involved. For this styled shoot designed by Anna Christine Events, feminine was paired with masculine: flowing fabrics paired with tooled leather, lush florals paired with old clocks and weathered metals. With Claire Pacelli Photography behind the camera, every detail of this whimsical styled shoot at Up the Creek Farms was captured to perfection.
The wedding invitation we designed for this styled shoot was a scalloped-edge gatefold invitation printed with a custom pattern in shades of cream, warm brown and sepia. A satin ribbon wrapped around to close the invitation with a custom wax seal. These were housed in a brown silk gatefold box with a rich brown ribbon and a bronze brooch embellishment.
Inside the ballroom, table settings of glitter glass chargers from A Chair Affair were topped with wedding menus printed in a vintage patina, embellished with a wide, peach-colored fabric ribbon then layered with crisscrossing ivory ribbon. Next to each setting, scroll-like place cards were wrapped around fresh peaches (in the film, a poisoned peach transported Sarah to Jareth's whimsical Ballroom in one bite). We also created round escort cards, that rested inside glass bubbles atop lush green mosses, and hung in front of free-standing rustic doors.
The bride dazzled in a gorgeous gown from LA Bridal Boutique reminiscent of Sarah's grand ballgown, and wore lengths of ribbon in her hair; the groom was sleek and sophisticated in a sharp gray tuxedo from Absolutely Fitting. Fabulous floral accents of pale pinks and whites designed by Flowers by Lesley added hints of romance, complementing the stunning 5-tiered pale pink and white wedding cake fit for a Goblin King and Queen by Everything Cake. A stunning dessert buffet with the most decadent of treats was created by Two Sweets Bake Shop.
We were so happy to see that the shoot was featured on Every Last Detail!
Do you love our custom stationery and want to see more? Follow us on Facebook!
The amazing vendor team that created this whimsical fantasy are:
Venue: Up the Creek Farms
Photography: Claire Pacelli Photography
Planner: Anna Christine Events
Florist: Flowers by Lesley
Chairs, Tables, Chargers and Flatware: A Chair Affair
Cake: Everything Cake
Desserts: Two Sweets Bake Shop
Tuxedo: Absolutely Fitting
Dress: LA Bridal Boutique
Hair/Makeup: Marigold Scott Hair & Makeup
Invitations and Paper Goods: Dogwood Blossom Stationery & Invitation Studio


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The following interview with Joe Sacco, the comics journalist best-known for his accounts of the war in Bosnia and life in the Palestinian territories, could be called "How to Draw an Atrocity." His work is layered in well-earned details. Safe Area: Goražde depicts a besieged town sealed off from the world by the Balkan conflict. In the midst of a civil war, one young woman asks Sacco to get her some nice jeans from Sarajevo. In what is so far his magnum opus, Footnotes in Gaza, Sacco researched a forgotten massacre of Palestinian civilians during the Suez War in 1956. There is no photographic evidence of the massacre, and so Sacco was left illustrating the testimonies of older Palestinians, filling in the physical details based on his frequent trips to the Middle East's Soweto. It's not clear if he broke any unwritten rules concerning the way an atrocity should be depicted. He may be inventing rules of his own.
In his new collection of short pieces, Journalism, he chronicles poverty in rural India, the training of Iraqi security forces, and the recent wave of African immigration to Sacco's native Malta. (Sacco was born in Malta and remains a citizen of the island nation, but he spent his childhood in Australia and the U.S. and has mostly lived here for about 40 years.) I met Sacco on an August afternoon in his studio in his house in Portland. We began by discussing one of the stories in Journalism, "Trauma on Loan," about two ordinary Iraqis who were tortured by American soldiers during the early days of the Iraq War. I pointed to one moment in the piece in which Sacco illustrates the story of one of the Iraqis with a point-of-view shot from the perspective of an American soldier.
The Millions: This is something that's very hard to do in prose journalism. If a victim is telling a story it's very hard to see it from the point of view of the victimizer. But you, as a comics journalist, can create something like this image.
Joe Sacco: The whole point is to be able to recreate things from different perspectives. I have to give myself that freedom. I've always said drawing is a subjective act. Does that absolve me from an accusation of manipulation? Perhaps not in some people's eyes. You could tone it down, I guess. I could have drawn it in a different way. That's true. But I chose to draw it this way.
The words themselves are accurate quotes. It says, "One of the detainees was in front. His actions were like a dog's." I'm not going to draw a guy who's just surly, holding back…I have a dog. And the way a dog acts, it begs and is excited. I'm just trying to visualize that.
