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In order for a society to function, there has to be a certain level of trust. Each day when we leave our homes, we take for granted that most people are not going to attack us for no reason, that there will only be isolated incidents of theft in our community and that rioting and violence are not going to erupt in the streets. Whether we realize it or not, we depend on the fact that the vast majority of the people around us are going to act in a civilized manner. Unfortunately, the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear. When I was growing up, I was taught that challenging times reveal our true character. There are many that believe that the declining economy is causing a lot of the chaos that we are now witnessing, but perhaps what is going on is that these challenging economic times are simply revealing the character that has been there all along. For decades, a “false prosperity” that was fueled by unprecedented amounts of debt has masked a lot of the internal rot that has taken hold in America. But now that our prosperity is crumbling, our lack of values is becoming startlingly clear. Greed, corruption and extreme self-centeredness have deeply infected our society. We see this on Wall Street and in Congress, and we see this among those that are trying to survive on the mean streets of our largest cities. Our nation is breaking down on every level. If by some miracle we were able to fix our economy, that would mask our problems for a while, but it would not solve them. Unfortunately, as I write about nearly every day, there are a whole host of indications that our economy is about to get even worse. When it does, millions of Americans will become even more desperate, and as we are now seeing all over this country, desperate people do desperate things. The following are 22 signs that the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is starting to disappear…. #1 In Detroit, 100 bus drivers recently refused to drive their routes out of fear for their own personal safety. An article posted on the website of the CBS affiliate in Detroit is quoting the head of the bus drivers union, Henry Gaffney, as saying that the drivers are “scared for their lives”…. “Our drivers are scared, they’re scared for their lives. This has been an ongoing situation about security. I think yesterday kind of just topped it off, when one of my drivers was beat up by some teenagers down in the middle of Rosa Parks and it took the police almost 30 minutes to get there, in downtown Detroit,” said Gaffney. #2 In Wilmington, Delaware recently, a man offered to help someone carry a television down the street, but quickly realized that it was his own television which had just been stolen out of his house…. A Wilmington resident who stopped home for lunch about noon today saw a man carrying a flat screen TV down the street and asked the man if he needed help. He then recognized the television as his own, looked up and saw the door to his home ajar, said Master Sgt. Adam Ringle. #3 Shocking video has surfaced of a young thug walking up to a defenseless elderly man in a Chicago subway station and knocking him out cold. In the video, the friends of the young man are cheering him on and laughing at how easy it was to knock the old man out cold. #4 Beating up old people for no reason seems to be catching on all over the country. Just check out the following report from a recent article posted on philly.com…. AN 84-YEAR-OLD ex-university official savagely attacked by four young punks during a walk in Wissahickon Valley Park earlier this week theorizes that the beating he endured was a cruel game of “get the old geezer.” Jim Shea, a former vice president of university relations for Temple, from 1968 to 1983, walks up to five miles on Forbidden Drive, in Fairmount Park, three times a week, but that type of stamina wasn’t enough to stave off the lowlifes who not only beat him bloody, but dealt a blow to one of the things he holds most dear – his pride. #5 All over the United States, police are brutalizing Occupy Wall Street protesters and spraying pepper spray directly in their faces. Whatever you may think of the Occupy Wall Street protests, the reality is that this is not a sign that things are becoming “more stable” in America. You can see video of one very disturbing confrontation right here. #6 Clashes between police and protesters in Oakland, California recently became so violent that at one point the streets of Oakland resembled a war zone. #7 Unfortunately, as the American people become increasingly frustrated with out system many of them are actually starting to consider violence as a solution. According to one recent survey, 31 percent of all Occupy Wall Street protesters “would support violence to advance their agenda”. #8 In New York recently, a confrontation between two female customers and a frustrated cashier ended with the cashier beating the living daylights out of them with a metal rod. The following is how a local CBS affiliate in New York described this incident…. It appeared to have started when two female customers argued and yelled obscenities at the cashier when he questioned a $50 bill they gave him. One of the female customers then slapped the cashier. A woman is then seen jumping over the counter while the other woman goes behind the register. That’s when the cashier can be seen on the video disappearing into the back of the fast-food restaurant. He comes back with a metal rod and begins hitting the women. You can see video of this violent confrontation right here. #9 These days, many Americans are so “on edge” that just about anything will make them snap. For example, a 60-year-old woman in New Mexico recently repeatedly stabbed her boyfriend because she thought that he was cheating during a game of Monopoly. #10 If you thought that the above example was crazy, just check out what one man down in Georgia did recently. He actually firebombed a Taco Bell because they did not put enough meat in his Chalupa. #11 In Cleveland last week, a 49-year-old man was sent to the hospital after a poll monitor working for the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections tried to bite his nose off. #12 Not only do TSA agents make us feel like dehumanized cattle as we go through airport security, some of them are evening making fun of us at the same time. For example, one TSA agent recently scribbled “GET YOUR FREAK ON GIRL” on a TSA inspection notice after discovering a sex toy in the luggage of one female traveler. #13 Identity theft is rising to very alarming levels all over the United States. For example, a recent article in the Palm Beach Post described what has been going on down in Florida this year…. In the first half of this year, the Federal Trade Commission received more than 20,000 complaints from Floridians whose identities had been stolen — nearly as many as in all of 2010. More than half of those reporting their Social Security numbers or other personal information had been ripped off and used to commit fraud or theft were in South Florida, with heavy concentrations in parts of Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach. “That kind of increase is really shocking,” said Vance Luce, deputy special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service in South Florida, which investigates identity theft and financial crimes. “The fact that it’s on the upturn doesn’t surprise me at all, but that’s pretty alarming.” #14 In the Seattle area, an elderly couple in their eighties was recently brutally attacked by a 31-year-old man armed with a crossbow and a hatchet. The following description of this brutal crime comes from King 5 News…. Prosecutors say 31-year-old John Chase was walking down the highway when he saw Ralph Aldrich, 88, in his back yard. Detectives say Chase shot and killed Aldrich with a crossbow and then went inside the home and repeatedly hit 83-year-old June Aldrich with a hatchet. #15 As America falls apart, more of us than ever are taking medication for depression. At this point, more than 1 out of every 10 Americans over the age of 12 is taking prescription antidepressants. #16 In some areas of the country, people have been literally tearing apart their own cities in an attempt to find things to sell. I recently discussed this phenomenon on The American Dream Blog…. In Fresno, California the damage caused by thieves stealing copper wire from city street lights is costing the city about $50,000 a month. So far, about 2,500 street lights have been stripped of their wiring. #17 As people become more desperate, we are starting to see some truly bizarre crimes in many parts of the nation. In northern Alabama, one team of crooks has been using a forklift to pull entire ATM machines out of the ground. #18 Most Americans don’t realize this, but all over the U.S. livestock is being stolen from ranchers in unprecedented numbers. The following is from a recent Associated Press article…. While the brazenness may be unusual, the theft isn’t. High beef prices have made cattle attractive as a quick score for people struggling in the sluggish economy, and other livestock are being taken too. Six thousand lambs were stolen from a feedlot in Texas, and nearly 1,000 hogs have been stolen in recent weeks from farms in Iowa and Minnesota. The thefts add up to millions of dollars in losses for U.S. ranches. Authorities say today’s thieves are sophisticated compared to the horseback bandits of the rugged Old West. They pull up livestock trailers in the middle of the night and know how to coax the animals inside. Investigators suspect it’s then a quick trip across state lines to sell the animals at auction barns. #19 At this point, thieves are becoming so bold that they will steal literally anything that they are able to cart away. For example, in the San Francisco area a while back thieves actually stole a copper bell that weighs 2.7 tons. #20 According to the FBI, the number of gang members in the United States has increased by a staggering 40 percent since 2009. Right now, there are 1.4 million gang members terrorizing citizens on the streets of America. #21 Down in Miami, thieves have become so bold that they have actually been breaking into parked police cruisers and stealing guns and ammo out of them. Many of those guns undoubtedly are ending up in the hands of gangs members. #22 Be careful who you befriend online. They might just hold you captive and use you as part of a Satanic sex ritual. The following description of an incident that recently happened in Milwaukee comes from thesmokinggun.com…. Two young Milwaukee women were arrested this week after an 18-year-old Arizona man–who traveled to Wisconsin by bus after meeting one of the suspects online–told cops that he was held captive in the duo’s apartment for two days and slashed and stabbed more than 300 times as part of an apparent satanic sex ritual. Anger and frustration are growing to unprecedented levels in this country, and all of this anger and frustration is manifesting in thousands of different ways. As I have written about previously, the rioting, the crime and the violence that we are seeing now is only just the beginning of what is coming. Unless a miracle happens, our country is going to keep heading down the road toward societal collapse. For even more examples that show that our country is starting to come apart at the seams, please see the following articles that I have authored previously…. It won’t happen all at once, but unless our nation changes direction dramatically, we will see things get progressively worse and worse. Instead of teaching our children to love and care for one another, we have taught them to be incredibly self-involved. Today, way too many Americans deeply love themselves, deeply love money and are deeply addicted to entertainment. Each new generation seems to be even more prideful, even more arrogant and even more violent. As a nation, we are losing our empathy for others, our compassion for the needy and our respect for the elderly. Our family units are breaking down and thousands of our communities are being transformed into hellholes. What in the world is happening to America? If you have a thought on this topic, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving a comment below….

|The San Francisco Chronicle||Sunday, September 24, 1995 · Page 4/Z1| |Search The Chronicle||Front Page||The Gate| As the barbed-wire fences and tar paper barracks went up at the Salinas rodeo grounds in the spring of 1942, Shiro Takeshita and his friends watched -- but said nothing. In the following weeks, they would be forced from their homes and incarcerated in internment camps, accused of disloyalty toward the American government, yet guilty of nothing but their Japanese heritage. Still, they said nothing. Shikataganai, the first-generation Japanese Americans, or Issei, said to their American-born children. It can't be helped; that's how things are. At Poston, the Arizona detention camp where his family had been sent, Takeshita, then 21, settled into camp life and his duties as a recreation director. Anger faded to resignation. But when camp officials announced that the U.S. Army would allow Japanese Americans to serve in a special segregated unit, Ta- keshita decided to volunteer. ``It was the only thing I could think of to do,'' said Takeshita, now 74, a retired San Leandro logistics engineer. ``I felt that was the only way we could be recognized as being loyal Americans.'' That sentiment rang true for many of the 18,000 Nisei -- second- generation Japanese Americans -- like Takeshita and his three brothers, who fought in the all-Japanese 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion during World War II. This year, upon the 50th anniversary of the war's end, Nisei veterans quietly celebrated their wartime achievements. For them, there was no question of allegiances. Even as the world has marked Japan's defeat, the Nisei veterans remain unequivocally loyal to their country -- the United States. As a military unit, their record in North Africa and Europe was extraordinary. After almost two years of fighting, the 100th/442nd emerged from the war the most highly decorated unit in U.S. military history. They fought in seven major campaigns in Europe, made two beachhead assaults and captured a submarine. In France, they liberated Bruyeres, and rescued the ``Lost Battalion'' -- 275 Texas infantrymen who had been trapped inside German territory for almost a week. In late spring of 1945, the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion -- part of the 442nd -- was among the first Allied units to liberate prisoners from Dachau. Days later, heading farther south through Germany, the 522nd helped save more than 5,000 Jewish prisoners from the Dachau sub-camps who had been on a forced march toward the Bavarian Alps. The unit's valor earned more than 18,000 individual citations and eight Presidential Unit Citations. Known also as the ``Purple Heart Battalion,'' with more than 700 men killed and 9,500 Purple Hearts, they suffered the highest casualty rate in U.S. Army history. Today, the veterans of the 442nd and the 100th are in their 70s and 80s, and among them is a growing sense of urgency to tell their stories before it is too late. But while the Nisei veterans are eager to talk about the past, they are not inclined to boast about their wartime accomplishments. Instead, they talk about the war in simple, unexaggerated language, without the flourishes or tales of mythical feats that war stories often engender. Theirs is a quiet pride -- one rooted in historical fact. ``We weren't going around bragging about what we did, because we didn't think we did anything special,'' said 522nd veteran George Oiye, 73. ``It was just part of the war, as far as I'm concerned.'' Classified as 4-C Enemy Aliens whose loyalty to the U.S. government was deemed ``questionable'' after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were ineligible to serve in the armed forces. But in February 1943, the government created a special all-Japanese unit, with Japanese enlisted men and Caucasian officers. Most of the volunteers came from Hawaii, but roughly a third came from the mainland camps, where more than 110,000 Japanese Americans -- including 70,000 native-born American citizens -- had been interned. At first, the two groups appeared to have nothing in common but their Japanese ancestry. Where they came from, how they behaved, how they talked -- everything was different. In 1943, the year the 442nd began training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, Japanese Americans made up roughly a third of the population of Hawaii. Many worked on sugar plantations for Caucasian landowners, seldom venturing outside the plantation camps where they lived and worked. On the mainland, however, Japanese Americans totaled less than 1 percent of the population. Many owned their own farms or were living in cities. As a matter of necessity, they had tried to assimilate into the majority Caucasian culture. The Hawaiians had a reputation as a carefree bunch who loved to gamble -- ``Ganbare,'' or ``Go for Broke!'' they would say. The Japanese from the mainland, on the other hand, seemed quieter, more reserved. Many were preoccupied with thoughts of the families they had left behind in internment camps, hopeful that distinguishing themselves in combat might secure early releases for their families. While the Hawaiians spoke pidgin -- an amalgam of English, Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian, Filipino and Spanish -- the mainlanders spoke ``proper'' English. Arriving at Camp Shelby from Montana in 1943, Oiye was overwhelmed by the number of Japanese Americans assembled there. ``Oh man, I never imagined there were this many Japanese people,'' Oiye said. ``I thought they were just rounding us up to send us to some prison camp or Japan or something.'' The Japanese people he had known in Montana were nothing like the Hawaiian Japanese. ``They were not exactly a polite, sophisticated people,'' said Oiye, nicknamed ``Whitey'' by the Hawaiians for the fairness of his skin. ``They would squat on the floor, they'd go barefoot because they weren't used to wearing shoes. They seemed extremely rude and crude in their language.'' As for the Hawaiians, like Tadashi Tojo, most of them had never left the islands. Many had grown up together on the plantation camps. ``Until I joined the Army, the little camp and my house was my whole world,'' said Tojo, 71, an affable man who returned to Honolulu after the war. To the Hawaiians, the mainlanders seemed aloof, unfriendly and stuck-up. ``They talked too much,'' said Tojo, laughing. ``They were on the defensive too, because we outnumbered them. But we felt so damned insecure and intimidated because they spoke better than we did.'' At Camp Shelby, fights between the mainlanders and the Hawaiians broke out regularly, often provoked by something as small as a sideways glance or an offhanded comment. The Hawaiians became known as ``buddhaheads,'' from the Japanese word ``buta,'' meaning ``pig.'' Mainlanders, in turn, were called ``kotonks,'' -- after the sound of an empty coconut falling on the ground, or the sound of a head hitting a wall during a fist fight. So frequent and serious were the fights that the Army considered disbanding the unit. In an effort to defuse hostility among his soldiers, the unit's commanding officer, Colonel Charles Pence, arranged a weekend visit for the Hawaiians to a nearby internment camp at Rohwer, Arkansas. The soldiers set out for Rohwer singing and strumming their ukuleles, wearing aloha shirts and grass skirts. But when they returned to Camp Shelby, their faces were somber. Like many of the Hawaiians, Tadashi Tojo knew nothing about the mainland internment camps until he saw Rohwer. ``That really befuddled me,'' said Tojo, who was 19 at the time. ``You talk about oppression. Even now I feel that twinge, all those barbed wire encampments.'' At the dances at Camp Shelby, the girls from the nearby internment camps seemed cheerful and lighthearted. Tojo could not believe this was how they were living. When Tojo saw the camp graveyard, his heart sank. He thought of the people who had been uprooted from their homes, who had been brought to a strange place and had died there. ``It really worked on me,'' he said softly. ``It really hurt me.'' And for the first time, Tojo and the other Hawaiians understood the soldiers from the mainland -- who rarely talked about the camps and the forced evacuation. ``That's when I started to think a little -- how these people were American citizens just like us, but they had been treated this way.'' After the Rohwer visit, the fights ceased. The 442nd went on to distinguish itself as much for its valor as its cohesiveness. The unit adopted ``Go for Broke!'' as its motto, the phrase used by the Hawaiians. As a commanding officer of the 442nd now-retired Colonel Jim Hanley has nothing but praise for the Nisei soldiers. Bright-eyed, well-dressed and well-mannered, Hanley said, the Nisei unit looked sharp. What the soldiers lacked in physical size -- their average height, 5'3'', average weight, 125 pounds -- they made up for in spirit, he said. ``They were like regular soldiers, only better,'' said Hanley, 90, from his Mountain View home. ``They were a lot easier to handle than the average unit. They obeyed orders, and they always tried.'' At a 1945 White House ceremony honoring the 100th/442nd, President Truman commended the Nisei soldiers on their wartime accomplishments. ``You fought not only the enemy, you fought prejudice, and you have won.'' But that wasn't entirely true. Even during training, the Nisei were scrutinized and treated with suspicion. At Camp Shelby, the Army searched their mail, confiscated their diaries and kept files documenting their daily activities. As if the Nisei needed reminding, ``Remember Pearl Harbor'' was assigned as the official motto of the 100th Infantry Battalion. In the last days of April 1945, the 522nd was headed south through Germany, toward Hitler's headquarters in Berchtesgaden. A team of forward observers from the 522nd, including Oiye, had been assigned to scout out the territory. Near the resort town of Bad Tolz, they stopped their jeep when they noticed several oddly shaped mounds along the side of the road. With the butts of their rifles, they brushed away the snow. ``There were people underneath,'' said Oiye, a small, wiry man who still speaks with a soft Montana twang. ``Some of them had been shot, or had frozen to death. The others were almost skeletons -- folks who had been starved or beaten.'' The survivors were among more than 8,000 prisoners who had been forcibly marched from Dachau four days earlier. SS chief Heinrich Himmler had ordered the Jewish concentration camp prisoners to be taken to the Bavarian Alps and killed, to ``remove'' evidence of Hitler's genocidal activities. But as the Allied troops approached, the Germans dropped their guns and fled. Many of the prisoners who had fallen along the way had been shot. Those who survived the gunshots lay still in the snow, pretending to be dead. Others had simply collapsed from hunger and exhaustion. When the 522nd arrived, survivors were perplexed by the Japanese soldiers in American uniforms. The Nisei soldiers gave them food, medicine and bedding. Although Oiye's unit was ordered to move on, others stayed and set up temporary soup kitchens for the survivors. ``We didn't know who they were, or why they were there,'' Oiye recalled, his voice trailing off. ``It was pretty horrifying, and bewildering. And disgusting.'' Several leading Dachau historians and the U.S. Army have said the records do not show that the Nisei regiment was there. But photographs -- like the one George Oiye took with a camera he ``liberated'' from a dead German soldier -- prove otherwise. The photo shows Dachau subcamp prisoners giving the ``Heil Hitler'' salute to Nisei soldiers, assuming they belonged to the Japanese Imperial Army. After the war, many Nisei veterans attended universities and colleges under the GI Bill. Some, like U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye, returned to Hawaii and rose to prominent positions in business and politics. But many of the Nisei were disheartened to find that despite their wartime efforts, prejudice still thrived. After rejoining his family in Detroit, Shiro Takeshita moved back to the West Coast. In 1950, he and his new bride were looking at apartments in Alameda. At one building, the couple who managed the apartment peered at the Takeshitas from the window as they walked up to the door. ``It's been taken,'' the man said. But the Takeshitas knew that was impossible. They had called just moments earlier. Even in the years after the war, as anti-Japanese state and federal laws were gradually dismantled, Japanese Americans continued to feel the sharp sting of racism. Some Caucasian Americans, remembering Pearl Harbor, bore a deep hatred for anyone of Japanese ancestry. In the late 1980s, Nisei veterans led the campaign for redress that resulted in a formal apology and compensation from the U.S. government to Japanese Americans who were interned. In the living room of his home in the San Leandro hills, Takeshita admits he was disappointed at how little the racial climate changed in postwar America. Still, Takeshita said the decision to volunteer was unquestionably worthwhile. ``I think we were very successful, seeing the record of the 442nd,'' he said. ``As far as I was concerned, I was satisfied.'' |Sunday, September 24, 1995 · Page 4/Z1||© 1995 San Francisco Chronicle|

PITTSFIELD -- A city man was in the hospital on Tuesday after crashing a car into his own house and coming to rest upside-down in the street. Around 1:15 p.m., Dwayne Jenkins, 41, was pulling out of his driveway at 24 Crosier Ave. in a GMC Jimmy when he somehow lost control turning into the street, according to police. Milton Reynolds saw the crash unfold from his home across the street. "All of a sudden, the car drove up the stairs [of the front entrance], then onto the side of the house -- you can see the tire marks -- and rolled over," he said. "I still can't believe what I saw. Police at the scene say Jenkins was briefly unconscious after he was pulled from the wreckage. He was not wearing a seatbelt, police said. Airbags did not deploy. Jenkins was taken to Berkshire Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, said Pittsfield police Sgt. Mark Trapani. Hospital officials late Tuesday afternoon reported Jenkins was admitted to BMC and listed in stable condition. A towing service was called in to flip the truck upright and haul it away. While the crash remains under investigation, Trapani expects charges will be filed against Jenkins. "I've never seen a car try to climb a building," Trapani said.

Numurkah Agricultural and Pastoral Society has published a book about its 131-year history. Publicity officer Marjorie Porter compiled the book with secretary Sue Aldridge’s help.LAURA GRIFFIN September 27, 2012 9:00am Ms Porter said the book had evolved into a history of the wider community. The 200-page book covers the highs and lows, surprises and changes to the show and the wider community. It also has photos of a silver prize card from the first show in 1882, silver cups from 1883, the founding fathers and machinery. George Graham was Numurkah Agricultural and Pastoral Society's first president. The prize card and cups were found in a box at Numurkah Historical Society. ‘‘They are the most magnificent silver cups. I bought them home and spent three hours polishing them — I was covered in dust,’’ Ms Porter said. Over seven months, they drew information from an ‘‘invaluable’’ booklet, local newspapers from 1881 onwards accessed on microfiche and disks, and other community members. ‘‘People would call up and say they had found something online and were we interested.’’ A Numurkah man also bought them a complete Jubilee Numurkah Show souvenir record from 1933 that was found in a back shed. ‘‘We discovered the founding fathers of the Numurkah Agricultural and Pastoral Society were involved not only in our community, but also in the wider state and nation. For example, the society’s first president George Graham was also a councillor with Shepparton Council and a member of state parliament,’’ Ms Porter said. ‘‘There are others in the book — a list as long as your arm.’’ It was not only the society’s leaders that impressed Ms Porter while she was researching. ‘‘From where I sit, over the 131 years there have been people who believed so deeply in rural community that when the going was tough — during wars and the depression — they dug deep and kept it going. ‘‘Even today, about 100 people from the community will suddenly turn up three days before the show and help set up, run the show and then clean up.’’ Ms Porter was thrilled to receive the Victorian Government Local History Grant to help fund the project, which she said was thanks largely to Ms Aldridge’s efforts. Five-hundred copies of It All Began are being printed. Copies are $20 each plus postage and packaging and can be sourced by phoning Marjorie Porter on 5862 Shepparton’s March rainfall was negligible and the lowest since the worst years of the last drought. The Yarrawonga Mulwala B Grade Rams have secured the Des Johnston Shield as WDCA B Grade Two Day Premiers for season 2014/2015 with a crushing win over City Colts. Two Tatura junior tennis teams played in Grand Finals of the Shepparton and District Junior Tennis Association on Saturday, March 21. It has been a dry beginning to 2015 for Echuca and surrounding districts. Four Rochester projects are a step closer to completion. 20th Heritage Day a hit Great range of entries in both garden and photographic competition. Finley have now formed their own Local Health Advisory Committee. Heathcote police have continued to make ground in their fight against illicit drugs with more raids and arrests in the past week. Cobram Highway Patrol urges care on the roads over the Easter long weekend. After more than 10 years of planning, the miniature railway at Deniliquin;s Memorial Park will begin operating on Sunday. Toolamba Primary School student Felix Turnbull is looking forward to seeing his face on new SPC labels that will be on supermarket shelves across the nation. Benalla streets have come alive with street art. The large painted images adorn some of the town's buildings, creating a spectacular sight. Discover unbelievable local deals from local businesses every week in the Goulburn and Murray Valley area with Leapon.com.au! Search properties for sale or rent across North Central Victoria and Southern NSW. Visit your local website for local homes.... Search for published and unpublished photos from McPherson Media Group newspapers and magazines. All our photos are available to purchase. Place an advertisement in any one of McPherson Media Group's local newspapers.

The webcomic XKCD is pure, distilled geekiness. Cartoonist Randall Munroe calls XKCD “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” It is all of that and more: science, computer programming, popular culture, and internet memes fill the comic. The simplicity of the art belies its complex humor. Munroe does not patronize his readers. The content is often esoteric, enough so that there are websites devoted to explaining (and debating) each strip’s humor. Like all great comics, XKCD navigates between silly jokes and profound lessons while maintaining its own deep current of thought. The common theme of the comic is the power of science and rationality in our modern, tech-filled lives. Religion, God, and superstition sometimes makes an appearance, often as a foil to better appreciate scientific thinking. And Munroe isn’t afraid of poking fun at what religions consider sacred. Here is my list of the top ten xkcd comics featuring religion (with the obligatory caveat that they’re not appropriate for every audience, but they’re all interesting). Title text: But to us there is but one God, plus or minus one. —1 Corinthians 8:6±2. This is my favorite religion joke about margin of error — ok, it’s the only religion-margin-of-error joke I know. Title text: So he’s saying that God thought Hitler’s art was so bad that the Holocaust was an acceptable alternative. It’s no secret that the hat guy is closely based on Aram, from Men in Hats. This early comic takes on one of the big questions of modern religion: why does an all powerful God allow evil and suffering? XKCD’s ‘top hat’ offers the sardonic answer that God allowed the Holocaust because God really hated Hitler’s art. Title text: ‘But you’re using that same tactic to try to feel superior to me, too!’ ‘Sorry, that accusation expires after one use per conversation.’ Picking on religious people as self-righteous is cliche. Picking on everyone as self-righteous is brilliant. This quintessential XKCD — lots of science and lots of effort. And tucked into one frame is a superb play on the conception of Jesus. Maybe he suspects the tenant who lives in the apartment above, or maybe it’s a nod to “the man upstairs”? Title text: We lost the documentation on quantum mechanics. You’ll have to decode the regexes yourself. What’s Lisp? Apparently an elegant computer programming language (I had to look this one up). The Creator, however, opted against Lisp so that he could quickly put together the universe using a more obtuse language. And the title text adds that God lost the documentation on quantum mechanics; so, it will need to be translated by someone else. 5. Broken Mirror A broken mirror doesn’t mean seven years bad luck. No, “bad luck” is replaced by “the illusion that my actions somehow influence the indifferent probability that governs our lives.” The comic could have stopped there, but Munroe takes it another step up by turning the comic into an existential lament referencing the vanities in Ecclesiastes. 4. Holy Ghost Title text: Ok everyone, cross yourselves, then cross the streams. In one of XKCD’s most irreverent comics, the Holy Ghost is trapped by Ghost Busters. In the title text, they cross themselves in prayer before “crossing the streams.” And we know what happens when they cross the streams. I’ll leave it to theologians to decide if this is a proper understanding of transubstantiation and the Eucharist. Personally, I’m reminded of claims against 2nd Century Christians as cannibals and threats to society (see explanation here). As a webcomic, XKCD isn’t limited to the same shape and size for each comic. This is one of the larger comics, which allows for a longer discussion of science and religion. Belief is discounted until it starts to impede on science and society. The top comic is this one, which references this earlier comic and comes as a t-shirt. The topic takes on more poignancy because Munroe’s then-fiance and now-wife suffered from breast cancer. When asked about “the sickness,” the character in the comic sums up religion in XKCD: Religion is ok for some, but science works.

The story of Islam is a murder mystery. It's not the kind of murder mystery where you wonder who did it, but when it will end. The detective peering with his magnifying glass at a scrap of fiber left behind on the carpet or a curly piece of hair caught in the door isn't really trying to sort out who did it. He knows who did it. The great mystery that consumes him is how to make the killer stop. When a woman has power and a man doesn't, then the man has been dishonored. When a Christian has power and a Muslim doesn't, then the Muslim has been dishonored. There is only one answer for dishonor, death. Kill the one who has dishonored you so that you can feel powerful again. The men with the magnifying glasses will call it extremism, but it's much simpler and much more complicated than that. The powerful need not compromise. They have honor. Those who have no power but do not compromise also have honor. The extremist does not compromise whether in power or out of it. Therefore he always has honor. The extremist is willing to die for the power and honor of Islam. Islam is never powerless, but is always compromised in some way short of perfect purity. Perhaps it fails to drive out all the non-Muslims and doesn't force women to cover their eyes. Or maybe it tolerates chess and kite flying. Even the crudest Salafist finds some human norm short of total and complete extremism. He compromises and the seed of that compromise gives birth to a movement that will not compromise even on that. Each Islamic movement carries within it the seeds of its own extremist counter-movement and that movement too will carry its own seeds of death. The Islamic revolution devours its own children forever for honor's sake. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Absolute honor is the search for absolute power. A power so pure that it transcends the human means necessary to achieve that glorious end. A purity so total that it will elevate the smuggled cocaine, the rapes and murders, the torture and the broken oaths to the golden truth that the ends of Islam justify all its mangled means. The murderer kills because he wants power. He goes on killing for honor's sake. When the blade slips or the victim pulls a gun, then the murderer skulks off into the night nursing his grudges and pledging that he will return or his children will return or their children, on and on through the ages. All this may have started because the murderer wanted a goat, a gold coin or a wife, but it continues because it is now a matter of honor. A moment ago the murderer only wanted a gold coin, but having failed to obtain it, it is now a matter that will not leave off for all the gold coins in the world. Murder transmutes the gold coin into honor. The motive no longer matters. It is all about the end now. The more the murderer is resisted, the angrier he becomes. The failure to kill forces him to take refuge in myth. He begins inventing glorious stories of his battles complete with poems and epic battles. There are sacred deaths with drops of blood falling like jewels and doves ascending into the sky. Every man becomes a lion and every enemy a monstrous eater of children. Eventually the story becomes his whole reason for being. It is a tale that is passed down through the tribe until countless of the murderer's descendants derive their identity from the story. Until they are all murderers. Having been thwarted, the murderer cannot stop. The failure to kill has left him powerless, no better than a woman or an infidel. It causes him to doubt the worth of his religion and his people. It robs life of its sweetness. The only way to heal his trauma is to finish what he started. The only way for him to be at peace is to be at war. Speak to him of peace and he will not listen, except as a ploy for finishing the unfinished murder. Peace is for the powerless. To desire peace is to admit to weakness. It is to give in to the prosaic mortality of the ordinary life. Before he began to kill, the murderer might have been satisfied with the ordinary life, but it is no longer good enough for him. Nothing will do but the knife and the blood and the screams. The murderer will lie about wanting peace, but he will not make peace. To lie in order to kill is honorable, but to live in peace is not honorable. Peace narrows the borders and closes off horizons. What was once a green territory that the grandchildren or great-grandchildren might overrun in a hundred years is suddenly forever lost and forever foreign. How can he be asked to make such a terrible concession? You might as well ask the sailor to stay on the land and the explorer to put up his feet in front of the fire. The murderer isn't a mere murderer, he is a romantic at heart, and whether he lives in a mud hut or a tacky palace decorated with giant portraits of himself, in secret he imagines himself a sultan or an emir. And if not him, then his children or grandchildren. This is his story and the myth that governs his life. He is not a builder. In his part of the world, it is the slaves who build. It is the men who have no power and no honor who work a set schedule, lifting bricks and arranging girders. Nor is he a farmer, that too is work fit only for serfs. He makes a decent merchant, cheating and being cheated in turn in a ritual mercantile combat. In a pinch he might be a shepherd, wandering the hills aimlessly, and watching his flock nibble the sparse desert grasses down to a wasteland, killing and eating them when it suits him like a little grubby god. Whatever his profession, he fancies himself a warrior and the kind of war that he prefers is the raid. Village against village. Riders against caravans. Hijacked planes against skyscrapers. If he wins, then he gains honor. If he loses then he gains honor by vowing vengeance, for even the worst of losers can always hang on to his honor by threatening to kill the winners. And that is where the murders become a mystery, at least to those detectives whose little magnifying glasses can make out the grooves on a thread, but not the distorted rage on a murderer's face. The more they try to convince the murderer to stop, the more he kills. There is a pattern here, but unlike carpet fibers and footprints, it is not one that they can understand. The men with the magnifying glasses want their lives back. So does the murderer. And the only way he can get it back is by taking theirs. The institution of the feud has lapsed in their world, but it is the defining one in his. Both detective and murderer are trapped in a cycle, but the murderer has a way out. All he has to do is kill them. The detectives cannot do the same thing. There is no room in their rational world for such a crude solution. They try to break the cycle with words. He tries to break it with bombs and bullets. And the cycle of violence continues. Failure goads the murderer. The more he fails at killing, the more he aspires to it. On his tenth attempt he is ten times as motivated as on his first attempt. Like all people he has his ups and downs, but he always keeps on trying harder. Each time he fails, he tells himself that the game wasn't fair, the other side broke the rules, rigged the contest and undermined him. He spins complex conspiracies of spies and saboteurs in which the mind of the enemy is as convoluted as his, and that only fuels his outrage. How dare his victim plot so cleverly to undermine his own murder! Outraged, he spins his own convoluted plots, playing Wiley E. Coyote to an oblivious Roadrunner who is occasionally baffled to learn that he is alleged to have controlled every major public figure in the Middle East or seeded the Nile with trained sharks. "Sure," says the murderer. "You didn't expect him to admit it, did you? I wouldn't in his place." In this way the murderee takes on an outsized importance until he, she or it comes to represent every obstacle that the murderer has ever faced in his life, every nightmare and night terror. Whatever crimes the murderer commits, he is certain that the murderee has committed even more of them. The murderer's dark side steps out of the shadow and takes on the role of his victim so that the act of murder becomes an act of purification that purifies nothing for the dark forces that the murderer tries to kill are still inside him even while his victim bleeds on the floor. Eventually the murderee fills the world. Rushdie was only a minor writer until a series of random events caused his name to come to the attention of a shaky Iranian leadership looking for a scapegoat. And then Rushdie became an obsession for the Iranian regime. Rushdie filled their world. Likewise the average Muslim did not spend any time thinking about the Jews, who were always despised, but like most non-Muslims, weren't of consequence. Having conquered their lands and their persons, they could go about ignoring them, aside from the usual thefts, murders and assorted cruelties. But then, after making numerous compromises, the honorless Jews, the sons of apes and pigs, defeated armies far stronger than them. The murderers were robbed of their honor. And when the murderer is Muslim and the victim is non-Muslim, then the honor of the murderer is the honor of the whole Muslim world. And there can be no peace now. Not tomorrow or in a thousand years. Not with the Golan Heights, the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, the Galilee and the grimier parts of Tel Aviv. Nothing will do but for the murderers to finish what they started, the aborted murder, the unfinished crime and the unconsummated honor killing to end all honor killings. Nothing will do but death. A murderer will forgive many things. You may kill his son and rape his daughter, so long as the blood price or the honor price changes hands. You may do the same with all of his many relatives and their relatives, as is so often the case in these dirty little wars that are really packs of murderers roaming and raiding, firing at each other and falling back, and then waiting for the mourning women to come out and wail over the bodies of the dead. You may even cheat him as much as you like, for he will probably cheat you worse, even while you fancy that you are coming out ahead. But what you cannot do is take away his honor. The House of Saud has never forgiven the House of Washington for helping aid its power. It draws a blood price from it every year, but it cannot rest until the House of Washington falls. So too all alliances must one day end in betrayal or death. There is no room in the green country of the horizon for two tribes to rule. Nor is there room in the inner palaces of honor with their bejeweled tapestries and arabesque curves for a helping hand. The Sultan and Emir, like Allah, can have no antecedent. Like Mohammed, he must be the final revelation of power over a powerless world. And the murderer? He cannot sleep. The man he tried to kill has filled his world. Once he wanted gold or goats, but now it is honor he wants. On his bed, the murderer dreams of killing a man whose only crime was humiliating him by refusing to die. The murderer rolls over and smiles. Tomorrow, he will kill. Tomorrow, he will regain his honor.

A three-hour stand off at a motel in the Allegany County community of Scio ended Friday night with the arrests of a Friendship man and a Wellsville woman suspected of making methamphetamine in a makeshift lab in the Town of Bolivar, State Police said. Troopers were alerted to the clandestine lab on Kansas Hollow Road on Nov. 21 and the state police Contaminated Crime Scene Emergency Response Team and the State Police Crime Lab were called in to handle the evidence. Investigators eventually located two suspects, Jordan R. Doane, 24, of Friendship and Elizabeth K. Martin, 22, of Wellsville, at the Long Vue Motel on State Route 417 in Scio where they barricaded themselves in Friday night. They were taken into custody three hours later and brought to the Town of Bolivar Court where they were arraigned and remanded to the Allegany County Jail in lieu of bail. They were charged with felony counts of third-degree unlawful manufacture of methamphetamine in the third degree and unlawful disposal of methamphetamine laboratory material.

Seto meets a girl named Kisara who is shunned by the citizens because of her strange white skin and blue eyes. Meanwhile, Yugi and the others find the doorway into the Memory World and begin searching for the Pharaoh. Meanwhile, Yugi and his friends have finally found the entrance to the Pharaoh's world (they are atop the inverted Pyramid ―i.e. Millennium Puzzle― that the Pharaoh saw in the sky from his balcony in Episode 203). Without thinking about it too much (and despite the 10,000 foot drop), they all jump down. Yugi himself takes the first leap (and seems pretty happy about it actually) while the others are terrified, but follow him anyway. It turns out they all harmlessly glide to the ground. Priest Seto suggests measures to be taken for him to lead the hunt for Bakura, seeing he already has a plan in place: deploy the army into the city and patrol. Priest Aknadin gasps, remembering the previous night's conversation. Enter Yugi Mutou & Co. Meanwhile, Yugi, Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor and Téa Gardner have "landed" on the ground without any damage. However despite being dressed in present-day clothing, no one seems to notice them. Then, a girl walks right through Joey as if he were immaterial. Yugi realizes 2 things: Firstly his Millennium Puzzle is no longer around his neck. Secondly, if they are really visiting the World of Memory of the Pharaoh's past, it is normal that they cannot be seen by others: They did not exist for the people of that age. At the same time, Priest Seto and Shada are discussing their immediate plans. Seto believes Bakura is still alive, so he intends to build to have a failsafe in the form of KA drawn from the souls of the Egyptian people. Shada is shocked! He mentions that using his Millennium Key to look into the hearts of anyone without a specific reasons is considered a crime even for a Priest. Seto believes it is for the greater good of Egypt, the Pharaoh and the citizens of Egypt. He knows that they cannot count on one of the Gods to save the Pharaoh again if his life is in danger. He orders his guards to find and bring anyone suspicious given several search parameters before him. Meanwhile, a scene of Thief King Bakura emerging from river rapids is shown to the viewers: He is still alive! He even admits that it had been too long since he'd been this afraid! Before long, the first "suspects" are brought in. One inquires what crimes they are being charged of. Priest Seto replies that although that they haven't committed a crime, since the possibility cannot be ignored, they will check it. They commence a "Millennium Trial" with them. Shada says that this KA is giving birth to new evil thoughts. For the time being, it is not dangerous, but if they leave it unchecked, it could increase its evil. Priest Seto orders the man to be imprisoned and claims that even if the chances are 1 in 10,000, he will not give up so easily. The man argues that they didn't give him the chance to become an honest person after returning from living in the desert. Priest Seto merely replies that since he already harbors a KA, it's qualified as a 'sin'. The man claims that they will be cursed! He saw it inside of the desert: the incarnation of a God which allowed him to return alive into the civilization! The White Dragon will appear! The exile goes on saying that it's within this concrete city, even. Seto departs and the man cries something about a divine punishment. Bakura takes his "Diabound" for a test drive and annihilates a whole patch of the desert with its new power. The Girl With The White Hair Back to Yugi and his friends' predicament: They must find a way to go and meet the Pharaoh and communicate with him. Joey however complains of hunger, soon followed by Tristan. They stumble across a large man dressed in red clothes eating himself full of apples in the market, yet no one seems to be noticing him!! However, he can see them! They start chasing the man around, but eventually he disappears and they stumble across a white-haired girl (revealed a few episodes later to be Kisara) being stoned by an angry mob. They believe she is a witch. Joey and Tristan try to come to her aid, but they cannot as they are immaterial! Seto orders his guards to take the girl back to the Palace and be given plenty of food and water. He also orders for more criminals to be caught, making the crowd flee, fearing retaliation. Yugi and his friends follow behind, but they are stopped by the Palace doors! For some inexplicable reason, these are doors which they cannot go through! They are then greeted by the large man in red clothes they met before at the market: His name is Bobasa and he is a spirit like them. For some reason however, he is capable of touching objects and he gives Joey and Tristan a big load of fruits to eat. Anzu begins to asks questions, but he's unable to answer any of them and only grabs fruits from the pile he gave the other two. They eventually rally to Anzu to stop asking things or he'll eat all of the food. At the same time, Priest Seto announces to Aknadin that their search for KA in the city was better than expected. Aknadin gaps upon realizing that Seto has imprisoned them. Seto asks why shouldn't they? Aknadin begs of him to release those people. He adds that Seto's actions are terrorizing the citizens of Egypt and thus feeding even more power to Bakura. Seto merely brings up the clausule that they are under a great menace and it's obvious that the persons out there are already afraid. He's doing everything for both the sake of the Pharaoh and the land of Egypt. He pleads of his superior not to mistake his intentions. He then excuses himself and departs. Aknadin then mutters alone that Seto is repeating the same mistakes he committed in his moment. Priest Seto visits an unconscious Kisara. Touching her face, he feels his heart begin to beat faster! Has he met the girl somewhere before? In a flashback, it is revealed that she is the same girl Seto once saved from the clutches of slave traders. As a result, his village is raided by the same criminals and he is forced to watch as his home is burnt to the ground. A White Dragon (which appears identical to the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon") then appears and destroys the criminals . Back inside the Wedge Temple, Bakura has overpowered Aknadin and his "Diabound" has become even more powerful than before. Bakura reveals that him and Aknadin still have a score to settle: He mentions the village of Kul Elna again: "You know about the great me, don't ya? What did ye do to the village of Kul Elna? And the son you abandoned for that sake... That's Seto, ain't he!" This episode providing the origin (of sorts) for Blue-Eyes White Dragon mirrors the previous episode doing the same for Dark Magician. The following monsters appeared in this episode. Monsters in italics debuted here.

A D-Day sniper who was shot in the leg during the Normandy landings during the Second World War has been awarded the highest French decoration. Lionel Ginger, 90, who was born at 88 High Street in Hemel Hempstead, was awarded the Legion D’Honneur order Chevalier, which is the highest honour bestowed on former military personnel by the French government. Mr Ginger, who recently moved into the Water Mill House Care Home in Nash Mills, was called up to the army at the age of 18 and fought in the 6th Battalion King’s Own Scottish Borderers. The young Lance Corporal was wounded at Normandy and returned to the battalion in Germany, where he served in the Royal Military Police until the end of the war, in places like Hamburg, Hannover and Braunschweig. During the conflict, Mr Ginger returned home to marry his childhood sweetheart Winifred Floyd at St John’s Church in Boxmoor on May 1, 1943. Mr Ginger said he had the opportunity to meet ‘a lot of important people’ during his time stationed in Germany. He said: “I met Woolworths heiress Barbara Hutton, but I didn’t know who she was until someone told me afterwards! “I also escorted German heavyweight boxers Max Schmelling and Walter Neusel. “I took Walter to the Hannover Stadium for an an exhibition, and I waited in the car outside. But he called me over and took me down to a ringside seat where I watched the whole match before I drove him back to the station.” When the war was over, Mr Ginger returned home to his wife and enrolled on a hairdressing course before opening a barbers in Watford in 1953. The salon, called Underhills, became very successful – partly thanks to the 1950s Teddy Boys, who according to Mr Ginger liked to have their hair ‘just so’. He said: “They used to come in and get their hair done all big – the bigger the better – and they didn’t care what it cost them!” In 1964, Mr Ginger decided it was time for a change so he, Winnie and their two children emigrated to Adelaide in Australia for a new life in the sun, where he found work as a prison officer. Two-and-a half years later, after finding the climate too hot, the family returned home to Risedale Road in Hemel and Mr Ginger went about setting up another salon in Sheepcot Lane, Watford called Linfreds – which he ran with brother Fred. It enjoyed the same success at Underhills. Mr Ginger, who moved to a bungalow in Belmont Road, Bennetts End, retired in 1985. Sadly, Winnie has since passed away. The Legion D’Honneur will join Mr Ginger’s collection of 13 other medals and one medallion. He said: “It’s nice to have some recognition, 71 years later. I was only a young man of 18, like so many of us were.” Mr Ginger’s niece, Sheila Stapleton, visits her uncle regularly. She said: “I feel very proud of him – that medal is thoroughly deserved.”

At the end of February 2002 I got a call from a Washington D.C.-based producer/director, asking whether I had a current passport and did I want an assignment that would take me to West Africa. It was somewhat of a departure from my fashion assignments: I would help him research and write a script chronicling the decades-long unrest throughout the Mano River basin region of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. My client's client was the U. S. State Department and our mission was to create a documentary to be shown at the United Nations one month later. The purpose of the video was to assist the Security Council in deciding whether to continue sanctions on Liberian President Charles Taylor. I have worked for this client before, writing and editing scripts commissioned by non-governmental organizations that usually resulted in humanitarian initiatives in Africa that called for wells to be dug or lead to be removed from gasoline. Though budgets were always tight, each time a project was completed my client would say in his rich accent, "Next time I'm taking you with me." For those who listen to public radio, the voice on the other end of my phone was a familiar one. Georges Collinet hosts AfroPop Worldwide, a music show that airs on Public Radio International. Collinet is a native of Cameroon and for the African continent he was a friendly conduit to the outside world on Voice of America radio--to many he will always be Maxi Voom Voom. I didn't know it at the time, but in Africa, Collinet is sort of like Michael Jordan, P. Diddy and Nelson Mandela rolled into one. This helped immeasurably during many unpleasant encounters. More than once I watched menacing faces melt like butter when they discovered his identity, a fact I encouraged him to flaunt more freely as the days went on. Inoculated against an array of exotic diseases, I took my stash of malaria pills and a head crammed with details of West Africa's troubled history, and off I went, alternately looking forward to an adventure and wondering why someone wasn't stopping me. Today most of us know enough about the standoff between Taylor and the international community to make cocktail patter. At one time, eyes glazed over at mention of his name, though he was responsible for the region's downward spiral since 1989. I knew about the woes of Sierra Leone. A man named Foday Sankoh, the rebel leader of the Revolutionary United Front, was notorious for ordering mutilations of people that he rationalized had a vague purpose of redress against the current government. Effect on Sierra Leone Taylor was Sankoh's role model and chief arms supplier. He worked behind the scenes, keeping the RUF in weapons and the region in chaos through the illegal mining of the so-called blood diamonds found in Sierra Leone. It was Taylor who masterminded the method to keep Sierra Leoneans away from the ballot box during the 1996 democratic elections. To the government's campaign slogan, "The Future Is in Your Hands," came his gruesome response: the amputation of hands--and fingers, legs, lips and noses. Upon our arrival, we met with U.S. Embassy officials. Our objectives included building regional government support to isolate Taylor and inform public opinion by demonstrating his aggression. We would hopscotch from Guinea to Sierra Leone and Liberia, getting personal stories of human suffering as well as interviewing high-ranking government officials, including Taylor. We would have full diplomatic and logistical cooperation--armored SUVs, sometimes by motorcade, UN-supplied helicopters and a peacekeeper escort when necessary. The short deadline would be challenging, but with enough support we could make it work. Unfortunately, the situation quickly grew muddled, with conflicting messages eventually drowning each other out. A peace accord had just been signed in Rabat, Morocco, and a tenuous calm was in place. The RUF had suddenly re-created itself by adding one letter to its name. The RUFP was now an official party that would participate in the upcoming elections. Caution had to prevail The climate for freewheeling opinions was not the best; diplomats feared retaliation. Two further points had been made: We must stay within U.S. policy and our video should contain nothing controversial. And by the way, when could they expect a script?

Why is Mentoring Necessary? When an ex-offender returns to the community there is tremendous need for a genuine friend... someone who will come alongside to assist in a successful transition to a stable, productive life! Typically, the three greatest needs facing the ex-offender are finding a solid support group (usually a church); getting a good job; as well as finding adequate, affordable housing. When these needs are met, rarely does one return to jail or prison. Therefore, the role of the friend/ mentor is to guide the individual as they work through the goal setting process. These are the goals of the individual, not the mentor, thus the individual must take an active role in this process. It is the hope of Gracious Promise that the mentee strives to achieve the objectives that they have set for themselves! In this effort, mentors do not set the goals or try to fix the mentee’s problems, but act as a resource and encouragement. In so doing, they commit to love, care for, and pray for the mentee. Finally, the mentoring relationship can consist of a man with a man, a woman with a woman, or a couple with a couple. All of these opportunities are available. Why is a Spiritual Dimension Needed? All mentors have a serious commitment to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And the expectation is that mentees, while not necessarily having this relationship with Jesus, will be interested in growing their relationship with God. Our conviction is that since God made us, He knows best how we can have a fulfilling, abundant life. While not forcing anyone to commit their lives to Jesus, we will offer gentle encouragement and help, when desired. What Does the Mentoring Process Look Like? The mentor and mentee will meet regularly, at least every two weeks, at a neutral location (restaurant, park, coffee shop, church, etc.) for at least one year. You will get to know each other. A key part of this growing relationship must be honesty. You are not expected to share everything about your life with your mentor, but whatever you share or promise to do must be truthful. You will engage in some activities together, such as going to a ballgame, movie, concert, etc. And most importantly, you will commit yourself to the relationship. What Should A Mentee Expect from a Mentor? By the same token, the mentor will also be honest, will be a good listener, will respond proactively to crises in your life, and will provide guidance and encouragement. The mentor will also pray for you and with you if you desire. Your mentor will always want the best for you. The mentor will help connect you with other area independent agencies and churches in the community to help with needs that GP cannot meet. However, the mentor will not be a financial resource for the mentee. If there are specific needs that arise, they can be brought to the attention of the mentor and be will handled with our ministry partners if possible. Any personal information shared with the mentor will be held in strictest confidence. What Results Can You Expect? The expected result mentoring is to move prison families into healthy, productive ways of managing their lives amid their difficult circumstances. Only in this way can the cycle of defeat and crime be permanently broken. Our conviction is that achieving this result requires the grace of God at work in mentoring friendships.

A motorcyclist has died after a collision with a four-wheel drive on Cape Palliser Rd yesterday morning. The man is thought to be a Wairarapa resident in his 50s. The crash happened about 1km from the Whangaimoana Beach Rd turn-off at a 65km/h marked corner. Life Flight's Westpac Rescue Helicopter was first emergency crew to arrive at the crash scene at 11.40am, with crew confirming the man died at the scene. Featherston Constable Nick Atherley said the motorcyclist had been heading towards Cape Palliser. "It appears that a motorcycle has come around the bend and collided with a car going in the opposite direction." Two occupants had been in the car. Mr Atherley said they were "unharmed but shaken". The Serious Crash Unit from Wellington were on site carrying out a scene investigation. "They will be able to shed some light on the situation," Mr Atherley said. "It's in its early stages of the investigation but speed seems to be the main cause of the accident." Mr Atherley said there were skid marks on the road, both from the motorcycle and from "where the vehicle came off the road to avoid him". "It appears he has come around the corner and lost control. It's a wonderful day and a great road -- just going too fast." It was thought the man had lived in Wairarapa and police were working to track down his family, Mr Atherley said yesterday afternoon.

As the start of London 2012 Olympic Games approaches, we look back at a time when tug of war was once a part of this global sporting showcase. Many people do not know that tug of war was once a part of the Olympic Games. It took place at five Olympic Games between 1900 and 1920. The modern revival of the ancient Greek Olympic Games became a reality in 1896 under the influence of Frenchman Baron Pierre de Coubertin. Tug of war first featured in the Olympic Games at the Paris Games of 1900. In its first two appearances at the Games, teams consisted of just 5 or 6 pulling members. In early Olympics, many teams consisted of athletes who were taking part in other events. The 1900 Olympics saw the United States withdraw their team because three of their team were involved in the hammer throwing event. The first tug of war Olympic gold medal went to a combined team from Sweden and Denmark, after they defeated France in the final. The team of 6 from France included Constantin Henriquez de Zubiera who became the first black medallist in the history of the Olympic Games. He went on to win gold at a later Olympic Games with the French Rugby Union team. The 1904 Olympic Games, held in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, were dominated by teams from the United States, who entered 4 teams into the competition. The USA teams finished in the top four places at the event, followed by Greece and South Africa. The format of the competition at the 1904 Olympics saw the losing semi finalists pull each other for the right to pull the losing finalist team for the silver medal. The winner of the final of course won the gold medal, whilst the losing finalist had to pull the winner of the repechage in the silver medal match. The gold medal winning USA team were represented by members of the Milwaukee Athletics Club. Photo: the 1904 gold medal winning team from the USA - Represented by the Milwaukee Athletics Club The 1908 Olympics held in London saw tug of war teams comprise 8 pulling members for the first time. As with the USA teams in 1904; 1908 saw the Great Britain teams dominate the proceedings, entering three teams, and winning the gold, silver and bronze medals. The team represented by the Liverpool Police won the bronze medal against Sweden, with the London Police Forces of the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police both getting their teams to the final. The gold medal was won by the Great Britain team represented by the City of London Police, with the Metropolitan Police winning the silver medal for Great Britain. Photo: The City of London Police Tug of War Team of 1908 - Gold medallists for Great Britain at the 1908 London Olympic Games At the 1908 Olympic Games, there was controversy over the footwear worn by Liverpool Police team who "... were wearing enormous shoes, so heavy in fact that it was only with great effort that they could lift their feet from the ground". Photo: Liverpool Police Team of 1908 - Bronze medallists for Great Britain at the 1908 London Games The team from Liverpool insisted this was their regulation police footwear and, despite the rules banning ''prepared boots or shoes with any protruding nails'', an American protest in the first round was over-ruled and the Liverpool Police team won the pull easily. At the close of the competition, the Liverpool Police team offered to pull their American opponents in bare feet, however that offer was declined! Photo: The USA Tug of War team competing at the 1908 London Olympic Games The 1912 Olympics were held in Stockholm, Sweden. A number of countries withdrew from the tug of war event at this Olympics and left Great Britain and Sweden to fight it out for the gold medal. Great Britain were again represented by the City of London Police, but on this occasion, they were unsuccessful in defending their Olympic crown, and the gold medal went to Sweden. Photo: Great Britain and Sweden fighting it our for the gold medal at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden You can watch some footage from the tug of war final in 1912 by clicking here The outbreak of the first World War resulted in the non-staging of the Olympic Games in 1916. The Olympics were then held again in 1920 in Antwerp, Belgium. The City of London Police again represented Great Britain in the tug of war event, and after the disappointment of 1912, they bounced back to take the gold medal ahead of the Netherlands who won silver, and Belgium who won bronze. Photo: The Great Britain tug of war team of 1920 - winners of the last Olympic Gold Medal in Antwerp, 1920 - represented by the City of London Police. The City of London Police provided medal winning team members for the tug of war at three Olympic Games in 1908, 1912, and 1920. Three City of London Police Officers competed in those three games, winning 2 Olympic gold medals and 1 Olympic silver medal each. Those men were John Shepherd, Fred Humphreys and Edwin Mills. Fred Humphreys became the oldest man to win gold in the Olympic Tug of War event at the age of 42 at the 1920 Antwerp Games. Edwin Mills was also 42 at the 1920 Games but had a later birth date! Below is a summary of the medal winning teams: After the 1920 Games, Tug of War was removed from the Olympic Programme along with 33 other sports. During this time, the IOC decided their were too many sports and too many participants competing, so took the decision to remove a number of sports, and unfortunately, one of those was tug of war. Where did tug of war go after the Olympics? Since the 1920 Olympic Games, various countries set up their own tug of war associations. Tug of war in the UK was organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAAs) until 1958, when the Tug of War Association (England) was founded, followed by the foundation of tug of war associations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Tug of War International Federation (TWIF) was established in 1960 following a meeting between representatives of the Tug of War Association and the Swedish Tug of War Association in London. Since 1960, international championships have taken place annually at world and continental level, and TWIF now has in excess of 50 member countries worldwide. Tug of war is a recognised sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and TWIF are currently focusing a lot of time and effort in getting the sport re-instated into the Olympic Programme. Tug of war is currently held at the World Games every four years, which is run under the patronage of the IOC for sports that are not yet part of the Olympic Games. Tug of War in the early Olympic Games were only held at Catchweight (no weight limit) for men’s teams. Modern day tug of war is now held in weight classes for both mens teams and ladies teams, as well as for junior and under 23 teams, and in recent years, mixed gender weight classes have been introduced, with teams consisting of an equal number of men and women. In addition, tug of war is also held indoor on mats, as well as outdoor on grass. The TOWA consider that tug of war certainly warrants re-introduction into the Olympic Games. The rules are easy to understand and the sport is spectator friendly. In addition, the results do not depend on subjective scoring by a panel of judges. Tug of war is accessible to everyone at all levels as the sport does not require large amounts of costly equipment, space, or bespoke sports stadia. “Faster – higher - stronger” is the Olympic Motto, and tug of war certainly fits the bill. The Tug of War Association remains hopeful that one day tug of war will take centre stage on the world’s largest sporting platform.

Wind whipped with unusual vigor, stirring sands to cover the already dim midday skies. Senroh Chigusa, an imposing figure seemingly alone in the desert, moved quickly through the shifting sands. Few ayame would choose to move around during a sand storm like this, and yet Senroh seemed mostly undisturbed. His long coat and snake eye goggles kept him protected against the razor sharp sands, and the protection of the sand storm made this the best time to travel. It was obvious he had a goal in sight as he followed the ridge of a dune, and it soon became clear he was not alone. A figure walked along in his shadow, almost unnoticeable. Only half his height and wrapped in layers of a coat and a scarf for protection, the figure moved just as quietly as Senroh himself. Through the sand in the distance their destination appeared; an outcropping of rocks to protect the pair from the storm. Chigusa s cold eyes scanned the area for anything dangerous, and finding nothing, made his way in between the rocks. As he unwrapped his coat to shake himself free of the sand, he weighed the option of continuing the trek instead of breaking here. He knew he could make it, and with the sandstorm covering their tracks, the pair would be able to move mostly undetected. Conversely, he and his partner had not slept in a day and a half, and although he could continue for some time on little sleep, his companion was not so durable. Now safe from the blowing shards of sand he removed his goggles and took the chance to look far into the distance so find the next suitable resting spot. Finding nothing he slipped his goggles on once again and decided it would be best to rest for his companion s sake. The smaller member of the group took a moment to find a place to settle, choosing a spot not too far from Chigusa, where the sand dipped into a slight bowl against the rock surface. Small delicate hands revealed themselves from the too-long sleeves of the simple gray coat to tug first at the scarf, wrapped carefully to cover both neck and face. As the coils of sandy fabric were loosened and removed first the face of a female child appeared, then a flood of golden hair spilled down her back. The gilded silk had a gentle wave and nearly touched the back of her knees, and her face was pale and soft. She had blue eyes that were clear and cool like an oasis spring in the desert. Despite her beautiful appearance, her face was oddly blank, and although she was obviously alert and responsive; she appeared utterly emotionless. She removed her coat next, and in a fashion similar to Chigusa, she shook the sand free from the fabric. She was dressed plainly in a simple blue dress with a matching sash, and had low boots with obvious wear from trekking through the desert. On her waist was strapped a small knife in its sheath. The knife was simple and didn't appear to be often used. The small girl did not complain about the storm, the bed less ground, she did not ask for food or water, and only settled down, wrapped in her slightly-oversized coat. There was silence in the shelter of the rocks, only disturbed by the mild howling of the wing. Neither Chigusa, nor the girl spoke, finding nothing worth talking about. It was always this way with the pair and so far neither party member had expressed any emotion about it in any direction. Chigusa observed the strange girl with his deep gray-green eyes, his face emotionless as well. Chigusa had taken her as a fruit from the other world soon after she had sprouted . He had needed her sanome powers to replace the boy Rakan, who had become too attached to his other world to bring to this one. Once free of her fruit , Chigusa had found her clothes and taught her as best as he could about her powers and her responsibility to revive him if he should fail in his mission. He had instructed her in how to grow weapons, which ones to grow, and how to use the knife at her hip to cut open his chest, dig through to his heart, and put all her power in to bring his lifeless body back. After only a few days of travel Chigusa found he was forced to give the girl a name, though he had no idea what to call her. He didn't want to connect with her, didn't need to form a relationship beyond what they had. She was useful, something he needed to fulfill the only purpose in life that he had. But in the end, something made him give in. Your name is Gin. he had told her when they rested. As usual she had not smiled at the name, only nodded her understanding. Though Chigusa thought this was strange he had no idea what it meant or even the slightest idea how to teach about emotions. Chigusa looked to the ground he was seated on, though not really seeing anything. Yes the girl, Gin, was important, was useful but truthfully he would have preferred to travel with different company. Shortly after arriving, Narushige and Tohno had both headed for the capital to warn all the people who would believe the truth about the Prince. They had gone to give time to Chigusa so he could teach Gin what she needed to know, and so he could take the long road so as to avoid contact that would give his reappearance away. This was how Senroh Chigusa had spent the last few weeks. Traveling though the desert, coming closer and closer to realizing his purpose in living. In all the silence that constantly surrounded the pair, he couldn't help thinking about the reasons why Rakan would have been more useful than the female sanome. It had become apparent over time that Gin s gift was for some reason weaker than Rakan's. It might have gone unnoticed by anyone else, but no detail was lost on Chigusa. Her plants took moments longer to bloom, her trees bore a fraction less fruit, her flowers were subtly duller. But in the end it wasn't enough to justify what deep in his heart he wanted to do. Though her power was less potent than Rakan's he could not go back, could not bring himself to drag that child back to this world. Despite this, every time he looked at the girl his thoughts would return to the green garden she had come from, and the boy to tended it. This was another problem with keeping her company. The girl, Gin, was as cold, emotionally quiet and purposeless as himself, so much the opposite of Rakan. A boy so full of warmth and life and energy that it would ignite things even in Chigusa s empty soul. It was not Gin s fault that she elected these thoughts from him, though if he could remember how to muster resentment, Chigusa would have held a great deal of it. He would have resented Gin for all the things she was and wasn't, and he would have resented himself for leaving Rakan behind. But it was the choice he had made, to leave the sanome behind because something told him he could not take the boy from his home. Even though he was sure it hurt him somewhere, Chigusa could not have brought that perfect boy this broken world. Rakan would eventually forget him, Senroh was sure, and eventually he would have his normal life back and remain the same Rakan. And although it stung somehow somewhere to remember every time he looked into that girl s blue eyes, day by day the numbness Rakan had removed was creeping back into place. Chigusa Senroh's eyes snapped open, wide behind vision distorting goggles. His heavy rhythmic heartbeat sped momentarily as his eyes flashed around, regaining his bearings. He was shrouded in heavy darkness, and his still muscles tensed. A loud sigh to his side broke though Chigusa's concentration. A boy lay against a great breathing beast, that he himself had been resting against, with eyes closed and short sandy hair messily falling over his face and behind his head. He could have sworn his heart stopped short. A dream? he asked himself; Chigusa could not think of a time he had dreamt of anything other than the day he had awakened with no memories. A strange warmth spread though his body and he couldn't help but to ignore Narushige's constant warnings. He gently shifted the boy into his lap so that Rakan was resting with his back against the older man s chest. Chigusa could not understand what the feeling was that filled him as the boy breathed slowly into his collar. Part of it was happiness, he was sure, that those thoughts had not been the truth but something else made his skin prickle with every breath he took of the boy s scent. As he rested against the great black wolf with Rakan in his arms he wondered if it was wrong to feel this way. Was it wrong that in his heart right now, the thought was quietly echoing that he was thankful the other sanome was gone. It was a good thing that the fruit had been taken by the prince because it meant that Rakan had chosen to come with him. Though it might have been a bad thought Chigusa knew he couldn t control it. He was sure he would probably always be grateful that he had not been able to make the choice to leave Rakan behind. Rakan was, after all, the only precious being to him. Yet another one shot. I am thinking of making this a full fic. What do you think?

Last night, January 19th, 2017, I wondered this as I walked through western Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Memorial Drive, in a neighborhood where somewhat posh residential houses open up into some sudden strips of concrete retail, the filthy river and the glittering Boston skyline just in view. It is not a beautiful place. It is also only ugly to the extent that most architectural products of this age are ugly: morally, even if not aesthetically. Not that I always separate the two. In any case, I wondered how long all the human-made structures that I saw would stay. The electronics store, the gas station, the stoplight, the skyscraper. One answer is, “It will stay until somebody tears it down and builds something else.” The more geological, morbid option, which I intend to reflect upon today, assumes the likelihood of non-interference by humans, meaning that the human species would be extinct by the time that these stone, metal, and other components began to naturally erode and collapse into nothingness. I am not asking this question because I expect people will read and take action. As it happens, I am only a fledgling in the countless sums of voices who, possessing some vital belief, have tried to be heard by more than their immediate circle; I am even only a fledgling in the countless sums of voices whose vital beliefs constitute a truth, a prophecy, a desperate plea. Instead, I am writing this because it is the stupid, ridiculous human instinct to record, whether some extraterrestrial archaeologist should ever stumble upon the (digital) evidence and be capable of decoding it, or whether we say only to the absolute, perfect void that we were here. Not many will see what I say here right now. It does not matter. My words are meant for anyone, everyone, but equally for no one— the prospect of no one. In light of such, I will not worry about whether my words are pretentious. I often find that when I write for an audience, I try to mitigate my mind’s natural gravitas with lighter-hearted phrasing, witticisms, self-deprecation, and so forth. The pretentious quality that I discern or fear others discerning— this arises when I have retreated far into my own stream of consciousness, thinking only of the thing I’m trying to say, relying on a lexicon and psychological environment that derived from reading old literature when I was quite young. But this is what I must rely upon now. I need this writing to be as authentic as possible, not because it ought to be my last, but because it is the first thing I have written in full acknowledgment of what I largely expect constitutes the final descent of my species. How long will it stay? . . . . In my childhood, I remember learning about some grotesque crimes against humanity. They were explained in books and television programs and statements by adults, usually quite sanitized. It was at least enough for me to grasp the simplest facts of what happened, why things were so terrible. Chief examples would be the history of African slavery in the United States, or the Holocaust. At the time I didn’t think either of these things had much to do with me. For a long time I didn’t understand that I had an ongoing role to play as a person with pale skin, European ancestry, and a background of what could be called cultural whiteness. I also didn’t understand that I would come to belong to several demographics targeted in the Holocaust itself, even though I was not Jewish; nor did I know that a slim branch of never-met family members had been, in fact, German Jews. Even in my ignorance, I still knew such past events, and the people who perpetuated them, merited my horror. I had no trouble summoning empathy. No, the real trouble lay in how I imagined some curtain to have been drawn between the events of my own time and the events of people older than me, elderly people, dead people, forgotten people. I lived in a world where certain US residents were called ornery for having human needs now that they weren’t literal plantation slaves anymore (contemporary observation: for the most part). I lived in a world where Nazis were cartoonish, silly men who got outwitted by clever GIs and punched by dashing archaeologists. I don’t miss that time of my development. What I do miss was the mood surrounding another thing I kept learning about, which was the natural world. My planet, the Earth. I attended preschool, kindergarten, and primary school from about 1990 to 1998, and in this time the capitalist “green revolution” had not yet superseded a different sort of environmentalism. Many of the ideas were the same, of course. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Save the rainforest. Protect endangered species. Don’t waste water. Don’t create pollution. Don’t harm the ozone layer. Don’t contribute to the greenhouse effect, the source of global warming. In the early 1990s, however, this felt different in the sense that, at least in my own education, we were taught these principles to contribute to a glorious, wonderful cause that would help preserve life on this planet— a cause that was winning. We weren’t past any climate tipping points. We hadn’t caused as much damage as we eventually would. We needed to worry, but we also needed to hope and celebrate. It was going to be all right. That sentiment could have distorted the truth, or it could have been tragically misplaced optimism. I still long for that sense of heroism. It is very gone now. It has been replaced by a sunkenness in my guts, a tightness in my throat. A hollowness, a sorrow, floating on top of a simmering fear that has also dwelt with me since I was extremely young. I speak of the fear of apocalypse. Raised with an atheist outlook, which I preserve in a highly augmented and problematized form today, I dreaded no Day of Judgment or various equivalents. Briefly, when I learned about the very idea of Hell, I had some nightmare about it, but this didn’t concern me. The most religious fear I felt was when I first read about Ragnarök, when the Fenris wolf is prophesied to eat the Sun. That story, though in truth more complicated than a pure, final, “everything dies” tale, hit closest to the fears that did consume me. Each time that I learned of various Earth-destroying cosmic events that could or would eventually occur, I went paralytic with terror. Asteroid or comet impacts; the planet being consumed by the expanding Sun; the universe as we know it ending with heat death, collapse, or who knows what. I couldn’t bear to think about black holes, even though the Earth is not likely to ever fall into one. The mere prospect of such annihilation petrified me. I felt keenly betrayed by the notion that life should come into existence, that sentient forms of it should evolve, only to have no ultimate chance. We would have billions and billions of years, alone or not alone, but we were slated to perish by the laws of physics. It did not seem fair at all. It seemed as appallingly unfair as the idea that I could be born, enjoy living, accomplish things, collect spectacular memories, and yet ultimately die with no hereafter to welcome me. On long car rides with my family, when night fell I would stare out the window at the stars, and I would cry childishly but in silence at this impossible, absurd tragedy. The stars were the symbol of things enduring despite all odds, and yet even they would have to lose their fire. . . . . Here are some of my vital beliefs. That humans are relatively hairless chimpanzees that have evolved a general tendency toward an erect bipedal gait, opposable thumbs, and fully developed linguistic faculties, although there are variations across the gene pool. That we chimpanzees occupy some temperament midway between the common chimp and the bonobo, between the warring killers and the fucking hedonists. That it is against universal wisdom and morals for humans to detach ourselves from the Earth by pretending we are better than other animals, or pretending we are not tool users, or pretending we are not omnivores, or pretending we are not naturally and inextricably violent. That it is also against such wisdom and morals for us to detach ourselves from the Earth by pretending our absolute self-interest will have no consequence for life as we know it, or pretending that satisfying instrumentality requires engaging in exploitation, or pretending we need no standards for how to behave toward one another and the rest of life, or pretending we are not also naturally and inextricably peaceful. That extinctions must happen if a species has lost its place in the cycle of things. That extinctions must be fought if such a loss is due to a wider imbalance that threatens the whole ecosystem, particularly if the species’ absence would cause further destabilization. That life in its broadest sense is good, and should be preserved, even while preserving so many evils within it. Even while preserving the more intrinsic forms of death and violence. That a socioeconomic order predicated upon eternal expansion and profit will always serve as a destabilizing force, threatening all ecosystems, threatening all participants, threatening itself, making itself the greatest and worst joke that our witty species has ever played. That there are few things humans have ever built which could be called unnatural, but that in terms of causing non-intrinsic forms of death and violence, capitalism might be called the greatest unnaturalism, the greatest virus, the meta-virus, the meta-death that is far worse than ordinary death. That we are exquisitely close to running out of time. . . . . I am an emotional writer. When I write something that has hurt inside me for a long while, I weep as I scrawl or type. Somehow, I have not wept yet today. Today I am sad but also perplexed, puzzling. Weighing. Fighting the last vestiges of denial. I do not know if my tears belong with denial or with acceptance. When I know, maybe they will spill. . . . . By this point, anyone reading this when it’s published or with the relevant background knowledge could see that I have written this on the day that a particular man was officially inaugurated as the President of the United States. He is a despicable, infuriating, repugnant wretch. But I am not writing simply because I had such boundless hope before he achieved his power and now, only now, is it dashed. For me it is not like that. That would be pathetically, embarrassingly naïve. Over the past several years of shared political struggle and my own private struggles, following various news stories about the latest undesired climate change milestone, the latest labor abuse, and so forth, I have already grown fairly convinced that the species is digging its own grave, and possibly the graves of everything else on this spinning rock. I will provide two long quotes from a very important essay that I first read some day not long after it was published. One: We are living in a mass extinction event. This is not a theory. Over half the species on earth will be extinct by 2050. Let me repeat that fact: over half the species on earth will be extinct by 2050. We are on track to kill off 75% of life in no longer than 300 years, assuming we make it that far. This is the fastest and largest extinction event in history, including that of the dinosaurs. If we understand the example of the wolves, we can see that these are not discrete losses, they represent the unravelling of the entire warp and weft of life. In The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, she reports the extinction rate in the tropics is now 10,000 times the background rate. … Seawater so acidic that the shells of molluscs are dissolving. Oceans overfished to the extent that they resemble deserts, seabeds ploughed to destruction, micro-particles of indigestible plastic poisioning bird life and turtles, reefs bleached, plankton populations which are the building blocks of all ocean life disappearing. Ocean acidification is predicted to double by 2050. Ocean acidification triples by 2100. The death of the seas is inevitable. Of freshwater I will say that the draining of aquifers is ongoing, that fracking threatens the water table and that wars over water are going to rage in the coming years. … The Earth itself is exhausted, soil degradation endemic, washed with its nitrogen fertilisers into our already poisoned seas. The living Earth is fragile, it takes a hundred years to form a centimetre of topsoil. Farmland is a limited resource and eroding fast. Industrial pollution has destroyed 20% of the farmland in China – I am not sure that you, or I, can grasp quite how much land that is. Globally 38% of farmland is now classified as degraded. Human population continues to grow, as our ability to feed it, and our infrastructures, buckle. Insect populations will soon not be able to pollinate the crops. It is not just the bees, with climate change animals and insects are being born out of sync with their food sources. As I have said before, the wheel of the year has been broken. … The air and fire are perhaps what should give us most concern. We thought we had more time. That man-made climate change would be tackled. It has not, and it will not be, as Government and Corporate interests are one and the same, namely infinite growth. This is where you should feel the knot of fear in your stomach. The CO2 emissions that are wreaking havoc now are the result of what we burned forty years ago. Since then we have engaged in an orgy of denial and consumption. There is no tech-fix in the Anthropocene, the age of manmade climate change. Nothing has been done. What mainstream scientists are not telling you is that the impact we are having is creating self-reinforcing feedback loops. Essentially they focus on a single domino when we have an entire array triggered and falling. Methane release from thawing Arctic Tundra is particularly worrying. We are facing NTE: Near Term Extinction. … Estimates for the time that this process will take, the process of extinction, range from fifty to three hundred years. If you prefer reassurances you can ask the New Agers about their ‘global awakening product’ or believe the green wash of the venture capitalists who will seek to cash-in on the death of the biosphere with equally implausible schemes and vapourware tech-fixes. The governments and scientists will continue to lie to you to prevent the panic that disrupts shopping as usual; however, the cracks in the official narrative are beginning to show. Most will choose to keep mainlining what Dmitri Orlov calls hopium from the sock puppets squawking out of the idiot box. However, I predict the next generation are going to be angrier and their witchcraft more radical than you or I could dream. They will realise that there is nothing to lose, rather than this generation which seems concerned only about the size of their pension pots – not the fact that they have cost us all the earth. … Extinction is a difficult realisation. After you have worked through the denial, you are going to need to cry in order that you can offer up the sacred lament. The five steps of the grieving process are well known, delineated by psychiatrist Kübler-Ross; they are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and, finally, acceptance. Everyone here will be somewhere on this scale and it is important for you to understanding this process as you come to terms with these facts. The essay is entitled “Rewilding Witchcraft”, by Peter Grey, and if you are able to still view that link and read it, I hope that you will, whoever you are. It means more to those of us who are witches, myself included, and I do not agree with every single sentence; it almost feels worth remarking here that Kübler-Ross’ theory has been fairly questioned and reconfigured these days. But I read these words in 2014 or 2015 and I knew they were bitterly correct, for the most part. No matter who is in charge of the United States’ government or any government, so long as we remain committed to the intertwined monstrosity that is Capital & State, the environmental movement will not succeed. Nor shall basic human rights struggles succeed. Although it is a fallacy to speak of animal rights in the same way one speaks of human rights, it is folly to place a division between environmental and socioeconomic revolution. The same forces that destroy human lives are the forces that destroy ecosystems and the very planet’s habitability for life. It is imperative, it is utterly— utterly, utterly, UTTERLY FUCKING UTTERLY— imperative that a critical mass of individuals turn away from Capital (or State) and stop hoping State (or Capital) will save them. They cycle together. Each forms the other. They are a twin ouroboros, without being the beautiful kind. But I did think for a time that while the result of revolutionary struggle would be the toss of a coin, a chance that in those fifty to three hundred years from now— let’s put a clear date upon that, let’s look ahead to 2317— something momentous would have happened that began to save us. Until recently I thought that while we were already tipping down some horrible slope into the abyss, we might have the resources and tools to find our way to the other side and climb up the slender ladder. When the presidential election took place two months ago, some of those resources began to slip out of our hands, and the ladder began to splinter and crack. It does not feel like the toss of a coin. Now it is the roll of a die, and the die is weighted, and our odds are no better than one in six. We can perhaps survive, still, and the rest of life with us, but we now must recognize the strong, severe probability that nothing will endure, and after the last life has been extinguished in a few centuries or millennia, the Earth will exist as a quiet lump of carbon with a poisonous atmosphere and some strange, gradually disintegrating artifacts from its multi-million year experiment with self-replicating entities. The best case scenario, so-called, might be that we meet no such fate, but only after enduring unfathomable tolls to human life and the extinction of at least as many species as predicted. There are a range of outcomes in between. If such an outlook seems needlessly fatalistic— Trump, it’s only a name, I can say his name— my counterargument is that it probably isn’t fatalistic enough. If it were, I would have given into my socioeconomically cultivated suicidal impulses today, or well before today. Let me put it this way. Yes, Trump is a single, disgusting vermin. Yes, his regime is only so many vermin. Yes, contrary to the narcissism of many who live in this country, what happens here does not always have an overwhelming effect on what happens beyond our borders. And yes, the historical record indicates that all fascists lose power eventually (usually, and very importantly, by violence, not by nonviolence). I agree with these statements so heartily that I wish very much as if I could have gone through this Friday as if it were any other day— one more day of the Earth’s riches growing stained and toxic. A calamitous event, the inauguration, but only a drop in the poisoned pool of many other calamities. This thought has its appeal not only when thinking in geological terms but also in revolutionary terms, for we should not require the existence of an immensely powerful fascist leader in order for us to take action against Capital & State. And a fragment of my mind continues to think this way. It is an important fragment, well worth heeding in other respects. Unfortunately, we must also consider certain pragmatic issues beyond how a Trump-like figure in any country would produce a serious existential threat to marginalized members of its populace, even with people like me included. Even if we are witnessing the endgame of the US Empire, this collapse comes when the specific footholds of the empire remain exceptionally capable of influencing the fate of the environment and the fate of homo sapiens. Compared to some people, I am not tremendously concerned about nuclear warfare. If anything, Trump’s purported coziness with Putin would be a boon in avoiding nuclear war unless various other aspects of societal collapse tipped some dominoes that we have not yet foreseen losing balance. (I also could not give a single shit-smeared damn about how much Putin influenced this election, but that is a topic for another day, except to add that I find Putin about as odious as Trump on the whole.) Rather, my already mentioned ecological concerns drive the sense of meta-death today. This craven scum and his nauseating alliance of capitalists, military officers, Bible-thumpers, and Randians— they do not only seek to kill art and beauty, they do not only seek to exterminate those of us on the margins as if we were so many freaks crawling in the way of their vision (we are, O let us continue to be, O please). The United States’ industry, both internally and in its trade dealings, has a disproportionately large impact on the planet’s climate, the quality of the planet’s resources, and the necessary species diversity both within and beyond our borders. The darkest seat of Capital sits here, whatever may happen with State, for at least a few more decades, by my reckoning. And the newly inaugurated scum are actively working to ruin our final, desperate chance to make the national changes that we so badly need in order to still enter the abyss and climb back out when the centuries have passed. I do not really think they see it that way. It is fatal stupidity of the highest, most cataclysmic order, nothing more. If enough other countries besides this one can do double, triple the work that they already ought to be doing, perhaps this country’s failure to cooperate will not matter. But I doubt this. . . . . I know that others besides me have written essays on this same subject. Not only the one that I mentioned, either. There are a great deal. I do notice, however, a tendency in other essays to either close with sudden strange platitudes about what we can still accomplish, how we can take solace, etc., or close with no propositions for any solutions. Neither variety is guaranteed to carry a liberal slant, but sometimes that element shines through, malignantly twee. “We still have each other.” “Love is the only thing that will see us through.” “As awful as this is, I don’t know what to do about it.” “I’m just done. If you have any suggestions, let me know.” I would like to not close any such fashion. First, I would like to quote two individuals who, though white and male, sometimes said some good things. … it will be the silence, where I am, I don’t know, I’ll never know, in the silence you don’t know, you must go on, I can’t go on, I’ll go on. — Samuel Beckett In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will also be singing. About the dark times. — Bertolt Brecht I cannot presume who has or does not have anybody. I cannot presume anything about love, a construct as much as a fool’s hope, a destroyer as much as a creator. Instead, it is extremely likely that we will perish, we as ourselves now or we as our species later, and those who perish may perish quite alone and without any love left. If we do wish for any solace, any solution, these things will come only from reflecting, often, upon exactly how much we stand to lose, and the increasingly inevitable fact that we will lose every single part of it. Certain natural, logical conclusions from directing one’s thought to such ozymandian waste, and those conclusions will form a large portion of my future writing, here and elsewhere. What I will say in short form just now is that continued collaboration with Capital & State will drive all the nails in our coffin; it will be the end, the absolute and total end. The last shred of a future can only be seized by divesting ourselves, carefully yet efficiently, of that ouroboros. You— you, if you did read all of this— must inoculate yourself against that virus. You must acquaint yourself with revolutionary thought. I must further acquaint myself with it, and I must make plans to do more than I have done, and I must follow through. If you continue to collaborate with the thing destroying us, I have nothing else that I can say except that you are part of the problem. You, personally, are helping to select us for extinction. I, personally, may not be doing enough. No; I am not, not yet, perhaps ever. It is terrifying to consider that even with the most obvious choice before us, not enough of us will make it, or make it to the extent that it must be made. How long will it stay? D. Llywelyn Jones

I am reading a book called "The Holy Spirit Makes No Earthly Sense" by Terry Rush. In it, he makes the point that the Holy Spirit dwells in the inner man--that part of us that dies at baptism and is reborn throught spiritual rebirth. That inner person consists of mind, emotion, affection, determination, motivation, conscience, etc. Then Terry points us to Gal. 5:22 and 23--the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Hmmmmm.....lets see. If THOSE are the fruits of the Spirit, how can anyone say that He (the Spirit is only active today thru the written word???? Seems to me, it is the Spirit acting UPON us in our knowledge of the written word that would result in those fruits!! As I was mulling all of this over today, I began thinking about when Jesus was baptized, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him, and the Voice from heaven says: "This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy!" Sure seems like there is a lot of affection and emotion in that statement!! And from Jayme--Jesus promised that He would send the "Comforter"--it doesn't say He said He would send a book!! I also find it quite interesting that the one sin Jesus himself names as the "unforgiveable" sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit! "Every sin and blasphemy can be forgiven--except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which will never be forgiven. Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come." Matt. 12:31-32 Romans 8:26 talks about how the Spirit helps us in our weakness. When we can't find the right words to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes with "groanings that cannot be expressed in words". That seems to be beyond the scope of the written word to me!! Let me just say that I am in NO WAY minimizing the importance of the written Word. Knowing what the Word says allows the Spirit to "bring to rememberance" the things we have learned. He can't help us remember what we haven't learned! But I still believe He (the Holy Spirit) is so much MORE to us than just the written Word. It is good for me to use this venue for working through all of this. It helps me to focus and organize my thoughts instead of just being angry. Father, I pray that you will allow your Holy Spirit to dwell within me ABUNDANTLY! I ask this in the name of your precious son, Jesus. Amen Grace to you and all kinds of Peace in believing!

by: Ross Cavitt Updated: COBB COUNTY, Ga. - A metro landscaper is behind bars charged with beheading two puppies. Neighbors said they gave the puppies to the man and his girlfriend to watch for just a few days. The puppies' owners and neighbors told Channel 2's Ross Cavitt they have been left with nightmares after seeing what happened to the dogs. "I saw that I dropped what I was doing and just walked away. I couldn't bear to see that because I raised those dogs," Tyler Tedesco told Cavitt about the moment he and his friends saw the two pit bull puppies had been violently killed and buried behind Robert Davis' home Davis was supposed to be caring for the two puppies for just a few days. Police arrested Davis and charged the part time landscaper with two counts of aggravated cruelty to animals. Tedesco said Davis never said why he did it, but suddenly blurted it out to a friend over the weekend. "He told John that he was just messing around. You don't mess around like that. You don't sit there and say 'I've chopped your dogs' head off.'" When the group saw that the puppies' heads had been severed, they quickly left the house and told Davis on the way out they were calling 911. When an officer arrived at the home hours later, he found the bodies of the puppies had been thrown in the woods, allegedly to try and conceal them from police. Police also charged Davis with tampering with evidence. Tedesco said Davis and his girlfriend were supposed to watch the pups until a pit bull rescue group could come get them. "We all ran back to the house and cried. As soon as we saw it, it was something nobody wants to go through or see. And it's really hard for all of us to know that somebody could even do that to a poor innocent animal," Tedesco said. Davis is being held at the Cobb County Jail on $250,000 bond. The charges against Davis could get him 13 years in prison.

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Today we released a remixed, remastered, expanded version of my first album, Spinning the Compass. I think it sounds rather good. You can get the whole thing (or just the new tracks if you want) at this link. Here’s what I wrote about it: Spinning the Compass is my first solo album. Originally released in early 2010, here it is remastered and in places remixed. I had not planned on going solo in 2009 when I started working on these songs. I was still doing silly things with Comrade Robot, and at the time that was my main musical undertaking. But as part of February Album Writing Month 2009 I had written a few songs that seemed to fit into a steampunk theme, so on and off over that year I put things together. It just so happened that independently at the same time, my brother Joe was also working on steampunk projects, particularly his ‘Oldroid’ models, so there was a ready made set of photos and ideas to use as artwork. Spinning the Compass is about body horror, bad dreams and machines that get in the way or substitute for real love. Mechanism talks about love gone wrong, I Still Smile about latex and rubber alternatives to human contact, the title track is about being lost in a contracting world that doesn’t make sense and threatens to disappear. Nevertheless, it is to me a happy album. It was recorded cheap mics and even cheaper software, and I didn’t really know what I was doing. It received my first bad review in which it was referred to as ‘an experiment too far’ (and a few good reviews too) and I learnt a hell of a lot from making it. It is also where the Seven Bells John saga started. The Steam engine Murders and the Trail of Seven Bells John, from my fourth album, was written at the same time as Spinning the Compass. Lines Overheard at a Séance is most definitely part of that narrative. Indeed if you’ve heard my most recent EP, Black Water you will have heard the musical echoes of this in ‘Ghosts in my Dreams’. This version of the album also includes two new tracks ‘The Man Who Learned To Fly’ and ‘Lines in the Dirt’ both of which I wrote at the time but didn’t have time to finish recording before I finally got bored and released the album. This accidental album kicked off a solo ‘career’ that so far has encompassed 4 albums albums, a few EPs and lots of fun. Thanks for listening! Tom Slatter January 2016

Iceland weighing ban on Internet pornography Proponents of the ban claim that pornography has damaging effects on children and women. Icelandic Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson, the author of the proposed ban, said he believes it will help stop youth from viewing Internet pornography. "We have to be able to discuss a ban on violent pornography, which we all agree has a very harmful effects on young people and can have a clear link to incidences of violent crime," Interior Minister Jonasson said. The ban would block access to pornographic websites in Iceland, and make it impossible to use Icelandic credit cards on X-rated sites. Iceland has already passed a law that forbids the printing and distribution of pornography; the law excludes the Internet, however. Experts have argued that there is domestic support for such a ban: "We have many experts from educationalists to the police and those who work with children behind this, that this has become much broader than party politics," political adviser Halla Gunnarsdottir told the Daily Mail. “At the moment, we are looking at the best technical ways to achieve this,” Gunnarsdottir said. “But surely if we can send a man to the Moon, we must be able to tackle porn on the Internet.” At such a scale and magnitude, Iceland’s online pornography censorship scheme would be the first of its kind for any European nation, Professor Gail Dines told the Telegraph: "It is looking at pornography from a new position – from the perspective of the harm it does to the women who appear in it and as a violation of their civil rights." However, opponents of the ban have argued that such censorship is unfeasible. "When you have a group of people who have the job of monitoring the network traffic and deciding what would be allowed and what won’t be increases the risk of non-pornography sites to be added to the list and blocked off,” explained Prostur Jonasson of Iceland’s Association of Digital Freedom. The UK is the only other European country that has tried to implement a similar ban. It proposed blocking access to all pornography websites this past December, but UK ministers rejected the idea over a lack of public support. Iceland is known for its pro-women policies, which may credit to country’s openly lesbian Prime Minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir. In 2010, the country implemented a highly controversial ban on all strip clubs, arguing that they are harmful to women. The Scandinavian country also launched a consultation process in 2010 to investigate the effects of Internet pornography on women and children. The study concluded that viewing violent online pornography increased the intensity of sex attacks, and that if children were exposed to such content at an early age, they displayed similar signs of trauma as those who had actually been abused, the Daily Mail reported.

Monday, March 31, 2008 The funny thing is, in the literally thousands of gravel road recon miles I have done, this has never happened before. Was it the vehicle? Nope...........couldn't have been. Just a weekend prior to this I put in 1250 miles of travel in the same vehicle. I used it for part of last years recon too. No, it was the severity of the roads. Put that into your thinkerer as you contemplate Trans Iowa this year. A little ibuprofen did the trick for me though I still feel it this morning. I thought I was going to be able to catch up with Captain Bob for a spin yesterday but I thought better of it due to the back issue. I went down to the Lab for a while instead to start the process of bike set up and choices for Dirty Kanza. I have more than one choice for a bike for this gig. (A great blessing and luxury, I admit). I am primarily concerned with comfort, ability to carry water, and comfort. Did I mention the bike needs to be comfortable? Uhh.........okay, why so much emphasis on comfort? Well, let me tell you; Dirty Kanza is rife with some of the roughest gravel around. Iowa gravel shudders in fear when Kansas gravel is mentioned. Really, it is pretty dang rough down there. So I am considering what 200 miles of pounding will potentially do and I am thinking comfort, okay? This leads me to four rigs in the stable: The Blackbuck, the Pofahl, the Badger, and the venerable Dos Niner. Problem #1: I signed up for the single speed class. The Dos and the Badger are geared specific bikes, so a single speed conversion and chain tensioner would be necessary. Not the most preferred set up, that's for sure. The Dos is interesting for the soft tail aspect and the Badger is interesting for its uber comfy drop bar style. The Pofahl may be a great choice, but I'm still dialing in the cockpit on that one. I may not have time to get that right and train on top of it. The Blackbuck is a possibility with it's superior water carrying capability and it has a pretty nice steel frame for comfort. I am currently playing with set up on it though, as well, so it may be nixed unless a suitable set up is hit upon. So, the bike is still up in the air yet and what will shake out should be pretty interesting. I have parts coming to experiment with and some parts already here. The coming weeks should prove interesting with results and more fiddling. Stay tuned! Saturday, March 29, 2008 <===One of several downhills Let's see: 431 miles and fourteen hours on the road today to get this course dialed. How many downhills did we drive? Lots! But as you all know, for every downhill there is an accompanying uphill section. <===One of several uphill slogs. So, how many uphills did we drive today? Get ready for Trans Iowa V4 folks. The toughest one yet! <===Some roads were just barely passable. Road conditions varied all over the place from absolutely perfecto gravel- faster and smoother than last year- to absolutely horrendous. And everything inbetween. Let's say about half the course is suffering from the effects of snow yet, and this less than a month away from the start! <===Tunnel vision on March 29th? Yep, you betcha! Much of the course is lined with snow taller than my SUV that we drove today. This snow is keeping the roads saturated by melting everyday a bit and re-freezing at night. Will it all be gone by April 26th? Probably, but the effects may still be lingering. Consider that farm equpment has yet to hit the fields and you can see why some of these roads will have no time to recover from the ravages of this past winter. Some of the roads we traveled looked as if they had been bombed for all the potholes in them. We're talking miles of this sort of thing. <===We saw Wisconsin, Minnesota, and a whole lot of Iowa today. What will you see on T.I.V4? I thought I'd be nice and give you all a parting shot of what you will likely miss because it will be dark out when you pass through here. Such a shame! We saw some beautiful vistas today! What you will see: About 75% of the course is what I would consider hilly or worse. You won't see a lot of open convenience stores. You will see "B" roads. You will see places cars can not go. You will see evidence of wheeled vehicles not powered by "typical" means. (You might even see these vehicles in action) You will see two track and gravel roads four lanes wide. You will see cool bridges. You will see lots of cemeteries. If you finish, you will have seen the longest T.I. course ever. I often said to d.p. today that I have never seen the course roads in worse condition previous to a Trans Iowa. I also noted how hard it was to drive a lot of this course. You could put on a seriously cool rally on these roads, they are that challenging to drive. Anyway, we'll have some details on mileage and course checkpoints, time cut offs and supply notes soon. Stay Tuned! Friday, March 28, 2008 Anyway, I see where Cameron Chambers, Travis Brown, and Keith Bontrager are all scheduled to line up there on May 31st. As I said on mtbr.com, you better get your "hellos" in at the start line, 'cause these guys will be smokin'. Should be a fun time though. Banned From Public School!: I work with a guy at the bike shop that is also a teacher at one of the public high schools in our fair city. He tells me that he is a regular readed of this blog. He informed me the other day that the school has blocked this site on the computers at school. Hmmm..............must be my rebelious nature, or my subversive message.....whatever. Maybe they are afraid he's wasting time or something, I don't know. Anyway, a dubious honor, I'm sure. Bicycles are kind of scary and dangerous. I would be afraid.......very afraid! Sea Otter, Here I Come!: I got my itenerary for Sea Otter yesterday. I'll be flying out of Dead Moyne this time. WooHoo! This event is pretty fun. I recommend it to anyone that is into cycling of any discipline. Where else can you go to that has a huge expo, demo bikes, pro road and mountain bike events going on at the same time, and about a gazillion cycling freaks walking/riding everywhere you look? Yeah, it is a circus and the weather can suck, but there is nothing else like it. Bad thing: It happens the week before Trans Iowa. Yeah.......I'll be bushed at the end of April! Have a great weekend and ride yer bikes! Thursday, March 27, 2008 <===Dickies makes some nice budget work clothes..........and these gloves. Just before I left to go to Texas I went shopping for a pair of Mechanix gloves or an equivilant since my hands don't like typical cycling gloves. I saw these and got them for about $16.00 or so. As a work glove they stink! I mean, how fast do you think that terry cloth thumb area will fill up with grease and dirt? About what.........three seconds? But as a cycling mit it is pure genius. I bet Dickies never dreamed of these as a mountain biking glove. I searched and found out that the actual company making these for Dickies is some outfit called Fortress. Mmm-kay, whatever. They are cheap and they work...........for me. I don't like cut off finger gloves- make my hands go numb. I don't like a lot of palm padding either, so these fit the bill for me. Heck, they even do a color Mr 24 would be proud of! Trans Iowa Recon........no really! Seriously! Yes, it has been said before but T.I.V4 recon is upon us for real this time. It has to be! There is only a month to go till this beast gets going and we have to get our ducks in a row........fast! (Now watch...........we'll have some freak winter blizzard this weekend because I wrote this!) If and when this happens, (it will) I will post a report and maybe a pic or two. Stay tuned. I am not going to promise anything at this point! No More Waiting: I posted this on the T.I.V4 site already, but I'll post here as well. The "waiting list" is being shut down. With only a month to go I am finding more people have moved on to focus on other events and the impending work load of T.I.V4 is weighing heavily on my decison to shut it down. I just won't have time to dedicate to taking care of that list anymore. If you were on the list, thanks for your patience and I hope you try again next time. The Dirt Be Shapin' Up: It's looking as though offroad is going to be happening sooner than later. Winds and fairly dry weather are conspiring to make the dirt shape up pretty fast. I was thinking it would take a long time for this winter to shake off but it appears that we are well on our way to riding dirt sooner than I would have thought possible. I'll be doing some exploratory poking around in town here and others are going to be peeking here and there in the woods to see how things are coming along. It won't be long though, I'll bet, and we'll be out riding the trails again. Wednesday, March 26, 2008 <===The BD 2 after about eight months of constant use I have had this very early production version of the Ergon BD 2 back pack since last summer and I have been thrashing it ever since. It's seen daily commuting use, mountain biking, long rides, and it's been in Nevada and Texas deserts. Rain, snow, and wind have not been strangers either. Here's an update on how it has been performing so far. The BD 2 is the larger of Ergon's bicycle oriented back packs. It can hold a 100 oz. bladder with ease and a bunch of your gear as well. I have had it loaded down with upwards of 30lbs of stuff before and it rides great with even that much weight on board. Generally though, it's just a full load of water, some nutrition, a few tools, spare tube, CO2 inflater, hand pump, shock pump, and maybe a few other sundry items. I always have room to spare. I'm quite confident that given the right equipment and a bit more organization, I could find room for some outerwear and more stuff necessary for multi-day epics. I have on a couple occaisions carried the full 100 oz of water with three extra water bottles! Anyway, the point is, you can carry a whole lotta stuff in a BD 2 if you need/want to. <====My solution to a small problem I have had great experiences with the BD 2 so far, but I have also experienced a couple noteworthy exceptions. One is the chest strap. It attaches on either side of each shoulder strap in front by a means of a plastic clip that is crimped on the edges of the shoulder straps. One of these popped loose at Interbike's Outdoor Demo last fall. While I was able to have it quickly and expertly repaired at Ergon's booth at the demo, an in the field failure would necessitate some other solution. Well, that's exactly what ended up happening to me later that fall. I simply looped around the shoulder straps webbing with the loose end of the chest strap. Voila'! No more worries since then. <===It hasn't been a problem.........yet! Another glitch with some early iterations of the BD series packs was a Flink bolt that backs out and separates the pack from the framework that straps to your upper body. See that shiny bolt head in the pic at the left? That's the guy! I have a replacement bolt that cures the problem, but I haven't installed mine yet. (I know, I know......bad boy!) However; I haven't needed to. I have it in the backpack waiting on the day when I finally break down, ( or the back pack breaks down!) and install the thing. I suppose I ought to do it, but I have only had to tighten the bolt twice and I am aware that it backs out, so I check it regularly. Anyway, the point is that if you already have an Ergon BD series pack and it was an early version, you can get a free replacement bolt from Ergon by contacting them. Overall my impression is that the Ergon BD 2 is a great back pack/hydration system (You have to supply your own bladder) that can carry almost anything reasonably needed for serious rides to epic adventures. It is reasonably durable, well thought out, and beyond some quirky pockets and the chest strap issue, it has been flawless for me. I would highly recommend it based solely on how it rides with a load on it. The fact that it performs well above and beyond that fact is a bonus. If you don't need all that room, the BD 1 is also basically the same pack with a smaller carrying volume. For those of you looking for something even more extreme/waterproof, the new BC 3 is coming soon. I've seen early versions of this pack and it looks killer! Commuters or serious multi-day riders need to check this baby out. Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Well, the wheels both exhibited similar air holding capabilities. It seemed that everytime I checked throughout the week that both sets would lose about the same amount of air, or not. Sometimes it seemed that they would stabilize. Weird. Anyway, it was obvious that there was no real distinction there and that both sets were holding air rather well. Performance was really good with both wheel sets. I never experienced any burping or any negative sensations while on the bike. Both sets did not flat during the trip, which was my main goal. If I had flatted, or if I ever do, it is going to be a big mess because I've got plenty of sealant in each tire. Well, that might be if they were to flat in the near future. Later on the sealant may dry up, I don't know, but I've heard of this. I plan on doing a little maintenance check on these in a month, maybe two. So, as of now everything is great. I can't say as I feel any sort of rolling resistance advantages. I have a test planned though that might help me to see if there is anything to this. I'm thinking it is a negligible, if any difference from a tubed set up, but we'll see. Air pressure can be lowered, true, but I can and have run rediculously low pressures with tubed set ups, so I don't see the big deal here either. The interesting thing I found was that rolling resistance increased on par with tubed set ups when I lowered the pressure on one of my tubeless set ups. They felt no different to me than a low pressure tubed set up, so again, I just don't see any advantage there. Maybe a pinch flat could be avoided, and that's the only thing I can think of. In the end I can only say that the systems I'm using will hopefully prevent any punctures from becoming flat tires. Other than that I am not convinced there is any sort of advantage to tubeless mountain bike tires right now. I'll keep riding and testing though to see if I'm missing something here, so stay tuned. So far, so good................. Monday, March 24, 2008 <===Surrealistic view: The Flint Hills at dawn Easter Sunday. Back home and back to the routine again. Reflecting back on what just happened is a bit tough yet. My brain being addled from 24 hours of travel over two days time. Yep, 1239.3 miles to be exact. The two bikes I took down both did fantastic jobs with the severe terrain I rode them on. Of course, as I have said, the Siren Song may have been a crazy choice as a single speed bike, but it was still a load of fun. I would highly recommend it as a platform for a single speed endurance machine. Oh so smoooooth! The Hi Fi was equally as satisfying. I was really glad I had full suspension bikes at my disposal for this trip. It is really what you need to have on the technical trails of Franklin Mountain State Park. While I love my rigid front/hardtail rear 29"ers, I wouldn't want to have to ride one down there. It's waaay too rough and rocky. At least for my ol' body it is! So, anyway......here I am back in Iowa and while it may not be very warm, at least almost all the snow is gone and it looks as though trail conditions will be improving. Right now I'm sure everything is a bit soggy, but with time it should start to come around. That's good because I have to get started riding again for several reasons, not least of which is the upcoming Dirty Kanza 200 which will be held where today's photograph was taken. It may not look like much there, but the camera only captures the tops of the hills. There is a lot more going on out there than the eye can see from I-35, I'll tell you that much! You might be very, very surprised! While it's good to be back, I'll just be getting busier, so no more time to reflect. It's onwards and upwards from here! Friday, March 21, 2008 But now it is time to buckle down and get to driving back towards home. The "big chunk" will be tomorrow- 700 plus miles in one day with two kids. Then Sunday it'll be the home stretch with around 500 miles on tap. That is if all goes well. Let's hope it does. Today we went to an amusement park where the rides, for the most part, were the same as they were 40 years ago. It was weird watching my kids ride stuff I rode when I was a little guy. Kind of a time warp thing. Anyway, it was hot and sunny, I was getting tired, and I forgot that I was in charge of Mrs. Guitar Ted's purse and walked away from a picnic table it was under. About 50 paces away it dawned on me that I left it there. Sure enough, it was gone! Well, we found out where the office was and asked a young lady if they had seen it. To our amazement and relief, it was there. Apparently a sharp eyed employee saw it and took it to the main office immediately. We were only without the purse for fifteen minutes max, but that was some stress I didn't need! Last year I forgot Mrs. Guitar Ted's suitcase with her and the kids clothes, this year I lost her purse. Not a very good track record! Well, if that is all the drama we incur on this trip, that'll be enough for me. See ya all back in Iowa soon! Thursday, March 20, 2008 <====A loose rocky ascent around some unfriendly vege! <===A view down hill at some more rocky goodness. <===The trail winds away into the distance. The Fisher Hi Fi Deluxe is there waiting to gobble it up. <===A trail runs through it: This is one of those areas where it looks like you are riding through the rubble of a building! <===Warm weather, sunshine, and mountains. G-Ted says, "Me likey!" Wednesday, March 19, 2008 Anyway, it was back after it on the Fisher HiFi Deluxe today on Franklin Mountain. The timing was right so I went for it. I did the same loop for testing purposes that I had done on Monday. The funny thing was, this time I had gears and man! Did it ever make a difference! I smoked the loop in half the time it took on the single speed. Of course, some of that was trail familiarity, but a lot of it was being able to get into a low gear and grind over stuff I was walking up on the single speed. I'll be honest, the single speed thing here was a killer! I really got beat down from working myself so hard. The climbs are steep, but compounded by loose rocks, step ups, and cactus avoidance. I ended up walking a fair bit. That was where it took a longer time on the SS for sure. Today was different. Right off the bat I was carrying far more speed and climbing much more of what I had walked just two days ago. Still, there were some sections that would necessitate my having some more practice time to clean. I am confident I could make the whole loop with more riding time. The thing is, I was being cautious because I was riding in some dangerous terrain alone. One small mistake could have ended up being a very bad situation. Well, the Fisher Hi Fi was a blast! I was cruising along at a clip that was almost too fast for a newbie to these parts. I had to reel it back in a few times. The last section of trail I rode was called Cory's Quarry. Man, did the name ever fit! Wait until you see the pics I got. Anyway, the rocks were big, loose, and everywhere. I had fist sized rocks flying up and hitting the bike and one nailed me in the shin. No harm done, but that isn't what I like to see in my peripheral vision- rocks that ought not to be airborne flying up in close proximity to my tender bits! So, I really enjoyed today's ride and it was a great way to cap off the riding part of my vacation. I am dedicating the rest of the time here to family, so no more rides till I'm back in Iowa. Too bad! It's absolutely beautiful and epic riding here. Tuesday, March 18, 2008 <===Visited some local bike shops incognito! Well, after yesterdays sufferfest, I took today off for some recovery and to await the forecasted warmer temperatures for Wednesday. (70's for high temps) Less wind too, not that it is a problem, but hopefully less dust will be in the air. I inhaled my fair share on Monday, that's for sure! Anyway, we all got out and just hit up some shops and took in some of the local scenery. <===A view from a scenic overlook about two thirds of the way down from the pass on Trans Mountain Highway. We didn't really do a whole lot but hang out with each other and it was great not to have any schedules or places we had to go. I played outside with the kids for awhile and now they are seeing a kids movie with Mrs. Guitar Ted whilst I type at my snail like pace on here and elsewhere. <===What you are likely to see in yards here for "weeds". That about does it for today. Tomorrow will be something else. Maybe a ride, maybe some other tom-foolery. Who knows and who cares. It's vacation, right? Monday, March 17, 2008 <===The Siren Song in quiet desert repose. Well, the desert southwest is warm and sunny at a balmy 64 degrees today. Wind kept me in tights and a long sleeved jersey over a short sleeved one though. This mountain biking scene here may not be totally hopping, but it is awesome riding and pretty dang technical. <=== Looking back down the trail you can see the weathered and broken exposed bedrock off camber section. One small misstep and yeeouch! The trail was as tough as I remembered from last year, loose and rocky with plenty of ascending and descending on narrow single track. Cactus was on the trail in the form of broken off bits with spiky needles still intact. I had to dodge the ones I saw, but the Stan's sealant did it's job and I went three hours without incident. <===More climbing on exposed bedrock. There was quite a bit of this broken up exposed bedrock on the trail I rode. It was great until you hit a crack or seam and a gaping hole running crossway on the trail would be waiting to nab your front wheel and throw you down. I missed any crashing today. Believe me, I surely didn't want to biff on this trail! Broken bones, ripped flesh, and cactus punture wounds are not high on my list of "fun pain". What was on that list was lung busting climbs, burning thighs, and raw windpipe from all of the dust I breathed in today. I'll get to sneak out one more time while I'm here, but I'm not sure when. I'll be sportin' four X four inches and 27 gears the next time I'm out though! Sunday, March 16, 2008 So, I am planning to get a big helping of Franklin Mountain sometime while I'm down here on board the two bikes I brought down. When exactly that will be is yet to be determined, but plans are being co-ordinated now and it will happen. Hopefully the sand storm is over or it will have to wait until it is. Winds blow pretty strong and steady down here when they blow. That's it for tonight. Stay tuned for irregular updates throughout the week. New Mexico may be a treat as the winds are forecast to gust in excess of 50 mph on the way. Mountains + wind + long drive = not much fun! We'll see. I have some pics to post but that'll come later when I get to El Paso, so stay tuned! Friday, March 14, 2008 Well, here are the bikes that are going on the trip to Texas, (that is if the car is done today like they said it would be!) Anywho......The Siren Song single speed is set to roll. Race Face crank, 33T ring, 22T Surly cog, Chris King hubs, Stan's Flow rims with Continental Mountain King 2.4" tires mounted tubeless with Stan's. Magura Louise disc brakes, Thomson post WTB saddle, Syntace bar and stem. Cane Creek AD 5 shock, Reba fork. Ergon grips for the mits. And the other bike- The Fisher Hi Fi Deluxe with mostly SRAM drivetrain gear with the exception of the LX Hollow Tech two piece crank. I swapped the wheels over to the Bontrager Race X Lite Tubeless Ready set, (Not shown) and mounted Dry X tires tubeless with Slime sealant for tubeless tires. The only other change from stock was to mount Ergon Grips to the bars for my mits comfort and control. So, all is a go as long as the body shop holds it's end of the deal up. I sure hope so, because if we have to wait until Monday to leave, we are not going. It takes two days with the kids to get to El Paso, and leaving Monday to turn around and come back Saturday is not an option. So, at this late hour I'm still left in the dark as to whether or not I am going to actually get to Texas. I've had run ins with body shops all through out my life. Just another reason why cars and trucks suck. But that's another post......... Stay tuned.......if I actually get out of town, I'll post a on the road report late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. Otherwise, I'll post right away again tomorrow with the bad news. So if you don't see a new post here tomorrow, you'll know we're outta here. Thursday, March 13, 2008 I even had the proper Stan's rims and yellow tape installed, courtesy of Bike 29. So I knew I hadn't ran a foul of some ghetto tubeless rim strip or the wrong rim. Still, something wasn't right. When I went to Decorah, I inquired of several of the locals about their tubeless set ups, as I knew that they ran them up there to great success. (Notice: the word "success" is coming up a lot here!) I even bought some Stan's milky magic from Deke figuring I would benefit from positive mojo if I did so. I did more research on the inner-web-o-sphere and visited Stan's site trying to put together all the missing pieces. Well, last night was the night it all came together. The little secret applied here, the homemade applicator I made from a Coke bottle, and the satisfying "pop" of beads setting up all lead to my very own Stan's tubeless conversion success story. So, does that mean that Guitar Ted will now become assimilated into the masses of devout tubeless believers? Hmm..........well, only if it actually works! That's what this Texas trip is going to prove out to me. If tubeless doesn't leave me stranded, leave me walking miles from my car, and doesn't make me mess with gooey-glop in the dirt while I switch back to a tube trail side then maybe.........just maybe, me love you long time. We'll see about that though. Until then, I'll test ride the set up from last night and hope we get our car back today, like the body shop promised us. We're still not cleared for take off just yet. Even the best laid plans can go astray. Stay tuned! Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Last evening I made the trek up to Decorah Iowa to talk to the DHPT Decorah Human Powered Trails) at their monthly meeting. I was pretty much the only thing on their agenda for the evening. (Most likely why there was such a low turn out! ) Anyway.....the ideas for this years Ballyhoo were discussed and lots of cool ideas were pitched. We will be having a pretty good time this year, that's for sure! I won't give away any details right now as there are things that need to be worked out, but here is an overview of what we are envisioning the weekend to look like this year. Friday Night: We are looking into having a get together at a local establishment with musical entertainment. There also is talk of having a night ride up in the trail network. Saturday: Along with some changes we are making, like having onsite registration, there will be the vendors and demo rides. Guided trail rides, the demo loop, and self guided trail rides will all be options. There will also be skill riding challenges available onsite for entertainment and fun throughout the day Saturday and Sunday as well. Saturday Night: The Ballyhoo Blowout. (Hmmm.........that just rolled outta my head, not bad!) Anyway, yeah............much like last year we are going to have a big party with a band and dancing on Saturday Night. It should be pretty fun. Sunday: The demo rides, guided trail rides, skill games, and such will all continue. We will also be having a drawing for prizes from all the names we had registered for the event on Sunday. (Must be present to win) and that will pretty much wrap things up for the weekends festivities. Sound like fun? Go to the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo site for future updates and pre-registration with a chance to win a prize, which should be coming soon. Tuesday, March 11, 2008 Well, I recieved some assistance in the form of a "secret recipe" and technique from a certain Lincolnite. The thing was though, his main ingredient isn't available locally here. Bummer! So, with time winding down on me, I had to use something else that I could get my hands on for now. (Not saying what, but it's commercially available. Wait till after I'm back, I'll let ya all know if it worked then) Anyway, I used the Bontrager Dry X tires on my Bontrager Race X Lite wheels which is a fool proof tubeless set up. I'm tellin' ya, if they ever get those tubeless rim strips for the Rhythm wheels out there I won't even consider using anybody elses system. The Bontrager TLR tires fit super snugly on the plastic rim strip to the point that your thumbs get a work out putting on the tire for the first time. That's like unheard of in the 29"er tire world. Then when you do get the tire on there, you can already hear that the beads are nearly seated due to the hissing of air when you squeeze the tire. Needless to say, setting the beads up is a no-brainer. Just pump up to about 50psi and everything snaps up into place. Add sealant and you are done. Easy! I got two tires done.......ready to ride done.....in thirty minutes. And I found a wrench that fits the flats on the removeable core presta valves in my tool box. Bonus! One wheel set ready to do battle with the Texas cactus. Stay tuned for the next wheel set I am going to attempt to set up tubeless. Hope it goes as well as the first! Handbuilt Bicycle Blues: If you haven't noticed, there is a big dust up on mtbr.com over certain small custom builders and some pretty disturbing claims of poor business practices on their parts. I have been pretty close to one of the accused. It saddens me on several levels that the issues have arisen and are being dealt with on public forums in some very juvenile and pathetic ways. I just wanted to air out some of my personal feelings on the matter. In general, my belief is that the products in question, the actual frames themselves, are very well thought out, fine quality pieces. No question about it. I have ridden or closely inspected two of these accused frame builders work, and it is above reproach in regards to quality. The issue that is at hand is how the business side was handled in each of the cases I am aware of. So, taking the product out of the picture, or the fact that they are one man operations, what we have here are simply just failed businesses for whatever reason. Businesses fail all the time. Even big bicycle companies "bite it" from time to time. What is different here is that the businesses in question were higher profile small builders and the problems that were had were immediately posted on the internet forums and Kangaroo court was in session from the get go. I've no doubt that people are angry, used and abused, and deserve some sort of justice, but that's what our legal system is for. This internet "mob mentality" I see is rather disturbing. Sure, you could say, "Well- You got your frames, you don't get it." And that justifies poor behaviour and slander? Please explain that. Besides, folks have no idea what problems I had or didn't have because I kept it out of the forums and dealt with it privately. Perhaps we could do with more of that. Finally, I just want to add my opinion that I believe in the small, hand built bicycle industry. I think it's fantastic and most builders have a passion and care for what they do and how they handle their businesses that is very admirable. These spectacularly publicized failures not withstanding, I think the hand made bicycle is a valid choice for anyones next rig. Funny thing happened at "mail call" yesterday: We get the mail in at the shop I work at around noon each day. The coming of the mail "man" (Ours is actually a woman) is greeted with calls of "Hello" and sometimes a bit of chit chat. It's a time that is a "marker" for our day at work. So when the mail showed up yesterday, I said "hello", of course, while another co-worker grabbed the stack of posts to take back to the office. Suddenly I hear, "Hey! Here's a Trans Iowa post card!" Wha............a T.I.V4 post card? Yep! Post marked in mid November, we finally got Dave Nice's post card on March 10th! Fortunately for Mr. Nice, he very wisely sent out more than one card and did get on the roster. Just goes to show you, late mail still happens in 2008! Monday, March 10, 2008 I'm betting that just about anybody that is a "bicycle enthusiast" will at least give it a go, but you would expect that of them. It is the much larger body of people out there that don't ride bicycles that is important here. To see any significant change in gas prices downward or to see any kind of a boost for the cycling industry, it is these non-cycling people that will have to come in and make a difference. My gut feeling is that it won't happen. Not even with $4.00 per gallon gas or higher. Here's why: This weekend I rode my bike to church and back. I play in the church band and since we have two services on Sunday and a rehearsal before hand I have to get there pretty early in the morning. I don't know what the temperature was, maybe around 20 degrees, but I got some comments from some of the band about how "hardcore" I was for riding that morning. However; it was another comment made by a young man that really got my attention. He is of college age, strong, fit and healthy. He said to me, "I'll never get into riding a bike, because I'll admit it, I'm just to lazy to sit there and turn the pedals around. That's too much work for me." Wow! So, I guess that whatever the price, it's "easier" to drive an internal combustion vehicle. To my mind, this guy wouldn't ride a bike unless the other option- driving a car- was taken away. I don't think high priced gasoline is going to do that. Since that is the case with this fellow, I would bet that the majority of folks out there that are non-cyclists would tend to fall into that camp. That means that while I expect a boost in commuting this summer, it won't be as big as it should be. Not this time. Cars are kind of like cigarettes in one regard. The price of cigarettes is mostly tax, yet the folks addicted to them just keep on paying the price. Have you seen what a carton of cigs sells for? It's rediculous! High gas prices making more bicycle commuters? Nope, it will just get more rediculous, just like cigarette prices and the folks addicted to that product. Until the option to drive is limited or taken away in some respect bicycles will never become a major form of transportation in the U.S.A., and that is really too bad. Oh well, I'll be riding to work today on my bicycle. I hope you will consider doing that too. Sunday, March 09, 2008 <=== The Siren "Song" as it appeared at the expo area at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo recently. The Song is an interesting bike. With an inch and a half of rear wheel travel on tap, it should really take the edge off the trail in El Paso. It also doesn't have a pivot in the traditional sense. It has a flex plate made of titanium bolted onto the bottom bracket and chainstays. Low maintenance and durability are some of the design goals with the Song. This one happens to be a single speed 29"er, but it can be had in a mixed wheel format called the "fifty-five" or as a geared bike in either full on 29"er or fifty-five options. I got word yesterday that this particular Song is "in the mail", so I'll be looking for it to show up here soon. I'll be riding it pretty much as pictured here with the exception of my using an I-9 wheel set I have with those new Continental tires. I'll have some pics of the bike once I get it set up to go later next week. Saturday, March 08, 2008 Would a bicycle shop be a good place to take my Eagle for installation? No, many bicycle shops have a negative attitude, when it comes to motorizing a bike, they feel everyone should be in Lance's physical condition. If you don't have the time (or the inclination) to do the installation yourself, take the unit to your neighborhood lawn and garden repair - these folks are familiar with engines And which end of the screwdriver to use! So, What's Lance got to do, got to do with it? ( appologies to Tina Turner) This is so funny and pathetic on many levels. Obviously, the touch point for most folks outside of cycling is Lance Armstrong. Now that is interesting. Given that the image they probably have of him is of a man in tip-top physical condition, a condition most of us are unlikely to reach in our lifetimes, and you can see why this is what "they" think cycling is. Then the observation makes more sense. It also points to what I've been saying for years, that lionizing people like Lance Armstrong isn't going to do cycling any favors with the general public, but that's a whole 'nuther story. It's interesting also to me that they recommend taking your ill-concieved motorcycle to a lawn and garden shop. Hmm..........makes me wonder if they've allready been laughed out of the local motorcycle shop. Because, well........usually you take a motorcycle to a motorcycle shop, right? It seems to me that this "motorized bicycle community" has an identity crisis. Well, one thing is for sure, if you put a motor on a bicycle it becomes a motorcycle. That's pretty obvious I think. Next, don't be bringing your motorcycle to a bicycle shop. Wrong place to get service on anything motorized, ya know? Finally, perhaps we all could do a better job of being nice to these freak machine wielding folks when they come into our shops. Apparently they don't understand who they are, so how can you blame them. Friday, March 07, 2008 Well, funny you should ask..... I just got a couple Continental Mountain King 2.4" tires in to test/review. (Check out the specs and my initial take here.) These will be going on my Industry 9 single speed wheels which in turn should be going on one of the two bikes going to Texas with me. I can't say yet what that bike is, but here is a riddle to help you guess. It has something in common with a six pack of beer. It has something in common with the coming season of the year. It has a name on the top tube which is beautiful to hear. What am I? Let the guessing begin! I'll be doing some testing on that rig with those Conti tires. The other bike will be the Hi Fi Deluxe which should be an excellent rig for the rocky, loose conditions of the trail I am going to tackle down there. I want to run some sealant in the tires and I have a plan on that front in the works. Should prove to be fool proof. So, now it's time to tune up the Hi Fi, and wait for the other rig to show up here next week right before I leave. Hopefully the car, the bike, and myself all converge on readiness at the same time. That would be really cool! Other than that, not much else new going on 'round here! Thursday, March 06, 2008 In about a week I'll be pulling out of this deep freeze to go to the sunny desert in West Texas. Down in the West Texas town of El Paso, to be exact. (Old country music freaks .....or haters......will now have a song stuck in their heads the rest of today. You can thank me later.) Yep! My trip of freedom from ice and snow. I can't wait. Of course, you do know what this means, right? It means that the weather will finally straighten up while I'm gone. That's right! When I get back all that will be left will be the remnants of big snow piles. Just wait and see. I'll be riding my bikes a couple of the days while I'm down there, but I also will be going to Sea World in San Antonio too. Gotta take the kids there. That's a trip within a trip right there. See, for you Texas uninitiated, this "little trip" over from El Paso to San Antonio will take 12 hours. Yep! 12 hours at 75mph on freeway all the way there. And you are still in the middle of the state! Oh, did I mention that the 12 hours is only one way? Yeah.........24 hour round trip baby! That doesn't include the time spent in San Antone. But hey.........the kids will love it, I'm sure. It's closer to go to Tucson, Arizona than to go to San Antonio..........that's how big Texas is! Anywho, I have a lot of things to do to get ready. I'll be dragging two bikes along with me, that is if our car gets outta the body shop on time! It is scheduled to be done just days before we leave. Talk about cutting it close! And if it doesn't get done, then the whole trip gets cancelled and we have snow forever! So, it is imperative that the vehicle get done before our scheduled departure or the Mid-West will be plunged directly into the next ice age. Really.........that wouldn't be so bad, would it? I mean, we're used to it by now anyway, right? I could always get that Pugsley, or "fat front" one of my 29"ers. And Mike Curiak wouldn't have to go so far to do this as he has been. Right? Wednesday, March 05, 2008 Big Wheeled Ballyhoo: It is getting time to be talking about this event again. It is scheduled to happen on June 21st-22nd in Decorah, Iowa. We are getting together some great bikes, activities, and prizes to be given away. Look for more at the Big Wheeled Ballyhoo site soon. The Theme this year is "A Weekend Of Big Wheeled Bliss". Look for stuff outside of the 29 inch wheeled format, by the way. ( wink - wink!) It should be a great time. I'll post more on the event here as the time gets closer, so keep your eyes peeled for updates. Just A Word On The Roadie Weirdness: Not that I pay a whole lot of attention to the roadie scene, but when it gets as bizarre as it has gotten lately, how can you not notice? You've got one side saying they will ban, santion, or slap your wrists for entering another organizations events, while the one side says they don't recognize the other side and the riders don't know what to do. Then you have the organiazation behind the big Daddy of 'em all tour saying to some teams that they are not invited because of drug related scandals while other teams are invited that suffer from drug related scandals. .....wha? Is this a cycling soap opera or what? Then add to that Rock Racing. (Turn up the sound if you click on this) If it wasn't a road racing team I'd a thunk that Mr. 24 invented this organization. The only thing missing from the web page is a soundtrack of some angry, screaming metal frontman. Anyway, this road cycling scene............weird! My Plan To Stop Winter From Coming................Again: So, after getting all of this snow, I'm thinking, "Why didn't I get a Pugsley?" I could have ridden it about three straight months this year in the conditions it was designed for. Rats! I'm sure that if I do spring for one now, we'll never see snow again. Hmm..............maybe I could take one for the team! Ha! It's as good a reason to own one as any, I figure! Tuesday, March 04, 2008 Well, I was thinking that sooner than later these two fellas are going to be looking into some new mountain bikes. They obviously had a sense of adventure, (Besides myself, they were most certainly the only other guys in town cycling that weekend), and they asked me some questions about my bike and 29 inch wheels in particular. I have often said that a sub-grand 29"er would start bringing on more 29"er freaks and this scenario last weekend is the perfect seed for that to sprout from. Both guys were on hardtails that were verging on ten years old, if not older. In my time working at the bike shops around here, that's about the time folks start looking at a new bike. These guys were ripe. If they get into a shop that knows their stuff and has access to the sub-grand 29"er, I see one if not both of them getting on 29"ers. The thing is, it's a big "if" concerning the shop and the 29"er actually being there. Many shops don't believe in 29"ers, or have staff that even knows much about them. Strange as that may sound, it is true. If there is one thing that is keeping 29"ers down, it is that. I am confident that once most folks ride one, it is a sold bike. Hands down, a 29"er will improve upon the average cyclists mountain biking experience over a 26"er any day. That alone should convince shop owners to carry them, that is if they care about their customers off road cycling experiences. Sound like a harsh statement? Well, again- I believe most average mountain bikers would see an immediate benefit from riding a 29"er. They are more stable, less endo prone, and have better traction than their 26 inch counter parts. What's not to love for a recreational mountain biker about that? The trouble is, there are not many places that are versed in 29"ers. There are more that are all the time, but there are also lots of shops that are not. So, if shops want to benefit from the next wave of mountain bike purchasers and turn them into enthusiastic off roaders, then a 29"er is a no-brainer. Get ready, or get left behind. Monday, March 03, 2008 <===I busted through some drifts, but none this big! I took Saturday off from riding as I was feeling really beat. In fact I took a rare mid-day nap I was so tired. Sunday was better, so I hit the trail with the KMFDM to see what it was like out there. The temps were in the 40's and the snow was melting like crazy. I found the bike path leading out of town southwards and followed it. I noticed I wasn't the only one that had the idea to ride as I soon discovered two other sets of tracks in the melting ice. Soon I discovered that the snow had drifted across the path in various places. Sometimes a bit more than a couple feet deep. I could see that the two guys ahead of me, (I could see them by now) had been busting through most of them and I was having no problems with them myself. I just did it like we used to back in the day. Go really fast, hit that drift, come out the other side going much slower, but still going. (Only we did it in cars back then!) 29 inch wheels were cruising through those drifts with no problems. I finally started to reel the two guys in front of me in. They saw me coming at Shaulis road and waited for me to roll up. I hadn't met these two fellas before, but the were locals and we chatted for a bit before they turned back and I went on across the highway on Shaulis. I turned onto the old chunk of 63 shortly before hitting a gravel due south. I wanted to check the conditions of the rural roads. <===If it wasn't covered in melting sheets of ice, it was saturated with water. I found the going extremely tough. Where the snow and ice was gone the gravel was saturated. I am talking Trans Iowa V2 saturated. I was pushing into the surface about three quarters of an inch deep with 2.1" wide tires on. The ice covered sections were actually much faster. It's going to be awhile before the gravel shapes up too because we just got more rain, then snow on top of it and it all has re-frozen since it's 21 degrees as I type this. Yeah, it's still a mess. I turned back into town northward and once I got into the city I found rivers of water running over slush over ice. Great! Slow going as I picked my way through some of Waterloo's southern neighborhoods. I saw lots and lots of folks chipping ice out of driveways and sidewalks, just like Carlos details on his blog. We saw a glimpse of spring yesterday, but today it's the same ol' same ol' wintery crapola again. Two hour delay for schools so I'll be late getting to work. Seems like Mondays have been this way for awhile now. Anyway, it was great to at least get in a ride yesterday, but I have to say that two hours of not coasting is pretty brutal on the ol' hind end. I'm thinking a Brooks B-17 is in my future for the KMFDM. Sunday, March 02, 2008 This means that a lot of us Mid Westerners have to start packing on a lot of miles in a short period of time. Training for races will be intense. I am going to have to start laying down some long gravel rides myself to get ready for Dirty Kanza and the rest of the year. That doesn't cover it all for me though. I'll be doing some gravel road recon too. It's getting to be crunch time as far as Trans Iowa is concerned and the course still hasn't been verified yet. Add in my vacation to Texas in the middle of March and that cuts into time even further. Then right before T.I. I have a trip to Sea Otter. It's going to go from zero to sixty pretty quickly around here! So these last wintry days are passing quickly by and it's time to get into the starting blocks. Ready, steady, go.....................

Whether we go to church or not, we’re probably all familiar with the story of Jesus walking on water. It’s a good one. After Jesus miraculously fed 5,000 people with two fish and five loaves of bread, He separated Himself from everyone and told the disciples to get into a boat and start heading toward Capernaum. The Sea of Galilee is surrounded by mountains that rise about 4,000 feet above sea level, but it is actually about 700 feet below the Mediterranean Sea. As cold air rushes down from the mountains, it collides with the warm moist air rising off the surface of the water, causing frequent, unpredictable, violent storms. If we combine the details in John’s and Matthew’s accounts, we can see that it took them approximately nine hours to row roughly three miles in a violent storm before they saw Jesus approaching them during the fourth watch of the night, between 3:00AM-6:00AM. They must have been absolutely exhausted, which is not fun when you’re in the middle of a large lake, on a small boat, in a violent storm, during the middle of the night. Mark tells us that when they saw Jesus approaching, they were afraid and mistook Him for a ghost. They had probably seen as many people walking on water as I have. That fear must have soon subsided into hope as they recalled an earlier experience in which Jesus calmed a storm whose waves were overtaking their boat. In Matthew 8:27, we see that this previous experience had caused them to question, “What kind of man is this? Even the wind and waves obey him.” As Jesus approached, Peter not only trusted Jesus to protect the boat, but also to protect him as he got out of the boat in an attempt to meet Him half way. Yeah, Peter. It must have taken a lot of faith to step out of that boat and do something he had never seen anyone do before. He didn’t make it very far before he took his eyes off of Jesus and started sinking in the replacement of his focus. Despite the lapse of trust, Jesus was there and helped him out, pulling Peter up by the hand still stretched toward the original intention. Maybe that’s the kind of faith that caused Peter to be the rock on which Jesus would build His Church. After this experience, the disciples no longer questioned what kind of man this was. They worshiped Jesus, saying, “Truly, you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). This was the first time the disciples had ever recognized Jesus this way, despite the many miracles they had already witnessed and the teachings they had heard. It was also the first time they worshiped Jesus. In Matthew 2:11 the Magi from the East worships Jesus, in Matthew 8:2 a leper worships Jesus, and in Matthew 9:18 a synagogue ruler does as well. If Matthew did order these events chronologically, it is important to note that the disciples’ first act of worshiping Jesus accompanies their first recognition of Him as the Son of God. There’s something about being miraculously saved out of the midst of an overwhelming, exhausting circumstance that leads us to no other response but worshiping the only God that could do such thing. One night last summer, I was laying out on my deck because it was too hot to sleep inside. As I prayed and considered my situation, I felt like something like what I could imagine the disciples felt in the middle of that large lake, on that little boat, in the middle of that violent storm, in the middle of that night. I knew I was about to step out of the uncomfortable but at least familiar boat, only to do something I had never seen anyone do before. It required a lot of faith and a lot of focus on Jesus. If I’m going to have the audacity to compare myself to Peter, the least I can do is admit that my focus hasn’t always remained on Jesus throughout the process. I am continually grateful that Jesus always approaches me, that He inspires me to respond in faith, that He rescues me when my focus waivers, and that it is His grace that enables my hand to even remain outstretched in His direction. My only response can be continual worship and continual faith. Peter could have stayed in the boat. I’m not sure why he was the only one who called, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water” (Matthew 14:28). It would have been a lot easier to stay put, but some people trust God enough to test their faith. When we stay in the same place in our faith, we can’t grow. No matter how uncomfortable that boat may have been, I’m sure it was more comfortable than the unknown. 1 Peter 1:7 reminds us that testing our faith proves that it’s genuine. If we don’t trust God enough to test our faith by stepping outside of our comfort zone, can it ever be purified as fire purifies gold? Even the disciples who stayed in the boat learned something from Peter’s actions, which earned him this response: “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).

Holy Days take away our Christian Liberty Proved Out of the Gospel Copyright © 1998 Naphtali Press The following are chapters and sections taken from George Gillespie, A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies Obtruded on the Church of Scotland, ed. Christopher Coldwell (Dallas TX: Naphtali Press, 1993). All page references to EPC will be to that edition. One can find these sections in older editions by following the part, chapter, and section designations (e.g. 1.1.1). EPC 1.8, pp. 37-45. That Festival Days Take Away Our Christian Liberty, Proved Out Of The Gospel. My second argument whereby I prove that the imposing of the observation of holidays bereaves us of our liberty, I take out of two places of the Apostle; the one, Gal. 4:10, where he finds fault with the Galatians for observing of days, and gives them two reasons against them; the one (v. 3), They were a yoke of bondage which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear; another (v. 9), They were weak and beggarly rudiments, not beseeming the Christian church, which is liberated from the pedagogical instruction of the ceremonial law. The other place is Col. 2:16, where the Apostle will have the Colossians not to suffer themselves to be judged by any man in respect of an holiday, i. e. to be condemned for not observing a holiday, for to condemn here means to accuse a party of guilt;1 and the meaning is, suffer not yourselves to be condemned by those false apostles, or by any mortal man in the cause of meat, that is, for meat or drink taken, or for any holiday, or any part of an holiday neglected.2 Two other reasons the Apostle gives in this place against festival days; one (v. 17), What should we do with the shadow, when we have the body? Another (v. 20), Why should we be subject to human ordinances, since through Christ we are dead to them, and have nothing ado with them? Now, by the same reasons are all holidays to be condemned, as taking away Christian liberty; and so, that which the Apostle says does militate as well against them as against any other holidays. For whereas it might be thought that the Apostle does not condemn all holidays, because both he permits others to observe days (Rom. 14:5), and he himself also did observe one of the Jewish feasts (Acts 18:21), it is easily answered, that our holidays have no warrant from these places, except our opposites will say that they esteem their festival days holier than other days, and that they observe the Jewish festivities, neither of which they do acknowledge; and if they did, yet they must consider, that that which the Apostle either said or did here[about], is to be expounded and understood of bearing with the weak Jews, whom he permitted to esteem one day above another, and for whose cause he did, in his own practice, thus far apply himself to their infirmity at that time when they could not possibly be as yet fully and thoroughly instructed concerning Christian liberty, and the abrogation of the ceremonial law, because the gospel was as yet not fully propagated; and when the Mosaical rites were like a dead man not yet buried, as Augustine’s simile runs. So that all this can make nothing for holidays after the full promulgation of the gospel, and after that the Jewish ceremonies are not only dead, but also buried, and so deadly to be used by us. Hence it is, that the Apostle will not bear with the observation of days in Christian churches who have known God, as he speaks. The defenders of holidays answer to these places, which we allege against them, that the Apostle condemns the observation of Judaical days, not of ecclesiastical days, which the church institutes for order and policy; which evasion Bishop Lindsey follows so hard, that he sticks not to hold, that all the days whereof the Apostle condemns the observation were Judaical days prescribed in the ceremonial law, etc.3 And this he is not contented to maintain himself, but he will needs father it upon his antagonist by such logic, forsooth, as can infer quidlibet ex quolibet [everything from anything]. The Apostle comports [tolerates] with the observation of days in the weak Jews, who understood not the fulness of the Christian liberty, especially since those days, having had the honor to be once appointed by God himself, were to be honorably buried; but the same Apostle reproves the Galatians who had attained to this liberty, and had once left off the observation of days. What ground of consequence can warrant such an illation [deduction] from these premises as this which the Bishop forms? namely, that all the days whereof the Apostle condemned the observation were Judaical days, etc. Now, for confutation of this forged exposition of those places of the Apostle, we say: 1. If all the days whereof the Apostle condemned the observation were Judaical days prescribed in the ceremonial law, then do our divines falsely interpret the Apostle’s words against popish holidays; and the Papists do truly allege that their holidays are not condemned by the Apostle. The Rhemists affirm that the Apostle condemns only Jewish days,4 but not Christian days, and that we do falsely interpret his words against their holidays.5 Cartwright answers them, that if Paul condemned the observing of feasts which God himself instituted, then much more does he condemn the observation of feasts of man’s devising.6 So Bellarmine alleges, that the Apostle speaks there only of Jewish feast days.7 Hospinian, answering him, will have the Apostle’s words to condemn the Christian feasts more than the Judaical.8 Conradus Vorstius rejects this position, The Apostle teaches that except for the Jewish, no division of days was supported in the N. T., as a popish error.9 2. If the Apostle means only of Judaical days, either he condemns the observing of their days materialiter [materially], or formaliter [formally], i. e. either he condemns the observation of the same feasts which the Jews observed, or the observing of them with such a meaning, after such a manner, and for such an end as the Jews did. The former our opposites dare not hold, for then they should grant that he condemns their own Easter and Pentecost, because these two feasts were observed by the Jews. Nor yet can they hold them at the latter, for he condemns that observation of days which had crept into the church of Galatia, which was not Jewish, nor typical, seeing the Galatians, believing that Christ was already come, could not keep them as figures of his coming as the Jews did, but rather as memorials that he was already come, says Cartwright.10 1. If the Apostle’s reasons wherewith he impugns the observation of days holds good against our holidays so well as against the Jewish or popish days, then does he condemn those, no less these. But the Apostle’s reasons agree to our holidays. For (1.), According to that reason, Gal. 4:3, they bring us under a yoke of bondage. Augustine, complaining of some ceremonies wherewith the church in his time was burdened, thought it altogether best that they should be cut off, Even if they may not seem inimical to the faith, since they press slavish burdens on the religion Christ willed to be a free one.11 Yea, he thought this yoke of servitude greater bondage, and less tolerable than the servility of the Jews, because they were subject to the burdens of the law of God, and not to the presumptions of men. The yoke of bondage of Christians, in respect of feasts, is heavier than the yoke of the Jews, not only for the multitude of them, but because the feast days of Christians were established by men only, but those of the Jews by God, says Hospinian.12 Have not we then reason to exclaim against our holidays, as a yoke of bondage, heavier than that of the Jews, for that our holidays are men’s inventions, and so were not theirs? (2.) The other reason, Gal. 4:9, holds as good against our holidays. They are rudimentary and pedagogical elements, which beseem not the Christian church, for as touching that which Tilen objects, that many in the church of the New Testament are still babes to be fed with milk,13 it makes as much against the Apostle as against us. For by this reason he may as well throw back the Apostle’s ground of condemning holidays among the Galatians, and say, because many of the Galatians were babes, therefore they had the more need of those elements and rudiments. The Apostle (Gal. 4:3) compares the church of the Old Testament to an infant and insinuates that, in the days of the New Testament, the infancy of the church has taken an end. And whereas it might be objected that in the church of the New Testament there are many babes, and that the Apostle himself speaks of the Corinthians and Hebrews as babes, it is answered by Paræus, What is said here must be understood as concerning not a few persons, but the condition of the whole church.14 There were also some in the church of the Old Testament, adulti fide heræs [heroes matured by faith]; but in respect of the state of the whole church, he who is least in the kingdom of God, is greater than John Baptist (Luke 7:28). The Law, says Beza, is called an element, since just as God taught his church with these first principles, afterward from a full horn he poured out the Holy Spirit in the time of the gospel.15 (3.) That reason also taken from the opposition of the shadow and the body (Col. 2:17) militates against our holidays; for the Apostle there speaks in the present time [ esti skia – it is a shadow], whereas the Judaical rites were abolished, whereupon Zanchius notes, that the Apostle does not so much speak of things by-past, as of the very nature of all rites, Therefore defining those very rituals in themselves, he said they were nothing other than a shadow.16 If all rites, then our holidays, among the rest, serve only to adumbrate [prefigure] and shadow forth something, and by consequence are unprofitable and idle, when the substance itself is clearly set before us. (4.) That reason, Col. 2:20, does no less irresistibly infringe the ordinances about our holidays than about the Jewish; for if men’s ordinances, about things once appointed by God himself, ought not to be obeyed, how much less should the precepts of men be received about such things in religion as never had this honor to be God’s ordinances, when their mere authority limits or astricts [binds] us in things which God has made lawful or free to us. Thus we see how the Apostle’s reasons hold good against our holidays; let us see next what respects of difference the Bishop can imagine to evidence wherefore the Judaical days may be thought condemned by the Apostle, and not ours. He devises a double respect; and first he tells us, that the Jewish observation of days was to a typical use.17 And whereas it is objected by us, that the converted Jews did not observe them as shadows of things to come, because then they had denied Christ, he answers thus: Howbeit the converted Jews did not observe the Jewish days as shadows of things to come, yet they might have observed them as memorials of by-past temporal and typical benefits, and for present temporal blessings, as the benefit of their delivery out of Egypt, and of the fruits of the earth, which use was also typical. ANSWER. 1. This is his own conjecture only, therefore he himself propounds it doubtfully, for he dare not say, they did observe them as memorials, etc., but, they might have observed; to which guessing, if I reply, they might also not have observed them as memorials of those by-past or present benefits, we say as much against him, and as truly, as he has said against us. 2. His form of reasoning is very uncouth, for to prove that the observation of days by the converted Jews was to a typical use, he alleges, that they might have observed, etc. Thus proving a position by a supposition. O brave! 3. There is no sense in his conjecture, for he yields that they did not observe those days as shadows of things to come, and yet he says, they might have observed them as memorials of by-past typical benefits. Now they could not observe those days as memorials of types, except they observed them also as shadowing forth the antitypes. Pentecost, says Davenant, and that celebration of when the law was given, it foreshadowed the sending of the Holy Spirit, and the writing by that same Spirit of the law on the tablets of hearts. The feast of Tabernacles sketched out the wandering of a righteous man in this desert of a world toward the heavenly country, etc.18 So that the feast of Pentecost, if it had been observed as a memorial of the promulgation of the law, could not but shadow forth the sending of the Holy Spirit into our hearts, to write the law in them. And the feast of tabernacles, if it had been observed as a memorial of the benefits which God bestowed on his people in the wilderness, could not but shadow out God’s conducting of his children, through the course of their pilgrimage in this world, to the heavenly Canaan. 4. If feasts which were memorials of temporal benefits were for this reason mystical, then he must grant against himself that, much more, are our feasts mystical, which are memorials of spiritual benefits, and consecrated to be holy signs and symbols, for making us call to mind the mysteries of our redemption. 5. Before this dispute takes an end, we shall see out of the best learned among our opposites, that they observe the holidays as mystical,19 and more mystical than the Bishop here describes the Jewish days to have been, and so we shall see the falsehood of that pretense, that they are observed only for order and policy, and not for mystery. 6. If we would know the true reason which made the converted Jews to observe those days, it was not any mystical use but that which made them think themselves obliged to other Mosaical rites; even propter auctoritatem legis [even on account of the authority of the law], says Junius;20 for albeit they could not be ignorant that these rites were shadows of things to come, and that the body was of Christ, in whom and in the virtue of whose death they did stablish their faith, yet they did not at first understand how such things as were once appointed by God himself, and given to his people as ordinances to be kept by him throughout their generations, could be altogether abolished; and for this cause, though they did condescend to a change of the use and signification of those ceremonies, as being no more typical of the kingdom of Christ, which they believed to be already come, yet still they held themselves bound to the use of the things themselves as things commanded by God. This much may be collected from Acts 15:21, where James gives a reason wherefore it was expedient that the Gentiles should observe some of the Jewish rites for a time, as Calvin,21 Beza,22 and Junius,23 expound the place. His reason is because the Jews, being so long accustomed with the hearing of the law of Moses, and such as did preach the same, could not be made at first to understand how the ordinances which God gave to his people by the hand of Moses might be cast off and not regarded, which imports as much as I say, namely, that the reason wherefore the converted Jews were so apt to be scandalized by such as cared not for the ceremonial law, and held themselves obliged to observe the same, was because they saw not how they could be exempted from the ordinances and statutes of the law of Moses, with which they had been educated and accustomed. Rests the second respect of difference given by the Bishop: Further (he says), they did observe them with opinion of necessity, as things instituted by God for his worship and their salvation, which sort of observation was legal.24 ANSWER. 1. Be it so; he cannot hereupon infer, that the Apostle does only condemn the observation of Judaical days, for he sees nothing of observing days with opinion of necessity, but simply and absolutely he condemns the observing of days, and his reasons reflex on our holidays, as well as the Jewish. 2. Their opinion of necessity he either refers to the institution which these days once had from God, or else to the use which, at that time, they had for God’s worship and their salvation. That they observed them with opinion of necessity, as things which had been instituted by God, it is most likely; but that they observed them with opinion of necessity, as things necessary for God’s worship and their salvation, is more than can be made good. It is more probably that they observed them merely and simply for that they had the honor to be instituted by God in his law. For to say that they observed them to the same use and end for which God did institute them is false, because then they had observed them as types and shadows of the coming of Christ, and so had denied Christ. 3. If the Apostle condemns the observing of days instituted by God, with opinion of necessity, much more does he condemn the observing of days instituted by men with such an opinion. And such is the observation of days urged upon us. Though the Bishop pretends that the observing of our holidays is not imposed with opinion of necessity, shall we therefore think it is so? Nay, Papists do also pretend that the observation of their ceremonies is not necessary,25 nor the neglecting of them a mortal sin. I have proved heretofore, out of their opposites’ own words, that the ceremonies in question (and, by consequence holidays among the rest) are urged upon us with opinion of necessity, and as their words, so their works bewray [reveal] them, for they urge the ceremonies with so exorbitant vehemency, and punish refusers with so excessive severity, as if they were the weightiest matters of the law of God. Yet they would have us believe, that they have but sober and mean thoughts of these matters, as of circumstances determined for order and policy only. Just like a man who casts firebrands and arrows, and yet says, “Am not I in sport?” (Prov. 26:18, 19). They will tell us that they urge not the ceremonies as necessary in themselves, but only as necessary in respect of the church’s determination, and because of the necessity of obeying those who are set over us. But, I pray, is not this as much as the Rhemists say,26who place the necessity of their rites and observances, not in the nature of the things themselves, but in the church’s precept? - Calvin, Comm. in illum locum. Judicare hic significat culpæ reum facere. [↩] - Zanch., Comm. ibid. [↩] - Proc. in Perth Assembly, part 3, p. 43. [↩] - Annot. on Col. 2:16. [↩] - Annot. on Gal. 4:10. [↩] - Annot., ibid. [↩] - De Cultus Sanctorum, cap. 10. loqui ibi Apostolum de judæorum tantum festis. [↩] - De Orig. Fest. Christ., cap. 2. [↩] - De Templ. et Fest. in Enchyrid. contr. inter Evang. et Pontif. Apostolus non nisi judaicum discrimen dierum in N. T. sublatum esse docet. [↩] - Ubi supra. [↩] - Epist. 118, ad Januar.Etiamsi fidei non videantur adversari, quia religionem quam Christus liberam esse voluit, servilibus oneribus premunt. [↩] - De Orig. Fest. Christ., cap. 2. Christian-orum festa, ab hominibus tantum, judæorum vero a Deo fuerint instituta. [↩] - Paren. ad Scot. cap. 16, pp. 66. [↩] - Comm. in illum locum. Non de paucis personis, sed de statu totius ecclesiæ intelligendum est quod hic dicitur. [↩] - Annot. in Gal. 4:3. Lex, saith Beza, vocatur elementa, quia illis velut rudimentis, Deus ecclesiam suam erudivit, postea pleno cornu effudit Spiritum Sanctum tempore evangelii. [↩] - Comm. in illum locum. Definiens ergo ipsos ritus in sese, dixit eos nil aliud esse quam umbram. [↩] - Ubi supra, p. 40. [↩] - Comm. in Col. 2:17. et illa legis datæ celebratio. Spiritus Sancti mssionem, et legis in tabulis cordium per eundem Spiritum inscriptionem, adumbravit. Scenopegiæ festum peregrinationem hominis pii per hoc mundi desertum ad cælestem patriam delineabat, etc. [↩] - Infra., part 3, in the arg. of Superstition. [↩] - Anim. in Bell., cont. 3, lib. 4, cap. 16, n. 20. [↩] - Comm. in illum locum. [↩] - Annot., ib. [↩] - Anim. ad Bell., contr. 3, lib 4, cp. 16, n 32. [↩] - Ubi supra. [↩] - Bell., de Euch., lib. 6, cap. 13. [↩] - Annot. on Matt. 6:15, sect 5. [↩]

When you go to ancient Maya sites, you are likely to see a serpent carved in stone. But what do these serpents represent? And why Feathered Serpent? What does this cult mean? Snake (and often dragon) worship is present in the ancient cultures of Rome, Africa, Egypt, Cambodia, India, China and Korea, where snakes were seen as entities of strength and renewal. Snakes shed their skin through sloughing; they are therefore historically symbols of rebirth, transformation, immortality, eternity and continual renewal of life. Every serpent you will encounter represents that rebirth and immortality symbol. But that is not all. It is much more complex. Most ancient stories or myths did not depict actual events or people. They used metaphors or symbols to make the greater meaning. These myths were handed down generation after generation as a memorised story. The story of the Feathered Serpent deity in Mesoamerica is no different. The Feathered Serpent was a prominent supernatural entity in many Mesoamerican religions. It was called Quetzalcóatl among the Aztecs, Kukulkán among the Yucatec Maya, and Q'uq'umatz (and Tohil) among the K'iche' Maya. The double symbolism is considered allegoric to the dual nature of the deity: being feathered represents its divine nature or ability to fly (to reach the skies) and being a serpent represents its ability to creep on the Earth. Feathers represent the freedom to go between worlds. Birds are the only animals that have the freedom to manoeuvre between all the elements, air, earth, and for some water as well. Maya mythology describes serpents as being the vehicles by which celestial bodies, such as the sun and stars, cross the heavens. And they are a vehicle for human resurrection. The earliest known recording of the feathered serpent is depicted on Stela 19 at the Olmec site of La Venta built in 900 BC. At this time the serpent was just that, a serpent. Trade routes spread the popularity of this deity across Mesoamerica. Each culture took the original myth, and transformed it to suit their culture. Stela 19 from La Venta, in the Olmec Museum Park Villahermosa seems to depict a person inside a cave or maybe some kind of 'machine' (and I won't get into any von Däniken theories about ancient astronauts, although it is tempting). Some believe that it is a jaguar knight wearing a jaguar headdress (that looks like an astronaut's helmet); others claim it to be a priest or a ruler. He carries an object, perhaps a bag, probably used to hold copal, an incense. In Mayan art the priests or kings also often carry a 'bundle', with the instruments for bloodletting (the rulers had to give their blood to the gods in exchange for rain and fertility for their people and the bundle would contain such instruments as sting ray for cutting into the penis or ears). Could this priest also be carrying such a bundle? The rattlesnake has a large flaming eyebrow. The theme of a man with a serpent appears also on stela 3 at La Venta. Neither of the two shows the feathers but the crest over its head is interpreted by some as feathers. It is believed that for the Olmecs the serpent was a minor entity (the centre of Olmec religion was the jaguar). Think of it as the forerunner of many later Mesoamerican deities. The Olmec snake is also referred to as the Olmec Dragon but Karl Taube renamed it as Avian Serpent, as he noted that it merges the meaning of the snake and bird. Sky serpents are integral parts of Pre-classic framing bands in Olmec and Maya cultures. Many framing bands on reliefs and ceramics include the heads of serpents and abstract symbols such as inverted U shapes and diagonal lines (which may also reference the snake). The framing bands had the function of wrapping scenes, objects and people in identifiable symbols and meanings. Sometimes it works as a kind of portal through which the person emerges, or a cosmological boundary. Santiago Andres Garcia believes that it was used to differentiate social classes, and enhance the status of elite Olmecs. An argument by Taube is that the motifs depict a supernatural serpent. In Altar 4 (photo on the left), now in the La Venta Olmec Park Museum in Villahermosa, two serpent heads face each other above the man who is emerging from a cave (the two heads look like a pair of large eyes). Between their fangs below is a cross-band motif, a symbol of serpent and sky. The man is emerging from a cave, the borders of which constitute the representation of aquatic nature. How to interpret this? Out of the aquatic mass is born the human figure, to which the double presence of the divine serpents allies itself. So the snake is the symbol of birth (or rebirth). The Avian Serpent also appeared on pottery. On the left there is a pattern from Tlatilco pottery in the Valley of Mexico as identified by Karl Taube. (a) hand-paw-wing; (b) flame eyebrow; (c) upside down U bracket; and (d) St Andrew’s cross. Some Avian Serpents appear with a crossed band as the symbol of the Feathered Serpent either on their bodies or eye sockets. Michael D. Coe pointed out that in Maya society the glyph for sky and for snake is an X, which he termed the 'St Andrew’s cross'. Avian Serpent imagery was a symbol with cosmological meanings of earth and sky, used by Early Formative people (i.e. Olmecs and early Maya)to substantiate their beliefs and legitimise their status and identity. Some researchers believe that the Olmec sculptures relate to myths of spiritual journeys or human origins. The Olmec symbol of the snake was then developed by other tribes across Mesoamerica. Juxtlahuaca cave in the state of Oaxaca is the site where the earliest feathered serpent appears painted on rock (painted apparently in Olmec style). The plumes of the serpent are no longer visible. Michael Coe has estimated that the paintings might probably date between 1200-900 BC. The actual cult of the feathered serpent was developed by the people of Teotihuacán (200 BC–700 AD). Several feathered serpent representations appear on the building of the Temple of the Quetzalcóatl (150–200 AD), including full-body profiles and feathered serpent heads (see below). The relief images on the temple alternate between a serpent’s head surrounded by feathers, and a crocodile’s head with a headdress. The former is easily identified as the creator god Quetzalcóatl; the latter is believed to be god Tláloc. The word Quetzalcóatl comes from the Aztec language of Nahuatl, meaning Bird (Quetzal) and Serpent (Cóatl). We do not know the name of the feathered serpent in the language of Teotihuacanán (instead, the name of the Aztec god is used). The Teotihuacános are thought to have derived the feathered-serpent from the image of an owl fetching a serpent from a cave and it is thought that the large, goggle-eyes of Tláloc are representative of the owl’s ability to traverse the darkness of the underworld. In this culture snakes were associated with water and in particular the water found underground or within caves. Tláloc, the Aztec god of rain (and water), ruled the underworld where he resided; he regenerated life. He was commonly depicted with large eyes ('goggles') and fangs and wore a headdress of heron feathers and carried a rattlesnake. Recent research has brought us a new twist. The rings, which were believed to have been around Tláloc’s eyes, were actually on the forehead. The eye rings are in fact directly above what looks like the upper jaw (from where the teeth and fangs are visible). Karl Taube and Saburo Sugiyama individually concluded that the relief represents serpentine headdresses on the bodies of the Feathered Serpent. So Tláloc here acts as Quetzalcóatl's avatar, the feathered serpent (Quetzalcóatl also had other avatars, such as Ehecatl, lord of the wind). As Sugiyama further states, the headdress is of the day sign Cipactli, which is the first day of the Aztec ritual calendar, the beginning of time. The temple was dedicated to the myth of the origin of time. Scholar Cecelia Klein has suggested that the ringed eyes of Tláloc refer to mirrors, which represents fire or water, which are other attributes associated with the Feathered Serpent (in Teotihuacán he was a symbol of water and the wet season while later in Aztec iconography he was a symbol of fire representing the dry season). It was commonly believed that mirrors were caves for the gods to enter into the human world, to communicate a message to the inhabitants: to please the gods through sacrifice as giving one's own life was believed to be the greatest gift one could offer the gods. It imitated the ways of their god Quetzalcóatl: in legend he burnt (sacrificed) himself and vanished into the skies and turned into Venus. Susan Gillespie argues that two completely different animals (bird and snake) conceptualised a meeting between the levels of the cosmos: earth and sky. This was the natural that transformed into the supernatural, and any composition of a Bird-Serpent acted as a 'mediator' between the earth, the underworld and the sky. The Lord of the Serpents, found at Pirámide Quetzalcóatl at Xochicalco was intended to connect the nobility with the Plumed Serpent creator-god. His left hand holds one serpent, while others twine about his body. The power of the nobility was based upon their connection to, and ability to communicate with Quetzalcóatl and the other gods. That balance of power guaranteed the regular arrival of the rains and good harvests. The elite used these beliefs to justify their wealth, authority, and privileges. It is believed that the elite of Teotihuacán found itself unable to deal with the lack of rain and drought in the 7th century, which led to a loss of faith in them and a great revolt by their people and the destruction of Teotihuacán. The surviving nobility fled south, where they founded Xochicalco and the cult of Quetzalcóatl. The great religious centre of Cholula, near modern Puebla, was also dedicated to Quetzalcóatl. Another key centre for plumed serpent worship at that time was the important trading city of Cacaxtla. Next, the Toltecs began their rise and they adopted Quetzalcóatl as one of their major gods. The city of Tula (Tollan in Nahuatl), the capital of the Toltecs (950–1150 AD) was ruled by Quetzalcóatl (his full name was Topiltzin Cē Ācatl Quetzalcōatl) who ruled as a priest or demi-god but was later sent into exile from Tollan and went on to found a new city elsewhere in Mesoamerica (some say he went to Chichén Itzá, to become its ruler Kukulkán in the 10th century). This is actually a historical figure of Quetzalcóatl (the name was used as a noble title). Claims of Toltec ancestry and a ruling dynasty founded by Quetzalcóatl have since been made by such diverse civilisations as the Aztec, the K'iche' and the Itzá Mayas. In Chichén Itzá you can see the Feathered Serpent on many monuments. The most famous is the Kukulkán sliding down the pyramid during the equinox. Thousands gather in Chichén Itzá every year during the spring equinox to watch the shadow of the serpent god Kukulkán slither down the pyramid El Castillo. Mayan symbolism here uses the serpent to describe the movement of celestial bodies relating to the ecliptic path (or the Milky Way). When I visit Chichén Itzá, I always imagine the serpent slithering down from the earth (the pyramid) on his way down to the underworld (the cenote under this pyramid), where he changes to a black jaguar (representing the night) and then flying out in the morning as the symbol of the new day (that is why the serpent needs the feathers). This way, the serpent represents the circle of day and night, earth and sky, life and death. It is certainly my favourite representation of the symbol and power of the Feathered Serpent. In the Popol Vuh Mayan book of creation Kukulkán is the creator of the cosmos. A snake or a forked serpentine tongue is also often seen in images of the Mayan Rain God, Chac. Although heavily Mexicanised, Kukulkán has his origins among the Maya of the Classic Period, when he was known as Waxaklahun Ubah Kan, the War Serpent, and he has been identified as the Postclassic version of the Vision Serpent of Classic Maya art. The Vision Serpent was very important during the bloodletting rituals, often at the time of the ruler's accession to the throne. Participants would take hallucinogenic mushrooms and experience visions in which they communicated with the ancestors or gods. The Vision Serpent (named so by Linda Schele) thus came to be the method by which ancestors or gods manifested themselves to the Maya; it was a direct link between the spirit realm of the gods and the physical world. Lintel 25 from Yaxchilán shows Lady Xoc and the Vision Serpent ritual in October 681 AD, the date of her husband Shield Jaguar II’s ascension to the throne. The ancestor (or god) who was being contacted was depicted as emerging from the serpent’s mouth. In the Mayan languages the word chan or kan means both sky and snake, and is a code for the vision-serpent-sky portal and alludes to the path the gods and ancestral dead travel in their journey in and out of the Underworld during bloodletting ceremonies, and at death and resurrection. Serpents are therefore associated with the Tree of Life and immortality. The World Tree (Ceiba tree) has its roots in the Underworld. A serpent named Kawak (also referred to as Earth Monster) guarded the entrance to this underworld. The trunk (where the humans dwell) supports the Heavens above the Earth. Winding through the branches of the tree is the double-headed Vision Serpent, bringing knowledge and power. In Nikolai Grube's view, serpent imagery is further related to themes of centrality and social partitions. Snake images on murals at Tulum connect individuals who are probably genealogically related. Serpent cords (known as the k'uxa'an suum) connect lineage groups and have represented a sort of umbilical binding that related individuals together. The snake cords in Tulum connected the celestial realm in the ceiling to the other scenes on the temple walls. In Mayan mythology, the deceased entered first the underworld (water in the cave or cenote) and then travelled through the tree of life up to the sky (heaven) on top, to be reborn. Recent research has further demonstrated that the Feathered Serpent was associated with human sacrifice and warfare, as depicted in Teotihuacán on the Temple of Quetzalcóatl. Karl Taube further noted that feathered serpent imagery painted on ceramic vessels at Teotihuacán is often depicted with a heart and droplet signs, which probably allude to heart sacrifice and blood. Feathered serpent imagery is also often depicted with the woven mat, a Mesoamerican symbol of rulership from the Early Classic through Postclassic times (the nobles carried a woven mat to the assembly, to sit on because the benches were made of hard rock). Furthermore, the serpent is an ethereal being of life, breath and wind. The best example of that is perhaps in Uxmal. Serpents on the Nunnery building at Uxmal are among the sculptures of a god, a king and a priest; symbolising a conduit for their passing through the underworld and the heavens. Q'uq'umatz (alternatively Qucumatz) was a deity of the Postclassic ' Maya, considered to be the equivalent of Ehecatl to the Huastecs of the Gulf of Mexico and Kukulkán of the Yucatec Maya tradition, borrowed and blended with other deities that the K'iche' worshipped. Q'uq'umatz (on the left) was also god of wind and rain and was closely associated with Tepeu, god of lightning and fire. Both of these deities were considered to be the mythical ancestors of the K'iche' nobility by direct male line. Q'uq'umatz carried the sun across the sky and down into the underworld and acted as a mediator between the various powers in the Maya cosmos. In Aztec society (1300-1521 AD), the plumed serpent is often represented in human form as having a headdress of flowers and feathers and holding in one hand a staff of life and in the other a spear with its point representing the morning star (Venus), where his heart resides. The feathers are from the beautiful bird quetzal (which were treasured more than gold). Quetzalcóatl was gradually transformed into a major deity. In the Sacred Precinct at Tenochtitlán, the Temple of Quetzalcóatl once stood directly facing the Templo Mayor. The two most important priests at the Templo Mayor both possessed noble titles of Quetzalcóatl. The Aztec Quetzalcóatl is known from several Aztec codices. He was a primordial god of creation, a giver of life, bringer of knowledge, the inventor of books, and he was associated with the planet Venus. After the last world (the so-called Fourth Sun) had been destroyed, Quetzalcóatl went to Mictlan, the land of death, and created our current world, the so-called Fifth Sun, by using his own blood to give new life to old human bones. With his opposite Tezcatlipoca he created the world. Quetzalcóatl is also called White Tezcatlipoca, to contrast him with the black Tezcatlipoca, the god of the night sky. The Mesoamerican duality is also expressed in the fact that Quetzalcóatl had a twin brother Xolotl who accompanied him to the underworld. As the Lord of the East, Quetzalcóatl is associated with Venus (as the morning star) and his twin brother Xolotl was Venus (as the evening star), the Lord of the West. In a sense, this recreation of life is recreated every night when Xolotl guides the sun through the underworld, to make a new day. To me it seems a similar circle of life to the one that Kukulkán undertakes in Chichén Itzá. To take the story one step further, according to Mayan legend, they were visited by a robed Caucasian man with blond hair, blue eyes and a beard, who taught the Maya about agriculture, medicine, mathematics and astronomy. This legend goes back to around 3000 BC, when the world was in turmoil, and there appears to have been flooding in the Caribbean. When the flood came, people fled to high hills. Others claim that they sheltered underground in caves. The legend about the visit of a great civilizer (who visited them and taught them agriculture and other skills) was born. My burning question is if he was an alien from the sky. They called him the prophet or healer. According to the prophecies in the Book of Chilam Balam, the Maya were warned about the white-ruling culture but were also promised with his return a new religion that would bring the world back into harmony. Some say, that despite the warning, the Aztecs mistakenly warmly welcomed the invading Hernán Cortés as Quetzalcóatl, the 'white god'. And how wrong they were, if this story is true! For Cortés cruelly defeated them. In conclusion, the worship of the Feathered Serpent, as I see it, came out from early man's fear of death and his hopes for resurrection. The shamans looked to the powerful forces such as the sun, the moon, Venus, wind and rain, as well as fearsome creatures in their environment such as the jaguar, eagle and serpent as a means of understanding the place and fate of human beings. These beliefs, over time, led to the creation of a great variety of gods. The Feathered Serpent deity throughout time represented the beginning of time, freedom to manoeuvre between worlds, knowledge, wind, water, fire, regeneration, vehicle for celestial bodies moving across the sky, Venus, fertility, human sacrifice, legitimisation of elite rulership and militarism. The variants of Quetzalcóatl, Kukulkán, Gucumatz and Ehecatl may have different names and be associated with different attributes in different culture areas, but they acted everywhere as a portal between two worlds and are linked to Venus and sky through divine rulership, lineage and descent. For me personally, the question still remains if Quetzalcóatl was an ancient astronaut. For those who like cinema, he was portrayed in modern popular culture in many films, usually as a monster. Perhaps you can now view him as a more complex entity, with his ancient powers, as presented in this post.

I should never, ever be allowed to speak. It would be difficult to convey to you how many times I have opened my big, dumb mouth and said something so retarded, so mortifying, that I lay awake the next several nights wishing for my own death. I'd blog about them so you could get your jollies laughing at my stupidity, but the internet isn't big enough to hold them all. However, one particularly unfortunate boo-boo was so traumatizing to me that it's never far from my mind, in spite of the years that have passed since it occurred. Every once in a while I notice it feels like there's something in my throat, and eventually I realize it's my foot, where it's still permanently lodged after this one particularly heinous faux pas. I live in Texas, but still have some family and friends in my hometown in Missouri, so I go back from time to time. On one particular visit, I was in the lone drugstore of that incredibly tiny town when a man who looked to be in his seventies spotted me and was very excited to see me. He was so sweet, so kind and so enthusiastic, it was as if seeing me had made his day. You'd have to understand my hometown; it is very, very small. I can hear some of you now--"I come from a small town, too!" No, you don't. Not like this. There were 38 kids in my senior class in high school. There is one street light in town, and it's on the main street, a flashing yellow. Everyone knows everyone. This is the kind of town where, when a car shows up in town with out-of-state plates, it's news. "Who is that? The car has Idaho plates." " I think it's Kitty's cousin." No, you're wrong--I think Bob has a sister from Idaho, though, it could be her." Etcetera. There's a little old lady in town who has a police scanner in her home, which she sits by all day long, enraptured, as if she's watching TV. The moment anyone gets stopped or arrested, she's on the phone to anyone and everyone she knows to report the news. She actually gossips about what she sees in other peoples' shopping carts at the grocery store, as in, "I guess Jackie's husband is making some good money now, I saw her buying steaks." Growing up, I used to hate the total lack of privacy that comes from small town life. I probably only went to the doctor once a year or less, but still, if I called the only clinic in town to make a doctor's appointment, the office worker who answered the phone would say, "Can I help you?" and I'd say, "I'd like to make an appointment," and she'd say, "Oh, hi, Karla." And this was before our town got caller ID. There were only a handful of businesses in town--one grocery store, two gas stations, one hardware store, one florist, etc. My mom happened to own one of the two restaurants in town, which made her high profile, as in, everyone knew her. And by extension, it seemed like everyone knew me, even though I didn't necessarily know all of them. I was probably introduced to them all at some point, but forgot lots of names, partly because I was a kid, and partly because I was (and still am) fairly self-absorbed. This is why it came as no surprise to me that this very kind elderly man knew me and knew all about me, while I could not, for the life of me, guess who in hell he might be. This happens to me a lot when I'm back for a visit, and usually I can play it off because the exchanges are fairly short. Someone will call out, "Hi Karla!" and I will answer as if I know them. We will exchange the briefest of pleasantries, and both be on our way, with the other person naturally assuming I knew exactly who they were. I hoped to be able to pull off the same scam with this man, because the alternative--letting him know I didn't remember him--was out of the question. He was just so glad to see me--how could I tell him that I didn't even remember him? So I played along, hoping his identity would come to me at some point. The thing that haunts me even now is that he gave me an out--he actually said to me at the start of the conversation, "You probably don't remember me, do you?" And God help me, he was just so sweet and cheerful that I didn't have the heart to say no, so I said, "Yeah, of course I do!" I'm actually a pretty skillful bullshitter, so I thought I could pull this off. Plus, I know that the key to getting away with any kind of lie is to keep the exchange brief, try to make your escape before being caught. With this man, however, it was not so easy to extricate myself from the situation. He wanted details about my life, and asked me very specific questions. "How's your mom? I know her health hasn't been so great lately." "I hear you moved to Texas--what part? Do you like it there?" "What brings you to town? How long are you here for?" This went on and on. This guy was clearly retired, and seemed to be someone who perhaps didn't have a lot to do in his day-to-day life--why else would he be so thrilled to see me, someone who he probably hadn't seen in 10 years? I wanted to turn the conversation back toward him before I blew my cover--plus, it would have been incredibly rude to answer all his questions about me and never ask one about him. So I took the first opportunity to ask, "So what have you been up to?" As he opened his mouth to answer, I was wracking my brain--who IS this guy? I was desperately hoping to mine his responses for clues. Here's the sad saga of how it went down: Me: So what have you been up to? Him: Oh, well, not too much...you heard about my wife. Me: (Nodding solemnly) Yeah, I did. Him: Yeah, so I'm living by myself now, which is hard. At this point I was thinking, Ah-ha! His wife left him! This gives me a clue. But he kind of had that hangdog attitude about it, like he'd been dumped by her, so in an effort to put a more positive spin on it, I brightened and said: Me: Hey, you're back on the market! Him: Well...I don't know if I'd put it that way...(trails off) Suddenly, total recall hit me like a bucket of cold water. I knew exactly who this guy was: It was Mr. J, the father of a kid I went to school with, and longtime patron of my mom's restaurant. His wife died about a year before; I remembered my mom mentioning it to me. Did I just tell a man whose wife died that he's back on the fucking market??! Can't...breathe....Foot jammed in mouth just past the knee.... I don't remember what happened after that. I have no idea how the conversation ended, or if I was in any way able to recover from that. (Is that possible!?) It's like I blacked out from the mortifying horror I felt. The next thing I remember is practically racing across the street to meet up with Brian, who had been in the grocery store picking up some food. I breathlessly recapped the scene, gushing miserably about what a goddamn idiot I was. Now, any responsible person would have agreed with me that I was, indeed, a goddamn idiot, or at the very least, that I had stuck my foot in my mouth. (If only I had stuck in in there sooner, before I got a chance to speak.) But my husband loves me a little too much for total honesty, and can't stand to see me in such a fervor. He actually tried to convince me that it wasn't that big a deal, that Mr. J. probably hadn't noticed, etc. In spite of my protests and retelling of the story to be SURE he understood exactly how thoughtless and stupid I had actually been, he stuck to his reassurances that I had behaved in a perfectly acceptable manner. You've got to love a man who will flat-out lie to try make you feel better. I have to tell you, this story still horrifies me to this day. I managed to surpass even my own expectations of exactly how stupid I'm capable of being. I learned a very important lesson that day: I should never, ever speak unless I'm reading from a script that someone else wrote.

This year I read eleven books from four different European countries. Only one book per country “counts.” For two years, I thought my European Reading Challenge book selections were going to include novels from my favorite continent. Instead, 2017 became the year of “thoughts on living life,” and 2018 was the year of spiritual classics. This time, for sure, 2019 will be the year of European novels. The Poldark series is being gloriously brought to life by Masterpiece, and the fourth season recently aired in the United States. Because the story of Poldark takes place over decades, watching the television series has made me think about the way life unfolds over long periods of time. Gilion’s rules are simple, and the goal is five books from different European countries: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it’s supposed to be a tour. “If we are earnest about our souls, with a quiet fidelity to those duties, practices, and devotions which obedience sanctions to us, our love of God increases without our knowing or feeling it. It is only now and then…that God allows us to perceive that we have really made some progress, and that we care more for Him and less of anything else but Him, than we used to do.” All for Jesus: The Easy Ways of Divine Love, by Father Frederick William Faber, is my fourth book for Rose City Reader’s 2018 European Reading Challenge. Fr. Faber, a Catholic priest, was a popular spiritual writer in Victorian England. The Crochet Guild of America (CGOA) is all about crochet! As it is the only national organization dedicated to the craft of crochet, CGOA provides the opportunity for members to learn more about crochet, be inspired by innovative designs, and connect with other passionate crocheters. Join this community of more than 3,000 enthusiasts from all over the country—and the world—to connect about crochet on all levels. You can learn as a beginner, become a master, be inspired by new designs, and engage through our educational programs and annual conference. If you crochet, you really should be a member. I grew up with the Saxon Math series, and I wouldn’t want to have learned algebra and trigonometry any other way. The premise of John Saxon’s teaching method is “incremental development.” Each concept builds on the previous one–and prior lessons are reinforced through daily practice–until little by little, what seemed “hard” becomes “easy” through repetition. One fine day, it all makes sense. It’s impossible for me to remember things I only do once or twice. Daily repetition and practice is my painless way to learn. That’s how I progressed from yarn crochet to thread lace and finally made my first doilies. This is my execution of a design by Ocie Jordan called “Graceful Doily” from Beginner’s Guide to Thread Crochet, by Leisure Arts. “The worst thing that could happen would be for everything to go exactly as we wanted it, for that would be the end of any growth.” Interior Freedom, by Rev. Jacques Philippe, is my third book for Rose City Reader’s 2018 European Reading Challenge. Fr. Philippe is a French priest, preacher, and spiritual writer. I haven’t typically been in the habit of choosing a “Word of the Year,” but a couple Decembers ago it struck me that my New Year’s word could be “Color.” I thought of it in the sense of seeing with fresh eyes and choosing to accept the bright and varied ways God opens new and unforeseen paths, as opposed to being stuck in the familiar, worn out ways that become stale and colorless. For 2017, Color it was. It’s never a bad time to add new color combinations to crochet projects, either. This pattern is Lion Brand’s Modern Ripple Baby Blanket. I’ve been intrigued by Lion Brand’s “Bonbons,” miniature balls of yarn in colors that make me smile. This was a good project to justify finally buying the Bonbons. “God has given many counsels so that each of us can observe some of them. No day passes without some opportunity to do so.” Finding God’s Will for You by St. Francis de Sales is my second book for Rose City Reader’s 2018 European Reading Challenge. I happened to be reading Sophia Institute Press’s publication of Finding God’s Will for You while in Chicago. The painting on the cover of my edition of this book features Renoir’s portrait “Alfred Sisley,” a pensive man perhaps pondering God’s will for his life. I ran into the original of Monsieur Sisley’s portrait at the Art Institute of Chicago. Neither words nor photographs can convey the awe of looking at the Impressionist masters’ oil paintings in person.

I’m taking a break from a strict logical progression in this series because of the holy day we’re already thinking about this week. I thought it better to discuss the evangelical distinctive that has immediate relevance to Christmas. Before we explore that topic, let me reiterate the purpose and scope of this series. We continue to receive feedback that this attempt to rehabilitate the term evangelical is foolish, as the term has been irretrievably damaged by our current political ecosystem. This is not, however, an attempt to recover the term as such. My aim is only to explain what we mean by it and the type of Christian and lived Christian faith it has represented and continues to represent in Christian history. And one thing it has certainly meant is a belief in the virginal conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of Mary—what is normally shorted to “the Virgin Birth.” This was one of the most-discussed doctrines in 20th-century American evangelicalism, especially in its fundamentalist context. Fundamentalism itself was a response to the skepticism engendered by the rise of historical-critical scholarship coming out of Europe. Many leading Christian scholars were doubting not merely six-day creationism but also classic Christian doctrines like Jesus’ bodily resurrection and his virgin birth, that is, the miraculous in general. The response of conservative Christians in America coalesced in a book called The Fundamentals: A Testimony to the Truth, published by the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (today’s Biola University). It was eventually a 12-volume work that not only defended orthodox Protestant beliefs but also critiqued higher criticism, liberal theology, “Romanism,” socialism, Modernism, and other -isms. The core fundamentals of the faith as outlined by other writers and organizations of that era were numbered in various configurations, but all seemed to include these beliefs: - The divine inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, - The deity of Jesus Christ, - The miraculous stories in the Bible, including six-day creation, - The virgin birth of Christ, - Christ’s substitutionary atonement on the cross, - Christ’s literal, bodily resurrection, and - Christ’s bodily return For the fundamentalists, the Virgin Birth is a consequence of belief in inerrancy, Christ’s deity, and the belief in the miraculous. This is one large reason why it was singled it out for defense. A lot depended on this doctrine. The main lines of liberal argument against it were: - It is not mentioned in the rest of the New Testament; Paul, in particular, doesn’t ever discuss it. Likewise, it is rarely mentioned in the first three centuries of the church’s existence. - Matthew and Luke were using a faulty translation (the Septuagint) of Isaiah 7:14, which in the original Hebrew did not predict that a “virgin” would conceive a coming messiah, but only a “young woman” would. Thus they either made up the story or shaped it according to their misunderstanding. - It imitates pagan and Jewish myths that credit virginal conception to spiritual heroes. - It’s not possible for a human being to be conceived outside of intercourse between a man and a woman, and that’s the only way God providentially designed humans to be fruitful and multiply. These were easily countered by fundamentalist authors. They replied: - It was not discussed by Paul and other New Testament writers, nor by writers in the early church, because it was not controversial. There was no reason to argue for it because no one doubted it. The fact that it emerges in the Nicene Creed without argument or debate suggests this was indeed the case and that it was a core belief for Christians. - Biblical prophecies work on many levels, some literally, some metaphorically, and some both. We see the New Testament writers using a great freedom in using such prophecies. Besides, Mary was clearly a “young woman,” which Isaiah foresaw under the inspiration of the Spirit; that she was also a virgin is revealed in the Gospel accounts. - That other religions have similar stories has no bearing on whether this particular story is historically true. It just indicates that the idea of virginal conception didn’t seem preposterous in that age. - More recent science has shown that parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction) is possible in plants and some animals, if extremely rare (see “Virgin Births Happen all the Time,” by Ted Olsen). The fundamentalist reply of the time would have simply been to say, “Who says God could not or would not do this?” In fact, the assumptions of 19th-century liberal theologians arose not from indisputable objective starting points but from unprovable assumptions. Most were strict materialists, or close to it, and believed that anything that happened in history had to have a material cause. Fundamentalists countered that the Bible, in fact, has a different starting point: God intervenes in history now and then, and when he does and it defies the laws of nature, it’s called a miracle. American evangelicalism as we describe it now rose out of a mid-20th-century rejection of fundamentalism, but that rejection had less to do with core beliefs than with a stance toward culture. Fundamentalists attacked it and urged separation, including separation from those who did not separate from it. Evangelicals wanted to engage culture, if for no other reason than to evangelize it. But evangelicals still affirmed the fundamentals that birthed fundamentalism. Many evangelicals no longer hold to a six-day view of Creation, but neither are they enthused about the materialistic presuppositions of Darwinism. Those who give credence to Darwin insist, however, that evolution has a providential cast—either designed by God to evolve as it has or periodically guided by God to its current state. Other evangelicals today question the usefulness of the word inerrancy to describe the authority of Scripture, but they are still nonetheless fully committed to the Bible being the final authority in matters of faith and practice. The other fundamentals have remained more or less unchanged, and one will find them expressed in nearly every statement of faith issued by evangelical organizations and churches. And that includes belief in the Virgin Birth. I don’t believe, however, that most evangelicals believe it because of the rationalistic defense given by early fundamentalists. While encouraged by such arguments, we recognize that this point and counterpoint can go on and on. Nor do we believe that God could not become human in any other way than by the virgin conception. God could have become incarnate in other ways, to be sure. He’s not bound to some set of higher spiritual or physical laws. But it does seem to us especially fitting that he would be born of a virgin, raised in a family, and that he would live in the warp and woof of the life we know. We think the argument of silence—that is, that it is not mentioned in the rest of the New Testament or in the early church precisely because it wasn’t controversial—makes a lot of sense. Evangelicals simply assume the reality of the miraculous, in part because many of their own conversions have been nothing less than miracles of grace. We know at an existential level that God interrupts history from time to time. Miracles happen. So we have a hard time understanding the problem. That is, if one believes that God is mighty enough to create the heavens and the earth and to raise Jesus bodily from the grave, how hard can it be for him to enable a virgin to conceive? We are baffled by Christians who balk at the Virgin Birth and don’t blink at the creation of the universe or the Resurrection. It is, to use the words of Christ, to strain out a gnat while swallowing a camel. Mariology, though, stops there for most evangelicals. That is, we don’t give Mary much thought after the birth of Christ. While we are rightly dubious about much Roman Catholic devotion and beliefs about Mary, our near absence of Mary in our preaching and teaching leaves us bereft of the wisdom and example she can give. And so Christianity Today periodically includes articles to give Mary her due (like “The Mary We Never Knew” by Scot McKnight and “The Blessed Evangelical Mary” by Timothy George). Mary is arguably the greatest model of faith in the Bible and certainly the second-most important human being in salvation history. Evangelicals, unlike our Orthodox friends, may not frequently call her the “mother of God,” but it’s pretty clear she’s the mother of our salvation, which comes to us in Jesus Christ, who in turn came to us because, when told by God what his will was for her, Mary said simply and humbly, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38, KJV). In this event, then, there was another miracle, one more gift of grace: Before Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary—without blinking, without doubt, without a moment’s hesitation—said yes. Subscribe to Christianity Today and get access to this article plus 65+ years of archives. - Home delivery of CT magazine - Complete access to articles on ChristianityToday.com - Over 120 years of magazine archives plus full access to all of CT’s online archives - Learn more

I. We Believe in God We believe in the one true, living God (Deut. 6:4; I Co. 8:4,6; I Thess. 1:9; Jer. 10:10) Who is infinite in His being and perfection (Job 11:7-9; 26:14). God is an incorporeal, invisible spirit (Jo. 4:24; I Ti. 1:17; Lu. 24:39). God is unchangeable, eternal, omnipotent, all-knowing, ubiquitous, and holy. God works all things after the counsel of His own will and for His ultimate glory (Ja. 1:17; I Kg. 8:27; Ps. 90:2; 145:3; Ge. 17:1; Rm. 16:27; Is. 6:3; Eph. 1:11; Rm. 11:36). Therefore, since God is holy, He is just in the absolute sense. He hates sin and will not allow any sin to go unpunished (Ne. 9:32-33; Ps. 5:5-6; Na. 1:2-3; Ex. 34:7). God is love and exercises mercy toward all men by being longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth. I believe that He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin and that He is a rewarder of them that seek Him (I Jo. 4:8,16; Ex. 34:6,7; Hb. 11:6). In the unity of the Godhead there are three Persons that are of the same substance, power and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (I Jo. 5:7; Mt. 3:16,17; 28:19; II Co. 13:14). A. God The Father We believe in God the Father as having the primacy of the authority in the Godhead. From Him proceed all the divine attributes. God the Father is a spirit and has never been seen by anyone except the Son (John 1:18). The Father proceeds from no one and is not begotten; the Son was eternally begotten of the Father and the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son (Jo 1:14,18; 15:26; Ga. 4:6). B. God The Son We believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, and only mediator between God and men, having taken, when the fullness of time was come, the human nature with all its properties but without sin. (Is. 42:1; I Pe. 1:19,20; Jo. 3:16; I Tim. 2:5; Jo. 1:1,14; I Jo. 5:20; Phil. 2:6; Gal. 4:4; Hb. 2:14,16,17; 4:15). Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb before she knew a man (Lu. 1:27,31,35; Ga. 4:4). In Jesus were inseparably combined in the same Person, two complete, perfect and distinct natures, without conversion, composition or confusion, for He was complete God, and complete man being, nevertheless, one Christ (Lu. 1:35; Col. 2:9; Rom. 9:5; I Pe. 3:18; I Tim. 3:16; Rom. 1:3,4; I Tim. 2:5). I believe in Jesus Christ as Prophet, Priest, King, Head and Saviour of His church, Heir of all things and Judge of the world (Ac. 3:22; Hb. 5:5,6; Ps. 2:6; Lu. 1:33; Hb. 1:2; Ac. 17:31). The Lord Jesus, in His human nature, was full of the Holy Spirit and of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Jo. 3:34; Col. 2:3). The Lord Jesus was crucified for the sins of mankind, died, was buried, and resurrected from the dead the third day, ascended unto Heaven where He sits at His Father’s right hand interceding for mankind, from where He shall return, triumphant, first to call to Himself His redeemed and, finally to establish on the earth His millennial kingdom (Phil. 2:8; Ac. 2:23,24,27; 13:37; Rom. 6:9; I Co. 15:3-5; Mk. 16:19; Rom. 8:34; I Thess. 4:16-17; Rev. 20:2-7). The Lord Jesus, with His perfect sacrifice, pleased the Father’s justice, and not only accomplished the reconciliation between the Most Holy God and men, but also an eternal inheritance in heaven for all who will trust in Him (Rom. 5:19; Hb. 9:15). C. God The Holy Spirit We believe in the Holy Spirit, the perfect God and the third Person of the Trinity. To the Holy Spirit are given in the Scriptures many attributes that are also given both to the Father and the Son: Jehovah, Lord of Hosts, Most High, God, Eternal, Omni-present, All-knowing, Omnipotent, Creator (Hb. 3:7-9; Is. 6:3, 8-10; Act. 28:25; Ps. 78:17,21; Act. 7:51; 5:3,4; Hb. 9:14; Ps. 139:7-13; I Co. 2:10; Rom. 15:19; Job 33:4). The Holy Spirit was sent to the world after the ascension of Christ and proceeded from the Father. As such, He gives joy to the saints, edifies the church, witnesses of Christ, gives God’s love and hope to the saints, teaches the saints and lives in them (Jo. 15:26; 16:7; I Thess. 1:6; Act. 9:31; Rom. 5:3-5; Ga. 5:5; Jo. 14:26; 14:17). It is only through His presence that the things of God are revealed to us (I Co. 2:10,13; Jo. 16:14). It is He that calls and enables, through the gifts, workers for the Christian work. That work, spiritual in nature, is spiritually directed by the Holy Spirit of God. (Act. 13:2; 16:6-7; Jo. 16:13; I Co. 12: 7-11). II. The Bible We believe the Bible is the Word of God, the only sufficient, sure and infallible rule of saving knowledge, faith and obedience (II Ti. 3:15-17; Is. 8:20; Lu. 16:29,31; Eph. 2:20). Being the Word of God, the Bible must be always read in its literal sense. If there is not a clear indication that a passage is to be interpreted in a symbolical way, the same should be interpreted literally. While men can obtain a limited knowledge of the nature and power of God through the works of His creation, I believe that salvation comes only through faith and that faith comes through the Word of God (Rm. 1:20; I Co. 1:21). All of the Bible’s books (Old and New Testament) were written by divine inspiration and preserved through time in the original languages (Hebrew and Greek) (Lu. 16:29,31; Eph. 2:20; Re. 22:18,19; II Ti. 3:16). The infallible interpretation of Scripture is to use Scripture to interpret Scripture. The hardest passages to understand are explained through the simpler passages. To understand God’s revealed truth in His Word, personal illumination by the Holy Spirit is required. (II Pe. 1:20,21; Ac. 15:15,16; II Co. 2:10-12). We use the King James Version for all teaching and preaching in English. III. Heaven and Hell We believe the Bible speaks the truth when it speaks of Heaven and Hell as literal places. Heaven is the place created by God, also called Paradise, where His glory resides and where He is forever glorified by the angels, all the other celestial hosts, and the saints of the Old and New Testaments that have placed their hope in God’s provision for their salvation. I believe that Hell exists, a place created by God so that His justice can condemn those, who being part of His creation that were aware of sin, have rejected God’s only plan for their salvation. That condemnation is eternal. I believe these places are part of the invisible creation of God (Col. 1:16). IV. The Spiritual World God is the Creator of both the material and physical world, and of the spiritual and invisible one. The angels, supernatural creatures made by God for the fulfilling of His will, are part of that creation. They are sent by God to protect and help His people; their powers are above human imagination. I believe that in some point in history there was a rebellion among God’s angels. That rebellion was headed by Lucifer, the most perfect angel. He took with him one third of the angels when he rebelled. For them there is no salvation (Is. 14:12-14; I Pe. 2:4; Ez. 28:12-17). Lucifer, Devil, and Satan are several of the names given to the same real and operative being that leads the attacks against God and His creation. Pride, rebellion and deceit are his main features. Satan works non-stop so that God’s glory will not shine. He also keeps men from God’s glory, leading them to hell which they deserve because of their sin. Satan’s end (and his demons’ end) is the never ending flames of hell (Mt. 25:41; Jo. 8:44; Ez. 28:17). VI. The Creation of the World We believe in God as the Creator and Sustainer of all existing things. We believe, therefore, in the biblical account of creation that we find in Genesis that the heavens, the earth, and all life forms were created in six twenty-four hour days. VII. The Human Condition We believe that God created the first man and the first woman in His likeness so that they could enjoy eternal, uninterrupted and perfect fellowship with Him. However, our first fathers, being seduced by Satan’s subtlety and temptation, sinned by eating of the forbidden fruit and fell from their original justice and fellowship with God (Gen. 3:13; II Co. 11:3; Gen. 3:6-8; Ec. 7:29; Rm. 3:23). Hence, man became dead in trespasses, and completely deformed in all his faculties of body and soul (Gen. 2:17; Eph. 2:1; Tit. 1:15; Gen. 6:5; Jer. 17:9; Rom. 3:10-18). Being the root of all humanity, this sin’s guilt was imparted and the same corrupted nature was transmitted to all their posterity (Ps. 51:5; Gen. 5:3; Job 14:4; 15:14). We believe that it is because of this original corruption that we are, in nature, opposed to all good and completely inclined to all that is bad, this nature being the source of all our transgressions (Rom. 8:7; 7:18; Ja. 1:14; Mt. 15:19). We believe that this corruption of nature remains even in the regenerate while they abide in their fleshly bodies (I Jo. 1:8,10; Rom. 7:14,17,18,23; Ja. 3:2; Prov. 20:9; Ec. 7:20). VIII. God’s Plan for Salvation We believe that salvation comes by grace through faith when we accept, receive, and rest only in Christ for justification, sanctification, and eternal life (Jo. 1:12; Ac. 16:31; Ga. 2:20; Ac 15:11; Eph. 2:8,9). We believe that from the time we receive salvation we are positionally justified before God obtaining the forgiveness of our sins, not having any righteousness in ourselves but because it is imparted to us through the obedience and sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Rom. 4:5-8; II Co. 5:19,21; Rom. 3:22,24,25,27,28; Tit. 3:5,7; Eph. 1:7; Jer. 23:6; I Co. 1:30,31; Rom. 5:17-19). We believe that God continues to forgive the sins of those that are justified, and even though they can never depart from their justified position, they can loose fellowship with God and stop receiving His blessings until they humble themselves, confess their sins, ask for forgiveness, and renew their faith and repentance (Hab. 2:4; Gen. 15:6; Ps. 130:3-4; Lu. 22:32; Jo. 10:28; Heb. 10:14; Ps. 89:31-33; 51:7-12; 32:5; Mt. 26:75; I Co. 11:30,32; Lu. 1:20). IX. The Church We believe in the local church, consisting in a company of professing, born-again believers in Jesus Christ, immersed on a credible confession of faith, and associated for worship, work and fellowship. I believe that the saints, united together in love, should congregate in churches that are local, militant, evangelizing, disciple makers, mission oriented and triumphant. The two offices determined by God for His churches are pastors, also called elders and bishops, and deacons. The pastors, whose job is to feed and pray for God’s people have to be well prepared and married. The deacons, whose job is to serve the church, also have to be men whose testimony is acknowledged by the church and married (Act. 20:28; I Tim. 3:1-13; Act. 6:1-7). X. The Ordinances We believe God instituted for His church two ordinances to represent Christ and His benefits and to confirm our interest in Him (I Co. 10:16; Ga. 3:27). These two ordinances are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. They were instituted by Jesus Christ and are only for the saved (Act. 8:12; I Co. 11:27). Baptism is a symbol of the work of regeneration performed by God in the believer’s life and the giving of one’s self to God to live in newness of life (Col. 2:12; Mk. 1:4; Rom. 6:3-4). Baptism should be celebrated in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Jo 1:33; Mat. 28:19,20). The exterior element of this ordinance is the water. Because baptism is to represent the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, only the complete immersion of the body in water can fulfil the God given requirements for this ordinance (Mat. 3:16; Act. 8:39). Our Lord, on the night He was betrayed, instituted the ordinance of His body and blood called the Lord’s Supper to be observed in His church until the end of time. It is a symbol of the sacrifice of Himself in His death (I Co. 11:23-26). The exterior elements used in this ordinance are the bread and the cup and, since they represent the sinless body and blood of Christ being given for all men, these should be free of leaven, the symbol for sin (Lk. 22:19,20; I Co. 5:6-8).