TM: In your last Comics Journal interview you said that there has always been a grotesque quality in your work. There is some sense of the grotesque, of the strange, of the uncanny in your figures, even though you have this very journalistic desire to show something that's real. How does this problem manifest itself when you are drawing sympathetic people like these two [Iraqi] gentlemen and this less-than-sympathetic American soldier?
JS: When I've said that I've tended toward the grotesque…what [I'm] saying is that I can never draw as beautifully as Craig Thompson (Habibi, Blankets). It's just not in my hand. Even people who look good in real life never look good the way I draw them, not through any desire to make them grotesque but through a certain inability. I just don't draw beautiful people beautifully. I would rather draw a good-looking woman as a good-looking woman, but I don't have quite that ability to get it right. So my stuff tends in that direction anyway.
If I'm going to draw some American soldiers taunting an Iraqi prisoner, I'm not going to make their expressions neutral. If you're taunting someone, you're taunting someone. And if you're getting a kick out of it, you're getting a kick out of it. The action itself is grotesque. The action of doing that is grotesque. And so that's reflected in the drawing.
TM: There's a claim that a good novelist has sympathy for all of his characters. [Do you have any such sympathy] when you draw these bullies?
JS: No. Not always. When you're drawing you have a lot of characters who don't have speaking parts. A novelist generally deals with a set amount of characters. And you can flesh those characters out. But [when] a novelist is describing getting on a train with a hundred people…[he or she's] not fleshing out all of those characters. I have to draw them. So it presents a problem.
I have a difficult time drawing the eyes of people when they're committing atrocious acts. It's not like I don't do it if I'm sure they're sadistic. In this case I probably could have done it. Because in this case, [with] a soldier taunting someone, I can imagine their sadism and I can understand a sadist's face, or I have the pretense of thinking I can understand a sadist's face…
Think of it as acting. Think of it as [being] a film director, because, ultimately, that's what you're doing. You're saying to yourself, "How is this person going to be looking if you're an actor?" And every time you draw something, much like acting, you have to get into the role on some level of what that person is thinking or feeling. It's easier to draw a sadist. The more difficult thing is to draw ordinary people doing atrocious things. Someone throwing a cigarette to taunt someone is a sadist. Or anyway that's a sadistic act. And maybe that person isn't always a sadist. [But] I'm going to draw a sadistic expression.
I had more trouble in the book Footnotes in Gaza with this sort of thing because I didn't think all those people [Israeli soldiers] were sadists. I think there were sadists among them. But to me, this is a case, generally speaking, of ordinary human beings killing other human beings and perhaps not even out of a sense of hatred.
I couldn't understand the psychology of doing what they were doing. As I was drawing I didn't draw their faces exactly because I didn't want to presuppose their intentions or their psychological state, which is why I very seldom [draw] their eyes.
Doing [Footnotes in Gaza] in particular is when I realized I didn't understand how to draw certain things because I didn't understand the psychology of the moment. It's easier to understand fear. I can draw fear. I can draw sadism. But an ordinary person doing something like this is a very difficult thing to understand. I'm not going to pretend I understand it. It was easier to hide the face.
TM: But when you are giving this level of individuality to these Israeli soldiers, these Serbian genocidal killers, these American soldiers, does that allow you to imagine a kind of individual intelligence behind them that you just described to me?
JS: I think about it all the time. I think, "This one's gesture is going to be more aggressive. This one's going to be aggressive but not as aggressive." …There's a range. Not all of them are the same. They're not all going to behave the same way. But then you think, "Well their officers are there and they're being told to do this. Are they going to do it?" There might be a moment too when you're doing it and these people [victims] might be sniveling and crawling in front of you and it helps you, because they're humiliating themselves which makes you despise them. These are things I think about. But they're not necessarily things I understand. I'm going off in a different direction with my new work because of these very questions.
TM: What's this new direction?
JS: I'm interested in psychology and neuroscience and understanding human nature. It [came from] the problems I had doing this [Footnotes in Gaza]…With journalism I can explain [events]. I can even explain the history behind [them]. What I couldn't explain to myself is the individual relationship to those events. That's why I'm telling you I had a hard time drawing this stuff.
TM: What are you working on now that is dealing with this new direction? I don't know if you're comfortable announcing a new project.