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Police are searching for a missing man from Jacksonville who they say has been temporarily living in West Palm Beach. Police said Kya'relle Russell, 26, was last seen on Feb. 4 in the 5400 block of East Avenue. Russell is described as 6-feet tall weighing 180 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes. Anyone who sees him or knows his whereabouts is asked to call the West Palm Beach Police Department at 561-822-1900 and reference case #1861.

UNEXPLAINED! STRANGE SIGHTINGS, INCREDIBLE OCCURRENCES, AND PUZZLING PHYSICAL PHENOMENA (PAPERBACK) Written by Jerome clark Published by Visible Ink Press Format: Black /White – 600 pages We live in the age of curiosity. As evidenced by the numerous books dedicated to the subjects as standalones, we are a society who are fascinated by our legends but require proof and existence in this day and age where information is the gold mind to intellectual thought. “Unexplained written by Jerome Clark is a recent edition that tackles much and many of the subjects we tend to learn about thru reality shows and such that cater to this very audience. While a book on Sasquatch’s and the Lock Ness is hardly new, this edition takes the road less followed by taking on its research thru the many of the lesser oddities. These range from creatures, to legends, to strange lights in the sky….. each with their own bit of history locations and worthy amount of data attached. Black dogs, Hairy Dwarves…it almost sounds like the kind of materiel we’d expect to read about in a Harry Potter book, however this is just a sampling of the many weird and wonderful things that make our world go round. “Unexplained” totals over 600 words of solid material collected to lay the groundwork for each of these featured anomalies. A simple flip thru will take you into worlds of information about things we never knew existed. Whether it’s water hounds or a hairy man named “Yowie”, I’m sure there will be much here that pokes at your inquisitive nature. Perhaps it doesn’t have to be “uncovered living dinosaurs” and your simply wanting to know about bizarre kangaroo sightings which by standards is not the same as seeing a UFO… but may be strange enough to have seen it appearing in out of place locals such as Chicago? I’ve never seen a “Moma”, a lake monster, or a hairy biped, but just because we “haven’t” doesn’t mean that they are to out there. I compare this sensation to admiring the pyramids of Egypt from afar via pictures and ideas, but never actually visiting them myself. Martian mummies, a devil’s sea, or maybe some new perspectives on Noah’s ark….it’s all here providing hours of solid researched reading for fans of the metaphysical, extraterrestrial and strange items of interest. Curious about snakes that have lived in human stomachs? How about a life form that looks like bubbles? How about a bear-coyote-looking beast referred to as a “Wahhoo”? I’m sure you’ll learn a few new things about weird elements within our own history and culture that have been real enough to warrant their creation of reports on sightings, experiences and real world encounters. Whether you want to believe them or not, there is no ignoring the impact they have had via the world over. Perhaps that which is strange yesterday will someday become the norm. As we grow and technology enables us to capture more than ever, we enable ourselves to learn that much faster about things that have long been off the common radar. Jerome CVlack, is a fantastic writer and researcher who places these social elements of life right at our fingertips with tales or old and new. A great new read from the folks at Visible Ink chock full of data and stories that will give you a new perspective on our world. Book Review: Unexplained! Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomen – Author Jerome Clark

Ilam, Dec 31: A youth died of electric shock while trying to fish using electric current at the Mahamai river on Friday. The District Police Office, Ilam has identified the deceased as Dinesh Kumar Lawati, 21, of Mahamai – 1. His body has been taken to Mechi Zonal Hospital in Jhapa for a post-mortem examination. In another incident, a middle-aged man was killed when attempting to connect a wire of a motor used to draw water. Dharmananda Pant, 63, of Bhimdattanagar Municipality – 8 of Kanchanpur was killed while trying to draw water to take a bath. He died on the spot, according to District Police Office, Kanchanpur. His body was handed over to his relatives after an autopsy.

The Scoop: 1987 R, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi and Sarah Berry Tagline: Kiss Your Nerves Good-Bye! Summary Capsule: Ash, the classic anti-hero stud, must once again do battle with the weird and evil dead. Kym’s rating: Three out of three custom-made hand chainsaws Kym’s review: Once again, Bruce Campbell gives another wonderful performance as Ash, the epitome of manliness. This movie is actually a prequel to Army of Darkness, and lets you see why exactly Ash only has one hand (Did anyone ever read Clive Barker’s “The Body Politic”?) and why he was sucked back into the fourteenth century. While the effects are cheesy and pretty gory (I’m pretty sure that I’ve only seen one other movie with this much blood in it), if you forget about that thing called logic and just take it as a hysterically funny B-movie, you’re sure to enjoy it. I loved the part were Ash was fighting with his own hand (just watch the movie) and where his dead, decapitated girlfriend starts dancing. Also, another wonderful scence is when ever inanimate object in the house starts laughing at Ash. What an evil-looking deer head! Included are the one-liners that makes Ash what he is and a few well-placed clever references, if you watch carefully enough (check out the book that Ash places on top of the bucket). Rent this one, forget any restraints of the real world, and enjoy it. Justin’s rating: Well that’s one property that’s going to sink in value. Justin’s review: Evil Dead 2 is like the Empire Strikes Back of the Evil Dead trilogy. Die-hard fans are most fond of this installment (although I lean slightly more toward Army of Darkness), pleased with the dark humor and delicious parody of the first Evil Dead in specific and horror movies in general. Mm-mmm! Parodies are great with a bit of salt and tabasco sauce! Why is Evil Dead 2 held in such high regard? Well, for one thing director Sam Raimi has our family at chainsaw-point and keeps tormenting us with answering machine messages. I… I don’t know how to go on… one day at a time, Justin, one day at a time. But there’s also the fact that ED2 recognizes that horror and humor go hand in hand, that shrieks of fear can turn into laughter, that I can loose my bladder at the sight of a decapitated head or the hijinks of a bad pun. Our hero Ash is equal parts stupid, street-smart, and remote control-grabbing guy. Trapped in a haunted cabin in the woods where his dead girlfriend has come back to life, his hand infected with pure evil, something in the cellar trying to get out, and rednecks mistaking HIM for the bad guy… well, Ash realizes that all you can do is laugh. And then chop off your hand, attach a chainsaw, and blow evil to bits with a 12-gauge. It’s hard to accurately relate how strangely funny this movie is. It’s a sendup of many other generic horror setups, sure, but Evil Dead 2 is also a lot of stuff you’ve NEVER seen before. The good guys aren’t all that good at times (everyone gets a chance to play the bad guy in this flick, you might notice). There’s blood, lots of blood, so much blood that at points it is shooting through the wall in a geyser of multi-colored splendor. Evil has a wicked sense of humor, such as when the house comes alive laughing hysterically, with Ash joining in. And everything is shot in Sam Raimi’s classic Bizarro techniques, which brings out the surreal and humor for the whole family. So the parasite that lives at the base of my neck and I both agree: You need to have “See Evil Dead 2” on your list of things to do before you die. Clare’s rating: You haven’t really lived until you’ve seen this flick. Don’t argue with me about this. I know what I’m talking about. Clare’s review: I was going to do separate reviews for the 1st and 2nd Evil Dead movies until I rented them both and watched them back to back. I’ve seen the Evil Deads any number of (ok, over 70) times but never one right after the other. What I realized after all my many years of slobbering affectionately over these two gems is that the 2nd one isn’t actually a sequel to the first. It’s more of a bigger budget “revisiting” of the material that was put down in ED1. Individually, ED1 and ED2:DBD are absolutely worth watching. This first one is more of a classic, gore fest, spooky house in the woods possessed by evil spirits kind of deal. The 2nd departs into more cartoony, slap sticky, over the top weirdness. However, if you watch them back to back, it’s really easy to follow how director Sam Raimi (and co-producer/star Bruce Campbell) went from the raw material of ED1 to the masterpiece that is ED2. More importantly though, are the two reasons why these movies have garnered such a devoted and ravenous following. The first, and most important is Bruce Campbell, who has developed a gaggle of adoring dorks who love his every schmarmy, leading man move. (Please count me as, unapologetically, a card carrying member of said dork gaggle). The second is the revolutionary (and no, I’m not exaggerating) camera work. What I call “creeping evil cam” was, in 1982, MUCH harder and more technically difficult to pull off than it would be now with all our fancy new fangled stedi cams and digital short cuts. When I first saw Evil Dead (I’m afraid to admit exactly how many years ago that was), the creeping evil cam totally kicked my ass. When I watched it again recently, my ass was kicked yet again. Mini-review of Evil Dead: Ash, (which is short for the very manly Ashley – played by our hero, Bruce Campbell) and his friends drive to a cabin in the woods for a weekend of relaxation, a little lovin’ and some early 80’s style fashion accidents. Almost immediately upon their arrival, weird and frightening things begin to happen. Everyone, of course, decides to ignore all the obvious signs pointing to all the EVIL!!!!!! (thank you Hecubus) that surrounds them. People get sexually assaulted by trees, women scream, dead bodies come alive, much blood is spurt (or is it spurted?) and everybody dies… THE END But wait. If everybody dies Clare, how can there be an Evil Dead 2? Well little MRFHy, let me explain. The last shot of ED is creeping evil cam speeding from the back yard of the cabin through all the rooms of the house out the front door and stopping, quite horrifyingly on Bruce Campbell’s turned, screaming-in-terror mug. The first 5 minutes of Dead by Dawn are actually a retelling of the entire 1st movie. Only this time, there’s not a group of folks going to the cabin for lovin’, there are two, Ash and his girlfriend. They get there, girlfriend dies, dances around with her decapitated head and Ash THEN gets attacked by creeping evil cam and is thrown, quite comedically, into a very large tree. He eventually comes to and the story goes from there. Ten minutes in to ED2, it takes on a decidedly different tone from the horror/gore clichés found in the first one. I won’t ruin anything for anyone who hasn’t seen ED2:DBD by divulging too much more of what happens. What I really love about ED2 is that it’s the first (and last?) horror movie I’ve ever seen that addresses the psychological ramifications that horror movie carnage would actually have on someone who’s lived through it. In short, they’d go a little wacky in the head. Do yourself a favor. Arrange yourself on the sofa with a drink of your choosing, some warm slippers and a good friend. Turn off all the lights. Turn on Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn. Prepare to freak out. Toni’s rating: 5 half-digested locks of hair. Groovy. Toni’s review: I am a shameful, shameful person. No really, I am. This blood drenched, manly uberfilm has been out for 14 years and I just watched it this weekend along with Clerks. Please don’t stone me. I assure you, the guilt I feel is only equaled by the pure giddiness I felt after watching Evil Dead 2 twice. Ash, Our Hero ™, once again experiences a manly breakdown (oh yeah, he’s fine) as the bony headed evil dead terrorize half a dozen people in an isolated cabin. Boy, isolated cabins are -never- good, are they? Bruce Campbell kicks severed wrist in the role, proving that you don’t need seizures to make some really -cool- faces! I mean it. When I’m done here, I’m gonna go watch it again just for his “the power of low-budget fx editing compels you” face. That would be the one we see as he evicts the evil spirit from his body for the first time. Speaking of the f/x… well… don’t expect ILM or anything but they’re still good and they fit the movie perfectly. The hand, the super evil, and the poor headless girlfriend stand out in my mind. But the thing I loved most was certainly the blood. They should have put it in the credits, there was so much. Okay, so it was kind of watery blood, but still! Look at it all! Nifty! Yay blood! I highly recommend Evil Dead 2 to anyone at all… except maybe my grandmother. She’d never go into the cellar again. Nancy’s rating: Wahoo! Times two! Nancy’s review: I’ve only seen this one once, but it is definitely my favorite out of the three. The progression of these films is so amazing — one is straight-up zombie flick, and one is all hilarity in the world condensed in film form. The middle one is a horror movie, by all means, but it’s funny! Things that I love: - Evil chases Ash. For a long time. Ash hides. Evil loses him. THIS IS ALL DONE THROUGH EVIL’S EYES! - No one seems to care that the plot from the first one is forgotten for the sake of easier story-telling. - Every time I see a tree limb, I think “Oh man, it’s happening again…” - Continuity errors rock my world. It’s like Bruce Campbell is saying to me “Look. You and I both know this is a movie, not real. And to make it fun for you, we’re going to forget the parts of the first movie that will make less wild zombie fun happen in this movie. And also, my chin… notice it.” I love the glorious celebration of the this-is-a-movie! Let’s-have-fun! - Did you notice this crazed mother f-er attaches a chainsaw to his hand? To be fair, no other can compare. Now, let me get a little paragraph to everyone out there. This is not something you go to for sheer shriek factor or genius special effects. But you’re not going to mock a stupid horror movie, because it’s a completely different experience then that. It’s self-aware without winking at the camera for a cheap laugh. It’s got very strange and freaky elements that may indeed cause nightmares. However, these effects are countered by such elements as a chalk outline around where a chainsaw SHOULD be. The great thing is, you’re so wrapped up in genuine excitement and fear, that the laugh comes as such an intensely hilarious thing. It’s just a relief! And the greatest thing is, if you have any concept of what cool really is, you know that Bruce Campbell is it, through and through. So, your awesomeness points get raised for that day. - Ash puts the book “Farewell to Arms” on top of the bucket trapping his hand - Is anyone else confounded by the skull with eyes on the cover of the VHS tape? - A glove belonging to Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger can be seen hanging near the steps in one of the cellar scenes. This was in response to the use of Evil Dead on a television screen in Nightmare on Elm Street. - Professor Knowby’s dead wife is said to be in the “fruit cellar,” a reference to Psycho - Ash’s chainsaw appears to switch hands in one scene. This is because Sam Raimi decided Ash should walk the opposite way across the room in that scene, so he flipped the negative. - When the plane lands, a guy on the right keeps trying to open the right part of the plane door, and can’t — for most of the scene! - Apparently, the reason Dead by Dawn retells (inaccurately) what happened in the 1st Evil Dead is because they couldn’t get permission to include footage from the 1st ED in the 2nd one. Since they had to reshoot it anyway, they decided to just change a whole bunch of stuff to make it easier to explain how Ash could go back into the cabin and not find the dismembered bodies of all his friends who were left there at the end of ED1. (good heavens I’m a nerd!) Ash: Let’s go down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch. Ash: [whistles to monster] Let’s go! Ash [to mirror]: I’m fine. I’m fine. Mirror Ash: We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. I wouldn’t call that *fine*. Annie: The first passage will allow the demon to manifest itself in the flesh. Ash: Why the hell would we want to do that? Ash: You’re goin’ down. Chainsaw. Demon: I’ll swallow your soul!! I’ll swallow your soul!! [Ash points his shotgun at the Demon’s head] Ash: Swallow this. Ash: [after stabbing his bad hand] Who’s laughing now? Ash: What’s this? Girl: Legend has it that in the 13th century a hero from the sky came to rescue them from the evil Deadites. Ash: Well, he didn’t do a very good job. If you liked this movie, try these:

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2021 But also, did Rittenhouse do that?: We're opposed to capital punishment. In fact, we always have been. That said, we're also opposed to mindless Storyline / Narrative / Script. We're opposed to Perfect Stories, especially when such treasured stories aren't especially accurate. Bret Stephens starts his column today with a long-standing Perfect Story. The return of this story reminds us of a basic fact about our journalism—memorized script never dies: STEPHENS (11/24/21): It’s been nearly 30 years since then-Gov. Bill Clinton took a break from the campaign trail to oversee the execution of death-row inmate Ricky Ray Rector. Morally, it may have been repugnant to kill a man so mentally handicapped by a failed suicide attempt that he set aside the pecan pie of his last meal because he was “saving it for later.” Politically, it was essential. By the early 1990s the American left had spent a generation earning a soft-on-crime image in an era of growing lawlessness. In 1988, Mike Dukakis secured the Democrats’ third landslide loss thanks in no small part to his stalwart opposition to the death penalty. Four years later, it was difficult to imagine any Democrat reaching the White House without a literal blood sacrifice to the gods of law and order. On the one hand, it's true! The late Ricky Ray Rector was executed in Arkansas in January 1992. He was executed for having committed a particularly heinous murder, following which he had shot himself in the head, creating a diminished mental capacity. Also, Candidate Clinton did leave the campaign trail to be present in the state, serving as governor, when the execution occurred. That said, did Rector really "set aside the pecan pie of his last meal because he was 'saving it for later?' " Anyone familiar with the human cultural practice will recognize that as a classic Perfect Story. That doesn't mean that the story is false. It does mean that intelligent people should wonder whether it's true. We're fairly sure that we researched and wrote about that Perfect Story maybe ten years ago. It seems to us that we emerged from that exercise doubting the accuracy of the iconic, widely loved story, which emerges again today. Did the late Ricky Ray Rector really say that? We have no idea. None of this bears on the morality of capital punishment, a practice we've always opposed. It does speak to a different moral question: It speaks to the way our mainstream press corps tends to favor these Perfect Stories—the stupidified stories which vastly simplify the events and issues which constitute the real world. It speaks to the way they tend to favor such simplistic tales, even when the stories in question aren't especially true. It also speaks to a basic point we've long urged you to recognize: Much as "rust never sleeps," Narrative / Storyline / Memorized Script never dies. Perfect Stories will always return, as this one does today. According to anthropologists, our brains are wired for Perfect Stories, for the vastly stupidified tale. This brings us to a second question: Did Kyle Rittenhouse really do that? We refer to the ugly, stupidified stories we posted yesterday afternoon. In this case, these remarkably ugly, stupid stories came from one particular wing of the "mainstream press." They came from the people we're now asked to listen to, respect and believe here in our own liberal / progressive / Democratic / blue world. We refer to a series of accounts, from six different people, of what Kyle Rittenhouse supposedly did in Kenosha last summer. Below, we'll repost two of those accounts, one by Professor Johnson, one by Malcom Nance. If you were watching The ReidOut last Friday, you saw these people offer these highly tendentious implied accounts. Today, though, we ask a simple question: Is this anything like what Kyle Rittenhouse actually did? Did Rittenhouse really do this? JOHNSON (11/19/21): The first thing that occurred to me after this ruling is, "Oh, well, okay, now it's just open season." Like if I'm walking around and I'm a white nationalist, you know, coward little kid with an AR-15, and I see someone drive by with a Black Lives Matter bumper sticker and I feel threatened, I can open fire. If I go by a youth group standing outside a local Target and they're chanting, "Black lives matter," and I feel threatened, I can open fire. NANCE: What he did, by his very action of going out, going to a protest across state lines, being within a group of armed men, performing what they call the Korean on the rooftop, right, defending a position, whether it's a business or other, where they were not invited, and then getting into this fight where he killed two men and wounded a third, that is now the template on how to protest against Antifa or Black Lives Matter or any other person that they consider, in the white supremacy-world, race traitors. Is that what Rittenhouse actually did? More specifically, is that anything like what Rittenhouse actually did? Did he see someone with a bumper sticker and feel he could open fire? Did he see a youth group chanting "Black lives matter" and decide to open fire? Did he kill two men because he considered them to be race traitors? Is any of this anything like what actually happened that night? We aren't telling you what to think about what Rittenhouse did. We're asking you what you think about the various things six people said on last Friday evening's "news program." We regard their conduct as all-too-human but extremely bad. That said, conduct like that suffuses our liberal "news orgs." This morning, in the rest of his column, Stephens is essentially saying that the liberal / progressive / Democratic / blue world is probably in a world of hurt because of the various dumb and dishonest prescriptions coming from tribunes like these. Stephens plays a few other familiar cards as he offers this assessment. One concerns a Perfect Story the mainstream press corps concocted in 1988 about Candidate Dukakis. Having said that, Standard Group Script is very powerful—and it's often bogus. Over the course of the past year, a wide array of scripts emerged about what happened in Kenosha. Sadly, it seems to us that The Others were actually more fully informed about the wide range of those events than our blue tribe has been. In this case, we think their silo released more information than ours. We'll explore that claim next week. In the meantime, we ask you this: What do you think about people who go on TV and say the things those progressive tribunes said? All six angrily said that Rittenhouse had crossed state lines, an utterly meaningless bit of fully stupidified script. We think their conduct is dumb-beyond-dumb, though also thoroughly human. Beyond that, we think that Stephens' overall assessment is quite likely accurate. According to experts, recitation of script is pleasing and fun, but stupidification kills.

I founded Actorium with the purpose of creating an environment where people can discover and immerse themselves in the art of acting; a place to grow and develop creatively through this beautiful, fun, interesting, and life-changing art form. I think of Actorium as a place for people to inspire and to get inspired and grow, not only as an actor but personally – as I think the two go together. It is not only an actor’s training centre but also a community with a strong culture for daring authenticity, humour, warmth, and openness. What I have learned through acting and have used as a core principle of Actorium is to never lose sight of the truthful basis of your art and the reason you started in the first place. Instructor – Olivia Nelson What draws me to the acting process is the unique opportunity to delve into the vastness of the human experience and express it as authentically as possible. As actors, we practice the opposite of what most people initially think, and that is being real, and lowering the masks we tend to wear in our day-to-day lives. This has been the biggest gift for me personally – to actually stop acting in my own life! The more truthful I can be in front of a camera, the more the audience gets to be up-close and personal with their ‘real’ selves. This process has allowed me to grow as a person in numerous ways, such as feeling more connected and creative in my life. When I’m not acting, I miss the aliveness it brings me and the ability to be of service by stretching the edge of my vulnerability – it really is the craft that keeps on giving. Filming and Editing – Rebecca Dumbrille I’ve always been been drawn to the arts. I studied visual arts in University at Emily Carr and towards the end of my undergrad, I started working at Actorium, an acting school with a strong focus on the art of acting and a culture of diversity and inclusion. When I was younger, I never saw myself reflected in the media and so this was deeply satisfying, and it was there that I really fell in love with film as a format. I have spent the past three years honing my skills on camera, editing and colour grading. My interest is in capturing the human experience through colour and movement, and my goal is to make stories that show the true diversity of our world so that other young people can have the experience of seeing themselves reflected in media. Graphic Designer – Liz Wurzinger Liz Wurzinger BA studied Graphic and Media Design in her homeland Austria before relocating to Vancouver in 2011. She enjoys the brain-wrecking concept and idea-finding process of each project as much as the obsessive crafting of fine layouts. Liz has recently been helping to refine Actorium’s visual language. Advisory Board Members Academy Award-winning Producer Fred Roos (IMDb) has worked with some of Hollywood’s most gifted filmmakers and actors over the last four decades, producing some of the most unique films of our time. Roos’ long-term collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola includes producing the Academy Award-winning Best Picture The Godfather Part II and the Academy Award-nominated Best Pictures Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Part III, and The Conversation (winner of the Palm D’Or at Cannes). Other films Roos has produced with Coppola include One From the Heart, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, Gardens of Stone, New York Stories, Tucker: The Man and His Dream. He has also worked as Executive Producer on Youth Without Youth, Tetro, and Twixt. Among Roos’ other producing credits are… more on Mr. Roos. Illuminating her films with inspired performances from actors is a hallmark of Martha Coolidge’s IMDb work – from her documentaries to her remarkable pioneering achievements in features, television, and the internet. A consummate filmmaker, she is known as an “Actor’s Director”. From Robert Duvall and Halley Berry, to Geena Davis and James Gandolfini, her actors give some of their best performances. Her cornerstone hit comedies Valley Girl and Real Genius put her on the map and launched the careers of Nicholas Cage and Val Kilmer. Coolidge also exceeds genre and is known for her powerful dramas: notably Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, which was nominated for eleven Emmy nominations, winning five, including Halle Berry, who also won a Golden Globe, the SAG Award, and two NAACP Awards; Rambling Rose, nominated for two Academy Awards, two Golden Globes and won three, out of five; and the IFP Spirit Awards for Best Director and Best Picture. Coolidge’s TV movies and episodic include CSI, Sex and the City, The Glades, and If These Walls Could Talk which earned her a second DGA nomination for Best Director. Coolidge continues to serve on the boards of the DGA, the Academy of Motion Pictures, the AFI, and Women in Film, and was elected as the first woman President of the Director’s Guild of America in 2001. Mr. Kemeny (IMDb) is a Vancouver-based businessman who has worked as Executive Producer on several feature films. His credits include Saving Lincoln, Return to Byzantium: The Art and Life of Lilian Broca, and When Do We Eat? Earlier in his career, Horatio was a software development manager and entrepreneur. He is still involved in the industry, directing a number of technology companies. He brings his diverse and substantial business background as as well as a considerable interest and support of the arts to Actorium. When I signed in the Intro class, I had absolutely no idea about what Actorium was. I did not know what to expect, although I had been slightly familiar with the Meisner Technique. All I wanted was to start an acting class as soon as possible after landing in Vancouver. Now, after finishing the class, I can say that I have found the place where I want to work on becoming an actor. Just wanted to thank you and tell you how much I am enjoying your class! I come in usually tired and stressed from my day and feel empowered, enlightened, and invigorated. I am very serious about excelling and being an amazing actor. Last class, I was blown away with the meditation with the belly breathing and baby analogy. It hit me really deep, especially when you said a baby doesn’t laugh or cry from its head! WOW!!! I mean, it all seems common sense but with all my 46 years of emotional bandages and coping mechanisms it has been buried. I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your class and you giving back to the community and being so awesome!! I feel very grateful to be in your class and know I will develop deeply under your guidance. I feel like I am growing daily from your classes. I am a Leader and will definitely keep challenging myself and classmates to be better. Isn’t that what life is about? Thank you for your thoughts, observations, and advice. It is a surreal experience for me being in your acting classes. I have lived my life inside a sort of straight jacket and blindfolded. I have known something was very wrong but I did not know how to help myself. I could not explain how this is working but over the last six months, I have felt a loosening from what binds me, which is such an incredible relief, but with it I feel sadness also. I can not emphasize enough how limited I have been due to my fears and my thought processes. Michelle, I am so deeply thankful for this painful and joyful process. I am sorry so much time has past in my life, but thankful there is some left. I wanted to extend my thanks for facilitating my learning/growing over the past few months. I’ve discovered so many things that have eluded me in my acting process for years. My audition yesterday was kind of like the culmination of what I’ve gone through in your class up to this point. It was nice to go into a very intimidating audition with solid tools and the confidence to know that I can “go there” if I bring in my commitment and focus. I felt so free! As I was moving through the audition, I was keenly aware of the other person and kept my focus on them – it was like I was doing a Meisner exercise right there in the room – it was so cool. I am really liking what I am learning in Intro and want to continue with Foundation. In fact, I went to an open audition and used the grounding and connection with my partner in the cold read scenes I did. Yeah! And I just found out that I got the part! 🙂 Thank you for keeping us on our toes. I really have been learning a lot coming to these classes, about myself and (not just) acting. It really feels so much better being in the actual moment rather than acting it out in a way we think it should be. I have been taking acting classes now for a couple of months and it is changing me. At first when I was up on the stage, I felt rigid and self-conscious, unwilling to share my heart and emotions. Maybe I was willing but afraid. I find now that sharing is coming easier and that everything I share is reflected around me in the other participants. I am finding that the act of getting on stage is so opening and so freeing. I want to go deeper into it. It is just what I need to keep the juice of life going… Face fear… Face myself and share. Thank you to our instructors for embarking on this with your whole heart and taking us with you!! Acting classes are paying off. I’m getting more assertive and witty! Ha ha! Just wanted you to know. I have always been terrified of public speaking and have never even in my dreams wished to be in the limelight on any stage. The thought of taking acting lessons would have never occurred to me. But my instructor introduced this idea in such an intriguing way. She said this class was a safe place for those who wanted a chance to tiptoe out into the spotlight and thus explore hidden facets of their essence and personality. I’ve always been rather inhibited and not-quite-the-real-me in my range of expression in social settings so I thought this would be a potentially fun and cheap way to expand my range, as compared to say, sitting weekly on a therapist’s couch for months on end. Well, it’s only been four classes so far but holy moly! I could not have guessed how eye-opening and personally rewarding this experience would be for my inner development and self-knowledge. The instructor is guiding us starting from scratch using the Meisner training technique. Not only do I feel I have a better window to my authentic self (and what could possibly be more precious than that) but I also feel like I really have an inner eye and empathetic understanding of my fellow classmates which in so few hours with strangers is really incredible. I would urge anyone who resonates with me to try this course. Very highly recommended. I want to express my appreciation for the opportunity to join the Meisner Intro Class. The attention, understanding and encouragement you give is communicated with such compassion and depth that makes one want to incorporate and excel. Even from the first workshop, there has been a shift in my interaction with others and awareness of how and what I communicate. I learn something new with each class and the experience stays alive within me until the next class. The activities/exercises feel like a return to our more natural selves before being told how to be, what to say, how to say it. I am reminded to check in with myself for authentic expression of my experience in the moment. Thank you for your brilliance in presenting this opportunity. She inspires us to leap fully into a given exercise or character by encouraging us to overcome the personal barriers and inhibitions that hold us back. She reaches for real emotions in her students, and encourages us to find our most authentic performances. She strips away the mystique of acting, and provides a great working environment in which we can learn about ourselves, and about the craft of acting. My coach, outside of class, noted a very grounded and open difference in my performance. My advice to anyone who works at Actorium is to listen closely to what is asked, let the ego go, allow the walls to fall, and be willing to grow. Not only has the program allowed me to tap into my childhood bliss that I chose to let go of, but it also helped me look at places I blocked out within myself. I am becoming more whole and my relationships are becoming more authentic and honest. I am finding the program is helping me stay present and be more honest with everyone in my daily interactions. Rather than my habit of keeping my thoughts to myself, I’m able to share those feelings with people I trust and they make room for me. I have richer relationships because I’m able to recognize what I’m feeling and sense what others are feeling. I think the instructors have done a phenomenal job thus far. They do a great job of being inclusive to everyone who is there. I trust they know exactly who needs to work on which area and will tailor each class accordingly. I find they manage to tailor our classes specifically to each person’s unique needs. We all have different areas of strengths and weaknesses, and our instructors recognize what exercises will benefit us most to make a breakthrough.

Winona, TX — Sad news out of Texas this morning when news broke that the pastor of the Starrville Methodist Church was shot and killed by a fugitive who had been hiding in the restroom overnight. Two other parishioners were injured. Police reportedly have the suspect in custody. Police reported that they had been pursuing the 21-year-old black male suspect the night before but he had eluded them by hiding in the empty church building. Then, this morning, before services began, the Pastor had come across the man in church restroom. The pastor was armed at the time, but the man was allegedly able to take away the pastor’s gun and shoot him. The pastor died on the scene. Local news reports: Valley Central reports: Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith said in a news conference that the alleged shooter was being chased by police late Saturday night in a dark-colored Volkswagen Jetta. The pursuit began at FM 849 in Lindale. Smith did not say what started the chase, but that the license plates on his car were fake. The police reported that the suspect crashed the Jetta and took off into the woods. A manhunt began, but they lost his trail. It’s clear now that the man hid out in the church building overnight. After the shooting, the man fled the scene. A second person at the scene was also injured before he fled the church. That victim is in surgery at a Tyler hospital. Harrison County deputies and DPS were able to capture him with help from ONSTAR after a separate high-speed chase on I-20 where speeds reached 120 miles per hour. The suspect suffered a gunshot wound to the hand. It is unclear if that was from the shooting at the church or when he was captured. This is such a tragedy for the tiny town of Winona. Two hours east of Dallas and just between Longview and Tyler, the town has a population of just 600 people. As gun owners, we hope that every church shooting ends with a hero like Jack Wilson saving the day. And from all reports, this pastor WAS a hero, carrying a gun to protect his parishioners. But in this case, the violent criminal had the element of surprise and had no doubt planned what he would do if somebody entered his hideout. Our prayers go out to the town of Winona, the family of the pastor, and everybody involved.

I completed my first Classic: RABBIT, RUN (Updike). I rated it a 1.5/5. :( I finished my first: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.http://superfastreader.wordpress.com/2007/01/07/the-moonstone-by-wilkie-collins/ I actually read one of my challenge books in December, so I added a new one to my list!I read Edith Wharton's, The Age of Innocence in December; and finished Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen in January. Very brief reviews are posted on my blog (caribousmom). What's happened to the dates?! This appears to have been blogged in March 2007 - the Winter Challenge is now officially over :-) I finished my first as well. Isn't it funny that, just like The Superfast Reader, it was Wilkie Collins' Moonstone? See the entry for January 6th.http://individualtake.blogspot.com/ Joy, I'll be over to read your review. Looks like you didn't like it much with only a 1.5 rating. Hope the next one is better.Superfast, I'm still jealous of the spead with which you read. Anxious to read your thoughts about Moonstone.Wendy, I have no problem with you reading one of your classics in Dec and counting it, if you want to. Rajm, the date trick is one I learned from Colleen Gleason. By predating a blog, it will stay at the top of my blog throughout the whole classics challenge, so readers don't have to waste time finding the post. I did the same thing with the one just below it. Jill, I wonder if you and superfast reader will feel similar about that the book. That's a chunkster - you must be a fast reader, too. I've just finished my first classic The Wind in the Willows and I really enjoyed it. I'm back to the Fellowship of the Ring (my second one). I should finish it any time now. Hopefully. :) That's quite a list. No wonder you were always on the computer :) I just finished my first yesterday, Lady Audley's Secret. It was pretty good! I finished A Wrinkle in Time, now I"m passing it on to one of my children to read :)http://womenathome.typepad.com/my_reads/2007/01/a_wrinkle_in_ti.html http://womenathome.typepad.com/my_reads/2007/01/a_wrinkle_in_ti.htmlI don't know what happened to the link... sorry. I finished my first, Casino Royale, awhile back. Here's a link to the review:http://www.stainlesssteeldroppings.com/?p=568 I finished my first book: Madame Bovary Woo hoo, one down, four to go! I just finished "Umrao Jaan Ada", an Urdu classic, written in 1905 about a courtesan in the Royal Courts of Lucknow, India. I finished my first as well: Metamorphosis. Next one coming up soon promise. I finished the Odyssey. I'm not sure I feel any smarter. :) I am struggling to read Catch-22. I am really hating this book (I know many, many people love it...but, it is just torture for me). I want to give up on it (I'm 70 pages into the book). Is it permissible to give up on one of my listed books and substitute another classic in its place? (...please, please say yes!!)Wendy Wow! you guys are doing awesome! I'm going to be starting my first classic today - Woman in White. I feel so far behind, but I had to read a couple books for book groups. Might be quite embarassing if I don't finish my own challenge!Wendy, don't hesitate to change one book on your list for a different one. Thank you, thank you, thank you!I've bagged Catch-22 (I'll be interested to see what other readers think of this book!).I've substituted: Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton. My blog is updated with this new information. Hi! I finished Frankenstein and posted this on it:http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/007375.htmlI also finished Tale of 2 Cities:http://www.sheilaomalley.com/archives/007516.htmlI'm reading Gulliver's Travels now - I'll let you know when I finish it! I completed my second Classic: BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (Capote). I rated it a 3.25/5. OK my first one is up. Jo's Boys by L M Alcott(randomjottings.typepad.com) I finished Silas Marner by George Eliot. My review is here:http://educatingpetunia.blogspot.com/ I've just finished The Fellowship of the Ring and I'm currently reading The Two Towers (my third in the list!) I made a new blog, just for books, and am updating this challenge there. I've finished Robinson Crusoe (in December) and then The Great Gatsby and Treasure Island over the holidays, into January. I'm slogging through On the Road right now; slow going though, because it is not grabbing me. Oh yeah, I'm reading Moby Dick with an online group, a few pages a day. It might take more than until the end of Feb, so it won't count for this challenge but it's pretty awesome. Hi booklogged!Apparently PBS is going to be airing "Jane Eyre" (Masterpiece Theatre) on Jan 21 and 28. Check local listings. I thought fans of the book might like to watch it, I know I will be. Here's the link:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/janeeyre/ I've read two of them so far. Brave New World - Which I felt was ok, but I didn't fall in love with.And The Quiet American, which has turned me into a Greene fan. I've read my first book of the challenge, Miss Marjoribanks by Mrs. Oliphant. A small review is on my blog. Now I'm eager to move on to The Moonstone, thanks to other readers' reviews. I finished book number 2 from my list! Yeah!A Farewell to Arms ... nad I have to say, I did indeed fall in love with the book. Keep up the good work. Everyone is doing fabulous. I'm enjoying reading your reviews and have so many good classics added to my list.Lotus, thanks for the heads up on the Jane Eyre movie. I've never seen the movie and it's been a long, long time since I read the book, so I'm going to be in front of my tv on those two nights. Just finished my first: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. A quick review is on my "Pieces of Me" blog. I'm all done with Anna Karenina, my first for the Winter Classics Challenge. I posted my thoughts on my blog. :-) My first classic was "Atlas Shrugged." It was my third time, but it's still a great book. Here's the site of my reivew: http://framedandbooked.blogspot.com/2007/01/1st-chunkster-and-classics-book.htmlNow I've got to read some of these other reviews. I finished The Color Purple...splendid book!! My review and thoughts are posted to my blog. I started The Grapes of Wrath yesterday and so far am really enjoying it!Wendy I finished my first, also The Moonstone. I gave it 3/5. :) More thoughts on my blog. I surprised myself by jumping into Fahrenheit 451 so quickly and now it's another book I can check off my Classics Challenge list. I really enjoyed it. Now I'm off to read a book for another challenge. :-) I completed by third Classic: ANIMAL FARM (Orwell). I rated it a 3.25/5. Next up is LORD OF THE FLIES (Golding). I've finished reading Mary Poppins, my first book for the Classics Challenge. On to The Railway Children.md I finished classic #1, Lady Chatterley's Lover. My scribbles about this book can be found at My Reading Adventures I have finished Emma and Pride and Prejudice. I'm currently working on Anna Karenina. Good luck with the spread sheet! I finished my first classic: The Awakening by Kate Chopin. I wrote a brief review on my blog. http://www.joyfuljottings-janet.blogspot.com I've finished Kim: http://pussreboots.livejournal.com/186146.html Ok, I can report on two more:Finished :The Good Earth by Pearl Buck (a post on it should be up later today)Finished: Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki (post later in the week)3 down, 2 to go! :) One down, four to go -Evelina is finished. Can't hold a candle to Jane Austen but fascinating as historical research. Okay I finished my quite a while ago but I read Madame Bovary and hope to fit in another one really soon. lol I managed to finished my third read! The Canterbury Tales! I really did enjoy it ... I read several parts out loud - it is much better spoken than read I thought (or maybe it's easier for me to hear the flow of the poetry when it's spoken than just read!) Two down - three to go - I've completed Three Men in a Boat and The Turn of the Screw - now with the Henry James I start to leave the English Novel in my selections.. Well, I gave up on On the Road by Jack Kerouac.For my penance, I resolve to complete one extra book to make up for the boring, druggie, slacker-hippie fest that was On the RoadThe extra book was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Much better, albeit, shorter. Next up for the challenge is to read Emma, and for extra credit, there are some childern's classics that I plan to read, just because I never read them. (I think I plan to read a bunch of classics this winter, especially all the short ones I can find. There are some gaping holes in my reading history) I just finished The Brothers Karamazov. I'm heading over to write my review right now. BTW, I'm enjoying going to other blogs to read their reviews on the Classics they have read. What an interesting group of readers. I've written a review for my second book, McTeague. It was a hard one to finish. http://caribousmom.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2007/1/19/2665019.htmlFinished The Grapes of Wrath! And now I'm going to take a break from classics until February. You can read my review on The Grapes of Wrath on my blog (link above).Wendy My Classics Challenge is a trip around the world, with the first book being Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, known for his contribution to Japanese short fiction.http://historicalpresent.typepad.com/historical_present/2007/01/classics_challe.html Just finished "Persuasion" by Jane Austen. Loved it! I completed my fourth Classic: LORD OF THE FLIES (Golding). I rated it a 3/5. Last in line is MRS. DALLOWAY (Woolf). Finished my first one - Les Miserables.Took me 2 weeks to read the first half and one week to read the second half :-) I don't even want to think about everything that has been left undone while I read, but the book was worth it!!One down - 4 to go. On to Dracula :-) I finished my first one:Letters from Hawaii, by Mark Twain.My review is up at:http://sharala.blogspot.com/2007/01/finally-tbrclassics-book-one.html Winter Classic Challenge book #2 completed! :) My thoughts about Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl will be posted on my site, My Reading Adventures, soon. Finished challenge book #1 on 1-19.Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenRated 4/5. I am starting #2, Silas Marner, tomorrow Finished Middlemarch (number two)! It was longer than I thought: 578 pages in the Norton critical edition (translation: tiny, tiny print that normal humans can barely read).I love it though-hopefully I'll have a review up at my site tomorrow. No promises until Thursday, though! I just finished Silas Marner. My review is up at my blog.Just a quick correction to your list of authors, titles, readers; it doesn't show me as one of the folks reading this particular title. I've finished my second Classic read, My Antonia. I'm still going along with The Moonstone but life is annoyingly getting in the way of a nice long read! Review of Willa Cather's novel at http://indextrious.blogspot.com/2007/01/reading-my-antonia.html#links Finished my second book, Agnes Grey. I have a review up at my blog already.http://educatingpetunia.blogspot.com/2007/01/review-agnes-grey.html I've completed my first and second classics. I already have a review for Silas Marner posted, but I just finished Scarlet Pimpernel today, so it may be a few days before I write my review on it. I finished A Tale of Two Cities last week. It's the first time I've read it, to my embarrassment, and I encourage anyone holding off to grab it. What a great story of friendship and character during the French Revolution. Now I'm picking up Stendhal's The Red and The Black which I saw on a blog a few weeks ago. I love Classics, booklogged, and find this Challenge especially thrilling when I can be a "voyeur" on other's classic coices. I have started reading three at once (bad habit I know) and am half way through with those three... I've finished number 2: Eight Cousins. I actually enjoyed it though it was a bit preachy. My full review will eventually be up on my blog. Hopefully sometime today. I've finished book #3, Uncle Tom's Cabin. I read The Moonstone and reviewed it here. Loved it as much as The Woman in White! I've just finished Fathers and Sons. I quite enjoyed it and am now looking forward to reading the next Turgenev on the list. OK, Mrs. Dalloway is finally done; I can't seem to stop using semicolons now; it progressed so slowly and was terrible. Perhaps I'm too post-modern (or old fashioned?) for Virginia Woolfe, but I prefer my novels to have what we in the provinces call a plot I can read stream-of-consciousness drivel anywhere these days--I was expecting more. I give it a few sentences on today's blog post, but it's not much more than what I just posted here LOL Glad to be done with it is my overall review.Vanity Fair OTOH is wrapping up today, and I'm enjoying it much more. Much easier to read, understand, and relate to, even set in Victorian England with 100 pages of footnotes. I've finished book #4: Fighting Angel. I've finished The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene and The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. I love those snowflakes! I just reviewed my third, "The Hound of the Baskervilles." It was a fun read. Here's the link:http://framedandbooked.blogspot.com/2007/01/3rd-classic-challenge.html I just finished Peter Pan and my review is here I completed my last Classic: MRS. DALLOWAY (Woolf). I rated it a 1/5. :( I've finished my first classic and posted about it here:http://verniciousknids.blogspot.com/2007/01/carbon-betteredge-mere-carbon-my-good.html Thanks for organising this challenge! Congratulations to Joy. She is the first to complete all five of her classics - and in less than a month. Way to go, Joy!Actually, I'm impressed at how well everyone is doing. Only one more month. We can do it, right?! Right! Finished my second classic: Dracula by Bram Stoker.VERY glad I finally got around to reading the original. Finished 2nd: I, Robot by Asimov.Am 20 pages short of my third read which is the poem The Art of Love by Ovid. It should be up in a day or two. Woo-hoo! I have already finished The Woman in White, and am well on the way to finishing Martin Chuzzlewit. I'm going great guns at the moment. Review to follow soon... My second classic was The Railway Children by E Nesbit. It was outstanding, especially since I read the Folio edition, which is beautifully illustrated.md Now finished re-reading Where Angels Fear to Tread, bit of a break to read my Book Group book of the month before I return to the classics! Hi, booklogged!I have finished 3 out 5 books for the classics challenge and I would like to make a change if I may, Instead of "Palace Walk" which I am struggling with at the moment, can I read "Alice in Wonderland"? I see you are reading it, too, so it will be fun to compare notes. Also, if I read "Through the Looking Glass and what Alice Found There" would that be considered a separate read altogether or part of the same one? THanks! Done with number three, Out of Africa. I enjoyed it, and will write up my thoughts tomorrow.http://astripedarmchair.blogspot.com I finished reading Catch-22 last night and will be moving onto Emma the beginning of next month. Lotus, I think we should count Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass as two separate classics. Does that sound okay to you. I'm just about finished with Alice and don't think I care to read the sequel.Everyone is doing marvelous! I hope I do better in Feb than I've done in Feb. Do you realize there are 101 people signed up to read classics?! Is that incredible, or what?! Booklogged, thank you! Sounds great! I finished "Alice in Wonderland" last night and I shouldn't take too long with the "The Looking Glass...". Yes, the nonsense writing, is getting to me, too, lol, but I am curious to find out what happens in the sequel. If I have time I may go back and tackle "Palace Walk".It's great that so many people have signed up for the classics read! Wonderful! I have finished three of my classics: The Awakening, Ethan Frome, and Catch 22. I did not like Catch 22 at all. I would probably have tossed it aside if my student teacher didn't want to teach it so badly. I loved The Awakening and Ethan Frome. Two very different views of women and love. I just finished Beowulf. A pretty good read and the language, to die for.Here's the link to my post about it.http://greatewhitenorth.blogspot.com/ I've finished Liza, and now I've got only about 1 3/4 to go . . . I'm doing somethingahead of schedule for once! Finished my fourth: Lady Audley's Secret I finished Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen last night! Woo hoo! I've got one more to go to complete the challenge. I rated Northanger Abbey a 3.5/5. Not my favorite Austen novel, but worth reading. I finished my fourth, "Candide." I'm thoroughly enjoying reading "The Scarlet Pimpernel," which will be my fifth. Way to go, Joy, for getting all five done so quickly. Book #3 is completed. Hopefully, I'll have time to scribble my thoughts on this book and book #2 on my site, My Reading Adventures, soon. It's going to be a cold,cold weekend, so I plan on reading a lot! Finished my third title, Mary Barton and posted the review to my blog today (Feb 4) I finished my first Pride & Prejudice on 1-19 and forgot to post and should be finishing my second(Silas Marner) today or tomorrow. I have reviewed the first and will be posting the 2nd and my site within the next couple of days. I have now finished four of my classics: 1. Catch 222. The Awakening3. Ethan Frome4. O Pioneers (the most recent)I have one more to read and that is Little Women but I picked up a mystery - Ricochet by Sandra Brown and I can't put this one down. Just finished #3 Little Women this evening. Looking forward to #4 - The Three Musketeers :-)Thanks again for sponsoring this challenge. I'm having a great time reading these. I just finished my second The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. :) I have finished my fifth and final book: A Room With a ViewThank you for sponsoring this challenge! It was a lot of fun =) I've finished two of my classics...I noticed that on your list, I'm just J, no link, so I must have neglected to give you all of my info before. Sorry!Jhttp://jellyjules.comFirst review: East of Eden - http://jellyjules.com/?p=509Second review: Henry and June - http://jellyjules.com/?p=524Thanks! This is fun. Have finished numbers 2 and 3 of the Classics Challenge - Martin Chuzzlewit and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.Reviews on my blog: http://adventuresinbookland.blogspot.com I've finished The Moonstone, finally. I really enjoyed it. Now forward to the last 2 classics... I have completed the challenge! Booklogged thank you so much for initiating it - I have enjoyed this so much. I have now vowed to read a classic atleast once every six months - this challenge was just the motivation I needed to get back into the classics, thanks! I just finished my 5th Classic, "The Scarlet Pimpernel." What a fun book. I had "Wuthering Heights" listed for Classics and Chunksters but I'm passing on it for now. I've read some interesting reviews. Are you doing this Challenge again next year? Just posted my 3rd review ~ Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery on my Pieces of Me site. Delightful read... I've only read one of my classics, Emma, I'm doing so bad. Oh well, there's still a couple of weeks left :) I'm all done! I've posted my last review for The Sea-Wolf on my blog. I've posted about my second read here:http://verniciousknids.blogspot.com/2007/02/peter-quint-you-devil.htmlI was disappointed in The Turn of the Screw but am already halfway through my third choice! I seem to be super far behind in this! I finished my 1st last week, but I'm almost done with 2 more! The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. Very Good Book! Here's my review: http://stephaniesbooks.blogspot.com/2007/02/classic-tale-by-lesser-known-bronte.html Finished my 2nd Classics book -- Silas Marner. Loved it! My review along with my favorite passages can be found at http://3mreviews.blogspot.com.I'm making steady progress on The Woman in White, and luckily my two other ones are very short: Heart of Darkness and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Finished my first (blushes in shame at being so slow). Posted here on Cheri by Colette: http://booktraveller.blogspot.com/2007/02/classics-challenge-one-down.html Finished my last! Daisy Miller by Henry James; I'm not really sure how I feel about it yet.http://astripedarmchair.blogspot.com Here is my review of my second classic, Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.http://sharala.blogspot.com/2007/02/classics-challenge-mrs-dalloway.htmlMy third has been finished but I'm waiting to post my review. I finished the first four of my classics and have comments up at my blog. (Didn't realize I should stop by and post until now. I'm glad I did because it's fun to read everyone else's comments and see their selections.)#1 was the Odyssey and I think I'm happier about having read it than I was about reading it . . . #2, 3, and 4 were Mary Barton (thanks to Jill), The Scarlet Pimpernel (fast and entertaining read, though not what I expected from vague memories of the movie), and Bell for Adano (substitution for Oliver Twist). I completed Jane Austen's Emma in wee hours of the morning. Finished! Wrapped up the challenge by reading Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton. Wow...what a great book. I gave it a 5/5 and posted a review on my blog.THANK YOU, Booklogged, for sponsoring this wonderful challenge. It has refreshed my love of the classics and made me vow to keep reading more of them. Well, I'm not keeping up too well, but I've finished Rebecca and A Wrinkle in Time. Next up - Emma. I've just finished Chesterton's The Man who was Thursday and have posted some thoughts on it. A quick read, if you don't stop to try to figure out the meaning of each page as you go along... Finished my 3rd book--Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Review and favorite passages can be found at http://3mreviews.blogspot.com.Happy Reading! I've finished reading my five. I've finally finished my fifth classic, Mary Barton. I've enjoyed this challenge very much, and been inspired to read some more of my must-reads! Number four down. I really enjoyed Mrs. Mike. A review is up at my blog. Now to get ahold of a Fennimore Cooper book before the end of the month! Finished #4 - The Three Musketeers. What a fun romp.On to #5 - Frankenstein.Thanks again Booklogged - this has been a fun challenge. I have finished all five of my classics. I just completed Little Women. The complete list is on the margin of my blog. Ok what is next? I've just finished my #3, The Two Towers. I've also finished Candide which was in my EXTRA list (hope it counts as a #4) Just posted my 4th Classics review~ Wuthering Heights ~ on my "Pieces of Me" site ~ Have almost finished my 5th classic. Yipee!! My third book is done and reviewed here:http://sharala.blogspot.com/2007/02/walker-in-city-by-alfred-kazin.htmlStruggling through the last two but think I'll make it. Of course plans seemed to change a bit. I've finished at least five classics. Most recent books were: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Emma is not calling me, but I might finish Northanger Abby by the end of February. One Austen is as good as another?Thanks for the challenge.I've quite enjoyed it and I'm sure I will be peppering my reading with classics much more often now.my reviews are at http://www.freewebs.com/raidergirl3/ My thoughts on classic #4 can be found at My Reading Adventures What great fun this was! I finished by 5th classic tonight. I really enjoyed doing this. Thank you for inspiring me to open up and read some of the classics that had been lingering on my shelves for awhile. I have finished my last classic ~ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. A delightful read, timeless in it's telling.Thank you, Booklogged, for this fun challenge. I would not have gotten to those classics right away if it hadn't been for this challenge. So glad I did! I think the date is off on your posts. Book 2 down...find my review here http://booktraveller.blogspot.com/2007/02/if-this-is-man.html I've finished Little Women, but I can't get away from Louisa May. I'm on Jo's Boys now and soon it will be Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom.md I've finished #3, Moll Flanders. I'll be reading like crazy trying to finish the other two in time.http://educatingpetunia.blogspot.com/2007/02/review-moll-flanders.html I finished my 5th one - Frankenstein - very good. Comments are on my blog.I'll be posting a Winter Classics Wrap Up post tomorrow.Thank You SO much for doing this!! Hope to do this again so I can read some of those I had on my possibilities list. I've read two of mine. Lord of the Flies by Golding and At the Mountains of Madness by Lovecraft.www.stephenlang.co.uk Finished: Athol Fugard's play _Master Harold and the Boys_.Historical / Present Finished fourth book a while ago and will hopefully finish the fifth one in time... I've finished Little Women and Sense and Sensibility. I also changed my fifth classic to Northanger Abbey. It was available at my library in CD form and it's short enough to finish before the end of February. I might still be able to finish all five!! Finished my 4th--The Woman in White. I was really nervous that I wouldn't be able to finish, but my next book is the fairly (fairlie--ha ha from the Woman in White) short Heart of Darkness. I think I'll make it! I think I can....I think I can.....http://3mreviews.blogspot.com/2007/02/woman-in-white-by-wilkie-collins.html Number four is done at last! Now that I've read it I can't think why I let Tess of the D'Urbervilles languish in my TBR box so long. My review of the final classic should be up in the nick of time tomorrow - as long as my browser doesn't throw a tantrum! Hmm. It looks like my comment did not go through, so here's a second try.Completed: Australian Miles Franklin's All That Swaggers. Also here's the permalink to one already reported, but incorrectly linked: Fugard's 'Master Harold' ... And the Boys. I completed the challenge! :) I finished classic #5, Persuasion, on Feb. 18th. Hopefully, I can get my review done and posted by the end of today. Thanks for hosting this challenge. I had my doubts if I would accomplish it but I did. :D I'm FINISHED! The Canterbury Tales have been read and reviewed, and just in time too - in my time zone it's 11.58pm! Thank you for hosting this challenge! I finished my 5th classic, Heart of Darkness. All five of my reviews can be found at this link:http://3mchallenges.blogspot.com/2007/02/winter-classics-challenge.html Completed the challenge around 11pm last night - Crime and Punishment many thanks for providing the impetus to get me to re-read this! Post a Comment

Grant Borrows has been Shifted—in the silence between heartbeats, his whole life fundamentally altered. There's another man in the world wearing his face and living his life. What's more, the man staring back from his mirror is a stranger. But the changes don't stop at skin-level. Inexplicably, he's able to affect objects around him by simply thinking about them. And as he soon learns, he's become the central figure in a vast web of intrigue that stretches from an underground global conspiracy to a prophecy dating back over seven thousand years. Enemies and allies find him at every turn, but one thing they learn all too soon is that you don't want to push Grant Borrows too far... Can destiny be undone? The players are ready.The game is in motion.And the pace is: Relentless.

- Taxes on some wealthy French top 100 pct of income: paper - North Korea fires short-range missiles for two days in a row | - Shooting death of gay man rocks New York's cradle of gay rights - Israel warns against Russian arms supply to Syria - Female hostage died from police bullet in New York standoff: official Amazon in talks to buy Texas Instruments' mobile chip arm: paper TEL AVIV | TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc, the world's largest Internet retailer, is in advanced talks to buy the mobile chip business of Texas Instruments, Israeli financial newspaper Calcalist reported on Monday. If negotiations lead to an agreement, Amazon, which makes tablets and is expected to enter the smartphone industry, would become a direct rival to Apple and Samsung Electronics, which also designs their own chips. The value of any deal will probably be billions of dollars, Calcalist said. Texas Instruments said last month it will shift its wireless investment focus from products like smartphones to a broader market, including industrial clients such as carmakers, where it is hoping for a more profitable and stable business. Officials at both firms were not immediately available for comment outside U.S. business hours. Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi told Reuters she doubted whether Amazon wants to "become that intimately involved with hardware". TI's chips are used in Amazon.com's Kindle Fire tablet. TI told investors it would continue to support its customers but its mobile application chip business, which supports features like video, will not invest in supporting its customers future roadmap for tablets and smartphones to the same degree as before. Calcalist quoted TI spokeswoman Whitney Jodry as saying that the company refrains from commenting on rumors. (Reporting by Tova Cohen and Tarmo Virki; Editing by Louise Heavens) - Tweet this - Share this - Digg this

For links to other parts of this series, see this chart. For a statement on the unofficial nature (i.e., personal interpretation for discussion purposes, not necessarily representative of church doctrine) of these lessons, see this notice. PROBLEMS OF THE AGE Dealing with Religious, Social and Economic Questions and Their Solution. A Study for the Quorums and Classes of the Melchizedek Priesthood. 1917-1918. By Dr. Joseph M. Tanner XI. – Inequalities a Besetting Sin of Present Day Life Marvelous and multiplied opportunities for the acquisition of wealth give rise to social differences which today threaten the stability of every so-called civilized nation of the world. Inequalities create envy, envy begets hatred, and hatred entails in its pathway the spirit of destruction. Men do not always, in the superior advantages which they enjoy, exercise a wise stewardship. If those who enjoy superior advantages of wealth would so use their property as to benefit others and give others an opportunity likewise to increase their holdings, the difference in wealth would not be so dangerous, so destructive. But there has always been a strong tendency in man towards vanity and false pride that seduced men into the belief that because they were richer they were likewise better than their fellow men. Such vanity has given rise to exhibitions of frivolity and excesses that were hard for the poorer classes to witness and endure. There is now going on within the United States, and indeed throughout the world, but more particularly in the United States, a propaganda of pride that may have much to do in this country in creating a revolution, if not down-right anarchy. Our newspapers, and more particularly the Sunday editions, are filled with social notes and advertisements which cater to the vanity and extravagance of those who enjoy more money than most of their fellow creatures. Society Life. – The newspapers are thus giving their powerful support to an increase of hatred on the part of the poor towards the rich. Much of this advertising is harmless. It is of an innocent personal character that touches in a small way the vanity of those who enjoy so-called “newspaper publicity.” Some of this newspaper notoriety is excessively dangerous to the peace of society and the stability of government institutions. When people are poor, and perhaps suffering from deprivations and want, they do not look with much toleration upon the follies of the rich. Some time ago a lady paraded in the newspapers of New York the fact that she had built a $25,000 house as a home for her favorite cats. Society women of wealth had social gatherings in honor of some dog, and thus their vanity in parading before the public such wanton extravagances is giving rise to criticism, and to class hatred. A Dog Cemetery. – The New York Times of August 19th gives a photographic and written review of a dog cemetery in Westchester county, in which there are more than two thousand graves. The writer says of this cemetery that “on a pleasant summer day there were not fewer than 100 visitors, and that as many as fifteen automobiles would be at the entrance at a time. There has been no saving of expense in the monuments placed over some of the graves; several have cost $2,500; and including the price paid for the plot and other expenses, the total individual expense is frequently as much as $3,000 and $4,000. Arrangements were recently made for a mausoleum ten feet square to be erected, at a cost of $10,000. The lowest priced dog is $10, the highest $250.” The advertisement of such wasteful extravagance at a time when this country is at war, and when thousands and thousands of its sons may perhaps be thrown into great excavations and simply covered with dirt, is likely to give rise to feelings of bitterness. Social Functions and Dress. – The modern world is also given to undue extravagance in the matter of its social life, which means excess in dress, in flowers, perfumes, and other wasteful manifestations of wealth. We witness now in Russia the overthrow of a dynasty which has brought upon itself the hatred of the people because of its wastefulness and consequent weakness. The people of that country have insisted on knowing something of the daily habits of the Czar and Czarina, and their courtiers. We are informed that the Czarina spent $25,000 a year in perfumes. A Poor Defense. – Those who would justify these extravagances contend that such numerous expenditures give employment to the men who raise flowers and to those whose labor contributes to the vanity of wealth. There are things in this world which we call the necessaries of life; there are others which we call luxuries. People perhaps would not object so much to the display of luxuries and vanity if they had enough of the necessaries of life. But when they suffer from an actual want of food; when they are cold in their homes and poorly clad, the exhibition of luxuries whose existence has no other excuse than that of vanity, they grow discontented, and class spirit springs up, and intense hatreds result. Classification of Society. – the classification of society is contrary to the spirit of Christ and his teachings. Social classification destroys the brotherhood of man and when classification is built upon influences in wealth, it results in social enmities that become very bitter. They destroy the peace of mind and the peace of the world. There is a spirit in all life; there is the spirit of the individual; there is the spirit of the community; and there is the spirit of the nation. As a result of these differences we have individual strife, we have community quarrels, and national wars. What we are witnessing today is in large measure the result of an attempted classification by which one nation would make itself superior, and therefore offensive, to all other nations. Vanity is not merely a harmless sentiment of the human kind. Vanity carries with it an ambition – not simply an ambition to be better than others, but an ambition to domineer over others. It creates an indifference to other people’s suffering, and thus enmity between man and man grows. The Corrections. – The abuses of class distinction manifest themselves in the grossest injustices of man to man. They become oppressive and human life suffers very greatly from them. As a rule, the process of correction of these wrongs has been by means of wars, famines, pestilences, and such calamities as have reduced the world to a common physical equality. There is, however, a means of correction – a peaceful means. Such peaceful means are found in the teachings of the gospel. The religious institutions of the Latter-day Saints are all intended to establish a feeling of brotherhood, a spirit of humility and a condition that makes fore brotherly love and universal good-will. If men and women performed their duties in the Church as they are prescribed for them, social classes would be quite impossible. Those who flaunt their social life before the public, who strive for class distinction, as a rule are not those who are laboring faithfully in some of the religious organizations of the ward to which they belong. It was notoriously the work of the ministry of Christ and his disciples to establish social equality; for social inequality, if it is not always a cause of certain immoralities, is certainly in danger of creating them. Whatever poisons the human mind in its relationship to the children of God begets conditions that in time become highly immoral. Revelation. – “Nevertheless, in your temporal things you shall be equal, and this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance of the manifestations of the Spirit shall be withheld” (Doc. and Cov. 70:14).

Gaskamp was at a party with the others when they discussed going out to hunt and hurt blacks on the night Anderson was killed, authorities said, but he was not present when the group came upon Anderson. However, he was present at other attacks at other times, prosecutors now say. CNN had reported previously that the attack on Anderson was only one of a number of racial attacks carried out by the gang of young whites and others who were with them at various times, based on witness accounts and sources close to the investigation. Prosecutors have long told CNN that the additional attacks might bring more arrests or charges. Various groupings of the young men would, at various times, hunt out and target blacks, or others who appeared homeless or drunk, prosecutors said. These people were likely targeted, authorities said, because the group members believed they would be less likely to report attacks to police or to fight back. In these other attacks, according to prosecutors Tuesday, the group of white young men, sometimes along with young women, on numerous occasions drove from Rankin County, which is mostly white, over to Jackson, which is mostly black, specifically with the intent of assaulting blacks. Group members would often boast about what they had done later, prosecutors said. In late 2011 CNN filmed an interview with one former member of the gang who had changed his ways and felt bad about their behavior. That former member told CNN on camera that the group of whites would "go out hunting" for blacks to hurt on weekends. But until Gaskamp's plea Tuesday, no details of such attacks had been made public, or had even been substantiated. In one of the other incidents the gang carried out, prosecutors say, Gaskamp and other white teens drove to Jackson to find an African-American to assault, and Gaskamp brought with him a .40-caliber handgun. The group hurled beer bottles at numerous black pedestrians they ran across. Then, after seeing one black man who appeared to be drunk, a group of white teens set upon him, according to prosecutors. In that incident, prosecutors say, Dedmon, Rice and Gaskamp were among the ones who punched and kicked the man repeatedly on his face and all around his body, "until the man begged for his life." After the group left the man beaten and wounded on the street, Gaskamp wanted to go back "so that he could use the gun he had brought with him to shoot the African-American man they just assaulted," according to court papers. But the group did not go back that night. "These teens laughed and boasted about what they had done," said Robert Shuler Smith, the district attorney for Jackson and the main prosecutor in the case. And in court, federal prosecutor Sheldon Beer said, "Members of the group thought it was funny that the man pleaded for his life."

In the wake of the deadly mass shooting at a Colorado theater, there have been several arrests for making threats during or after watching the new Batman movie . In one case, movie-goers in Sierra Vista, Arizona, panicked when a 27 year old man who appeared intoxicated was confronted during a showing of the movie. It caused "mass hysteria" and about 50 people fled the theater. And…in response to the shock and horror of this rampage and its widespread impact, a pastor of a Church located five minutes away from the rampage scene admitted, he bawled like a baby when he passed the site. Pastor Jeff Noble of Aurora's New Life Community Church said that something as terrible as this tragedy cannot be explained when our world goes crazy. Pastor Noble's Church has opened its doors to anyone seeking counseling and urging those affected to step up and seek comfort from others. There's also been a touching tribute close to where the massacre took place. Aurora residents have been placing flowers and cards at the feet of 12 crosses. Each cross representing a victim who died in the mass shooting. Christian Bale and President Obama have already paid their respects in Colorado. High level meetings have been taking place to find solutions to gun crime following a deadly shooting in Toronto 9 days ago, where two people were killed and 24 injured. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper met with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, and then briefly with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty yesterday. Ford met with Police Chief Bill Blair at an earlier date. Some of what was discussed in the series of meetings: ongoing enforcement and criminal justice measures ; solutions to stopping guns from being smuggled into Canada from the United States, and community outreach. Social program announcements are expected to be announced within a month. This week, the International AIDS conference is being held in Washington DC. The theme is "Turning the Tide Together". It's the first time in more than 20 years the conference has been in the U.S. AIDS experts from all over the world will be attending; about 25-thousand are expected to attend. Over 30 million people worldwide have died from the disease. But the one representative that has come to truly depict the struggle and heartache of living with and dying from AIDS, will not say a word. It's the AIDS Quilt. As the sessions of the International AIDS Conference take place, prominent faith leaders have also come to D.C. to hold a summit on AIDS awareness. They include Saddleback Church, World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, and Food for the Hungry . And…the world's only man …said to be cured of H-I-V is…. Timothy Brown. He appeared at the International AIDS conference in Washington yesterday. Brown -- also known as "the Berlin Patient--" was H-I-V positive and fighting leukemia in 2007. Doctors in Germany wiped out his immune system with chemotherapy and radiation. Then, they gave him two rounds of stem-cell transplants. German researchers say the donor had a rare, inherited gene mutation that makes stem cells naturally resistant to infection with H-I-V. Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke to Brown….. The U.K. Evangelical Alliance has answered to a government adviser's verbal attack against evangelical Christians. It was over the issue of Christians being able to set up free schools. Alan Judd, adviser to the Secretary of State for Education, wrote in The Telegraph the trouble has always been with extreme views like quote: " evangelical Christians, totalitarian Muslims or segregationist Jews." Steve Clifford, General Director of the Evangelical Alliance, wrote back a letter to The Telegraph in response to Judd's assertion, stating that it was "wrong and worrying" that a senior government adviser should brand evangelical Christians as extremist. Judd had written to the Telegraph in response to complaints from the British Humanist Association over the go ahead for Christian free schools.

The Terminator 1984 | Movie Watchlist Back before Arnold Schwarzenegger's ascendence to his current status as Hollywood's designated Action Hero of choice, husband to Kennedys, and buddy of presidents, he was still willing to play villains. As such he made an indelible impression as the titula… (more) Back before Arnold Schwarzenegger's ascendence to his current status as Hollywood's designated Action Hero of choice, husband to Kennedys, and buddy of presidents, he was still willing to play villains. As such he made an indelible impression as the titular character of THE TERMINATOR. This was the film that demonstrated to the dubious everyone that the musclebound fellow with that outrageous accent might be more than just another passing blip on our pop culture radar screens. The sleeper hit of fall 1984, THE TERMINATOR is an intelligent, smoothly crafted, and stylish low-budget science fiction action movie that astounded fans of the genre. This was an enormous career booster for writer-director James Cameron (ALIENS, THE ABYSS, TERMINATOR 2) as well as stars Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton (TV's cult favorite "Beauty and the Beast" and TERMINATOR 2). The movie opens in the hellish Los Angeles of the year 2029. We see a world destroyed by nuclear war and run by sophisticated machines that have decided to obliterate the weak humans who created them. The action then shifts back to Los Angeles in 1984. In two separate locations, two men--the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn)--materialize out of what appear to be small electrical storms and wander off into the night. The next day, after having stolen several deadly weapons and a car, the Terminator looks up the name "Sarah Connor" in the phone book. There are three Sarah Connors listed. The stoical mystery man sets off to kill each of them. Two of the women are killed, but the third (Linda Hamilton) has gone out for the evening. Noticing she is being followed by Reese, the nervous Sarah ducks into a nightclub aptly named Tech Noir and tries to disappear into the crowd. But the Terminator has traced her to the nightclub. Fortunately for her so has Reese. From him Sarah will learn about her destiny and that of the human race. THE TERMINATOR is an amazingly effective picture that becomes doubly impressive when one considers its small budget. Looking better than most big-budget efforts, it contains dozens of impressive visual effects, including some very good stop-motion animation. For our money, this film is far superior to its mega-grossing mega-budgeted sequel. This is fresh, exciting, and surprisingly witty viewing. Like most genre films made post-STAR WARS, it alludes to many other works. However, this film went a bit further than most. The producers were successfully sued by cult fantasy author Harlan Ellison who claimed that significant chunks of plot and imagery were lifted from two of his celebrated teleplays for "The Outer Limits," a beloved science fiction series from the early 1960s. The two episodes in question are "Soldier" and "Demon with a Glass Hand." Anyone who has seen those episodes will readily agree that THE TERMINATOR took its homage a bit too far. Trending TonightSee all » - 1. Grey's Anatomy: Arizona & Alex: The First Flight - 2. Desperate Housewives: Actors Picking up Character Traits - 3. Mistresses: Toni Seduces Dom While Savi's Away - 4. Empire: Pilot - 5. Scandal: Randy, Red, Superfreak and Julia - 6. Dancing With The Stars: Week 1 - 7. The Vampire Diaries: A Bird in a Gilded Cage

Men of all ages are invited for free vocal lessons for six straight Mondays beginning at 7 p.m. Oct. 31 at St. Luke's Lutheran Church, 6705 Northway, Greendale. The lessons are offered by Midwest Vocal Express, an all-male a cappella chorus. For more information, call Tom Weber at 888-240-4426 or www.MVE.org. The battle lines were uncharacteristically drawn last night on the Muskego Common Council, which narrowly passed a 2012 city budget and a $14.5 million capital borrowing plan. Approvals came on the same 4-3 vote that held unchanged through six failed attempted amendments to the budget, the borrowing and the capital budget. Among other things, the voting block of three - Kert Harenda, Dan Soltysiak and Neil Borgman - didn't think controls will be strong enough on the $14.5 million borrowing package. They also didn't want the $2.5 million Pioneer Drive reconstruction and beautification next year, and preferred a pay freeze for city workers instead of the 2 percent raises budgeted. The three had brought up most of their concerns during the prior weeks of budget discussions, but the four aldermen in the majority - Noah Fiedler, Neome Schaumberg, Keith Werner and Tracy Snead - still weren't buying their viewpoints this week. The 2012 budget calls for no property tax increase. The operating budget will be $14 million, up 1.7 percent from this year's nearly $13.8 million budget. The levy will remain at $11,935,917 with the estimated tax rate dipping slightly to $4.41 per $1,000 of assessed value from $4.43 per $1,000. In the aftermath of last night's Elmbrook School Board decision to close Hillside Elementary next June, the district is inviting public input to help choose between three possible redistricting plans. Community Engagement on Redistricting sessions will be held at 6 and 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at Wisconsin Hills Middle School, 18700 W. Wisconsin Ave. Each scenario will detail population tracts being reassigned to the remaining elementary schools, with varying estimated capacity outcomes for Brookfield Elementary, Burleigh, Dixon, Swanson and Tonawanda. Superintendent Matt Gibson said public input would be an important part of the process as the district makes the transition from six to five elementary schools. Merrick Fruchtman knew he had a challenge ahead of him when he decided to redevelop the blighted building at 65th Street and North Avenue as the new location for his business, Home Solutions USA. "The whole building had been damaged by fire, water and smoke," he said. The roof was falling in, the front half of the building had to be gutted and rebuilt, and after 15 years of vacancy a lot of maintenance issues became evident. "I knew what the community would want is a new structure, an entire new look," Fruchtman said. "I tried to give that to them." The extensive problems with the building itself caused some of the delays for the project that first came before the city more than 15 months ago for financial assistance. A large part of the hold up was an investigation into the land under the building.» Read Full Article A ransom note sent via text message did not work out as planned for three Milwaukee men. The men, one 26 and two 19, were arrested Oct. 16 for receiving a cell phone stolen the day before at iPic, 5750 N. Bayshore Drive. According to the Glendale police report: The owner reported the theft after receiving text messages demanding a "ransom" of $550 to get his phone back. Police had the owner set up a meeting with the men and take along an undercover officer.» Read Full Article The Elmbrook School Board voted, 6-1, tonight to close Hillside Elementary School after this school year ends. Board member Bob Ziegler provided the lone dissenting vote, saying the board should see a redistricting plan before making the decision. A plan for redistricting Elmbrook's remaining elementary schools is expected to be unveiled in November. The decision was greeted with jeers from the crowd of about 150 people who came to witness the vote, most of whom oppose the closing. Glendale - The city and police union have agreed to a three-year contract that includes 2 percent wage increases in 2011 and 2013 with a wage freeze in 2012. Union members will pay 10 percent of their health care premiums in 2012 and 2013. They currently pay 8.5 percent. Although state law exempted public safety employees from mandated pension contributions, beginning in 2012 they agree to pay 2 percent to the Wisconsin Retirement System toward their pensions. In 2013 they will pay 4 percent. City Administrator Richard Maslowski said there will be no layoffs, furloughs or reductions in service in the 2012 city budget as a result of the agreement. A 63-year-old man was arrested for his fifth offense of drunken driving Oct. 19, according to a city of Brookfield police report. An officer clocked the Wauwatosa man driving 40 mph in a 25-mph zone on Greenfield Avenue, east of Sunnyslope Road, just after 10 p.m. Oct. 19, the report states. The man then cut off the officer's squad car and proceeded to turn left from a through-lane before he was stopped on Elm Grove Road, near Cardinal Crest Drive. A blood sample was collected to determine the man's blood-alcohol content. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry were taken from a home on Bradford Lane on Oct. 21, according to a city of Brookfield police report. Also in the report: A man reported that his wife returned to their home in the 21000 block of Bradford Lane to discover that it had been broken into between 11 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. Oct. 21. It appears the perpetrator gained entry through an unlocked back door and made away with $200,000 in men's and women's jewelry and about $500 in cash. The home is outfitted with a burglary alarm, but it was not activated at the time of the burglary.» Read Full Article While on patrol at 2:30 a.m. Oct. 23, a Brown Deer Officer heard an audible alarm sounding at a nearby business. Officers quickly determined that a burglary had just occurred at Poco Loco, 4134 West River Lane. Entry was gained by smashing a rock though one of the business windows. While investigating and processing the scene further, officers found someone outside Prime Time, 8777 North Deerwood Drive. He was arrested for the burglary. The suspect is a 20-year-old Milwaukee man. Charges are pending at this time. Brown Deer officers have arrested three suspects after an armed robbery in Algonquin Park, 7850 N. 51st St., at 9:30 p.m. Oct. 21. The victims included three to five people from Brown Deer and West Bend ranging in age from 15 to 18 years old. They were robbed by two black males, one armed with an unknown type of handgun. Cash and other personal items were taken in the robbery. The victims were not injured during this incident. Police said the victims left the park before calling police. Algonquin Park is a Milwaukee County Park. Based on information received during the initial interviews of the victims, three arrests have been made. Charges are pending on one of the suspects. This investigation is continuing at this time. A homemade concoction purported to cause "super powers" in the drinker turned out to be a toxic substance mixed together by a student at Glen Hills Middle School and given to another, according to a Glendale police report. A 9-year-old boy became sick Oct. 14 after drinking a liquid given to him by two students at Glen Hills, 2600 W. Mill Road, earlier that day, his mother told police. One of the boys later admitted to authorities that he had mixed Dr. Pepper, rubbing alcohol, Tabasco sauce, Clorox wipes and soap, and then taken it to school and offered it to another student, saying it would give him "super powers," the report states. Paramedics responded to the school and checked the boy out, advising that he should be monitored in case further problems developed. Police confiscated the liquid. The school kept a small sample, but officials there stated they had no plans to have it analyzed, the report said.» Read Full Article The loss of more than 190 pieces of jewelry, a collective value of nearly $189,000, was discovered at Zales, 5720 N. Bayshore Drive, during a store inventory, according to a Glendale police report. Management reported the "internal theft of jewelry" from the store Aug. 30, saying the thefts must have occurred over the past 10 or 11 months. The case is under investigation, the report states. The Franklin Historical Society is holding its fourth annual Oktoberfest fundraiser from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 27 at Root River Center, 7220 W. Rawson Ave. The event includes a raffle, silent auction, hors d'oeuvres and music. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. For information, call Ali Hoffman at (414) 745-5634. Greenfield and its firefighters reached agreement Tuesday on a contract that averted cuts in benefits for other employees and possible service reductions. In the two-year contract, the firefighters agreed to no raises next year. They also agree to pay 5.9 percent toward pensions and 12.6 percent of health insurance premiums as all other employees are, even though the firefighters wouldn't have to make those contributions, under state law. Police have already agreed to the pension and health insurance premium contributions, but other contract elements are still pending. city officials are optimistic that the rest of a police contract will be hammered out in the next few days. The Bay Breeze Condominium owners will not receive the $5,000 grant owners requested from Muskego to help with a $23,619 project that they said would beautify not only the condominium entrance on Janesville Road, but the roadway itself. The problem is that the Community Development Authority doesn't consider Bay Breeze a commercial development so, it doesn't qualify for a commercial grant. And while the city tried to establish a residential grant program along Janesville for property owners who will see landscaping cut down as the road is widened, the program never got Common Council approval. The Bay Breeze Condominium Association plans to plant 39 trees and add landscaping to the entrance. A proposed 2012 Greenfield budget that calls for a 2.15 percent property tax hike, mainly to finance an aggressive road program, received preliminary Greenfield Common Council Committee of the Whole approval Tuesday . The package will be the subject of a public hearing Nov. 15. With a property tax rate of $7.21 per $1,000 of assessed value, 17 cents higher than 2011, the proposed budget would cost about $34 more than this year for the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 both years. Although the new state law keeps the levy at a zero increase unless there is growth, cities can raise their levies to cover debt. That's where the proposed nearly $11 million borrowing for an aggressive road program comes in, an idea that city officials are just starting to consider. Because interest rates are so low and contractors are willing to give buyers a break just to keep crews working, the proposal has been made to lump road spending that is scheduled to be done over the next several years and do it all in two years. Then nothing would be done until 2015, when more would be borrowed for those future projects. If a tornado was spotted near Wauwatosa and the crowds needed to be evacuated quickly from Hart Park, where would attendees go for safety? The Muellner Building likely won't provide enough space to handle a full stadium of spectators during an athletic event or a city celebration. "I'd love to just open the Tosa Room (the space used for curling in the winter and rented for weddings with up to 450 guests the rest of the year) and tell people to come inside, but I don't think they'd all fit," said Mary Clare Shuller, parks department secretary. Fire officials met with the city's Parks and Forestry Board on Tuesday to talk about creating a critical incident management plan. A binder containing such a plan is rumored to exist, but if so, it has disappeared, Fire Chief Rob Ugaste said. Upping the ante citywide» Read Full Article Six sculptures that have adorned the Harwood pedestrian bridge will move to Hart Park by spring. More than 10 years ago, the Village Business Improvement District partnered with Gary Zimmerman, a principal of Zimmerman Design Group, to commission artist Richard Taylor to design public art. The project cost about $50,000 and was donated to the city. When Café Hollander took over the building Zimmerman had occupied, it looked to install a fountain and outdoor seating. A couple of the sculptures had to be removed to make space for the new elements. Those pieces have since been sitting in Public Works storage, while other pieces remained on the bridge. City and BID officials have been working with the artist and donors to find a new spot within the city to display the sculptures. As the playground and site utilities project moved forward near the Rotary Park Pavilion, Mayor Jill Didier saw a place to mix fine art, music and recreation in one area. "The sculpture was such a special donation, so I think it will be a wonderful addition to an area that is becoming such a gathering place for this community," Didier said.» Read Full Article Five food businesses will receive financial assistance to startup or expand in Wauwatosa. However, a city leader has questioned whether one of the grant recipients may be too successful to warrant help. The Wauwatosa Economic Development Corp. met last week to divvy up nearly $262,000 in 2011 Community Development Block Grant funds to businesses that promise to create jobs. Highlands Café, Le Reve Patisserie, Rocket Baby Bakery, Alterra Coffee Roasters and the owners of Cranky Al's will each get 45 percent of the dollars they requested. "It's great that all this is happening in Tosa but there's a $325,000 gap," Paulette Enders, city economic development director said. Mayor Jill Didier, a WEDC member, said she could not deem one business more worthy than the other. Instead, they will each get a share of the pot. "I wouldn't want to see any one project not be funded," she said. "You don't have to pay this back so we will give you what we can proportionately."» Read Full Article A recommendation that Greenfield ban concealed weapons in city-owned buildings is now on its way to the Common Council. The Legislative Committee on Monday recommended the ban unanimously, leading to a council vote on Nov. 1, the day a new state law allowing people with permits to carry concealed weapons goes into effect. As a result of the impending law, many communities are passing bans on weapons in municipal buildings. If the Common Council also approves a ban, signs would be posted at entrances, though there will be no metal detectors. If people are caught with weapons, they will be fined. It was not clear last night how much that fine would be. Greenfield may add to a its list of nuisances trailers or other vehicles that are used for storage and parked out in the open. The city's Greenfield Legislative Committee on Monday recommended approval of an amended list. If the Common Council also approves the addition Nov. 1, the city will be able to force a cleanup at homes where the trailers have become eyesores. Things are often piled around and on top of the trailers or inoperable cars and weeds grow up around them, said Jeff Cavett, fire marshal and code enforcer for the city. But without the addition to the ordinance, the city can't do anything about them. A car or any other vehicle that's full of stuff wouldn't necessarily be deemed a nuisance. It also would have to have two other problems - such as being inoperable, partially dismantled, improperly licensed or parked in an unapproved surface. A major road project anticipated to start in the Village next year has been delayed until 2016. State Street was expected undergo reconstruction, a project that created accessibility concerns for businesses in the Village Business Improvement District. Still after years of construction in the area, BID members wanted the work to just get done. That was until the state Department of Transportation's plans for Zoo Interchange reconstruction overlapped with the city's project. Two major routes to the Village from the west will see road work aimed at making local streets ready to handle more traffic during the interchange project. "Having Glenview and Watertown Plank Road closed at same time (as State Street) would be detrimental to our businesses," BID Director Kathy Ehley said. Keeping State Street open would allow access to the Village from further east, she said.» Read Full Article If it weren't for Hart Park Senior Center, many older adults would find themselves isolated and see a decline in their mental and physical health. "It gives people a place to belong," said Michael Price, president of the center's advisory board, getting choked up. "People leave lunch on Friday and say they won't talk to anyone until Monday. It's sad, but it's true." Between hot lunches and program attendance, the senior center tracked 27,000 visits last year. To continue providing the same level of programs and service, the senior center is seeking $117,500 in Community Development Block Grant funds. For every $1,000 grant dollars reduced, the center loses 100 visits due to cuts in programming, center Director Mary Noel Johnson said. Few people in the community could dispute the benefits the center has for the senior population. Unfortunately, the same could be said about the more than a dozen local food pantries, senior-living facilities and service organizations and agencies seeking CDBG money for 2012.» Read Full Article A 15-year-old girl was mailed a citation for disorderly conduct after she hit a male student in the face after he called her names, causing "a major disruption" in class. According to the Glendale police report: The two students were in class at Nicolet High School, 6701 N. Jean Nicolet Road, on Oct. 12. A teacher reportedly told the girl to put on a jacket because of her wearing revealing clothing. When the girl refused, the boy started calling her names and she threatened to stab him. They began to struggle and she hit him and the fight caused "a major disruption" in the class. The girl said the boy "disrespected her" and that's why the fight started. A man, his wife and son were cited for obstruction for lying to police about an accident the boy had that caused a tree to hit a neighboring house. According to the Glendale police report: The 15-year-old boy lost control of the car while pulling out of his driveway and drove onto a neighbor's yard knocking over two trees, one of them hitting the house, in the 1800 block of West Wayside Drive about 7 p.m. Oct. 9. The woman, 55, said she was in the car with the boy who had a learner's permit. The boy and his father, 53, told the same story. However, the boy did not have a permit and the woman was not in the car.» Read Full Article Matt Schuenke, assistant village manager in Whitefish Bay, announced Tuesday he is resigning from the position, effective Oct. 31. Schuenke has accepted the position of village administrator/clerk-treasurer in the village of Cross Plains, near Madison. "Whitefish Bay is a great community in which to work, and I am very appreciative of the opportunities I have had to work with the residents, Village Board and staff," Schuenke wrote in his resignation letter. "It is truly a remarkable place with the accomplishments we have been able to achieve together." Greenfield officials are thinking about strongly encouraging all gas stations in the city to go to prepay for gas in addition to paying at the pump in hopes of drastically reducing gas driveoffs. Interim Police Chief Bradley Wentlandt told the Greenfield Legislative Committee last night that Green Bay had virtually eliminated gas driveoffs by eliminating investigations at stations that do not have prepay. Instead, the owners must write a report, get the registration information from the state Department of Motor Vehicles based on eye witnesses or surveillance videos, and then give the information to police who take it from there, Wentlandt said. The vast majority of Green Bay gas stations have gone to prepay, he said. He met with Greenfield gas station owners and all were in favor of going prepay except one, Wentlandt said. That one has a competitor nearby in New Berlin and he is afraid of losing business to the New Berlin station because it would not have prepay. The Greenfield Legislative Committee last night recommended sending a resolution of support to State Rep. Peggy Krusick, who is trying to get a state ban on liquors with alcohol above 160 proof, or 80 percent alcohol. The Greenfield Common Council is expected to approve the resolution of support Nov. 1. The council had originally wanted to consider a citywide ban after the death of Jeff Wielichowski, a young Greenfield man who drowned after consuming a punch made with the 190-proof Everclear grain alcohol. But officials found the city doesn't have the power to enact such a ban. The Wielichowski family lives in Krusick's district. Jeff's mother Luanne is spearheading the drive to clear the shelves of such strong liquors. In the resolution, the Legislative Committee noted that Jeff Wielichowski is not the only one to die after drinking high-proof liquors and calls such high-proof liquors a threat to public health, safety and welfare.» Read Full Article A naked and crying toddler wandered into a hotel lobby after his mother left to buy cigarettes and snacks Wednesday night. According to the Wauwatosa police report: The 19-year-old mother, her boyfriend and a friend checked in with the child at the Days Inn, 11811 W. Bluemound Road. A while later, the adults left, a hotel employee told officers. Within 20 minutes of his mother leaving, the 2-year-old boy came into the lobby. Seeing he was naked, employees found towels to wrap him in.» Read Full Article Kristopher Rowe will run for the 10th Assembly District seat in 2012. Rowe, who was a leader of the effort to recall state Sen. Alberta Darling last summer, announced his intentions at a Village Board meeting last night. Rowe is a respiratory therapist. Shorewood is part of the 22nd Assembly District but will become part of the 10th Assembly District in January when the redistricting goes into effect. The 10th Assembly seat is now held by Elizabeth Coggs. City of Brookfield police believe two armed robberies reported a week apart may be connected. Two men wearing dark clothes and black bandannas over their faces used a semi-automatic handgun to rob the Westbrook Beverage Center, 13400 W. Greenfield Ave., at 8:58 p.m. Oct. 16, according to police reports. Police Capt. Jim Adlam said they then ran off with an undisclosed amount of cash. Officers from numerous agencies assisted city of Brookfield officers secure a perimeter, but the robbers were not found. Adlam said investigators believe the Oct. 16 armed robbery may be related to the robbery of Subway, 3960 N. Brookfield Road, before 6:30 a.m. Oct. 10.» Read Full Article A 16-year-old Brookfield boy could face burglary and theft charges for stealing a car, mini bike and all-terrain vehicle from a home in the 13000 block of Hampton Road, according to city of Brookfield police reports. Also from the reports: The vehicles, with a combined value of $3,400, were reported stolen at 5:41 a.m. Oct. 12. The car was found in the backyard of a home in the 3400 block of Fiebrantz Drive just after 11:30 a.m. Oct. 12. A man provided a description of the person who left the car, and it matched a teen who attends Brookfield East High School.» Read Full Article A Brookfield man accidentally fired a shotgun into a neighboring apartment unit while attempting to unload it, according to a city of Brookfield police report. Also from the report: The man called the police to report that he had misfired a round of buckshot into the wall of an apartment in the 18000 block of Lake Drive just before 10 a.m. Oct. 14, because he was unsure if anybody next door had been injured. Paramedics were put on standby while officers called a maintenance man to unlock the apartment. The apartment was found to be empty and nobody was injured.» Read Full Article A man was walking at 61st and Wright streets Tuesday night when a man carrying a gun started chasing him. According to a Wauwatosa Police Department report: The victim had been walking home from a friend's house at 52nd and Center streets in Milwaukee at 10:34 p.m. As he talked on his cell phone, he realized he was being followed. One man followed on his side of the sidewalk, while two more men walked on the opposite side of the street keeping their eyes on him. He saw one of the men across the street pull a mask over his face and a hood over his head before he started jogging over. As the masked man got closer, his hand could be seen in his front sweatshirt pocket. The victim, fearing that the man had a gun and was going to rob or harm him, took off running back to his friend's house.» Read Full Article Alderwoman Linda Nikcevich won't seek re-election to the Wauwatosa Common Council. She filed non-candidacy papers with the city's clerk's office today. Nikcevich will finish out her term, which ends in April. As for future plans, she declined in an interview to say whether she planned to run for another office within the city or another level of government. "I will continue to serve this community long after my term is completed," she wrote in a letter announcing her plans to end her time on the council at the end of her first, four-year term. This is my community where I live, am raising my family and will continue to volunteer and lead in other ways. Aldermen received election paperwork along with their council meeting packets about a week ago, Nikcevich said. She wanted to make her decision promptly "to give others a change to consider running for office," she said. Candidate packets for the April 2012 election - the mayor and one aldermanic seat from each of the city's eight districts will be on the ballot - are now available at the clerk's office and on the city website.» Read Full Article Opponents of a proposed plan to shutter Hillside Elementary School pleaded to the Elmbrook School Board for more than three hours Tuesday to consider everything from multiage classrooms to holding a communitywide referendum to raise taxes as alternatives to the closure. In the end, the majority of board members expressed an overriding concern about "excess capacity" in district classrooms. That factor, they said, would tend to solidify their decision to close Hillside. The matter is set to be decided when the board meets on Oct. 25. The lengthy discussion was a continuation of opposition expressed at two previous public hearings. The multiage classroom proposal came from former Board President Bruce Nattinger, who also urged the current board to consider a referendum and look at selling Swanson Elementary, which he described as having high real estate value.» Read Full Article To protect the most reliable access the public has to Big Muskego Lake, the Muskego Common Council last night gave the go-ahead for an appraisal that would be the first step in the city possibly buying the boat launch located beside the Boxhorn Gun Club, W13960 Boxhorn Drive. For about 10 years, the city has leased the boat launch from the gun club to provide the public access to the lake. But that lease is only good for another 10 years. The gun club owner has said that if the club were to go away, he would like to develop the entire property so the city would lose access to the launch, said Craig Anderson, recreation director. The only other public boat launch on the Big Muskego Lake is at Durham Drive. But for the last two years, boaters have found the channel leading from the launch to the lake blocked by floating islands of cattails, Anderson said. Anyone heading to a hospital emergency room should call 911 for a ride. "Many people are hesitant to call 911 unless they think the situation is life or death," Deputy Fire Chief James Case said. He appreciates that people don't want to abuse the service, but explained that emergency room visits are appropriate reasons to dial those three numbers. What presents as a minor pain or illness could quickly become more severe, perhaps when someone is driving themselves to the ER. Ambulance crews are equipped and skilled to handle such situations, Case said. In this economy, people are putting off calling ambulances because they are afraid of the charges or don't think the severity of their medical situation warrants it.» Read Full Article For locating a handgun that was used in a shooting, Greenfield's police dog and his handler have received a state award. Police Officer Scott Zienkiewicz and his canine partner Badger were awarded the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Canine Handlers Association 2011 award for Meritorious Article Find. In the shooting incident that happened in May in Milwaukee, a suspect fled into Greenfield on foot and was later captured at Clement Manor. Zienkiewicz and Badger were asked to search the area for the gun used in the shooting. The team began where the suspect had discarded a sweatshirt while running. While tracking the suspect's path, Badger located the crucial piece of evidence. City officials hope the Wisconsin Department of Revenue will approve about $2.1 million in refunds from other taxing entities to help cover a portion of the property tax settlement paid to Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare. If the state agrees, Wauwatosa's request would rank as the largest single chargeback issued. In any given year, chargebacks are used to make minor adjustments to the tax roll. The size of this request - it returns money for several subsequent years' property tax payments - sets it apart, City Attorney Alan Kesner said. "They've never had one this large," he told the city's Budget and Finance Committee on Tuesday. The city has provided information to the state indicating it has no choice but to collect refunds from the Wauwatosa School District, Milwaukee County, Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and Milwaukee Area Technical College for their portions of the taxes levied on the outpatient health care facility property at 201 N. Mayfair Road. The Supreme Court this summer ruled that a large portion of the property qualifies as tax exempt. The chargebacks don't come as a surprise to the other taxing entities. Wauwatosa Finance Director John Ruggini has been in talks with officials from each group so they can find ways to come up with their portion of the money.» Read Full Article An Alterra Café could soon perk up the corner of 68th and Wells streets. A blighted building sits vacant there, and a developers' proposal to tear it down and replace it with Wauwatosa's second Alterra Café has won the support of both the Plan Commission and Community Development Committee. The coffeehouse's preliminary plans call for a 3,200-square-foot building with an outdoor courtyard. "Alterra will own it and they will be the only tenant in this building," developer Sean Phelan said. The Common Council will take action on the matter Tuesday and, if approved, Phelan will get to work finalizing plans. That lot has been a problem for the city in the past.» Read Full Article Public Works employees have finished training the use of automated external defibrillators and CPR. That means just about every city worker now has skills to deal with a life-threatening medical incident. Snowplow drivers, for instance, are in position to see a number of weather-related incidents - such as people collapsing while shoveling their driveways, Deputy Chief James Case said. An AED can be used to a shock a person's heart back into rhythm and keep him or her alive until paramedics arrive. In the future, the Fire Department hopes to extend those life-saving lessons to the public, Case added. In the meantime, the Fire Department is taking donations and seeking grant money to equip more of its vehicles with AEDs, Fire Chief Rob Ugaste said. "We did a great job of getting AEDs in the police patrol cars, but not in our own vehicles," he said.» Read Full Article Two Wauwatosa teens were arrested for mugging a schoolmate Monday. According to the Wauwatosa police report: A 16-year-old boy was walking home from Wauwatosa East High School about 4 p.m., when he noticed two guys seemed to be following him. As he approached 74th Street and Melrose Avenue, one of the guys tapped him on the arm and asked if they knew each other. As the boy started to walk away, he was grabbed by the arm and an object was pushed against the back of his head. The robber told him to give him all his money, so the boy emptied his wallet. The two muggers ran off, and the boy told a woman who was out in her yard that he had just been robbed.» Read Full Article A 43-year-old Franklin man caused a store's computer systems to crash after reportedly watching porn using the Wi-Fi. According to the police report: The man was at Open Pantry, 7610 W. Rawson St., and the store's computer systems crashed while he was reportedly watching porn, so he was asked to leave the premises prior to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7. Police warned the man that he is no longer welcome at the business and will be cited for trespassing if he returns. A Wauwatosa man was charged Monday with robbing PNC Bank, 6810 W. State St. According to the police report: Matthew McInnis, 21, handed a note demanding $1,000 to a bank teller. The teller handed over cash, and he walked out the door. As soon as McInnis was outside, the teller locked the entrance doors and told the security guard the bank had just been robbed at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. Discarded clothing was found by the curb and McInnis was detained on Powell Place and 67th Street with cash and a knife in his pockets.» Read Full Article After months of congestion, Watertown Plank Road is open to two-way traffic. Work will continue along the south side of the road for sidewalks, light poles, and driveways for the next couple of weeks. This may require flagmen or temporary barricades during the day. The off-road pathways will be paved later this week along with some of the driveway approaches. The final coat of pavement should be done by the end of this month. Mayor Jill Didier has named her appointments to the city's Community Development Authority. The body, which will have state-approved authority to negotiate privately about developments involving public lands and public funds, was created to promote economic development - especially mixed-use projects - in Wauwatosa. While the city has a Plan Commission and Community Development Committee, those chosen for the CDA have a higher level of expertise in the area of development issues and could provide a more critical review of proposed projects than participants of the existing bodies, city staff said. All appointees live in Wauwatosa. Two are council members and five come from the business community: Scott Bush holds the title of vice president of operations for Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors.» Read Full Article Two men who were spreading word about a youth group that promotes self-responsibility got an earful from a Brookfield man when they asked to borrow a lighter to light a cigarette, according to a city of Brookfield police report. Also in the report: A 20-year-old man reported that the two men asked him to borrow the lighter after approaching him about a youth group they were promoting near the intersection of Gebhardt and Barker roads at 7:41 p.m. Oct. 7. When responding officers found the men, they said the 20-year-old had screamed obscenities at them and yelled "white power." They also told the officer they were stumping for a youth group that promotes self-responsibility and the notion that the color of one's skin and where they are from have no impact on success - but maintained that they were not accepting donations.» Read Full Article A Brookfield Academy student who sneaked out of his house on Bermuda Boulevard in the early morning hours Friday to serve a detention without his mother finding out created a false panic when he forgot to close the front door, according to a city of Brookfield police report. Also in the report: The 17-year-old boy's mother called the police just before 6 a.m. Friday, when she discovered that the front door of her home was ajar. She told officers that she remembered locking the door the night before and worried that an intruder had entered her house. Officers found the boy serving detention at Brookfield Academy shortly after he was discovered missing from his bedroom.» Read Full Article Two men robbed the Subway restaurant at 3960 N. Brookfield Road at gunpoint early Monday, according to city of Brookfield police. A man wearing a black hood and a black bandanna came into the store and ordered the lone employee on duty to the back of the store just before 6:30 a.m., according to the police report. "All (the employee) could see was eyes and a gun," Brookfield Police Capt. Jim Adlam said. Once in the back of the store, Adlam said, the man ordered the employee to lie on the floor and then let a second man - also cloaked in a black hood and bandanna - into the store through a back door. The two men took cash and fled.» Read Full Article More than $23,000 in jewelry was reported stolen from a village of Elm Grove home, according to an Elm Grove police report. Also in the report: A homeowner reported on Oct. 6 that a gold and diamond engagement-wedding ring set valued at $18,000 and a heart-shaped emerald pendant valued at $2,300 had been taken from the home. The pieces were last seen on a bar in the home in the end of July or beginning of August. Since that time, people hired to clean the property and adult children of the homeowner's acquaintances have been inside the home. The North Shore Fire Department reports progress in a search for the cause of a gasoline odor first reported Oct. 5 in the basement of apartment building near Wilson Avenue and Capitol Drive. According to a department news release, contactors retained by the village of Shorewood have completed initial field tests of soil taken today from the ground in the public right of way in front of 1602 E. Capitol Drive. Those test results show a petroleum-based product in the soil. Test samples are being sent to a laboratory for further analysis. The village of Shorewood has notified the state of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources of the test results in accordance with state statutes. The DNR is responsible to determine whether a specific person or business is responsible for the spill. Once that determination has been made, the responsible party must begin mitigation of the spill. A contractor hired by the village has installed a vent in the public right of way at 1602 E. Capitol Drive this afternoon to assist in ventilating the area. North Shore Fire/Rescue crews and contractors will continue to perform air testing in the sanitary sewer system throughout the weekend. Tests performed over the last three days have shown that the ventilation practices being used by North Shore Fire/Rescue, the village and its contractors have been successful in limiting vapors and fumes in the sanitary sewer system. At this time, there is no health danger to the general public.» Read Full Article Brown Deer Police officers responded to a report of a suspicious device that was located in vacant residence in the 9000 block of North Brandybrook Trail at 8:17 this morning. According to a news release, a safe perimeter was established by evacuating a limited number of residential homes and condominium units in the immediate area. The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office Bomb Squad was contacted and rendered the device safe. It appears at this time to be a hoax device. Area residents were allowed to return to their residences once the device was deemed safe. At this time an investigation is ongoing to determine the origin of the device. There were no injuries that occurred as a result of this incident. Americans United for Separation of Church and State today asked a federal appeals court to rule that Elmbrook School District violated students' constitutional rights by holding some past graduation ceremonies in a church. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in September issued a 2-1 decision upholding a lower court ruling stating the district did nothing wrong by holding the Brookfield East and Brookfield Central ceremonies at Elmbrook Church. Now, Americans United, which represents anonymous defendants in the case, wants a full-court review. "Public schools should schedule graduation ceremonies at facilities where all families feel welcome," Americans United Senior Litigation Counsel Alex J. Luchenitser said. "Students should not have to be immersed in an intensely religious environment of a faith different from their own in order to attend their graduation. Graduation is too important to leave some families out." The court now has the option of accepting or denying the request. What is left of a factory and a home badly damaged by fire earlier this year will begin to come down today at Loomis Road and Interstate 894, as the city prepares to again market the properties for redevelopment. Greenfield had bought the properties as part of the redevelopment project dubbed Greenfield Crossing. Planners would like to see a mix of residential and commercial, possibly including a hotel, go into the site, Richard Sokol, Greenfield director of neighborhood services. Fire delayed site demolition efforts, and it will take crews the rest of the week to clean up the properties, but the "for sale" signs should be going up in a couple of weeks, Sokol said. Before the economy tanked, several hotels were interested in the site, which is appealing to prospective developers because it is the first place west of the Mitchell Interchange to offer full freeway access, he said. Greenfield and its firefighters have about two weeks to reach an agreement on a health insurance plan before the city has to consider making 2012 budget adjustments that could affect other departments. Greenfield Mayor Michael Neitzke delivered that message to the Common Council on Tuesday night, noting that service reductions, layoffs in all areas including public safety and reductions in benefits for non-emergency employees might be necessary. The Greenfield Firefighters Association had asked Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Maxine White for a 30-day delay in implementation of a change in health insurance. White denied that request Tuesday afternoon, but issued a temporary restraining order until Oct. 20. That was meant to give the two sides more time to reach a new collective bargaining contract. The city wants concessions from the union to help it balance its 2012 budget that is in a vise because of state limits on how much the city can raise property taxes and a loss of state aid. Because the city is up against a deadline to finish its budget, if negotiations don't yield the needed savings and if the restraining order is extended Neitzke said he will submit an alternative budget that cuts expenses. Weapons are prohibited from city buildings, the Tosa Common Council decided Tuesday. There was very little discussion on the topic before votes were cast, 12-4, in favor of the ban that covers guns, knives and electronic weapons. Local law enforcement officers will be the only people allowed to carry such weapons in municipal buildings. A state law that allows people with a license to carry concealed weapons goes into effect Nov. 1. However, municipalities have the power to prohibit concealed and openly carried weapons within their buildings. Arguing against the measure, Alderwoman Jacqueline Jay said the city's ban impinges on residents' rights under state law to protect themselves. In addition, she worried that people looking to cause problems or harm wouldn't adhere to the ban, leaving law-abiding residents vulnerable. She was joined in voting against a ban for city-owned buildings by Aldermen Tim Hanson, Cheryl Berdan and Jill Organ. No one spoke in support of the ban; however, the issue had been discussed at length at the committee level in prior weeks. The city received more than 60 letters from residents supporting the local ban and only a single letter in opposition.» Read Full Article Two years after Mo's Irish Pub received a controversial approval to raze homes to make space for another parking lot on 108th Place, the pavement is still not in place. The delay irked Common Council President Eric Meaux to the extent that he asked that a request by the restaurant owners to open earlier on weekends be contingent on the parking lot project moving forward. "A year is more than an enough time to build a parking lot," he said. "It's been two years." The council agreed Tuesday night and voted unanimously to allow Mo's to open at 8 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays as long as they have a substantially complete parking lot by the end of the year. Mo's received all its permits and construction is expected to start next week, City Attorney Alan Kesner said.» Read Full Article Parking citations in Whitefish Bay are increasing, following action by the Village Board on Monday. Expired meter tickets are increasing from $10 to $15, while overnight parking citations are increasing from $15 to $20. Handicap parking tickets will be increasing by the greatest increment - from $50 to $150 - and all other parking citations increase from $15 to $25. After surveying other Milwaukee communities, village officials learned Whitefish Bay was among the lowest with its fee schedule. The hikes present an additional opportunity for the village to increase revenue intake. While fines are increasing, the village has not announced plans to increase meter prices. Nicolet boys soccer coach Brian Weisse admits that other North Shore Conference coaches with a hope of gaining a slice of the league title were encouraging and pulling for his side when it visited league leader Whitefish Bay in the finale Tuesday night. If the Knights could pull off the upset, the potential of a four-way tie for the championship could still be in the offing depending upon other results this evening. But the host Blue Dukes were having none of that, as on their senior night, the Blue Dukes got a goal out of Max Loebl after a chaotic set of rebounds in the 54th minute and then got an insurance score in the 76th minute on a lovely play by T.J. Schmid to win the title outright with a 2-0 decision. "Yes, some guys talked to me about it and sometimes that stuff works out, but sometimes it doesn't," said Weisse. "Bay just played a bit better than us tonight." With the win, the Blue Dukes finished the regular season at 6-1 in NSC play and 13-5 overall, while Nicolet finished at 3-4 and 6-10-2, respectively.» Read Full Article After deliberation and a rescinded motion, the Whitefish Bay Village Board on Monday voted, 5-2, to hold trick-or-treating from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30. Staff at Village Hall had recommended the motion. Trustee Kevin Buckley had successfully led a move to change the festive event to the early evening hours on Monday, Oct. 31, on a 4-3 vote. But concerns were subsequently raised about potential conflicts with after-school activities, and the board reconsidered the motion, opting instead to follow through with the original recommendation. The Shorewood Village Board on Monday voted to hold trick-or-treating within the village from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30. The board's action follows a similar pattern from years prior, when the time-honored, festive event took place the Sunday preceding Halloween. Wauwatosa has its first candidate for mayor. John Pokrandt today announced his intention to run for election in April. "My family and I have lived in Wauwatosa for the last 11 years and are proud to call this special place home," he said in a statement. "I have decided to run because I believe that Wauwatosa deserves a passionate and engaged leader. I want to return Wauwatosa to its history of sensible, good governance." Pokrandt has never held elected office, but he said he has been involved in the community through the Quarry Heights Neighborhood Association. His campaign slogan is, "Putting Wauwatosa first." "It means working for business investment and standing up for the city in cases such as Waukesha's water return plans," he said. "Putting Wauwatosa first means being active and engaged in the marketing of this community to businesses and potential residents. It also means being out in the community and being visible, open and available to the residents of this city."» Read Full Article Mayor Jill Didier can hardly recall attending a meeting with public officials from other communities in attendance where she didn't field questions about her pay. They wonder why she would work long hours for an annual salary of $22,500. "It comes up pretty much every meeting that I go to," she said. "People are shocked and awed by that." Didier said she's kept quiet during past discussions about the mayoral salary to give the Common Council time for debate. The topic has come up several times in the past three years, but any change would not take affect until the next mayoral term begins in April 2012. She encouraged the Budget Committee last week to determine what level of respect the mayor - and as a result the city - should have among elected peers as well as business contacts such as developers and business owners looking to work with Wauwatosa.» Read Full Article Eleven jobs will be eliminated if the Common Council approves the proposed 2012 city budget. Of those positions, 10 are already vacated or are expected to be vacated due to retirement by the end of the year. A proposal to cut a parking specialist position would result in a layoff or a job shift for one employee. Split into four categories - city hall, public works, police and fire - employee groups were charged with finding cost reductions or revenue increases, City Administrator James Archambo said. In total, departments came up with $1 million in savings, most of which would be achieved by eliminating positions. "A lot of the gap needs to come from position reductions because we're a service organization and we can't up the levy," he said. Using more technology» Read Full Article A 97-year-old man who wanted to watch a Milwaukee Brewers game called 911 to report someone had stolen his remote control. According to the Greenfield police report: The man called 911 to report someone had stolen his remote control from his residence in the 9300 block of West Howard Avenue prior to 8 p.m. Sept. 26. The remote control was found after police responded, so the man was able to watch the Brewers game. A jury trial on homicide charges filed in the death of Brookfield businessman John C. Aegerter has been pushed back to January so attorneys for Tommy V. Douyette and Lynn M. Hajny can review evidence and arrange for any required expert testimony. Douyette, 42, of Milwaukee and Hajny, 48, of New Berlin are charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the June 22 beating and strangulation death of Aegerter in the garage of his home, 14320 Golf Parkway. Waukesha County Court Circuit Judge Patrick Haughney has set a deadline of Nov. 23 for motions to be filed in the case and scheduled a 12-person jury trial to begin Jan. 30. Haughney also scheduled motion hearings Dec. 15 and Jan. 11. Jonathan Smith, attorney for Douyette, indicated that a severance motion that would allow the pair to be tried separately may be forthcoming.» Read Full Article A 31-year-old man says he was beaten and robbed while he was walking his dog Saturday morning, but doctors who treated him say there were no marks or injuries that showed evidence of a beating. According to the Wauwatosa police report: The man told officers he was walking in the 9500 block of West Sarasota Place at 10:30 a.m. when someone struck him on the lower back with a piece of wood, knocked him to the ground and kicked him several times. He never got a look at the attackers except that he saw a tan hand when someone took the watch from his wrist. The victim said he believes there were two attackers and that one demanded his wallet and threatened his dog's life if he didn't get money. Cash was taken from his pockets, and he was struck in the head with the butt of a pistol several times before he blacked out. When he awoke, the robbers were gone and his dog was in the street.» Read Full Article Anybody who wants to know what the Interstate 94 freeway will look like when all the work is completed can see it in 3-D at the Greenfield Public Library. The library, 5310 W. Layton Ave., will display a large scale model of the I-94 North-South Freeway project for public viewing. Viewers can see how the three tunnels will work, how the 27th Street Interchange will be configured, and the changes that are in store at the Mitchell interchange. The library is open from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays; and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays. Gateway Plastics will move ahead with the next step in a proposal to bring a railroad spur to the north end of the plant at 5650 W. County Line Road. Company chairman Carl Vogel said the railroad has indicated its support of the plan but he wanted to consult with the city's Plan Commission before proceeding. The spur would branch off from the existing Canadian Pacific Railroad lines just south of a creek crossing and across the Interurban trail from the Elmdale Court area of the city, cross three parcels of property and Riebs Lane before reaching its destination, a proposed 420-square-foot pump house. Materials from the train cars would be pumped into the building. Vogel said the rail siding will eliminate resin delivery now done by truck. Currently resin is delivered at the rate of 20 loads per week or 1,000 trucks annually. The rail deliveries will be once or twice a week, he said. The rail spur would cross the northern end of the Kleen Test property. In return for allowing the spur to cross Kleen Test, Vogel said he has agreed to build Kleen Test a parking lot for its semitrailers that are now parking on Riebs Lane for lack of other space.» Read Full Article A Mequon family is safe after police and firefighters evacuated them from their home after several people fell ill with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning Monday. According to a news release from Mequon Police, police and firefighter personnel were dispatched to a home in the 11100 block of Lake Shore Lane after a person had fallen in the residence. When they arrived, it was determined that there were four individuals in the residence that were experiencing the symptoms of possible carbon monoxide exposure. The homeowner said the heating system had been turned on earlier in the day for the first time this season. Mequon ambulance along with mutual aid assistance from the North Shore Fire Department and Thiensville ambulance transported five adult patients to Milwaukee area to Milwaukee area hospitals for treatment. The incident is under investigation by the Mequon Police and Fire Departments. A businessman said that a woman he paid for a massage stole cash and his wedding ring from his hotel room after he declined her offer for a "happy ending" Sept. 28, according to a city of Brookfield police report. Also in the report: The 33-year-old man reported at 5:45 p.m. Sept. 28 that a masseuse had taken $50 from his wallet and his wedding ring from the room he rented at the Sheraton Hotel, 375 S. Moorland Road. He requested that a detective - or any officer dressed in street clothes - respond to the hotel because he was there for a business conference and did not want to draw attention to himself. He told responding officers that he paid the woman for a massage, and she took his personal effects and left after he declined her offer for a "happy ending."» Read Full Article An 80-year-old Brookfield man was arrested for drunken driving and hit and run after striking a restaurant, two cars and two trees with his car Sept. 29, according to a city of Brookfield police report. Also in the report: The man was leaving Maxim's Restaurant, 18025 W. Capitol Drive, at 1:54 p.m. Sept. 29 when he struck the building, two cars and two trees, causing minor damage. Restaurant staff got the man's name from a credit card receipt and reported the incident to police. The man was arrested for his third offense of drunken driving when officers went to his home and found his damaged car parked in an open garage.» Read Full Article Fire suppression and detection systems are credited with quelling two fires in the city of Brookfield before major damages were incurred last week. According to Fire Department reports: Firefighters found a light haze of smoke coming from the kitchen when they arrived at Best Western Midway, 1005 S. Moorland Road, at 2:21 a.m. Sept. 30. It was later determined that a pile of rags used for cleaning had somehow ignited. Hotel guests were evacuated. Water from the fire-suppression sprinkler system extinguished the blaze and prevented any damage to the building.» Read Full Article More than $21,000 in jewelry was taken from a home in the 3600 block of Muirwood Drive on Sept. 28, it was reported to city of Brookfield police. According to the police report, the burglary happened between 11:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. Sept. 28. The intruder pried open a rear casement window to get into the home after an attempt to pry open a rear patio door failed. The case remains under investigation. A Brookfield man who thought he had negotiated a payment plan for outstanding credit card debt became the victim of fraud, according to a city of Brookfield police report. Also from the report: The 79-year-old man reported that he stopped making payments on a $28,000 credit card balance in December because he could no longer afford to. In a series of phone calls with someone claiming to be a representative of the credit card company, the man agreed to pay $5,800 in 36 monthly payments if the remainder of the balance was forgiven. The unidentified suspect had the man's personal information and details of his credit account.» Read Full Article The 70 percent of Wauwatosa property owners who don't pay their taxes in person at City Hall will need to go to the city's website to print out receipts this year. For the first time, the city won't be mailing property tax payment receipts. The change is meant to save the city time and money, Business Supervisor Derik Summerfield said. The city also will no longer use a courier to take tax payments from City Hall to the bank - that will happen electronically, he said. Even though bank fees will increase because of the electronic submissions, the reduction in paperwork and courier time will result in a $5,000 savings for the Treasurer's Office. Property owners who come to City Hall and pay at the counter will continue to receive a paper receipt. Residents who mail in the payments could submit a self-addressed stamped envelope or come to the Treasurer's Office at any time to get a print out, Summerfield said.» Read Full Article More than 200 students and their loved ones walked, bicycled, scooted or skateboarded to McKinley Elementary School today to celebrate International Walk to School Day. The event helped launch the Walking School Bus Program. Four routes are being offered that will allow children to meet up and walk to school together with one or more adult chaperons. A larger group is easier for drivers to see crossing the street than one or two children, so walking with friends makes the trip to school safer. Plus, children who walk or ride a bike to school get more physical exercise. The school PTA organized the Walk to School Day event. The Children's Theatre of Wauwatosa is celebrating its 75th year of bringing the arts to local youth with a six-show season. The curtain will rise on the first show, "Choose Thine Own Adventure," at 2 p.m. Oct. 29 at Wauwatosa West High School. The introduction to Shakespeare will be presented. Season tickets are on sale online at TosaRec.com or at the Wauwatosa Recreation Department, 11400 W. Center St., for $18. Single admission tickets are sold the day of the each show for $4. The other plays that will be performed are "To Laugh is to Live," "The Crying Princess and the Golden Goose," "The Princess Went Thataway," "The Land of the Dragon" and "Let's Keep the Dream Alive" and "The Musicians."

06-11-2013, 11:13 AM Over on This Ain't Hell, some initial analyses of Snowden's so-called military career have been done, which question certain "elements" of it. FOIA request pending.U.S. Army, Retired 06-12-2013, 05:58 AM I know there are people on both sides of the aisle right now that want this guys head...they're saying he's no better than Bradley manning and such...but when you stop and think about it...what Snowden did was release info about the process involved in the way NSA gathers info on all of us. He didn't release any actual info. No names transcripts of conversations or emails. In short he did what Seymour Hersch did with his front page story about how we were tracking al-Qaeda by their bank accounts. I haven't seen or heard of Hersch having to hide from authorities or fear for his life. Manning on the other hand did EVERYTHING Snowden didn't. He released email...diplomatic cables...video etc. Manning put lives at risk...Snowden hasn't. That's the difference between the two based on the info available right now. And at this point Snowden needs to be protected under U.S. Whistleblower laws. If it turns out he released documents then put him in a cell next to Manning. But right now all he's guilty of is showing how the NSA collects the info.In Memory Of My Friend 1st Sgt. Tim Millsap A Co, 70th Eng. Bn. 3rd Bde 1st AD...K.I.A. 25 April 2005 Liberalism Is The Philosophy Of The Stupid To Achieve Ordered Liberty You Must Have Moral Order As Well The libs/dems of today are the Quislings of former years. The cowards who would vote a fraud into office in exchange for handouts from the devil. 06-12-2013, 12:54 PM I have to wonder how people would feel if you had a knock on the door and the FBI entered without a search warrant and said they were going to search, photograph and catalog everything you owned, but not to worry this was for statistical use only and would not be used personally against you unless you broke the law at a later date. How many would say this was harmless and the price we have to pay for our national safety?The difference between pigs and people is that when they tell you you're cured it isn't a good thing. 06-12-2013, 01:09 PM - Join Date - Jul 2009 What the NSA is doing is wrong. What this guy did is also wrong. I learned in kindergarten that two wrongs do not create a right.Olde-style, states' rights conservative. Ask if this concept confuses you. 06-12-2013, 01:23 PMThe difference between pigs and people is that when they tell you you're cured it isn't a good thing. 06-12-2013, 02:00 PM “[O]ur law holds the property of every man so sacred,that no man can set his foot upon his neighbour’s closewithout his leave; if he does he is a trespasser, though he does no damage at all; if he will tread upon hisneighbour’s ground, he must justify it by law.” Entick, supra, at 817. Scalia then observes: "The text of the Fourth Amendment reflects its close connection to property, since otherwise it would have referredsimply to “the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures”; the phrase “in their persons, houses, papers, and effects” would have been superfluous." The later interpretation of the Fourth Amendment, which produced the standard of a "reasonable expectation of privacy" (United States V. Katz), does not abrogate the previous concept of invasion of privacy as a matter of trespass on private property, but adds to it. Therefore, the question becomes, does the government's action constitute a trespass on private property, and does its action violate a reasonable expectation of privacy? This is where the legal reasoning gets tricky, because the seizure of the records would have required a specific, not a general, warrant (general warrants, or Writs of Assistance, as the Crown called them, were the reason for the Fourth Amendment in the first place), unless Verizon volunteered the records without a warrant. The records are the property of Verizon, not the callers, and therefore it is up to Verizon to decide whether or not to cooperate. The government's possession of the data within those records, which is limited to information about the calls, but not the contents of the calls themselves, does not constitute a search or seizure of private property, nor is there an expectation of privacy with regard to the metadata (which, unlike the content of the calls, is logged by Verizon). The nineteenth century equivalent would be if a postmaster informed a police officer that a criminal suspect did, in fact, post a letter or package to a given address, but that the postmaster had no idea of the contents. Now, just because the Fourth Amendment is silent on metadata does not mean that this is good policy, or that the Obama administration's breathtaking mendacity in denying the existence of the program to congress shouldn't be an issue, only that it may not be the the issue that the civil libertarians are talking about. We have to be consistent here, and I admit to getting caught up in the outrage over the idea of the government collecting this information, especially in view of the IRS scandal and the administration's proven inclination to abuse information which it compells us to present under penalty of perjury, but we also need to know the legal and ethical issues and address them clearly. We can leave the hysterical posturing to DU. 06-12-2013, 02:08 PM“A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” – Ayn Rand Power Point Ranger 06-12-2013, 02:48 PM Before you decide that this is unconstitutional, ask yourself if the US interception and code-breaking of Japanese diplomatic and military codes prior to our entry into WWII was Constitutional, or if the interception of SIGINT from the Soviets to their agents in the US (the Venona Intercepts) was Constitutional. Would it have been acceptable for someone to leak the existence of the Manhattan Project during WWII? Remember that those intercepts, like the NSA program, were not being used to prosecute American citizens, but to gain wartime intelligence against declared enemies and identify clandestine enemy combatant (i.e., terrorist) networks operating in the US. The legal standards are radically different for those two endeavors, and the blurring of the lines between criminal justice issues and national security issues creates real problems for effectively dealing with either. Snowden held a position of trust, and he violated that trust. If he genuinely believed that the program was illegal, he had other options. He could have raised the issue internally to his superiors, or taken his information to the congressional committees charged with oversight of the executive, and which have a Constitutional mandate to investigate, but which also have the means to deal with classified without compromising them. By going outside of the chain, he acted irresponsibly and dangerously. 06-12-2013, 04:09 PM Obama promised a transparent administration. Now he's getting one.Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound - Unknown The problem is Empty People, Not Loaded Guns - Linda Schrock Taylor 06-12-2013, 06:42 PM"The efforts of the government alone will never be enough. In the end the people must choose and the people must help themselves" ~ JFK; from his famous inauguration speech (What Democrats sounded like before today's neo-Liberals hijacked that party) |« Previous Thread | Next Thread »|

Monday, November 19, 2012 Missing Autistic Man NR12529gv Castillo has been located in Whittier. Someone saw him and contacted Los Angeles Adult Protective Services, whose personnel retrieved him and temporarily placed him at a facility in Hollywood. He has now been reunited in good condition with his greatly relieved family members. Chief Beck and the LAPD would like to thank members of the media and local broadcasters for their diligence and assistance, without which Castillo might not have been found so quickly Los Angeles: The family of Miguel Angel Castillo Jr. and the Los Angeles Police Department are asking for the public’s help in locating him after he walked away from his caretakers today and hasn’t been seen or heard from since. On Monday, November 19, 2012, around 2:30 p.m., Miguel Angel Castillo Jr. was last seen by his caretaker at 660 South Figueroa Street in Los Angeles, near the 7th Street Metro Station. He was with a group of special needs people, cared for by caretakers. Miguel has severe autism and takes medication. His family is extremely concerned for his safety and well-being. Miguel is a 30-year-old Hispanic man, with short dark brown hair, brown eyes, 5 feet 8 inches tall, and weighs 185 pounds. He is believed to be wearing a tan jacket, silver/gray shirt, blue jean pants, white tennis shoes and he was wearing a dark gray backpack. He does not speak and he is unable to communicate in any language. If you have seen, or have any information regarding the whereabouts of Miguel, please contact the Los Angeles Police Department, Pacific Area Police Station at (310) 482-6334. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477). Tipsters may also contact Crime Stoppers by texting to phone number 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. All text messages should begin with the letters “LAPD.” Tipsters may also go to LAPDOnline.org, click on "webtips" and follow the prompts.

Disclaimer: I don't own Spider-Man, or any other Marvel Comics characters. I also do not own any DC Comics characters. Chapter 14 - Edge of Midnight The world seemed to go in slow motion as he leaped over the edge of the Daily Planet building, and plunged without thought down toward the scared, and screaming form about to meet her demise on the streets below. Spider-Man streamlined his body to maximize the speed of his decent and began to catch up to the falling woman, who Peter still envisioned to be his long lost love Gwen Stacy. Spider-Man reached out with one hand, inching closer to her by the second as the panicked shouts of pedestrians filled his ears. Peter blocked them out, and grabbed the woman, and placed his body below her, and wrapped his arms around her protectively. "No more webbing...too far to make it to stick to anything...Gwen...I'll protect you!" Peter closed his eyes, and waited for the impact. Peter felt himself, and the woman in his arms floating and opened his eyes to see that Superman caught them a mere six feet from the cleared away street. A crowd was beginning to form around the three, and Spider-Man quickly lowered himself, and Lois onto the street. Peter blinked when he could no longer see Gwen standing there, and in her place their stood a dark haired woman staring at him with a thankful smile. "What was that? Why did I see Gwen? Wait! The Goblin!" Peter's head looked up, and started scanning the skies with urgency, but he saw no sign of his old foe. "NO! You won't get away from me, Norman!" Spider-Man was about to start wall-crawling back up the Daily Planet building to begin his search for the Green Goblin, when Superman placed a hand on Peter's shoulder getting him to turn his masked head. "Spider-Man, thank you for saving Lois. I don't know what I would've done if I lost her." Superman said to his teammate, and saw that Spider-Man's body tensed at his words. "There's no time! I have to stop him!" Superman shook his head with an angry frown. "I saw the Goblin disappearing into a portal of some kind above the city. We need the rest of the team here. It's time you told us everything about you, and the enemies that we could be facing, Spider-Man." Superman stared at Spider-Man intently, and waited for his answer. "The Goblin's appearance here is no coincidence. This is the Beyonder's handiwork, and he could bring just about anyone to this universe if he wanted. If I keep quiet about my identity, and world...it will put innocent lives at risk. I can't do that, and I won't. I'd never forgive myself. There's a quicker way to have the League know everything," Peter has a look of concentration under his mask, and cleared his thoughts like his friend Moondragon taught him. Superman watched Spider-Man's form relax, and he was taking deep breaths. "J'onn...are you there?...J'onn...I need to talk to you." Peter waited for a few minutes, before he felt the familiar sensation of psychic contact being established. "Spider-Man...we are heading for Metropolis now. There was a tremor on the psychic plane when you felt anguish about your lost love. I understand what you are feeling." Peter's brow furrowed under his mask. "I appreciate you keeping my life, and the information about my world to yourself..." The Martian Manhunter flinches in his seat on-board the Javelin, and waited for Spider-Man to continue speaking in his mind. "but, now an old enemy of mine appeared in your world, and almost killed someone!...I want you to use your telepathy and send the team everything. All my memories." There was silence over their psychic link for a few moments, and the Martian Manhunter was the first to break the silence. "I understand, Spider-Man. I will let the others know. There is a one problem...Batman still has the psychic shields on his mind, and I cannot reach him telepathically." Peter frowned under his mask, and his jaw tightened. "I'll have to talk to Bats directly then...not something I'm looking forward to." "I will wait until we arrive in Metropolis before I begin linking our minds for the transfer, Spider-Man." "Good plan. My past isn't all sunshine, and rainbows. Thanks, J'onn." Peter begins to come out of his psychic trance, and Superman was helping Lois over to one of the Ambulance's that were onsite to help with the injured on the street. Spider-Man looked down and moved part of his costume up, and exposed his abdomen where his belt with his extra web cartridges are located. "I have to create more web fluid...who among all the League members has a lab? I've got a feeling only Bats has access to one. Or maybe I could go to that facility called S.T.A.R. Labs that Superman told me about?" Peter was brought out of his thoughts from the sound of the Javelin touching down on the roof of the Daily Planet. Spider-Man glanced over at his teammate Superman, who was hugging Lois to his chest, and running a hand through her hair. He separated, and kissed her forehead. Peter could hear Superman whispering apologies to her, and decided to give them some privacy and jumped up a high as he could, and began wall-crawling up fast to reach the roof. Peter could see Hawkgirl flying from the roof, and descended towards his location on the side of the building. Shayera's wings flapped lightly, as she kept pace with Peter crawling upwards. "Need a lift?" Hawkgirl said getting Spider-Man to stop, and look up at her. "Thanks for the offer, Polly... but I've got lots of practice scaling buildings like this." Hawkgirl frowned slightly when she heard a hitch in his voice. "This isn't open for discussion. Your coming with me." Hawkgirl strapped her mace to her belt around her waist, and surprised Peter when she scooped him up under his costumed arms, and began flying skyward. Peter looked down, and didn't struggle in her grip. "It's a long way down...been there, done that." Peter looked up to see Hawkgirl smirking down at him, and then she started diving right towards the roof at high speed. Peter unconsciously clung onto Shayera, and she blushed a little from their close contact. Shayera's wings expanded, and flapped loudly as she lowered Spider-Man onto the roof with Superman just arriving after they touched down. Everyone, but the Batman was present on the Daily Planet's roof, and Spider-Man cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "J'onn's probably brought you up to speed on the situation. An old enemy from my world has shown up here, and that means the Beyonder is making his move. You all need the knowledge that I have about myself, and my world to help you if there are more of my rogue's gallery on the way. J'onn's agreed to send you all of my memories telepathically...I don't like it...but the Goblin's arrival has forced my hand." Peter said clenching his gloved fist, and narrowed his eye lenses while staring at his teammates in the League. Flash sent Peter an understanding smile. "It's not fair that your the only one exposing his identity, Webs. Hey, J'onn! Can you send Spidey my memories too? You never know when you could run into one of my baddies like Captain Boomerang, right?" Flash received questioning looks from the other members of the League. "You sure about this, Flash?" Green Lantern asked with his arms folded over his chest, and lantern insignia. "Yep! You guys should too! I mean...if you want to." Flash said looking at the faces of all the other members of the League. Green Lantern huffed, and sighed. "Fine. I'll do it." Flash ran over, and tapped his friend on the back in a friendly manner. "Good man! Anyone else?" Hawkgirl turned her head, and rubbed her upper left arm with her other hand. "Not just yet. I'm sorry, but there are some things I'm not ready to share with you." Hawkgirl gave everyone an apologetic look, as her gaze lingered on Spider-Man longer than the others. Wonder Woman asked J'onn a question. "Do we have to include everything? Mother forbade me from revealing anything that could expose Themiscrya, and I don't want to endanger my Amazonian sisters." Spider-Man wasn't in the mood to deal with their debating, and turned his head to look at J'onn. "Do I have to be here for the transfer?" J'onn shook his head. "Good enough for me. I've got a Goblin to hunt!" Spider-Man ran over to the other side of the roof, and took a mighty leap 20 feet over to the next highrise building, and kept going until he was out of sight. Hawkgirl stared at Spider-Man's retreating form with a forelorn look, and the rest of the League were looking guilty with their heads down. J'onn stepped forward with a serious look on his face. "Spider-Man's memories will overwhelm you, and are not for the faint of heart. Be prepared." J'onn's eyes glowed red, as he entered a psychic trance like state to transfer Spider-Man's memories to Flash, Green Lantern, Superman, and Wonder Woman. The memories of Peter Parker started flooding their minds. His early days of being bullied by Flash Thompson, gaining his Spider powers, and trying to cash in on them. The death of his Uncle Ben that changed his life, and helped shape his future. Faces of all of Spider-Man's enemies flashed across their minds-eye. Super powered men with animal themed costumes, Alien symbiotes, mutants, and sights that even John Stewart, and the more experienced members of the League were astounded at. They watched as Spider-Man faced threats that would've caused even Superman to think twice before challenging. They saw Peter with multiple arms facing off against a living Vampire, getting cosmic powers, and facing down a mad despot standing next to death herself with the power to end his life with a single thought. They saw some of Spider-Man's enemies becoming friends, and allies...a woman in a skin tight leather costume with white hair, and a domino mask on, and a man in a lab coat with one arm that transformed into a lizard man. They witnessed him becoming teammates, and friends with a group of super-humans known as the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and others. The League members saw all of this, and they dropped down to their knees holding their heads with blank looks in their eyes. J'onn cut off his telepathy, and his eyes no longer had a red glow. Superman had haunted eyes, and shook his head to help sort his thoughts. "Great Scott! What he's had to endure...it makes what I went through on Apokolips look pale in comparison." Superman was humbled by Peter's sacrifices and how he faced threats bigger than any he's seen before. Wonder Woman stood up slowly with her slender left hand held over her blue eyes. "Spider-Man is a true hero. If only my mother could see these memories...she would not doubt that man's world can produce true men that have honor, and dignity. I know my mother would welcome him to the shores of Themyscira." Diana walked over to the edge of the building, and stared off in the location Spider-Man left to, and gave an Amazonian salute in that direction. Green Lantern couldn't believe all of the different alien races that existed in Spider-Man's universe, and he remembered the conversation he had with the Guardians after the League's meeting about Spider-Man. "The Guardians said that they had a falling out with being's called the Elders of the Universe, and entities called the Living Tribunal, and Eternity decided to split the Universe into two separate ones, because the Elders threatened to use their Infinity Gems to kill the Guardians. Seeing Spider-Man's memories confirms things. Buried alive...scorched by cosmic flames from a herald called Firelord...I'm going to need to use my ring to sort through everything to get more info on these Elders since the Guardians wouldn't tell me anything else." John looked over at Flash, who was shaking on his hands and knees with a vacant stare. "Flash?" John was getting no response from Wally. "Flash!" Wally still was looking down, and Green Lantern could see sweat dripping down Flash's face from under his cowl. John used his ring to create a green energy hand, and gently lifted Flash onto his feet. John rushed over, and lightly shook Wally by his shoulders. "Wally! Can you hear me!" Flash blinked under the lenses of his mask, and groaned painfully. "What happened? Was...all of that...real? He's got all of these guys wanting to destroy him...my rogues aren't even in the same league as his!" Flash started shaking again, and John shook Wally again, and gave him a stern look. "Flash...Spider-Man's life, and yours are two different things. Don't overlap them, and draw any comparisons! Just be happy that you never had a world eating cosmic being trying to make our world a midnight snack." John tried a joke with his dry sense of humor to get Wally to focus, and it worked when he saw him chuckling a little. "Yeah...can you believe it? That one herald called Nova was super hot, though!" Flash grinned widely. "Yeah, Wally's back to normal." Green Lantern smirked, and pushed Wally with his hands on his back walking over to main group. "We need to compare notes with the others, and then track down Spider-Man before Batman chews us out." On the other side of Metropolis City Spider-Man approached the head of S.T.A.R. Labs, Doctor Emil Hamilton to use one of his labs to make more web fluid for his web-shooters. Professor Hamilton agreed to allow Peter to use their lab, as long as he was being supervised by one of his staff at all times. Peter agreed to this, and began to gather the chemicals for his web fluid. Peter was suspicious of Hamilton when he saw him making mental notes of what chemicals he was using, so Peter made up an excuse that he was needed back at the Watchtower and he needed a container for the necessary components, and will return later to the lab to make it. Professor Hamilton offered to recreate the fluid, if Spider-Man provided the formula. Peter politely refused, and he noticed Hamilton frown slightly before smiling and accepting Peter's reasoning. Spider-Man left the lab quickly with the chemicals in a specially made container that had a strap that was over Peter's right shoulder. Spider-Man arrived at a large harbor that separated Metropolis, and a dark city that looked nothing like the bright city that Superman calls home. Peter looks over at a sign indicating the name of the city across the harbor. "Gotham City...that's Batman's city. Goblin likely doesn't know anything about the world that the Beyonder sent him to. Norman would feel right at home over there. Not to mention telling Bat's about my life the old fashioned way." Peter narrowed his eye lenses when he heard sirens, and the sounds of shouting people in panic. "It's like New York if Dracula was the Mayor! Better see what I can do to help out!" Peter leaps over to the harbor ferry, and saw a large man wearing a blue sailor suit and a brown Gatsby hat with one squinting eye. "Who the?! Your that guy Superman was hanging out with!" Peter gave the man a salute. "I need your help to get me over there to Gotham, can you do it?" The large man pulled up a sleeve of his coat, and gave Peter a grin. "Any friend O' Superman's a friend of mine! Name's Bibbo! I'll get you there in no time flat!" Author's note: Chapter 14 Complete! Thanks for reading, and leave a review to let me know what you thought of the chapter. (^-^)

As part of the activities leading up to Yule this year my church is making a Yule Log to work beneficial magicks for the upcoming year. Since I have access to lots of wood following the ice storm I have chosen an arm-sized (one of my arms, so we’re not talking small here) hunk of ash from the front yard. Since this was a live tree just last week I have been using the oven at a low setting to force dry the wood so it lights easily and burns well. This has the delicious side effect of making the whole house smell like a burning ash log. This week we will be decorating and charging the log with desires and energy for the coming year and then Sunday after next we will burn the log in what will start as a solemn ceremony that turns to celebration when the log is consumed. Special beers and meads have already been selected for consumption. There will also be a selection of sausages and cheeses to go with the beers and mead. This is a tradition that hearkens back to pre-Christian Europe, so we’re gonna party like it’s 99BC ;) Up first is a sort of wreck report and sort of lifestyle article from Houston. Houston bicyclists ride to honor woman killed in hit-and-run Cyclist killed riding on a residential street with on-street parking to act as traffic calming in a hit-from-behind wreck. Since residential areas are shared space under the Dutch model and traffic calming was already in place the only changes would be a lower speed limit and stricter enforcement of traffic laws when violations endanger pedestrians and cyclists. I couldn’t believe that this took place just a few miles west of WoaB World HQ in the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell. Updatedx4: Teen Kills 4; Judge LITERALLY Lets Him Off Because He is Rich! Drunk kid runs into a crowd of people killing 4 and gets let off because he’s too rich! Update on a FL hit-and-run where information is being withheld from LEO. Mom of teens in fatal hit-and-run suing suspected owner of Mercedes It seems the owner of the vehicle could be charged with interfering with an investigation unless invoking the 5th amendment right against self-incrimination. Another MI cyclist is injured in a hi-and-run. College student injured in hit-and-run accident while riding his bike to work Aaaannnnd when they got back to the scene of the crime all that was left was the back wheel of the bike, all other evidence was taken either by the driver or confederates, or by ghouls looking to steal anything of value. Hit-from-behind protocols to avoid and get the infrastructure right to prevent. Apparently Milt Olin was hit by the only LACS cruiser without a dash cam. Sheriff’s deputy strikes, kills cyclist on Mulholland Hwy. Yes, the cruiser that hit the cyclist was not equipped with a dash cam. How they managed to do that is up for questioning, but that seems to be the case. Also in CA a driver is charged after killing a cyclist while using a hands-free device. Ashley Bell charged after hitting, killing bicyclist while using hands-free device It’s the cognitive impairment caused by the phone call, not the inability to control the car with only one hand, that causes the wrecks. At least in this case they got it right. Update on the CT driver that left-crossed a cyclist and left him for dead. Conn. man pleads not guilty to charges in road accident that fatally injured cyclist OK this is just SOP when dealing with the courts, everybody pleads not guilty unless they are facing such a mountain of evidence they think a guilty plea will get them a lower sentence. In the Great White North another cyclist is injured by a chemically “enhanced” driver. Bonavista cyclist injured as driver charged with impaired Nothing on the mode in this article, so Infrastructure! Infrastructure! news from CA. Fixed-gear bikes banned on county park trails OOoohh! can I get SUVs banned because one was present in a hit and run against a cyclist? More from CA about infrastructure. SLO Ranks 7th Most Dangerous City for Cyclists That’s a ranking for CA cities, not US overall. Greater Miami is still the worst city for cyclists in the US. AZ isn’t left out of the infrastructure news today, either. City rolls out pedestrian, cyclist safety campaign More infrastructure from AZ. Cyclist calls for action from Marana PD The comments section should read “Cyclist calls for PD to enforce the laws, people get upset because cyclists break imaginary laws”. Lifestyle from the Windy City. Community Rallies For Family Of Hector Avalos, Chicago Cyclist And Former Marine Killed In Crash Another Lifestyle article. Bicycle brings newfound freedom to injured Stockton veteran And lifestyle from Chuck aka Charleston SC. The Second Annual Bikes Brews & BBQ WoaB endorses this event. I especially endorse the pig riding a bicycle event poster. And those were all the bike links that gave me fits today. Billed @€0.02, Opus

Self Motivation - The Difference Between Wanna-Be and Gonna-Be Stew Smith, CSCS Most people who email me are pretty motivated but need guidance on how to get to a new level of fitness and health. From the unfit seeking to getting healthy and lose weight to the athlete seeking to change from a sport workout routine to a military workout routine to better prepare for the different challenges that the military provides, I am honored to help. However, every now and then I receive emails from those who say they want to serve but have been unmotivated for a year or more to physically prepare for a profession in the military or law enforcement. This is a problem. With the current economic recession and job losses, recruiter’s offices are full of young and older recruits looking for a job. Here is an email from a young man seeking to join either the military or police force: Hello – I am a recent college graduate and used to be an athlete in high school, but have not worked out in more than two years with any consistency. I know I need to lose weight for my health but I also want to get a job in the military or police. I am not sure which one and I just cannot get motivated to go and workout. Any suggestions? The good news is that you are young enough to get in shape relatively quickly. Four to six months of daily fitness at your age will help your ability to survive whatever training you are seeking. However, ask yourself: is this an attempt at “job hunting” or are you really motivated to serve your country in the military or police force? These are honorable professions that require personal drive and motivation to succeed, not just a place to pick up a check every two weeks. One day while performing your duties, your fitness may mean the difference between life and death for you or your buddy. If that does not motivate you to workout then I am not going to be able to do it by holding your hand and telling you that you can do it if you try. You have to ask yourself, do you really want to serve your country enough that you are willing to suck up the pain of preparation in order to achieve the goal of proudly wearing that uniform? Another thing you will develop when you start to train hard is the confidence in yourself. You will sharpen your mental toughness by pushing your fitness levels each week. One thing I have learned by being in the military/law enforcement fitness and fitness writing business for the past ten years is that you can set the example for people to follow, but you cannot make them follow. I do not motivate people to workout – YOU have to do that. When you are motivated, let me know and I can help you get the the level of fitness you need. When you are truly motivated to serve, you will do whatever is in your power to prepare yourself. You have to understand that we are at war with people who want to shoot you for your ideals and beliefs. Whether it is your belief of freedom for all or justice to those who break the law, you will one day embody that belief in the uniform you choose to wear. It is not just a job – it is a noble profession that you will always treasure having served in and you will never forget those who served and the new generation that still serves after you. Now get to work!

by David AbramsBuy on NOOK » March 18, 2013 3How Should a Person Be? One of the reasons I don’t review many books anymore is because I’ve come to realize that most of the criteria I use to evaluate them are really just my prejudices, stray bits of opinion splintered off from my intellectual proclivities, my stupefying lassitude, my in-earnest behavior, my own limitations as a writer. I can’t defend them and don’t want to. And as an author I know how hurtful negative judgments are, no matter how uninterested you should be in them in theory. Plus, in the end we are naturally more passionate about our creations than others’, and those we read doubtless feel the same way. Certainly, there are exceptions—smart, thorough critics on the order of James Wood or William Deresiewicz, to name but two; I think their work embodies a special kind of cultural heroism. But then came a man with the improbable moniker of Rosecrans Baldwin, who caught me in a town in Texas after two drinks at something called a Literary Crawl, and a commitment was made that could not easily be undone—his feelings, his hard work, had to be considered now, too. So here goes… I have before me two books that illustrate my point painfully (for me) well. In most senses of the word, Lauren Groff’s Arcadia is a better novel than Sheila Heti’s. With a range from the 1970s to 2018 (!), it certainly more fully attempts to fulfill the glorious potential of the form: 50 years of American culture, from the hippie movement to life in a globally warmed near-future world. It’s all seen through the eyes of a boy named Bit (for “Little Bit of a Hippie”) who gradually changes, learns, grows into adulthood. Bit is not Groff, not remotely, but exists in a small piece of the mental landscape from which Groff derives both subject and sustenance. His character on the page is the product of the spadework the honest novelist signs up to do, as is this epiphanic moment in the story: “They hurtle through life aging unimaginably fast, but each grasps a silken edge of memory that billows between them and softens the long fall.” And that’s my problem with the book right there. I don’t recognize the truth of that sentence, not from my life nor my observation of anyone else’s. Memory has never cushioned me in that way. Maybe when I’m older? But how old? Still there is an appealing, positive feel to Arcadia, in keeping with its meliorist message. Nice moments appear, nicely captured, such as this one: “Gingery Eden, her pregnant belly enormous, cracks a bottle of pop over the hood of the Blue Bus and rubs her back when she stands. The dazzle of her white teeth under her copper hair makes Bit want to dance.” Up against Groff’s thoroughly written, plotted, thunk-on exploration of life as culture and personality is Canadian author Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be?—I mean, it’s so slight there even seems to be a word missing in the title. Be what? How happy should a person be? How tall? And yet, and yet, this too is a novel, an anorectic version of Tolstoy’s great baggy monster, and I gotta say, with its narcissistic, being-single-in-Toronto-and-trying-to-find-myself tone, with its women-closer-to-other-women-than-to-the-men-they-date subtext, I really enjoyed it. I felt in it the truth of personality as it plays out in the world today (OK, plays out among circumstantially well-to-do Westerners with BAs and little apparent need to work for money). I may not have loved myself for loving it, but do you care? The story taunts you with how lifelike it is, just lifelike enough to make you alternately irritated with the author—whoops, I mean narrator—and in love with her as she marches through her minimal novelly paces. (You may remember this duality from Seinfeld.) The action of the book, such as it is, is that Sheila is trying to write a play, while her best friend Margaux is trying to make meaningful art. And while Margaux seems best at art, Sheila seems best at questioning why she should be an artist, a sporadic, offbeat interrogation through which she bravely—but OK, also predictably—has the courage to show her own lassitude and shameful proclivities, viz the fifth and sixth paragraphs of the book’s opening: How should a person be? I sometimes wonder about it, and I can’t help answering like this: a celebrity. But for all that I love celebrities, I would never move somewhere that celebrities actually exist. My hope is to live a simple life, in a simple place, where there’s only one example of everything. By a simple life, I mean a life of undying fame that I don’t have to participate in. I don’t want anything to change, except to be as famous as one can be, but without that changing anything. Everyone would know in their hearts that I am the most famous person alive—but not talk about it too much. I’m not sure that what makes that sentence true is that we’ve all thought it, because we’ve all also thought much deeper things that wouldn’t work in its place. But it’s funny, and funny is underrated in fiction: Funny becomes the challenge and the redemptive mechanism of this book. The book showcases different kinds of funny, and “Interlude for Fucking” may be the best of all the chapters in this mode. It’s in the middle of the book but also the climax (duh), at once a parody of sexual surrender, an homage to the oblivion of intercourse, and a grief-stricken throwing up of the hands before a descent into relationship indifference. Sheila has met a bad boyfriend named Israel, whose treatment of the narrator is both demeaning and cause for rejoicing (isn’t being objectified part of the celebrity she seeks?), and she wants to share her joy with all the women of the world: I don’t know why all of you just sit in libraries when you could be fucked by Israel. I don’t know why all of you are reading books when you could be getting reamed by Israel, spat on, beaten up against the headboard—with every jab, your head battered into the headboard. Why are you all reading? I don’t understand this reading business when there is so much fucking to be done…. What is there to be learned tonight when you could learn to suck Israel’s cock? And so on. READ IT ON NOOK® » By Kevin Guilfoile & John Warner Kevin: OK, I’m going to confess something. I just didn’t get How Should a Person Be? You and I discuss books a lot during the year, but we haven’t talked about this one for some reason. Maybe we should have. There’s a lot of overlap in our tastes (with frequent differences in degrees of appreciation) but Heti’s novel strikes me as more of a John book than a Kevin book. I read the novel without knowing much at all about it, and my impression was—and here’s where I agree with Judge Max—that it was frequently funny, and often insightful. But I just didn’t buy it enough to really care. It felt so mannered and artificial. None of these characters seemed like real people. None of them had jobs that could sustain them, or even hobbies occupy them. Everything the characters did (Go to Miami! Go to New York! I’m going to tape you!) seemed to be motivated by the whim of the author alone. I’m not always against artifice. The characters in May We Be Forgiven don’t feel real the way my neighbors do, but early on Homes got me to buy into her world and the odd people who inhabit it. I never felt that with this novel. The dialogue doesn’t sound like people talking. Nothing much happens, and yet the characters spend page after page explaining it all to each other. They speak with a self-awareness that is beyond the grasp of any actual people I know, yet they act as if they have no self-awareness at all. Like this part, where Sheila and Margaux are discussing their Miami hotel: “Well, you went to the bathroom, and you saw this daddy longlegs there. And I was like, Do you want me to throw it out the window? But you said, No, let’s keep it. Spiders are good. I would have thrown it out, but you said let’s not, so we agreed that we just didn’t want it to wind up in our bed. We would keep our bathroom door closed the entire time. That way, the spider would stay in the bathroom and not crawl into our bed, which would be really disgusting. “Anyway,” she went on, “pretty soon you started to like it. You developed feelings for it. Like, whenever you went to the bathroom, you would look for it, and when you spotted it you’d speak to it. Sometimes it was in the tub, sometimes it was on the ceiling sometimes it was sitting on the shower curtain. Then, after leaving the bathroom, you would say good-bye and close the door. You ended up becoming pretty affectionate with it.” “It became like a pet,” I offered. “I remember that.” “Not something you could control, but something you could love. But if it had left the bathroom and invaded the bedroom, you probably wouldn’t have liked it so much. But keeping it in the bathroom allowed you to love it. Keeping it in there was a sign that you loved it.” “Then, on our last night there, we forgot to close the bathroom door—we were so drunk—and in the morning you woke up and it was beside your leg, and without even thinking, you smashed it under your hand.” “I remember,” I said, uneasy. “Well, that’s like you buying the same dress as me. I’m doing a lot, what with letting you tape me, but—boundaries, Sheila. We need them. They let you love someone. Otherwise you might kill them.” I am going to give a pass to the fact that two grown women apparently are unaware that a daddy longlegs can crawl under a door if it wants. Harder for me to forgive is that this conversation takes place at all. People just do not describe in great detail to one other shared experiences from their recent past. Because the other would always say, I was there, dude, get to the point. That conversation (as well as many others) occurs not for Sheila-the-character’s, benefit, but for the reader’s. These characters felt like puppets to me, and I could always see the author’s lips moving. (Not to workshop the novel, but to Heti’s credit I think this would have been a moving scene if it didn’t happen in dialogue. If the spider thing just happened, and nobody explained what it meant immediately afterward, I would have felt like I was actually being shown something about one of the characters, rather than just being told something about her.) Still, Heti’s been publishing novels (and acclaimed ones at that) longer than I have, and I can tell from her prose that she knows what she’s doing, so I know I’m missing something, right? Looking for a guide, I sought out some very positive reviews, and I discovered many of the characters in this book are actual friends of the real Sheila Heti. And that the dialogue is supposed to be based on real conversations they had. And that the book (subtitled “A Novel From Life”) was apparently a product of Heti’s having tired of writing novels where things are made up. I would like to do the right thing and judge this book on Heti’s terms, not mine. In yesterday’s match I said I hate knocking an author for writing a different book than the one I wanted her to write. But on Heti’s terms, this book makes even less sense to me. The more I read about it, the more confused I became about what she was trying to do. I didn’t find it lifelike (to use Judge Max’s word) in the least. What’s wrong with me, John? Is Toronto so exotic? Could my experience with other human beings be so unlike Heti’s that her real experiences seem phony to me? John: I came at this book from the other end of the spectrum, in that I knew far too much about it before I started reading, and what I’d heard made me think I wouldn’t care for it. I knew that a lot of it was based on the actual conversations of actual artist friends of Sheila Heti, and that didn’t sound good to me. I like writers and artists fine, and I’m a big fan of writing and art, but I prefer my writing and art, and the talking about writing and art, to be two separate things. But you know what? I really enjoyed the book, whatever it is. I think it’s funny and also raw, and I swallowed it down in a couple of large gulps. I don’t even know why, since there’s no plot, the contest over who can create the ugliest painting being the only real tension looming over the entire narrative. At The New Republic, Adam Kirsch lumps Heti in with other writers he labels the “new essayists” (David Sedaris, Sloane Crosley, John Jeremiah Sullivan, and our semifinal judge Davy Rothbart). He says that “the new essay is exclusively about the self, with the world serving only as a foil and an accessory, as a mere staging ground for the projection of the self.” That seems about right to me. Even the title of How Should a Person Be? suggests a view where life is a kind of performance. The Sheila Heti of the novel is undergoing a search for a kind of genuine self, but she seems to want other people to recognize her for it, as though our selves are something we wear outside our bodies and project into the world. It seems to be the kind of book that reflects the influence of reality television or social media. Who you are is who you appear to be to other people. How Should a Person Be? is about a Sheila Heti who lives her life in a world governed by the observer-expectancy effect. It makes for an interesting read, though I don’t think I want to read a ton of books like it. It also seems like living life this way would be absolutely exhausting. It’s a funny book, but this gives it plenty of dark undertones. I wonder if Heti’s method is what David Shields has in mind when he says we should ditch conventional novels and turn to these sorts of hybrid remixes. Kevin: That actually helps. This is a case where my expectations were in a battle with the text, right? I was starting from a place where it was really difficult to put this novel in any kind of context, and I was led even further astray by the reviews I read of it. I was trying to follow directions on a GPS device that had the wrong coordinates for my car. If you look at Heti’s book as an attempt to take real people and conversations and then stylize them in a fictional (or meta-fictional, I suppose) way, I can get on board with that effort. It doesn’t get me to a point where I can say I love the book, but I think I can understand it from here. John: I looked at How Should a Person Be? as the longest of shots, but here it gets past a beautifully written, very traditional work of literary fiction. I chose Arcadia as this year’s entrant that I’d try to experience via audiobook. I’ve written in past years how I’m generally ill-suited to audiobooks, apparently being dreamy-headed when listening to someone else’s stories and lapsing into thinking about my own. (Maybe this is the remixing Shields is talking about.) But I’ve found two activities that lend themselves to audiobook listening: jogging and vacuuming. Unfortunately, I don’t do either as often as I should, so after a month of listening I’m just under halfway done with Arcadia, and a good 12 pounds still above my goal weight. I think it was a good choice for audio in that Groff’s writing is deeply sensual. She’s constantly telling me how things smell, taste, and feel. On the other hand, at least thus far, the novel seems to lack incident. I’ve experienced it as a series of beautiful little vignettes, with some small bits of story piling up. Whenever it’s time to go back, I’m pleased to be recast into Groff’s world, but it’s not pulling me by the collar down into the narrative. I’m wondering how much of this is the audio format. I’m guessing that I’ve listened to about 150 pages’ worth, something I would’ve done in a couple of days under normal circumstances. The lack of incident may simply be a function of being forced to take the story in at the pace dictated by the narrator. Even though it’s eliminated, and feels like a longshot for the Zombie, I’ll be listening to Arcadia until the end. Kevin: I’ll admit my opinion about How Should a Person Be? was likely colored by my affection for Arcadia, and I’ll confess that even this opinion is not entirely objective. Lauren Groff grew up down the street from me. She is probably a decade younger, so it would have been Wes Anderson-movie weird if we had hung out back then, but I think I understand her the way any two people who grew up on the same street in the same small town do. I enjoyed Lauren’s first novel, The Monsters of Templeton, a lot—it took place, after all, virtually in my parents’ front yard. But Arcadia seems like a big step forward from that earlier book. Her trippy, dreamlike prose perfectly captures the nostalgia we’re supposed to have for this imperfect utopia. You’re still listening, so I won’t ruin the bootlegger turn it makes at the end, but it was unexpected and, for me, just right. As a reader, I’m sorry to see it out. But as a commentarian, it is exciting to see (what is for me) an upset in a tourney that has so far gone pretty much according to form. (I’m not really counting a victory by the über-popular John Green, even if he was a four-seed going up against a National Book Award winner.) We have a little bit of business as the opening round comes to a close and we get ready for tomorrow’s quarterfinal match between The Fault in Our Stars and The Orphan Master’s Son: Today we get our first peek at the Zombie results. For those who are new to this, several weeks ago we asked TMN readers and ToB fans to tell us what book was their favorite among the 18 novels on the shortlist. Those votes were counted, and once we narrow the field down to a pair, the two reader favorites from among those books eliminated in the tourney will rise again to take on the undefeated novels. The winners of those two matches will move on to the championship. If the Zombie Round were held today, the two books that would fight their way back into the running—that is, the two most popular novels from those eliminated so far—would be Lauren Groff’s Arcadia and Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (in no particular order). That could change, of course, as more books get bounced from the bracket, and we will revisit those standings every day from here on out. And before we wrap up the opening round entirely, John and I would like to invite ToB co-founder (and author/TMN editor) Rosecrans Baldwin to announce a fun contest. Rosecrans: Hi everyone. Here’s the deal. We’ve got a one-day contest, with two prizes. To enter, leave a note in the comments below before 9 a.m. Eastern tomorrow, March 19, 2013, that contains: - Which two (2) titles you think will make the Championship - The winner and the final vote tally (out of 17) So an entry could look like this: “Contest entry: In the Championship, Title One by Jane Doe v. Title Two by John Doe. Title 1 is the winner, 12-5.” Only one entry per person. John and Kevin will announce the winner in the booth on the final day of the Tournament, March 29, 2013. If more than one person predicts correctly, we’ll choose randomly from that group. The winner will receive a brand-freaking-new NOOK HD+ e-reader from The Morning News. Whoever comes in second, we’ll send you a $25 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Good luck. Long live the Rooster.

36. In Paradisum Damon turned up at the memorial because he was expected to show his face, not because he actually cared. It was all appropriately sombre: like the average Lockwood gathering but even less fun. The guests had stopped short of wearing black at Carol Lockwood's request, but it was only when he saw the mayor himself that Damon felt a twinge of genuine sympathy. She was standing on her own in the entrance hall, wearing a simple grey dress, and compulsively wringing her hands together. "Carol," Damon greeted her. "My deepest condolences for your loss." She sniffed, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. "Thank you, Damon." "If there's anything I can do at all..." "I appreciate the offer." She gave him a quick smile and he touched her arm lightly before moving on. He strolled through the grounds with no apparent destination in mind, but he was keeping an eye out for someone. Stefan hadn't bothered to turn up at this particular event, not because he didn't care, but because he couldn't bring himself to. Damon had rarely seen his brother so unhappy; he had gone out animal hunting for the entire day – at least, Damon hoped that he had gone out animal hunting. He'd said something about wanting to retrieve Elena's lost necklace. Damon had no idea why he was so obsessed by the thing, unless he had some bizarre idea that it would help him get Elena back. He found Alaric by the punch bowl, which seemed appropriate. Not the person he had been looking for, but there was plenty of time. "Hey," said Damon. "Sure that's strong enough?" Ric laughed. "Yeah, not my usual. Jenna just came over. Apparently Katherine freed her from her compulsion." Damon frowned. "That seems... altruistic." In other words, not like Katherine. She didn't do anything if not for her own personal gain. He tried to run through some possibilities of how helping Jenna could benefit Katherine, and came up blank. "Yeah," said Ric. "She also said that Katherine had compelled her to dump me." "Ouch. Rough. So, compulsion gone, does that mean you and Jenna are back together?" Ric folded his arms, his expression wry. "No. In Jenna's words, 'that horse has long since bolted'." Double burn. Katherine could be harsh. "Your ex has a funny way with words." He searched around the table. "Forget the punch, Ric, you need something stronger." Once he had plied Alaric with what he considered the appropriate amount of alcohol, Damon turned his attention to finding the person he really wanted to talk to: Elena. The news about Katherine was still ticking in his head. She was supposed to be long gone. Elena, on the other hand, ought to be here somewhere. She wouldn't miss the memorial. Sure enough, he found her by the lake. Elena was alone and she jumped when he cornered her, making a face. "Damon." "Elena," he said. "I heard you dumped my baby bro." She sighed. "I broke up with him, yes. Don't think that means you can move in on me instead." He raised his hands. "The thought never crossed my mind. Why'd you do it?" She narrowed her eyes. "Are you asking on Stefan's behalf?" "No, just for my own curiosity. You're coming off a little fickle, Elena." "Right. I thought you'd be happy about it." "Well, you've sorely misjudged me." She stared at him. "Is there something you want, Damon? I want to remember the friends who lost their lives because of the sacrifice ritual that I was supposed to die in." "Oh, you're mad at me," he said. "Is it because I tried to force feed you my blood? Or because I tried to stop you from saving your precious pet Original?" Or because of a million other things he'd done to her over the last few months. Damon hated apologizing. He had way too much to apologize for, so why bother? "Try all that and more. You know, I'm really tired at being mad at you, Damon. It's exhausting. Could you maybe try not doing things like that so we can be friends again?" He raised his eyebrows. "Cranky." But then she gave him her patented annoyed-Elena look – he seemed to have one of those from every person he knew – and Damon hastily backtracked. "I'll try," he said. "Actually, I have a question. A little bird tells me that Katherine freed Jenna from compulsion. Any idea why?" "You're the one sleeping with her. Why don't you ask her yourself?" Damon smiled tightly. Of course, Caroline had spilled the beans to everyone she knew. "That was kind of a one night only affair." "Then I don't know," said Elena. "Maybe Isobel asked her to." That didn't sound particularly plausible. He shrugged. "Maybe. While I'm here... Can I take a message back to Stefan? He's not doing so well right now." Guilt flashed across her face. "Tell him... I want us to be friends. I care about him, deeply. I just... need some space. Tell him it's not his fault. Whatever else he feels, he shouldn't blame himself." "Oh, honey," said Damon. "I've been trying to tell him that for the past century and a half. But thank you. I'll pass it on." She nodded, and managed a tremulous smile. Damon hesitated for a second. But actually seeing Elena out here alone and vulnerable-looking, he didn't want to press her any further. He nodded back, and took his leave. "I feel bad for the mayor," said Jeremy. "Stuck here on her own." "Yeah," Jenna replied. "If I were her, I'd quit. Move back to my family. This house is way too big to live in alone." She and Jeremy had made the rounds through the house and grounds, and spent a few moments each talking to Carol. Jeremy seemed even more subdued than usual. He had liked Tyler though, she remembered; even though they'd started off hating each other, they'd become sort of friends later on. And of course Matt had been a familiar presence in their lives for years because of Elena. She shifted, looking at her watch. "Well, I think we've probably shown our faces long enough. Where did Elena go?" Jeremy looked around. "Dunno." "I just saw her," Damon said, walking up to them. "How are you doing, Jenna?" "Great, for a funeral." She raised an eyebrow. "Where did you see her?" "Answer me a question and I'll tell you." Next to her, Jeremy muttered something under his breath that sounded like 'douche', and wandered off. Damon watched him go without comment. Jenna adjusted the sleeves on her blouse and folded her arms. "Katherine. Why did she un-compel you?" "Hey, you slept with her. Ask her yourself." Damon paused. "Sometimes I'd swear that you and Elena are actually biologically related." "I'll take that as a compliment." "You honestly have no idea why she did it? You didn't think to ask?" "Look, I understand that Katherine is kind of a double-crossing bitch now, but it's not unheard of for people to do nice things. She saved your lives at the sacrifice," Jenna reminded him. He made an unconvinced sound, but Jenna refused to give up the details. She'd promised Elena that she wouldn't. The important thing was that Katherine was no longer a problem, and she was in full control of her own will again. At least, she took Elena's word for that. Jenna didn't feel much different. She hadn't experienced any sudden feeling pangs for Alaric, and she still had some sympathy for Katherine. Maybe because Katherine reminded her of Elena, which was probably because of the whole doppelgänger thing, but it was hard to disassociate the two. Maybe that also explained why she'd experienced a bout of righteous indignation when Elena told her that Damon had slept with Katherine. Ridiculous, she thought, even for me. "...Are you listening?" Damon asked. Jenna blinked. "Uh." "If you're picturing me naked, it's okay to admit it." He grinned. "It's happened before." She was unimpressed. "I think we've reached the part where you cut the crap and tell me where Elena is. Or, you know what, I'll just call her. Annoying vampire problem solved." When she started hunting around in her bag, Damon gave up. "Fine." He jerked his head. "She's over by the lake. Moping." "That's a normal reaction when a friend you've known your entire life dies." Jenna snapped her bag shut. "See you around, Damon." She was getting good at this whole handling vampires thing, if she did say so herself. Jenna left Damon without a backward glance, and headed out to the lake. It turned out that Damon's description was entirely correct: Elena was standing at the lake's edge, staring disconsolately into the water. Dragonflies hovered over the reeds, their wings flashing in the lengthening rays of the sun, but her niece was oblivious. She looked far away, lost in thought. Time to snap her out of it. Jenna called out as she approached. "Elena." Elena looked up and smiled. "Jenna." "Are you okay?" Elena frowned. "Have you ever been in a situation when people would normally support each other, but somehow almost every single person you know is driving you crazy?" Oh. Well, she hadn't expected that. Then again, Elena had just had a conversation with Damon. "You're not including me in that, are you?" "No," said Elena. "You're one of the few that aren't; that's why I'm asking. Right now I feel like you're the only sane person in town." "You know, I'm glad to hear that. Sometimes I feel like the only non-sane person in town. Insane. Whatever. Sorry, that was a terrible joke. Seriously though, was Damon bugging you?" "I broke up with Stefan. Everyone seems to have taken it personally." "Oh. Wow. Well, it was a little harsh given the timing, but I get it, Elena. You're grieving; you need some space. You and Matt..." She stopped. She had been about to mention that Elena had broken up with Matt for the same reason, but that was probably a bad idea for several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that it was Matt they were mourning here today, and also, way to remind Elena of her dead parents. Jenna couldn't help thinking of Miranda and Grayson too on occasions like this, and it only reminded her of all the pain they had been through as a family. Of course, Elena got it anyway. "That was different. Everything feels more complicated now." "Why's that?" Jenna asked softly. Elena seemed to struggle with herself for a moment. "Do you think I was wrong to pull the dagger out of Elijah?" "It's kinda too late for second thoughts, but..." She was stalling. She had to think about it. "I think you did what you felt was right. That's all any of us can ever do." She watched as Elena considered that, and then her niece gave a small smile. It looked like she'd taken Jenna's words to heart. Jenna thought that Elena was often too hard on herself. They'd all been forced to make difficult decisions in difficult situations; no one could expect a bunch of teenagers to do the right thing under pressure like that. "Okay," said Jenna. "I actually came over to tell you that we're about to leave, but I seem to have lost Jeremy, so do you want to make your way over to the car and we'll meet you there?" Elena nodded. "Can you give me five more minutes?" "No problem. It'll probably take that long to grab him anyway. I'll see you there." Bonnie wandered around outside, lost in her thoughts. She had drifted away from her friends after they'd laid down flowers for Matt and Tyler, but now she was heading back that way again. The crowds had dispersed; it was easier for mourners to come over to the flowers and pay their respects. She kept thinking of what they could have done differently, even though she knew it was pointless. There was one other figure already standing at the memorial. His back was turned, but Bonnie recognized him. He looked over at her. "Hey." "Caroline said you weren't coming." "I thought I should." She nodded. He was looking down at the flowers. There were piles and piles of them, blooming white and yellow and pink, jostling for space with bouquets, cards and candles, and even a football signed by various classmates. Bonnie hesitated, then bit her lip and walked over to join him. She looked sideways at him. "I'm surprised you're still here at all. I thought with... what happened with Elena, you'd leave town." He frowned. "You think there's no other reason for me to stay?" Truthfully, she didn't. Bonnie got on well enough with Stefan most of the time, and he had made friends with Caroline as well as being on good terms with most of the people in their circle. But he had always been focused on Elena. It was her world that Stefan had entered, and without her, he was... Well, the way he looked now. Adrift. Cut off. Alone. She spoke softly. "Is there?" "I don't know. I've thought about it. But I don't want to leave her..." She made a face. "With Damon?" "Unprotected," Stefan finished. "Whatever Elena feels about me, I'll always be there for her." A vampire couldn't throw around the word 'always' casually. And Stefan was anything but casual; he meant it, she could tell that. She folded her arms. "Was that supposed to sound romantic? Because you basically just said you'd be her stalker." She kept her tone light, but perhaps Stefan recognized an element of truth in her words. He shook his head. "If she doesn't want me in her life, I'll stay out of it." He had slipped a hand inside his jacket pocket as he spoke, drawing out a necklace – Elena's necklace. Bonnie's eyebrows shot up when he held the necklace out to her. "Maybe you should give this to her." Bonnie wasn't sure if she wanted that responsibility – foisting a gift on her friend from her ex. She pressed her lips together, but took it anyway. For a short time, there was silence, both of them by some mutual agreement turning to gaze back at the memorial display. The last candle sputtered and flickered out. She looked up at Stefan, and tried to find some words of comfort. "You know, maybe the whole sacrifice thing overwhelmed her. She doesn't know what she wants." "You think so?" "Honestly, I don't know." She curled the necklace in her hand. "I haven't understood a lot of Elena's choices recently." His jaw tightened just a fraction. "You mean regarding Elijah." "Elijah and Klaus were the reason I didn't have a mom for over ten years. But what's done is done. I can live with it." She was glad in the end that nothing had happened to destroy her friendship with Elena irreparably. She was glad that she had a chance to reconnect with her mom. And she was glad that they had destroyed Klaus. Everything else... Well. They couldn't undo it. They'd have to move on, as always. Stefan gave a slight smile. "I guess I should take a page from your book, huh." She smiled back. "Careful. My book can be a little dangerous. Witch, remember?" He nodded, expression turning serious again. "We all owe you a big debt. This was your victory, Bonnie. Thank you." She could feel the necklace nestled in her hand; it had grown warm from its contact with her skin. They had done all this to save Elena's life. She had never once thought of it as a favour. But it was nice to hear a thank you, all the same. "You're welcome." Elena stared out at the water, biting her lip. She still felt bad about Stefan. Damon hadn't been the first to nag her about him. It had been happening all week. "I can't believe you broke up with Stefan," Caroline had said. "He's like the perfect guy. Why would you do that?" Caroline had said a lot. Bonnie talked far less, but the looks she threw at Elena were enough. Once Elena had convinced them that she hadn't in fact moved on to the other Salvatore, they were much more okay with it. The memorial was overwhelming. She'd had to get away from it all. That was why she had come out to the lakeside, although of course that hadn't stopped Damon or Jenna finding her. Maybe it wasn't a good idea that she was out here alone with her thoughts again. They were supposed to be leaving. Elena turned away from the lake and started picking her way across the grass, returning her mind to the present, and to Jenna and Jeremy. She was halfway back when she saw him. It was only a glimpse, half-hidden in the shadows of the trees, but it was unmistakeable. A figure in a suit... He melted away into the trees the moment she set eyes on him, but she was sure that he was beckoning her. Elena quickened her pace, hurrying straight towards where she had seen him. The sun was just beginning to set, and the trees cast long finger-shadows over the grass. An ornate white summer house stood surrounded by flowering shrubs, and an old gnarled apple tree spread its branches above it. That was where the path led. She followed it without hesitation, and turning a corner behind the summer house she found an alcove with a white bench half-covered in ivy and honeysuckle, and there Elijah was sitting. "Elijah," she said. He stood up when she greeted him, and although he had looked altogether serious and distant a moment ago, his expression softened into a pleased – not quite a smile, but a sort of regard that made her feel breathless and excited all at once. She shook her head, moving towards him. "I thought you'd gone." "I know my departure was a little abrupt," he replied. "I had to clear my head. How are you feeling?" It didn't take long to come up with an answer. "Guilty." He nodded. "As am I. I spent all those years harbouring murderous intent towards my brother, yet in the final moments of his life, he chose to save me." Elena could hardly imagine how awful that must feel. "I'm sorry." "This memorial... The deceased are Klaus's victims?" He phrased it as half-question, half-statement. Elena nodded. She couldn't find the heart to give him any more details, and Elijah didn't ask. He bit his lip, and there was something very warm and human about that; Elijah was so poised that any kind of hesitance hinted at a rare vulnerability – no, not vulnerability. Emotion. He was looking at her with compassion, and he didn't need to say anything for her to read the regret in his eyes. Then he shifted, glancing away, at his feet, anywhere else before looking at her again. "I have to honour his last request." Elena's eyes widened. "Klaus's last request?" He nodded. "Our family. He told me that they are still alive, and that they can be saved." "You said that Klaus scattered them at sea..." "So I thought. Now, I'm not so sure." "You want to look for them," Elena realized. That was why he had come back. To tell her that he was about to go off on a mission, one that could lead him anywhere, but would certainly take him away from Mystic Falls. She had expected him to leave. Yet it felt like all the breath had been knocked out of her body. Elena collected herself, stated the obvious. "So you're here to say goodbye." He nodded. "I don't know how long it will take me to find them. I may be gone for some time, in which case... yes. I wanted to say goodbye." It could be weeks, months, years, or even lifetimes before he succeeded in finding his family. She might never see him again. Elena let his words sink in, what they meant, what she wanted to do, and Elijah let her; he simply watched her quietly, allowing her the time she needed. She hadn't thought about what she was going to do when – if – she saw him again. But a calm surety settled over her: this, him, she knew how to deal with. She had some semblance of control. "Okay," said Elena. "Well, then, before you go, I have something to ask you." He looked amused. "You are ever more demanding, Elena." There was a glint in his eyes as he prompted her. "Yes?" "Well, first... I made a deal with Katherine." She told him the story, and Elijah's frown deepened as she explained. "Why did she go to you?" "She thinks that I'll be able to persuade you." "Do you think that?" There was the faintest hint of a challenge in his voice. This was another of his games, she thought; he liked it too much, the power; the air of indulgence. But Elena had always refused to play by his rules. She shook her head. "I'm not trying to persuade you. I'm asking you." It happened that Elena was well-versed in persuading reluctant vampires, out of sheer necessity. Anyone who had spent enough time with Damon had to have that skill. But she didn't try the hand on his arm, or the beguiling eyes, or anything that would seem too obvious. She simply looked at him. Surely he'd see the sense in what she had proposed. Elijah's mouth twitched. He was fighting not to smile, she could see it, but Elena's gaze remained unwavering. Finally, he broke eye contact, looking down, and shrugged. "Katerina is very clever," he murmured. He exhaled, looking back up at her again. "Yes. Yes, I will honour your deal. I'll spare her this once." Elena meant it. She had denied him revenge on Katherine, she knew that. But family was more important than revenge. She knew he understood that too. "And your second request?" Elijah prompted. Elena nodded, taking a breath. This one was a little more difficult. But after his response to the Katherine question, she was fairly sure that she could ask him anything. She didn't reply immediately. Instead, she stepped around him, walking over to the white bench where she brushed a few leaves away before sitting down. There was space for both of them, though the seat was a little rickety, and the ivy was thick. It had its own charm, she thought; it felt secluded, private, and safe; a feeling she had not managed to sustain while she was over by the lake. She looked up at him, and Elijah understood. He moved over to sit down next to her. It was more cramped than she had thought; their knees were touching. Elena found that she didn't mind. She paused a moment, breathing in the pollen-scented air. "You know, I thought I was going to die." The words hung in the air. Elijah said nothing. "I was prepared for it," Elena continued, her voice wobbling. "Maybe because it was actually the easier option, I don't know. Easier than losing people. Than having to carry on with all these... these holes in your life. It's like they eat away at you. You're not a full person any more, you're not completely you, because all the people who make your life what it is are gone." Beside her, Elijah was very still. He spoke quietly. "You become a little less than human." "Maybe. If you shut off the emotions, if you stop letting people in. Isn't that what you did?" He looked at her. "Is that what you wanted to ask me?" "No. I want to come with you." He blinked. She had surprised him, even more than the deal she had made with Katherine. "To wake your family up," Elena clarified. "I'm pretty sure Jenna won't let me disappear without knowing when I'll come back. But I at least want to be with you when you revive them." Elijah stared at her. Finally, he spoke. "Why?" "Because I want to." It might have been the most honest statement she'd made to him; it certainly provoked the clearest expression she'd ever seen in Elijah's eyes. His lips curved into a small smile. "But if you need a reason," she went on, "you lost your family. You killed your brother. You've been alone for such a long time, I don't know if... I don't know. But I think you need someone to help you wake them up." It was as if for one awful second she'd laid him absolutely bare; the smile was wiped from his face; he looked stricken, pale with shock. Elena was afraid that she had said too much. She laid her hand over Elijah's without thinking. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." "No," he said. "You're very perceptive." "Promise me," she said. "Promise me that you'll take me with you." He didn't look at her at first. He seemed to have just noticed her hand over his, and he took hold of it, running his thumb over her knuckles. The contact was light, yet she felt it in every one of her nerves. She felt hyper-aware of him: the one button that was casually undone on his shirt, the way his hair hung over his eyes when he looked down, the intense concentration on his face. Slowly, deliberately, she withdrew her hand and instead brought it up to touch his face. Her fingers found the line of his jaw, and her eyes found his when he looked up at her. He still looked vulnerable, open; she could see right into him. It was a lie that vampires had no soul, a lie that vampires felt no emotion, a lie that their hearts didn't beat. Even his skin felt warm beneath her fingers. He was an Original. Originals were untouchable. But she had passed that barrier long ago, and as her fingers made light imprints on his skin, she heard his breath catch. He said, "I promise." She didn't acknowledge him; she had known, they had both known, what his answer would be. It made no difference, but for the way he was looking at her, his eyes drinking her in. She couldn't see anything else, but she could feel his gaze on her, all of his senses trained on her. And Elena couldn't hold back any longer. Her hand moved down; she grabbed the open collar of his shirt and pulled, pulled him towards her, and at the same time she leaned forward to capture his mouth. Elijah made a soft sound at the back of his throat, quickly swallowed, and then he sank into the kiss; she closed her eyes, concentrating only on the feel of his mouth on hers, firm and soft and lingering. This, she could lose herself in. "Ah," he said, when she remembered to let go of his collar. "This isn't goodbye," she said. "I want to see you again." "This isn't goodbye, Elena." He breathed her name, voice low and sensual, and kissed her again. If she had doubted before that Elijah felt any desire for her, her doubts vanished now: she wrapped her arms around his neck and Elijah responded, deepening the kiss, drawing her closer. She could smell ivy and honeysuckle, and then the pressed dark-blue linen of his shirt, his expensive suit jacket, the faint scent of cologne, his skin– She'd climbed into his lap, ran her hands through his hair and moulded herself against every button of his shirt while Elijah's mouth did delightful things to her neck, when her phone buzzed. She felt it in her jeans pocket, and since Elijah's hand was currently gripping her thigh, he felt it too. He stopped, arching away to look at her. Elena caught her breath, swallowing. "That'll be Jenna. I was supposed to be meeting them... five minutes ago." She dug into her pocket, Elijah helpfully moving his hands up to her waist. Sure enough, it was a text message from her aunt. "Family calls," he said. Somehow, his voice remained even. She'd barely managed to ruffle his shirt. Meanwhile, Elena felt as though she was pent up with too many emotions; she was breathing too fast; she was sure that she looked dishevelled. "Family calls," she agreed. Elijah had his mission. Elena had – her life, everything. Picking up what was left of it, starting over, whatever she wanted to call it. Family called. And so they parted. Two months later. "Happy birthday, Elena!" Grinning, Caroline presented her with a cake on which eighteen candles had been perfectly arranged. Her friends gathered around. They were in her kitchen; Elena had been determined to ensure that this occasion was a small affair, made up only of the people she was closest to. Caroline had nevertheless ensured that the house was filled with enough party poppers and streamers to last for several birthdays. "Make a wish!" said Caroline. Smiling, Elena closed her eyes for a moment. Make a wish. She blew out the candles. Her friends cheered; Jenna shoved a glass of sparkling wine into her hand; Bonnie pulled her into a hug, and Caroline immediately started figuring out how to divide up the cake. Jeremy was her unlucky target for cake-cutting duty. They were a small group. But, she thought, they were her family. "You're still wearing the necklace," said Bonnie, later on when they were clearing up. Elena wiped away the last cake crumbs off the counter. "For protection," she said. Caroline looked up from her phone. "Oh, come on. You miss him. I can tell." She shook her head. "Don't read anything into this. I miss him, but not like that. Honestly, I'm glad to have a break from all the drama." It had been a drama-free summer, for the most part. That helped; it gave them time to begin the healing process. She felt that she could say that this summer had been better than the last one. There had been that incident with Damon, the mayor, and accusations of electoral rigging; and that other incident with Damon's car being stolen (he had insisted that the culprit was Katherine) that was never resolved, and Damon had also been pretty mad at her when he found out that she had allowed Katherine to buy herself her freedom without consulting him first. She didn't regret doing it. But apart from Damon being Damon, it was quiet. "The drama wasn't Stefan's fault," Caroline pointed out. "I didn't say it was." Bonnie wiped her hands on a tea towel, moving over to nudge Caroline's shoulder. "The important thing is that we made it through. Right?" "Right," said Elena gratefully. "So," said Caroline, unperturbed, "how does it feel to be eighteen, Elena?" "Um..." She was spared from having to think up a reply by her phone ringing. Elena looped her hair behind her ears, and picked her phone up from the counter. "Elena?" Caroline frowned at her. Maybe she could hear that Elena's pulse rate had just sky rocketed. "I need to take this," Elena mumbled. "Excuse me." Elena slipped out of the house. She had left a handwritten note for Jenna and Jeremy, explaining where she was going. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she was wearing a light summer dress, since the nights were warm and the days were hot. A black car was parked outside her house. Elena turned to lock the front door, fumbling over the keys, and when she turned back to the car, a figure was standing there waiting for her. Her stomach flipped. A full moon shone down over the empty streets, picking out the angles of his face, the cut of his suit. Elena smoothed down her dress, took a deep breath, and hurried over to him. "Okay," she said, breathlessly; it didn't seem quite right as a greeting, but he was smiling, and then he opened the passenger door for her, and she couldn't quite believe that she was really doing this. She stood there watching him, breathing quick, shallow breaths, taking all of him in. "You cut your hair," she said, apropos of nothing. He beckoned her. "Are you ready?" There he was, in the dark, the Original offering his hand. A man in a suit, a black car, a promise. Elijah. Take me away. She nodded firmly. "Yes."