JS: It's hard to describe what I'm trying to do. I want to grapple with the concept of human nature, how we develop societies, our relationship to authority, starting from the primate level on. [It] sounds like a huge huge undertaking and it is and I don't know if I'll be able to figure it out. I don't know if it will make for good comics necessarily. I just want to concentrate on this story about Mesopotamia and the development of the first cities — even before the first cities — of how hierarchy developed, how central authority developed, how our role as people under central authority, this relationship, developed. It all interests me. That is enough. And that could go on for years. And I've been interviewing archaeologists in different places…
TM: Your books are very easy to read. And many of your contemporaries have moved to making comics difficult. Art Spiegelman, when he made his book about 9/11, In the Shadow of No Towers, designed the format so you don't know where your eye is supposed to go at any given point. Chris Ware does that a lot as well. You have a linear method. When I read your books I usually feel I know where my eye is supposed to go.
JS: Well if you don't it's very intentional. There are cases where you are supposed to be a little confused about how to read things.
TM: Did your journalism training make you think you had to make your work as clear as possible?
JS: I think so. I think that's it. Journalism is a constraint, on some level. I don't even like drawing representational-y very much. I don't think I'm particularly good at it to be honest. It never feels completely comfortable. And I'm not even sure if I drew in a cartoon-y fashion if that would be comfortable.
This is not your New York Times kind of journalism which is often really boring. The difference between reading the standard New York Times writer — there are some exceptions — and someone like Robert Fisk of The Independent is like night and day. I feel like I'm there with Fisk, you know. That's the tradition I'm more interested in journalistically speaking. Yes, I want the situation to be [as] clear as much as possible because I also think often the subject matter itself is difficult for people. It's not pleasant. I don't need tricks. I don't want tricks. It's mostly pretty standard. You'll see in my first journalistic work Palestine that there were a lot of different angles and all that. That was fun to draw, [but] it didn't necessarily help the story along.
TM: I was thinking about the power of the short form versus the long form. I found Footnotes in Gaza impossible to read in one sitting. I felt reading it that there was a circularity to the narrative in which we kept returning to the same problem and that [this circularity] is reflective of the subject matter. So when you see the atrocities in Footnotes in Gaza they stop having the same shock after awhile. But with something like this, "The War Crimes Trials," which is a total of six pages, there are just these few panels that have, for me at least, far greater shock.
JS: To me that's very subjective because I've heard many people say very different things about Footnotes in Gaza from what you just said as far as its power to shock them. But I'm not even sure that I'm going for shock. I'm just trying to represent things in a way, even in a dull way somehow. I'm not Joe Kubert, may he rest in peace. I'm not going to draw everything spectacularly with explosions and people flying though they look like they're in a ballet somehow. That's not how I think of things.
If you look at the scene that you're pointing to, maybe some of its power comes from the fact that you're not seeing anyone getting his testicle bitten off. You have to imagine what it's like. Would it have been more shocking if I had shown it? Maybe on some level. But it would have been cheaper and not as effective. You can be shocking and also not be effective.
TM: When you have to draw these horrors, does it affect other elements of your life?
I was miserable. And I don't want to do it again, really. There are reasons for going off and doing other projects that aren't journalistic in the way I've done them before. Partly I want to learn something new. I feel like I've gone about as far as I can go looking at these sorts of incidents. Which aren't the same incidents. They're very different kinds of things. But when you're involved in [them] they begin to look the same. That's one of the reasons in that Journalism book I tried to do something different than massacres. I wanted to do [things] about human migration or poverty. And even those are tough things to do. But they're physically not as hard as drawing dead bodies over and over.
TM: I don't know if you've been told this but you don't have an identifiable accent. I would have no idea where you're from unless I was told you were from Malta. It's not clearly American. It's not clearly Australian. It's not clearly anything. Now you mention that you feel some responsibility as a Maltese citizen when you write about the plight of African immigrants in Malta. And that you feel some responsibility if not as an American citizen than as an American taxpayer for the American government's support of Israel's actions in the Palestinian territories. But in some ways — I don't know if this is insulting — you are a man without a country.
JS: Why is that insulting?
TM: I don't know. I'm telling you that in some way you have no fixed background. I don't know if that helps you when you travel.
JS: Culturally, I feel more American than [anything else]. This is where I spent a lot of my time. I also have a cultural upbringing that is Maltese. So I'm not going to shake either of those things. Nor do I want to. You are who you are. I'm relatively comfortable with who I am. I don't feel vested in any particular nationality or in any national project. I live here because I live here and I'm comfortable here. I like being here and there are things I like about living in the United States. But I don't feel I owe anything to the United States, or to Malta or to Europe or Australia. I might feel more responsibility based on where I am for what the United States does or what happens in Malta on some level.