Police Blotter, Oct. 12, 2009 Fire crews go to school Crews from the Grand Junction Fire Department and the Clifton Fire Protection District went to Central High School on Sunday evening after a report of a small fire. They determined that a surge protector in a second-floor science classroom was faulty. A small fire charred a wall. According to the Grand Junction Police Department: At 4:53 p.m. Oct. 3, in the 1900 block of Main Street, Kimberly Dawn Smith, 28, was arrested and released on a summons on suspicion of disorderly conduct. At 3:45 p.m. on Thursday, at the Residence at Grand Mesa, an assisted living facility at 565 28 1/4 Road, it was reported that someone took narcotics from a locked medicine cabinet without the staff’s knowledge. The loss was valued at less than $500. At 11:07 p.m. Friday, in the 400 block of Arrow Drive, it was reported to police that a thief went into an open garage and took off with a motorcycle valued at more than $1,000. At 4:28 a.m. on Saturday, Larry Davis, 33, was arrested and released on a summons on suspicion of trespassing at the Greyhound Bus Lines station, 230 S. Fifth St. According to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department: At 10 a.m. Saturday, a resident in the 400 block of 32 Road reported his car had been spray painted sometime overnight. At 5:45 p.m. Saturday, deputies from the Mesa County Street Crimes Unit stopped a vehicle in the 2800 block of North Avenue. The driver, Joey B. Johnson, 20, was arrested on suspicion of giving a false name. He also was named in an outstanding warrant. Nicole Robinson, 21, a passenger in the vehicle, was also arrested on suspicion of giving false information. At 11:39 p.m. Saturday, deputies responded to a domestic violence complaint in the 200 block of Red Cliffs Drive. A woman told deputies her fiance was intoxicated and she wanted him removed from the home. Deputies tried to talk with the man of the house, “but he was asleep in his room,” deputies said. The woman was advised the man could not be forced out of his own home.

Despite coming so close to success in the Premier League and Champions League last season, there was always the sense that something was missing at Chelsea. Jose Mourinho’s second coming brought the good times back to Stamford Bridge, but the current squad lacks one key ingredient – a top quality target man. Didier Drogba was pivotal to the success Chelsea enjoyed during Mourinho’s first spell at the club, as it was his all-round play and goal-scoring ability that made the difference where it matters. The club’s current crop of strikers may bring their own qualities to the team, but none of them enjoyed productive seasons in front of goal. Losing Samuel Eto’o further increased the necessity for Mourinho to bring in a striker within his promise to make big changes at Chelsea. The ‘Special One’ has certainly kept to his word, as Cesc Fabregas’ arrival at the club from Barcelona for £28 million will be followed by the acquisition of Atletico Madrid hotshot Diego Costa. Both signings have propelled Chelsea to favourites in the Premier League odds, with the undoubted quality of Fabregas and Costa making the Blues a much stronger bet to overcome their title rivals during the upcoming 2014/2015 season. Costa at Atletico Scoring 27 goals in 35 La Liga games for Atletico Madrid last season illustrates the wonderful progress Diego Costa has made over the last couple of seasons from a striker with potential to one of the most lethal finishers in Europe. Diego Simeone has nurtured Costa into the archetypal target man with physical presence to hold off defenders and lay the ball off, but more importantly have the clinical touch. Costa illustrated his presence and considerable threat against Chelsea in both games during the Champions League semi-final between the two clubs, scoring a decisive penalty in the second leg to turn the tie in Atletico’s favour. Simeone played to Costa’s strengths and utilised him within an eye-catching style of football. Costa may not be the most skilful or flamboyant striker, but he has more than enough quality to be a wonderful signing for Chelsea and score the goals that will make all the difference between falling short at the final hurdle and success. World Cup disappointment Registering as a Spanish national was always likely to not go down well during the World Cup in Brazil – the country Costa was born in. It placed more pressure on Costa’s shoulders, with the bustling striker already heading to Brazil 2014 as Spain’s most in-form striker. Despite scoring a considerable number of goals at domestic and European level, it always looked likely that Costa would struggle to adapt his game to the tiki-taka style of football that has brought Spain unheralded success in recent years. This proved to be the case as Costa struggled to make any sort of impact as Spain crashed out of the World Cup after just two group games – an exit which took everyone by surprise. Costa at Chelsea Although concerns were likely to be raised due to his poor performances at the World Cup, Chelsea fans should remember that Diego Costa was being played in a system that was never likely to suit his style of play. Moving to Chelsea is a marriage made in heaven; Mourinho was crying out for a Drogba type of striker who could be the focal point for the team, and have the physical presence to bully defenders and utilise their power to score goals – qualities that Costa possesses. Costa should thrive upon the top quality service that is likely to come his way, with Fabregas, Eden Hazard and Oscar all having the ability to pick out the burly striker in and around the area to make Chelsea a real attacking threat next season.

Super sad supercut Jun 06 2016 A collection of super sad moments from movies like The Iron Giant, E.T., Wrath of Khan, Up, and Old Yeller. This'll have you sobbing in 3 minutes or your money back. A collection of super sad moments from movies like The Iron Giant, E.T., Wrath of Khan, Up, and Old Yeller. This'll have you sobbing in 3 minutes or your money back. From The Intercept and director A.J. Schnack, a simple and powerful short film about more than a dozen mass shootings that have occurred in the US since 2011. A scene of tragedy unfolds, accompanied by fear, chaos and disbelief. As Speaking is Difficult rewinds into the past, retracing our memories, it tells a story about a cumulative history that is both unbearable and inevitable. Fuck, that was difficult to watch. When Sandy Hook came up, I just lost it. We should be deeply deeply ashamed that that happened and we did nothing about it. In this story by Rafael Zoehler, a father who dies at 27 wrote his son a series of letters to be opened at several of life's milestones, including WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR FIRST KISS, WHEN YOU BECOME A FATHER, and WHEN YOUR MOTHER IS GONE. This letter was entitled "WHEN I'M GONE": If you're reading this, I'm dead. I'm sorry. I knew I was going to die. I didn't want to tell you what was going to happen, I didn't want to see you crying. Well, it looks like I've made it. I think that a man who's about to die has the right to act a little bit selfish. Well, as you can see, I still have a lot to teach you. After all, you don't know crap about anything. So I wrote these letters for you. You must not open them before the right moment, OK? This is our deal. I love you. Take care of your mom. You're the man of the house now. PS: I didn't write letters to your mom. She's got my car. Oh man, this episode of This American Life on desegregation and the Normandy School District (aka the Missouri district that Michael Brown attended) just totally wrecked me. Tears of sadness and rage. Right now, all sorts of people are trying to rethink and reinvent education, to get poor minority kids performing as well as white kids. But there's one thing nobody tries anymore, despite lots of evidence that it works: desegregation. Nikole Hannah-Jones looks at a district that, not long ago, accidentally launched a desegregation program. America likes to pride itself on its focus on the importance of education and everyone getting a crack at living the American Dream, but as this story makes clear, neither of those things are actually true. See also part two of the series and Hannah-Jones' series on segregation at ProPublica. I don't quite know what I'm doing to myself these days. Last night was an episode of The Americans in which a marriage was ending, another family was trying to keep itself intact, and a young boy struggles to move on after his entire family dies. This morning, I watched an episode of Mad Men in which a mother tries to reconcile her differences with her daughter in the face of impending separation. And then, the absolute cake topper, a story by Matthew Teague that absolutely wrecked me. It's about his cancer-stricken wife and the friend who comes and rescues an entire family, which is perhaps the truest and most direct thing I've ever read about cancer and death and love and friendship. Since we had met, when she was still a teenager, I had loved her with my whole self. Only now can I look back on the fullness of our affection; at the time I could see nothing but one wound at a time, a hole the size of a dime, into which I needed to pack a fistful of material. Love wasn't something I felt anymore. It was just something I did. When I finished, I would lie next to her and use sterile cotton balls to soak up her tears. When she finally slept, I would slip out of bed and go into our closet, the most isolated room in the house. Inside, I would wrap a blanket around my head, stuff it into my mouth, lie down and bury my head in a pile of dirty clothes, and scream. There are very specific parts of all those stories that I identify with. I struggle with friendship. And with family. I worry about my children, about my relationships with them. I worry about being a good parent, about being a good parenting partner with their mom. How much of me do I really want to impart to them? I want them to be better than me, but I can't tell them or show them how to do that because I'm me. I took my best shot at being better and me is all I came up with. What if I'm just giving them the bad parts, without even realizing it? God, this is way too much for a Monday. Kellan Roberts died suddenly at 22. He had decided to be an organ donor and his heart went to a high school student from Minnesota, Connor Rabinowitz. After receiving the heart, Connor visited Kellan's family in Seattle and met Kellan's sister Erin. After a few years, Erin and Connor, well, just watch...this is a wonderful story well told. Cord Jefferson with a beautiful piece about his mother, illness, and the importance and difficulty of being kind. I'd just returned home from a meeting when she called again. It had been only a few hours since we'd last talked and, as she stammered when I picked up, my heart sank with the anticipation of more bad news. "I didn't tell you everything I wanted to earlier," she said after gathering her tongue. "I wanted to say that I'm scared. I know you can't do anything to change this, but it makes me feel better to let you know that I'm afraid." Mat Kirkby's short film, The Phone Call, won the Best Narrative Short prize at the Tribeca Film Festival and is rumored to be in the running for an Oscar nomination. It features a young woman who works in helpline call office (Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins) taking a call from a distraught man (Oscar winner Jim Broadbent). (via slate) Update: The video has been taken down from Vimeo, so I've removed the embed. I think it was something about film festival eligibility? Update: The Phone Call did end up being nominated for an Oscar; here's Kirkby and friends reacting to the nomination. Thirteen Ways of Looking at Greg Maddux is not really a story about Greg Maddux. Or sports. It's about Jeremy Collins' friend Jason Kenney, demons, self-control, determination, friendship, competitiveness, and loss. Jason kept a picture of Maddux above his desk in our dorm room at Young Harris College in the north Georgia mountains. A beautiful athlete, the best on campus, Jason played only intramurals and spent serious time at his desk. A physics workhorse and calculus whiz, he kept Maddux's image at eye-level. Shuffling and pardoning down the aisle to our seats, Jason stopped and squeezed my shoulder. "Look," he said. Maddux strode toward home, hurling the ball through the night. It's 2014. I'm thirty-seven. My wife and daughter are both asleep. I'm a thousand miles from the stadium-turned-parking-lot. On YouTube, Kenny Lofton of the American League Champion Cleveland Indians looks at the first pitch for a ball. Inside, low. I don't remember the call. I remember all of us standing, holding our breath. Then I remember light. Thousands of lights. Waves of tiny diamonds. The whole stadium flashing and Jason, who would die five months later on the side of a south Georgia highway, leaning into my ear and whispering, "Maddux." Great, great story. As Tom Junod remarked on Twitter, "Every once in a while, a writer throws everything he's got into a story. This is one of those stories." In racing video games, a ghost is a car representing your best score that races with you around the track. This story of a son discovering and racing against his deceased father's ghost car in an Xbox racing game will hit you right in the feels. Peter Bach, a cancer doctor, writes about losing his wife to cancer. The streetlights in Buenos Aires are considerably dimmer than they are in New York, one of the many things I learned during my family's six-month stay in Argentina. The front windshield of the rental car, aged and covered in the city's grime, further obscured what little light came through. When we stopped at the first red light after leaving the hospital, I broke two of my most important marital promises. I started acting like my wife's doctor, and I lied to her. I had just taken the PET scan, the diagnostic X-ray test, out of its manila envelope. Raising the films up even to the low light overhead was enough for me to see what was happening inside her body. But when we drove on, I said, "I can't tell; I can't get my orientation. We have to wait to hear from your oncologist back home." I'm a lung doctor, not an expert in these films, I feigned. But I had seen in an instant that the cancer had spread. The last sentence here really got to me: Our life together was gone, and carrying on without her was exactly that, without her. I was reminded of our friend Liz's insight after she lost her husband to melanoma. She told me she had plenty of people to do things with, but nobody to do nothing with. A reader saw my post about UPS drivers seldom taking left turns and sent in this story from 2006. In it, Michael Gartner shares the secret to long life relayed to him by his father: no left turns. Among other things: My mother was a devout Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement that didn't seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of marriage. (Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.) He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20 years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's Church. She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would wait in the back until he saw which of the parish's two priests was on duty that morning. If it was the pastor, my father then would go out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the service and walking her home. If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a 1-mile walk and then head back to the church. He called the priests "Father Fast" and "Father Slow." When Owen Suskind was three, a switch flipped within him and he went from a typical chatty rambunctious three-year-old to autistic. I had just started a job as The Wall Street Journal's national affairs reporter. My wife, Cornelia, a former journalist, was home with him -- a new story every day, a new horror. He could barely use a sippy cup, though he'd long ago graduated to a big-boy cup. He wove about like someone walking with his eyes shut. "It doesn't make sense," I'd say at night. "You don't grow backward." Had he been injured somehow when he was out of our sight, banged his head, swallowed something poisonous? It was like searching for clues to a kidnapping. After visits to several doctors, we first heard the word "autism." Later, it would be fine-tuned to "regressive autism," now affecting roughly a third of children with the disorder. Unlike the kids born with it, this group seems typical until somewhere between 18 and 36 months -- then they vanish. Some never get their speech back. Families stop watching those early videos, their child waving to the camera. Too painful. That child's gone. But a tenuous connection remained between Owen and his pre-autistic self: Disney movies. And through them, Owen slowly learns how to communicate with the outside world again. So we join him upstairs, all of us, on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon in November 1994. Owen is already on the bed, oblivious to our arrival, murmuring gibberish.... "Juicervose, juicervose." It is something we've been hearing for the past few weeks. Cornelia thinks maybe he wants more juice; but no, he refuses the sippy cup. "The Little Mermaid" is playing as we settle in, propping up pillows. We've all seen it at least a dozen times, but it's at one of the best parts: where Ursula the sea witch, an acerbic diva, sings her song of villainy, "Poor Unfortunate Souls," to the selfish mermaid, Ariel, setting up the part in which Ursula will turn Ariel into a human, allowing her to seek out the handsome prince, in exchange for her voice. When the song is over, Owen lifts the remote. Hits rewind. "Come on, Owen, just let it play!" Walt moans. But Owen goes back just 20 seconds or so, to the song's next-to-last stanza, with Ursula shouting: Go ahead -- make your choice! I'm a very busy woman, and I haven't got all day. It won't cost much, just your voice! He does it again. Stop. Rewind. Play. And one more time. On the fourth pass, Cornelia whispers, "It's not 'juice.' " I barely hear her. "What?" "It's not 'juice.' It's 'just' ... 'just your voice'!" I grab Owen by the shoulders. "Just your voice! Is that what you're saying?!" He looks right at me, our first real eye contact in a year. "Juicervose! Juicervose! Juicervose!" Walt starts to shout, "Owen's talking again!" A mermaid lost her voice in a moment of transformation. So did this silent boy. "Juicervose! Juicervose! Juicervose!" Owen keeps saying it, watching us shout and cheer. And then we're up, all of us, bouncing on the bed. Owen, too, singing it over and over -- "Juicervose!" -- as Cornelia, tears beginning to fall, whispers softly, "Thank God, he's in there." This is the best thing I've read in a month, so so heartbreaking and amazing. Just pre-ordered the book...can't wait to read the full version. So, there's the famous 1984 Super Bowl commercial for the Macintosh. There was the Think Different campaign. And the Mac vs. PC ads. But I think Apple's newest effort, Misunderstood, is perhaps their best ad ever: Or maybe I'm the biggest sap in the world...either way, I'm totally crying at work. ps. But of course, that can't be the best Apple advertisement ever because that title will always and forever be taken by a drunk Jeff Goldblum extolling the virtues of the iMac's internet capabilities: Great, now I'm crying from laughing at work. Just warning you, this piece by Ariel Levy will wreck you, put you back together, and wreck you again. Damn powerful beautiful writing. My doctor told me that it was fine to fly up until the third trimester, so when I was five months pregnant I decided to take one last big trip. It would be at least a year, maybe two, before I'd be able to leave home for weeks on end and feel the elation of a new place revealing itself. (It's like having a new lover-even the parts you aren't crazy about have the crackling fascination of the unfamiliar.) Just before Thanksgiving, I went to Mongolia. People were alarmed when I told them where I was going, but I was pleased with myself. I liked the idea of being the kind of woman who'd go to the Gobi Desert pregnant, just as, at twenty-two, I'd liked the idea of being the kind of girl who'd go to India by herself. And I liked the idea of telling my kid, "When you were inside me, we went to see the edge of the earth." I wasn't truly scared of anything but the Mongolian winter. The tourist season winds down in October, and by late November, when I got on the plane, the nights drop to twenty degrees below zero. But I was prepared: I'd bought snow pants big enough to fit around my convex gut and long underwear two sizes larger than I usually wear. File this one under crying at work: a man finds a newborn on a subway platform and he and his partner adopt him and then blub blub blub, I'm sorry I have to go there's something in both my eyes and my nose. Three months later, Danny appeared in family court to give an account of finding the baby. Suddenly, the judge asked, "Would you be interested in adopting this baby?" The question stunned everyone in the courtroom, everyone except for Danny, who answered, simply, "Yes." "But I know it's not that easy," he said. "Well, it can be," assured the judge before barking off orders to commence with making him and, by extension, me, parents-to-be. This video shows a fourth grader trying a bigger ski jump for the first time. If you're a parent, I defy you to not tear up at least once while viewing. Oh, and the audio is essential. #cryingatwork (via devour) This photo was taken recently by Sergey Ponomarev in Miyagi Prefecture in northeastern Japan: The line on the wall is the high water mark from the March 11 tsunami and the time on the clock is when the water crested (Wikipedia puts the max readings right around 15:20 local time). Each element alone is documentation of a thing...together they tell a story. I have a soft spot for storytelling clocks in photos. Joseph Koudelka's 1968 photo of the empty streets of Prague before the Soviet crackdown of The Prague Spring is one of my favorite photos. And obviously I love the photo taken by my wife of me holding my son Ollie when he was exactly 20 mintues old. It was the first time I'd held him and oh crap I'm crying at work again... (via in focus) In 1981, Ray Towler was convicted of rape, kidnapping, and felonious assault of two young children and sentenced to life in prison. Twenty-nine years later, in 2010, DNA evidence proves he didn't commit the crime and Towler is released from prison. So many choices. Which car insurance. Which cereal. Which deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrush, soap, shampoo. Rows and rows of products. Varieties, sizes, colors. Which is cheaper? Which is better? What's the best buy? Which gum to chew? When he went into prison there were, like, two kinds of chewing gum. Now there are a zillion. One of the small gifts he gives himself is trying all the gums. "I can spoil myself a little so long as I stay within my means," he says. Papaya juice! Kiwi and strawberry nectar! Green tea! Arnold Palmer -- he was a golfer when Towler went down. Now he is a drink, sweet and so incredibly thirst quenching. He loves work. He got out May 5 and started working June 21. Hell, I've been vacationing for thirty years. He wears a smock and pushes a mail cart. He stops at all the cubicles, greets everyone with his friendly smile. Ray even loves commuting to work, especially now, in his new car, a black Ford Focus. He's like a sixteen-year-old who can finally drive himself to school. It costs almost the same to park as it does to take the train. File this one under "crying at work". Kamikaze pilot Masanobu Kuno wrote a farewell letter to his young son and daughter the day before he flew to his death in the Battle of Okinawa. From the translation: Your father will become a god and watch you two closely. Both of you, study hard and help out your mother with work. I can't be your horse to ride, but you two be good friends. I should have a "crying at work" tag for posts like this.

Drug offenders held at a special section of Klong Prem prison say they suffered abuse and overcrowding under the pretence of rehabilitation. It is officially known as the “New Life Camp”, but the name seems like a cruel joke. The “camp” comprises two sections, known as Daen 10 and Daen 13, inside Bangkok’s vast Klong Prem prison complex that house “drug abusers” the system is determined to rehabilitate. But despite the hopeful sounding name, no rehabilitation occurs here. It is intended only as a temporary holding facility for people who have tested positive for drugs and are awaiting further processing. Interviews with six former residents of either Daen 10 or Daen 13 tell a story of random abuse from the uniformed Corrections Department guards, who are said to strike out at detainees with a club or a kick on a daily basis, often for no apparent reason. Less frequently, perhaps once a week, an inmate will do something that warrants a serious beating. Major infractions of prison rules require the detainee to lie face down while officials administer dozens of blows to his backside, from the neck down to the buttocks, with the regulation club, sometimes in front of fellow inmates. All six former detainees interviewed said they had witnessed such brutal discipline, and some had experienced it themselves. The inmates at the New Life Camp have all tested positive for illegal substances and after a brief court session were turned over to the Probation Department for compulsory rehabilitation. National rehab facilities are limited, however, so the Corrections Department has agreed to hold drug abusers for 45 days while they wait their turn. The Klong Prem facility is one of several holding centres in the country. On the basis of interviews with inmates and consideration of their prior records and other factors, the Probation Department divides the addicts into three categories. Regardless of which category they are placed in, all inmates must serve the 45-day sentence. Those considered occasional users are then sent home without a followup. Marginal cases go to the Public Health Ministry for a checkup after the holding term is up to see if standard out-patient therapy can be employed. The next stop for the majority of inmates at Camp New Life, those considered seriously addicted, is one of 86 national rehabilitation centres for several weeks up to several months. Most of these centres are run by the armed forces and the ”candidates” experience the rigours of military life and undergo therapy administered by officers trained by the Public Health Ministry, but there are few if any reports of abuse. After completion of the rehabilitation programme graduates must still report to the Probation Department for interviews and urine tests until they are finally pronounced cured. There are exceptions to this protocol, however. The New Life Camp also has a fair number of upper-class drug offenders on hand for shorter periods who can afford bail. They are normally released in seven days but are still required to undergo some sort of rehab. At any one time there are also a handful of foreigners, who are usually promptly sent to immigration authorities for deportation. Crowding in the New Life Camp is far more extreme than in the rest of Klong Prem prison. As of May, prison officials confirmed that Daen 10, which has an official capacity of 500, was housing 1,300 inmates. Daen 13 is designed for 1,600 inmates but was holding 2,100. Officials explain that around 100,000 drug users are arrested every year and the system just cannot cope with them all. The cells are the size of a small hotel room and hold 50 to 70 people. The rooms have no mats and no orderly sleeping arrangements. Inmates sleep on their sides, body-to-body, often with arms and legs wrapped over their neighbours. A nocturnal trip to the toilet means tip-toeing between outstretched legs, and upon return one invariably finds his sleeping spot has vanished. Punishable offences include escape attempts, fighting, singing or making loud noises, sharpening objects and tapping into power lines to heat coffee. Even reaching for a second helping of rice warrants a couple of clouts, said former inmates. Beatings are meted out with the regulation Correction Department truncheon carried by the prison guards. Sometimes the tip is wrapped with heavy rubber bands to create lacerations. Inmates normally aren’t allowed visits to the prison medical complex, although occasionally blows to the head and other serious injuries which require emergency care. These are presumably passed off as accidents. Regardless, it is hard to believe that prison medical personnel are unaware of the allegations of physical abuse. When asked about it, one doctor who did not wish to be named said, ”I am not sure.” The doctor looked into the matter and a month later he said: ”I think your information is correct”, but declined to give any specifics. ”The entire system needs a restart from the Justice Ministry,” said the doctor. ”These people are not convicts and should not be coming to us. We are too busy. They have the right to go outside for medical treatment.” The crowded conditions at New Life Camp help contribute to a tense atmosphere, and sometimes fights break out between inmates. These merit a beating and removal to a penalty cell called Kung Soi. While in this chamber, the two adversaries are handcuffed together. The detainees don’t wear uniforms except for a dark green cape whenever they are outside the prison for court dates or other necessary excursions. On the inside they dress in T-shirts and short pants. If they arrive in long trousers, these will be cut above the knees. Haircuts are compulsory. No identification is displayed and inmates know each other only by nicknames. The short 45-day term virtually precludes the formation of organised prison gangs or mafia, or a trustee system which is so important for maintaining order. According to the inmate sources, in February this year there were escape attempts from both Daen 10 and Daen 13. At Daen 10, sometime in the middle of the month during daylight hours, one inmate waited on the ground while his partner climbed the approximately 10m high retaining wall. The climber received an electric shock at the top and fell to the pavement. Guards then arrived at the scene and beat the two men, both in their 30s. The climber was carried on his partner’s back to the prison hospital. When asked, prison hospital sources confirmed they had seen a man in this time period who had injuries consistent with such a fall _ a broken foot and back and leg injuries. Hospital staff did not seem to be interested in what had caused the injuries, but said they patched him up and sent him home instead of back to Daen 10. The inmate sources say his partner wasn’t seen again at New Life Camp either. Around the same time, two inmates attempted a similar getaway from Daen 13. They managed to clear the high retaining wall, but informers alerted guards before they could escape and they were quickly rounded up. They were subdued with stun-guns and beaten before being confined to the Kung Soi punishment cell. There was no hospital visit. It is reported that transvestites are confined separately from the rest of the population and are treated less harshly. Apparently the guards also go easier on older inmates. Like the rest of the prison system, New Life Camp is locked down from 4pm to 6am, but unlike the rest of the system, guards may enter cells during this time period. During daylight hours, the detainees are free to walk outside and on weekends they may view local TV. In the evening there are no televisions or reading materials available. For exercise, a small area is suitable for mini-football and takraw matches, and there are a few homemade weights. The inmates are given no work to do, leaving plenty of time for talking, sleeping and smoking cigarettes. There are liberal visiting hours for family members and special food may be purchased for inmates. There are a few marijuana and heroin cases, but the overwhelming majority of inmates at New Life Camp are there for methamphetamines, either in tablet form _ ya ba _ or the flaky crystalline form nicknamed ”ice”. For the most part, the inmates represent the marginalised segments of society. They tend to be from slum areas where amphetamines are readily available, zones where police feel they have probable cause for search and seizure and don’t bother with court warrants. It is difficult for these people to arrange bail or probation, not least because of the red tape. Probation is strict and one needs sponsorship from an employer and usually a parent as well before the refundable bail is ever put up. There are no medical checks upon entry, not even for blood pressure. The crowded conditions are a haven for airborne bacteria, and both inmates and prison doctors interviewed said they were particularly concerned about tuberculosis. Females arrested for drug abuse queue up at a prison in Pathum Thani’s Thanyaburi district, where conditions are far more civilised. Afterward they may be sent to a hospital or a military drug rehabilitation programme for women. Complaints on the adverse conditions at Daen 10 and 13 have been filed with the Corrections Department, but thus far this has only resulted in staff transfers. Legal system observers say such practices have probably been going on since the 2002 passage of the Narcotics Control Act, which decriminalised personal drug use but made rehabilitation mandatory. Previously, convicted users served their terms in a regular prison. When contacted, Chatchai Suthiklom, director-general of the Corrections Department, said he was unaware of anything unusual at Daen 10 and 13, but said he wanted to know all the facts and would welcome any formal letters of complaint. If the allegations of abuse are true, he said, ”Somebody’s job is at stake.” One of the former inmates interviewed for this story submitted a letter to Mr Chatchai’s office in early May detailing his experiences at New Life Camp, but as of press time there had been no response. When he was asked about the allegations, Charnchao Chaiyanukij, director-general of the Probation Department, said: ”There is a lack of proper planning. The government has a strategy to suppress drugs but they do not pay attention to rehabilitation. There is also a lack of staff and budget. Fighting erupts because of the overcrowding, and some inmates have indeed suffered physical abuse from officials,” said Mr Charnchao. It’s difficult to determine whether Thailand’s drug rehabilitation efforts are effective, as often the offenders don’t follow through with their probations and aren’t heard from unless they are arrested again. Some drug abusers may be ”scared straight” through their rough experiences in the legal system. One of the inmates interviewed for this story survived 45 days at the New Life Camp, during which time he was beaten twice. He was released without an ID card or money in his pockets , and without any documentation showing that he had served his time. He took a motorcycle taxi home and the fare was paid by a family member. The former inmate then swore that he was going off drugs for good. Only time will tell.

Review Summary: Scott Walker returns with what is perhaps his most twisted and surrealistic effort to date. When it comes to avant-garde music, you either get it or you don't. It's a genre that celebrates the most abstract dimensions of the human psyche, birthing the kind of music that deviates from conventional logic and indulges in imaginative artistry. Musicians like Scott Walker seem to be utterly apathetic to the notion of appeal. He manipulates a myriad of contrasting sounds and melodies to comprise his esoteric canvas, an embodiment of his thoughts and obsessions meant for us to observe, and whether we, the audience, comprehend it or not, is none of his concern. Scott Walker's decension into the abstract was a long one, but not at all surprising. He made his name in the late 1960's as a rising star in the Baroque pop scene and released several essential albums within the genre. But even then, as his music often embellished itself with elegant euphonic arrangements, there was always a sense of darkness within his persona. Hidden behind all of the lavish orchestral sounds, lied a cynical man who loved to reminisce about human immorality as well as expressing his own morbid sense of humour. And as time went by, as his fame began to be eclipsed by the changing trends of an ever altering world, the music of Scott Walker became a thing of the past. And it was during this state of hiatus that he concealed himself from the world and underwent a profound metamorphosis of his own. In albums like Tilt and The Drift , we found him embracing a more ominous and enigmatic nature. The once romantic crooner who managed to seduce us with his sophisticated charisma, now wallowed comfortably in the shadows to recite ambiguously horrid tales for the sake of shock. It may appear like a rather drastic evolution in style, but once reflecting on the content of his earlier efforts, particularly in the transitional Scott 3 , we can really see his darkness slowly beginning to devour any sense of innocence and optimism. is yet another expansion into his avant-garde style. It's more vigorous than the previous two art albums, as the songs are often violent and unpredictable in comparison, but the atmosphere they exude still matches the unrelenting dismalness of the prior releases. Bish Bosch is a much more elaborate album artistically because we really get to see Scott Walker transcending through genres, and coalescing them to create an anarchical exhibition of sounds. To some, avant-garde music is a puzzle to be solved. An enigma that encompasses hidden themes that are just waiting to be analyzed and deciphered. For others, it's all about the mere experience in each listen and the emotions that they spark up within us. The music of Bish Bosch is not about how attractive it can appear to the listener, it actually aspires the opposite, it wants to be as grotesque possible- both in its music and lyrical content. It constantly drags the listener into a surrealistic environment, a deep abyss of unsettling darkness that harbors nothing but melancholia and relentless acrimony. The album opens with "'See You Don’t Bump His Head'", it's a rather tamed piece but it does a great job of foreshadowing the subsequent events, serving as a kind of appetizer before the main course. The song flows along a repetitive drumbeat that carries us along into Scott Walker's opening vocal delivery, which is decorated with a familiar ghastly ambience in the background. There's also an abrasive guitar riff that tends to float in and out of perception, and it really helps augment the sense of malevolence that drives the mood of this song. As usual, Scott Walker's lyrical deliveries are coated with obscure metaphors which are deliberately left unclear so we can obsesses over its interpretation. "Corps De Blah" and "SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)" serve as the two main epics in the album, and their compositional structures reflect an eccentric collage of various moods and sounds. One of the intriguing aspects of Scott Walker's music has always been his innovative instincts to use unique instrumentation to formulate his vision for each song. In both of these tracks we find ourselves voyaging through intricate spaces, and with each passing second, we are exposed to new realms of abnormality. The soundscapes that embody these songs are actually ingeniously arranged because we encounter so many different sources of instruments and auditory concepts. From ambient hazes and cosmic waves exuding from synthesizers, bombastic percussions, to heavy metal eruptions, and even farting noises, Scott Walker is literally coming at us from all directions with an array of surprises. "SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)", in particular, is one of the most mesmerizing experiences Scott Walker has ever orchestrated. There's an overwhelming feeling of tension that arises in us when listening to this one piece. It's as if we're descending into a vivid nightmare, becoming hopelessly trapped in the depths of a twisted surrealistic fantasy. The suspenseful atmosphere and dynamic instrumental medleys proves to be both exhilarating and magnetic right to the very end. "Epizootics!" is another highlight in Bish Bosch , and it's actually one of the most accessible songs, or at least, it doesn't try to be as abnormal as the others. And what makes it so inviting is that it is initially comprised of a rather harmonious arrangement, the repetitive percussive beat and buzzing saxophone technique create an almost inciting melodic groove. But it isn't long before "Epizootics!" begins to shift into completely anomalous directions. Leaving us to journey through quasi-psychedelic passages, bursting trumpet segments, and even a brief finger-snapping vocal break early in the midsection because, well, why not? Overall, Bish Bosch , with all of its familiar erraticism, is an auspicious follow-up to its acclaimed predecessors, Tilt and The Drift . It really has everything going for it. Scott Walker proves he's still capable of organizing seemingly random musical components in ways that sound both innovative and minimalistic, for example, the usage of clashing blades as a rhythmic instrument in "Tar". And his lyrics are as characteristically unpredictable as always, exposing his whimsical side by telling jokes about mothers and obesity, to illustrating explicitly horrific scenes in our minds. Bish Bosch is quite honestly one of Scott Walker's most ambitious efforts, but obviously this is one of those albums that just has to be experienced to even begin to fathom its experimental nature. Needless to say this isn't an album for the average listener, but to all of those patient fans who have been desperate to dwell back into the twisted mind of Scott Walker, give this album a chance and I promise you now, you will not be disappointed.

September 15 2016 Just as I predicted, the State (Bill Eddins ,State Attorney for Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton County in Florida) announced the arrest of 22 men in the latest Okaloosa sex Sting operation. This one was captioned Operation Undertow and targeted men in the Pensacola area. It is more of the same tactics where the police post ads on Craigslist looking for unsuspecting men they can bait and switch and talk into meeting with fictional children. They again used the classic bait words like “taboo” and pretended to be women looking for some man to “mentor their daughter”. They also used the classic bait phrase “I am very inexperienced” and suggested group sex scenes. I never cease to be amazed that men, year after year, fall for the same bait. Sex is the ultimate bait. Sadly, what the police operations mostly catch are young, shy, introverted and sometimes mentally challenged young adult males, some of whom have never had a date or sex. The real question is “Who are the real sex predators”? A strong argument can be made that the police with these sex sting operations are creating crimes. They are picking the low hanging fruit and targeting insecure men they can talk into committing a crime. I have been involved now in almost forty such cases as a sex crime lawyer. The general public often is misinformed and led to believe that these operations result in the arrest of real sex predators. - In my experience, only a tiny percentage of the men arrested had any real predisposition to engage in sex with a minor. - The police are masters of manipulation when it comes to talking men into committing a crime like traveling to meet a minor. - There are defenses to these entrapment cases. - It all depends on the individual facts of each case. - In the meantime, these men have had their lives destroyed, lost their jobs and had their reputations destroyed forever. - Families should not abandon men based on just the charge alone. - Friends and relatives should now stand by them more than ever. - Employers should not give up on them. I never give up and sometimes, hard work and good lawyering can make a difference. If you have questions on how they run the Internet Sex Stings and want to talk, call 941 366 3506 Click Here to Visit Our Website thesexoffenderdefender.com Related Articles on the Pensacola Sex Sting:

I’m proud to announce that my new novella, “The Man Who Ran from God,” will launch June 22 in the Amazon Kindle store. As we approach the launch date, I will be sharing more details about the novella. I’ll post the book cover art, selections from the piece itself and selections from earlier drafts. But today, I just want to share the basics. I will answer these in FAQ style. When will the novella be released? Where will it launch? Only on the Amazon Kindle store. I wanted to take advantage of their free giveaways via their KDP program. After 3 months on Kindle, I’ll reassess. How much will it cost? 99 cents in U.S. dollars, like the rest of my works. Will there be any giveaways? Yes. I’m planning a BIG giveaway for the first weekend, June 22 and 23. What is it about? It is a retelling, in historical fiction style, of the story of Jonah from the Bible. My teaser for the book sums it up: In a dream, the voice of God commands Jonah to go to Nineveh. Instead, he books passage to the other end of the world. A storm and a hungry whale are the least of his worries as Jonah has to confront deluded fishermen, befuddled peasants and crooked priests. At the end of it all, Jonah must face the hardest decision of his life: stand and preach to the fervently pagan crowds in Nineveh’s main square or flee back to his home in Judea. Is this a religious work? The result of some sort of religious experience? No. My attempt here was not to write a religious work, but an accurate piece of historical fiction. I didn’t want to write something that aligned with any organized religion, but that sought to unravel the historical Jonah from the figure presented in the Bible. What inspired you to write this? I had been toying with the idea of writing something about Jonah for a long time. The Old Testament prophets are intriguing to me because they are revered in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Jewish Joseph, Moses and Abraham somehow remain unifying figures despite the differences between these faiths and all three are mentioned in both the Christian New Testament and the Muslim Koran. But for me, there was always something special about the “minor” prophet Jonah. The whale segment of the story is famously known and, not surprisingly, surfaces in American literature in Moby Dick where one old whaler doubts the story. I wanted to learn more about the source of the story and one day read the Biblical account. When I did, I realized that the whale is actually a small part of the story. The real driving question is whether Jonah will do God’s will or not. Jonah is very cantankerous. When God asks him to go to Nineveh, he heads for Tarshish at the opposite end of the Mediterranean. And Jonah’s always getting angry (the word “angry” is used at least twice in the Biblical story). The best instance is in the Biblical account at Jonah 4:9. But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’ ‘It is,’ he said. ‘And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.’ I loved that. After I finished the story, I realized that most people had no idea who Jonah was and that the real story was quite different from the one I had been told as a kid. I started playing with the idea of writing something. I read the Book of Kings (where Jonah also appears) for background. And then I saw a video on YouTube and it all came together. Eminem goes through a rough patch. That was it. To me, Eminem was a sort of modern day Jonah (wow, did I just write that?). He was talking about the same thing Jonah talked about, but using a vernacular he understood. At some point, Jonah (like Eminem) came to a realization that he needed to change, he reached a point where the right thing to do became clear. He just had to have the guts to do it, to follow his inner voice. And Jonah, just like Eminem, was angry…pissed off at an unjust world. After I saw that video, I sat down and just started writing. Eventually, it became a novella of 20,000 words. Can I get an advance copy of the novella for review on my blog? Yes. If you have a blog where you regularly review books, I will review your site and if I feel we are a fit, I will gladly send along a copy of the manuscript (in Word format) for review. See “Contact” above for my email. In a continuing sub-series, I’m mentioning each time viewers from a new country visit the blog. This week, the blog had its first visitors from: – The Bahamas. Welcome to the blog, Everyone!

Royal Oak 1972 Jumbo 39mm Calibre 2121 Taken By HTC One Since the time we had pocket watch, Swiss watch makers were doing their best to design a thinner watch to show off their technology and skill of watch-making. Gradually when wrist watch is replacing Pocket watch, this game of going thinner had been started already!! Until the year I was borne, 1957, Piaget created the 2mm thick hand wind movement 9P. more and more watcher is going for thinner, Vacheron Constantin, Universal, JLC. Ultimately with lot of works and experiment, Piaget invented another 2.3mm Automatic Watch movement 12P. Then a new company Jean Lassale which was established in 1976 successfully made a thin movement to a merely thickness of about 1.2 mm. Jean Lassale created the world record of super thin Calibre 1200 in 1976 and then the automatic Calibre 2000 one year after. Thin watch is an equivalent of better quality watch was the mindset of most of collector or connosieuer for watch. As no other small company could beat this with launch of thinner watch. So the big player like VC, PP, Piaget kept making thin watch with 35mm dia. to satisfy the world… 1990, Panerai swiped the market with a new wave of “New”, “Large” and “Expensive” to bring us enter to this Happy Land of Dinosaurs, till 15 Sept 2008, Lehman Brothers went bankruptcy,… this episode carried the label of big watch back to stone age. Watch makers then issue watches with Standard, Low profile, Complicated and Traditional watch still able to take major portion of the market share. Till 2010. Piaget perfect with an new 1208P which was modified base on the blue print of 12P, to continue the legend of a thin watch, immediately made me recalled those name of thin watch; LeCoultre, Frederic Piguet, Lemania..etc Thinner is better but tougher, in order to maintain the accurate time keeping, thinner watch has no room for you to play around. A small second point hand wind watch may require same or even more effort to build an automatic watch that come with date! As most of the time is required to fine tune the 5 Positions precision , some times it may re-setup again and again! Time seems has stopped by AP since 1972, as after 40th anniversary, AP Royal Oak 39mm super thin watch still maintaining the use of 2122 movement, that has been used since 1972, the watch has a thickness is 3.05 mm, Same movement are also being deployed by PP and VC on their watches. This is one of the reason that man people is searching for the early AP RO using 2121 movement, and that watch has been the hot item in recent auctions.

EARLY HERNANDO COUNTY HISTORY Negroes Tried To “Take” Brooksville 70 Years AgoThis article appeared in the Tampa Tribune on July 3, 1955. It was contributed by Judge E. C. May of Inverness. May refers to John W. Davis of Lecanto as a source. The event actually occurred in 1882. By JUDGE E. C. MAY About 1885 an uprising of Negroes tried to take Brooksville. Of course they should have known better, for Brooksville was a hard place to take in those days. I heard the story many times when I first came to Citrus County, but in a talk with John Davis recently I was brought up to date on the details. Mr. Davis tells it substantially as follows: Three young Negroes named Turner were born, slaves, belonging to a man named Edrington. They were babies when slavery was abolished, and so far as was known there was no resentment against their former master. They were just naturally bad. Came a time when Jim Turner was summoned to work the road. At that time the only roads were trails through the woods, and every man was required to give three days work annually to keep them in good shape. The road overseer could permit you to hire a substitute if he wished, but if he required it, one must work the roads personally, and there was no appeal from his decision. Jim Turner refused to work the road, which was a misdemeanor, and he was brought before the court and fined. He announced that he would not work the road nor pay the fine, and he would kill any man who tried to collect. Many meetings of Negroes took place in the hammock near-by, at which Jim Turner held forth, and the Negroes were thoroughly aroused. It was decided that on a certain day they would attack Brooksville and take it. So far as was known, they had no plans after that, but on the appointed day they tried. An old Negro preacher learned of the plot and that one of his sons was to be in the “army.” He talked to the boy and ordered him to stay away from Brooksville, especially on that day, and when he would not promise the preacher went to the Law family, who were his former masters, and in whom he had implicit confidence. He told of the plot and of his son's refusal to obey him. On the appointed day a large number of Negro men and boys gathered at the trysting place in the hammock, and in the middle of the morning they advanced on the town. The officers and a large number of citizens were prepared. One of the Turners had a loaded shotgun, which he was told he could not carry in the street, and he left it in a saloon. Jim Turner and one of his brothers went into the court house and when ordered to pay his fine Jim fired his pistol at the crowd. A rifle spoke from one corner of the hall and Jim Turner fell dead. His brother walked to him and seeing that he was dead tried to escape by the door, but finding it blocked he ran to a window, but a rifle bullet knocked him through to the ground, dead. The last brother started walking toward the saloon where he had left his gun. Rifle and pistol bullets knocked the dust from his clothes but he kept going. As he mounted the step of the saloon someone shot his face off with his own gun. When the “army” of Negroes saw what had happened and that all their leaders were dead, they stampeded down the road like a bunch of cattle. Officers and citizens began firing into the crowd and many were wounded, but there were no more deaths. So ended the plan to “take Brooksville.” The preacher's boy got a bullet in his arm, which stuck there. When he got home he asked his father for a doctor, but was told that he would get no doctor. His mother would dress the wound until it got well, but he must keep the bullet as a souvenir and as a reminder that “when the old man tells you to stay away from a place for your own good, you will remember to stay away.” The old preacher went to his reward not many years afterward, but the boy grew into middle life, still carrying the bullet souvenir. Tom Allen, a deputy sheriff, killed him in Crystal River about 1915. Gaiety and AnguishBy D. B. McKAY Of another woman's tragedy during the war, a blue English china platter is the only relic surviving to this day. Henry Van Patten, descendant of an old Hernando County family, and well known himself in Hillsborough County, as deputy sheriff and jailer, related this tragic story: In the early days of the last century his great-grandmother, Mrs. Frances Pyles [see note below], set out on a trip from Brooksville to Hancock Lake, to visit a branch of the family. She traveled in a small buggy, in the back of which was loaded a small trunk, full of gifts for the relatives, as well as her extra clothing and some jewelry. Among the gifts was a set of blue English china, the solve surviving platter of which is now a treasured heirloom in the home of Henry and his wife Martha. Riding in the buggy with Mrs. Pyles was a young grandson [see note below]. They were escorted by several men on horseback and a few dogs. All went well, and the party was inclined to scoff at the idea of danger, since no signs of Indians had been seen in that vicinity for some time. So, when the dogs picked up a scent and gave chase, the men followed them into the woods, gaily assuring Mrs. Pyles they would soon add a fine venison to her other gifts. Scarcely were they out of earshot, when the dread war-whoop sounded and the buggy was surrounded by Indians. Mrs. Pyles was badly wounded by a shot through the shoulder. The Indians saw the trunk, and breaking it open, scrambled for its contents. In the ensuing confusion, the young grandson escaped and went after the men of the escort. Their return caused the Indians to vanish, and the men found Mrs. Pyles tied to a tree where the Indians were evidently intending to burn her. She had been stripped to the waist and the upper part of her body was stuck full of fat-pine splinters. Tenderly releasing her, and salvaging what the Indians had discarded, among other items, the blue platter, they returned to Brooksville. Mrs. Pyles soon expired from the wounds in her shoulder. Some time later, several Indians came into Brooksville. Some of the people recognized pieces of jewelry they were wearing, as having belonged to Mrs. Pyles. This being taken as prima facie evidence that they had taken part in the attack on Mrs. Pyles, the Indians were quickly apprehended and summarily hanged. It was said that Mr. Pyles had long traded with the Indians and that they had considered him their friend. When the tribe learned that it was his wife who had been murdered this caused much internal strife among the Indians. Note: The writer of the above article is D. B. McKay, a Tampa newspaperman who wrote of his ancestor Capt. McKay and other early figures. The subject of this story is in fact the great-grandmother of the person McKay interviewed, although she is actually Charlotte Wynn Piles Crum, the mother of Frances Sophia Pyles, wife of David Hope. Riding with her was not her grandson but her granddaughter, Mary Catherine Harn. These errors caused Charity Hope to believe that her mother was the one killed on Sept. 12, 1842. Information from Charles Blankenship. The Varnada Hotel Becomes Popular Venue With LocalsThe following article appeared in Hernando Today on Oct. 6, 1999. BROOKSVILLE—The Varnada Hotel in Brooksville was built about 1900 by L. B. Varn and considered a very fine hotel during its time. It was a popular meeting place for social and business occasions. It was located on East Jefferson Street in the same block that the SunTrust Bank is now located. Varn owned and operated the hotel that had three floors and 30 rooms. The hotel had running water but did not have a bath for each room. Instead, there were two or three bathrooms on each floor. The hotel maintained a dining room and many local people ate Sunday dinner there. In 1907, the Tampa Northern Railway came into Brooksville and at a later date, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The railroads brought many people into town who stayed at the hotel when they were in the area. In addition, traveling salesmen, or “drummers” as they were known then, stayed at the hotel. The Varnada was also host to many winter tourists, ordinary travelers, and prospective settlers. The late Jean Truett, a member of a wealthy family, lived at the Varnada part of the time. At times, she played the piano. The hotel burned on Sunday April 28, 1918. L. B. Varn also had a home in Bayport and built a telephone line from Bayport to Tooke Lake. Varn also established one of the first dairies in the county, introducing an improved milk stock. He owned 25 acres of orange grove and built at least 40 houses in Brooksville, owned a garage, the ice plant and a cannery. He came to Hernando County as a man of “modest circumstances” and through hard work built a considerable life for himself and his family. Slaves Were Used To Pay Debts When Master DiedThe following article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on Jan. 29, 2007. By ROGER LANDERS Down in de cornfield Hear dat mournful sound: All de darkeys am a-weeping, Massa's in de cold, cold ground Some will recognize the chorus from the Stephen Foster 1852 tune Massa's in de Cold Ground. The song, written for minstrel shows, romanticizes the "peculiar institution" of slavery in the South. Many of my generation and older will remember Foster's songs and their depiction of slavery: a paternalistic slave master, beloved by his "children" and grief-stricken when he died. The slaves were grief-stricken, but not for the reason that many of us were led to believe. The reality was that when a slave owner died, his slaves were "valued" and often sold to pay his "just debts." This frequently meant that families were separated, children taken from parents and older slaves from caregivers. For example, when Sterling McCarthy of Hernando County died in 1861, his will specified that his 17 slaves were to be "valued" for the benefit of his seven children. February is Black History Month, and it is a good time to explore and share these stories of early African-Americans in Hernando County. Antebellum Hernando represented the southern tip of the plantation belt of Florida. The rich, fertile lands of the area gave way to the open spaces of South Florida. As settlers came into the county, they found American Indian fields and pastures ripe for rapid planting. The first settlers in 1842 brought 59 slaves. In 1850, there were many slaves working the farms and plantations in the county. The area boasted "fine plantations" with the taxable land valued at $540,000 and slaves valued at $480,000. By 1860, there were 42 slave owners in the county. Most were small farmers who held fewer than 10 slaves. However, there were 16 farmers, known as planters, with as many as 20 to 45 slaves. Two large planters, John May of Brooksville and David L. Yulee of Homosassa, held more than 50 slaves each. Collectively, these farmers and planters constituted a planter aristocracy in Hernando. Few realize that free black people lived in Florida. But they were small in number - fewer than 1,000 - and most lived in larger towns such as Jacksonville, Key West, St. Augustine and Pensacola. Free black people had, in reality, fewer "rights" than their enslaved brethren. The white population, fearing a slave insurrection led by "free men of color," passed stringent laws limiting the freedoms of such men. With the exception of free black property owners during Spanish and British rule, a free black man could not own property or travel within the state without a pass. All free men were required to have a "sponsor," or guardian. Hernando County had one such man, Mills Holloman. Holloman, a mulatto, was born in Virginia about 1796 and lived in Florida before 1838. He applied for a land grant in Hernando County on Dec. 14, 1842. His application was denied Jan. 23, 1843, because of his color, according to records. He and his wife, Anna, lived and farmed near the Cedar Tree post office in the southern part of the county. Nathanial H. Moody, who served as Hernando sheriff from 1851 to 1853, was his longtime friend, neighbor and guardian. The records of the time, scant as they are, do mention many other individuals by name. For example, the minutes of Union Baptist Church - First Baptist of Brooksville - list several slaves who joined the church or engaged in some activity that required special mention on record. Several of these former Union Baptist slave members became ministers in their own right. Deeds, journals and news articles provide other names. The earliest is that of free mulatto Juan Bautista Collins of St. Augustine. In 1808, Collins traveled through Central Florida and at Chocachatti purchased 18 head of cattle from a black Seminole woman named Molly. The storm of June 1856 almost ruined the agricultural pursuits of the county. "Cultivated lands of Hernando County (were) covered with 12 to 15 inches of sand," the Florida Peninsular newspaper reported. By 1860, the region had regained its agricultural prominence; there were 1,200 white inhabitants and 855 slaves in the county. Most of the slaves were born in Florida, South Carolina or Alabama. There was one stark exception. A former slave named March (no last name), born in 1795, reported his place of birth as Africa in the 1870 census. He lived next to the Delane, Going, Wilder and Duncan families. During the Civil War, several Hillsborough families sought refuge in Hernando. One such refugee was William Hooker. Relocating his family and 55 slaves to old Spring Hill, he became the fifth-largest planter in the county. The Union raid on Hernando in summer 1864 ravaged the plantations of Hooker, Leroy Lesley, David Hope, John T. Lesley, William C. Ellis and Aaron T. Frierson. Some of the slaves took advantage of the chaos and slipped away to the safety of Union territory or to that of friendly Seminoles. Perhaps one of those "runaways" was Hampton St. Clair, a slave of the May family, known to have lived for some time with the Seminoles. Both Hampton and his brother, Arthur, later became prominent leaders in the African-American community of postwar Hernando. In 1866, the Rev. James M. Breaker accepted the call of black members of Union Baptist Church to form a separate congregation. Shortly thereafter, Bethlehem Baptist Church was organized. After the war, from 1865 to 1880, many of the former slaves and their families left the area. Several moved to Marion County, like Tony May and his wife and son. Often these men and their descendants rose to prominence in their new communities. Holloman and some of Sarah Howell's former slaves organized the community of Bealsville in eastern Hillsborough in 1865. Holloman lived from time to time in Hillsborough and Hernando. He homesteaded in the Seffner area, became a citrus grower and served two terms as a county commissioner in Hillsborough. His son, Adam, replaced him on the commission in 1872. His son-in-law, Levin Armwood, became Tampa's first black police officer. While early African-American records are limited because of the destruction of the old Hernando courthouse in September 1877, some records do exist. Black History Month reminds us of the need to not let this important heritage slip away. From Early Days, Lawyers Have LedThe following article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on April 30, 2007. By ROGER LANDERS Several years ago, members of the Old Hernando History Roundtable had the pleasure of hearing Joseph E. Johnston Jr. speak of old times in the Hernando legal profession. Joe was the first full-time lawyer in town. Sure, there have been many lawyers before him, but he was the first to earn a living solely from the practice of law. The story of those early lawyers starts when the first attorney in the county, Byrd M. Pearson, began his practice. Born in Union District, S.C., in 1803, he arrived locally by 1845 and purchased a large tract of land at the top of a hill now known as Chinsegut Hill. He sold the plantation to Francis Edrington in May 1851 and moved to Jacksonville. Later Pearson became a justice on the Florida Supreme Court. Another early attorney was Perry Green Wall. Arriving in the early 1845, he farmed and practiced law. Wall served as county judge from 1848 to 1864. His son, Joseph Wall, followed into the legal profession, as have three succeeding generations. Theodore S. Coogler is one of the better-known early lawyers. Coogler, of South Carolina, taught school in the late 1850s for the Lykes family. After two terms of school, he returned to South Carolina. He came back to Hernando after the Civil War and began the practice of law. He also was a merchant, citrus grower and the first superintendent of public schools. The early attorneys had a significant impact on the county. Often referred to as "colonel, " they commanded respect and served in roles of leadership. In 1873, the young attorney Charles E. Harrison arrived in Brooksville. At that time, only one other attorney, W.J. Barnett, practiced locally. In his first case, Harrison defended a local farmer on allegations of breach of contract. To the trial went Harrison, armed with his text, Parsons on Contracts. Before Justice of the Peace Rubin Wilson, he successfully defended his client. The losing party immediately attacked Harrison's client. Justice Wilson came from behind the bench and declared: "Harrison, you hold back that side. They had a fair trial and by God they can have a fair fight." By 1889, Elliott's Florida Encyclopedia reports that Brooksville boasted 11 attorneys; Barnett, O.C. Butterwick, Coogler, W.S. Jennings, T.P Floyd, G.C. Martin, T. Palman, J.C. Phillips, J.C. Preston, G.V. Ramsey and T.M. Shackelford, who later served as a justice of the Florida Supreme Court from 1902 to 1917. One of the more colorful attorneys of this period was George C. Martin. In 1906, Harry A. Peeples, a Tampa municipal judge, penned a memoir of his early experiences in Hernando, and he chronicled several stories about Martin. In one he writes: "On my way to Tampa, I stopped in Brooksville and spent the night. The next morning there was some excitement near the courthouse ... Colonel George C. Martin, the famous Hernando lawyer, was to argue a 'pint of law' and old man Tuck told me that George Martin was the best expectorator before a judge in the whole State of Florida." So Peeples decided to stay for the trial. At trial, the issue was fraud, and the defendant, known to be a rough character, usually carried a weapon. Martin, knowing the defendant's reputation, placed a pistol in his hip pocket before entering the courthouse. As Martin rose from his chair, the pistol caught on the back of the chair and flipped onto the floor near the judge's bench. It was a spectacle watching Martin as he tried to pick up the pistol without the judge seeing him. At one point, Martin almost knelt down with a finger raised in the air as he was making his "pint of law" and retrieved his errant property. In 1895, Francis B. Coogler became the second member of the Coogler family to enter the legal profession. Three later generations of this family also became attorneys. In 1899, there were three members of the Florida Bar Association in Hernando County: George C. Martin, William Sherman Jennings and Francis B. Coogler. Just after the turn of the 20th century, Fred Lykes Stringer returned to Brooksville to practice law. In 1927, he became a circuit judge. The 1920s and '30s saw some new blood come to town. Herbert Smithson became the attorney for the city of Brooksville. He was murdered in 1930. W. Clyde Lockhart opened a practice in Brooksville, as did the Whitehurst brothers - James, John, Leon and Onan. In 1931, Edward S. McKenzie of Leesburg moved with his wife, Romie Daniel, to her home county. Marion L. Dawson, after three terms in the Florida Legislature, relocated to Brooksville and began his practice in 1934. Following World War II, Joseph E. Johnston graduated from law school and returned to Brooksville. Until that time, Brooksville lawyers supplemented their livelihood with income from such endeavors as real estate, ranching, citrus and farming. Determined to make the practice of law his full-time vocation, the young Johnston opened his law office in 1947. In 1952, Johnston placed a bid to become School Board attorney. His uncle, Alvin Coogler Sr. the board's attorney at the time, remarked to the School Board: "Give the boy the job before his family starves to death." So began a new era in the full-time practice of law in Hernando County. In the early 1950s, Richard McGee returned home to practice. Shortly after McGee's return, Frank McClung joined the local ranks of attorneys. By 1962, Joseph Young moved to Brooksville from Clearwater and established his practice, and Hernando boasted about a half dozen attorneys. As each successive generation of lawyers returned home and with the rapid growth of the county in the mid 1970s, the attractiveness of Hernando became apparent. New partnerships and alliances formed and dissolved. Some of the lawyers elected a career in public service. Some never returned, yet have left their marks in professional circles, including Florida Attorney General William McCollum and Lynn Thompson, a public defender assigned to the Ted Bundy defense team. Some have blazed trails, including Brooksville's Hazel M. Land, the first African-American female to graduate from the University of Florida Law School. Linda J. Treiman graduated from law school in 1976 and soon became Brooksville's first female lawyer. The career of Joseph E. Johnston served as a benchmark in the development of the Hernando Bar. When no assistant state attorney was assigned to Hernando, Johnston stepped in to serve. He insisted on the maintenance of an up-to-date law library and adequate court facilities for the county. As sons joined their fathers, brothers joined brothers, and daughters followed fathers into the profession, new attorneys began practice and others retired. This year, the Florida Bar reports 156 attorneys now reside in Hernando County. 1877 Burning of Courthouse Symbolizes Period of LawlessnessThis article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on June 25, 2007. By ROGER LANDERS The lack of detail concerning the 1877 courthouse fire in my column last month about Hernando courthouse history caused a little heat, you might say. So, here is the rest of the story. It's quite a tale. Built of old-growth heart pine, dried for 20 years, with fresh sawdust on the floors to absorb tobacco juice and such, the courthouse built in 1858 was a tinderbox. When townspeople discovered the fire at 1 a.m. Sept. 29, 1877, the building was fully involved. All county records and recorded documents burned. Only the account book of the School Board survived. John J. Hale, the board's treasurer, had the book at home in preparation for the School Board meeting planned the morning of the 29th. This black spot in our county's history was part of a series of events that spanned a tumultuous 15 years. The story begins in 1859. Arthur St. Clair, a slave of Mrs. Marina Sanderson May, joined Union Baptist Church, a white church. After the Civil War, St. Clair became a prominent figure in the Reconstruction politics of Hernando County. He served as a voter registrar, deputy sheriff, county commissioner, captain in the state militia, delegate to the 1876 Republican state convention and three-time Republican nominee for the state House. Though unsuccessful in elected politics, St. Clair, a Baptist minister, was a leader in the community during the often confusing and changing rules, roles and social relationships of Reconstruction. During this period, Hernando, at the southern tip of the Florida plantation region, became a place of notoriety. Capt. Walter Terry Saxon, a 30-year-old Confederate veteran and post-war legislator, organized the local Ku Klux Klan. The klan was responsible for many violent acts, including the July 1868 murder of Marcus Brent, a federal tax agent, and the attempted murder on June 6, 1870, of Hernando County Judge Henry Roundtree. In 1876, Florida rejoined the Union, and military occupation ended. Republican control of state politics ended with the election of Democrat George Drew as governor. Florida and other Southern states entered a period of redemption. The systemic retaking of control from the radical Republican leadership was evident everywhere. In Hernando, old-line Democrats regained local offices. On Sunday, May 6, St. Clair performed the marriage of a mixed-race couple in Brooksville -- David James, who was black, and Lizzy Day, who was white. The marriage led to a public outcry. The following evening, the couple was visited by several prominent residents: Frank Saxon, James Rhodes, County Judge William Center and R.M. McIntosh. Their purpose was to advise the newlyweds of the possibility of danger. A firearm was discharged, resulting in a gunfight that left a number of men wounded, including James. The judge, Center, visited the couple again the next day, and assured them that the visit of the previous evening had been strictly out of concern for their safety. Center also told them that they would be safe until James' wounds healed and they could leave town. They moved to Tampa. In June 1877, St. Clair began a fourth attempt to run for the Legislature. Having failed previously, St. Clair had been a pawn in the Republican effort to unseat Samuel Hope, who was alleged to have committed fraud in the previous election. On the night of June 26, St. Clair and Mary Turner, both of Brooksville, were returning from a political meeting at Fort Dade (Dade City), when a group of 20 men intercepted them near Robertson Pond, about 12 miles from Brooksville. Mary Turner escaped in the confusion when St. Clair was shot. Several men living in the area rushed to offer St. Clair assistance. Henry Lloyd was shot, and John O'Neil escaped by jumping into a pond. After the incident, a coroner's inquest determined that "parties unknown" killed St. Clair and Lloyd. Although Turner and others testified, no evidence was offered to hold anyone responsible. On July 7, the slayings of St. Clair and Lloyd were condemned during a community meeting. Newspapers across the state reported the violence and urged the County Commission to offer a substantial reward for information concerning the killings. On July 25, the Ocala Banner reported that a black man had passed through Ocala on his way to Tallahassee. He carried with him sworn statements and other evidence for the governor regarding the murder of St. Clair, the paper said. Throughout July, August and September, newspapers in Jacksonville, Savannah, Tallahassee, Ocala and Tampa rehashed the events of May and June in Hernando. On Monday evening, Aug. 13, Mary Turner confided to the Key West Dispatch that she could identify the killer of St. Clair and his associate. She had not done so at the inquest because most of the perpetrators were members of the coroner's jury, she said. Area newspapers implored residents of Hernando to step up and have the grand jury demand justice. Weeks later, the fire broke out at the courthouse, and all records were lost. The heroic efforts of some residents saved J.J. Hale's nearby store from the blaze. The Sunland Tribune in Tampa reported that a white man was responsible for the fire. "The object of the incendiary was to prevent the Fall Term of the Grand Jury," the paper said. Among other things, the fire destroyed the voter registration list used to select a jury. The area papers were full of commentary and editorials. Dr. J.H. Wallace of Fort Dade called for the people of southern Hernando County to distance themselves from those in Brooksville. Thomas S. Winn of Crystal River deplored the violence but stopped short of calling for a division of the county, saying: "United we stand, divided we fall." The County Commission offered a $2,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the individual responsible for the fire. Over the next two years, a series of events prevented the grand jury of Hernando from meeting. The illness of a judge and the murder of Sheriff David L. Hedick raised serious questions about the state of affairs in Hernando. In the early morning hours of May 6, 1879, Christopher Keathley and William S. Hancock foiled a second effort to destroy the records of the county. They discovered a fire set atop the sheriff's desk in the rented building used while the new courthouse was constructed. The commission offered a second reward for conviction of the perpetrators responsible for that offense. Finally, in June 1879, the grand jury met and went on the record deploring the state of affairs in Hernando. Jurors lamented the "list of morality and the war against dignity" and the "two score (40 murders) in the last 14 years -- 11 ... in the last two years." Many went unsolved, including the slayings of James M. Rhodes, a former school superintendent, and Center, the county judge. In the case of Center, he had planned to collect the reward for information about the 1877 courthouse burning. Having received a tip of what was to come, the Savannah Morning News reported his murder the day the shooting occurred. The record of violence in Hernando over a protracted period was unprecedented in Florida. The fire on the morning of Sept., 29, 1877, at Brooksville was a link in the chain that's had a lasting impact on the community, felt well into the 20th century. No Matter Name, County Guard Has Proud HistoryThe following article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on Sept. 10, 2007. By ROGER LANDERS As a community, we are proud of our National Guard unit at the airport. Few realize that the predecessors to the guard in Hernando date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Florida Constitution of 1868 established the state militia. After Florida's return to the Union after the Civil War, the 1868 militia bill authorized the guard, known then as the state militia and later as the Florida State Troops. The national Militia Act of 1792 required male citizens of military age 18 to 45 to serve in state militias. The primary function of the militias was to provide for public safety and to guard against domestic violence. During Reconstruction, the state militia was composed of men from all races. However, many white men refused to serve in a racially mixed militia. Consequently, the state Legislature provided for voluntary segregated units and Florida had two state militias -- the enrolled and the volunteers. Men of military age in Hernando County totaled 443 (314 white and 129 black). By size, Hernando County ranked 15th of the 39 Florida counties. Funds, when allocated by the Legislature, usually went to the voluntary militias. The equipment provided for the state troops between 1870 and 1876 was minimal at best. Statewide, only 1,500 firearms were available. All but 200 weapons were outdated Civil War-era rifles In 1870, John Varnum, Florida adjutant general, placed an ad in state newspapers calling for volunteer companies. He all but ignored the enrolled militia available to him. Men from Hernando County were part of the enrolled Third Brigade, along with men from Hamilton, Suwanee, Columbia, Baker, Levy, Hillsborough, Polk and Marion counties. The brigade was under the command of Joshua T. Walls. The governor appointed Arthur St. Clair as captain and Joe Mills as 1st lieutenant, both of whom were black. When Reconstruction ended in 1876, the new adjutant general of Florida, John J. Dickenson, a former Confederate colonel, called for the reorganization and equipping of volunteers By 1878, there were 19 volunteer companies in the state, and the following year there were 45. In 1883, Hernando County received permission to organize a volunteer guard company, known as Dickenson Cavalry. Over the next 20 years, the Hernando guards reorganized several times - in 1887 as the Hill City Guards and in 1902 as Company M of the 2nd Regiment of State Troops. In 1883, Fred L. Robertson of Brooksville, a newspaper editor, received an appointment as aide-de-camp to Gov. William D. Bloxham. Robertson held the rank of colonel in the militia. At that time statewide, there were 47 volunteer companies. In 1887, state troops reorganized into an all-volunteer militia with 10 companies of infantry and two companies of artillery. Maps of Brooksville from 1890 show the local armory was on Jefferson Street, across from the courthouse. Later, in 1917, it was on Howell Avenue, across from the current library. In early 1906, Hernando men became a platoon of Company B, with headquarters in Marion County. The platoon was under the command of 1st Lt. Forrest A. Burns. In June 1906, Gov. Napoleon B. Broward ordered the Hernando platoon to active duty. In Inverness, Jim Davis, a black man, had killed Robert Russell, a white man, after a dispute. Fearing the lynching of Davis, the Hernando guardsmen were called to assist the Citrus sheriff and maintain order. Burns received a telegram at 6:50 p.m. June 6. He was ordered by Adjutant Gen. E.G. Foster to assemble the platoon, draw two days of rations and 20 rounds of ammunition for each man, and proceed immediately to Citrus by train. A telegram sent to Citrus County Sheriff George R. Carter said to "expect troops to arrive at 11:50 (p.m.)" at the county jail. At that time, there was no direct train from Brooksville. A special train scheduled for the troops was delayed at the Croom switching station, in eastern Hernando. Then, at 12:25 a.m., an express train passed the junction. Upon arrival in Citrus later that morning, the Hernando men were informed that Davis had been taken from the jail by a mob at 9 p.m. the previous evening and hanged. The dejected detachment returned to Hernando. Burns reported his disappointment by telegram to the governor. In his formal report, he stated that the delay of the train seemed planned. Broward suspended Carter because he had not properly protected his prisoner. Two years later, after a lengthy hearing, the Legislature reinstated Carter. The Hernando platoon disbanded in February 1908, only to reorganize in 1913. The new company took up residence in the basement of the new courthouse. Disbanded again in 1916 and later restructured as a machine gun company in 1920 with World War I veteran Jay H. Henning as captain, the company converted to a military police company in early 1924. The end of the local guard came in June 1924, when the unit was not federally recognized and disbanded. Roger Landers is retired from the Hernando County School District, where for nearly 33 years he was a teacher, principal and district administrator. He is the historian for the county's Heritage Museum, historical adviser to the new Hernando County Historical Advisory Commission and a member of the Florida Historical Society. He can be reached at [email protected]. Hernando History: War Led to Area’s Settling in 1842This article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on March 23, 2008. By ROGER LANDERS Our settlers arrived 166 years ago in the territory that would become Hernando County. Not a long time by some standards, but so begins our recent history. The Second Seminole War raged from 1835, and many in government, tired of a never-ending conflict, believed that the only way to end hostilities was armed occupation. The conflict began because of the Seminoles' refusal to relocate from west-central Florida to "lands west of the Mississippi," as agreed in the Agreement of Payne's Landing (1832). The treaty ending the First Seminole War had been signed by only seven chiefs, but the Seminoles had agreed to reside in the 4-million acres of Central Florida south of the Withlacoochee River and north of Peace River. After five years of war, the issue of Indian removal remained unsettled. Many in Congress considered the war a "Negro war" — a war intended to reclaim the former slaves of the South who had escaped and integrated into the Seminole culture. Add to this a national depression in 1837, and the cost of this war made it almost impossible to continue. In January 1839, Sen. Thomas Hart Benton of South Carolina proposed a bill for the armed occupation and settlement of the part of the Florida Territory inhabited by the Seminoles. The bill passed the Senate but failed in the House of Representatives. Benton gave notice that he intended to reintroduce the bill in the next session of Congress, only to see it fail again. The bill finally passed both houses in August 1842. President John Tyler signed into law the Armed Occupation Act. Meanwhile, Col. William Jenkins Worth, commander of military affairs in Florida, began to push for the resettlement of those "unfortunate settlers" who lost their plantations to the Seminoles during the early years of the war. Worth, through liberal interpretation of his authority to resettle lands lost, offered military protection, free land and subsistence for one year to new settlements. Settlements near Fanning Springs, Fort White and Natural Bridge, in the vicinity of Suwannee River, were re-established. Soon, new groups of settlers offered to move onto the land previously controlled by the Seminoles south of the Withlacoochee. The St. Augustine News reported the Feb. 21, 1842, settlement, saying, "They come with a plow in one hand and a rifle in the other" and were the first settlers south of the Withlacoochee River since the outbreak of hostilities with the Seminoles in 1835. The party of 159 settlers, led by John Curey, consisted of 101 men, women and children and 58 slaves. There were 31 families, including two headed by women, Delia B. Gibbons and Elisabeth Stanley. Curey, in his first report to the Office of the U.S. Adjutant General, stated that the party selected the old fields of Seminole leader Tiger Tail at Chocochattee Town, on the southeast side of what is now Brooksville. The fields were selected for the ease of "cultivation this season." The U.S. troops who accompanied the settlers built a blockhouse nearby for protection. Most of the women and children did not come with the men to Chocochattee immediately, but remained near the river while houses could be "thrown up." Food and supplies came from Fort Cross, 6 miles to the west, but would later come from Fort Brooke at Tampa. Seven years earlier, in 1835, Seminole Chief Sinaha, leader of the band at Chocochattee, had agreed to relocate and move to Fort Brooke. That ended the Seminole occupation of the hammock and savannah lands at Chocochattee. According to Horatio S. Dexter, who visited the area in 1823, Chocochattee was the seat of the Seminole Nation for more than 70 years. At the time of his report, Chocochattee Town consisted of about 20 homes. The chief owned three slaves, 160 head of cattle, 90 horses and a "gang of hogs." Dexter described the Chocochattee area as a 180-acre savannah with a surrounding hammock of about 380 acres containing two cleared fields. The width of the hammock varied from a half-mile to 5 miles. The rich soil that year had produced a surplus of corn, "unusual for Indians." He further noted that 3 miles west of Chocochattee was the beginning of the "big hammock" — Annuttaliga — which was about 30 miles in circumference and 7 miles deep. This hammock was of such rich soil that it could support a population of 50,000 settlers. After Sinaha's band departed, the old fields of Chocochattee became the farm plots of Tiger Tail. Tiger Tail's band used the area until the military made it of little use to the Seminoles. The bands of Tiger Tail, Wild Cat and other Seminoles who chose to remain in the hammock lands did not accept the move to "west of the Mississippi." The only Seminole associated with Chocochattee when the settlers arrived was Tiger Tail, hence the name "Tiger Tail's old fields." Four such fields were identified on surveys from 1843 to 1847. The white settlers found these fields of great help as they established their settlement. Within a year, the number of families increased to 69. John Curey reported that the settlers established their principal settlement near Chocochattee and another settlement at Annuttaliga. The settlement named DeSoto was located on high ground northeast of what is now the intersection of U.S. 41 and Croom Road. Later, the grassy savannah surrounding the area was known as the DeSoto Prairie. In a March 1, 1842, letter to the military district commander at Tampa Bay, Lt. Col. Garland stated that he was comfortable with the two block houses and about 40 men able to carry arms, and did not favor placing two companies of U.S. troops at Fort Cross, 6 miles west of the Chocochattee settlement. Although, arms, ammunition and some supplies were provided to the settlers, life was not easy in the new settlements. Indian attacks continued. In December 1842, the settlers in Chocochattee, Annuttaliga and Homosassa, not knowing of the passage of the Armed Occupation Act, sent a petition to the president and Congress asking for the assistance promised by Worth. The matter was soon resolved, and formal permits to settle the lands were issued. The act required the settler to occupy a portion of land, build a house and cultivate 5 acres for five years in exchange for the title of one-quarter section of land — 160 acres. The settlers found the Chocochattee lands to their liking with the high ground; great stands of oak, hickory and magnolia trees; and good water sources. Some of the settlers, including Robert Bradley and J.S. Taylor, claimed land a few miles southwest of Chocochattee. In 1843, one year and three days after the first settlers arrived at Tiger Tail's old fields, the Territorial Legislature created the new county of Hernando. Roger Landers is retired from the Hernando County School District, where for nearly 33 years he was a teacher, principal and district administrator. He is the historian for the county's Heritage Museum, historical adviser to the new Hernando County Historical Advisory Commission and a member of the Florida Historical Society. He can be reached at [email protected]. Former Slave Is Sixth Great Brooksvillian City honors the slain founder of a church and a school.This article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on Oct. 4, 2007. By LOGAN NEILL BROOKSVILLE - Tears streamed down Mabel Sims' face when she heard that the Brooksville City Council had chosen her great-great-uncle, Arthur St. Clair, to be the city's newest Great Brooksvillian. Her only wish was that he could have been there to receive the honor. "I think he would have been so proud," said Sims, who attended Monday night's City Council meeting surrounded by members of her family. "It's certainly a fitting honor." The first African-American to receive the title, St. Clair died 130 years ago after being shot and killed by a still-unknown assailant on a lonely road outside of Brooksville, cutting short the life of a man whom many feel would almost certainly have gone on to become one of Florida's greatest early black leaders. "He achieved greater status than most African-Americans of his time," said Roger Landers, a Hernando historian. "That status no doubt led to his assassination." A former slave, St. Clair worked the plantation owned by John and Marina Sanderson May, whose vast land holdings surrounded what would eventually become the town of Brooksville. After winning his freedom, St. Clair, who was mostly self-educated, began to put his knowledge and popularity in the black community to work in an attempt to shatter the racial barriers that continued to grip the region after the Civil War. St. Clair was chosen to be the county's first post-Civil War voter registrar. Later, the governor appointed him to lead the state's Third Brigade, a militia that included men from Hernando, Sumter and Citrus counties. A Baptist minister, St. Clair founded Bethlehem Progressive Baptist Church and later, with his brother Hampton, established Hernando County's first all-black school. And though he ran unsuccessfully three times for the state Legislature, St. Clair easily won the Republican Party's blessing to return for a fourth try at the seat. However, it would not come to be. Just two months before the election, in 1877, St. Clair presided over the marriage of a mixed-race couple in Brooksville. A few days later, while traveling from what is now Dade City, St. Clair and several companions were jumped by a group of about 20 white people. Despite a climate of racial hostility in Hernando County at the time, both blacks and whites openly voiced their disgust over St. Clair's murder. A coroner's inquest turned up no concrete evidence to indict anyone. Later, a fire inside the county courthouse destroyed records that many believed held the key to finding St. Clair's killer. Brooksville Vice Mayor Frankie Burnett, an African-American, said that honoring St. Clair as this year's Great Brooksvillian sheds light on an individual whose courage helped to change the plight of so many others. "The hope is that people will want to know more about him and the things he did," Burnett said. St. Clair, the sixth person chosen to be Great Brooksvillian, joins a list of local dignitaries that includes longtime civic leaders Alfred McKethan and Joe Johnston Jr., local historian Virginia Jackson, Brooksville City Hall Art Gallery maven Mary Alice Queiros and Rogers' Christmas House Village founder Margaret Ghiotto. A dedication ceremony will be take place in City Council chambers at 5 p.m. Oct. 17. Logan Neill can be contacted at [email protected] or 352 848-1435. Arthur St. Clair joins five others to receive the honor: Sarah Davis Named 2010 Great Brooksvillian This article appeared in the St. Petersburg Times on Aug. 16, 2010. By LOGAN NEILL BROOKSVILLE — Sarah Davis, who spent 30 years teaching children in Hernando County, was named the 2010 Great Brooksvillian on Monday night by the City Council. Davis, 80, was found murdered May 15 inside her south Brooksville home. A suspect, Byron K. Burch, was later arrested. Authorities said Davis had reached out to Burch, who had a long history of drug problems. Several supporters of Davis spoke on her behalf, including Pastor Cecill Hubbard of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Brooksville, who spoke of Davis's compassion as a teacher. "She was a working mother, and she loved children," Hubbard said. "She was a great example for all our members." After retiring from the school system, Davis worked with the Hernando Sheriff's Office, where she continued to teach others for 16 years. In January, Sheriff Richard Nugent presented her with a community service award. Others in consideration for the honor included Circuit Judge Daniel Merritt Sr., Helga Curtis, Joe Mason, Dorothy Mason, Attorney General Bill McCollum, Dan Patrick and Wayne Johnson. Tribute of RespectAt a meeting of De Soto Lodge, A. F. A. M. held in Brooksville on Saturday 19th of January, the following preamble and resolution were unanimously adopted. Whereas God in his infinite Wisdom has seen fit to remove from our midst our late brother James R. Nicks and whereas in his death the lodge and masonry in general, has sustained an irreparable loss, and the family a devoted husband & father; it therefore becomes us as Masons in token of our esteem, to pay a just tribute to his memory. Be it therefore resolved in bowing to the will of the Divine Master, we do it cheerfully, trusting that he will discharge his duties faithfully in the grand lodge above. Resolved that as a mark of our respect we wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days; and that a blank page in our minutes be ascribed to his memory. Resolve, that, we deeply sympathize with the family---their bereavement, and a copy of these resolutions be sent to them, and that they be published in the Peninsular. De Soto Lodge, Hernando Co., Florida January 25, 1862 The foregoing transcript of ***** and Resolution is a true copy of the Minutes of De Soto lodge No. 32 unanimously adopted on Saturday 25 January 1862 Witness my hand and Seal of lodge this 25th day of January AD 1862 Wm. M. Garrison Secretary [Transcribed by Charles Blankenship from a digital camera copy of the original. Original in possession of Henry R. Nicks, Dallas, Texas. Both are descendants of James Rinaldo Nicks (1808-1861)] Links to Other Sites

In an unfortunate incident, a 28-year-old man having dinner at a beachside restaurant in Thailand was gored to death by an elephant. According to ABC News Australia, the incident reportedly happened in the coastal city of Rayong, late on Monday. While the identity of the man who was gored to death hasn’t been revealed, it is known that he was a local man employed with the local telecoms company. A colleague of his, who was also dining with him at the time of the elephant attack, was injured in the attack and remains in a hospital. The other man injured in the elephant attack is reportedly 30 years old. Meanwhile, a report by the Guardian added that the unfortunate victim of the elephant attack was gored in the chest by the out-of-control animal. According to local police Lieutenant Thawat Nongsingha, the two men were talking to the elephant’s mahout when the animal attacked them all of a sudden. “They were talking to the mahout about buying food for the elephant when it suddenly stabbed one man in the chest with its tusk and kicked the other,” he said. The mahout has in the meantime been charged with several offenses and was briefly held in police custody and later released. He has been charged with violating local animal legislation and causing death by negligence. If convicted, the mahout could face a $600 fine or a 10-year jail term. The elephant involved in the attack remains under his care for now. Elephants and elephant attacks are fairly common in Thailand where the animals are highly revered. In fact, there are more domesticated elephants in Thailand (around 4,000) than there are elephants in the wild (estimated to be around 2,500). With number highly skewed in favor of domesticated elephants, the government has banned the capture of wild elephants for entertainment use. Thailand’s rise as a popular tourism getaway and the banning of the logging industry happened at around the same time. It was after this that several elephants who were used by loggers found themselves doing tricks and entertaining tourists. As of today, elephants are barred from entering populated areas and urban centers. However, it is not uncommon for tourists to occasionally spot them in towns where they are often used for begging. The news of this elephant attack comes less than a week after the Inquisitr reported about a man in Germany who was killed by a runaway circus elephant. [Image Via Phys.Org]

Discovery of Greenland (Erik the Red) Born Erik Thorvaldsson, he was credited for establishing the first Norse settlement in Greenland after he was exiled on charges of manslaughter in Norway around the year 982. Called ‘Erik the Red’ for his flaming red hair, he ventured into an expedition with 25 ships, where 14 made the journey while the rest turned back or were lost at sea. The settlement grew with 5000 inhabitants, especially along Eriksfjord and neighboring fjords as immigrants came in from over-populated Iceland. Discovery of Newfoundland, Canada (Leif Erikson) The son of Erik the Red, a Viking explorer, he also became a famous explorer just like his father when he embarked on his own expeditions towards North America. Considered the “first European to venture into North America,” he arrived at the place which he called Vinland in the 11th century. Archaeological remains substantiated this claim as they found some remains of Vikings in what is known as Newfoundland, Canada. First Solo Circumnavigation of the World (Joshua Slocum) The first man who single-handedly traveled around the world, Joshua Slocum was a Nova Scotian-born naturalized American seaman and adventurer who wrote the book “Sailing Alone Around the World,” chronicling his journey. He started on April 24, 1895 on his self-built gaff-rigged oyster boat named ‘Spray’ from Fairhaven, Massachusetts and returned to Newport, Rhode Island three years later on June 27, 1898, circumnavigating the world at a distance of more than 48,000 miles. The First Men to Conquer Mt. Everest (Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay) Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay,a Nepali Sherpa from Darjeeling, India, were part of the ninth British expedition to conquer Mt. Everest led by John Hunt. They reached the summit on May 29, 1953, 11:30 AM local time via the South Col Route. Though they both acknowledged it as a team effort, Tenzing later revealed that it was Hillary who had put his foot first on the summit where they took photographs and buried a few sweets and a small cross before descending. Hunt and Hillary were knighted by Queen Elizabeth in the Order of the British Empire while Tenzing was given the George Medal by UK. They were both nationally recognized inNepal and are honored annually with ceremonies in schools and offices to celebrate their feat. First Expedition to South Pole (Roald Amundsen) Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a famous Norwegian explorer who was recognized as the first man to reach the South Pole in December 1911 and the first expedition leader to reach the North Pole in 1928. One of the key leaders in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Expeditions, he initially decided to go for Antarctica due to some funding problems and news that other explorers had already conquered the North Pole. Using the ship “Fram,” he and his men left Oslo, Norway on June 3, 1910 for the south. 16 years later, however, Amundsen and 15 of his crew made the first crossing of the Arctic using an airship and landing in Alaska two days later. Since the three previous claims to have arrived at the North Pole were all disputed, Amundsen would be the first man to cross the North Pole by air. Lists Going Viral Right Now The Search for the Nile’s Source in Africa (David Livingstone) David Livingstone, a Scottish medical missionary, had become famous for his exploits and has gained mythical status mainly due to his geographical exploration of Africa, his disappearance, and death. One of the first Westerners to make a transcontinental journey across Africa from 1854 to 1856, he returned to Zanzibar in January 1866 to seek out the source of the Nile. Though he was wrong about the Nile, he discovered numerous geographical features including the Victoria Falls, Lake Ngawi, lake Bangwelu, and Lake Malawi. Discovery of China (Marco Polo) An Italian merchant traveler, he was widely recognized as the first European to visit China and other far eastern territories from 1275 to 1295. From a family of mercantile traders, he apparently met Kublai Khan between the years 1271 and 1275 and spent 17 years in his palace. His pioneering journey inspired other explorers like Christopher Columbus to embark on the same and he had also influenced European cartography leading to the creation of numerous maps. The 8,000 Mile Exploration of the West (Meriwether Lewis and William Clark Sacagawea) The “Corps of Discovery Expedition” from May 1804 to September 1806 was considered the 2nd transcontinental expedition undertaken by the Europeans in the Pacific Coast after Alexander Mackenzie’s crossing in 1803. Lewis and Clark relied on their navigation skills during the westward exploration where they learned to cook edible plants and make leather clothes out of moccasins. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson, they embarked on the expedition with a select group of US Army volunteers to primarily explore and map the newly-acquired territories, find alternate routes across the Western half of the continent, and secure it from Britain and other powers who might tried to seize it. 1831 HMS Beagle Explorations (Charles Darwin) The famed naturalist was also an explorer as he spent a significant amount of time charting the coastlines of South America. During the voyages he would investigate geology and natural history and send specimens and copies of his journal to his family every now and then. These entries became the basis for his “evolutionary theory”. The First Circumnavigation of the Earth (Ferdinand Magellan) A Portuguese-born explorer, who served King Charles I of Spain after Portugal refused to fund his expeditions, he led the first voyage around the world from August 10, 1519 to 1522 in a westward route in search of the famed “Spice Islands.” He sailed from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, which he called as “peaceful sea,” with 5 ships and a crew of 270 men from several nations. Though he himself did not complete the entire voyage as he was killed by Lapu-Lapu in the Battle of Mactan in Cebu, Philippines on April 17, 1521, he was still credited for the expedition. Out of the 5 ships and 270 crew members, only one surviving ship, ‘Victoria,’ returned to Spain with 18 people on board. The First Landing on the Moon (Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin Aldrin) Broadcast on live TV to be watched by the world, Apollo 11 with its 3 crew members was the first space flight that landed humans on the moon on July 20, 1969. Armstrong’s first step to the lunar space became a celebrated event with his now famous phrase, “that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Discovery of the Northeast Coast of America (John Cabot) An Italian-born explorer, John Cabot was commissioned by Henry VI of England from 1480 to 1497 to find alternative western route to Asia. While on the course of his expeditions, he was able to discover some parts of the northeast coast of America. Because of his feat, he was later given funds by the British to go on another expedition, this time to explore the Atlantic. First Man to Travel into Space (Yuri Gagarin) During the first part of the Space Race, Russia could have was probably slightly ahead of the United States. Eight years before Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969, Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, had already been able to circumnavigate the earth making him the “first man to travel into space.” His flight, however, lasted less than 2 hours. Discovery of the Caribbean (Christopher Columbus) Owing to the popularity of the exploits of Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, a Genoese colonizer and navigator also embarked on expeditions for 13 years funded by the Spanish monarchy in exchange for new territories, spices, and conversion of people to Christianity. This led him to discover North, South and Central America including the islands in the West Indies with his ships the Pinta, Santa Maria and Niata using the direct route to the east and west. Due to miscalculations, however, their ships landed in the Bahamas and Cuba in 1492. His discoveries established the links between the Native Americans and the Europeans, which paved the way for its colonization. Columbus will always be honored for discovering the “New World” and for debunking the myth that the world is flat. First Woman to Fly a Plane (Louise Arner Boyd) While the Wright Brothers were immortalized for building the first airplane, Louise Arner Boyd became the ‘first woman to ever fly a plane over the North Pole’ in 1955. Known for her moniker, the “Ice Woman,” Boyd was lauded for her research and adventures in Greenland, where her studies of the fjords and glaciers led to the discovery of a chain of sea mounts in the Arctic Ocean. Discovery of India (Vasco da Gama) The expeditions of this Portuguese explorer from 1460 to 1524 led to the discovery of a trade route to India as he and his crew traversed the Cape of Good Hope and ended up on the East Coast of Africa. This route laid the foundations for future exploration, making Vasco da Gama one of the greatest heroes of the European age of discovery. Discovery of the North Pacific (Abel Tasman) From 1603 to 1659, Abel Tasman embarked on explorations of the North Pacific with the primary aim of mapping beaches and coastlines in the region. Along the way he was able to explore New Zealand, Australia and the Van Diemans Land or present-day Tasmania. Discovery of the Hudson Bay (Henry Hudson) During one of his numerous expeditions from 1550 to 1611, Hudson, an English navigator, discovered Hudson Bay as he and his crews were looking for the Northwest Passage. The Northwest Passage would become the main route to the east by traversing the Arctic Circle. Explorations of Australia, New Zealand and North America (James Cook) There were no other explorers before him who had sailed further south which led James Cook to discover and map out Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and North America during the mid 1700s. It also led to the creation of the North-West trade route which served as a guide to other future explorers. He was killed on his third expedition in 1779 to the islands of Hawaii. Discovery of East Africa (Sir Richard Burton) If not for Sir Richard Burton, the world may not have known the classics “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp” or “Alibaba and his Forty Thieves.” The son of a British army officer, he served as the captain in the Indian army for seven years before embarking on expeditions to the Americas, Asia and Africa from 1821 to 1890, which led him to Saudi Arabia and the Lake Tanganyika in Africa. He was also credited for translating the famous Arabian folktales “One Thousand and One Nights” and for publishing the “Kama Sutra” in English. Discovery of America (Amerigo Vespucci) Though Christopher Columbus was credited for discovering the New World, the honor of its name is given to Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navigator whose expeditions were funded by the Portuguese crown. He first landed on what is known today as Brazil and met the natives of South America in 1502. Believing at first that the unknown territory was India, he called the natives “Indians,” a name that stuck to this day. Discovery of Panama (Vasco Núñez de Balboa) A Spanish conquistador, governor and explorer, he became famous for being the first European in 1513 to cross the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean, which was known at that time as the South Sea. During his travels to the New World in 1500, he came across the island of Hispaniola and built the settlement of Santa Maria la Antigua del Darién, or present-day Panama in 1510, which became the first permanent European settlement on the mainland of America. First Man to Dive into the Sea (William Beebe) Due to his fascination with the natural world, Beebe, an American naturalist and explorer conducted numerous expeditions for the New York Zoological Society. He became famous for his deep dives using the bathysphere off the coast of Bermuda. The apparatus was connected to the surface with rubber tube cables and supported him as he dove below 3,028 meters while setting successive world records for the deepest dives made by a human. Modern Discovery of Machu Picchu (Hiram Bingham) An American academic, explorer, treasure hunter, and later a senator in the United States, he was credited for making the Quechua citadel of Machu Picchu publicly known in 1911. With the aid of local farmers, he became excited about the prospect of unexplored Inca cities and returned to the Andes in an expedition along with the Yale Peruvian Expedition on July 24, 1911,which made Machu Picchu one of the major tourist attractions in South America. Discovery of the Manila Galleon Trade (Andrés de Urdaneta) One of the few survivors of the Loaisa Expedition to reach the Spice Islands in 1526, he achieved the “second” circumnavigation of the globe after Ferdinand Magellan and his crew. A Spanish explorer and Augustinian friar, de Urdaneta plotted the route across the Pacific via the Philippines to Acapulco in what was popularly known as the Manila Galleon.

The relationship between the individual and the group is expressed by the sexual metaphor "where two are one". In the Bible this metaphor expands to include the images of the Bride and the Bridegroom where the Bride represents all men and women and the Bridegroom is the King of Israel or Christ. Contains material from Lecture 5 (Part 1) Copyright © 1982, 2013, Victoria University LECTURE TRANSCRIPT: PROGRAM 5 This text is a transcript of the full lecture of Prof. Frye on Oct. 7, 1980. Only the bold parts are used in this version. Download a PDF of the Transcript Please note: This lecture was split in two programs; the second part can be found under program 6 ‘The Great Whore and the Forgiven Harlot’ SEXUAL IMAGERY: THE BRIDE AND THE BRIDEGROOM We've been looking at various categories of Biblical imagery: the paradisal and then, below that, the organization of the animal world. The first gives us the garden of Eden, and the second the pastoral world, more particularly the sheepfold. Of course, pastoral and garden imagery have overlapped, both in Biblical and secular literature, all through the history of human imagination. It's easy to see in such things as the 23rd Psalm, 'The Lord is my shepherd', how the pastoral ideal and the paradisal ideal really blend together and form the same thing.I'll be filling out various stages of this table as we come to them. There is, however, the intervening category of the human world, which is a much more complicated one. Now if we ask what is the ideal human form for existence, we find that there is no simple or single answer, because our answers keep shuttling between a social ideal and an individual one. That is, the human ideal is a paradoxical mixture of a belonging and an escape.According to Jean Paul Sartre, 'hell is other people', but I'm not sure that Sartre wanted to spend the whole of eternity by himself. Similarly, Andrew Marvell can write a poem, 'The Garden', in which he suggests that the fall of man really began when a stupid and blundering God created Eve in order to be a companion for Adam. And as he says, 'Two Paradises 'twere in one/To live in Paradise alone'. But you cannot think of a human ideal consistently either in social terms or in individual ones. So we seem to be in a deadlock, and the only solution is that human life, like Greek nouns, seems to have a dual as well as a singular and a plural.Thus we have the individual life, the sexual, erotic relation between two people, and the social. The sexual relation is given an emphasis in the Bible which, like so many things in the Bible, is unintelligible in anything but metaphorical terms. We are told that in the sexual relation, two people are actually the same person while remaining two people, which is not possible, but is therefore the cornerstone of Biblical imagery. Thus, the ideal of human life becomes an ideal in which the sexual relationship has become the pattern for the identification of the individual and the social.The imagery of a wedding, of the union of the bridegroom and the bride, is one of Jesus' favorite images for the apocalyptic or ideal world. It is essential to realize that in this case, the bride is actually the entire body of Christian followers. In the Book of Revelation, this bride is identified with Jerusalem, or Israel, meaning the people of God.That suggests, first of all, that sexual imagery has relatively little to do with the actual relations of men and women. Thus, in this relationship where Christ is the bridegroom and the bride is the people of Christ, it follows that Christ is symbolically the only male. He is also symbolically the only individual, the only person with a right to say 'I am'. That means that the souls of the people of God, whether they are souls of men or of women, are all symbolically female and make up a single bride figure.Now again, metaphorical thinking is not logical thinking, and we have to proceed to make a series of identifications that we would find it hard to follow in other contexts. The Song of Songs is a series of wedding songs in which both the bridegroom and the bride are presented: they both have their songs. The opening verse says: 'The song of songs, which is Solomon's'. Now there is no more reason for ascribing the authorship of the Song of Songs to Solomon than there is for ascribing it to the Witch of Endor. But the poem is symbolically associated with Solomon because the symbolism expands from songs about a rural wedding where the bride is called 'sister', which is the conventional Oriental term for the loved one, into a symbolic wedding of the king with the land over which he rules.That is why the bride describes herself as 'black but comely': that is, she represents the black fertile soil of the land. We are told that her body is to be compared to various aspects of the country: her nose, for example, is 'as the tower of Lebanon that looketh towards Damascus', which might seem to be a rather doubtful compliment to a bride whose charms were less symbolic. But the wedding of the king and the fertile land is an image for what the word 'testament' itself indicates. The word that we translate as 'testament', which is berith in Hebrew and diatheke in Greek, means a covenant or a contract, specifically the contract between God and his people Israel. So that Solomon and his bride, the Shulamite woman of the Song of Songs, expand by a further range of symbolism into the relationship of God and his people, which is why in Christian typology the Song of Songs was interpreted as a song of the love of Christ for his bride, his people. Of course, Christianity was a big city religion which expanded from one city to another, and consequently the image of the black fertile land is not as immediate in Christianity as it is in Judaism. But the same symbolic shape is nevertheless there.If you look at Isaiah 62:4, you see the same prophecy being applied to the restored Israel: 'Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married'. 'Married' is the meaning of the word 'Beulah'. And the image of the land married to its king expands into the image of the people of God married to its God.In the demonic world, the demonic counterpart of the bride would be the figure described in the Book of Revelation as the Great Whore, and the male figure of whom she is the mistress would be the figure who in the New Testament is described as Antichrist, the figure opposed to Christ. Just as the bride is identified with Jerusalem, so the Whore would be identified with the heathen city of Babylon.In Revelation 17:2, she is the figure, 'With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication'. And then in verse 5: 'And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots'. And later on, in verse 9, she is associated with seven mountains which are clearly the seven hills of Caesarean Rome, so that Babylon and the Rome of the persecuting Caesars are symbolically the same demonic city, where the power opposed to that of Christianity is established.It's important perhaps to realize that the word 'whore' in the Bible almost always refers to a theological and not a sexual irregularity. One person who is associated with whores in the Old Testament is Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, and that is not because she is supposed to have cuckolded King Ahab—the narrator of Kings could hardly have cared whether she did or not—but because she introduced the worship of Baal into Israel.The reason for the epithet, apart from the symbolic contrast to bride, is not just that it's abusive, but that it has a more specific reference to the custom in Canaanite religion of maintaining prostitutes in the temple, which is a practice that the Israelites in Deuteronomy are forbidden to have anything to do with, but which was obviously extremely familiar to them. Tamar, for example, in Genesis, disguises herself as a cult prostitute in order to get back her inheritance as a forsaken wife. The story would be unintelligible if the practice were not familiar to Israel as well as to the surrounding nations.Antichrist in his turn is the secular ruler. And as a society grows from a tribal community into a nation and from a nation into an empire, the ruler of the empire tends to think of himself as the ruler of the world. The Bible does not regard the world ruler as necessarily an evil person, but he rules over the kind of world in which, sooner or later, one of his descendents is going to become so. Jesus' axiom about spiritual and temporal authority, 'Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things that are God's', runs into a difficulty as soon as Caesar begins to claim what is due only to God, that is, divine worship. It's only when he does that that he becomes the Antichrist figure referred to both in one of Paul's letters and in the Book of Revelation itself.In the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist is characterized by a cipher, the number 666. Ciphers of that kind usually turn on the fact that the letters of the alphabet were also used as numbers: and there has never been a cipher in history solved as often as that one has been. It has been solved in Hebrew; it has been solved in Greek; and it's been solved by Robert Graves in Latin. And it always spells out the name of Nero, who is the type of the persecuting emperor. He was the first emperor to institute a persecution of Jews and Christians, according to Tacitus, in order to have somebody to blame for the burning of Rome. And although the author of Revelation probably lived under a later emperor, Nero is still the type. As the type, he is spiritually, that is, metaphorically, identical with other persecuting figures in the bible, such as Antiochus—who is the villain in the Book of Daniel—the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and Nebuchadnezzar.There is a more comprehensive picture of female figures in the Bible that we might look at at this point. I have been dividing images into the apocalyptic, or ideal, and the demonic. Those are a contrast. There are also intermediate figures, who represent human nature in the sense that they are neither wholly evil nor wholly ideal, but are imperfect figures undergoing the process of redemption. You can divide the female figures of the Bible into two groups, the maternal and the marital, that is, the mother figures and the bride figures.The ideal maternal figures include the Virgin Mary and a mysterious woman who appears at the beginning of Revelation 12, and who is said to be a woman 'clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars'. She is a queen of Heaven, like so many maternal goddesses, but she is also described as the mother of the Messiah, like the Virgin Mary. So there are really three accounts of the birth of the Messiah in the New Testament: the one in Matthew, which has the wise men and Jesus born in a house; the one in Luke, the pastoral one, which has the shepherds and Jesus born in a manger; and this account in chapter 12, which is so obviously mythical and metaphorical that it has never succeeded in getting on our Christmas cards.In the intermediate, or analogical, category you have the specifically human mother, who of course is Eve, 'our general mother', as Milton calls her, the representative of humanity going through sin and redemption; and also Rachel, who, though only one of the wives of Jacob or Israel, is symbolically the mother of Israel and is so referred to in Matthew in connection with the Slaughter of the Innocents. Ideal bride figures would then include the bride of the Song of Songs and the Jerusalem bride, who appears at the end of the Book of Revelation, chapter 21, where it is said that she is 'the holy city, the New Jerusalem, descending to earth as a bride adorned for her husband'.Now there doesn't appear to be a demonic maternal figure, but this blackboard demands one. We often find that if the Bible does not supply what is needed diagrammatically, it will invariably be supplied by later legend. So later legend obliged by constructing the figure of Lilith. Lilith is mentioned in Isaiah 34:14—the King James version calls her a 'screech owl', which is one of the bad things that the Authorized Version is continually doing, that is, making rationalized translations. But in later legend, Lilith became the first wife of Adam. There are two accounts of creation in the Book of Genesis, and the effort to reconcile those two accounts wound up by giving Adam two wives, the first one being Lilith and the second Eve. Lilith, we are told, was the mother of all the demons and the fallen angels. Being that, she had a very flourishing career in Romantic literature: she appears in Goethe's Faust, and as the heroine of a romance of George MacDonald, and in many other places.The demonic marital figure is of course the Great Whore of Revelation, identified with Babylon as the other bride is with Jerusalem, and with such Old Testament prototypes as Jezebel introducing the cult of Baal. It follows therefore that there needs to be an intermediate marital figure, and that that intermediate figure would represent the human race going through the process of sin and redemption.We have said that the word we translate 'testament' has the primary meaning of a covenant or contract between God and his people. The contract is represented as something drawn up with Israel by God's initiative. It is also represented as a contract which God could break but won't—because of his nature—but as a contract which man, strictly speaking, cannot break but is forever trying to break. So symbolically, the female figure of this category would be the Forgiven Harlot, the bride figure who is unfaithful to her Lord but who in spite of that is to be forgiven and brought back again. That harlot figure appears in various parts of the Old Testament, in Ezekiel for example, chapter 16, verse 3: 'Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem: Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite . . .' and so on: the whole chapter goes on to describe the unfaithfulness and forgiveness of Jerusalem. The Canadian poet James Reaney has a poem called 'Rachel' which is in effect a very beautiful and very eloquent paraphrase of this chapter in Ezekiel. The same image turns up later in Hosea, where Hosea is ordered by God to marry two harlots, one after the other. These represent the apostasy of both north and south Israel.The same figure turns up in the New Testament as the woman usually identified as Mary Magdalen. There is an anonymous woman in the 7th chapter of Luke described as a sinner whose sins are forgiven because 'she loved much'. Mary Magdalen appears in the next chapter of Luke, and is generally identified with her. A similar female, who has the same symbolic role whether she is the same person or not, has firmly established squatter's rights on the opening of the 8th chapter of John. She is actually a bit of floating folklore associated with Jesus, and in the early manuscripts she appears in various places. The modern translators of the Bible, who are much more distinguished for scholarship than for common sense, try to get her out of John 8 and put her in an appendix, but nevertheless she's still there. She represents perhaps one of the most eloquent and moving episodes of the gospel, the woman who, because she was a harlot, is condemned to be stoned to death. Jesus interferes and suggests that those who have never committed any sins at all might take the lead in throwing the stones. Hence, in paintings of the Crucifixion, you usually see the cross of Christ flanked by two female figures, the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalen, one in blue and the other in red.In a polytheistic mythology, you can have the maternal figure and the bridal figure identified. That is, you can have a female goddess figure who is both the mother of a god and, later on, his mistress. You find that in the cults associated with dying gods in Mediterranean countries. And you have such counterparts as the relations, say, of the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus with the relations of Venus and Cupid in Classical mythology, where Venus is the mother of the God of Love and can also be a bride figure. In Christianity, however, the two figures of the mother and the bride obviously have to be separated, although they are still very close together symbolically. The bride of the Song of Songs for example is described as 'a garden inclosed' and 'a fountain sealed'. Or, as the Vulgate says, 'hortus conclusus, fons signatus'. And the 'garden inclosed' and the 'fountain sealed' have always been traditionally identified with the Virgin Mary, who from one symbolic point of view is the bride of the Holy Spirit as well as the mother of the Logos. We are also told that Christ is the Son of a Father who is a spiritual Father, and that his death reconciles man with the Father.Now if you constructed a demonic parody of all that, you would get something very close to the story of Oedipus, who kills his father and makes a wife out of his mother. The status of the Oedipus story as a kind of demonic parody of the Christian story was striking enough for the poet Yeats to construct an elaborate theory of history according to which civilizations of Oedipus and civilizations of a Christ figure alternate all through time, one being tragic and heroic, the other comic and altruistic. But it's perhaps easier to see the Oedipus story as either a demonic parody of the Christian story, as it is in some aspects, or as an intermediate analogy of it, as it is in certain other aspects. In the story of the creation of Adam for example, the older story which begins in the 2nd chapter of Genesis, the Yahwist account as it's called, Adam is made from a female, adamah, or mother earth. And when, after the Fall, he goes back to the ground from which he was taken, he returns to that earth-mother after making the break with his Father. So the Oedipus legend is not quite removed from the story of Adam itself.This account of the human symbolism in the Bible is of course closely linked to the account of city symbolism, because the city is the emblem of the people or the group. So if you go to the urban image, you have Jerusalem on the one side and Babylon on the other. That brings us up again against the question of the ambiguity between the social image and the individual image.Now there's another dimension of this relation of the social to the individual which we've already run into. We saw that the paradisal imagery of the Bible is in the first place a garden and in the second place a single tree, a tree of life. That leads to a general principle of imagery in the Bible, to a special kind of metaphor where the individual is identified with the class or group of things to which it belongs. That is the type of metaphor that I sometimes call a royal metaphor, because it underlies one of the most pervasive of human institutions, the institution of kingship. We've already seen how the king, Solomon, inevitably interposes himself in the symbolic expansion of the Song of Songs. Similarly, Elizabeth II can draw crowds wherever she appears, not because there is anything remarkable about her appearance, but because she dramatizes the metaphor of society as a single body. That has been the function of the king in all ages, to represent in an individual form the unity of his society.The corporate or class image, like the city, would also be, on the principles of this royal metaphor, identified with a single building. That building would most naturally be the house consecrated to the city's god, in other words, the temple. Thus the city is the bride and the Temple is the bridegroom.We are told several times in the Gospels that the Temple is to be identified with the body of Christ. In the Gospels, Jesus is represented as saying 'Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up'. The narrator adds that he was speaking of the temple of his body. The author of Revelation, in describing the New Jerusalem, is very emphatic that there was no Temple therein, because, as he explains, the place of the Temple has been taken by the body of God. There is, consequently, in this metaphorical symbolism, the unity of the bridegroom and the bride in which all the buildings of the city are one building, the house of many mansions. And the corresponding demonic image is of course the Tower of Babel. Northrop Frye and Michael Dolzani Copyright © 1982, 2013, Victoria University TEACHERS GUIDE: PROGRAM 5 Download a PDF of the Teacher's Guide SEXUAL IMAGERY: THE BRIDE AND THE BRIDEGROOM (Note: AV=Authorized Version, OT=Old Testament, NT=New Testament) Apocalyptic or ideal imagery on the human level has three forms—individual, social and sexual. Sexual imagery, in which two become one, resolves the conflict of individual and social ideals of human life. The symbolism of Bridegroom and Bride expands to become the marriage of a king to his land or his people and the relationship of Christ with his Church. The demonic bride figure is the Great Whore, whose spouse is Antichrist.Program Lecture Outline: Key Facts - Apocalyptic (or ideal) imagery on the human level: individual and social ideals of human life inevitably conflict. - This problem is resolved by the sexual imagery of Bridegroom and Bride, in which two become one while remaining two people. - This expands to become the relation of Christ (the symbolic male) to the body of Christians (symbolically female, though including both men and women), the Bride being identified with Jerusalem. - The Song of Songs: symbolism of a rural wedding expands to become the marriage of a king to his land. This wedding expands in Judaism to become the covenant of God and Israel, in Christianity to become the love of Christ for his Bride the Church. - The demonic marital figure: the Great Whore of Revelation. Biblical whoredom is theological (idolatry), not sexual, but does derive in part from the Canaanite practice of temple prostitution. - Antichrist, spouse of the Great Whore. Not necessarily a world ruler, but the world ruler who demands divine worship. Nero, Antiochus, Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar: types of Antichrist. Biblical Passages CitedRevelation 21:2.—Jerusalem 'prepared as a bride adorned for her husband'.Song of Songs 1:5.—'I am black, but comely'.Song of Songs 4:12.—'A garden inclosed is my sister'.Isaiah 62:4.—Beulah, the married land.I Kings 21.—Jezebel.Matthew 22:21.—'Render unto Caesar'.II Thessalonians 2.—The Antichrist.Revelation 13.—The Antichrist.Revelation 13:18—The number of the beast, 666.Revelation 14:8.—'Babylon is fallen'.The Teacher's Perspective DEMONIC APOCALYPTICAntichrist (Nero, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus) individualsexual social Bridegroom (Christ) Whore (Babylon) Bride(Jerusalem: people)The above chart for this program appears in slightly simpler form in The Great Code, p. 154, and as the 'human' category in the charts on pp. 166-67. The students may be referred to these first, both to place this program in its larger context as an expanded discussion of one category in the total Biblical structure of imagery, and to make clear something that is likely to confuse students about the figure of Antichrist. There are two contexts for the discussion of the Antichrist. As the chart on p. 167 indicates, the figure of Antichrist proper is the form of the parody demonic on the divine level, a demonic parody of divinity itself: as such, it will be discussed again in Program 10. But the image gets imported into our present discussion of the demonic form of human life when the purely human tyrant makes his inevitable bid to become worshipped as a god. When he does so, he puts on the mask of Antichrist, so to speak, and in fact becomes his agent and visible form.The class may go on to examine how the symbol of Antichrist has appeared historically. There are two forms of this, the applied and the assumed. The applied version is what Prof. Frye is referring to when he speaks of its being defined as whatever the interpreter is most afraid of in his time: the students may look at The Divine Comedy's application of the symbol to Philip of France.The assumed version is a rather more interesting category, one which perhaps fully came into its own only in the 19th century. Its traditional root, however, lies in a slightly broader explanation of what the human tyrant is: he is the man who has sold himself to the demonic for the sake of power. Therefore, he is very close to one of the great symbols of Western literature, the figure of Faust. Faust is by no means necessarily an Antichrist figure, but he may in his more unredeemed forms be closely associated with it: in Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus, for example, he is directly paralleled with the rise of Nazi Germany.Hitler himself, as Prof. Frye notes, played his Antichrist role with great conviction: the swastika is one of the most ancient human symbol, but in this context it becomes a sinister parody of the cross. Christians may wince to note how Nazism also picked up the demonic corruptions within historical Christianity itself, especially anti-Semitism. There is a further link here: the career of Mann's Faustus is modeled on that of Nietzsche, who wrote a book called The Antichrist, from which the teacher may choose excerpts for the class to discuss: Nietzsche called himself an Antichristian because he regarded Christianity as a decadent corruption of the will to live. He would have hated Hitler, and yet it was a perversion of his 'will to power' which was adopted by the Nazis as their 'philosophy'. Hitler failed: but the teacher may well be teaching this class around the year 1984, and Orwell's Big Brother may serve as an example of what Antichrist looks like as the triumph of human tyranny.The images of Bride and Whore in the Bible are sometimes not just allusions, but are the nucleus of extended pieces of writing which the class may look at in more detail, like the Song of Songs or the story of Tamar. But the meaning of the Bride figure can also be illuminated by examples outside the Bible itself. Not only Marvell's 'The Garden', mentioned by Prof. Frye, but Shakespeare's `The Phoenix and the Turtle, and Donne's 'The Extakel elaborate the mystery of the 'two in one' through the use of sexual imagery. The teacher may point out that mysticism has almost always been drawn to the use of sexual imagery to describe the experience of union with God. This is not exclusively a Christian phenomenon: it appears in Muslim mysticism too, for example. But the teacher may show a picture of Bernini's famous sculpture of St. Teresa in ecstasy, along with examining Crashaw's poems, contemporary with the sculpture, on St. Theresa and Mary Magdalen, 'The weeper' and 'Hymne to St. Theresa'.If the seminar questions in the video program are any indication, one thing the students will be very anxious to get clear is the distinction between women as people and women used as symbols. There is no doubt that the distinction exists in the Bible itself: it is not simply antifeminist. On the other hand, there is also no doubt that the beginnings of an historical corruption of the original symbolism also begins already to appear in the text of the Bible: the rationalization of patriarchy is clearly there too, even if it is not all that is there. Consequently, the teacher must tread carefully. One way to distinguish the two is to compare two writers, both of whom drew their symbolism from the Bible, but whose treatments differ greatly. Blake's symbolism of the Female Will (see Prof. Frye's Fearful Symmetry) is clearly the Mystery that enshrouds human tyranny: by contrast D.H. Lawrence in The Plumed Serpent is so remarkably eccentric as to accuse women of having orgasms merely as a manifestation of their wilfulness. One may look also at the figure of the prostitute who gives Thomas Mann's version of Faustus the syphilis which is at once the source of his ability to create and the source of his eventual madness.Supplementary Reading 1. Biblical Passages Revelation 17. —The Great Whore.Genesis 38.—The story of Tamar.Deuteronomy 23:17-18.—Practice of temple prostitution forbidden.I Kings 14:24.—Male temple prostitution among heathen peoples.Psalm 45.—Bride from another land; royal marriage.Book of Ruth.—The story of Ruth.Jeremiah 51:6-9.—'Babylon is fallen': associated with Rev. 14:8. The cup of the Whore. 2. Corresponding Passages in The Great Code Chapter Six. Metaphor II.p. 141. The Great Whore.pp. 154-56. Human imagery: Bridegroom and Bride. Chapter Four. Typology I.pp. 95-96. The Antichrist.p. 99. The Antichrist. II Clement 14:2.—In the 'Apocryphal New Testament (see program 1) 'The male is Christ, the female is the Church'. Essay or Discussion questions - Examine the story of Samson's betrayal by his Philistine wife in Judges 14 and by Delilah in Judges 16. Compare these to Milton's Delilah in Samson Agonistes. Is the figure of the Whore lurking in the background of this symbolism? - Examine Robert Lowell's poem 'As a Plane Tree By the Water' in light of this program. The title is from Ecclesiasticus (the Wisdom of Jesus) in the Apocrypha, 24:14, and was traditionally associated with the Virgin Mary. - Examine the ending of Dickens' David Copperfield (a book full of the imagery of brides, mothers, and harlots), where David's bride Agnes is portrayed as an angelic guide, rather like Dante's Beatrice. What does this rather unconvincing passage suggest about the confusion of human women with symbolic roles? Compare this to the portrait of Estella as a forgiven harlot type (see program 6) in Great Expectations. - Read the section of C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity in which he states that wives should be obedient to their husbands. Lewis claims to be expounding ideas held by all Christians, regardless of doctrinal differences. Is this true, or can he have confused symbolic roles with human relations? (This is not a question with a simple yes or no answer).

MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR FARTING IN MOSQUE. A Pakistani judge has sentenced a man to be executed after he was expelled 17 times from 6 different mosques for excessive farting during the period of the Ramadan reports the Islamabad Herald this week. The Ramadan is the most important religious festival for Muslims and the judge declared that he had indisposed people of the faith and even caused 53 people at one time to leave the mosque during a prayer, a “blasphemous act” which should be punished “according to Allah’s will.” The judge was lenient, have admitted many experts in the region, as he gave the convicted man the choice of being beheaded or stoned to death. The law is clear, he should be stoned to death, beheading is a very light sentence and saves him from any suffering,” protested the government prosecutor. A rare medical condition Muhammad Al-Wahabi, 33, suffers from chronic flatulence, “a rare medical condition” he argued in his self-defense, as no lawyer would take his case. “No lawyer is crazy enough to bet his career on this issue. If his client his condemned, as in this case, the lawyer would face prosecution and possibly the same faith as his client” admits legal expert Andrew Jones, a Middle Eastern law expert. Deputy District Public Prosecutor (DDPP) Syed Anees Shah told reporters the accused got a “very light sentence” for the crime of blasphemy. Al-Wahabi did not contest the judgment and even said the judgment was fair and that he hoped Allah would be gracious enough to pardon his blasphemous actions. Al-Wahabi also admitted that he put a tampon in his rectum several times in a desperate attempt to mask the noise and odor. “A disgraceful and insidious act” the judge declared, visibly disguste “Muslims are not allowed to insert any objects inside their anus, not even a finger, it is forbidden by the Koran,” said the judge. “As a judge, I must set an example for other Muslims. This is clearly unacceptable under Shariah law,” he concluded. Al-Wahabi admitted to the judge he had failed his God, his religion, and his people and was terribly sorry for what he had done, and asked for his two wives and seven children’s mercy in court and thanked the judge for his verdict. 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We won’t give up. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:25-27 As husbands and fathers it’s sometimes challenging to lead our families in a godly way where we would demonstrate the love of God which is in us through Jesus-Christ. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, But against evil forces in spiritual sphere You are a spirit, in the Kingdom of God Stand firm against those behind the atmosphere Continue reading “Stand Firm” They are available Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 4 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 5 to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts. Exodus 31:1-5 Praise the Lord! I am always amazed to see how the Lord is make us able to do things. Here in this scriptures, the children of Israel had just come out of Egypt after 500 years of slavery and God, the Almighty made them able to create the Tabernacle. Continue reading “Knowledge and skills” Read the Word with willingness To get to know well the Author And From the One who always bless You will receive living water Continue reading “Read, Meditate” Speak in tongues Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 1 Corinthians 14:4 I know this subject has created a lot of misunderstanding in the body of Christ but the word of God remains the Truth even if men struggle to understand and apply it correctly. The gift of tongues is given to everyone, just as the gift of salvation. Continue reading “Build yourself up!” We are more Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child, burst into song, you who were never in labour, because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband. Isaiah 54:1 Praise the Lord who gives revelation through his word! I join with Isaiah saying “Rejoice my brother! Sing my sister” for we are indeed the children of the desolate woman. Continue reading “More than them” In time of trouble, all around falls apart His voice stands still, bringing peace to my heart My flesh always tries to tear my soul apart But I heard His mumble, my day can start Continue reading “His voice” Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14 Did you read this verse above ? Wowww!!! So powerful if you believe it! Nothing can separate us from our Heavenly Father! Continue reading “With a seal” Bring your selfish desires to the cross So you can enjoy the peace in your heart Obedience not a duty but a choice Submit to Him and you will be smart. Continue reading “Obedience” In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied with action is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do. James 1:17-18 You cannot separate action from faith ! They go together like spirit and body. What you call faith, if it’s really faith, it will ultimately lead you into action. Continue reading “Faith without action ?” But he said so them, “It is I; don’t be afraid”. John 6:20 Praise the Lord! The disciples were in a boat struggling because of a strong wind and rough waters. Jesus was not in the boat, it was dark and they were terrified when they saw someone walking toward them on the water. Continue reading “It is I” Not because of my strength Not because of my wisdom Not because I give a tenth Not because I love freedom Continue reading “I’m Righteous” My son, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body. Proverbs 4:20-22 Have you read this verse above ? Wowwww!! Praise the Lord for His words for they are life. The words that come out of the mouth of God are life! So amazing!!!! The purpose of His words is to give life to those who will receive those words. Continue reading “Words of life” I can see it shining in your eyes Like a star it can only amaze You are among those who recognize Continue reading “Eternal Life” After Jesus said this he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you.” John 17:1 Jesus came on earth the show the way to God and He himself is the way. His life in the flesh was the perfect example of how a life should be lived on earth. Continue reading “Look toward heaven” Jesus was moved Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way. Matthew 15:32 I am so blessed to see how compassion can move God! This morning, I was praying in the Spirit but also with my understanding. I was asking the Lord to help me to hear from Him clearer. Continue reading “Moved by compassion” Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14 The promises of our Heavenly Father will never be fulfilled in our lives in we do not receive them with a child like faith. The Lord made it really simple for us to receive, to find and to see opened doors but we often complicate things. Continue reading “Child like faith” You have been made new In the eyes of the Father Even when only few Acknowledge this matter Continue reading “Made New” I urge you sister or brother, In view of God’s loving mercy, By faith to offer your body, Holy, pleasing to the Father. Continue reading “Spiritual Worship” Sacrifice for Him Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 The purpose of sacrifices in the old testament was to purify. Make the unclean become clean. Jesus’ sacrifice took our sins away from us so we can come to God, receive forgiveness and be purified. Continue reading “At the altar” Seems so far but yet very near We wait for it when it’s already here Seems so complex but yet very simple Listen to His heart and adjust a little. Continue reading “Jesus’ Kingdom” We are his bride For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:31-32 Praise the Lord! 2000 years ago, Christ left his Father in heaven to come to the earth for his bride (mankind). But his bride was a slave. The only way he could redeem her was with his own blood. And he did it because he loved his bride so much. Continue reading “He is waiting” We have access At that moment, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. Matthew 27:52 Praise the Lord for his goodness! What a glorious moment for all mankind, that moment when the curtain was torn in two. That curtain had been designed by the Most High himself and first came to the natural through Bezalel and Oholiab’s works. (Exodus 36:1). This curtain was called the shielding curtain (Exodus 39:34) because it was separating the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 9:2-4). Only the high priest could enter the Most Holy place and only once a year. He would enter the Most Holy place with blood to offer for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. (Hebrews 9:7). Continue reading “Behind the curtain” Out of your love, you came down to the earth To claim and redeem your fallen creation Close to your heart, we are yours by birth Born in your house, slaves in the nation You did not watch at the price it would cost You closed your eyes on the shame and the pain So determined to get back what was lost As losing your … Continue reading Glorious Inheritance Being washed Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word […] Ephesians 5:25-26 Praise the Lord for his word! We know that words can destroy us or they can build us, They can make us angry or make us smile, They can make … Continue reading Washing with water

Regular readers of this blog will be thrilled to learn that this post will be mercifully short, because I'm going to spend it mostly explaining why there will be no post this month. The reason is that frankly, at the moment I can't see well enough to write anything. In fact, you wanna hear something really tragic? I haven't even been able to watch TV for the past three days, my eyes are so bad. My daughter Amy, who is now grown with a family of her own, fondly remembers a lesson I often taught the children when they were young and clamoring for my attention: "Television is more important than family. Leave me alone." So you can imagine how much I miss TV. I can't read, and I can't watch TV. My eyes can't focus on anything. Everything I try to look at swims before my eyes, which is why even now I am not writing this myself. I am dictating these words to Amy, who has kindly consented to type them out for me in spite of her own tragic upbringing. So here is what happened: For some weeks I have not felt very well at all, and then a few days ago I got really sick. I mean incredibly sick. Sicker than I think I have ever been if you don't count those many miserable bouts of pneumonia related to my chronic asthma. This was different, and left me with some weird severe equilibrium imbalance that has me knocking sideways into walls and opening the bathroom door into my own face. It would be quite comical had I seen this happening to somebody else. My stumbling about has managed to provide Amy with a laugh or two, though she quickly changes her expression to a worried look of concern when she sees her mother watching. (Note from Amy: not true. I was very worried and did not see anything funny about it at all.) Anyway, I was so helpless that I was unable to keep balanced enough in the kitchen to fix Connie's meals, so I called Amy and asked her to come over for a couple of days and look after us. You know how in the movies there's that effect where we see the room swimming from another person's point of view? I thought that was just in the movies, since I had never gone through anything like that myself. It turned out in this case to be exactly like that, and when I tried to walk from my bed to the bathroom it was like trying to make my way through that flying saucer shaped centrifugal force carnival ride while it's going full tilt. Yesterday there was a small window of time in which I felt somewhat better so I sat at my desk intending to catch up with email. I read and responded to one email, then it all started swimming again and my eyes went out of focus. That is why I have Amy as my hands and eyes at the computer screen right now. I have been all but helpless for three days now, and both womenfolk have ganged up and persuaded me to go into the doctor and find out why I seem to be turning into Annette Funicello. So I will do that tomorrow. In the meantime, August is rapidly dwindling and I have not yet posted the piece I intended to this month, and I wanted to write about it while the topic is still timely. With this imbalance thing, I don't know how soon I will get to it, and I don't know how much longer Amy will be in the mood to kowtow to my incessant demands, so we are taking this opportunity to refer you to some blogger friends who, it so happens, have already covered what I had intended to, so the best writing on the topic has already been done. I am not needed now, except to help spread the word. Many of my readers have written wondering what can be done to help move us to a more Zion society, and I think this is a worthy start, particularly for those of you currently residing on the Wasatch Front who might have some unneeded material goods to assist with. Here are those links: Bare Record of Truth: Circle the Wagons LDS Perfect Day: Participate in a Modern Day Circling of the Wagons The Voice of One Passing Through In the event anyone is interested in my dizzy little adventure, when my eyes are able to focus again, if I get any answers from my doctor I will mention the outcome in the comment section below, or have Amy write something there. Anyway, weird, huh? Apparently the room does swirl around and around just like in the movies, and even when I'm lying on the bed with my eyes closed it often feels like I am spinning around on the edge of a whirlpool. I'll bet later I will wish I enjoyed that sensation more instead of letting it scare the hell out of me. Oh, by the way, I usually keep up with comments daily, but have not been able to get to any of the comments on my other posts here for about a week. So if someone has asked me a question directly and not received a response, this is why. Ditto if you have sent me an email and not heard back. Well, we're going to wrap this up. Amy is already starting to complain about how she would rather be watching TV than spending time with her father. Kids today. I don't know where she gets it. Update Friday August 23, 2013: Okay, I'm Back I just re-read the above and my goodness, I ramble on as much when I'm dictating as when I'm writing it myself. Poor Amy. Poor readers. I have read your kind comments below and I'm grateful for your many prayers and good wishes, which surely are the reason that by the time Amy had gotten me to my doctor Wednesday afternoon, I was much improved. I'm still a bit unsteady on my feet, but my vision is fine now and I'm on the mend. Thank you all sincerely. Frankly, I wouldn't belabor the topic further, because I believe talking about illness tends to call forth more illness, but my email box is full of concerned queries from many of you, so the best way to put everyone at ease is a brief explanation of what all that was about. It was food poisoning! Probably. At least that was the doctor's best guess, based on the description of symptoms I gave. I told him I had eaten a jumbo hotdog 24 hours previous, and he supposed that was the culprit. He gave me some anti-dizzy pills and some antibiotics ("Warning: May cause dizziness") and told me I should be completely normal by today. So in the car on the drive home, I told Amy his diagnosis, and she admitted to having eaten two of those same hotdogs out of my fridge the night before, and she still has shown no ill effects. So go figure. There should have been no problem with those hotdogs anyway, as they are new and tightly packaged. Amy has a theory of her own: the Mormon Mafia poisoned me. Yeah, that's the ticket. The story I'm going with is that the Mormon Mafia is trying to shut me up. Actually, I suspect the real reason for that weird bout of unsteadiness is connected to a bit of difficulty I've been both fighting and trying to ignore for several years. Some time ago it was discovered that there has been some wearing of the myelin sheath inside my spinal column. The way I've had it explained to me, the myelin sheath is like a coating of insulation around the nerves that send signals to and from the brain. When that insulation gets worn or damaged, it can cause mischief. In my case this bit of unpleasantness manifests as severe fatigue and frequent stupors, which I have been putting up with for years, but I'm guessing this present difficulty in keeping a steady gait may be related. So I'll be keeping an eye on things and checking in next week with the specialist I used to see about this thing. Again, I attribute my rapid recovery to your prayers, and thank you all sincerely for your kind words. So. Enough about this crazy shell I'm currently inhabiting while on this planet. Let's get back to the topic I meant to address here. Warning: Any promise about the brevity of this post is hereby revoked. Circling The Wagons, Take Two One of the unexpected perks of maintaining this blog is that I have had the privilege of becoming acquainted with some extraordinary people. For the past year or so I have been conversing with a lovely young mother from Australia named Eva, whose exceptional spirit has impressed both Connie and myself as we have written, spoken by phone, and Skyped with her. (Is there anything more delightful to the ear than the Australian female voice?) It seems Eva had a run-in with her bishop awhile back, who had strong objections when he heard her testimony of having given her sick child a blessing of healing. It used to be quite ordinary for women in this church to bestow blessings not only upon their own children, but upon each other if they so desired. Some years back, Linda King Newell documented this once common practice in Sunstone Magazine: “Someone apparently reported to Joseph that the women were laying their hands on the sick and blessing them. His reply to the question of the propriety of such acts was simple. He told the women in the next meeting “there could be no evil in it, if God gave his sanction by healing...there could be no more sin in any female laying hands on the sick than in wetting the face with water.” He also indicated that there were sisters who were ordained to heal the sick and it was their privilege to do so. “If the sisters should have faith to heal,” he said, “let all hold their tongues.” (Relief Society Minutes of Nauvoo, 28 April, 1842)That article cites many other statements from subsequent prophets confirming the absolute right of women to be vessels through which the Lord can provide healing miracles. But Somehow in modern times we came to confuse gifts of the spirit with priesthood authority, and so it was that my own mother, whose husband was off fighting in North Korea, often sat helplessly at home wringing her hands when her children were ill until a couple of men in the ward got around to putting on their shirts and ties and making it over to our house to perform a simple ordinance that she was perfectly capable of doing herself. When my friend Eva was heard to have performed such a vile act on her own child, she was called in for a meeting with her bishop to answer for this blasphemy. Somehow during the interview, Eva also let slip that she questioned the propriety of the Brethren in Salt Lake City investing Church funds in a lavish shopping center, and this proved too much for her bishop. He convened a bishop's court and disfellowshiped Eva for the crime of "being out of harmony with the Church." We do indeed live in strange times when a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who makes a serious attempt to live the precepts of her religion, finds herself accused by those holding administrative office of being out of harmony with it. Eva's reaction was not quite what her bishop had expected. This bishop, a militant former SAS officer (the Australian equivalent to U.S. Special Forces) expected her to grovel her way back into the good graces of her local Priesthood Authority. Instead, Eva reacted with a shrug and walked away. When Eva's husband, Andrew, was instructed to "correct" his wife, Andrew refused to do so and was also disfellowshipped for his insubordination. Guess what? Andrew and Eva learned it was quite possible to remain in the faith even if the local authorities did not think them worthy company. They believe, as the apostle Peter said, "we ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29) and with Nephi who tells us it is the Holy Ghost who will show us what we must do (2 Nephi 32:5). If the local LDS congregation had no further need of them, fine. They still had their scriptures and the Holy Ghost as their guide. What further authority is necessary? But if rejection by the church they loved was not trial enough, their lives were further upended when Andrew lost his job. I wish you knew these two the way I do. They really do live in the spirit, and know no fear. Instead of reacting in panic as many of us would, they saw their new circumstances as a wonderful opportunity provided to them by the Lord. Andrew and Eva received a strong witness that they were to sell all their belongings and make their way to the Rocky Mountains. They have already experienced many miracles. After listing their possessions on the Australian version of Craigslist, early one morning they found a man standing at their front gate. He had seen their listing, and told them God had impressed him to make the five hour drive to their home. He handed them $1,000.00 to use toward their journey. I could write many more things about this remarkable couple, but instead I'll direct you to their blog, "The Voice of One Passing Through" where they are logging their progress. What I wanted to mention here was the project they have inspired in others, Circling the Wagons. A few months back, before Andrew lost his job, he had reason to come to Salt Lake City where he happened to attend a presentation by Denver Snuffer. At that presentation were several people who I had also become acquainted with, both online and in person, and they were singularly impressed with Andrew. These people separately described to me how they had felt an instant and intense spiritual power in him. After Andrew's job loss, one of these friends actually traveled to Australia and spent a month living with them, and she returned and reported some amazing things to me. Long story short, this group of friends had been talking for awhile about founding some kind of shared charity that believing Latter-day Saints could draw from when in need, a charity that would include material goods as well as money. Yes, the corporate Church already has such a program, and this particular charity is not intended to supplant, replace, or compete with it. The founders encourage members to continue to support their brothers and sisters in their various wards. But one difference between the Church welfare program and Circling the Wagons is that with the latter, the giver is provided accountability as to where their contribution goes, and can decide specifically what their contribution is used for, who gets it, and for what purpose. After my separate posts here on tithes and offerings, I received numerous queries from readers asking me if I knew of any suitable charity where the giver could control where his contribution went. This project sounds to me like it would fit that bill, and that's why I'm taking the time to write about it. Those involved with founding Circling the Wagons have set this thing up as a legitimate charity. They do not take a cut of administrative costs, but administer it voluntarily. When they learned about Andrew and Eva's circumstances, they decided this young family would be a good place to start practicing a type of Zion society. The idea, as I understand it, is that those who contribute now may find themselves in need of future assistance, and could then draw on the resources themselves, similar to how Joseph Smith envisioned the ideal. There is a member who is already fixing up a temporary cottage for this family to live in when they arrive, so, if you live on the Wasatch Front and have some spare household necessities, you might consider dropping them off. You can also contribute pocket money through Paypal or directly to the account at Zion's Bank. I am not directly involved in Circling The Wagons, so please address all inquiries to the email address found at the websites listed above. My only part in this is that some of you readers have asked me for ideas on how they can become more faithful givers, and I think this is a worthy endeavor. In my opinion, Andrew and Eva are certainly the right people to start this experiment with. Here are those links again: Circle The Wagons Participate In A Modern Day Circling of the Wagons Here is Andrew and Eva's account, beginning at the outset: The Voice of One Passing Through Eva's testimony to "My Brothers in Leadership" It wouldn't hurt if those of you reading about this project were to share one or all of the above links. Let's see if we can give this thing some traction.

CAN WEED MAKE YOU SICK? While moldy pot and chemicals account for most of the toxic effects of marijuana, there is substantial scientific that cannabis abuse, or cannabinoid hypermesis syndrome is a thing. This famous author smoked strong weed 12 hours per day for many years, the result? several best sellers and a case of paranoia that upset his wife, so he quit and kept the money in the bank. IS YOUR WEED MAKING YOU SICK? There is much evidence that contaminants commonly found in weed cause most of the issues associated with cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, but there is also compelling evidence that cannabis itself could really be toxic in some cases. "Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome is generally thought to be caused by heavy, habitual use of cannabis. High THC strains are most often implicated in this disorder. Foreign organic and chemical toxins in marijuana can also be confused with the THC and / or cannabinoid intolerance." It would seem to be a slam dunk that taking too much THC day in and day can result in mental and physical issues, issues like paranoia, social isolation, vomiting, nausea, working basically in opposition the original intent of use. With that said, some people that have been around marijuana for years have never heard of this condition. Nonetheless, this disorder exists. "I've never seen this cannabis syndrome before, never heard of it either. and I'm from the Netherlands :') " An idea to put forward is that, no matter what the substance, too much of one thing, too long is bad for one's health. Bodybuilders have found that cycling steroids - which dials up testosterone - and muscle growth - is far more effective in the long run by cycling. "When you do anything - too much - too long, the body becomes imbalanced." An interesting case cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome This is a very happy case in point of cannabis abuse. A Mr. Graham Hancock, a somewhat famous flamboyant journalist-archaeologist recently admitted to his cannabis abuse. Hancock said he started smoking pot at the age of 37. From a medical perspective, this means his receptors - found on the cellular membranes, which modulate many cerebral and physical functions - were virgin in the sense that they were not adapted to THC from an early age. He went on to say, he first started smoking in the evening after work and for many years, this was nothing but pleasurable. Life was good, marriage was good. Then Graham decided to experiment - to see if he could write while smoking, why not get a beautiful high while working? He found that this worked like a charm, and he entered a most creative period of writing, with financial success as one meter. So what was the problem then? Graham goes on to explain that he started to smoke at 9 am and continued till bedtime, all the while, he kept up his long work hours and career wise, everything was on track. Then, he and his wife went to South America, where is was inevitable that a character of this nature would partake in Ihuaska, in the Amazon with a shaman. Ayahuasca, a type of DMT - while non-addictive and non-toxic is known to give people the ride of a lifetime, psychologically speaking, like no other trip, all testify. Upon returning to earth from planet Ayahuasca, Graham said he saw the light. His use of cannabis was a problem, his existence had devolved into self absorption with paranoia about non-existent issues. His mistress was the herb cannabis and not his lovely wife. He decided that the paranoia had to go, and his mistress Cannabis, as lovely was, she was had to go. Is that not the greatest "drug abuse" story ever told? We should all be so lucky. Substitute in pain killers, booze, cigarettes, or virtually and drug and you would have near 100% dead Elvis, Jackson, Prince, Joplin and so on, with the only exception being Keith Richards. Plenty of insiders say that every 100m finalist was on Perfromance Enhancing Drugs. CYCLING MARIJUANA TO AVOID TOXICITY Cycling means to use something for a time and then give it a rest. In the case of steroids, if they are used too long, natural testosterone shuts down, and the body produces estrogen, in an effort to balance the system. Extreme abuse results in an extremely unbalanced psychological profile. Organs can grow or shrink, which results in physical collapse sooner or later. However, athletes that cycle, do blood work to see that their bodies vital signs and organ function is not out of whack fare far better, to the point, where it can be argued that moderate steroid use in cycles might actually be beneficial. The body builds up a tolerance to any herbal, alcohol, drugs, a food. Small amounts are not an issue. We're not talking about two glasses of wine in the evening, we're talking about one bottle or more. Similarly, smoking pot for an hour in the evening is not the issue, smoking many hours every day, is an amount that could cause pot to become toxic. This is true of vitamins and herbs, where concentrated forms benefit for a while, until the body has too much and resistance and tolerance takes place. At this point, your herbals are working against you. While its is trumpeted that marijuana can't hurt you, this idea flies in the face of common sense. What is apparent is that marijuana is very safe, and it is very uncommon for moderate marijuana smokers to experience significant negative effects. Nonetheless, if you accept the cycling principle, everyone would benefit more from the medicinal effects of cannabis if they took a holiday from time to time. The average cycle time, perhaps in many things, exercise, performance enhancing drugs, is something like 1:3 or 2:7, which translates into three days on one day off, or 5 days on and two days off. In athletics, ten weeks is normal to buildup overall energy resources. Then, most coaches found that it is time to move to more intense work, and again this phase lasts for two months or something like that. Or you might be smoking moldy pot, weed with chemical sprays in it. What are the signs and symptoms? How does pot become toxic? Is it your pot making you sick, or are there chemicals in it? What to do if your pot makes you sick? Should I take a break from pot ? "Paraquat and other chemical sprays are endorsed, pushed throughout the world by the UN, WHO, DEA, EPA, in a process of classic Orwellian doublespeak, saying they are helping protect people and the environment, while sabotaging human, plant and animal life at all levels." The Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome is characterized by recurrent nausea, vomiting and crampy abdominal pain. These symptoms have been reported to be improved temporarily by taking a hot shower or bath or more fully by stopping the use of cannabis. The syndrome was described by several doctors about a decade ago. A study of nearly one hundred cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome "confirmed earlier findings. By confirmed, we mean to say that this is but one study, where extraneous variables may not have been thoroughly investigated; such as testing for pesticides, herbicides, aflatoxins, and profiling the cannabis, the amounts of THC, CBD and the terpenes. In other words, much of earlier and present research is incredibly naive .... Let's spray this marijuana with Paraquat and see what happens BIG WORDS - PILE IT HIGHER AND DEEPER? For example: this peer reviewed paper makes no mention of any of the confounding factors listed above. Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome: Clinical diagnosis of an underrecognized manifestation of chronic cannabis abuse. This lack of basic cannabis acumen - or lack of ability to communicate - renders this paper nearly useless. Such is the plight of the peer review process today. The long-term and short-term effects of cannabis use are associated with behavioural effects leading to a wide variety of effects on the body systems and physiologic states. A Dr. Sontineni and colleagues in 2009 discussed the cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome to offer guidelines for the clinical diagnosis, such as complications that can lead to acute kidney injury. His group reports severe cyclic nausea and vomiting is resolved by stopping the use of cannabis. Symptoms of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome was relieved with hot showers or baths. Others reported abdominal pain and weight loss. Various mechanisms are proposed to explain the symptoms of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome with the most popular being: dose dependent buildup of cannabinoids and related effects of cannabinoid toxicity the functionality of cannabinoid receptors in the brain and particularly in the hypothalamus (which regulates body temperature and the digestive system) At the end of the day, anyone exhibiting symptoms of the cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome should discontinue weed and see if symptoms persist. At the very minimum, change the strain you smoke. Fake Studies &The Red Flag - No elementary test data about the weed is provided such as mold, pesticides, heavy metals, CBD and THC and terpenes. Cannabis toxicity could well be caused by chemical additives and mold - the symptoms are identical to classical poisoning - if one is experiencing these symptoms, one should discontinue the use of weed. If a person wishes to resume marijuana use, they should consider using a strain that's been tested - showing that it is pesticide and mold free. Also strains that are balanced in CBD & THC or contain mostly CBD alone might not cause toxic reactions. Treatment is straightforward. Many traditional medications for nausea and vomiting exist, but if you want pharmaceuticals, . treatment with lorazepam or haloperidol has provides relief for some people. You want to address dehydration due to vomiting by taking electrolyte solutions (Gatorade is the worst). There are reports of renal failure due to electrolyte deficiency, which can be easily shored up simply by drinking a solution with mostly salt (sodium chloride) plus smaller amounts of potassium, calcium and magnesium, in ratios that are present in normal plasma (blood). Acute episodes of cannabinoid hyperemesis are reported to last for 24–48 hours and normally resolves with stopping the use of cannabis use, however, improvement can take something like three months. SELECTED TESTIMONIALS AND CHAT FROM REDDIT - SOME IDIOTS WEEDED OUT Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome. I never saw this until about 4 years ago. Now I see it a handful of times per year. Do the other health care professionals of Meddit see it much? Yep, saw two cases so far in the last six months, including one ICU admission that had such completely out of whack electrolytes that it took three days for us to stabilize things enough for them to have a coherent conversation to get a history. Turns out it was caused by using one of the synthetic cannabinoids and the patient had been vomiting for over a week with only temporary relief with hot baths. I also saw something similar to this on internal med. Also caused by a synthetic cannabinoid. Would it look like a gall bladder flare up with no verifiable cause? I went in for that and the docs said there were 6 other similar cases at the time... Constant vomiting only relieved by hot bath/shower has been the presentation I've seen. Also associated with Erythema Ab Igne probably due to constantly using heat to self-treat the nausea. The problem is that since marijuana is widely known to be an antiemetic for most people these folks will continue to smoke because for a few minutes it does help. For some reason the guy I saw really didn't want to believe that getting nauseated like 5 minutes later and continuing to be nauseated was... because of the ganja. Hard to give it up when you smoke it enough that it makes you sick. I've seen many problems that have come from the synthetic marijuana stuff, but never any from actual pot. The worst things I've seen that came from marijuana consumption have been auto accident related and a young woman who had smoked what she described as "moldy looking" pot that led to a pretty severe fungal infection in her upper respiratory. Funny, all of mine have been smoking the weed. My ex-partner has this from the copious daily usage of regular old marijuana. Nothing synthetic. Seen it three times in the last year. Hilarious. Hallmark is hot showers make it better. Guys just say hey man if I can smoke a bowl, it feels okay for a minute. Takes forever to convince them that the weed is the problem. Yeah, they really don't want it to be the weed! Can't blame em. I've seen 2 in just 1 month on a GI service. "Hallmark is hot showers to make it better." God's cruel joke on the hippies I've heard several times that some patients with this outright reject the diagnosis because of their denial that it could be the weed. It's is often the biggest hurdle to treatment, as the treatment is--gasp--to stop smoking weed. I have seen several cases in the ED. Presents just like gastroparesis except no diabetes. Otherwise healthy, but when pressed, report MJ use. One patient, even had a cholecystectomy even though it had a normal RUQ US, but had an abnormal cholescintigraphy. Symptoms returned after the chole, surprise, finally admits to MJ use. Yep. Seen it 3 times in the last 6 months and highly suspected it in another case. Could be because I'm in Washington state. Two of the patients had extensive past workups with cholecystectomy and 'abdominal migraine' diagnosis. Many times. It does indeed present like any number of GI ailments, but the frequent hot showers and chronic usage of chronic set it apart. We see it a few times a month is CA. First documented in 2004 and chronic marijuana usage actually induces gastroparesis IIRC. I have included this into my differential for cyclic vomiting. Anyone who does not suffer from diabetic gastroparesis who presents to my ED with recurrent symptoms get a urine drug screen. I'm surprised to find that a majority of these patients in my practice uses THC routinely. The diagnosis is further suspected when patients admit to relief with hot showers. I tell patients my suspected diagnosis without any judgment, but most are resistant to it. Their usual response is that they use the cannabis to treat the hyperemesis. Their usual response is that they use the cannabis to treat the hyperemesis.Talk about a perfect storm... Pediatrics resident here. Saw it my second week of residency and at least one more time since then but that one is more suspected. I've never seen this before, never heard of it either. and I'm from the Netherlands :') That would be incredible since I'm a PhD student now :P Oh and usually cannabis users don't end up in the hospital here. THC has such a tremendous affect on appetite, I could see how chronic use could lead to something like this. Yep. Had the hardest damn time rounding on the kid (male, early 20's) because he was always in the shower. I am friends with many pot smokers and have never seen/heard of this. I have, however, seen people who have "green faced" after smoking too much (acute nausea/vomiting/malaise that resolves in ~30min--happens with new tobacco users too). I think the vast majority of pot smokers are not affected, and the ones that are usually are daily smokers of a large quantity. The thing about taking showers to help then nausea is quite common with it. They often use up all their hot water, trying to get relief. Any idea on the etiology? Particularly as to why a core temperature change would help (I assume that's what's occurring with long hot baths/showers)? It's not the temperature that helps, it's the sensation of being in water that almost immediately quells the nausea to a tolerable level. At least in my ex-partner's case. Ugh, I can't mix booze and weed because I get this. Starts with vertical nystagmus and ends with puke everywhere. Only once did I get sick from weed alone. Not a medical pro, but my best friend has it. Had to stop. This is super late, but hopefully you'll get to see this. I wanted to thank you for sharing this. I saw a patient in the ED yesterday with 2 years of N/V who came in acutely for N/V with some abdominal discomfort yesterday. He had had 10 CTs, EGD/colonoscopies, and even an exploratory laparoscopy in the past 2 years. No cause of his symptoms could be found. I remembered reading about this on reddit and asked the patient about marijuana use and the hot showers. He admitted to heavy daily marijuana use and he was astounded that I knew that helped him. Well, I ran it by my attending and he had never heard of it, but he surprisingly was interested in reading about it so I gave him a paper. He saw the patient and agreed. I called the guy's PCP because I'm sure he has had a tough time dealing with this the past two years. Anyway, this was really helpful. Thank you. Ha! just read it as a result of another post about it. Glad to have helped you make a diagnosis. Keep up the good work. My ex-partner has this. He is horribly addicted, it destroyed our relationship. I've seen two case reports of this and each time the use of marijuana was played up while the coincident use of other substances is downplayed in relation to the syndrome. The case report that comes most acutely to mind was in one of the osteopathic publications and they played up the fact that the subject of the case was a chronic recreational user of marijuana, but practically ignored that he has gone on a bender right before the symptoms started. I'm really not sure that it's an actual syndrome, but rather more of a demonization of marijuana. MMJDOCTORONLINE NOTES - In California, to purchase marijuana legally, it is still required that you have a medical marijuana recommendation from a licensed physician. In 2018, medical marijuana patients, those with Cannabis ID, will be tax exempt, paying as much as $80 less per ounce, depending on the county your dispensary is in. MMJDocuments are accepted at dispensaries, cannabis clubs, cooperatives, delivery services and other points of access. The process takes only a few minutes, is 100% online, and clients don't pay unless the doctor has approved your application. Your government at work? It's not your government. It's a techno-monster. Like gluten intolerance, it was found that the chemical sprays are bound up in the protein - gluten, and that is what was making people sick. Similarly, sprays like paraquat, in small amounts, will make you a bit sick, in larger amounts, very ill indeed. "Are they trying to eradicate weed or the human being. And who are they really?" WASHINGTON, July 13— The director of the Drug Enforcement Administration said today that the Government would use the herbicide paraquat and two others in a stepped-up campaign to eradicate domestically grown marijuana..... Paraquat and other chemical sprays are endorsed, pushed throughout the world by the UN, WHO, DEA, EPA, in a process of classic Orwellian doublespeak, saying they are helping protect people and the environment, while sabotaging human, plant and animal life at all levels. What is cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS)? CHS is a nebulous condition where cannabis becomes toxic. If you smoke a lot of pot and you have classic symptoms; recurrent nausea, vomiting and crampy abdominal pain you might have CHS . Symptoms may improve temporarily by taking a hot shower or bath. or more fully by stopping the use of cannabis. What causes the cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome? The Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome is generally thought to be caused by heavy, habitual use of cannabis. High THC strains are most often implicated in this disorder. Foreign organic and chemical toxins in marijuana can also be confused with the THC and / or cannabinoid intolerance. "In this condition, the acute (illness) phase of CHS typically lasts for only 24 to 48 hours, but the risk of relapse is high if the patient returns to cannabis use." - Jonathan A. Galli, MD et.al.

The first projectile hit the sea wall of Gaza City's little harbour just after four o'clock. As the smoke from the explosion thinned, four figures could be seen running, ragged silhouettes, legs pumping furiously along the wall. Even from a distance of 200 metres, it was obvious that three of them were children. Jumping off the harbour wall, they turned on to the beach, attempting to cross the short distance to the safety of the Al-Deira hotel, base for many of the journalists covering the Gaza conflict. They waved and shouted at the watching journalists as they passed a little collection of brightly coloured beach tents, used by bathers in peacetime. It was there that the second shell hit the beach, those firing apparently adjusting their fire to target the fleeing survivors. As it exploded, journalists standing by the terrace wall shouted: "They are only children." In the space of 40 seconds, four boys who had been playing hide and seek among fishermen's shacks on the wall were dead. They were aged between seven and 11; two were named Mohammad, one Zakaria and the youngest Ahed. All were members of the extended Bakr family. Three others who were injured made it to the hotel: Hamad Bakr, aged 13, with shrapnel in his chest; his cousin Motasem, 11, injured in his head and legs, and Mohammad Abu Watfah, 21, who was hit by shrapnel in his stomach. A man who had been near them reached the hotel terrace first, scrambling up a steep sandy bank. A skinny man in his 30s, he groaned and held up a T-shirt already staining red with blood where he was hit in the stomach. He fainted and was carried to a taxi waved down in the street as he grew pale and limp. The children were brought up next. Pulling up the T-shirt of the first boy, journalists administering first aid found a shrapnel hole, small and round as a pencil head, where he had been hit in the chest. Another boy, a brother or cousin, who was uninjured, slumped by the wall, weeping. The injured boy cried in pain as the journalists cleaned and dressed the wound, wrapping a field dressing around his chest. He winced in pain, clearly embarrassed too as a colleague checked his shorts to look for unseen femoral bleeding. A waiter grabbed a table cloth to use as a stretcher, but a photographer took the boy in his arms to carry him to the ambulance. The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident. The Israel Defence Force told the AFP in a statement: "Based on preliminary results, the target of this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives. The reported civilian casualties from this strike are a tragic outcome." The Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, on Wednesday formally rejected Egypt's ceasefire proposal that had been accepted by Israel to end the nine-day-old conflict that has left at least 213 Palestinians and one Israeli dead. In a text message to the Associated Press, a senior Hamas figure, Sami Abu Zuhri, said: "We informed Cairo today officially that we don't accept the proposal they made." He added that Hamas felt "alone in the field" with little support from the Arab world and called on the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of the rival Fatah faction in the West Bank, to support Hamas's refusal of the ceasefire deal. Diplomatic sources told the Guardian that they did not believe that a serious new ceasefire proposal was likely to emerge for several days and, even then, securing a deal looked very difficult. Hamas's rejection came as an Israeli official said Israel's defence minister had asked prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's security cabinet to authorise the mobilisation of another 8,000 reserves. The military has said about 30,000 reservists have been called up since the Israeli offensive began last week. Israeli experts have been predicting in recent days that any ground attack, which Israel has threatened, may involve overland raids in the Gaza Strip to destroy command bunkers and tunnels that have allowed the outgunned Palestinians to withstand air and naval barrages and keep the rockets flying. Hamas continued to fire dozens of rockets into Israelon Wednesday. Hamas views a significant easing of the Israeli blockade as key to its survival, but does not believe Egypt's current rulers – who deposed a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo last year – can be fair brokers. The Egyptian proposal called for a halt in hostilities by Tuesday night to be followed by talks on the terms of a longer-term ceasefire, including easing Gaza's seven-year-old border blockade by Israel and Egypt. Israeli air raids on Gaza on Wednesday saw the targeting of 30 houses, including those of senior Hamas leaders, most notably Mahmoud Zahar, Hamas's former foreign minister. Alongside the air strikes, Israel told tens of thousands of residents of the northern town of Beit Lahiya and the Zeitoun and Shujai'iya neighbourhoods of Gaza City– all near the Israel border – to evacuate their homes by 8am. The warnings came by automated phonecalls, texts and leaflets dropped from planes. The Israeli military said in its message that large numbers of rockets were being launched from these areas and that Israel planned to bomb these locations. "Whoever disregards these instructions and fails to evacuate immediately endangers their own lives, as well as those of their families," the message said. At the Shifa hospital on Wednesday afternoon, Hamad Bakr was conscious and waiting for surgery to remove the shrapnel from his chest and drain fluid from his chest cavity. "My father has a fishing boat there. We were playing hide and seek when we were hit. I didn't hear the first one which killed one of us but I heard the second as we were running along the beach. That one killed three more." His mother Taghrid, 35, came into the room. "Why did you go out of the door?" she demanded of Hamad. She said that his brother, Younis, who was with Hamad, while he was being treated, "is so scared that he is shaking". Suddenly angry and grief stricken, she said: "They killed my nephew. Who does that? Who fires on children?" As the reporters left, Mohammad Abu Watfah was wheeled out of a lift after surgery to remove the shrapnel in his stomach. As relatives gathered not far from the Al-Deira hotel to bury the four dead boys, barely 90 minutes after the attack on the beach, the boys' uncle, Abdel Kareem Baker, 41, said: "It's a cold-blooded massacre. It's a shame they didn't identify them as kids with all of the advanced technology they claim they're using."

A couple of days ago we did NOT have a great deal of fun driving around Xalapa. Xalapa has a LOT of traffic and it is often bumper-to-bumper on narrow streets which don't always go in straight lines, especially at certain hours. Some of the hours include from 2 to 4 in the afternoon. This is the still-frequently-taken lunchtime when I think people do their errands (Workers work at least eight hours a day, sometimes more. Often I don't mind the traffic because it gives me a chance to see the huge variety of tiendas and workshops that line the way. Anyway, we went in to try to buy a generic version of a medication I take and to go to Costco to see about hearing aids. Costco is probably one of the best places to buy hearing aids. So ANYWAY, of course we hit the 2-4 traffic, and it was cold and rainy and dreary. On sunny days, Xalapa looks bright and busy and colorful. This day, though, the sky was a dirty gray which seemed to drip onto everything and everyone. About medications here in our corner of Mexico: There are lots of generics available and reputable places tend to have good generics, but some people (like me) may not respond well to generics available here so they end up paying non-generic prices. Our wonderful doctor had found (he and we thought) a generic put out by the very company that makes the non-generic drug. Unfortunately, according to the Pfizer salesman it required a prescription although the brand-name doesn´t and other generics don´t. (Here a little explanation: most drugs here don't require prescriptions. The ones that always do are antibiotics, benzodiazapines like Xanax, and opioid pain medications like oxycodin. Antibiotics and narcotics, in other words. There may be other classifications, but I haven't come across them.) So anyway we went to one end of town to get the prescription which was limited to only twenty tabs for some reason, and then drove to the other end to find the pharmacy. Need I tell you, they said they didn´t have it at either of the two stores. These were discount pharmacies, ones who specialize in generics, with a long counter and shelves piled high with boxes of medicine. Here most medications are packaged one pill to a bubble on a card of maybe ten, not in bottles. Even prescription meds come this way so you often have to buy a bit more or a bit less than you want. So we drove (sort of) a right angle to get to Costco.where I had to make an appointment for the hearing aid evaluation. Groan. I went to Xalapa with my friend Diane a couple of weeks ago by bus. It is much, much pleasanter to go by bus, and we would have if we hadn't had to lurch such large distances in a relatively short time in the cold and rain. I now have the hearing aids. They are the Kirkland brand and they are excellent. The young technician was proficient and friendly and we got 19.22 on the dollar which was good for us but bad for Mexico (I think, but am not sure.) The first shock I had happened when she opened the door to the littl soundproof room where hearing aid stuff is done. With a whoosh, I was greeted by all kinds of sounds I guess I haven't heard in years. Costco is NOISY! Anyway, if you folks are finding yourself cupping your hand behind your ear to hear, leaning forward, maybe enjoying how soft everything sounds, maybe, just maybe a hearing aid evaluation at Costco would help. Hearing aids have come a long way. The day before yesterday we took our dogs for a walk and went a bit further. It was not raining or misting, but it was chilly. We usually let the two smaller dogs run free, which they do with glee. Little Guy, the dachsund, can run as fast as Happy and as she is the alpha dog, she insists on being first. She is very cute as dachsunds are. She is tiny, with floppy ears and limpid, doe-like eyes. She has learned to make wheedling sounds, soft beseeching sounds, coy sounds even. Often we are at her mercy. BUT in her own world which she enters as soon as she is off the leash, she is a hunter. In response to some smells she´ll roll in phantom remains, in response to others, she´ll dig frantically. In response to fowl and other low-resting birds, she´ll catch them. She takes off so fast she can´t be caught. She doesn't even acknowledge that anyone is shrieking at her to STOP while pounding after her. And it seems she inevitably catches her prey. We have been putting her on the leash long before we see a chicken, but the other day, she caught one yet again. It was dead before she even turned around with it hanging limply from her mouth. Unfortunately, this chicken turned out to belong to friends of ours who refused to take any payment. There I was, holding it by its legs, there my friend was saying, no, no, you don't have to pay while she looked mournfully at the bird. Another friend made the suggestion that we buy her another live one. I think we're going to try to do it. Last post I wrote about the miraculous healing of the dent in our front fender. So then we went to meet our ahijado to take the car to the man who was going to paint it. We only remembered half the message: to meet him. We didn´t remember the other half: to meet him at the painter's workshop. So we went to his house. I´m glad we did, though, because in spite of feeling a bit foolish when Doña J asked why we were there, we got to see the baby sheep Don A had bought. The guy who works for Don A was grazing them on a rope outside their chicken pen and I have a picture for you. I think the big one may be the mama. But none of them are big. I have to confess I thought they were goats at first. You'd think I'd know what goats looked like by now!

- Editor Rating - Rated 4.5 stars - Affirm-a-Life Masterclass - Reviewed by: - Published on: - Last modified: - User FriendlyEditor: 97% - EffectivenessEditor: 96% - Customer SupportEditor: 98% - PriceEditor: 98% I am a crew at a famous fast food chain I worked there for 5 years. I earned an adequate amount of money that can supply my needs like food, transportation, rent, electricity, and other basic needs. However, I have no extra funds for leisure anymore because the salary that I am receiving is just exactly for my basic need which is very unfortunate. I am also tired of my everyday routine which is going to work and after that go home to my apartment and sleep and woke up the next day doing the same routine. Because of this I am experiencing the feeling of emptiness and identity crisis for the reason that I have this urge to look for a career change. 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Aside from sidescrollers and Fallout 76, another game I have been spending my time with lately has been Guild Wars 2 (again). Each time I come back to this game, I am utterly amazed at how unrewarding it is, at almost every level. One of the much-touted features of GW2 is its horizontal gear progression. There have been two expansions released, but no level cap increase, and the most powerful gear has not really changed. Technically, there have been new sub-classes added and the optimal gear for them drops only in the that expansion content, but for the most part, you can be done with gearing permanently rather easily. This makes for some extremely odd reward mechanisms. Basically, GW2 showers you in random bags of useless loot at every stage of any activity. We’re talking Diablo-levels volume of drops, every one of which is utterly useless to anyone anywhere. Seriously, I doubt there is a single level 80 person out there that has ever picked up something off the ground and equipped it. Much like with Diablo 3, it’s much easier to simply hit up the AH once you get that final ding and just buy a full suit of Exotics with some of the free daily gold. Ascended is the next (and final) gear tier above Exotics, and most of them come from longer-term grinding. The Living World Season 3 “episodes” are the go-to place to grind these items, and usually takes 100-125 currency to purchase something. While you can sometimes get 10-20 depending on luck/group events, the casual player can expect maybe 5 currency a day. Aside from Winterberries, which is what everyone should be farming, as it’s the only currency you can farm on multiple alts and funnel to a main. I am not opposed to the slow accretion of currency to purchase things. Slowly gaining something gives you a sense of purpose, and having a defined target helps you plan your activity. You may not get stronger today, but you are one step closer to getting stronger tomorrow – and thus the time you spent playing was meaningful. It’s possible to get discouraged if the goalposts are too far out, but it otherwise works well as a system. In contrast, the random loot GW2 hands out feels wildly out of place. Pointless to sell on the AH – the price is generally set to vendor +1c – the main thing you do is salvage it for materials and Luck… which increases your Magic Find stat… which results in more gear flooding into your bags. Now, sure, there is always a 0.00001% chance you get some amazing drop or whatever that might be worth something. But you can’t play around that. In fact, the odds are so low that I cannot even imagine a gambling addict being satisfied. I don’t know. Is there anyone out there (other than Bhagpuss) that plays GW2 and enjoys opening dozens and dozens of little bags of loot and immediately scrapping them all? At this point, the only reasoning that makes sense to me is that ArenaNet does this specifically to drive real-money sales of extra bag/bank slots. I have seriously never seen such dedication to vendor junk. I have around 40 hours at the WoW endgame and have not gotten a legendary yet. Yes, I understand how “entitled” that statement is. The problem is that this is the sort of endgame that Blizzard has designed. Back in the day, Legendaries were extremely rare drops from the end bosses of high raiding tiers. This made them rare and cool, but effectively nonexistent for the majority of the playerbase and drama-laden for raiders besides. Sometimes the mainhand Warglaive never dropped. Sometimes the rogue got both Warglaives and then /gquit. Sometimes the warrior tank spent his accumulated DKP and “wasted” a Warglaive drop to look cool. Around Wrath, the Legendary paradigm changed to make things a bit more organized. You had to collect 40 pieces of whatever, perhaps kill a specific boss, get a certain achievement, and then you got your Legendary. There was still a certain amount of coordination necessary though, as the Legendary pieces dropped for the whole raid, and thus had to be divvied up. In Mists and Warlords, the system was opened up further to the point where everyone could reasonably be expected to receive their own personal Legendary items. Drama around Legendaries was essentially removed, being solely a function of an individual’s willingness to grind past the gating mechanism. In Legion, Legendaries are once again random drops. And there are dozens and dozens of them, for specific classes and even specific specs. The system, in effect, is a huge step backwards. In principle, I actually like what they are doing with Legendaries, insofar as they are items that make you rethink your talent choices, skill rotation, and possibly even spec. Trinkets and Tier Set pieces traditionally function in this role, and their ability to “change the math” is precisely why getting them are exciting. One can stomach stat sticks only so far. In this sense, perhaps having “Legendary” items perform a similar role outside of Tier Sets and trinkets makes the piece of gear indeed “legendary.” That said, we are now in a new Blizzard paradigm in which not only does Legendary gear drop from any content – including really dumb World Quests – but also one in which we can expect to see multiple pieces. Indeed, the last Class Hall upgrade for every class is the ability to equip two Legendary items at a time. Ergo, we should expect to have 2+ minimum. That said, there are tens of thousands of people right now with multiple Legendary pieces, and even more who have none. Supposedly there exists a “pity timer” which increases the odds of a Legendary drop the more one fails to receive one (such a mechanic exists in Hearthstone already), but nevermind. Regardless, I really kinda hate this system. Sure, I see what Blizzard is doing: moving WoW towards a more Diablo 3 looting model, which makes completing otherwise dreary “kill 10 X” more exciting. But I actually enjoyed working towards items. Remember the old Badge system? There is a huge difference on an intellectual level between grinding 1000 mobs for 1000 points to buy a piece of gear, versus grinding 1000 mobs for a 1/1000 chance for a gear drop. I mean, I get it: filling some progress meter is a more defined endpoint than random drops. But for me personally, this level of randomness provides no meaningful sense of progression at all. And by the way, this system seriously sucks for my situation in particular. I have been playing my Druid pretty much exclusively this expansion, with the understanding that I will need to be Balance if I ever wanted to raid later. However, questing as Guardian is so fucking amazing and quick that doing anything else is folly. And if I ever wanted to play some PvP, say, to capitalize on the Arena Skirmish bonus this past week? That’s either Feral or Resto. So, basically, no matter when or where a Legendary does finally drop (if it drops), I am guaranteed to not be able to meaningfully use it. If I could work towards a specifically Legendary… but alas. GG Blizzard. GG. For the past few weeks or so I have been playing Defiance. As a refresher, Defiance was a subscription-based, TV show tie-in shooter that has since gone F2P. The game plays and handles a lot like an over-the-shoulder Borderlands, in the sense that waves of enemies appear and are dispatched with a large assortment of random weapons. At this point, I think the show is more popular than the game, and that is too bad. Defiance has story quests that are voice-acted and pretty-well put together. You get a vehicle almost immediately after character creation. There are a number of “arkfalls” at any given time, which are dynamic random events which tend to congregate players around specific points on the map. There are a bunch of (repeatable) side-quests which involve racing, sniping, and other such things. That said, the biggest problem with Defiance is a more fundamental one: the game is only fun with a fun weapon. Loot in Defiance is random, just like in Borderlands. There are a number of rarities and status effects and such, but the actual number of gun types are pretty well defined. In the course of my ~20 hours of play, my favorite loadout involves a machine gun that pretty much empties a full 75-bullet clip in three seconds and a shotgun that shoots grenades. I was having a lot of fun running around with these weapons when I got them, but as I have scaled higher in “EGO Rating” (roundabout levels) enemy health has scaled such that my favorite weapons are no longer viable. You can upgrade old weapons to near your EGO Rating, but you can only do so once. And I have since outleveled them again. In the meantime, I am at the mercy of RNG dropping a higher-level version of the guns I enjoy, or really any weapon that is serviceable. There is somewhat of a push to make all of the weapons viable, but there isn’t much you can do to, say, pistols to make them fun to use. Even with super-high damage and a fast fire rate, you would likely be better off with a LMG with 10x the magazine size. Rocket Launchers face the same sort of issue with faster, higher magazine grenade launchers outputting more DPS overall while giving you a buffer in case you miss your shot. To say nothing about, you know, a shotgun that shoots grenades with 12-14 rounds in a clip and a 250 shell capacity vs the smaller explosive round. In any case, I’m not entirely sure how much longer I will be playing Defiance. As mentioned, the story scenes are actually quite amusing in the sarcastic banter sense, and I’m interested in seeing where it goes. The weapon issue though… it does make it difficult sometimes to slog through waves of enemies with crappy weapons to get there. I finally beat Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep a few nights ago. It was… painful. The DLC itself was fine – it is humorous and touching and has a lot of D&D/MMO jokes. What ended up happening with my situation though is that I completed the DLC on Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, aka the highest difficulty (well, I guess it goes higher now). This decision was sort of cemented when one of the Treant mobs dropped The Bee, which is a legendary shield whose shield stats are kinda lame, but adds something like 50,000 damage per shot when you fire with full shields. Either intentionally or unintentionally, that extra 50k damage is added per bullet to my Double Penetrating Unkempt Harold (DPUK), which means mobs typically melted in the fury of 2+ million damage with each trigger pull. Things got even more ridiculous when I acquired the Grog Nozzle, a quest gun that doesn’t deal a whole lot of damage by itself, but has a high chance of Slagging enemies (increasing subsequent damage by 200-300%) while also healing you for ~65% of the damage you deal with it equipped. Even more bizarrely, since it is technically a quest gun (that you can take anywhere) it doesn’t take up an inventory slot either. The “painful” part to all this was simply playing the game at all. All non-legendary item drops were useless, especially any shields given how The Bee was pretty much required to deal damage. I did swap it out for a bit in a few areas, but I was leaning real hard on the DPUK to carry me through. Other weapons were pretty much a joke: dealing 32k/bullet damage is irrelevant to mobs with tens of millions of HP and the ability to regenerate health extremely quickly. At one point around level 54, I entertained the notion of going back to some of the DLCs to acquire some (upgraded) legendaries just to spice things up and not be shooting a pistol all day. The Sand Hawk would have been interesting, for example, as a submachine gun shooting bullets in the pattern of a bird flapping its wings. But that would mean extending my Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode stay in content I already seen twice now just to complete the current DLC after which I was likely to uninstall immediately. All of this really struck home how important it is for games to have a smooth progression curve. Where I “screwed up” was hitting the level cap at the end of Mister Torgue’s DLC; thereafter I was stuck in a limbo of too-easy content on one side and content that’s designed to challenge the people who farmed legendaries at the old level cap. While I suppose the latter group needs catered to – especially given how they’re likely to be still playing, and thus willing to buy DLC – the end result is an extremely warped play experience. Your weapons are so strong because the enemies are ridiculous, and the ridiculous enemies makes your shields/HP basically irrelevant, which means you are awkwardly trying to dodge their melee/ranged attacks with generic movement, none of which really feels like Borderlands anymore. By the way, calling it now: Borderlands 3 will have a more formal Dash/Dodge button, ala MMOs these days. If Gearbox doesn’t add this, it’ll be because they’re really dumb because goddamn precision movement is awkward and annoying right now for how much they require you to do it. And have I mentioned that because the death penalty is a percentage of your wealth, that you end up losing $400,000 each time you respawn? There is also a few places with instant-death traps, which was a lot of fun not at all fun. Granted, you can’t really purchase anything for $5,000,000, but that’s another whole issue entirely. It kinda makes even picking up and vendoring loot a waste of time. The more I think about it, the more I come to understand that Borderlands 2 basically ends at level 50. A full playthrough of the vanilla game will end around level 35, and that was a fun experience. After that? Still sorta fun, but the “optimal” path was going straight through the story missions again, skipping all sidequests, until you hit 2.5 mode at level 50. Then you can safely do sidequests for the unique rewards that would stay useful. Increasing the level cap basically screwed over everyone that hit the old cap without legendaries, as you get left with a Faustian bargain of farming bosses for hours or doing DLC missions for no reward. So if you haven’t played Borderlands 2 yet and are waiting for the GotY edition, that is my advice: play the vanilla game while doing everything, then the DLCs in order, and then pat yourself on the back and be done with it. You can get 120 hours (or more) of play time like I did, but the you’ll face some pretty ridiculous diminishing returns on both fun and sanity. The big news of the week has been Blizzard’s rather unprecedented decision to shut down the Diablo 3 AH in March of next year. While I suppose that the start of a new expansion is as good a time as any, I still find it interesting that they are bothering at all – a bit late to close those barn doors, yeah? Then again, I suppose with all the other changes they have made in the time since I stopped playing (a whole year ago?!), the “economy” has become more warped and functionally useless than before. Making it five feet in Act 2 Inferno used to require Resistance scores out the ass, but between the general elite nerfs, the player-decided mob-levels, and the Paragon system, you can probably make it through the game without buying anything. You would still want to, of course. Even a child should be able to understand that a 5% chance at something good is worth less than buying exactly what you want from someone who was going to vendor the thing anyway. Or anyone playing the game for more than an hour during the open beta weekend, for that matter. The question though, is what system will replace it? Apparently Blizzard feels it is Loot 2.0: - New game modes including Loot Runs with guaranteed special item drops when successfully completed. - Smart drops where a dropped item is guaranteed to roll the appropriate mainstat for the class that finds it. - Fewer but better item drops, where players will see far fewer items, but the items (especially the rares) will have better stats. - A new NPC Artisan, the Mystic who has the abiilty to reroll one selected affix on an item. - Legendary (including Set Items) will get an across the board quality buff. - Legendary items will drop more often, especially for lower level characters with guaranteed legendary drops from the first kill of many story/quest bosses. - Legendary items will roll with less low-end variability, to reduce the likelihood that they are complete junk. - Legendary items will gain variable item levels with stats scaling appropriately — current high level items legendaries will drop on lower difficulties and low level Legendaries will drop in the end game. All stats on these items will scale up or down to be appropriate for the level of the monster that drops them. Item binding is going to be a key feature of Loot 2.0, with some of the found items, and most or all of the crafted items or items upgraded with the Mystic gaining BoA or BoE to restrict them from being traded or sold. Full details are not yet finalized. I counted three instances of the word “guaranteed” in there. Not something I usually associate with Diablo games, but hey. While the above is not an exhaustive list of the Loot 2.0 paradigm – I’m pretty sure that not even Blizzard knows what else they’ll toss against the wall before March – we can see the sort of trajectory taking shape. What is a huge unknown to me though, is what exactly Blizzard plans to do with all the gold left in the economy when the AH doors close. Will the Mystic be an expensive gold sink? That might work… but what about the people who haven’t stockpiled? Will the feature not be for them? Between that and the possible stockpiling of crafting materials, I almost have to assume that Blizzard plans a “currency reset” with the expansion, to go with the inevitable gear reset that comes with an increased level cap. In any case, watching things play out this week has been interesting while playing Path of Exile on the side. I mentioned before that PoE has something more akin to a lore-based barter economy, but I am finding it even more interesting than before. Effectively, I find myself rolling my own loot back in town when I go to vendor things. Useful Magic/Rare/Unique items do drop out in the wild, but I am finding that the addition of colored gem slots adds another depressing layer of randomness to everything; a given item might be awesome for your class/build, but if it is replacing an item with a good spell-gem configuration, you might end up banking it instead. While there are “currency” items that can add/change sockets, I am finding it almost easier to hold onto normal items with good sockets and then spend my “money” turning that into a Magic/Rare item instead. That can sort of happen in Diablo 3’s crafting system, but it lacks the granularity and impressive nuance that PoE brings to the table. Scrapping four items to get another shot at getting a useful fifth isn’t the same as being able to choose to reroll an item’s magic properties, adding a new property, adding sockets, adding connections between sockets, changing a socket’s color, and/or stripping the item clean and then possibly rerolling it into a Rare/Unique. Can I also just mention how addicting just leveling in Path of Exile can be? It’s the standard sort of hack-n-slash, but since your gems can level up too, it feels like I “level” a half-dozen times every 30-40 minutes. “Getting kinda sleepy and I still have 8 bars before level 24. Oh, wait, there’s like a centimeter left on my Raise Zombie gem XP bar. Hmm… let’s go clear out the NW corner.” But, yeah, loot systems. Borderlands 2 is feeling pretty archaic right now in comparison. As you may recall, I have been having a rough time in Borderlands 2. I bought the Season Pass back when I bought the original game, but sort of let things slide somewhere around 95 hours /played, about the time the Hammerlock campaign was released. My main issue, aside from general burnout, was that my character is Zer0, the melee-based ninja/sniper character. Simply put, I was having a hard time surviving in the extended difficulties as someone either in the middle of the action (where mistakes kill you quickly) or trying to snipe when 10 people are shooting at you (whom are extremely accurate with their assault weapons). Now, I can already hear those of you in the audience: “But, Az, Zer0 is like one of the strongest characters in the game! He can solo the raid bosses!” Sure he can… with a very specific loadout of Legendary/Unique weapons, which either requires luck, grinding, duping, or all three. While I am obviously not allergic to chasing gear drops in games, in this instance all I really wanted to do was finish the Hammerlock DLC and then complete Tiny Tina’s Dragon Keep DLC. You know, at a level in which it’d be challenging and rewarding too – there isn’t any real reason to blow through it on Normal or anything. Unfortunately, I was stuck between a rock and Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode (UVHM). I beat the game on True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM) way back when, plowed through it again in “2.5” mode where everything is scaled up to level 50 (the cap at the time), leaving all of the sidequests alone so that I could give myself the option of getting the highest-level versions of the various unique gear. Hell, I even farmed the last boss a few times. UVHM steps it up a few notches though, including a level cap increase, and basically makes Slag elemental weapons (which increase the damage of all other sources) required. Not only did I not really have any of those weapons, my current gear was simply not cutting it… or anything, really. This past weekend, I finally decided I was going to give it one more shot. My plan of action was to grind to level 51 and then cash in my ~40 Golden Keys and hope that the level-cap inflation on guns would give me something worth shooting. Since I was grinding anyway, I decided to do so in the Torgue DLC, in the repeatable Bar Brawl quest area; each run gives you special DLC currency to purchase, among other things, an Unkempt Harold, e.g. a Legendary everyone seems to use. So I did. And got it. And now it feels like a whole different game. The basic gist is that the gun says it deals ~14k damage per shot, but the “bullet” is actually a missile that splits off into 3, 5, and 7 missiles depending on how much distance it gets before impact. The Double Penetrating Unkempt Harold, which is the version I got, does the same thing x2. So, depending on how close something is, a shot from this pistol deals ~196,000 damage. Meanwhile, my best rocket launcher deals 226,000, with a 3-round clip and 7.4 second reload speed. I can carry 700 pistol rounds and reload in under 2 seconds. I could technically pick up another Unique item from a sidequest (The Bee shield) which would add something crazy-stupid like 40,000 damage to my bullets – which ends up being added to each bullet from the Unkempt Harold – but it is already making my TVHM-ish run somewhat of a joke. What all of this is making me realize is that I don’t like this paradigm. Specifically: the gear-based-build paradigm. “Get item X and now you can do build Y.” Another of the items I picked up was a weapon (the Rubi) that gives heals you for 12% of the damage you inflict while having it equipped. It is another of the sort of “required” weapons for endgame Zer0 builds, as you can abuse the life-gain by dealing melee or grenade damage; the gun itself will never hold a candle to others, but firing one and then swapping back to it before impact will still basically let you heal to full. Combined with the “health-gating” hidden mechanic that prevents you from being one-shot (50% + 1 HP and you will survive any hit), this lets Zer0 basically melee raid bosses. The problems, as always, are A) getting the gear and B) what to do until you get the gear. I am 100% for different character builds. I don’t even have much of an issue with talent choices leading to different stat weightings, e.g. choosing Talent X makes Haste worth more than Crit or whatever. But building an entire character around single pieces of (rare) equipment? That feels awful to me. Either you don’t have the item yet, in which case you feel weak/incomplete, or you do get the item and suddenly everything else that drops is useless/unrewarding. Plus, there is the whole side-effect of the fact that your character identity feels weakened or nonexistent; do my character choices even matter in the face of my item collection? Am I Zer0 at all, or am I simply “some dude with a Rubi and DPUK? I decided to take a break from Borderlands 2, and started playing Path of Exile as a backup game. And… whoops! Just like many hack-n-slash games, it too features rare items that you can/should/(have to?) build entire characters around. Because that’s fun. To someone. Sigh. I started playing Torchlight 2 a few weeks ago, and I am having some issues. Now, I did not like the original game all that much, but picking up the sequel for $5 during one of those crazy Steam sales seemed safe enough. And so far, I am not experiencing the same acute symptoms of frustration as in the first game. Except… now I kinda am. My biggest gripe with the original game was that the loot system was broken. Specifically, there was no real sense of gear progression in a hack-n-slash Diablo-clone genre that is based entirely on gear progression – I used the same “legendary” level 3 necklace all the way into the endgame, never finding an upgrade. While I have not ran into this problem as much in Torchlight 2, the contours of the issue remain in place. For example, I ran into this gearing decision the other day: Maybe “higher level = better” is too simplistic a progression design, but… is it really? The more pressing concern in Torchlight 2 though, is how a lot of things that should be rewarding are really not. Each main area map has a Locked Golden Chest which contains, as you might imagine, a lot of loot. The key to this chest can drop randomly from any mob on that particular map, or from a specific fairy mob 100% of the time. Compelling design, right? It would be, if these chests dropped something more than vendor trash. Random loot is random, but after spending more time than strictly necessary opening these chests up and walking away with nothing of any value, I am finding myself souring on game in general. Indeed, even the extra-large treasure chests at the end of boss encounters reveals greys and greens more often than not. Why should I be fighting bosses when smashing pottery is clearly the more profitable activity? In Torchlight 2’s case though, there is a “solution”: mods. In fact, the #1 highest-rated mod in the Steam Workshop is one that tweaks Golden Chests (and boss chests) to always drop a Unique item. That’s not as broken as it sounds – items are still random, scaled to your level, and sometimes class-specifc – and does a lot to fix what I otherwise consider a problem. There are mods for all sorts of things, in fact, including Skill tweaks, doubling the amount of gold drops, Respec potions (base game only allows reshuffling of last 3 Skills), improving game textures, increasing view distance, and even additional whole classes. Indeed, one of the big selling points of Torchlight 2 was its modability in comparison to Diablo 3. Thing is, I don’t like using mods on my initial play-through of a game. Hell, I usually don’t even like loading in DLC that affects the core game, even when I’m playing the Game of the Year version that bundles it all together. My situation is a bit unique (and self-inflicted) insofar as I fancy myself a game reviewer. But even before this website, I preferred going in vanilla and raw. Not all my friends had the extra spending money for the expansions and whatnot, so telling them Diablo 2 was better with Lords of Chaos installed really just means “the base game is deficient.” Well, perhaps not deficient in D2’s case, but you understand my meaning. Good game design is supposed to be good out of the box. If developers are stumbling around for the first several months from release, that stumbling needs to remain part of the overall narrative. I failed to mention in my Fallout: New Vegas review that the game was literally unplayable for the first two weeks without downloading a crack that fixed the DirectX issues; it’s an important detail to know for when the next Fallout game is released, lest it too require Day 0 patching from players to fix what the devs rushed to production. I suppose some of this harkens back to that debate over whether MMOs (etc) are toys vs games. There is no wrong way to play with a toy, no real rules to govern your interaction with them. In this sense, mods are sort of like adding salt to your meal – some chefs might see that as an insult, but perhaps your individual taste skews more salty than the others sharing the meal. Ergo, developers letting mods fix any subjective “problem” only makes sense. Keep the vanilla pure, and let players add the chocolate and sprinkles as they wish. Personally though, I am much more interested in the game portion of things, or more specifically: experiences. Show me the genius of your rulesets, the compelling nature of your narratives, the excellence of your craft. Anyone can imagine a stick into a lightsaber, just as anyone can turn a crappy game good with tweaks. I am interested in what you can do, Mr(s) Game Man Person, not mod developer XYZ. I want to be excited that you are releasing another game, not that the modding community has another opportunity to fix a deficient product. And besides, only one of those two parties is getting paid. Hint: it’s not the person/people improving the game. It may not be entirely rational, but there it is. Odds are that I will keep trucking along in vanilla Torchlight 2 so that I can give an accurate report on its (so far) many failings. It is worth noting that while you can import your vanilla save into the “game + mods” version of the game, you cannot thereafter go back – neither your character nor your gear will appear under the default game any more. While that probably has little meaning beyond the people interested in Steam achievements, it sort of highlights how even the developers believe a segregation between the two ought to exist. In which case, I shall play their game and complain about it, rather than fix things myself. I used the Raid Finder for the very first time on Monday night. It was an… instructive experience. One thing that I learned about myself is the fact that I felt compelled to seek out raid videos/strategies even for LFR difficulty. It is not (just) about insulating myself from group embarrassment, it is about mitigating that awful feeling of not knowing what I am doing. I hate that feeling. At first I believed the feeling to be unique to multiplayer games, as I certainly do not hit up GameFAQs or Wikis the moment I get to a boss fight in a single-player game. Indeed, wouldn’t that be cheating? Or, at least, cheating myself from the actual game. But you know what? I hate that feeling even in single-player games. If I am dying to a boss repeatedly and have no idea why, or there does not seem to be any clues as to different strategies I could try, I most certainly hit up Wikis. I enjoy logic puzzles as much as (or more than) the next guy, but I must feel certain that logic is applicable to the situation. With videogames, that is not always a given: quests that you cannot turn in because you didn’t trip a programming “flag” by walking down a certain alleyway or whatever. There was a Borderlands 2 quest that I simply looked up on Youtube because I’ll be damned if I walk across every inch of a cell-shaded junkyard for an “X” mark after already spending 10 minutes looking it over. Playing “Where’s Waldo” can be entertaining, but not when you have to hold the book sideways and upside down before Waldo spawns… assuming you are even looking at the right page. Things got off to a nice start in LFR when the dog fight consisted of just tanking all three dogs in a cleave pile the entire time. The second boss seemed to have an inordinate amount of health, but he too dropped without doing much of note. I died twice to some insidious trash on the way to the troll boss; those bombs are simply stupid in a 25m setting, as I found it difficult to even see them among all the clashing colors and spell effects. Final boss dropped pretty quickly as well, although I almost died a few times towards the end once people stopped coming into the spirit world with me. By the way, the queue for the 1st raid finder was 15 minutes for DPS. Might have been a “Monday before the reset” thing. I joined a guild healer for the 2nd raid finder immediately afterwards, although the average wait time of 43 seconds was a bit off. Was killed by a combination of friendly fire and damage reflection during the first boss, but he otherwise went down quickly. I managed to avoid falling to my death during Elegon (thanks Icy-Veins!), but was killed by an add the 2nd tank never picked up; that will teach me to do something other than tunnel the boss. The third boss… made little sense. I spent a lot of time killing adds, as I could not quite understand what was up with the Devastating Combo thing other than I must have been doing it wrong. Eons later, the bosses died. It is becoming somewhat of a running joke for my guildies since coming back on how much random loot I pull in. The prior week I got ~8 drops from my first 5 random dungeons, for example. This time around I got three epics from my first two LFR forays, all three of which came from the bonus rolls. I was not around for the Cata LFR days, but suffice it to say, I would not have likely came away with that much loot in a more traditional PuG. Overall, LFR was a pleasant experience. While I can certainly empathize with the criticism of LFR – it was pretty ridiculously easy – I can definitely see the logic behind Blizzard’s moves here. Some raid is better than no raid, low-pop realms like Auchindoun-US wouldn’t support a robust raid PuG community, and to an extent even the “nothing ever drops!” LFR sentiment encourages organized guild raiding in a roundabout manner. Whether this remains satisfying in any sort of long-term manner remains to be seen, but honestly, it is better than the alternative of… what else, exactly? Running dungeons ad infinitum? Ghostcrawler made another community blog post about the Great Item Squish (or Not) of Pandaria. I read it, went “Yep, tis a pickle,” and moved on. Motstandet of That’s a Terrible Idea instead went on a bizarre rant: Unquestioning and steadfast in their decisions, the WoW designers make seemingly contradictory choices. Why doesn’t GC want level 85’s to do higher level content? I could only assume it’s so players do the leveling “content” first. Yet they constantly assault the leveling game, […] The article goes on, discussing various methods which could bandage WoW’s broken attribute system, and then he unloads this gem: “If your answer is that stat budgets don’t have to grow so much in order for players to still want the gear, our experience says otherwise.” Silly plebes with your naive remedies; I have data to dismiss your predictable suggestions! Ignoring the arrogance, what metrics could they possibly have to discredit this simple solution? I answered the post over there, but I think it is useful to talk about some of the underlying design issues of expansion-based themepark MMOs. Design Issue 1: The “assault” on the leveling game. The matter of pacing is of huge concern in videogame design. Even in single-player RPGs (or really any game), you still see the steady metering of items and abilities as the game progresses; going from Stone Sword –> Iron Sword –> Steel Sword and so on. I do not think I played even a FPS where I had access to all the guns in the game right off the bat. By handing out new guns or powers or abilities in a measured way, the player has time to focus on useful applications of said gun/power/ability before deciding which one(s) they want to use. So given that, why does Blizzard continually assault the leveling game with patch notes such as “The amount of experience needed to gain levels 71 through 80 has been reduced by approximately 33%?” The issue is twofold. First, look at the experience from a brand new player or even potential player perspective. The designers may have crafted the original WoW leveling experience to take an average of 300 hours to go from 1-60. In other words, the designers felt that 300 hours was a long enough journey to get to the endgame. When expansions are released though, an additional 50 hours is added to the leveling experience and the endgame moves farther along the timeline. Assuming that each expansion adds another 50 hours and no other changes were made, someone picking up all the WoW boxes would be staring at a 500 hour leveling wall come Mists of Pandaria. So, assuming that 300 hours is a sweet-spot of sorts, it makes sense to truncate the leveling experience so that it always takes 300 hours to get to the endgame. The alternative of doing nothing means that all the commercial and word-of-mouth advertising would be concerning (endgame) content a new player would have to spend weeks and weeks getting to. This is not to suggest there are not side-effects to XP reduction, such as out-leveling a zone before all the quests are complete. Then again, as long as the quests are sufficiently non-linear, why should anyone care? After all, skipped content adds to replayability. It is not entirely different from RPGs today with optional side-quests and how you can beat the game without being max level. Second, and perhaps more importantly, one has to look at the experience from a veteran player perspective. I say “more importantly” because there are more ex-WoW players than WoW players, and thus more people who have already experienced the leveling content at least once. If I want to experience the endgame as a different class, each expansion makes the decision to roll an alt even more difficult – every hour I spend leveling an alt is an hour I potentially fall behind in progression (which is, incidentally, why it is useful to have diminishing returns and plateaus). While it is important to pace the game for new players, it makes less sense to do so for players who already learned all the lessons a slow pace was designed to encourage. I may not have ever played a druid, but I played a rogue, a warrior, and a shaman, so pacing things like I have no idea how to move around simply makes me bored and impatient. So why doesn’t Blizzard simply make a Death Knight option (starting at level 55) for all classes? Good question. I wish they would. Heirlooms were a rather brilliant “solution” insofar as they took something they were going to do anyway – reducing XP required – and then made you spend time buying them, rather than getting them for free. That being said, from a business standpoint there is still probably value for them to have me spend 20+ hours leveling up as that is time spent in-game in those leveling ranges, making things there a little less of a ghost town. Design Issue 2: Why not just have flatter progression? Well, if you noticed, Blizzard is kinda doing this already. The standard ilevel upgrade between tiers used to be 13 ilevels, but now it is closer to 7 ilevels. Moreover, Blizzard combined 25m and 10m gear, so that instead of four tiers between raids, there are only two. The problem with flatter progression is that it, in effect, removes “content.” To understand this point, let us all acknowledge what really is going on under a random loot system: the loot is random so as to give you a reason to beat a boss more than once. If the boss had “smart loot” that only dropped items tailored to the raid who defeated it, that raid would have less reasons to kill that boss week after week. As long as you continue to care about the loot a boss has, that boss remains legitimate “content” to you. I keep putting air quotes around the word “content,” because let’s face it, in every other scenario the only reason you would want to kill the same boss again is if it was fun to do so. Another issue is when there simply is not enough of difference between gear to matter… or when older items are better. Spending weeks on a boss to gain +2 Strength is not my idea of a productive use of my free time, even if objectively there is no difference between that and +20 Strength. The way something feels is as important (if not more so) than the objective measure. There is a good reason why things are priced at $9.99 instead of $10, after all. Flatter progression though also leads to those scenarios in which older items were strictly better than newer ones. Before relics were changed to be stat sticks, the Holy paladin Libram of Renewal reduced the mana cost of Holy Light by 113. That relic was available from the beginning vendors in T7 content and ended up being Best-in-Slot for (nearly?) the entire expansion. And yet Blizzard designed and itemized Holy paladin librams for T8, T9, and T10. If you used those, you were actually doing it wrong. And while new paladins could always just buy the T7 libram, there were situations in WoW’s past where an older item remained BiS (Dragonspine Trophy) and basically led to people farming obsolete content for years. That is not my particular idea of a good time, especially when you were basically farming an item for just a handful of people. The Design Solution: Business (Mostly) As Usual To be honest, I don’t think there is much different that Blizzard should have done. There were missteps for sure, such as when they introduced hardmode raiding in the middle of Wrath and had itemization quickly spiral out of control. But from a player experience, I was very grateful that my having Lich King loot did not trivialize Cataclysm leveling content the same way my having TBC gear left me slogging through hundreds of Northrend quests with zero upgrades. I can empathize with people who have all their hard work rendered moot each expansion/tier, but I also believe that the alternative is worse. If Sisyphus had to look at the entire mountain each time instead of just focusing on pushing the boulder, I don’t think he’d ever make it to the top. That being said, there shouldn’t be an issue with Blizzard introducing an option to slow down leveling much like they have an option to currently turn off XP gain entirely. And I would also like to see a Hero Class solution for veterans, possibly via the Cash Shop.