[As for] Bosnia…I don't think I have a dog in any fight, in a certain way. But I certainly don't have a dog in that fight. It's just humans and other humans.
This transcript represents selections from a 90-minute interview. Special thanks to Eric Reynolds of Fantagraphics for assisting in this interview's preparation.


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American Idol Alum Kelly Clarkson Dropped 18 Pounds in a Month
Kelly Clarkson dropped 18 pounds in one month - and she credits her fiancé with inspiring her to get fit.
The 30-year-old American Idol alum opened up about her 30-pound weight loss in 2012, noting that portion control helped her drop the weight. "I just cut back on my portions," she says in the February issue of Cosmopolitan, according to Radar Online. "I stopped eating late at night, and I work out a little more than I used to, and I literally dropped 18 pounds in a month. I think it happens when you get really busy. But when I'm on my off-time -- girl, those 18 might come back!"
Check out photos of other celebrities who have had dramatic weight loss
Clarkson, who got engaged in December, says it helps to work out with fiancé Brandon Blackstock. "Brandon and I both have bikes on the back of the bus, and we both love the outdoors," she says. "Once your lifestyle becomes more active, obviously you drop weight."
Blackstock is the son of Clarkson's manager Narvel Blackstock and the stepson of Reba McEntire. The couple have been together since late 2011.
What do you think of Clarkson's weight loss?
View original American Idol Alum Kelly Clarkson Dropped 18 Pounds in a Month at TVGuide.com
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The deaths this week of two political Old Bulls has inspired some harsh commentary.
Writers have noted that Dan Rostenkowski, longtime chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, went to "Club Fed" (as he called it) on minor corruption charges. They have written at length that Ted Stevens, senator from Alaska for 40 years, brought a lot of pork-barrel projects to his state and was convicted on corruption charges -- a conviction overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct.
Let me put in a few good words for these two Old Bulls, whom I've followed in the 40 years that I've been co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.
Rosty worked hard in his 14 years as chairman of Ways and Means. The gruff Chicago pol, who got his House seat at age 30 because Mayor Richard J. Daley owed his father a favor, mastered the deals of legislation and could explain them lucidly on the floor.
He was an indispensable player in passing the 1986 tax reform that lowered rates and eliminated hundreds of tax preferences. That was the kind of bipartisan effort you haven't seen lately and one that was contrary to his institutional interest as chairman.
As for Stevens, he had a point when he said that Alaska, because of its geographical position, demographic character and heavy federal involvement, had special claims on the federal government.
Moreover, Stevens worked hard and could produce instantaneous justifications for even the most minor project he was backing. I have seen him spout forth the details, sometimes angrily, in both Washington and Alaska.
He deserves special credit for one piece of legislation that I've seen mentioned only briefly in the obituaries, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.
This law was necessary because the Alaska statehood act had left unsettled the land claims of Alaska natives, 15 percent of the state's population. The North Slope oil fields, discovered in 1968, couldn't be exploited until those claims were settled.
The Native Claims Act took a novel approach, rejecting the traditional Indian reservation system and instead setting up a dozen Native corporations entitled to select certain lands and pooling mineral resource income among them. Each native got shares in one of the corporations.
The corporate form gave incentives to the management of each corporation to pay attention to minority opinion (because minorities could elect a director) and at the same time tended to ensure continuity of management. In contrast, some Indian reservations are governed by successive winners of 51 to 49 percent elections, with continued skirmishing and attendant corruption.
Some of the native corporations have been mismanaged, and there have been constant readjustments of the system, in which Stevens played a role. He kept in constant touch with native leaders and, while not always agreeing with their advocates, always treated them with respect.
He took the lead in obtaining jobs for natives on the North Slope oil fields and in defense contract work.
The result has been a system far superior to that of Indian reservations. The native corporations have mostly invested their income wisely and continue, even as North Slope oil production has tailed off, to provide an income supplement to native shareholders.
This allows natives to choose where they want to live on the spectrum from the native lifestyle, living in the Alaska Bush and participating in subsistence hunting and fishing, to the mainstream lifestyle, living in Anchorage or Wasilla or the Lower 48 and working in jobs of their choosing.