Founded in 1963, the New York Film Festival predated both the Sundance and Toronto festivals, which eventually loomed much larger in terms of size, media attention and industry influence (both serve as sales markets). New York’s main claim to fame was as a tastemaker and gatekeeper: it very selectively imported the most acclaimed films from abroad as well as introducing important new voices in American filmmaking. Under the 25-year leadership of the festival’s first director, Richard Roud, the French definition of auteur cinema ruled, and the consequent influence of the Cannes Film Festival made for programming heavy on European films. In the next quarter-century, Roud’s successor, Richard Peña broadened the festival’s scope in various ways, offering more documentaries and American independents as well as showcasing auteurs from cinemas as diverse as China, Taiwan, Iran, Egypt and Burkino Faso. Even before Kent Jones took over from Peña four year ago, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which sponsors the festival, had been undergoing various changes, some of which were reflected in a continually expanding range of festival offerings: These now include “Spotlight on Documentary” (a section I consider the most important addition of recent years) and “Convergence” (about VR and various form of “immersive” storytelling); revivals, retrospectives and restorations; filmmaker talks, salutes to actors, etc. The festival’s Main Slate, though, remains its chief calling card, and rightly so: it aims to gather best of world cinema into a program of only two to three dozen films (this year’s edition includes 25 features and five programs of shorts). In recent years, one notable departure from the festival’s traditional emphases entailed opening the doors to major-studio movies, which led to Opening-Night slots for the likes of Paul Greengrass’ “Captain Phillips,” David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” and Robert Zemeckis’ “The Walk.” Whether such inclusions were intended to boost the festival’s media or industry profiles or attract a broader base of donors—all very understandable objectives—this year’s edition reverses the trend very decisively. Its sole big-ticket item, Ang Lee’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” comes from a great director with a NYFF history and is a special presentation near the festival’s end. The Opening Night slot, meanwhile, will be occupied by “The 13th," Ava Duvernay’s documentary about the mass-incarceration of African-American men. While the film wasn’t available in time to be previewed for this article, I’m ready to lead the cheers for the festival including a documentary as its Opening Night offering (first time ever), especially one by such an estimable filmmaker. I’ve been covering the NYFF for more than half of its history, and perhaps the highest compliment I can pay its programmers is to note that more often than not, as many as half the films on my annual 10-best list appeared in the festival’s Main Slate. Granted, there are always reasons to quibble: trendy or inconsequential films that are inexplicably included, and anticipated titles that aren’t (this year my list of most regretted no-shows is led by Ashgar Farhadi’s “The Salesman” and Damien Chazelle's “La La Land”; both directors are NYFF veterans). Yet it’s also been my experience that the films that really define the festival’s special flavor every year are not just the laureates from Cannes and other festivals but some of its less obvious, more idiosyncratic offerings. This year, the latter category is led by “Son of Joseph,” the latest by the New York-born, Paris-based director Eugène Green. In recent years, my greatest debt to the NYFF might have been the discovery of Green’s sublime “La Sapienza” (his first film distributed in the U.S. and number one on my ten-best list of last year) at the 2014 festival. Having now seen much of Green’s earlier work, I count myself lucky to have encountered “La Sapienza” first, since its strikes me as his one unqualified masterpiece and thus the film that provides the best introduction to a body of work that is decidedly eccentric. An American who went to France and helped revive its tradition of Baroque theater before turning to filmmaking, Green is an anti-modernist who wages war against pretty much everything that contemporary French intellectual culture represents. Like the Dardennes brothers (who co-produced “Son of Joseph” and whose exquisite “The Unknown Girl” is also in this year’s festival) he owes obvious debts to the cinema of Robert Bresson in both his essentially religious outlook and his pared-down visual style. Like many of his films, “Son of Joseph” is rife with Biblical references. Given Green’s Christian orientation, it’s no surprise that the Joseph evoked here is he of the New Testament not the Old. The film’s protagonist is a Parisian boy whose pervasive unhappiness seems to stem in large part from the refusal of his mother (named, of course, Marie) to reveal the identity of his father. In his probings, the teen discovers evidence that his dad is a celebrated literary publisher (a wonderfully droll turn by Mathieu Amalric) who’s as big a creep as he is a cultural icon. While pursuing him, the boy also encounters and develops a friendship with the publisher’s brother (Green regular Fabrizio Rongione), a kindly man who wants to return to his family’s farm in Normandy. In “La Sapienza,” the characters left the dry intellectualism of Paris for Italy’s warmth, verdant landscapes and Baroque architectural masterpieces; the film’s story describes a personal and philosophical journey toward wisdom and healing. “Son of Joseph” is much different in large part because it mostly remains planted in Paris, where its religious symbolism vies against Green’s broad satiric swipes at the city’s literary scene. Some of this is obviously intended as comedy, but other parts are less clearly jocular in their intent, though many people in the press screening I attended laughed like they were in a Mel Brooks movie. While Green certainly has his whimsical side, I would say that the reactions his latest provokes mark it a mixed success by a very unusual artist. An expatriate from a different hemisphere, Alison Maclean first visited the NYFF with “Kitchen Sink,” a 1989 short made in her native New Zealand. Resident in New York since 1992, she returned to her homeland to make the sharp, keenly observed feature “The Rehearsal,” which follows a group of aspiring actors through their first year of drama school. Adapted from a novel by Eleanor Catton, the film inevitably provokes the term “multi-layered” in part because we are always watching actors playing actors learning about acting. But Maclean never makes this an exercise in cerebral self-consciousness. With great subtlety and incisiveness, she concentrates on drawing very detailed, believable characters and then follows the process they undergo in gradually immersing themselves in a discipline that’s at once seductive and demanding, vainglorious and ego-crushing. Her main character, Stanley (charismatic Kiwi teen star James Rolleston), is a country boy who, despite his good looks, approaches his new life with the tentativeness of someone who lacks the confidence his urban classmates have come by naturally. He meets his match in the domineering personality of his main teacher (a strong performance by Kerry Fox). She sees her role and breaking her students down before she can build them up again, and at first Stanley seems like he just might not survive the ordeal. The film, though, ably chronicles the personal transformations and growth that students must undergo to discover the powers their instructors see in the best of them. At the same time, they all have lives outside the classroom, and “The Rehearsal” is very good at interweaving the ups and downs of first-year-at-college, the roommate snarls, newfound romances and hedonistic detours, even the unexpected tragedy. All in all, with its sure sense of narrative and Maclean’s cool, restrained style, it’s a film that makes good on the promise of her first two features, “Crush” and “Jesus’ Son.” The festival dependably presents films about New York cultural icons that are sometimes made by filmmakers who qualify as the same. This year’s example, “Gimme Danger” by Jim Jarmusch, opens with a gaunt, lank-haired guy sitting down in front of the camera and being identified: “Jim Osterberg.” The name, of course, is the real-life moniker of the protean performer the world knows as Iggy Pop, erstwhile lead vocalist of the Stooges. With Iggy eloquently narrating, Jarmusch initially throws viewers a curveball in his documentary about the band by beginning the chronicle in 1973, when they were at a low point, seemingly already washed up. But soon enough the filmmaker doubles back and gives us the story chronologically, starting with the Ann Arbor-based Stooges being discovered by influential Elektra Records PR man Danny Fields. (This part of the story is also recounted in Brendan Toller’s excellent doc about Fields, “Danny Says,” which opens this week.) Their signing with Elektra led to the wide-eyed Midwestern boys being introduced to the fleshpots of the two coasts. In New York, Iggy works with John Cale, begins a romance with Nico (who has recently broken off with Lou Reed) and meets David Bowie, who would have a huge influence on his subsequent career. In L.A., he encounters Andy Warhol and takes to wearing dog collars. The Stooges’ first two albums, which were recorded in these separate sojourns, would later be regarded as classics, but they didn’t set the world on fire at a time when hippiedom and pot-flavored acoustic rock still ruled. Elektra dropped them after the second disc, which sent the band into the usual rock-star spiral of drugs, drink, fights, personnel changes and eventual dissolution. Commendably, neither Jarmusch nor Iggy ever uses the hackneyed phrase “ahead of their time,” but the Stooges surely were—perhaps more so than any American rock act apart from the Velvet Underground. The raw, aggressive sonic assaults they unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 1970 influenced the Ramones in America, the Sex Pistols and the Clash in the U.K., as well as perhaps half the bands who would dominate the college radio airwaves and U.S. club scene a decade later. Though Iggy, whose Greek-god physique remains pristine after nearly a half-century, disavows all labels including “punk,” his fearless stage dives and utter disregard of injuries (which were manifold) set the parameters for many future mosh pits and lead-singer derring do. He is still an amazing performer, as well as a thoughtful and articulate teller of his and the Stooges’ tale (the film also includes interviews with other surviving band members). With a style that’s more straightforward and less quirky than one might expect from Jarmusch, “Gimme Danger” provides an expert and engrossing overview of one of America’s seminal rock acts. Cream of the Crop As noted above, the NYFF dependably provides a first look at films that end up on my annual ten-best lists. Of the titles screened so far for the press, four seem likely candidates for such honors, whether they go into general release this year or next. I offer them here for festival-goers looking for the best of this year’s Main Slate. All have been reviewed on RogerEbert.com in previous festivals. In order of preference: Cristian Mungiu's “Graduation” is a brilliantly crafted drama that weds stylistic rigor to a story that interrogates moral choices in present-day Romania; this one concerns a doctor and the lengths he will go to to get his daughter to a British university. (Our review from Cannes) Cristi Puiu’s “Sieranevada,” also from Romania, offers a stylistic tour de force in which a ritual family gathering, presented with an almost anthropological avidity for details, as well as drolly understated wit, involves conversations touching on everything from 9/11 conspiracy theories to Romania’s Communist past. (Our review from Cannes) “I, Daniel Blake,” the winner of the 2016 Palme d’or at Cannes and the best film in many years from British stalwart Ken Loach, sums up the bureaucratic miseries of digital-era England in this tale of disabled worker waging a Kafkaesque battle to get his health benefits. (Our review from Cannes) “The Unknown Girl,” the latest masterpiece by the Dardennes brothers, takes place in their native Belgium and concerns a young doctor trying to deal with both her own guilt and an unsolved mystery after a young African immigrant is killed near her office. (Our review from Cannes) The 54th New York Film Festival runs from September 30 to October 16. Click here for more information.

Comment: Britain must stop fudging its way to equality and let religions marry gay couples Following the launch of the government’s public consultation on how to implement equal civil marriage rights, Rabbi Aaron Goldstein, the co-chair of Rabbinic Conference of Liberal Judaism, says religious ceremonies must be included in the final result. I have written before about the process of moving towards Equal Marriage in the UK and now with the launch of the Government’s consultation process titled, ‘Equal Civil Marriage Consultation,’ feel moved to do so once more. I would encourage all readers to participate in the consultation. I do not feel that the current consultation goes far enough. You will notice that there is only one question relating to religious marriage. On the front page it states that a key proposal of this consultation is, “to make no changes to religious marriages. This will continue to only be legally possible between a man and a woman.” This confirms that the Government proposals are not for Full Marriage Equality but yet again for a stepping-stone towards it. As a Brit, I am used to our culture of fudging our way forwards but the reasons why we need to keep pushing for Full Marriage Equality remain the same. At the outset, I must point out that comments concerning ‘religious freedom’ around debate led by the Pope, the Archbishop of York, Dr. John Sentamu and Cardinal Keith O’Brien, are spurious. Not once has there been any suggestion of compulsion – religious institutions must accept equal religious marriage. Rather, there currently is a bar on my religious freedom to perform a Jewish marriage ceremony for couples, regardless of their sexuality, who yearn for God’s blessing upon the essence of their union: love, commitment, sharing of values and ethics in a monogamous relationship. Most religious leaders who speak in favour of marriage as an institution should be interested in increasing the numbers of those marrying rather than placing further impediments to those who seek God’s blessing in all good faith. Those who still believe that marriage can contribute positively to the lives of individuals, households and society and who can articulate why that is so, ultimately come back to the argument that marriage was and can only be a union between male and female. I would like to quote the British Jewish scholar Israel Abrahams (1858-1925). “The formulation of the highest truth needs constant revision, and even more surely do the forms in which truth is clothed. When dogma takes the place of love, religion is dead.” In my consideration of Equal Marriage, I have found it helpful to consider what was so important about when my wife and I married. We had an incredible day. The wedding itself was wonderful being in Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue where we had both had our baby blessings, Bar and Bat Mitzvah and Kabbalat Torah (Confirmation). We had gone all the way through our Cheder (Saturday morning Religion School) and graduated to being Teaching Assistants and then Teachers before we went to university. This was our spiritual home. Our legal standing did not come into our desire to be married to each other, nor did any financial consideration or thought of children. Our party was certainly the best ever (I hope we all believe that of our own!). Yet the essential element of our wedding day was our Rabbi (who happened to be my father) asking God to bless our marriage. I am now, myself a Rabbi of Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue. When my daughters – if they choose to – get married, I believe that I should have the religious freedom to ask God to bless their marriage, whether they are marrying a man or a woman. As a bridegroom, I enjoyed the rights and freedoms of being heterosexual. I know that sexuality is not a matter of choice. I believe that society has accepted that fact. If dogma is not to take the place of love, then it is time to progress our definition of the institution of marriage.

Do you remember my recent blog about Blades in the Dark? My friends and I played our one-off session, and it’s finally time to see what happened when my character, Lapis de la Nuit, joined up with Gwack Zextra and Alecia Petronova! (Please note that this blog entry is rated R and not intended for children!!! lol) The bells in the dilapidated clock-tower still worked. The sound of the midnight bells rang loudly through the dark, empty streets of the formerly rich district of the Six Towers in the city of Doskvol, where it is always night. Giant townhouses, slanted and concave, created organized rows of desolation. But on one street, a small cloaked man scurried and shuffled towards the one house on the block that seemed to have lights on inside. The little man was slow and quite old, but he knew precisely where he was going. He walked up the steps and started knocking with determination. This was the house of the “Seventh Tower” – an elite crew put together by Bazso Baz for high profile assassinations, heists and intel operations. Although, they certainly didn’t look like an elite crew based on their appearance. In the front parlor lay Gwack Zextra on a dusty chaise-lounge, sampling some new recreational drugs that he had just designed in his laboratory hours before. He was of strong build and would be an attractive man, if he weren’t constantly in a stupor. Gwack, also known as “G” within the crew, was a mastermind Leech – a saboteur and technician – and he battled with the struggles that come along with high intelligence; to him, knowing too much was a curse and he needed to quiet his mind through drugs and alcohol on a constant basis. High intelligence was less of a problem for Alecia Petronova, the crew’s Cutter. He was a dangerous fighter with a massive frame, and massive arms to boot. Alecia was always working out in his spare time, partly to take his mind off of the unfortunate turn that his life had taken. He once was a gladiator for a noble family and enjoyed many of the best riches the world had to offer. Unfortunately, in his youth, the noble home where he worked and lived was targeted by murderous thieves who robbed the estate and killed nearly everyone on the property. Almost everyone, but Alecia, aka “Cia”, survived and went off to make his own way. It hadn’t been easy until Bazso Baz, a well known gang leader, recognized Alecia’s strength and skills, and teamed him up with Gwack Zextra and a young woman called “Nightstar” who could speak to the dead. This young woman was really named Lapis de la Nuit, a Slide who was not only a spy and manipulator, she was an occultist. Her room was upstairs in the Seventh Tower’s hideout, where she worked by candle light to read tarot cards and conducted seances nightly. Lapis was slender and beautiful, and she grew up in a brothel with her mother (who ran it) so she knew how to use her feminine wiles to procure information and steal money when she needed it. However, despite being sexy and savvy, both Gwack and Alecia knew that Lapis was an odd-ball. She wore steampunk goggles to speak with ghosts, or “fantômes” as she called them, since she spoke French. Gwack was in no condition to be answering the door. He heard the knocking and turned his head. The banging continued, and got louder. Was it just in his mind? Could he hear a voice just outside the door, or was this all a dream? G made some flailing attempts to get out of the reclined position that he was in, but by the time he was upright, Alecia was already pushing him out of the way with his big, sweaty arms. Cia was never happy to be interrupted mid-workout, and G being too drugged out to even open the door wasn’t helping Cia’s mood. Their hideout wasn’t exactly a place where visitors came calling, so someone knocking at the door was a bit ominous. Cia peeked through the window curtains and saw the silhouetted figure’s small frame. Not feeling much of a threat, he cracked open the door and said gruffly, “You have the wrong address.” “I wish to speak with one who is called Alecia. I was sent by Madame Bloodsoe,” the dark figure whispered in reply. Cia immediately slammed the door shut in the stranger’s face. He sighed and paced back and forth. Why does this man know his name? The knocking on the door resumed. After a moment, Cia opened the door again and let the man in, who identified himself as Ekan. He asked Ekan to wait while he dumped a bucket of water on Gwack to help him sober up, and retrieved Nightstar from the attic. As she made her way downstairs, Lapis sensed a new spirit presence in the house that seemed to be seeking her help. With the crew assembled in the front hall, Ekan explained that Alecia knew Madame Bloodsoe, and Cia sighed and admitted that they once worked together, in a way. Ekan continued on and said that he was Bloodsoe’s personal medium, and that she had passed away. Lapis felt this was strange, and sensed that the spirit presence wanted to tell her something. Ekan continued on. “Madame Bloodsoe was murdered. She does not know how or why. She says she cannot rest in peace without finding out who murdered her, and without saving the “Bloodsoe Mace” which is a family heirloom that remains in her home to this day. Madame Bloodsoe worries that a gang will try to take over her mansion, so she wants the house destroyed.” At the word destroyed, Gwack seemed to perk up and pay attention. “If you can do all this and bring me the Bloodsoe Mace, I will pay you 4 Large Gold Coins for it. This is no small fee, as you know. Madame Bloodsoe prides herself on the preservation of this highly… treasured heirloom.” Ekan seemed to emphasize the word treasured in a strange way that gave Lapis even more unease. Nightstar decided to put on her steampunk goggles and see why the spirit was making her feel so unwell. Focusing her intention on the spirit, she could see the outline of a wealthy, older woman. “I was hoping you would find me,” the fantôme whispered. “Do not trust this man Ekan. Ask him to leave the room.” Lapis motioned with her head to Alecia, who wordlessly pushed Ekan into a side room and closed the door. “I am Madame Bloodsoe. I need your help to find my attacker, destroy the house and save the Mace; this much is true. But I cannot trust Ekan. Please help me, please!” The fantôme was desperate and beginning to wail, as Lapis knew they often did. While the ghost lamented, Lapis explained to the crew who the spirit was and what she wanted. Cia was skeptical, and decided to verify the ghost’s identity with a little test. He asked what they had eaten for dinner on the fateful night that Cia’s family was murdered. But the ghost of Madame Bloodsoe knew the right answer (it was rabbit) and Cia was convinced, and a little disturbed that his past was literally haunting him. “This man Ekan is not a good man. He wants to sell the Bloodsoe Mace in an auction and make a profit from my death. I heard him making arrangements!” Lapis continued to translate what the fantôme was saying to the rest of the crew. “WAIT! …What is going on?” Gwack interrupted, slightly slurring his words. Cia and Lapis rolled their eyes. The Ghost of Madame Bloodsoe continued, “I need you to complete the mission, but don’t give the Mace to Ekan. Bring the mace to Ricmoore Silverstok, my vault keeper. He will pay you the same and ensure that the heirloom stays in the family vault and not in the hands of an auctioneer for Ekan’s profit. You see, I was targeted by a gang of thieves. When I was murdered, my spirit was not able to rest and awakened in an area far from my home – something happened to me that is not right. I must find out what happened or I will never be able to move on and be at rest. Please help me!” Lapis parley’d the ghost’s message to her crew. They decided to get Ekan out of their house immediately. Cia steered the little man out of the house, but as he was pushed out, Ekan tried to get Cia to agree to bring him the Mace after the mission was complete. Instead of a handshake, Cia crushed Ekan’s hand and the small man was angry as he left the hideout. The crew asked more questions of Madame Bloodsoe’s ghost after Ekan left. How did she die, was it poison? An attack? But Madame Bloodsoe was not sure. She believed whatever happened must have been an attack from behind because she did not remember seeing anything. She was in the bedroom, someone must have broken into her home. Madame Bloodsoe also told them that the Mace was on display in the library. When she was alive there were servants in the home, but she did not know if the were alive anymore. She also didn’t know if they were trustworthy. She warned that the house is well secured and they would need to have a plan to get inside. Lapis reassured the spirit that they were on the case and she would be at rest very soon. But first, they had to wait a bit for Gwack to sober up. A few hours later, the crew was planning to enter the house via the cellar. The door seemed to have a very complicated lock, and through the glass panes they could see that there were lights on inside the mansion. First Cia tried to use a lockpicking kit, and Gwack tried to help him with his tinkering skills. Unfortunately, the mechanism jammed and made a loud metal screech. Then Gwack pushed Cia out of the way to tinker some more. Working furiously, he managed to break the entire lock off the door, making a huge bang that echoed down the deserted street. But… the door was now open. Cia led the way into the cellar. He had the good sense to remember to bring a delivery man uniform to make his way further into the house. After a few steps, a man dressed as a servant approached Cia and started questioning him. When it was clear that Cia was not really who he was pretending to be, Cia used a scary weapon to stab the servant – but not before getting grazed by a bullet from the servant’s pistol! Why would a servant have a pistol in the first place? The sound of the pistol fire sent Gwack and Lapis running in after Alecia, all the while knowing that this must have set off an alert to whoever is upstairs as well. Gwack was fixed on setting up his demolition tools to destroy the house at the end of the mission. This was something he had wanted to do for a long time. As he set up explosives at various parts of the foundation, he struggled because some of them were damaged. But an evil genius like Gwack had always wanted to blow up a building, and so was able to come up with new ways to make the explosives work. As G was busy setting up the demolition, Lapis used her own disguise kit to make herself look like a servant. She crept upstairs and stealthily found her way to the parlor, where she saw a man wearing a cloak and a white mask. The figure turned to her and tilted his head askew, as if confused to see her there. Lapis grabbed her Trance Powder from her pocket and blew it in the masked figure’s face. “I am a servant of this house and you will let me walk by freely,” she said to him simply. The figure was entranced but the powder made him sneeze loudly, and the noise brought a second masked figure running into the room. Using the remaining Trance Powder, Lapis disabled the second man and left them in the parlor. However, she could sense that there were two more men in the library down the hall, where the Bloodsoe Mace was waiting. At this time, Gwack made his way up to the hallway where Lapis was standing. Together they made their way to the staircase, The old stairs made loud creaking sounds, despite their best efforts to be quiet. This alerted the masked figures guarding the library, and they came running towards G and Nightstar, now trapped on the stairs. Cia appeared just at the right moment with his dragon’s clave weapon, eliminating one of the assailants with one bludgeoning blow. Deciding that Cia had things under control on the first floor, Gwack and Lapis rushed upstairs and found themselves in a fancy living area. Lapis put her steampunk goggles on and saw the ghosts of three servants sitting on the sofa, who verify that these masked assailants are the ones who murdered Madame Bloodsoe. Lapis and Gwack made their way further into the upstairs living space, and Gwack was attacked in the dining area. Using a defensive move, G flung his hands upward and without even meaning to, he stabbed the masked man in his eye! Meanwhile downstairs, Alecia was sparring off with the remaining attacker on the first floor. He tried to question the masked man, in between jabs from his fist. “Hopefully you’ll put up more of a fight than your friends!” Cia taunted him. But he quickly realized that this masked man was wearing armor under his cloak. Fighting in brawls wasn’t exactly Nightstar’s specialty, so she quietly moved past the dining area where Gwack was fighting, and down the hall to a closed door, presumably the bedroom. Lapis lightly knocked on the door and then opened it to find a single masked man alone in the room. There was a strong foul odor that hit her when she entered the bedroom, but Lapis tried to ignore it. “Oh lucky me, finding such a man alone in such a beautiful bedroom!” she said, closing the door and taking off her coat. “Why don’t you take off that cloak and let me see you?” Lapis turned on the charm, walking right up to this man and stroking his arm, helping him remove his clothing. The masked man complied eagerly. He removed his mask and his cloak. Lapis put her hands on his belt and looked up at him. “Who are you? What are you doing here in this house?” “I think you already know what we’re doing here. I’m a member of the Wraiths.” “The Wraiths!” Lapis exclaimed with horror. They were a well known, ruthless gang who committed many atrocities across Doskvol. Gwack heard Lapis’ yell this from the bedroom as he made a finishing blow on his assailant. His mind suddenly began to race. He knew that his drug dealer was connected to the Wraiths. Was this a group that he wanted to start trouble with? But suddenly he heard Cia struggling by the stairs with the remaining Wraith assailant downstairs, and G rushed down to help him. Back in the bedroom, the Wraith had fully disrobed and was pushing Lapis down onto her knees. “You’re lucky you found me. I will treat you very well. Just look how well I treated the last woman who was in this room!” He began to laugh, and gestured toward the closet in the corner. The door was open, and it was now obvious where the stench was coming from – Madame Bloodsoe’s dead body was seated in a heap, with her face carved off like a mask. “I carved a mask on her face with the power of the Wraiths so she wouldn’t remember what happened when she awoke as a pathetic ghost! We targeted the old bat so we could take her antiques, but her house is so comfortable, we decided to stay here. And why wouldn’t I want to stay here, when I have a young vixen like you just walking in the bedroom?” At that moment, downstairs in the library, Gwack was prying the Bloodsoe Mace from it’s display case. In his struggle, he damaged the heirloom a bit as he pried it off, but as soon as he held it in his hands, he knew what a strong weapon it was. Not that he needed it – Cia had finally finished off the armored Wraith, who was certainly much tougher than they had expected. As they caught their breath, they suddenly wondered where Lapis was. Upstairs in the bedroom, Lapis was trying to get away. This Wraith was clearly one of the leaders of this sadistic group, and he had no intention of letting Nightstar out of the room without having his way with her. Lapis pulled her pistol from the hidden holster in her skirt and took a shot at the Wraith, but she missed. The Wraith began to laugh again and pushed Lapis down onto the bed. The sound of the pistol upstairs sent Cia and Gwack running up to see what they could do to help. They barged into the room and Cia used his throwing knives to impale the Wraith as Gwack pulled him off of Lapis. Jumping off the bed, Lapis tried to stab at the Wraith, but missed again. Gwack was in prime position to impale the Wraith with the Bloodsoe Mace, knocking the final attacker to the floor. It was time to get out of there and finish the job. The Seventh Tower crew raced out of the house and as Gwack pulled out the detonator for the explosives, Cia asked if he could push the button. “Why do you hate Madame Bloodsoe this much?” asked Gwack. Cia explained that after his family was murdered, she tried to force him into servitude, and that was why he had to leave. Madame Bloodsoe wasn’t as innocent as she would have them believe. Alecia pushed the button. The house exploded and lit up the streets with fire, creating an eerie daylight appearance for a brief moment. In the light, Gwack realized that the Bloodsoe Mace was looking pretty gross. It was damaged and covered with blood and bits of brain. The crew worked together to clean and tinker with it to fix it up as best they could, and they took it to Ricmoore’s warehouse. However, after appraisal, Ricmoore decided to pay the crew only 3 Large Gold coins instead. The crew thought this was fair as they headed back to their hideout. One Large Gold coin each would carry them over until their next mission. Lapis knew that Madame Bloodsoe wouldn’t be bothering them anymore… but what about Ekan? Would he be giving them trouble now? And what about the Wraiths? When would they strike next? And Gwack continued to worry… did his participation in this mission mean that he just lost his best drug connection?? We hope you liked our one-off session of Blades in the Dark! It was really fun to play in this game world full of thieves and spies. Everyone is a bad guy! The game play was pretty simple too, but that might be been because of our abbreviated session. I’ve looked at some of the game materials and it definitely can become complex. Maybe someday I’ll get to play this game again. I highly recommend that gamers check it out!

Fantasy author Daryl Gregory’s newest novel, Spoonbenders. centers around the Telemachus family in the very distant and backwards year of nineteen-ninety-five. The Chicagoan family are anything but normal as they were once known “The Amazing Telemachus Family,” regularly touring the country and appearing on television. Following an unfortunate T.V. appearance that marked them as frauds, the family members adapt to everyday life, always plagued by feelings of lose and memories of glory days behind them. It’s only when the family is faced with a threat they find their heydays are not forever gone and that they truly are “Amazing”. At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, I sat down with Daryl Gregory and about talked about his life and work. Where did you get the idea come from for Spoonbenders? It came from two things: I knew I wanted to write about families in my books. I had a really quiet family, but I grew up in Chicago and I would go on sleepovers and visit my friends’ families and they would be slamming doors and people would be yelling at each other. I thought, “This is amazing! I want to have a family like this.” They were so dramatic. So, I wanted to write about a big, Catholic, Chicago family like that. That was sort of the start of it and all the psychic stuff came in too. But also… I grew up as a Cubs fan and that was when the Cubs were terrible and sucked year, after year. I wanted to write about that feeling of mediocrity. It’s like, “Look, your heydays were way past you. They’re probably never coming again.” But, you just show up every day and do your job and you think about what use to happen. That’s the way I grew up. The Cubs were my religion. My world view was severely damaged by them winning the World Series, however. I think it was a terrible mistake. Also, someone in Denver once explained to me when I was at a stop at a bookstore, “You know, when the Cubs won, that triggered the alternate timeline that we’re living in right now. We’re living in a world where anyone can become president, when anything can happen.” So, it’s the Cubs winning that and breaking the universe that leads to everything happening right now. How was the research for the book? I was reading books on stage magic, a lot of books on mentalism, how stage magicians fake mental powers and all the different techniques that they use, and I was also reading James Randi’s books. James Randi was the magician who debunked Uri Geller. I was reading his book and how Uri Geller got a lot of his tricks across. I was also reading a lot about card sharks. One of the characters, Teddy Telemachus, knows he has no powers and is kind of a con-man, but he made his living as a mechanic working poker games. The techniques they use are nothing but short of magic; The preparation that they go into. Also, there was a lot of research I did about the US government. [The US government] funded “Project Stargate” up until nineteen-ninety-five, doing all this psychic research, and Project Stargate is an important part of Spoonbenders. In the book, they’re trying to recruit the family into it. All that stuff now, through the Freedom of Information Act, all the Project Stargate notes including the tests of Uri Geller are all online. You can see every document that they were keeping throughout the seventies about how they tested these psychics. That was, like, amazing. Is that why the book s takes play in nineteen-ninety-five? Exactly! That’s the year that congress cut off funding and I wanted to set the book in that year. I also wanted the people at the right ages so we could do the sixties, the start of the government research, and do the heyday of Uri Geller in the seventies, and then be twenty-years after that. Do you believe in psychic power? I have to confess that I don’t. I’m such a skeptic and a materialist. But, I did go to this “Quantum-Spoon Bending” seminar. Me and my girlfriend went and paid fifty-five dollars apiece to “learn the secrets of bending spoons,” and they show up and hand us forks. I was like “Wait a minute, this is supposed to be spoon bending, not fork bending.” Anyway, he showed us these techniques and they all worked, but the way that they worked was basically through the powers of suggestion. There’s sixteen-people in this circle, we’ve all got forks, people have their eyes closed, and I opened my eyes because I’m basically there as a spy. Across the circle from me, there’s a woman just bending the hell out of her fork. Eventually, we all open our eyes and the teacher said, “How did it go?”, and this one woman raises her hand and says, “Um, I don’t know. I just felt the warmth roll through me. This energy, the arcturian light, flowed through my body and look, I have this bent fork.” And then, it was game on. Everybody in the circle closed their eyes again and trying different techniques, and everyone is bending forks all around this circle. By the end of the two-and-a-half-hour seminar, people are getting so fast at bending the forks… They weren’t doing it insincerely, they weren’t trying to fool each other, but they wanted to participate. They wanted to feel special. For Spoonbenders, I realized that this whole book is about this family that wants to feel special again, and I understand that feeling. So, it was a real important lesson for me. I learned about the way that stage magicians would fake bending spoons and the way that they prepare things, but I realized it’s a lot simpler than that. People want to participate and the only real energy that they were using was kinetic energy and maybe a lot of enthusiasm and optimism. With Spoonbenders now being out, have you had any “Shucks, I should have put that in” moments? Oh, I had a couple. One, there’s the little things in which as soon as the book is printed, you go through it and find mistakes. The French translator found an error that got into English and the German translator found an error too. I was like “We’ll just have to fix it in the next printing, guys.” They read it very carefully as they are translating it to be printed. Another thing was when I was talking to the screen writer, as they’re trying to make this into a television show, and I was talking to Nicole Beede, who’s writing this outline, and she was explaining to me how the first episode is going to break out. She came up with this great idea with compressing several events that happen over a couple years. She’s like, “You know, all these could happen in the same day.” I’m like, “Of course they could. Damnit!” I wanted to go back and do that. I thought it was just a beautiful idea. I think it’s going to be a great adaptation, if it ever gets to be a T.V. show. But you know, you mostly try not to look back because if you do, it will just go on and on, and I will just want to keep re-writing it. If the show does come to be, are you going to have an active hand in it? No, they haven’t talked about that yet. But probably the smart thing for me to do would be to stay away. We’ve talked about maybe writing an episode, but that’s their own art form and they’ve got to make it into their own story, to make it work for the screen, and I know they’re really good with that. I want their story to work. Maybe I will do something and maybe I will learn screenwriting, but they need to do what they do best. I just need to go on and write the next book. It’s probably the smartest thing for me to do. What were your favorite books growing up? Let’s see. Roger Zelazny… like every kid my age I was reading. J.R.R Tolkien, I got my mind blown in my Sophomore year of high-school when I read Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, cause I know it was supposed to be satire for adults, but I thought it was just an amazing book that I realized “Wow, you can pretty much do anything,” and things that I thought of as science-fiction were actually part of mainstream literature just really going back to the start of writing. What have been your influences in your work? My influences vary depending upon the book. For Spoonbenders, there were a bunch of different books that fed into it. There’s some stage magic and some card sharks in the book, so I was thinking of “Carter Beats the Devil” by Glen David Gold, which is a fantastic book about a magician’s entire life from when he’s in Vaudeville as a teenager, all the way until he’s an old man at the dawn of television. Then there was a lot of non-fiction by James Randy who was a stage magician who debunked people like faith healers and psychics. His books were really-influential. But for the large sense, there’s some people who are constant influences for me; Roger Zelazny, I’ve read most of Philip K. Dick, and John Crowley’s “Little Big” was a huge one. “Little Big” is about an extended family and they’re all vaguely magical. It’s the same kind of feeling of Spoonbenders, in that you’re not sure if they are really-magical or if they just believe they’re magical. Why do you write fantasy? Yeah, I feel like I had no notice. I mean, I feel like I was imprinted. For some reason, I was an English major and a Theatre major and so I’ve read the classics. Maybe this goes back to reading mythology stories when you’re a kid, but magic and the fantastic use to be a regular part of literature. It wasn’t considered a separate genre. The gods were involved, magic was involved; That was just a fact of the world. And so, I was always attracted to stories where something strange was going on, and I felt like when I started writing I didn’t want to leave any of that out. That gets me going, when there’s something actually-weird going on and it works as a metaphor at the same time. In Spoonbenders for example, one of the characters, Irene, she’s the human lie-detector. It makes her relationships impossible because she can hear the lies. Her son is Matty, who’s fourteen. Imagine the hell of having your mom be a human lie detector. Like, a lot of us think our mom has this power and they certainly want us to believe they have this power, so I really like that dynamic. There’s one point in the book where his mom says to Matty, “Have you been smoking pot?” He knows he can’t answer directly, so he answers in the form of a question. He says, “Currently?” Everybody in the family has learned to answer Irene in the form of a question and eventually she just yells at them, “Stop Trebeking me!” So, I like the absurd and the surreal, but ultimately I like to have it be psychologically realistic at its heart. It has to be meaningful for me at the emotional level or it doesn’t work. You’ve done some graphic novels with Boom! Studios and IDW. How as that compared to writing for regular prose? Yeah… I mean, I grew up on comics, and so I got into comics because I express jealousy in my friends who are doing them. Chris Roberson and Bill Willingham basically brought me in. Chris Roberson gave my first novel to Boom and said, “You might want to look at this guy.” I got to write with Kurt Busiek for my first comic and then do the “Planet of the Apes” series for a couple years… It was just fantastic. I love how it’s a whole different kind of writing. It’s very “visual-first.” I love working hand-in-hand with an artist. Like, that was amazing to do. My first love probably will always be novels, but I love the whole comic process, I love the whole collaborative part. It’s a lot less lonely than just sitting in a coffee shop for hours, and hours, and hours alone. What is the next book? I don’t know. Well, here’s what I do know. I have a young-adult series with the Tor team called the “Harrison Squared” series and I’m just working on book two write now, that’s almost done. There will be a book three down the road. But, the next adult novel is in such a weird amorphous stage. When I’m on a book tour, people always ask “What’s the next thing?” and I always feel like I’m coming out of the hospital with a new baby and they’re like “That’s a great baby. When’s your next baby? Are you going to do anything different with the next one?” I’m just trying to enjoy the moment, HAHA.

Let us be honest... we so often see people or interact with people and think to ourselves… ”what is wrong with that person?” A normal response... But what if we shifted the focus and asked them... “what happened to you in your story that has effected the way you are responding today?” Imagine: You are driving down the street and you see a young girl, barely enough clothes on to cover her feminine features, begging for the attention from surrounding men, clearly abusing alcohol or some other substance, falling down, drunk. Imagine: A young boy in a classroom who can not focus on the task to save his life... driving his teachers and peers to the edge. Imagine: A 49 year old man who has been in and out of rehab more times than you can count on one hand. Lost his business, his family, his sanity. What is wrong with them? -She was abused by her uncle from age 5-10. Never shown what true love and respect looks like. -He has been in 3 foster homes in the last year and his mother abused drugs when she was pregnant and gave him up for adoption at age 3. -He never knew his mother and his father raised him and struggled with his own mental health and addition issues. “People are harder to hate close up. Move in.” This is in line with the chapter from Brene Brown’s book "BRAVING THE WILDERNESS" “We're going to need to intentionally be with people who are different than us. We're going to have to sign up, join, and take a seat at the table. We're going to have to learn how to listen, have hard conversations, look for joy, share pain, and be more curious than defensive, all while seeking moments of togetherness.” Lets take it one level deeper... I recently read an article that highlights the connection between childhood (and general) trauma and how it manifests in our present reality, personality, and behaviors. This is a quote from that article.... "A well-established and growing body of evidence tells us the developing brain is an extraordinarily adaptive organ. When a child is raised in an environment with toxic levels of stress, the structure and chemistry of his or her brain evolves accordingly. So a child who is wired for survival in a hostile environment may have a tough time focusing and behaving as expected in a classroom.” Okay... so what do we do??? The article goes on to say... “The developing brain, however, is malleable not just in response to adversity. Nurturing, positive, and trusting relationships with adults can repair damage done and reshape the brain’s neuro-architecture in a way that is advantageous to the child—as well as society." Can we provide nurturing, positive and trusting spaces? Communities? Relationships? Can we move in. To each other. Listen. Show up. It would behoove us to move from judgement to compassion. It is time. Just look at the news for 5 seconds. It is time. I must add... This is not a call to be mushy and spineless. This is a call for accountability as well. But accountability with compassion. It feels vital in our world today. The invitation is to level up. To face our own stuff. To own our stories and pain so that we can hold others in theirs. We need each other to be a safe places to land, to be heard, to be known, to be loved, and to move forward together. We need therapists, teachers, ministers, parents, friends, family to take the risk of softening and listening. So the next time you are disgusted by that guy on the news channel or that person who commented on your Facebook or that co-worker that you just can’t stand... Move in with compassion. Become curious about what is behind that persons reality and your response to them. This is not a call to be best friends with everyone or to approve of lifestyles outside your judgement and value system. Do not confuse my words. This it is a call for awareness, curiosity, processing, and peace. People are harder to hate close up, move in. I imagine this is true for myself as well. The more compassion I offer to myself, the more I experience myself as loved and held. I have often found myself scattered, exhausted, confused, overwhelmed, running to hard, messy, struggling with this and that and in a shaming tone asking myself “what is wrong with you SC??” But instead, could I move into myself and take a look around and show myself a little compassion. We are all carrying more than we know. We are harder to hate close up.

|Excerpts from the Valley Ventura - 9/14/1907 to 12/7/1907| The Valley Ventura was a newspaper that served northeastern Cumberland and part of western Atlantic Counties in the early years of the twentieth century. It's editor was a man with a keen interest in local history. Armed with a journalist's curiousity and with information he had gleaned from his other career as a surveyor, he produced a series of articles relating to the history of the area. They excerpts also include some local news. This does not represent a full run of the paper. The issues referenced here reside at the Vineland Historical Society. They were discovered by Mark Demitroff and subsequently transcribed(with great care to preserve the original spelling and syntax) by Gail Benson. If you have any further information about this newspaper or know the location of other issues, please contact this site. Mary C. Hutchings September 14, 1907 Historical Sketches of Landisville By the Editor - Chapter I Travellers over the N.J. Central R.R., between Vineland and Winslow Junction for long years had seen o solitary mansard roof brick building which stood opposite the place where the brakeman called out ³Landisville², and they wondered whether the infant town would ever grow. But, cradled in the forest it continued to sleep on and on, until the hum of industry reached its ear from the near-by town of Minatola, when lo! it awoke, and surprised the travelles by its phenomenal growth in the few years pst. It was awayback in the ³60s² that the little town was born, and Mrs. Chittenden and Mr. & Mrs. Ditman were the first purchases, and with indomitable courage they cleared a spot in the wilderness, and proceeded to build. Mre. Chittendon appears to have an intuitive presentiment that a town would eventually spring up as she put up the mansard roof brick building which still is stinding. This was the nucleus of the town, and afterwards became store, Post Offic, and Rail Road station, gave Landisville a place on the map. Many an acre, Mr. Marcus Fry, the pioneer surveyor, surveyed when the region was a comparative wilderness, and he knows how discouraging the outlook was. Mrss Chitienden opened the first store which was patronized mainly by Jersey famers, who found it more convenient than going to Downstown, ³Fislerville² (Clayton), or other places to do their trading. Joseph Vannaman afterward kept a store there, as did also Mrs. Ditman, whose husband was the first Post Master. Mrs. Ditman has been a resident for more than forty years, and says there's only Landisville in the world, and she is satisfied to spend her remaining days here. She has watched its infant slumbers, and was present at its awakening, and has sesn the wonderful development of the last few years, and says the people are harmonious and law-abiding, prosperous, and happy, and she feels a deal of pride and satisfaction as she notes the changes. To be csntiued. September 21, 1907 ber the old house, a reminder of ³Ye olden time², would scarcely recognize it now. Roy Lewis of Rosenhayn is Principal of the school here. Mrs. Miller of Oak is going to move to Mrs. Somers' house on Tuckahoe avenue. Mrs. Wm. H. Lore formerly of Vineland is the guest of Mrs. Israel Baker. Mr. John Morris of Bridgeton, i visiting his son James and daughter Mrs. Rosanna Baker. Miss Maud Corsiglia a popular young woman from Richland is Telegraph operator and station Agent at Buena. Lawyer Reed's handsome new suburban home will soon be completed. It is finished throughout in the most up-to-date style. But we forgot it isn't a new house, but an old-one made over, and whose who remem- (first line apparently the continuation of this one) Mrs. Lewis Brown is spending the week at Millville. Mrs. Myrtie Laka of Atlantic city is visiting her sister Mrs. Jacob hager. Chas. Wray's new house on Summer ave will soon be ready for occupancy. A daughter was born last Friday to Mr. & Mrs. Weeks. Mrs. Albert Ernest left Tuesday for a trip to Niagara Falls, taking advantage of the reduced fare, with a number of Vineland excursionists. Mrs. Jennie, & Mrs. Harry Dickson have relurned from Port Elizabeth. The Jonas Department store has been very fortunate in securing so accomplished a sales woman as Miss Emma Clark. Mrs. Elizabeth Dubler, mother of Doctor Dubler, has been ill with serious complica- for the past eleven weeks, but is somewhat improved at this writing. Mrs. Cline's valuable saddle horse died last Tuesday morning after a short illness, and there were some suspicios that it might have been poisoned. ³ATOUR AROUND the WORLD² will be given this evening under the direction of the Epworth League. Five countries wili be visited, and the Oriental customs, dress and manners will be well worth seeing. A cordial invitation is extended to all who would like to see the Orient. Mrs. C. Natillo of Phila., has been spending the summer with her father since the death of her mother, Mrs. Julia Minofia. She wishes to rent the farm before return- home. Historical Sketches of Landisville By the Editor - Chapter II Among those who have resided here the longest during recent years, the Martinelli Bros. Are probably the bet known. Andrew, who keeps a large hotel and boarding house, probably takes in more money than any one except his brother Dominick. They have lived in the vicinity upwards of twenty years. Dominick controls the largest business interests of any one in that section of South Jersey, except George Jonas of Minatola. He is an Italian by birth, and came to this country some years previous to his arrival here. After settling at Landisville, he engaged with Mr. Landis, the founper of Vineland, as agent and Interpreter, to represent his interests in the locality, and he was a very reliable and successful agent for ten our twelve years, when he started his business for himself. He has enlarged his business from time to time, until he now has, beside his Real Estate Office, a large Departmens store, a saw mill, a well-equipped machineshop, and a plumbing and steam fitting establishment. Charles F. Reidel is one of the successful residents whose enterprise is seen in the large shipments of fruit and produce, and the nice home he has built opposite the R.R. station. Mr. F. V. Dunfee formerly of Vineland is the popular Station Agent and Telegrpher, and attends to all the freight and shipping business. Mr. R. Fughell came from Italy ten years ago, but has lived at Landisville only two, in which time he has established the first shoe store in the town, and stocked it with a well-selected line of goods. Mr. Catvoli has been in America three years, and since coming to Landisville has built the first saw mili, and a large store & dwelling, and also has a blackfmith & wheel wright shop in connection with his mill. Mr. Leonel is one of the enterprising business men who has built up a good trade. He has general store, and a wheelwright & blacksmith show oppocite. He has been here five years, and is well pleased with this part of Jersey. Mr. Almero Francesca has the first meat market, also a well-filled sry,goods stote. The building is large, and is a great addition to the town. Mr. Archibald Cook of east Oak road, is an old Vinelander, and has there 31 years. He is doing a good business as a Lumber Dealer and carries a good supply of all kinds of building material. He goes back and forth daily from his home on Oak road, east of Brewster, to his lumber, yard which is on the south side of the New Jersey Cen. To be csntiued September 28, 1907 Mr. Norman McConnell of Newtonville, is SupervisingPrinciple of the schools. Mr. Phipps recently a teacher in the Phillippine is Principal of the village school. Misses Bessie & Emma Tomlin of Atlantic city, and Mrs. John C. Taylor of Cape May C.H., have the guests of Mrs. Parsons. Mr. & Mrs. Wm. Craig have moved from Atlantic city and will reside on Pacific ava. Miss Bertha Edsal of Hammonton is the Intermediate techer, and Miss Minnie Cook the Primary at the Central school Mrs. Walter Armstrong has returned to her home in Washington D.C., after a two months visit with her mother rs. Benjamin Vannaman, where she has been since the death of her father on August 24 th . Historical Sketches of Landisville By the Editor Chapter III George Sharp is among the number who have made for themselves comfortable homes surrounded by flowers and shrubbery in the outskirts of Landisville. He and his family came from Folsom six years ago and he is employed at the Glass factory. Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Brown also belong to the the industrious and thrifty class whose flower embowered cottage bespeaks the taste of the inmates. Mr. C.A. Gross who came from Bucks Co Pa., 37 yrs. Ago, has a nice home on Weymouth road north of the N.J. Central R.R. He has held several important offices beside attending to his farm. He served as town clerk four years and 3 yrs as Township Collector, and was also one of the Township Committee four years Mr. Gross has also taught school several years, and it will be seen by his recerd, that his life has been a busy one. It was soon after the Vineland Railway was built to connect with the N.J. Southern that the late Charles K. Landis conceived the idea of establishing another town similar to Vineland which ahd such a phenomenal growth during its pioneer life, and it was ³Landisville: in his honor; but it did not develop as he had hoped it might, never-the-less he had hhpes that it might some- be the commercial center of a growing population who would clear the land, and till the soil. nd such it now is, - the centre from Mr. Joseph Fair who lives about two miles west of the R.R. station between Forest Grove and Downstown, is one of the old settlers and came here from (cannot read begins with P). He brought with him the energy and force of character which always go to make a desirable citizen and a successful man. His well kept farm and nice home is a demonstration of the above facts. We intended to finish the sketches of Landisville, and follow with a chapter of Buena; but, as it would necessarily be short, will wait until next week. We are also preparing historical sketches of Downstown, Piney Hollow, or Victoria, Lake Malaga & Norma. To be csntiued October 5, 1907 Historical Sketches of Buena By the Editor - Chapter IV The following lines were suggested by the ruins of an old charcoal mill which are seen on the Tuckahoe road afew rods west of Buena station on the W. & S.R.R. It was built sometime in the early part of the 19 th after the war of 1812, when the woods were full of charcoal pits, and the smoke curled upward from hundreds of charcoal burners' huts. These cabins were of the most primitive structure imaginable, and contained only room devoid of comfort, there being no furniture except a rude bunk made of roughly hewn timder and benches and table of the same rude construction. The wants of these people were few. When their week's wages wore daid, they went to Millville, Malage, Bridgton, whichever town was nearest. They returged with a week's supply of eornmeal, whiskey, tobacco and porb. The charcoal after being crushed was taken to Philadelphia with ox teams before the advent of horses, where it found a ready market. Charcoal beds and huts were still to be seen in the woods around Vineland as late as '67, but are very scarce now. To be csntiued THE OLD CHARCOAL MILL Beside the road its ruins stand, October 12, 1907 Mr. & Mrs. Winfield Berry have moved from Bridgeton to West Avenue. Margarel & Banks, Contractors, are putting up a new dwelling corner of Lincoln avenue and Wheat road, for Mr. Savoli. Mr.Chas. Chalmers Superintendent of the State Grange attended a special session of that body rast Saturday at Newton,Sussex Co. Over 100 took the 6 th Degree, and 68 took the Pomona Degree. John Campbell & family of Oak roao ate ripe strawberries last Tuesday, and if their plants do as well as some which he had three years ago they will be picking and eating untll Thanksgiving Day. That year his last shipment was made on Movember 4 th , and on Thanksgiving Day Mrs Campbell took quarts to Phila., and they had been having all the month. the last berry was picked on Christmas; it was ripe, but was encased in ice. R.W. CHEW'S RESTAURANT CENTRAL AVENUE, MINATOLA, N. J. You can get OYSTERS in every style, Pie & Milk, Tobacco, Cigars & Soft Drinks, SOUVENIR Post Cards. This is headquarters for them. Passengers on the New Jersey Central train from New York last Wednesday evening, had an experience the will not forget. Visions of hot suppers and a warm welcome at home danced through their brains as they approached Cedar Lake. But those hot suppers vanished when the road bloked by a coal car which lay across both tracks and no telegraph office within six miles!! The only alternative for the passenger train was to back seven miles to Winslow Junction. dragging the freight cars which had been left oa the main track while the coalcarwas being shifted, and wire to Lakchurst, 38 miles away, for the wrecker, and then wait for it to pass. In the mean time the rear coach of the passenger train had been transformed into a dining & sleeping car, and while a few of the belated travelers slept, most of them chatted and laughed and found the situa-amusing as well as vexing. But it was not until they had waited on the switch at Cedar Lake for three long freight trains to pass northward, and had again gotten under ³headway² that they really believed they would get home before morning. Mrs. L. H. Miller, Mrs. W. P. Lyzo,t and the writer were the three Vineland women enjoyed(?) the free ride to Cedar Lake and (note: column ends abruptly and does not appear to continue elsewhere in the issue) Historical Sketches of Buena - By the Editor Chapter V (note that Oct 19 column is also labeled Chapter V) Much relating to the pioneer life of the early settlers was lost, when they died, and all that remains is that which has been handed down through several generations. This is unfortunate not only for the people of today, but for future generations as well. Not even a moss-grown tombstone marks the last resting place of some of them, and it is reported that one of these old burial grounds was sold years ago, and plowed up They lived and toiled amid great privations and discouragements, clearing the land which in those days was heavily timbered, building their log cabins and tilling the soil. Those who have inherited these lends can have no idea of the privations and inconvenience experienced by thos pioneers when southern Ndw Jersey was a ³howlin' wilderness.² Their corn was sometimes toted on their backs to Cumberland or Bridgeton to before the mill was built at Malaga, and those jonrneys were not unfraught with daugers from wild beasts. Bears, wolves, panthers, & wild cats were found in the woods, and often made the nights hideous with their cries. Fortunately for those pioneers, deer and other wild game were plentiful, while turkeys, geese, pidgeons & pheasants could be killed at any time. Wild fruits & nuts grew everywhere, and were a God-send to these people. Among the prominent names of first laudholders, were the Campbells, Cakes, Bakers, Vananmans and Morrises. Theold house built by Mr. Archibald Campbell more than 100 years ago, is still standing on the Tuckahoe road about half a mile southeast of Buena station. The tiny window panes, 4x6 inches, and the heavy doors, with hinges two feet in length are still thers to prove its antiquity, and Benjamin Campbell the present owner and occupant says he means to keep them as long as he can. He is one of ten children born to Mr & Mrs. Archibald Campbell, during the first half of the last century, and four grandchildren and a great-grand daughter also born uuder the same roof, make four generations wnic have been sheltered there, and called it home some of whom nave passed out to make for themselves homcs elsewhere. The great grand child was a daughter born to Mr. & Mrs. Gardur Campbell of Medford. The old well dug a century ago, is still there, where the four generations with mana a thirsty travller have quenched their hirst, while they rested under the shade of the giant trees. Mr Campbelt keeps a house of entertain-foi hunters who come from all parts of the state during the season. To be continued The poem THE OLD CHARCOAL MILL which was in the October 5 issue and copied above appeared in this issue as well below Chapter V. October 19, 1907 Historical Sketches of Buena By the Editor - Chapter V The oldest of the original settlers of Buena now living is Mr. John Morris who resides in Bridgeton. He will be 89 on the 14 th of next November, and is in the enjoyment of good health. His mind is clear, and his faculties unimpaired, which is remarkabl for one of so advanced an age. He livdd at Buena upwards of 65 years, long before Vineland was started, or thought when the tract lying between Malaga and May's Landing & Bridgeton was a wilderness, broken here and there by an old Jersey farm. A few of the old houses still remain, but some have been torn down, and others have been modernized. The nearest Post Office was Millville, eleven miles distant Mr. & Mrs. Morris raised a large family, and be has lived to se them well-settled in life. Mr. Morris in contrasting the early scenes with which he was familiar, with those of today, notes with pleasure the changes which have taken place throughou, the surrounding country. Factory whistles, hum of machinery, blasts of the locomotive are heard instead of the scream of the panther, hoot of the owl, and howl of the wolf. The oldest land-mark of which Buena can boast is the hotel corner of Tuckahoe and Wheat, or Maule's Bridge road, as it was formerly called. This hotel was built in 1779 by Mr. John Campbell, Great-great-grand-father of Mrs. U. A.Creamer of Vineland. It will be seen that the old hotel is nearly as old as the Declaration of Independence. It was called ³Campbell's Tavern² until after the Mesican War, when it was givena he Spanish name, Buena Vista by Mr. Geo.B. Cake Sr., who purchased it of Mr. John Madden in 1848, who had owned it since 1832. The town has been known by that euphonious title since, until recently ³Vista² was dropped because there is another town by that name in the state. It was for many years the Relay house for the stage lines on Maule's Bridge and Tuckahoe roads, where the horses were exchanged for fresh ones. If the o'd hotel could speak, it might tell strange tales of what it has seen and heard around the blazing hearth in the bar-room, and dining room where the guests used to sit and tell of the adventures of their Gran-thers with the Indians, and in the Revolutionary War, and the war of 1812. 21 years of the 18 th century, 100 of the 19 th , and seven of the 20 th , have left their whirling record behind, and still the old relic of a hundrod years keeps its vigils as it did in the Long ago. But a different element now crosses the threshold. It is no longer the way-traveller of the stage coach, going back and forth from Philadelphia, unless they are traveling in an automobile, because the electric & steam cars ca-ry the on-rushidg people. Mr Joseph Guiffra is the present owner. A few years ago a large old-time dwelling stood on the opposite corner from the old hotel. This was known as the home of Mr. & Mrs. Ferrill, and family, wholeft there about 30 years ago. Their daughter Annie became the wife of Mr. U. A. Creamer, and although the old place i. Endeared by a thousand fond ties, yet her social and religious interests are identified with Vineland. Lawyer Reed, who came to Buena twenty years ago from Philadelphia, is the present owner of the Ferrell home, and has had it re-modelled so that it bears little resemblance to the old home of the Ferrelrs. Mr. Ferrell was one of the best and most infludntial os Buena's residents. Lawyer Reed came in quest of health, and found it in a short time; but the great seasids resorts were not booming then, and Lakewood was unknown. He is a native of Dover, Del., where he practiced law 20 years previous to going to Phila., where he remained three years. Mr. Reed was a member of the Legislature in Delaware in 1867, and ran on the Douglas ticket in 1860. He has Chosen Free Holder nineteen years, and on the ticket again. But he is also a successful farmer. He bo't a farm on the Tucahoe road north west of the town when he first came to Buena, where he and his family resided until the daughter and two Sons were married and went to homes of sheir own. Mrs. Reed who is fond of society, has found country-life very lonely. Lawyer Reed af Atlantic city, who is President of the Board Walk National Bank, is Mr. & Mrs. Reed's younger son. Their elder son is in business in Philadelphia. To be csntiued October 26, 1907 should have had Chapter VI, but it does not appear. Picks up with chapter VII on November 2 Please note that the column on October 19 is a full column and perhaps was intended to be two chapters and cover two weeks. November 2, 1907 Historical Sketches of Buena By the Editor Chapter VII Frank, son of ³Uncle Archie² Campbell was not satisfied to settle down in Jersey's most of his ancestors had done, consequent, he broke away from the old scenes, and associations, and went to Virginia more than forty years ago. Two of his daughters, Mrs. Irrick and Mr. Hornsby with their husbands and families, came to Bueac about 18 years go, where they have since lived. Mr. Irrick and Mr. Hornsby bought adjoining farms on Wheat road, near Buena station, which they keep in a good state of cultivation. The former was with Dr. Cook the state Geologist, and Dr.Bowser when they made the geological survey. Heis well informed as to the altitude of New Jersey and it is very interesting to hear him explain how they find the altitude of any point, and the accuracy with which the scientific survey was mabe. Simeon S. Brown who lives on the north side of Wheat road opposite the abov, was born at Dorchester, this state, but came to Buena in childhood. He is employed asadriver by the Geo. Jonas Co. His wife is a daughter of the lase Phillip and Mrs. Rosanna Baker, life-long residents of Buena. The Baker homestead is on Tuckahoe road, west of the station, where Baker and son Phillip Jr. reside. She is a daughter of Mr. John Morris, the oldest survivor of Buena's old-time residents, a sketch of whose life has already been published. Mr. & Mrs. CharlesWray whose lovely uburban home is near the Buena cross road are among the best known and most influential of the later residents. They have always been hospitabre, and public spirited, and their nome is the center of attraction for for old and young who enjoy the social gatherings, and Church festivities. Mr. Wray is a pillar in the church and has held various offices of trust outside. To him was assigned the pleasant task of writing the history of the church the famous old ³Friendship church,² of which we read so frequently. And he has done it well. He presented us with a copy and we found it very interesting and well-written, and shows evidence of much research. Mr. Wray kindly gave us permission to glean any information we might desire for publication. Appreciateing his kindness, we gladly availed ourself of the oppo.tunity, we shall next wcek give a sketch of the old church. John Newman, who lives on Tuckahoe road opposite Mrs. Rosanna Baker, formerly tived in Vineland. It was during the early years, when the town was new, when only two Grocery stores flourished here, aud there was no Baker House, but the ³Cumberland Hotel² stood where the former now stands. His wife is a daughter of Mrs. Baker. To be continued November 2, 1907 Historical Sketches of Buena By the Editor Chapter VIII Ninety nine years is to most people more than a life-time, and today as we take up the histor of the old ³Friendship² church which covers that period, we note the vast changes which have taken place everywhere. Kingdoms have arisen and passed away; Empires have crumbled; Republios have been born; the greatest scientific discoveries the world has ever know have been made, and the advancement in knowledge and inventions are such as no one had ever dreamed of, and are startling in their magnitude and importance. Many changes have taken place around the old church since it was built in 1808. The deed, which is the only authentic record of the church to be had.is dated May 8 th 1808and was recorded in the Gloucester county clerk's office on November 4 th of that year. This deed was given by William & Hope Hollinshead, and is supposed to have been a gift to the church the grantors, as only the nominal price of $1.00 is usmed. The first Trustees were John Smith, Joel Stewart, William Ackley, John Veal, John Veal, John Smith, Jr., George Smith and Thomas Champion. The following namesof later trustees are also foun l on th back of the deed: Elected July 29 th . 1824. John Veal, Wm. Ackley, Aquilla Downs, Nathan Girard and Henry Veal; elected June 26 th 1860, Chartes Dowus secretary, Gco. Down, Wesley Vannaman, Ambrose Pancoast and Archibald Campbell. The last election written on the old deed was June 4 th 1866, viz; Osborn Downs, Pres.: John Walker Dewns sec.; Geo. Downs, Treas. The first ³Circutt Pre chers² wereRevs Benjamin Iliff & Daniel Higby who were the faithful ministers in 1803,when this regeon was an almost unbroken wilderness; when the this grand Republic was in its infancy, and ndt the mistress of the world as she is today; when the Methodist church was only 24 years old, having been organized in 1784,and had comparatively few adherents, and had not grown to such magniiceut proportions. It has long been a source of wonder why this church was built in so isolated a place instead of near a settlement, but it is probable that the location was not of their choosing, but being a gift was received with grataful hearts and being central was easy of access to the sparsely settled districts. The farm on Weymouth road near the N.J.C.R.R., was uon all accounts, the clearing nearest to the church, and it was in this house which was standing on that farm when the church was built, that the meetings were first held. This old dwelling was burned in September 1855. It is a matter for much regret that so many of the old landmarks, around which there clusters so much of historic value, could not have been preserved. In 1808, May's Landing and Millville, the nearest towns, were only small villages, and Bridgeton was not much larger. To be continued November 16, 1907 Historical Sketches of Downstown By the Editor - Chapter IX One of the most striking and pleasing features of the old towns is the grand old trees one sees everywhere. Each town visited has more or less of them. They stand by the roadsides, in groups on the lawn, or or in groves at the rear their giant . measuring from nine to eighteen feet in circumference, while their giant limbs reach out in every direction, and afford a grateful shade in summer. You can always know when yoy are approaching an old town by the large trees. They give the town an air of antiquity, and much to the picturesque beauty. Salem, Bridgeton, Greenwich and all the old Jersey towns, whether in north, south, or central New Jersey, are noted for their old trees, and when one looks at them, they point to the past to Revolutionary times. Aquilla Down was the first settler in the quaint little hamlet which was named for him. He baught 3000 acres in the heart of the forest, remote from any settlement, and built the first house and barn, the latter of which is still standing on the road which goes to Forest Grove, about half a mile east of where the school house now stands. They were built of hewn timber, in the most durable manner. The house w s replaced with a larger and more pretentious one some time during the last century. It must have real of courage on the part of Aquilla Down and his good wife to set- in such a wilderness, but they came of good old stock, and were not easily daunted. But it would riy the courage of some of Grandmother Downs great-grand daughters if they were living in the woods two miles from any house, and had to spin wool or flax as she did while she rocked the cradle with one oot, and listened to the wolves howling not far away. It would also try them if they saw a bear come out of the woods, seize a sheep and get away with it. Mr. Down gave each of his children a farm so that the large estate was in the family for many years. Mr. Puglio, a successful Italian farmer now owns the original homestead. It seems a pity that it could not have been retained in the family instead of pesing to strangers. To be continued November 23, 1907 no heading, but appears to be a continuation ends in mid-sentence with no indication of a continuance. What is there reads as follows: Mr. & Mrs. Aquilla Downs had five sons and two daughters, viz., Osborn, Charles, John, George, and Jesse, Aunr Sarah Berry & Aunt Keziah Kandle. Their descendants are widely scattered, through the far west, and throug nearby states while a great mano are found in this locality. Only two now reside at Downstown, William Comer and Charles D. Pancoast, both of whom are geat grand sons of Aquilla Downs. Mr. Comer resides at the intersection of Brewster, Forest Grove and Williamstown roads' He has always been anxious that the town might develop, and has been identified with the administration of township affairs in various ways. He is extensively engaged in crnnberry culture. Charles D. Pancoast is proprietor of the old Downstown saw mill which, although it stands in the heart of the town, has not seen the light of three centuries as some of the old houses have. It was built in 1862, when this country was in the throes of the Civil War. Before tha, time lumber for the resieents of this locality and for miles in all directions, were obliged to go to Pancoast's mill several miles east of Buena. This mill was built more than a hundred years ago, by Champion Campbell, a relative of Uncle November 30, 1907 Historical Sketches of Downstown By the Editor Chap. XI Through some mistake the blame for which has not been located, there was a terrible mix-up in last weeks historical sketches. The heading was entirely left out, chapter and all, the ending was abrupt, and a most interesting part missing. As it closed with the middle of a sentence, this chapter commences wheret the other left off. Archie Campbell, a sketch of whose life was published several weeks ago, but the mill which we wish to consider is the Downstown mill mentioned in the foregoing chapter. This old mill has been running continuously since 1862, except when shut down for slight repairs. The engine is one of the old Marine engines built by Merrick & Sons Phila., in 1850. It had been thrown away for old iron when Mr. Pancoast's father, who had gone to Phila., to purchase an engine, discovered, brought it home, and it was setup and has always given satisfaction. Mr. Pancoast is very proud of its record. The smokestack of this mill is 55 feet high, aud contains 50,000 brick,and 100 perch of stone. The steam whistle can be heard for miles. It was impossible to trace all the descendents of Aquilla Downs without going a deal of expense, which would not pay, consequently, weceu meetion only a few. Charles, the second son has numerous descendents in this locality, and among them maybe mentioned the family of his daughter Sarah, wife of J.A. Ross. Their home is on the Tuckahoe road, or what is known ou the east side of Tuckahoe road, and on the west side as Malaga road. This place is now owned by Mr. A. Ahquist who has lived there ten years. The house is a very ancient one and bears the unmistakable marks of age being built of hewn timber, and put together with large wooden pegs. A ³Raising² in those days was a great affair. The men of the neighborhood were invited, and when one side of the frame was ready, they all began to lift, while the foreman shouted, ³He-oh he, he oh he, he-oh heave er up² and then how quickly it went up! Mr Ross' family consisted of four daughters and three sons, as follows: Mrs. Whitaker, of Merchantville; Charles D. Ross, Malaga; Mrs. Lewis Pierson, Mrs Phillip Unsworth, Mrs. Thomas Bowman, & William D. Ross of Vineland. A half-brother is living elsewhere. The family is influetiyl one, and much respected. To be continued December 7, 1907 Historical Sketches of Downstown By the Editor Chap XII It should have been stated in a previous chapter, that the Downstown steam mill was the first one located anywhere in the vicinity, and was a great curlosity to the pecple who had never seen one run in any other way than by water, with a mill dam and a ponderous wheel. Bul it was a great convenience, and the lumber could be sawed to much beteer advantago as it did not have to be hauled so far. Jesse, & Cathrine Downs had seven sons, and six daughters, all of whom lived to a good old age except one who died at three years of age. Mrs. Priscilla Chew of Minorola, is one of them. She was born at Downtown, and lived there until a few years ago, but memory clings to the old home around which cluster so many tender reminiscences. Mrs' Chew is a very interesting woman and always gives her friends a warm weleome at her cozy home on Pacis'c avenue, where she spends most of her time. Her only son Dr. Elisha Chew lives in Atlantic city and has a luerative practice. He looks after his mother with the greatest devotion. Ends with . To be continued (this is the last issue in the volume) Copyright 2002-2013 West Jersey History Project

Many of you know that I am more Irish than German. But my friends tell me that the German genes seem to dominate those of the Irish. This review has provided an opportunity to consider a number of organizational decisions and to build on our existing strengths. Hence, I am happy to say: Things are coming together. One of the great resources we have in this local archdiocese is The St. Paul Seminary. Not only does it do a fantastic job of educating and forming our seminarians, but it also provides similar opportunities for lay pastoral leaders. Our archdiocesan Vocation Office is also most appropriately located there. Recently, the Archbishop Harry J. Flynn Catechetical Institute has been added to the mix. I am happy at this point to announce the addition of the Institute for Ongoing Clergy Formation as well as the Institute for Diaconal Formation. These offices will be organized at the Center for Formation at The St. Paul Seminary under the supervision of Msgr. Aloysius Callaghan and the coordination of Bishop Lee Piché. You will hear more about these initiatives in the future, but I am pleased to share with you the purpose and mission of the Institute for Diaconal Formation. As I announced here in this column over a year ago, I had established a committee under the chairmanship of Father Michael Skluzacek to study our diaconate program in light of the recently published National Directory for the Formation, Life and Ministry of Permanent Deacons in the United States. The committee did an excellent job in studying the situation and has now made a series of recommendations, which I have accepted. Deacon as servant Perhaps a little bit of background may be helpful here: While the role of the deacon traces its origin to the earliest days of the church (cf Acts 6:1-7), nevertheless, the role fell out of usage for nearly a thousand years. The Second Vatican Council restored it to its proper rank, reestablishing it as an integral part of the church’s life. The deacon is a servant of the Word, a servant of the altar and a servant of charity. Here in this archdiocese, we have more than 140 active deacons who serve as chaplains in hospitals, nursing homes and correctional facilities. Deacons also care for the disabled and homebound, work to restore broken marriages and family lives, lead RCIA classes, minister the sacraments of baptism and matrimony, preside at funerals, and bring the Holy Eucharist to the sick and homebound. Finally, and most appropriately, they are attending to the needs of the poor. While I suspended the admission of new diaconal candidates during this period of study and recommendation, I am now pleased to announce that any man wishing to apply for the diaconate should sign up for the Catechetical Institute, which is now a pre-requisite for formal diaconate training in the Institute for Diaconal Formation. Interested men — and their wives, if possible — should make application to begin the Catechetical Institute this September (go to www.stthomas.edu/spssod). Throughout this period of research and suspended admission, we have still had men preparing for ordination as permanent deacons. God willing, I will ordain eight more men to this order on Sept. 25, 2010. I ask you to pray for these men as well as those who will follow. The diaconate fulfills a special and unique role in the church’s apostolic life. As St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote, “Without bishop, priest and deacon, one cannot speak of the Church.” Catholic Spirit

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Yesterday, Legendary Comics announced the continued expansion of Guillermo del Toro’s blockbuster film franchise with a new graphic novel companion, Pacific Rim: Blackout, and a new Pacific Rim: Ultimate Omnibus collection. In partnership with Rocketship Entertainment, Legendary will also create limited editions of each book as well as exclusive merchandise available through Kickstarter. Written by Cavan Scott (Star Wars: The High Republic and Shadow Service) with art by Nelson Dániel (Detective Pikachu, TMNT, Clue), Pacific Rim: Blackout, now available for pre-order exclusively on Kickstarter, features an all-new adventure with fan-favorite Herc Hansen in a prequel story based on the Netflix anime Pacific Rim: The Black. Herc, along with his niece Olivia, his copilot Cooper, and Marshal Rask face “kaiju of epic proportions” as they seek to protect the Australian continent and all its inhabitants. “The Pacific Rim universe is so rich with opportunities to tell all-new captivating stories, and we are thrilled to bring a new prequel adventure based on the popular Netflix anime series to fans,” said Robert Napton, Senior Vice President of Legendary Comics. “Showrunners Greg Johnson and Craig Kyle created such a strikingly beautiful and hauntingly dangerous story featured in the anime series, and I couldn’t think of a better creative team than Cavan and Nelson to capture this vivid storytelling and visual style to bring to the page. We are also thrilled to offer fans of the franchise a new collection that allows them to revisit past adventures.” “Working with Cavan and Nelson to bring this Pacific Rim story to life has been so much fun,” said Nikita Kannekanti, Senior Editor of Legendary Comics. “Cavan does such a great job balancing the action with the emotional character moments, and Nelson’s art is so full of energy in every single panel. I hope fans enjoy Herc’s story and learning more about what happened before the Black!” Cavan Scott remarks, “It has been an absolute joy to return to the world of Pacific Rim for this original graphic novel and to also provide a link between the original movie and the fantastic anime series. Herc’s story really resonates with me; a man who has seen the world change and his friends fall away as the monsters keep on coming. But he never gives in, never lets events he cannot control defeat him. The monsters we see Herc facing in his personal life are just as destructive as the kaiju that are razing cities across Australia. As always, Pacific Rim is just as much a story about people caught in extraordinary times as it is a spectacle of monsters vs. mechs. That’s not to say that Blackout doesn’t feature killer kaiju fight scenes. Nelson has done an incredible job balancing cataclysmic events with heartfelt personal moments. I hope Pacific Rim fans young and old enjoy these final moments before Australia becomes the Black.” “The Pacific Rim universe was something I wanted to draw, the Jaegers and Kaijus and the whole game of proportions is something I really enjoyed doing,” said Nelson Dániel. “I don’t know how many buildings I draw and how many destroyed, but they are never enough when it comes to epic battles. I hope the fans enjoy it as much as I do when I’m drawing it.” The Pacific Rim: Ultimate Omnibus will bring together all of the franchise’s graphic novels into one 568-page oversized hardcover collection. For the first time ever, New York Times best-selling Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero (presented by Guillermo Del Toro and written by Pacific Rim screenwriter Travis Beacham) alongside the sequels Pacific Rim: Tales from the Drift (written by Joshua Fialkov), Pacific Rim: Aftermath, Pacific Rim: Amara (both from Cavan Scott), and the brand-new Pacific Rim: Blackout will all be in one book. Backers on the Kickstarter can receive digital or physical copies of both books, along with additional perks like prints and pins. The Kickstarter runs until August 18 and has already been fully-funded. Author: Jamie Sugah Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area. Read our before commenting. Do not copy our content in whole to other websites. Linkbacks are encouraged. Copyright © The Geekiary

For several weeks the news media was preoccupied with events in Egypt. Once President Hosni Mubarak was ousted, there was little interest in popular uprisings in other parts of the Middle East. That is, not until the Arab world’s number one thug, Muammar al-Gaddafi began using machine guns, airplanes, and foreign mercenaries to sweep the streets clean of all those who dared to make their voices heard. Gaddafi apparently suffers from delusions of divinity, or at least the belief that he is a messenger from God. Until recently he was considered one of the leading international terrorists. After admitting responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1980, Gaddafi joined the ranks of Middle Eastern dictators who enjoy the status of America’s allies. Whether or not Gaddafi will join Mubarak in exile is not yet clear. Very little is coming out of Libya. The government is attempting to cut off all contact with the outside world. But in this age of internet technology, that is not easy to accomplish. Vivid images of government terrorism are getting out. The Arab world is aflame. Hopefully, free people everywhere will take time off from their usual preoccupation with sporting events and reality TV shows to follow the unfolding events. It would be really nice, if the half or more Americans who haven’t the vaguest idea where Libya, Bahrain, Algeria, Yemen, etc. are located would take out a world map and look them up. The people’s revolt in the Middle East is not, however, what I want to write about. Rather, I want to focus on the creation of news after the public became bored with the images of masses of people in Tahrir Square demanding the ouster of President Mubarak. For a couple of days, it seemed as though there wasn’t anything worthy of the news media’s attention, at least not anything that would help in the ongoing struggle for market share. So where does a reporter find news, when there doesn’t appear to be any? Easy. Just focus the camera on Mississippi. One can usually count on someone in the Magnolia state saying or doing something stupid. Since the effort to replace Colonel Reb with Smokey the Bear on steroids as the mascot for the University of Mississippi was no longer important to anyone other than a few diehard alumni, the network news media chose to report on a proposed vanity license plate. Here was another opportunity to make fun of Mississippi and Mississippians, especially since Governor Haley Barbour is being talked about as a possible GOP presidential candidate. Mississippi currently offers its citizens around 100 vanity license plates. Why offer yet another? Well, why not? The more choices there are the more revenue for state coffers. All fifty states figured that out long ago. What is so special about some group wanting the state to issue a few new vanity plates? In this case the group making the proposal is none other than the Sons of the Confederacy. They would like the state to offer a vanity plate honoring the Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Now if it were Bobby Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Joe Johnson, or one of the other well known and respected Confederate generals that they wanted to honor, no one would be upset. There would not be anything news worthy. But Nathan Bedford Forrest is an altogether different animal. I seriously doubt that more than a few Mississippians knew who Bedford Forrest was, that is, until the Sons of the Confederacy lifted his name from deserved obscurity. Even fewer outside Mississippi would have been able to identify him, unless they were Civil War buffs or from Tennessee, Forest’s home state. Forrest was not one of the Old South’s educated aristocrats. He was a self-made, self-educated commoner—“poor white trash” in old Southern lingo. He had many occupations, including riverboat captain, gambler, land speculator, plantation owner, and slave trader. According to his obituary in the New York Times, “He was known to his acquaintances as a man of obscure origin and low associations, a shrewd speculator, negro trader, and duelist, but a man of great energy and brute courage” (October 30, 1877). There appears to be ample grounds for believing that General Nathan Bedford Forrest was also a war criminal. Most historians agree that Forrest was responsible for the massacre of around 600 Black Union soldiers and Southern Unionists at the Battle of Fort Pillow on April 12, 1864. After the Civil War ended, Forrest spent the rest of his life trying to explain away the massacre. Well, not only that. He was one of the founders of what is called the “First Ku Klux Klan” (1865-1874), to distinguish it from the later versions. Forrest became the first Grand Wizard of the KKK in 1867. So, Nathan Bedford Forrest is a very controversial historical figure. He was one of the most gifted generals of the Civil War, a fact acknowledged by both Union General William T. Sherman, and the Confederate General Joseph E. Johnson, who defended Atlanta during Sherman’s siege of that city. But he was also a slave trader and a leader of the KKK. None of this would have been newsworthy, if it were not for the news media’s need for a sensational story in order to shore up ratings. At a recent news conference, when the reporters should have been asking Governor Barbour about his plans to seek the Republican nomination to run for president in 2012, or his struggle to balance the budget for the state of Mississippi, or any number of important issues, they asked him about whether or not he would repudiate the Nathan Bedford Forrest memorial license plate. Suddenly the ongoing events in the Middle East, the war in Afghanistan, the economy, and other relevant topics were not as news worthy as Haley Barbour and a long dead and largely forgotten Confederate general. No wonder our country is going down the tubes. Until next time, be good to all God’s creation, and always live under the mercy.