One of the blotches on America's history has been our treatment of aboriginal Americans. Thanks in very large part to Stevens, the Native Claims Act has provided a better life and a wider array of choices for Alaska natives than the reservation system.
For Stevens, there was not much of a political payoff. Most natives voted for him in the years when he was re-elected almost unanimously, when he didn't need their votes.
In 2008, when he faced a tough opponent and was convicted as a result of prosecutorial misconduct just weeks before the election, most natives voted Democratic, as they usually do. Stevens lost by 3,953 votes.
Rostenkowski and Stevens did not get much political reward for their good work on tax reform and Alaska natives. They just worked hard in what they thought was the public interest. They deserve to be remembered for that.


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Collation: LocationLeave a comment
March 24, 2014 by Kenneth Fisher
I started reading about collations after I had a recent run in with them. As I read I started to realize that for a seemingly simple subject there was a lot to it. So I thought I would go over some of what I found out.
Where do we find collations? There are 3 different levels of collation settings.
As I said in the previous post (Collation: Definition) the collation setting for the column determines how sorts and comparisons are handled. If no collation is specified when defining the column then it uses the database default. If you want to use a different collation then you use the COLLATE clause when defining the column. If you use the database_default keyword with the COLLATE clause then it will inherit the collation of the database.
The database collation is the default for all new columns created within the database. It is also the default collation for all temporary objects, variables and in fact any string created within the database. Note that this does not affect temp tables which use the default collation of tempdb where they are stored. Also if you have a database with a case sensitive collation then you can create columns (or other objects such as variables) that differ only in the case of the characters. In other words you can create the columns "Name" and "name" in the same table only if the database has a case sensitive collation.
Note: You can not change the database collation settings for the system databases.
When you install an instance you are prompted for a collation setting. This particular setting determines the collation of the system databases. Because it sets the collation for the Model database this means it is the default setting for all new databases as well. You cannot use a Unicode only collation for the instance collation.
And while we are on the subject of location, you can get a list of all collations supported by SQL Server by querying the table valued function sys.fn_helpcollations().
Over the next few weeks I'm going to do a number of different posts around the surprisingly deep subject of collation.
As a start listen to Rob Farley's hilarious talk on collation
Collation: Definition
Collation: Expression
Collation: Correction -> Expression, Column, Database
Collation: Correction -> Instance
Collation: Temporary objects & variables: Demonstration
Collation: Confusion
Category: Collation, Microsoft SQL Server, SQLServerPedia Syndication, T-SQL | Tags: code language, collation, language sql, microsoft sql server, T-SQL
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For your browsing pleasure, a photographic mish-mash of assorted English paper pieced star coasters in their various stages of construction:
And a kit made for my little sister in law who wants to learn English paper piecing:
It contains a Happy Doggie needle book, red, white and blue fabric, batting, felt backing, scissors, thread, thread conditioner and a little soap box to hold the paper piecing templates. (I used 1.5″ 60 degree diamonds from Quilt Laughing on Etsy.) I added a label for fun.
And I have a large paper piecing project that I've been away from for too long, so back to it!


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I have a magnet on my mirror stating, "life is not about finding yourself – life is about creating yourself." This is the statement I live by.
Many people do not believe me when I say I am an atheist. They don't understand that I simply do not believe in any sort of god or afterlife. I also do not believe in the devil, in angels, or in souls. I believe in myself and the strength I have gained through the help of my parents, teachers, and friends – and my own hard work.
I am not going to try to dissuade anyone from his or her own opinions either. I know that people enjoy having religion in their lives; some need their faith to help them through hard times. And some do not want the responsibility of their misfortunes weighing down on their shoulders.
I do. I abhor the idea of fate – that everything is already planned out and you have no control to change anything. If you believe in fate, when bad things happen, it is not your fault; it's just fate. When my life is not going well, I know that it is no one's fault but my own. When I do well in school, when I fall in love, it is not fate and we are not soul mates. I worked hard and paid attention and did the homework. My love and I simply love each other – that is all it is, and for me that is all it needs to be.
For some, life is overwhelming. How can anyone be successful and happy in such a difficult, horrible world? They need someone to help them, someone to guide them, and someone to have faith in to make sure things get better. Placing my success and happiness in another's hands breaks my heart. I need to be successful because of my efforts. I must be responsible for my own happiness. That is what I need from my religion.
Who will ever know what the truth really is? All I know is in the same way that some have full faith and trust in God to give them hope, I need to believe I am on my own to be truly happy – for how can I create myself if I spend my entire life just looking?