Well, 2020 has come and gone, hasn’t it? I’ve attempted to write a few times. However, it seemed either like shouting into the wind or sliced a little too deep into some painful spots of the year. We’ve found ourselves back in America. And we’ve found ourselves living on a farm, something that we’ve always longed to do. And we’re living in our favorite part of the state. And, as of this week, Michael got basically his dream situation for if he had to be employed in something other than a missions role. And I feel unworthy. A couple days ago, I was talking to my daughter about our plans for our large garden next year. I said that I didn’t know what I should add to it. “You can always add more flowers, Mama. Get some more flower seeds, Mama, and make the world a more beautiful place.” And we come back to that refrain. And I’ll try. It doesn’t look at all like I anticipated it would. But I’ll try anyway. It’s been a bit of a wild month. Our little guy was over two weeks overdue. My parents came from America for two weeks, and now we’ve been on lockdown for over a week due to the spread of the coronavirus. Today, I wanted to share some photos from the last month to fight against fear with gratitude. We have found beauty and created beauty in so many places this month, but the most obvious was in the birth of our little boy. We grieve with the world around us, as we see the effects of the Coronavirus. We also have hope with the world around us. I’ve found that as a homeschooling mom and a one-vehicle family, there really has been very little change to our daily life other than the ability to get groceries or go on extended walks, and Michael is home all the time now instead of his REALLY unpredictable ministry schedule. I see many people who are frustrated that they are stuck at home. I greatly desire to help encourage parents who are unexpectedly at home with their kids, and I can sympathize. It is difficult when sinners all get cooped up in a house together, isn’t it? I’d like to take a minute to acknowledge that unexpected “homeschoolers” have a hard job. Distance education/school at home isn’t necessarily “homeschool.” Homeschoolers have the ability to choose our curriculums, our days of education, what’s working and what’s not. We’ve intentionally made decisions, studied, and planned for this. I scrapped a grammar curriculum just last week because it wasn’t working for one of my kids, and right now I’m staying busy working on planning for the next school year. Many of you who are teaching your kids right now have no control over things like curriculum, and when your kids aren’t understanding, you feel powerless. Homeschooling isn’t like that. So I wanted to acknowledge those who are working hard and adapting to things they never planned to do. It’s tough work, and you’re doing your best. I also wanted to give a very light word of caution. Please express your feelings about staying home with your kids in a positive light. Kids hear. Everything. And remember…everything. If they happen to overhear you talking about being “stuck” with them, or how you’re wanting to drink because you’ve been in the same house with them for what seems like ages, they’ll remember it. You feel powerless, and that’s where your feelings are coming from. But you are an adult with agency to make decisions (stay at home, or go out? make healthy food, or eat comforting less-healthy food? netflix every single season of that show or tear into a new project?) Your kiddos have very little agency. And if they’re hearing the news or reading over your shoulder while you’re scrolling on your phone (I’ve got some nosy parkers too…), they’ll realize that the world can be a scary place right now. Whom will they turn to for comfort if they’ve taken to heart the idea that you’re sick of them? Off that soapbox for now. Here’s a bit of a list of some of the “extra” things aside from our usual homeschooling we’ve been doing to fill in the gaps of time that Michael would normally be working. Additional audiobooks. (Audible has a bunch of books for free right now that you aren’t required to have a membership for.) Art lessons, book readalouds, and concerts for free online. We try to only do one a day, because we still attempt to really limit the kids’ screen time. That being said, between the kids being “off schedule” and a newborn, my yarn projects and sewing projects have taken a back seat. I had hoped to have child number 3’s Christmas sweater done four days from now. It’s not looking like that’s going to happen, as I’m only about 70% done. Sigh. It’s only March, right? Unfortunately, the places I buy my yarn and fabric have closed down my ability to purchase from them right now. (Thank you, Wool Warehouse for taking the health of your employees into consideration!) So I guess I just have to finish the projects I’ve got. I used to think I’d be a bandage wrapper, a makeshift nurse, or some sort of an active participant in saving the world, should I be needed. Turns out that the best thing that I can do to save the world is to stay at home and love my children. And that’s what I intend to do. God, help me to do my best and smooth over my failings with your grace. Amen. While we wait for baby to decide to show his face, I’ve managed to do every chore imaginable (even washed the outdoor windows one nicer day) and also work a little bit more on some knitting projects. I like how the blue sock yarn is turning out for my third son’s Christmas sweater. I also enjoy working in the round. The piecing together for the baby’s sweater will be easy, but working in the round is so satisfying and goes by so quickly. As the baby is nearly two weeks overdue, I told my husband that if I finish our third son’s sweater before the baby comes out, I will cry. 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Our only girl loves sweater dresses and pockets, so I chose a combo of the two with the Fiona pattern (short-sleeved edition because it’s so mild here.) For the last two years, every time she’s been asked her favorite colors, her response is this verbatim: “pink and purple and orange and grey.” So here’s what I’ll end up using: I hope you’re having a fine day filled with color and sunshine. If not, I hope you’re enjoying a chance to snuggle under a blanket and read a good book or do something that refreshes your soul. A couple of months after we arrived, a friend gave us two armchairs for free. The vinyl had scraped off in multiple areas. Not one to say no to free furniture (and probably an incurable optimist when it comes to “potential” and rehabbing things,) I just could not let these chairs go. Funnily enough, I just saw a group of six of these exact same chairs with scraped off vinyl going for free on our local “freecycle” kind of Facebook group. So with the damage being consistent with eight or more of the same make and model of chair, I think it was just poorly manufactured. I have great plans to recover them, one with a navy fabric and one with a floral with pops of navy blue because I deeply miss having the floral accent chair that I recovered so long ago. Unfortunately, the kids keep on picking more vinyl off, so I covered them with some free Sesame Street duvet covers that we were given. (Free fabric must have its use.) And that made it worse. Ha ha ha! A couple of weeks ago, I got a package with some surprise yarn in it. I adored the colors. I began playing around and decided to make a mini chair cover/lap blanket for one of the chairs. I finished it up last week and temporarily pinned it into place. This summer, I will recover the other chair first, which means ripping it apart to come up with the pattern. At least this one will look presentable in the meantime. Also, of note, I had multiple windows open much of the day. We’ve been busy preparing for little man around here. That doesn’t mean that no crafting has been done. In fact, I’m sooooo close to finishing up a little blanket that will be used on our porch to cover up some wear and tear on an armchair until I have time to recover it. I’m running out of yarn, so it may be as big as it is going to get pretty soon. We’ve also been beginning the process of double digging our garden beds. Yes, it’s February. Yes, this throws off everything we’ve ever known about gardening, but we’ve been watching local gardeners, and they’re beginning to prepare their beds now. So that also means finishing up the purchasing of our seeds and starting our seeds. My husband managed to find some bio (organic) sweet potatoes today to get started indoors. Sweet potatoes (patate douce) are fairly expensive here compared to in the states, and they are so nutritionally dense, so we wanted to ensure that we’d have a good crop of them. We’ve only got about 200 square feet of in-ground garden, not for lack of space, but for practicality. (We also will have 15 or so medium-sized containers.) Michael will be gone many hours beginning in March, and I’ll be in charge of the five kids and maintaining our little garden operation here. This year, it needed to be easier. So we’re doing a high-density double dug garden, based on the recommendations of John Seymour in The Self-Sufficient Gardener. But since the growing season here runs from early April through late November, we’re hoping to have several mid-season replantings and reap a huge harvest of…cabbages and beets and greens and such. Our kids are generally pretty tolerant of our healthier cooking as long as we season it well enough, but the amount of cabbage I’m foreseeing might push past their limits. We are reusing seeds from last year as our primary seeds and then filling in with seeds for the things that are most expensive or hard to find here in France (celery, sweet potatoes, hot peppers, cilantro, etc.) We did make a couple of purchases of seeds that the kids requested (American watermelons, because the French ones are just not the same.) Around our yard, we’ve been so pleased to see signs of Spring everywhere. A friend sent a lovely package with some tea and cloth napkins from vintage cloth, and it’s been so delightful to hang them up on our laundry rack. I’m looking forward to March, when it will be much more temperate and line drying outdoors will be again a more feasible task for us. I’m hoping that you’re finding beauty even on days that may be grey and gloomy. I keenly feel for my friends back home this week, after our crocus sightings and then when daffodils started popping up in our garden. Living “up north” in the United States can be brutally beautiful. The prospect of several more months of bleak skies and cold temperatures is daunting for many. So I wanted to highlight the color grey in my color inspiration series this week, as an ode to Minnesota’s winters, as it were. Because we work in a fairly industrial French city, there are a lot of examples of grey brickwork or grey sidewalks as well. For this post, my mind was stuck in Minnesota, so I chose mostly photos from “back home” as examples. It’s more difficult for me to find examples of grey as an accent color in my photo collection. My eyes naturally get drawn to the brightest in the photos–much like when I wrote about brown here. I’ve made 10 or 15 blankets with grey as a primary color in them. Grey always seems to set off the colors around it beautifully, like a best friend highlighting your “good bits” and smoothing over your failures for you. But grey as a solid (like the solid grey celtic blanket I made here) is lovely and cosy as well. I wonder if you can find an instance of grey and focus on it as a beautiful piece of art this week. It might be difficult, but it may also help shift your perspective from “endless winter” to “understated elegance.” The sun shone quite a bit today, revealing some Dutch crocuses in our yard to little eyes. Crocuses in January. New Yarn for a New Crocheter I did get a yarn order this week, which was exciting. My oldest managed to get three balls of Stylecraft in my order. He began crocheting last week or the week before, and he’s doing so well after knitting for a few years, so I thought I’d let him pick a few skeins of his own to use colors he enjoys. He’s always been a jewel tones kid, and still, he continues. He’s working on creating a tiny blanket for one of his stuffed animals and has grand ideas of what will come next. When Middle Children Complicate Decisions Unfortunately, in my order, I got all of the yarn but forgot to order knitting needles for my next project, one of the Christmas sweaters I’ll be starting. Someday I’d love to have knitting needles and crochet hooks in every size all organized, but it’s just not that season. I’m not a Knitter with a capital K, so I have to use what I’ve got and plan for new needles every once in a while. It was a real conundrum deciding how to do Christmas sweaters this year. (I’ve decided to do them in place of matching jammies, in order to reduce my “factory footprint.”) I always love a good matching photo op for the kids, but one of the three older boys just a) wants to be different and b) hates to be different at the same time. I understand. It’s a middle child thing. So I tossed and turned about doing the same pattern for all three and just changing out the colors or doing the same pattern but giving him some distinctive elements like stripes. My husband finally decided that I should just do different patterns and different colors for all three, and then nobody will feel left out or like they don’t stand out enough. Our daughter will be getting a sweater dress for Christmas because she always loves sweater dresses. Patterns I chose for the Christmas Sweaters I haven’t figured out our oldest’s pattern or yarn yet (but his favorite color is currently ruby red, so it will likely be a flashy sweater.) Our second son’s sweater will be Bernat’s Rickrack Pullover in a yellow gold with grey, blue, and orange colorwork. Our third son’s sweater will be Drops Vincent in Drops Fabel Green Turquoise. I have not yet determined the pattern for our girl’s sweater dress, but it will probably be purple, as I’ve worked enough pink lately to bring tears to my eyes. I might be convinced to add a little dusty rose color work to it, but that would be it. Baby’s sweater is already in the works, as I mentioned recently. He doesn’t get a choice on his color or pattern, because I had this yarn lying around from two children ago. They just keep growing, and I never got to use this. Tulips Because They’re Lovely Michael brought me home some tulips today because I have such a heart for flowers. Buying fresh flowers here in France has a bit of the same “feel” as it does in the States, that you’re either trying to impress someone or that you’re just a bit “extra.” But I’m glad that he does little things like that for me every once in a while because beauty and goodness do matter. Here’s hoping that today brought you a bit of sunshine or beauty, even if it’s in the form of an icicle or “Jack Frost” crystals on your windowpane. It’s almost time for little man’s arrival. I just managed to get this finished in between packing hospital bags, working on my French for the hospital, and trying to get the house and children ready for me to be gone for a little while. (The average French hospital stay after giving birth is four days. What will I do? Not sure. I might go crazy from the lack of yelling and general hubbub, or it might feel like a silent spiritual retreat to only have one child around that sleeps the majority of the day.) In any case, this texture lap blanket is done. And here are the details! Stylecraft Bambino DK – Mellow Yellow, 800 grams 15,6 Euros (approximately $17.20 ) Time it Took Began project on October 23, 2019. Finished January 23, 2020. Completed more than 30 smaller projects between, so not as much of my time was completely devoted to this blanket. Hard to estimate. For other blankets (like this one!) or tah-dah posts that I’ve done recently (man is it hard to track down decades of progress photos!!!), you can either look at my Ravelry profile or in my finished objects category. Now that the blanket is done, I just need to wrap my head around what life with a newborn will look like again. I find myself googling phrases like “newborn schedule” and other things that came intuitively the last time, which was five years ago. Ah well. It’ll all shake out, and little man will be so loved. The baby commandeered this past week with three appointments. He turned around in the correct direction (please stay that way, youngling!), and we’re all so happy about that. Baby’s Christmas Sweater I began his Christmas sweater because I needed a mental break on one of the days when a new math skill was just evading one of my kids. Don’t look too closely; it’s been a while since I’ve done any “serious” knitting. This weekend, my husband helped me do some serious nesting/rearranging. Together, we solved about eight household “problems,” but our house is still in full-on recovery mode from all of our industrious “fixing.” If you ask the kids, the baby can come at any time. They are so anxious to meet their little plaything/friend, but some are beginning to have some amount of anxiety about me being in the hospital potentially for the French stay of 4 days. I’m ready for us to all just to be able to hunker down for a bit. And I wouldn’t mind having my spine back again. A gift of yarn & a new project A lovely friend sent me a bunch of yarn in the mail. As we say in our family, “my love bucket is so full!” The next day, I began a bit of a bobble blanket to use on one of our chairs that needs recovering. I anticipate that this will be a really swift project due to the smaller size and chunkier yarn. It only needs to be big enough to hide the major wear and tear on the chair until I can do some upholstery work. trying to plan things better Because I always bite off more than I can chew at the last minute, I created a calendar for all of my projects for the year. Don’t worry! I left some room for flexibility and fun. I’m a pretty ambitious person (with a lot of ideas!!!) However, I am choosing to not be caught making projects for all of the at-risk young men we work with in December this year. (It’s going to be hats for the young men this year, by the way, since some may still be living in the same housing situation…) yet another crocheter in the family I taught my oldest how to chain, single crochet, and double crochet this week. He caught on so quickly, although the moment I snapped this photo he was mid-mistake. (Isn’t that how it always goes?) He is flying through this experience and is genuinely loving it. Knitting was not the same. He spent about two hours today crocheting what will be a small blanket for one of his stuffed animals. I read a pretty bit of a quote by Maya Angelou today: ” A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer…it sings because it has a song.” I hope that today finds you singing the song you were made to sing. Two pairs of boys’ jeans with multiple holes in the pairs, three dresses (requiring invisible mending because they were knits), and a few other garments are now repaired. I have three more pairs of boys’ jeans, one pair of boys’ dress pants, and a letting out of a hem on a girl’s dress left. (And a girl’s pair of pajamas since I first drafted this post…) I bought myself some actual Sashiko needles on Amazon for around 3 Euros. Best 3 Euros I’ve spent in a while. The needles slipped through about five times as fast and easily as my old gold-tip needle. It was phenomenal. The tools we use matter. And in this case, they weren’t outrageously expensive. Slow Fashion Near Miss On the note of slow fashion, a confession is in order. In France, there is a yearly sale, a month-long period of post-Christmas clothing sales going on. I decided to look online at H&M for t-shirts for myself since I anticipate needing some new shirts after this pregnancy, and their sales were averaging 60% off. Fortunately, the site sold out of all of the shirts I liked. My slow fashion ideals currently remain intact. How easily I was swayed toward conventional factory-produced fashion, and how naturally I turn toward it is frustrating to me. Really, I have the skills to take in some of the t-shirts I’ve got or rework some old dress shirts that are far too big on me now. We’ll see what kind of projects I end up with this year in terms of slow fashion. My daughter will likely end up with a homemade sweater dress, because she loves sweater dresses so much. My husband, on the other hand, I haven’t decided what to do about. He is a bigger-framed man, and he will eventually need some really sturdy pants. We have two brands from America that we generally can trust in terms of sturdiness. They would be much higher quality than anything that I could conjure up, but I’m not certain how they’re sourced or produced.

Saturday, December 19, 2020 The seismic events of the year 2020 will no doubt reverberate for years to come. Other than the pandemic and the societal uprisings, a third thing I think we can learn from is leadership. Here are some take-aways: - It has been said that we get the leaders we deserve. The last four years in the US have shown us the ugly side of our country, almost in a caricatured manner. Yes, we need to heal the ugly face of racism. We need to support the underserved in our society and not blame the victims. We need to look at how we value our environment. We need to value science and not engage in magical thinking. We need to treat each others are equals and not perpetuate rankism and elitism. We need to be mindful that words have consequences. - When I look at how the common people in our country and other countries have banded together to stand up and say "No more!" I am moved and inspired. Two images come to mind. First, elected leaders are like the large game animals in wild areas. What prompts them to move? The common grass. Be like the succulent, green grass and entice our leaders to move in your direction. - The second image comes from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Have you ever seen it? The highlight is the large balloons of cartoon characters being led along the parade path, seemingly squeezed between the huge skyscrapers. The balloons are like elected leaders. Who leads these balloons? Just common people, holding the balloons by ropes and walking along the parade route. Be the rope-holder, and keep walking. Saturday, December 12, 2020 The year 2020 will be remembered for so many things. Last week we talked about the lessons of the pandemic. Another giant event in this year was the eruption of protests against historical and systemic prejudice. We've seen marches against police brutality, against governmental corruption, against racial disparities, against sexual predation, among others. What is to be learned from this? - We cannot ignore historically underserved communities and not expect some sort of backlash. How we treat others, or allow our societies to treat them, will someday affect ourselves. - Our police have forgotten how to relate to others as fellow humans and fallen into the trap of becoming tools of armament vendors. What happened to the neighborhood cop that everyone knew? - Our police have also been asked to play too many roles -- peace-keeper, social worker, psychologist, addictions counselor and so on -- and are asked to do so in places where people are heavily armed, mentally unbalanced, or desperate. Our societies need to get back to providing social funding to help support the poor, the emotionally distraught, those with mental illness, and those with addictions. If we fund people first, the police can get back to serving as peace-keepers. - Sub-groups in our societies will no longer be kept down. The power of these marches show that it will no longer be acceptable to discriminate against any group that is not part of the ruling class. There is power in the unity of resistance. Saturday, December 5, 2020 No doubt the year 2020 will be analyzed, written about, cursed and eulogized over the coming months and years. We will all agree it's been a year quite unlike any other! While I don't pretend to be comprehensive in what I think humanity could learn from this year, I'll look back with 20/20 vision and list some things I think are important. Of course, the most important event of 2020 was the novel coronavirus and its related disease, COVID-19. It has affected everyone in various ways. Here are some lessons we can list: - This virus has touched the lives of everyone on the planet. What else can you say did the same? - It has taught us that the greatest sign of love is to be apart from each other, as difficult as that may be, in order to keep each other safe. - Being apart from each other has taught us about the value of relationships, how technology has become so indispensable in staying in touch with each other, and the value of real communication, from the heart. - The virus is largely spread through the air, through the droplets spread from unmasked talking or breathing. It is invisible. In this way it mimics words, whether spoken or written, in how they can affect others. Are our words filtered with some sense of empathy and kindness, or are they unmasked with venom? Words affect others just as much as virus cells do. - It has shown that the virus can strike anyone, regardless of wealth or status, but it tends to affect those who have been historically marginalized in a more serious manner. The cracks in our health care and societal support systems have been laid bare with this pandemic. - It has taught us the value of science and objective study. Hopefully, people will come to learn that conspiracies and politicization are potentially harmful, and that well-regarded, well-researched news media are the best sources for action. - It has taught us to be grateful for the little things -- a beautiful sunset, the gleam of a water droplet on a flower, the warmth of a pet on your lap, the smile from a loved one's face via Zoom. Thursday, November 26, 2020 I don't know about you, but this very unusual year of 2020 with all its challenges has taught me a lot about being grateful. I want to take the time to say how I grateful I am that you are reading this blog and for those who have ordered The Gemini Bond. On this day of thanks, I thank you for sharing your time with me here. I am blessed. Saturday, November 21, 2020 Last week I was praising the book Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, edited by Jane Hirshfield. I'd like to share a quote that really spoke to me. It talks about how we could benefit from everything we do, everything we encounter, in order to grow spiritually. It's by the first published poet in the American colonies, Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672). "There is no object that we see, no action that we do, no good that we enjoy, no evil that we feel or fear, but we may make some spiritual advantage of all." Saturday, November 14, 2020 Sometimes I like to browse through my bookshelves at home, since browsing at a bookstore is not a great idea these days, and picked up one that I've had there for quite a while. It's good to renew acquaintances with old friends, books or otherwise. Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women is a terrific compilation of spiritual writing from nearly every tradition. What I like the best is that the editor, the poet and translator Jane Hirshfield, included selections that speak directly from the writer's heart. These aren't poems that were created to please someone else or some religious tradition. Each word has been felt and lived. In these days of introspection and getting back to our true natures, this book presents voices that can still guide us. A wonderful book to have on your bookshelf . . . or bedside table. Saturday, November 7, 2020 A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. (Jimmy Carter) Tuesday, November 3, 2020 Appealing to tribe, appealing to fear, pitting one group against another, telling people that order and security will be restored if it weren't for those who don't look like us or don't sound like us or don't pray like we do, that's an old playbook. It's as old as time. And in a healthy democracy it doesn't work. Our antibodies kick in, and people of goodwill from across the political spectrum call out the bigots and the fearmongers, and work to compromise and get things done and promote the better angels of our nature. (Barack Obama) Saturday, October 31, 2020 Saturday, October 24, 2020 Saturday, October 17, 2020 The Christian alchemists tell us that when in our being we have completed the sacred marriage of opposites, of the male and the female, the sun and the moon, the dark and the light, the conscious and the unconscious, we become a sacred androgyne-child, free of reason's madness and the ego's frivolous gloom, free of all conscious and unconscious barriers and definitions, mysterious and complete as reality itself and one with its mystery in the ground of our perfected being.That deserves some pondering, don't you think? Saturday, October 10, 2020 Aging narcissists, which is what we're ruled by, are very dangerous people. As death approaches, their hunger for power and to prove their immortality gets more and more hysterical. They're willing to sacrifice more and more people on the altar of their own vanity. It's frightening to look at the majority of politicians and businessmen who rule the world because they are so clearly terrified. Their terror of losing power, and of death, makes them engines of destruction. Through this denial, they're even willing to institutionalize the death of the environment. This is the final paradox of narcissism, that it is willing to go on engineering total destruction in order to keep going and not have to face the shock and pain of truth; it will press the atomic button to keep alive its fiction of invincibility. It is as mad as that.See? Written for our times. Saturday, October 3, 2020 And this is a book for our times. Even though it was copyrighted in 1994, it was definitely meant for our current generation to read. What is this book, you ask. It's Dialogues with a Modern Mystic by Andrew Harvey and Mark Matousek. You may know Andrew Harvey as one of the foremost writers and speakers on the mystic life, but Mark Matousek is also a deep-thinking modern mystic. The book takes the form of a series of conversations between the two men on various topics. It starts out with Harvey, primarily, warning of the dark future that faces humanity if we do not return to our hearts and live with compassion, justice, and love. It then touches on several topics, including fear and courage, death and deathlessness, work, visions, humility, grief, and humor. It is a book to read slowly, savor, and contemplate. I think we need to heed the call within this book. Let it be a guiding light in our path to building a better future for all of us. Highly recommended. Saturday, September 26, 2020 Saturday, September 19, 2020 Don't be a puppet. Be wise. Be vigilant. Saturday, September 12, 2020 Saturday, September 5, 2020 I've spent the last several months since savoring the poems in this most unusual book of poetry. Written and/or compiled by Daniel Ladinsky, Love Poems from God features poetry that he created out the writings of twelve mystic writers from various traditions. Which mystic writers? you ask. Let me tell you: Rabia, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Hafiz, St. Catherine of Siena, Kabir, Mira, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Tukaram. Both Eastern and Western traditions are featured, although it's interesting to see, when comparing the poems, how the poets often come to similar conclusions or dwell on similar themes. Daniel Ladinsky is the first to admit that he had fun taking liberties in his translations/adaptations. Some of the poems are earthy, some are cheeky, some are downright naughty. But they all point to the mystic's efforts to describe the sense of unity with the divine within. This is a wonderful book to read and savor as long as you don't read some of the poems in church. Recommended. Saturday, August 29, 2020 Saturday, August 22, 2020 For someone like me, however, I find that I need to let go of controlled, "yang" breathing techniques at times because I have control-freak tendencies to begin with and these techniques just reinforce that, I believe. I need to balance that with times when I just allow my body to breathe at its own pace and watch that breath. It's a challenge for someone like me to be "yin" and just allow the body to breathe without my interference! Once I start observing my breath, I find that I have to be very careful not to start controlling when the next breath comes. It's a good challenge, though. Saturday, August 15, 2020 In this one, you need to divide your breaths into four beats. One thing that Wolf stresses over and over again is that as you become more relaxed, your breaths will naturally be longer and slower, so your beats will slow down. That is OK. It's better to have the beats match your breath than to force your breath to match your beats. In this technique, you assign one internally-heard pitch each of the four beats. Wolf recommends using Pythagorean intervals, so I will describe that here. One such set of intervals is 1-4-5-1, or do-fa-sol-do. If you play an instrument, you could play it as C-F-G-C. Here's how the technique goes. Breathe in and hear internally (don't sing this out loud) C-C-C-C in four even beats. Hold the breath and count four silent beats. Breathe out and hear internally F-F-F-F in four even beats. Hold the breath and count four silent beats. Breathe in and hear internally G-G-G-G in four even beats. Hold the breath and count four silent beats. Breathe out and hear internally C-C-C-C in four even beats. Hold the breath and count four silent beats. Repeat. I don't know why, but I find this just complex enough to keep my mind engaged while producing a deep calm at the same time. Perhaps it will help you as well. Saturday, August 8, 2020 The first combines both simple words and single pitches that one hears in one's head. That means you must be able to "sing" a single note inside your mind without actually singing it out loud. If this seems doable to you, then read on. With each in-breath, you mentally hold a pitch and sing internally one word, which I will give in a moment. With each out-breath, you listen to external sounds with detachment. Got that? Breathe in and hear a single note in your mind, breathe out and objectively listen to the world around you. You may keep the same pitch with each in-breath if you want, but I like to change it each time. You can decide what works best for you. Now to add a single word for each in-breath. They are: Calm, Relaxed, Peaceful, and Now. So, here's how it goes. Breathe in and mentally sing "calm" on a single note. Breathe out and listen with detachment. Breathe in and mentally sing "relaxed" on a single note. Breathe out and listen with detachment. Breathe in and mentally sing "peaceful" on a single note. Breathe out and listen with detachment. Breathe in a mentally sing "now" on a single note. Breathe out and listen with detachment. Repeat. I like to create a four-note melody that I repeat with each round of those four words. I also find that when I am in stressful situations, I can start mentally singing that four-note melody and it helps me to recover a calmer state. I hope this also helps you as well. Saturday, August 1, 2020 Written by Richard Wolf, In Tune: Music as the Bridge to Mindfulness could be a valuable resource for a people who would like new and different methods for their meditative practice. Richard Wolf, by the way, is an Emmy Award-winning composer, music producer, and professor at UCLA's school of music. Of course, I think this book would be best suited for people who have at least some musical training and know what a beat is, what a 4-beat measure is all about, and have some familiarity with intervals (measuring the distance between two pitches). I've had a bit of musical training, so most of this book made sense to me. First, this is not at all like Anthony de Mello's books on meditation, where he gets right to it and describes one method after another, along with helpful hints and caveats. No. Wolf gently leads the reader from one concept to another, sometimes offering inside looks at his interactions with various famous musicians over his long career. This is a gentle, leisurely book. However, I did find a few of his meditation techniques very helpful and I often come back to them again and again. A recommended book, especially if you have a little musical training and want some new and unique techniques for your meditation practice. Saturday, July 25, 2020 Saturday, July 18, 2020 I have a friend who gets almost all of his news from a prominent social media site. Sadly, much of the news that he chooses to click on is fake. They have provocative headlines that are designed to elicit fear, anger or outrage, or greed. One of his favorites are conspiracy theories, which mix fear and outrage. The problem is, whenever he clicks on one of these stories, the website remembers and generates more articles along that vein. So, he clicks on more, and more appear. In a sense, he is creating his own hall of mirrors. The sad thing is that these fake news articles are designed not only to get him to read more like them, but they are also created to influence how he votes, how he views certain ethnic groups, and how he becomes more ingrained in a certain world view. It's very sad. Stay free of this. Do not click on articles that you can tell are appealing to your lower emotional centers. Check "facts" in these articles with Snopes.com or other fact-checking sites. Be objective. Similarly, the non-anonymous talking heads on the daily news channels, especially the ones that run 24/7, use your base emotions to continue watching. Anger, fear and outrage are particularly common emotions that they elicit in order to keep you glued to the TV. After all, they are in the business of selling commercial time, and the longer you watch, the more commercials you will see. Of course, I am not saying that you should avoid being informed and watching the news, but be aware of how the different news organizations make you feel. Do you feel angry, afraid, or upset? Do those emotions make it hard for you to pull away from the TV? Or do you feel informed, where the news is presented in a logical, even-handed way? That is probably the better choice for getting your information. We all make choices in how we stay informed in this world. By making wise choices, we can avoid the chance that we might come under someone's influence through the manipulation of our emotions. Be wise. Stay free. Saturday, July 11, 2020 First, let's look at how individual people try to influence us to their advantage. We have all received phone calls from scam artists who try to control us by using our emotions to our disadvantage. Scammers call this "getting them under the ether." They say things to elicit the strong emotions that are based in our reptilian brains, getting us out of our logical, objective higher brain. And the emotions they love to use are fear or urgency, anger or outrage, and greed. For example, a scammer might want to scare you to believe that your computer has been hacked and you only have minutes to take care of it. They are using fear and the pressure of time to hook you into doing what they want, such as providing them with your credit card number. The best thing to do is to take a deep breath and hang up. (Better yet, never answer a number you do not recognize.) But leaders also do the same thing, don't they? Whether it's religious leaders who scare you with talk of eternal damnation or governmental leaders who vilify a minority ethnic group, saying that they are out to take your job or are a threat to your safety, these leaders are using fear to control you so that you will do what they want. Stop. Take a deep breath. Go back to watching and listening to them objectively. Ask yourself: What do they want from me? Decide for yourself if that's something that is in your best interest and the best interest of those you care about. Stay free, friends, stay free. Saturday, July 4, 2020 Saturday, June 27, 2020 I've written about Anthony de Mello before. He was a Jesuit priest, born in India, received his higher education in Great Britain, and prolific writer and teacher. Given his background, he was uniquely able to meld Christian beliefs with Indian meditative practices. This book is the result. Like many meditation books, he starts with concentration exercises, such as focusing on the breath or body sensations, and advances to practices which he called meditations based on fantasy. By this he meant meditative practices which use the imagination to access spiritual insights, promote relaxation, heal past trauma, and bring peace. For me, these were the most interesting and useful practices. The last section deals with meditative practices that are strictly Christian in nature. If you are Christian, you will have no issue with this section, but if you are not, you may have difficulty transferring the practices to your own spiritual viewpoint. But no matter, the rest of the book is well worth the money. A highly recommended book for those wanting to deepen their meditations. Saturday, June 20, 2020 While it is valuable for its historical insights, I think I appreciated most how Dr. Harrington explained Meister Eckhart's spiritual teachings. Meister Eckhart believed that the masses to whom he preached could be taught how to unite with the God within and would sometimes use phrasing that bordered on pantheism and other non-orthodox beliefs. One such statement was, "Therefore I pray to God to make me free of God." He also stressed that the inward state is much more valuable to God than good works. Of course, this eventually brought him unwelcome notice for the religious authorities and he was called in to explain his allegedly heretical statements. I won't ruin the ending for you, but it cost him both his reputation as well as his being officially "forgotten" for many centuries. I think that what is important about this book is that Dr. Harrington worked to present Eckhart's teachings within the framework of his time and place. As we have seen in the last several decades, several authors have taken some of Eckhart's words and used them to promote their own viewpoint, but Dr. Harrington clearly counteracts that. Meister Eckhart taught important spiritual insights that must be taken within their context and, once understood, can provide useful nuggets for spiritual wisdom in our times. Saturday, June 13, 2020 The author is a professor of history at Vanderbilt University and an expert on social and religious history in premodern Germany. He provides the reader with a thorough sense of German life in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the Catholic viewpoint and the political struggles of that time. Within this framework, he zeroes in on the life of a Dominican monk from a small town who had both keen intellectual gifts as well as unique spiritual insights. Meister Eckhart was clearly a man of enormous potential, as his superiors supported his intellectual pursuits at the Univeristy of Paris, where he eventually earned a Master of religious studies and also taught there. He was also a gifted administrator and his superiors also relied on him to lead at various monasteries where the political winds were particularly treacherous. However, it is Meister Eckhart's spiritual insights which have made him known, in a negative way toward the end of the life, and somewhat more positively in recent years. A highly recommended book. Saturday, June 6, 2020 When I looked at the art, I was struck by the simple honesty of the depictions. The renderings were accompanied by brief descriptions of the scene they were portraying. But since I didn't know anything about Guru Nanak's life, they meant little to me. It was more of the energy of the work -- the directness, the simplicity, the quiet wisdom -- that touched me most. Of course, on our way out, we had to stop by the gift shop and I picked up a biography of Guru Nanak so I could learn more. I finally sat down and read it bit by bit and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a delightful read and illuminated the life of Guru Nanak as well as his teachings. I learned a lot about Sikhism as well as its founder. And what is this book, you ask? Let me tell you. It's The First Sikh Spiritual Master: Timeless Wisdom from the Life and Techniques of Guru Nanak by Harish Dhillon. I found myself looking forward to seeing what would happen to Guru Nanak, as his biography read like an adventure story. Of course, I also relished the parts which explained his teachings and beliefs. If you'd like to learn more about Sikhism and its founder, this is a great book to get. Highly recommended. Saturday, May 30, 2020 Thursday, May 28, 2020 - Come to your sense of self. It doesn't matter how you do it -- wiggle your toes, stomp your feet, count your breaths, chant, meditate, do a yoga pose -- it doesn't matter, as long as you can come back to your inner self, with its unique emotional landscape. - Observe your emotions. You may find that there are layers of emotions there; some are weaker and some are stronger; some may feel familiar and some may feel like an ill-fitting, itchy sweater. - Visualize these emotions as having separate layers. The more familiar ones may be in your core self. Others may feel like they hover on the outer part of your emotional sphere. Do they have colors? Wave shapes? Weight? Notice as much detail about them as you can. - Inhale, reaffirming the emotions that truly belong to you. The ones nearest your core may feel more stable, familiar, and part of your world outlook. Keep those. Then, exhale, releasing the ones that do not belong to you. Repeat. Repeat again until you feel calmer and more at ease in yourself. - Do this process as many times per day as you need -- even 19 times, if that's what it takes. Saturday, May 23, 2020 "A nice definition of an awakened person: A person who no longer marches to the drums of society, a person who dances to the tune of the music that springs up from within." "What does it mean to love? It means to see a person, a situation, a thing as it really is, not as you imagine it to be." "It's not reality that matters, but what you're saying to yourself about it." "The beauty of an action comes not from its having become a habit but from its sensitivity, consciousness, clarity of perception, and accuracy of response."I am so glad I found this book, and am honored to share it with you. It can be world-changing. Saturday, May 16, 2020 In step one, he asks that you first get in touch with your negative feelings (ones that you may not even be aware of). In step two, he says that you need to understand that the feeling is in you, not in external reality. He says that no person, event, or circumstance has the power to disturb or hurt you. Think on that a while. In step three, he says that we must never identify with that feeling, but realize that feelings come and feelings go. Let it pass. There is an eternal "I" which is completely undisturbed by external reality. In step four, he says that good feelings -- happiness, joy, bliss -- come from inside and have nothing to do with externals. As we change, everything changes. As I read the book, I couldn't help but see that some of his philosophy has some influences of Buddhism and mindfulness practices. Still, the way he presents his ideas make perfect sense and seem fresh and applicable as he describes them. A fabulous book. Saturday, May 9, 2020 First, a word about Anthony de Mello. He was born in Bombay, India, in 1931 and became a Jesuit priest and a psychotherapist. His writing shows both a strong mystical leaning as well as a rare insight into the human psychological dilemma. One of the things that I also appreciated about his viewpoint is that he was able to meld Eastern and Christian spirituality with a clear description of human psychology. He spoke and wrote with a rare clarity that took my breath away. Sadly, he died too soon, at the age of fifty-five, of a heart attack. Awareness is a compilation of talks de Mello gave at a spirituality conference, put together and edited by an associate, J. Francis Stroud, after de Mello's death. Happily, it reads like you are sitting in the conference room with him, watching as he goes off on tangents, or re-engages his audience with a fitting joke. He speaks to where people are, and not in some nebulous theoretical discourse. It's a pleasure to read. If you are remotely interested in deepening your spiritual life, read this book. Like, right now. Like, go to your favorite bookstore and order it. Now. It will change your life. Saturday, May 2, 2020 Like it was a college text or something. And then I typed those notes up to keep as reference and reminder. That's pretty serious for me. Even though I don't completely identify as Christian anymore, I found this book spoke to my mystical-leaning heart. In fact, it helped deepen those leanings and lit the way for further journeying along that path. It was a joy to find. And what is that book? you ask. Well, tune in next week and I'll tell you more. Saturday, April 25, 2020 Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good. (Elizabeth Edwards) Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. (Helen Keller) Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself -- and be lenient to everybody else. (Henry Ward Beecher) The human capacity for burden is like bamboo -- far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance. (Jodi Picoult)Have courage, friends. Peace. Saturday, April 18, 2020 1. People can react either out of fear or out of love. The former buy guns and stockpile supplies, while the latter express gratitude and compassion to others. Although it's hard at times when things seem so out of control, I try to act out of love as best I can. 2. In times of crisis, people can turn their fear into anger and aggressiveness. This manifests as putting blame on other people or countries, being threatening, or turning inward and ignoring the needs of others. This is an opportunity to pull our fractured nation and world together and work as one. Let's do that. 3. Our leaders show their true values in times of crisis. I've noticed that they either put money and the economy first, or they put people and their wellbeing first. My personal belief is that you can't have an economy without people, but I suppose there is some merit to the idea that if you have a healthy economy, then people can take care of themselves. Still, if both the economy and the people are ailing, let's put people first, shall we? 4. Viruses have no nation, creed, ethnicity, or religion. It is universal, just as the human soul is. I think people are coming to the knowledge that we really are all one. 5. We are living through extraordinary times. Let's be remembered for rising to the occasion and showing our best selves. We can overcome this. We're in this together. Saturday, April 11, 2020 1. Alone time is essential. Even if I can't be completely alone in the house, I can still hide in a room, a closet, or in my innermost self through meditation. I need this. Every day. 2. Little things can become big things if we let them. I've learned it's necessary for my sanity and for peace between peoples if I lighten up and let things slide a bit. Rather than make a big deal over that irritating mouth sound my Significant Other makes when reading, I can either focus on my breath or I can leave for a while. Fantasizing about silencing those mouth sounds with a pillow is OK as long as I don't act on it. 3. People are reaching out more. I heard from a family member for the first time in a couple of decades and the conversation was quite pleasant. Perhaps this pandemic has put things in perspective for some people. I know it has for me. 4. Gratitude goes a long way. I find things run much more smoothly at home when I say at least five "thankyous" for every "please will you . . ". People like to feel appreciated, not constantly commanded or criticized. 5. On the rare occasions that I go to the store, I make it a point to thank every worker that I see. So often treated as if they are invisible, they are heroes in my book. We both feel better when I take the time to acknowledge that. Saturday, April 4, 2020 1. Finding toilet paper at the store is like finding a winning lottery ticket. Even if is not my favorite brand, I am filled with gratitude for finding it. Who knew that an everyday item could impart such joy? 2. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. I learned that not being able to find things I usually buy at the grocery store causes me to try new and . . . interesting . . . ingredient combinations. 3. The fur babies are loving having us home more. Having them cuddle on my lap makes me feel better, too. They help ground me and bring me comfort in trying times. 4. Taking time to look at the tree branches swaying in the breeze, to listen to the birds singing, to feel the sun on my face is a result of having the time to do so. These simple pleasures never felt so good. 5. It is possible to watch too much TV news or read too much news reports on the internet. For my sanity, I need to step back and return to the present. Today is a gift to be treasured. Who knows what the future may bring? I may as well enjoy now. Saturday, March 28, 2020 Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. (Desmond Tutu) We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon. (Franklin D. Roosevelt) Everything that is done in the world is done by hope. (Martin Luther) Saturday, March 21, 2020 Every calamity is to be overcome by endurance. (Virgil) The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. (Frederick Douglass) We all wish to be brave and strong in the face of disaster. We all wish to be looked up to for our endurance and efforts to help others. (Clarissa Pinkola Estes) Saturday, March 14, 2020 From caring comes courage. (Lao Tzu) You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of mind next to honor. (Aristotle) We must be bigger than we have been: more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community. (Haile Selassie) Saturday, March 7, 2020 Today's theme is vision. Where there is no vision, there is no hope. (George Washington Carver) Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. (Carl Jung) Anything can be changed. Anything can be fixed. Things that are broken can be fixed. And you don't have to be some billionaire or millionaire to do it. You just have to be a person with a vision and the passion to do it, and be willing to fight for it every day. (Dana White) Saturday, February 29, 2020 I found that, in reading, some of the mystics were well known to me. But I met a few that were unknown or even overlooked by history. It made my heart warm, knowing that some of these mystics, working quietly and often alone, described their experiences for a future that they could never imagine would appreciate them. What a testament to faith and courage. Saturday, February 22, 2020 McColman is a lay Cistercian, as well as a contemplative writer, speaker, and retreat leader. He writes with sensitivity and clarity, a rare gift given the difficulty of putting such experiences into words. He focuses on mystics from the Christian tradition (oh, that he would write on mystics from other traditions as well!) and divides them into nine categories of twelve mystics each: - Wisdom Keepers - Soul Friends Friday, February 14, 2020 Saturday, February 8, 2020 May I share two more quotes, which I think pertain to today's push for change? They come from Mahatma Gandhi. We need to become students again of Gandhi's ideology which aims for social change through non-violent (non-resistant) means. His words still ring true in today's climate: When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.and: The noblest moral law is that we should unremittingly work for the good of mankind.True then, true now. Saturday, February 1, 2020 Last month I featured a couple of quotes from this book. Here is one more: A profound understanding of religions allows the destruction of the barriers that separate them. (Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948)I highly recommend this book. Saturday, January 25, 2020 Saturday, January 18, 2020 Saturday, January 11, 2020 But I would like to remind us all that change is far more than pushing away the stuff you don't like. To do that only breeds resistance, and you know the old saying, "What you resist persists." That's very true whether on the personal level or in societal structures. It's far better to go around that stuff and aim higher. By that I mean that we need to acknowledge that wrongs, faults, and injustices exist but to hold as our goal the establishment of something better to replace it. We need to have the courage and persistence to fight FOR what we want, not AGAINST what we don't want. So whether your issue for this year is person, say, weight loss or stopping smoking or gossiping, or whether it is societal or global, say, climate change, plastic pollution, economic inequality, overpopulation (why do so many people ignore this issue, which is at the root of so many other issues we face?), wars, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, and so on, I strongly urge us all to imagine what its preferred opposite might be and to work for that. Up and at 'em. Keep the faith. Have courage.

"They beat me pretty bad" said Finnegan Lee Elder. An American student on trial in Italy for the murder of a Rome policeman claims he was kicked, punched and spat on in custody, according to a leaked official transcript from last summer, reports AFP. Finnegan Lee Elder and fellow Californian student Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth could be handed life sentences if convicted of murdering Mario Cerciello Rega, a 35-year-old carabiniere who was stabbed 11 times in Rome last July. Cerciello Rega and his colleague Andrea Varriale, both dressed in plain-clothes, had gone to investigate a drug deal gone wrong in the capital's upmarket Prati district in the early hours of 26 July 2019. While in Rome's Regina Coeli prison on 2 August, Elder was recorded secretly during a private conversation with his father and American lawyer. "They beat me pretty bad ... in the [police] station," Elder said in a transcript of the conversation requested by the court, reports AFP. "They threw me to the ground, kicked me, punched me, stood on me, spit on me" - he said - "They said they would give me 40 years if I didn't give them my phone password." Elder's claims of police brutality follow the leaking of photographs of Hjorth blindfolded and handcuffed at a police station in Rome. "The awful truth of what Finnegan was subjected to and endured as a terrified 19-year-old is now being revealed to the world," - Elder's father Ethan told AFP - "Our hearts break every minute of every hour of every day." Elder, now 20, has admitted to stabbing Cerciello Rega with an 18-cm serrated-edge combat knife but has insisted to investigators that he thought he and his friend were being attacked by drug dealers. What happened prior to attack A few hours earlier Elder and Natale-Hjorth had been trying to buy cocaine in the popular night-life area of Trastevere. A man described as an "intermediary" and identified as Sergio Brugiatelli helped them find a dealer who allegedly sold them crushed aspirin instead of drugs. In retaliation the students stole Brugiatelli's rucksack, demanding the return of their money plus a gram of cocaine in exchange. However Brugiatelli informed the police of the situation, with undercover officers Cerciello Rega and Varriale going to the designated meeting place in Prati instead of Brugiatelli. Elder claims that they were jumped from behind by the officers who they believed were criminal associates of Brugiatelli. Varriale has said that he and Cerciello Rega, both unarmed, told the young men they were police, but that Elder pulled out a knife and attacked Cerciello Rega, while Natale-Hjorth wrestled with Varriale. In the ensuing 32-second brawl Cerciello Rega was stabbed 11 times, later dying from his wounds in nearby S. Spirito hospital. Elder and Natale-Hjorth fled the scene but were tracked down the next day to a hotel, in the same area as the attack, where police found the military knife hidden behind a ceiling panel. Contradictory version of events Varriale initially said that he and Cerciello Rega had been attacked by men of north African descent, as well as claiming that he had been armed. However it later transpired that both officers were unarmed and that they acted without backup, in violation of police procedure. Shortly after the teens' arrest, a photo showing Natale-Hjorth blindfolded and restrained at a police station was leaked to the Italian media, attracting further controversy to the case. Separately, defence lawyers for the US students say that transcripts of talks between Elder and his lawyer which were published in Italian media and suggested that he had confessed, were translated badly and appeared to omit parts of their conversation. Outpouring of public sympathy Cerciello Rega's murder received widespread attention in Italy where he was portrayed as a hero. He had only just returned to duty from his honeymoon, and massive crowds turned out for his funeral at the same church where he had been married just 43 days before.

Anger mounts against Australian radio station over royal hoax after nurse's death LONDON (AP) — The British hospital that fell victim to a prank call from two Australian DJs asking questions about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge condemned the hoax on Saturday, as the radio station behind the prank tried to defend itself against rising anger a day after the nurse who took the call was found dead. The body of Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found early Friday at nurses' housing provided by the London hospital where Prince William's wife, the former Kate Middleton, was being treated for acute morning sickness this week. Police have made no connection between her death and the prank call, but people from London to Sydney have been making the assumption she died because of the stress. The DJs have apologized for the hoax and taken the show off the air, but station 2day FM was forced to yank its Facebook page after it received thousands of angry comments and complaints have reportedly flooded into Australia's media regulator. Rhys Holleran, CEO of 2DayFM's parent company Southern Cross Austereo, said the hosts were shocked and devastated by news of Saldanha's death. "This is a tragic event that could not have been reasonably foreseen and we're deeply saddened by it," Holleran said during a news conference in Melbourne on Saturday. "I spoke to both presenters early this morning and it's fair to say they're completely shattered." Greig and Christian have been offered counseling, Holleran said. "These people aren't machines, they're human beings," he said. "We're all affected by this." Holleran would not say who came up with the idea for the call, only that "these things are often done collaboratively." He said 2DayFM would work with authorities, but was confident the station hadn't broken any laws. Lord Glenarthur, the chairman of King Edward VII's Hospital, wrote the chairman of the radio station's owner, saying the consequence of the prank "was the humiliation of two dedicated and caring nurses who were simply doing their job tending to their patients." Continued... "The longer term consequence has been reported around the world and is, frankly, tragic beyond words," he wrote in the letter. Police released a grainy photo of Saldanha on Saturday. A native of India, she had lived in Bristol in southwestern England with her family for the past nine years, Scotland Yard confirmed. Police said her death is being treated as "unexplained," though they said they didn't find anything suspicious. A coroner will make a determination on the cause next week. Flowers were left outside the hospital's nurses' building. Attached to the red, white and blue flowers, a note read: "Dear Jacintha, our thoughts are with you and your family. From all your fellow nurses, we bless your soul. God bless." Britain's Press Association reported she had a partner, Benedict Barboza, and a teenage son and daughter. In a statement, Saldanha's family said they were "deeply saddened" by the death and asked for privacy. "She was a lovely, lovely person who always spoke to you when you saw her in the street," neighbor Mary Atwell told the agency. "She fitted in well around here, they all did. They've lived here for at least 10 years and were very quiet and pleasant." During the call, a woman using the often-mimicked voice of Britain's monarch asked about the duchess' health. She was told by the second nurse who took the call from Saldanha that the duchess, the former Kate Middleton, "hasn't had any retching with me and she's been sleeping on and off." The Australian Communications and Media Authority, which regulates radio broadcasting, says it has received complaints about the prank and is discussing the matter with the Sydney-based station, though it has not yet begun an investigation. The station has a history of controversy, including a series of "Heartless Hotline" shows in which disadvantage people were offered a prize that could be taken away from them by listeners. St. James's Palace, the office of the duchess and her husband Prince William, expressed sadness at Saldanha's death, but insisted it had not complained about the hoax. King Edward VII's Hospital said it did not reprimand Saldanha, nor had plans to discipline her. Location, ST | website.com National News Videos - Operation Weed Whacker: Delco men charged in nationwide pot ring (5022) - Middletown man charged with helping hide evidence in Lanco killing (3773) - Interboro board: Super’s services coming to a close (3045) - Nick Foles upstages Michael Vick at Eagles practice (With Video) (2984) - Yeadon native charged with killing husband in N.J. being investigated for 1993 death of prior husband (2111) - Brett Favre jersey will be retired, Packers CEO says (1776) - Missing Montco college student found safe (1724) - Eagles' Jackson needs action to back talk (34) - Interim Interboro superintendent is in hot water over bad language (With Video) (14) - Former Springfield High wrestler charged with sex assault on boy (11) - Primary 2013: Challenger pulls upset in Yeadon (6) - Boys lacrosse: Joey Granahan’s effort preserves win for Garnet Valley in district tournament (6) - Havertown resident one of three men to be ordained a priest on Saturday (With Video) (5) Recent Activity on Facebook Phil Heron uses this site to turn back the curtain a bit on the great mystery involved in creating a newspaper and his other general thoughts on life and the news. Your daily wake up call with updated traffic, weather and few fun things to get you through the morning. Presenting Chester City's news and views to Delco Times web visitors who want to know more of what's going on in the City besides the stories they read in the paper. Promotes family friendly events and activities held in and around Delco on a weekly basis. Cliff Wilson served as chairman of the Delaware County Democratic Party for 16 years (1994-2010). He will write on politics and other issues he feels strongly about. Offers timely health advice for pets, behavioral tricks of the trade, follow-up success stories, and more. Updated regularly by ACDC's all-volunteer staff that includes long-time foster parents and pet owners who have years of experience. Kent Davidson covers local politics, events, and goings-on in the borough of Media, PA.

Stonington — Pequot Trail near Wheeler Drive is still closed tonight following an afternoon accident but police expect the road will be open by this morning. While more than 800 customers were without power in Pawcatuck Monday afternoon after a car struck a utility pole at the eastern end of Pequot Trail, that number was reduced to 50 to night. CL&P crews are still on the scene tonight repairing the pole and downed power lines. Just past 12:30 p.m. a car driven by an elderly local man heading east on Pequot Trail went off the side of the road and struck the pole before coming to rest on a small stone wall. The crash took down numerous power lines along Pequot Trail and Wheeler Drive. The man, who was conscious and alert after the crash, told police on the scene that he had taken his eyes off the road for a second. He was trapped in the car and had to be extricated by Pawcatuck firefighters just before 1 p.m. He was then taken to Westerly Hospital to be treated for minor injuries. The crash cut off power to the police station which operated for some time on emergency generators. Police did not release his name Monday.

Walsall election news (broadsheet) |Previous||1 of 2||Next| small (250x250 max) medium (500x500 max) large ( > 500x500) Loading content ... Walsall Election News POLLING DAY: FRIDAY, 27th FEBRUARY, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. CONSEQUENCES OF LIBERALISM ! ! On January 21st, 1924, the Liberal M.P.'s, including Dr. Macnamara, voted the Socialists into office. What was the Result ? Unemployment Increased. Food Prices Went Up. Bolsheviks were Recognised. Cheaper Empire Food was turned down. Poplar Extravagance was encouraged. Foreigners were given increased facilities to sell their goods here Unemployed were deceived. Pledges to Old Age Pensioners were broken. Housing promises were broken. Mr. Lloyd George once said that the Russians were "fools to put the Socialists in." (Carmarthen, Aug. 8th, 1924.) Liberal M.P.'s did the same here. The Liberal M.P.'s kept the Socialist Government in office for nearly a year, although, according to Mr. Lloyd George, it was a "floundering and fumbling Government . . . too frightened of their job to do anything themselves." (Carnarvon, December 30th, 1924.) The country showed its want of confidence in the Liberal M.P.'s by turning them all out of the House of Commons, except a miserable group of 40 members. LIBERAL LEADERS are now trying to put themselves right with the people by making big promises of what they will do if only they are given another chance. KEEP OUT THE LIBERAL. FEBRUARY, 1925. BILLY PRESTON, THE UNIONIST CANDIDATE. REASONS why you should VOTE UNIONIST BECAUSE YOU ARE PATRIOTIC The Conservative and Unionist Party is a Patriotic Party. It believes in serving National interests and cheerfully answering the country's call. There were no conscientious objectors to military service in the Unionist Party during the Great War. BECAUSE YOU WANT LIBERTY. The Conservative and Unionist Party is opposed to excessive State Control and bureaucratic interference with individual freedom. Socialism denies Liberty, magnifies State Control, and seeks to regulate everybody, everywhere, at all times. BECAUSE YOU ARE DEMOCRATIC. The Conservative and Unionist Party believes that ours is a democratic country, in which men of ability have full scope to rise to the highest positions in the State. Socialism, by excessive interference and regulation, limits able men's opportunities. BECAUSE YOU UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION. The Conservative and Unionist Party is a Constitutional Party, supporting the ordered development of our political institutions. Socialists have tried to overthrow them — in 1917 by forming Workers' Councils, and by the " Council of Action " in August, 1920. Many Socialists approve of a Revolution for the purpose of establishing a Socialist Republic here. BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE IN PROGRESS. The Conservative and Unionist Party is a progressive Party. Most big political and industrial reforms have been the work of Conservatives and Unionists, who have the best record of working-class legislation. Socialism, as Russia shows, leads to slavery, tyranny famine and rule by force and not by franchise. BECAUSE YOU ARE AGAINST INDUSTRIAL UNREST. The Conservative and Unionist Party is entirely opposed to the political strike. It looks upon industrial strikes as deplorable incidents in the relations between capital and labour. Socialists use the strike weapon freely to gain political ends. For instance, the coal strikes were organised in order to get nationalisation without the necessity of consulting the people at a General Election. BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE IN EMPIRE. The Conservative and Unionist Party upholds the principle of Empire and Imperial development, believing that our greatness comes from our Empire. Socialists hate the Imperial idea and would allow — even help — the Empire to dissolve, and would replace it in world politics by International Socialism. Vote for Billy Preston, A WALSALL MAN FOR WALSALL. PRESTON - X POLLING DAY: FRIDAY, 27th FEBRUARY, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. HERE ARE A FEW OF THE REAL OPINIONS OF SOCIALIST LEADERS. OUR FLAG — "THAT RAG." "Comrade" David Kirkwood, Socialist Party M.P. for Dumbarton, says: — "The British Empire is made up of countries all over the world, and the Union Jack - THAT RAG - floats in every clime." — (House of Commons, July 17, 1923). The Socialist "rag" is, of course, the Red Flag. If Socialists ruled, no one would probably be allowed to fly the Union Jack. "DIRTY DOGS." "Comrade Saklatvala, Socialist M.P. for North Battersea, writes: — "The British Empire is made up of of the aristocratic and cunning 'dirty dogs' of Great Britain, who will assail anyone's country at any time. The British Parliament's chief function and purpose of existence is to maintain intact the Empire and to retain all the stolen property and to keep under bondage all the bullied nations." (Workers' Weekly, June 2, 1923). A REPUBLICAN. "Comrade George Lansbury, Socialist Party M.P. for Bow and Bromley, said at a Socialist Party Conference :- "I am a Republican and advocate Republicanism. . . . When the Social Revolution comes we shall know what can be done with Kings Presidents or anyone else. . . . One day, by law appointed, perhaps you won't have a King and Queen." (Daily Herald, June 30, 1923). BAYONET FICHTINC. "Comrade" E. Thurtle, Socialist Party M.P. for Shoreditch, said at the "Labour" Party Conference, June, 1923 : "The Monarchy should be swept away." (Official Report, p. 250). "Comrade" David Kirkwood, M.P., knows what Socialists want. He says : — "The Socialist movement is prepared to fight, and will fight, until we carry out the Socialist Republic — if necessary at the point of the bayonet." (House of Commons, July 17, 1923). THE CLASS WAR. "Comrade" "Bob" Smillie, Socialist Party M.P. for Morpeth, said: — "I have deliberately been trying to spread discontent among our people." (Plymouth, Sept. 3, 1923) "Comrade" J. Wheatley, Socialist Party M.P. for Shettleston, and ex-Minister of Health, said: — "They had a revolution to get through." (Edinburgh, Sept. 23, 1923). He has also said : — "Until the working class learns that it is engaged in a class war we shall make no progress." (At Plebs League, London, Dec. 6, 1924). KEEP OUT THE SOCIALIST. |Archive collection||Iron and Steel Trades Confederation| |Archive file||Labour Party| |Title||Walsall election news (broadsheet)| |Issuing organisation||Conservative Party (Great Britain)| |Document date||February 1925| |Course name||Governing Britain|

He's Lance Armstrong - the man of steal I couldn't watch. I couldn't listen to a man so arrogant and self-entitled, dispense his tale of woe. Woe is him. A cancer survivor, a hero, a bullet-proof athlete and supreme being. A man who was so indestructible and unbeatable that his dominance was almost laughable. Lance Armstrong the cyclist was superman. Then he looked Oprah in the face and said he was a fraud. Now, we all know that superman is really the man of steal. He stole seven Tour de France titles, stole an Olympic medal, stole the hopes and dreams of his competitors, but mostly he stole his image and the pedestal he stood upon. He stole our hearts because we believed in him. Cancer survivor and amazing athlete. A man we found nearly impossible not to root for. From high atop his pedestal, Armstrong flung arrows at his detractors and accusers. He chastised people, filed lawsuits, and ruined lives and careers. Then he said he was sorry. Sorry doesn't cut it. For me, I never fully believed that Lance Armstrong was Mr. Clean. But I wanted to believe it. As a cyclist, chills hit me when I saw him taunt opponents with the cold eyes of an assassin, then with super-human strength bolt away leaving them gasping for air. We were amazed. Lance Armstrong was arguably the greatest sports story ever told. Cancer ravaged his body so badly that death was at his door. He would never push a pedal again. Diagnosed with cancer in October 1996, his cycling career was thought to be done. But in February 1997, he beat cancer and the comeback was on. On the bike he was a legend. Off the bike he was an icon. But he was a con man. All along, he conned us. He made an amazing, super-human return. He beat cancer. No, he destroyed it. He beat it with unmerciful determination. He left cancer mangled and beaten. Then he did the same to all his competitors from 1999 to 2005. He owned the sport of cycling. He owned us. He was the greatest athlete and humanitarian that we could imagine. When he left the bike, he encouraged cancer patients to fight. Fight like him, beat cancer like he did. He was a beacon of hope off the bike and a lightning bolt of power on the bike. He was the definition of determination both on and off the bike. Now the truth has come spurting out like a plunged syringe. He's a doper and has always been a doper. In 2000, after his phenomenal first Tour de France victory, Armstrong's book "It's not about the bike" was published. It wasn't about the bike. It's never been about the bike. It's always been about Lance Armstrong and his insatiable ego. I feel a little hypocritical because I didn't want to believe all those accusations. He passed more than 500 drug tests. How is it possible that he could pass every single drug test if he was doping? But in a sport where world-class cyclists are getting booted for doping after nearly every race, how could Armstrong be so good, so strong, so unbeatable without using performance enhancing drugs? He's Lance Armstrong - that's what I told myself. I didn't want to believe that he doped. It ruined the story. The fact that he lied, cheated and pumped more drugs into his body than a heroin addict angers me. But even more, it's the man's super-human arrogance and ego that bothers me. The ferocity in which he attacked his accusers over the years truly shows his absolute lack of integrity. I read a book 10 years ago from an author that followed Armstrong and his team throughout the Tour de France. That book opened my eyes to what kind of a "flawed character" Armstrong was and is. In those chapters, you could see that he was a bully and a jerk. Not even I could simply chalk it up to supreme competitiveness. But when the Tour de France rolled around, I was in his corner. He was an American dominating a sport universally adored and previously dominated by Europeans. I root for the USA whenever I can. I rooted for Lance and marveled at his dominance. I rooted for his Livestrong Foundation and proudly wore the yellow bracelet for years. Armstrong remains the most famous cancer survivor the world has ever seen. His work in bringing money and awareness to fighting the disease has been an unquestionable asset. But Lance Armstrong is a liar and a cheat. It's one thing to lie, it's another thing to ruin lives, stab friends in the back and bully anyone who ever questioned him. He would flash his trademark anger whenever an accusation would rise. And he would be believable. He never failed a drug test. He must be telling the truth. He would always have the how-dare-you-question-me attitude and response. The great and powerful Lance Armstrong can't be questioned. But now the curtain is gone and we see the real Lance Armstrong. His admission that he used drugs throughout his cycling career didn't shock me. I was actually waiting for this day. Every cyclist who has gotten busted for using drugs has lied, denied and eventually got fried for that decision. Poetic justice? Way more. There's nothing poetic about Armstrong's fall from grace. Lance Armstrong is getting what he deserves. After more than a decade of being a bully, a jerk, a liar and mostly a gutless, arrogant punk fueled by ego and chemical concoctions, Armstrong needs to drift to the back of the pack. There's a term used in cycling when a cyclist falls far behind. It's called getting dropped. Armstrong has been dropped by all his sponsors, all his fans and all his supporters. He needs to be dropped. He lied to everyone. I don't think he even believes he lied to itself. After all, he's Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and superman. I feel no sorrow for him. I feel sorry for the men and women he targeted, he bullied, he ruined and he sued. Mostly, I feel sorry for the millions of cancer survivors who believed that Lance Armstrong was indeed superman. My hope is that the Livestrong Foundation continues to be strong in the wake of its founder's flaws. Cancer survivors have long looked to Armstrong for strength, inspiration and hope. Today, Armstrong stands before us a broken man with extreme flaws. He needs to be dropped. But for all those facing the daunting future of a cancer diagnosis and those who have survived the disease - live happy, live well and live strong. You are not Lance Armstrong's legacy. You are your own legacy. Lance has been dropped. The man of steal is gone. Good riddance. Dale Shrull is the editor of the Cortez Journal.

Evidence of Tom DeLay's Authoritarianism: |By JOHN W. DEAN| |Friday, Apr. 06, 2007| Former Republican Majority Leader of Congress Tom DeLay has written a new autobiography entitled No Retreat, No Surrender. It is a brief work, written in collaboration with writer Stephen Mansfield, author of The Faith of George W. Bush. I've read several unauthorized biographies of DeLay, and observed his conduct for over a decade, so as I began reading his autobiography, it occurred to me to talk with Dr. Bob Altemeyer, a leading expert on the psychology of authoritarianism -- for I believe DeLay is a textbook example of an authoritarian personality. Altemeyer has conducted extensive research regarding the psychology of authoritarianism, which played a key role in my last book, Conservatives Without Conscience. In response to my plea that he write a book making his academic research more accessible to general readers, Altemeyer has published a new e-book, The Authoritarians, presented without charge online. In the short time it has been available, the work has been already been downloaded by thousands. I encourage readers to download it, too. Below is a Q&A exchange I recently had with Altemeyer regarding DeLay. I found his responses very enlightening: QUESTION: Why were you interested in DeLay's autobiography? ANSWER: Because research in North America indicates that the people who become leaders of right-wing authoritarian movements tend to have strong religious beliefs serving as co-pilots to dominating, aggressive, amoral tendencies. It seems this arrangement would lead to a plane crash. But often these people do quite well in life. You and I both see Tom DeLay as such a leader, and I wanted to study his account of his career. Q: Can you learn that much from an autobiography, especially in this case when DeLay told Chris Matthews on MSNBC's "Hardball" that he doesn't agree with parts of it, which he never wrote--nor apparently read? A: You're right. It's not the way we scientifically figure things out, using experiments and so on. But we can see how many of the research findings actually turn up in a particular person's life. Beyond that, the way a person explains the facts of his life can tell you a lot. Q: What did you find in the book, then? For example, did you find the typical prejudice that is found in many authoritarians? A: No. So, let's start with a disconfirmation. Authoritarian leaders are usually very prejudiced against racial minorities, other religions, and so on. There's no evidence of this in DeLay's book, however. In fact he says that, while he morally condemns homosexuality, when the voters have sent a homosexual to the Congress, he works with this person just as he would with anyone else. Q: How about other authoritarian characteristics? A: Many. There is forceful, unmistakable evidence that DeLay is incredibly ethnocentric. He divides the world into an in-group (conservatives) and a despised out-group (liberals). He really does hate liberals, and often associates them with communism, going so far as to say. "They are much like communists," and "Like good communists, they..." He also says Clinton's "brand of liberalism had an almost anti-American feel to it." This struck me as Born-Again McCarthyism. His view is so intensely focused on the battle he sees constantly raging between good conservatives and evil liberals that those are apparently the only actors he sees on the political scene. I don't recall him talking about "moderates" once in the whole book. Q: Authoritarian leaders crave power, and DeLay certainly sought power as a member of Congress. What did you think of his explanation of that? A: He aggressively pursued power and he argues, quite reasonably, that if you're in Congress you have to attain power to serve your principles. That's what drove him, he says, not some base grab for personal power, such as he thinks existed in former House Majority Leader Dick Armey. Armey was "a gifted man, but a man so blinded by ambition as to be useless to the cause." True, DeLay also was ambitious, and he describes how he maneuvered and positioned himself to rise rapidly within the Republican ranks. But only because he wanted to serve his ideals and Jesus, he says. I'm not sure it was all that selfless and noble. Q: There are many members of Congress who go to Washington and never seek leadership positions. Some leaders gain their position by being loyal followers and they are sought out for their leadership skills. DeLay was a power grabber. Does that come out in his book? A: Research shows that authoritarian leaders are very hostile folks, and DeLay acknowledges that he is aggressive. "We all have flaws, and my flaw" (note the singular noun) "is that I can sometimes be aggressive, even mean" he wrote. "Even in an all-Republican race I can get so geared up for war that I speak of my allies as enemies." He agrees that his face got flushed and veins stuck out in his neck when he was describing the Clintons. His wife has to remind him that "stupid liberals" isn't one word. He was called "The Hammer" and "The Exterminator" in the House, and not just because he owned a pest control business before entering politics. Q: What other authoritarian characteristics did DeLay reveal about himself in his book? A: Quite a number. Here are a few examples. Authoritarian leaders believe strongly in intimidation as a means to power. After DeLay was elected the Republican Whip in the House in 1994, he was asked why Newt Gingrich, who favored another candidate, did not oppose him more forcefully. DeLay replied, "He knew I'd make a terrible enemy." Later, when the Republican Congress locked horns with President Clinton so fiercely over the budget that the government shut down, Gingrich blinked first-to the disgust of DeLay. "I believe that Clinton was essentially spineless and would capitulate under political pressure if we just stuck to our guns." But Gingrich was not tough enough, in DeLay's view, to face down the president. Research also shows that authoritarian leaders have exploitive, manipulative, amoral approaches to life. They have little commitment to the truth, and say it's really important to know how to lie convincingly. In this light, one can cite many instances in DeLay's book in which he is misleading, not so much in what he says, but in what he does not. Believing him to be a very intelligent person well acquainted with the facts in these cases, I find it hard to believe "the rest of the story" just slipped his mind. Q: That answer seems to suggest that like many authoritarian leader-type personalities, DeLay may be "truth-challenged?" A: Well, one can find outright deception in his past. DeLay promoted and signed the election-winning Contract With America in 1994. As he puts it, "We were making a covenant with the American people that guaranteed" ten things. Number 10 on the list was term limits for senators and congressmen. But DeLay helped defeat the bill when it reached the floor. His explanation: the contract was just to bring specific legislation to be voted upon, not to make it law. Some covenant; some guarantee. Q: Other examples? A: DeLay writes that he's been investigated by the House Ethics Committee "perhaps half a dozen times." These investigations have occurred because liberals are out to get him, he maintains. He describes one launched by Democratic Congressman Chris Bell, who alleged DeLay had raised money from a Kansas power company by promising a legislative favor in return. What did the Ethics Committee find? DeLay tells his readers that not only did the committee not impose any sanctions on him; it rebuked Bell for using innuendo in his complaint. Sounds like DeLay was totally exonerated and his accuser sent home with his tail between his legs, right? Q: What, in fact, actually happened? A: The committee did rebuke Bell, but it still found enough merit in his allegation to consider the case, and it ended up admonishing DeLay. True, admonishment is not as serious a punishment as a sanction, but it's a finding of fault and a fairly stiff one when congressmen are investigating each other. DeLay acknowledges that the Ethics Committee has admonished him "upon occasion." He was in fact admonished four times-perhaps a record for a member of Congress. He says this was largely the work of Joel Hefley, a Republican representative from Colorado who had a grudge against him. But actually all four of the admonishments were unanimously passed by the Ethics Committee, which means all the Republicans agreed DeLay had done something wrong. It's pretty hard to see this as a strictly liberal, or personal, vendetta. But DeLay tells his readers nothing about this. Q: What does DeLay say about his indictment in Texas, for money laundering, which is still hanging over him? A: "Let's set the record straight," DeLay says. In 2001, he says, he founded Texans for a Republican Majority, a PAC to support Republican candidates in Texas and elsewhere. In August of 2002 this committee sent $190,000, raised among various Texas corporations, to the Republican National Committee "for use in states where corporate contributions are legal." Corporate contributions are illegal in Texas state elections. "In a completely separate action," DeLay continues, the Republican National Committee sent more than $3 million-raised from individuals in other states-into Republican campaigns in Texas." The district attorney in Austin indicted DeLay and two associates for violating the Texas law. This attorney is a Democrat, DeLay points out, and part of a conspiracy to get him. DeLay's guilt or innocence has not been decided in court. But DeLay did not give his readers a very informed version of the facts. For example, that $190,000 contribution came with a list of suggested donations to various Texas House candidates that totaled $190,000--which the Republican National Committee made a few weeks later to the tune of precisely $190,000. Q: Is this characteristic of authoritarians, to open themselves up to being easily discredited by what they say? Or something pathological about DeLay? A: I try hard not to call people pathological. Why has he let himself be so easily discredited in this and the other cases? I think it's because he knows his audience, which will be mainly authoritarian followers, who would never doubt what he says, nor check his stories against other accounts. Studies show that authoritarian leaders can say almost anything, and their followers will believe them. Q: But isn't DeLay deluding himself too? A: Authoritarian leaders who have a fundamentalist religious outlook, as Tom DeLay does, show many of the same traits that their followers do, including having highly compartmentalized minds. That means many of their ideas remain largely unconnected, as though they were stored in separate boxes. Beliefs and attitudes and behaviors that contradict each other coexist because they're never "in play" at the same time. This leads authoritarians to inconsistency, self-blindness, double standards, and hypocrisy--as research has uncovered time after time. Q: Does evidence of hypocrisy appear in DeLay's book? A: No Retreat, No Surrender packs a lot of compartmentalized thinking in its pages, including hypocrisy. Take DeLay's reaction to the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. He wrote, "Even before Clinton's perjury came to light I believed his conduct was so beneath his office that he should resign." DeLay accordingly organized the Republican leadership to demand Clinton's resignation. But DeLay had many adulterous affairs while he held high public office, and he never resigned. He also says he was disgusted by the sordid details of Clinton's behavior that filled the news. Would a description of his many acts of infidelity make wholesome reading? The interesting thing here, beyond the inconsistency, is that DeLay apparently did not realize he was being a hypocrite when he wrote these parts of his book. That's the compartmentalization at work. Q: You mentioned DeLay's fundamentalist religious beliefs. I know you have studied and written about religious beliefs. Did religious transform DeLay's life? A: DeLay's path to Jesus will sound familiar to many. He was a successful man with hidden, soul-wrenching problems: a growing alcoholism and lots of adulterous sex. Shortly after he was elected to congress in 1984 a colleague preached the Gospel to him, and eventually he quietly accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. The commitment enabled him to curb his drinking and give up other women. But it did not seem to produce a large scale transformation in his life. Other problems remained: the hatred, the aggression, the meanness, the dominance, the artful deception, the things for which he was admonished by the Ethics Committee. Conversion often leads to some specific changes, but it can bring with it a self-righteousness that necessarily sweeps all the other faults under the rug, and can even contribute to more aggression. Q: Did you find other examples of compartmentalized thinking in DeLay's book? A: Yes, just as we can find them in my life, in everybody's life. It's a pretty common feature of human beings. But authoritarians wall up their ideas way more than most people do. So in DeLay's case he says the Republicans lost the 2006 election because of Bush and Iraq. But he ignores the fact that the number one issue on the minds of voters last November, according to the exit polls, was political corruption--with which he was definitely associated. He says it's the liberals who have made Congress a meaner place, but he was once called the "Meanest man in Congress." He also piously writes, "I am slow to pass judgment on any man. I have learned only to pray that God grants mercy to us all." But if he and I met, and he thought I was a liberal, he'd probably immediately dislike me. He says he realized that lobbyists represent issues and people he had sworn to serve. But only some of the people. He forced lobbyist firms to hire Republicans, because he wouldn't talk to any liberals on their staffs. And yes, he raised lots of money from people who believed in his values. And yes, he sometimes let lobbyists write the laws that he pushed through Congress, especially if the laws led to deregulation of industries they represented. He doesn't think there's anything wrong with that. For a final "disconnect," consider the title of the book: No Retreat, No Surrender. The plain fact is DeLay has retreated. He no longer sits in Congress. He resigned his seat. There's actually a bit of pathos in the defiance of his title, isn't there.

Reporting Sera Congi SOMERVILLE (CBS/AP) – A Somerville man appeared in court on Monday to face charges in connection with a car crash that claimed the lives of two teenage girls. State police say 21-year-old Kenneth Belew was at the wheel of a car that crashed in the pre-dawn hours Friday on the elevated portion of the McGrath Highway southbound over Washington Street. WBZ-TV’s Sera Congi reports. Belew faces numerous charges, including drunken driving, motor vehicle homicide and speeding in the crash. He had five passengers. A 16-year-old Everett girl died at the scene, while a 17-year-old Somerville girl died later on Saturday. Their names were not made public. Belew and three others suffered minor injuries. Police said the group had just come from a house party at which alcohol was served. WBZ NewsRadio 1030′s Carl Stevens reports. Prosecutors said right after the crash, Belew cried out to police at the scene, “I killed her, I’m drunk, take me to jail.” Kim Moss, a parent, said Belew is her son’s best friend. She said the tragedy should send a message. “These children need to know that drinking and driving is very dangerous. As we sat in the courtroom today, there were probably 6 or 7 people that were arrested for OUI, and they were one of the lucky ones,” said Moss. The judge set bail at $5,000. If released, he’s ordered not to drink or drive and he must undergo screenings. Belew has a criminal record, including past charges for assault and battery, operating with a suspended license and minor possessing alcohol. (TM and © Copyright 2010 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

We are very pleased to announce that Too Many Chefs is hosting the next edition of Is My Blog Burning? This monthly event bringing bloggers around the world together in the pursuit of great cuisine was begun by Alberto over at the excellent Il Forno blog. In the past few months we have sipped delicious soups from Alberto's initial IMBB, supped on tasty Tartines at Chocolate & Zucchini, danced through a Cake Walk at Renee's Shiokadelicious, went Around the World in a Bowl of Rice at Chez Pim's, and dished up a fishy Catch of the Day at Wena's mum-mum. On July 18th, IMBB? will visit the world of Barbecuing and Grilling for the Grillers Delight. Celebrate the summer (or defy the Winter, you Antipodeans) by getting out and slapping some delicious dinners on the barby. Don't have a grill? Then use a grill pan indoors, or simply prepare a barbecued item or a grilled style item. If it's got barbecue sauce or grill marks on it, we want to sample it. You do NOT have to be a food blogger to participate. All bloggers are welcome. In fact, non-bloggers are wecome as well! If you do not have a blog, but have some barbecue or grill secrets you're dying to share, then send them to us at [email protected] and we'll be happy to post an entry for you. Please note that email address is different from our regular e-mail address. If you'd like to participate, post your entry on Sunday, July18th. It does not have to be prepared on July 18th, but it must be posted on that day. Send an e-mail to the TMC gang at [email protected] to let us know you've got an entry up and we'll be sure to feature it in the event summary the next day. So have lots of fun coming up with some lovely grilled/barbecued delights and just remember that, as the wise man with no eyebrows once said, "There really is such a thing as too much lighter fluid."

An Empire of Poverty: Race, Punishment, and Social Control By: Andrew Gavin Marshall NOTE: The following is a brief sampling of some of the concepts, ideas, issues, and events that are to be thoroughly researched and written about in two chapters of The People’s Book Project which will be funded through The People’s Grant, of which the objective is to raise $1,600 from readers and supporters. If you find the information in the following sampling of interest, please donate to the People’s Book Project and help facilitate expanded research on these and other related subjects into constructing two significant chapters for the book. For a look at what other information will be included in these chapters, see the latest information on The People’s Grant. Contribute to The People’s Grant: Slavery and the Social Construction of Race Between 1619 and 1860, the American legal system, from that imposed by the British Empire to that constructed following the American Revolution, “expanded and protected the liberties of white Americans – while at the same time the legal process became increasingly more harsh as to the masses of blacks, with a steady contraction of their liberties.” This process marked the ‘social construction’ of race and with it, racial superiority and inferiority, delegated to whites and blacks, respectively. Interesting to note was that between 1619 and the 1660s, the American colonial legal system was “far more supportive for blacks; or, phrased differently, the early legal process was less harsh.” Georgia’s original charter, in fact, had three prohibitions: no alcohol, no free land titles, “and no Negro slaves.” In Virginia, as late as 1672 and 1673, there were legal records of some slaves “serving limited terms as indentured servants rather than being sentenced to the eternity of slavery.” The colonies in the Americas required a massive labour force, “Between 1607 and 1783, more than 350,000 ‘white’ bond-labourers arrived in the British colonies.” The Americas had both un-free blacks and whites, with blacks being a minority, yet they “exercised basic rights in law.” Problems arrived in the form of elites trying to control the labour class. Slaves were made up of Indian, black and white labourers; yet, problems arose with this “mixed” population of un-free labour. The problem with Indian labourers was that they knew the land and could escape to “undiscovered” territory, and enslavement would often instigate rebellions and war: The social costs of trying to discipline un-free native labour had proved too high. Natives would eventually be genocidally eliminated, once population settlement and military power made victory more or less certain; for the time being, however, different sources of bond labour had to be found. Between 1607 and 1682, more than 90,000 European immigrants, “three-quarters of them chattel bond-labourers, were brought to Virginia and Maryland.” Following the “establishment of the Royal African Company in 1672, a steady supply of African slaves was secured.” Problems became paramount, however, as the lower classes tended to be very rebellious, which consisted of “an amalgam of indentured servants and slaves, of poor whites and blacks, of landless freemen and debtors.” The lower classes were united in opposition to the elites oppressing them, regardless of background. Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676 was of particular note, as bond-labourers, black and white, rebelled against the local elites and “demanded freedom from chattel servitude.” For the colonialists, “[s]uch images of a joint uprising of black and white, slave and bondsman, proved traumatic. In the face of a united rebellion of the lower orders, the planter bourgeoisie understood that their entire system of colonial exploitation and privilege was at risk.” In response to this threat, the landed elite “relaxed the servitude of white labourers, intensified the bonds of black slavery, and introduced a new regime of racial oppression. In doing so, they effectively created the white race – and with it white supremacy.” Thus, “the conditions of white and black servants began to diverge considerably after 1660.” Following this, legislation would separate white and black slavery, prevent “mixed” marriages, and seek to prevent the procreation of “mixed-race” children. Whereas before 1660, many black slaves were not indentured for life, this changed as colonial law increasingly “imposed lifetime bondage for black servants – and, especially significant, the curse of lifetime servitude for their offspring.” A central feature of the social construction of this racial divide was “the denial of the right to vote,” as most Anglo-American colonies previously allowed free blacks to vote, but this slowly changed throughout the colonies. The ruling class of America was essentially “inventing race.” Thus, “[f]reedom was increasingly identified with race, not class.” The ‘Reconstruction’ of Slavery in Post-Civil War America Important to note has been the ways in which slaves were used as the main labour force, and thus blacks were identified and being sustained as a lower-class labour force. Following the Civil War, abolition of slavery and the Reconstruction Period, there were coordinated moves – a ‘compact’ – between the North and South in the United States, to devise a way of keeping blacks as a submissive labour force, and one which was confined to a new form of slavery: penal slavery. Thus, we see emerging in the 1870s and into the 20th century, a rapid expansion of prisons, and with that, of southern penal systems using prisoners as forced labour. This new legal system, which was “far less rigid than slavery,” had been referred to as “involuntary servitude,” and, wrote one scholar, “was a fluid, flexible affair which alternated between free and forced labor in time to the rhythm of the southern labor market.” A famous American botanist and agricultural editor of the Weekly News and Courier wrote in 1865 that, “There must… be stringent laws to control the negroes, & require them to fulfill their contracts of labour on the farms.” Southern legislatures, then, began to enact what were referred to as Black Codes, “designed to preserve white hegemony.” The 12-year period following the end of the Civil War, known as the ‘Reconstruction,’ saw the continued struggle of newly-freed blacks to attempt to break free from being “forced back under the political and economic domination of the large landowners,” and to do so, they were demanding land ownership rights to the tune of “40 acres and a mule.” This was, of course, unacceptable to vested interests. While the Republic Party had freed the slaves, the main core of the Party had become dominated by Northern wealthy interests, and “were unwilling to press for thoroughgoing reform, and by 1877 had become convinced that their interests were better served by an alliance with Southern white conservatives than the largely illiterate and destitute ex-slave population.” In the North at this time, the captains of industry and kings of capital (the bankers and industrialists) were waging a continued war against organized and increasingly radicalized labour. Thus, there was very little interest in seeking to enfranchise black labour in the South. As the New York Times suggested, the demands for “40 acres and a mule” hit at “the fundamental relation of industry to capital,” and “strikes at the root of all property rights in both sections. It concerns Massachusetts quite as much as Mississippi.” The legal system was used to essentially criminalize black life, without making specific references to race, laws that were passed specifically targeted blacks in attempting to limit their mobility, the price of their labour, and to make several aspects of typical black southern life to be deemed “criminal.” This process was paralleled in South Africa in the construction of the apartheid system. As one historian wrote: Prior to the 1860s, neither the South nor South Africa had an extensive history of large-scale imprisonment or of hiring out prison labour to private contractors. Before the Civil War, slave-owners had punished their own slaves. African Americans accounted for less than 1 per cent of Alabama’s pre-war prison population; the bulk of the 200-300 inmates of the first penitentiary built in 1841 comprised, as in northern prisons, mostly of newly-arrived European immigrants. Many of the South’s prisons were destroyed during the Civil War, and thus, as the Black Codes were subsequently enacted, legislation was increasingly passed which aimed to facilitate the leasing of convicts to private contractors, and as a result, there was little need to rebuild the prison infrastructure; instead, have prisoners build the new infrastructure of an industrializing South, with the convict population from the 1870s onward largely being leased to farmers and railroad contractors, which saved state revenues from building new prisons as well as procuring revenue. In 1874, the governor of Alabama had complained about spending $100,000 on convicts, and within two years of leasing out Alabama’s inmates to private contractors, he boasted of a $15,000 profit. Thus, prisons would never “be anything but a source of immense revenue to the state.” Largely the same process was undertaken in South Africa to secure labour for the diamond mines run by the De Beers Company. As William Worger wrote of the dual development of the American South and South African convict labour systems: [C]apitalists in both areas establishing new industries and constrained by expensive capital, high fixed costs for plant and operations, and competitive struggles for market share, viewed convict labour as essential to the introduction of machine production, the defeat of organized labour, and the overall cheapening of the costs of production… [I]n both cases the state, when viewed in its local and regional rather than national and metropolitan manifestations, enthusiastically supported the leasing of convicts to private employers… because of the enormous financial benefits to their administrations of selling prison labour… and because imprisonment with hard labour in industrial enterprises offered a means to ‘discipline’ (in the discourse of the South) and to ‘civilise’ (in that of British colonialism) African Americans and Africans convicted on the basis of their race for acts – such as petty theft and burglary… that would not have resulted in lengthy terms of incarceration for whites… [In both cases] convict labour was used to divide and defeat organized labour and to enable employers to segregate the workplace on the basis of race. Migration, Housing, and Organizing Ghettos It was no coincidence that each of these convict labour systems emerged in the context and circumstances of the development of Jim Crow segregation laws in the South and official apartheid in South Africa. At the same time as this was taking place in the South, massive migration of blacks from the South to the North began, concurrently with a period of radical labour militancy and class crisis. As such, this era saw the development of the ghettoes in major Northern cities “as a space of containment in urban areas.” The harsh legal racism, segregation, and cultural hatred of blacks in the South also spurred the migration to Northern cities. Between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,723 reported lynchings of African Americans, 90% of which took place in the Deep South. Between 1910 and 1960, roughly 5 million African Americans migrated to the North, Midwest, and Northeast. As Eduardo Mendieta wrote: It is significant that the process of northern urbanization takes place in tandem with the process of racial gentrification. This racial gentrification is overseen by the state itself through its housing policies. These policies ensure that the poor and colored are concentrated in the dilapidated and poorly serviced urban centers while wealthy whites… are granted the license and funding to flee to the suburbs. In other words, the development of the ghetto has to be seen in tandem with the suburbanization of the US… An overview of the different agencies and acts used by Congress to regulate housing policies and availability reveals that the government conspired to segregate through its loaning practices, and actually participated in the very act of destroying housing that was and could have been available to African Americans and poor people in the inner cities. In fact, amazingly, “the government [had] destroyed more low-incoming housing than it actually built.” This process had extended right into the post-World War II period. Between 1960 and 1977, “as the number of whites living in suburbs increased by 22 million… the inner-city African-American population grew by 6 million.” Kenneth T. Jackson wrote, “American housing policy was not only devoid of social objectives, but instead helped establish the basis for social inequities. Uncle Sam was not impartial, but instead contributed to the general disbenefit of the cities and to the general prosperity of the suburbs.” Most American ghettos first came into existence just as economic inequalities were reaching “new heights” in the 1920s in the midst of the long-worn battle between industrialists and organized labour. At this time, racial segregation was increasingly a global phenomenon, when imperial and national states were implementing social and geographical forms of segregation “by equating urban problems such as ‘vice’, crime, disease and social unrest with blacks and other people of color and suggesting urban division as a means to solve these problems.” As Carl H. Nightingale wrote in the Journal of Urban History: In the United States, this global “racial urbanism” informed the actions of the white homeowners, realtors, and banks that transformed an urban landscape marked by scattered minority-black enclaves into one of the large-scale segregated majority-black communities we know as ghettos. These first ghettos were also marked by the founding of separate black-run institutions that served their residents. The second phase of ghettoization in the United States occurred with the Great Depression, New Deal, and World War II-era, a time in which there was a continued growth of northward migration of black Americans to the industrial cities. In this context, the New Deal’s Home Owner’s Loan Corporation and the Federal Housing Administration “instituted highly discriminatory housing policies… [which] were aggravated by similarly racially biased urban renewal, public housing, and transportation policies, which not only solidified the boundaries of ghettos but also pushed them outward from downtown.” The third major phase of ghetto reform came about as a result of the Civil Rights Movement. Working with a major Civil Rights organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Ford Foundation sought to “organize the ghetto” through a program aimed at “making working-class blacks a decipherable and controllable constituency,” and thus: [The Ford] foundation sought black leaders who could be brought into the establishment fold and could engineer orderly change in the ghetto. Having found a model to control the black community by containing it… the Ford Foundation would use its experience with CORE in Cleveland as a base to complete its vision for African Americans in a post-civil rights America. A national housing program, organized around new public-private partnerships which would benefit the elite class, was developed to create housing for the poor. The development of this plan – the Rockefeller Program – was the most controversial of the initiatives under the 1968 housing legislation, which placed “little emphasis on expanding homeownership opportunities,” and instead, stressed “the importance of involving private enterprises in the rebuilding of cities and make use of tax incentives to encourage such involvement.” The interesting features of the Rockefeller Program, implemented under New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, were that it contemplated “that government will sponsor, develop, construct, and possibly manage the housing project,” and while the “actual construction work will be done by private firms as contractors… it is government which is to rebuild the slums.” Thus, the “incentives to enlist the active involvement of the private sector are not directly related to the task of rebuilding the slums, except insofar as they enable private enterprise to participate in the profits which will accrue.” The Rockefeller Foundation itself had a significant impact upon the changing focus of urban design. As Peter L. Laurence wrote, “between 1955 and 1965, the Rockefeller Foundation research programme for Urban Design Studies contributed significantly to post-war urban theory and to the emergence of the new discipline of urban design out of the overlapping interests of the fields of architecture, city planning and landscape design.” Rockefeller influence on city planning was thereafter established and institutionalized through the formation of the fields of urban studies and city planning. Educating Africans to be “Junior Partners in the Firm” In the first half of the 20th century, the Rockefeller Foundation and Carnegie Corporation undertook joint projects aimed at constructing an education system for black Americans in the South as well as for black Africans in several British colonies. In 1911, the Phelps-Stokes Fund was chartered with the purpose of managing “the education of Negroes both in Africa and the United States.” This restrictive educational system for black Americans had already been institutionalized, beginning with the ‘philanthropic’ endeavours of Wall Street bankers and northern industrialists and capitalists at several conferences in 1898. The education was constructed on the basis that, as one conference participant stated, “the white people are to be the leaders, to take the initiative, to have direct control in all matters pertaining to civilization and the highest interest of our beloved land. History demonstrates that the Caucasian will rule, and he ought to rule.” As one conference organizer stated: Time has proven that [the ‘negro’] is best fitted to perform the heavy labor in the Southern states… He will willingly fill the more menial positions, and do the heavy work, at less wages, than the American white man or any foreign race… This will permit the Southern white laborer to perform the more expert labor, and to leave the fields, the mines, and the simple trades for the negro. The conferences resulted in what became known as the ‘Tuskegee educational philosophy,’ which was decided upon by 1901. Three major decisions were taken at the conferences. The first major decision was that “it was necessary that provision be made to train a Negro leadership cadre”: For this purpose, then, it was concluded that certain Negro colleges would be strengthened to educate a strong professional class – doctors, lawyers, ministers – which would be responsible for raising the general physical and moral level of the race in the segregated black communities… [Second], it was decided that the Negro had been educated away from his natural environment and that his education should concern only those fields available to him. This key decision marked the formulation of the concept of a special Negro education. Third, it was decided that this special education – vocational and agricultural in focus – of the Negro had to be directed toward increasing the labor value of his race, a labor value which, not surprisingly, would see the white capitalist as chief beneficiary. Thus, in 1901 the fourth conference on the issue established the Southern Education Board. The following year, John D. Rockefeller established the General Education Board (a precursor to the Rockefeller Foundation), which “alleviated any financial concerns which the planners of southern Negro education might have experienced.” The Rockefeller philanthropy had extensive influence on implementing the ‘Tuskegee educational philosophy,’ particularly through the Southern Education Board, of which it not only helped finance, but had a shared leadership. Eleven members of the Southern Education Board were also members of Rockefeller’s General Education Board. With time, other funds and philanthropies became involved, such as the Jeanes Fund, the Slater Fund, and eventually the Phelps-Stokes Fund. Again, there was significant overlap between these organizations. The first president of the Jeanes Fund was James H. Dillard, a member of the Southern Education Board, an agent of the Slater Fund, and a member of Rockefeller’s General Education Board. In 1923, Dillard became a trustee of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. The Jeanes Fund, headed by Dillard, instituted the concept of the ‘Jeanes teacher’: a local Negro who could make contact in the rural communities as no one else could and who could adapt the school curriculum to the conditions of these communities. Hygiene, home economics, and industrial and agricultural training were to form the backbone of the curriculum for Jeanes rural schools. In 1925, the Jeanes school concept was transferred to Kenya, largely owing to the vigorous advocacy for such a transplantation by representatives of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. The Tuskegee/Phelps-Stokes educational philosophy quickly garnered the attention of British missionary educators in Africa. Two influential British missionary educators visited the Tuskegee Institute in 1912, with the idea in mind that they could adapt this educational philosophy to Britain’s colonies in Africa. One of these missionaries was J.H. Oldham, former secretary of the World Missionary Conference, and editor of the International Review of Missions, “the quasi-official journal of the Protestant missionary societies in Great Britain from its inception in 1912.” Having become well-acquainted with the American philanthropists involved in organization black education, Oldham introduced Thomas Jesse Jones to British colonial officials in charge of educational policy in Africa, and in 1924, “Oldham became the Phelps-Stokes Fund’s representative in the United Kingdom and intensified his vigorous lobbying efforts to have Phelps-Stokes Fund/Tuskegee concept incorporated into official mission and colonial educational policy.” As Kenya’s colonial secretary stated, the educational philosophy would ensure “an intelligent, cheerful, self-respecting, and generally docile and willing-to-learn African native.” In 1925, Jones successfully negotiated for financial aid from the Carnegie Corporation to finance the establishment of a Jeanes training school in Kenya. The funding from Carnegie included direct funding for the school, as well as facilitating white educators from Africa to come to the U.S. to “investigate” the Southern educational system, as well as implementing intelligence tests for Africans (just as the major philanthropies had been propagating around the United States as part of their support for eugenics programs). Jones also turned to other major foundations for support, such as Rockefeller’s International Education Board (which had Anson Phelps-Stokes as a trustee), as well as the Laura Spellman Rockefeller Memorial, which all subsequently provided major grants to establish several schools across Africa. Jones and the major foundations further supported the development of black education in South Africa, helping cement the apartheid system that was being developed. As Jones himself stated, the education of black South Africans in the Tuskegee philosophy can maintain their subordination to the white ruling class, and keep them as “junior partners in the firm.” Managing the Poor through Social Welfare Another major area of concern in these chapters is on the ‘moral construction’ of the poor, going beyond (but not ignoring) the ways in which the poor are ‘created’ and ‘maintained’ as a social group (i.e., noting the political, economic, and social policies and institutions that create and sustain poverty as a powerful social force), but also in looking at how the poor are, as a group, “regulated” and how society “morally constructs” views and perceptions of the poor, so that they are vilified, demonized, and politicized as “deviants.” The origins of ‘welfare policies’ and other forms of ‘social welfare’ emerged several hundred years ago as a response to the inability of the economic system to benefit the masses of society, and thus, to prevent – often in the midst of an economic crisis – mass social unrest, rebellion, or potentially, revolution, social welfare policies were implemented as a means of social control: to alleviate some of the tensions from the gross systemic inequalities, and secondly, and often overlooked, as a means of regulating the behaviour, “work ethic” and prospects of the poor; to maintain them as a cheap labour force. This is done through the methods in which social welfare is provided: the process of applying for social services and welfare, the conditions required to be applicable, the demands which must be met by the applicant as determined by the state, the state intervention in the family and personal life of recipients (often through social workers), and other means of both expanding and detracting the amount of people on welfare as a means to sustain the labour force according to the demands of industry. As such, it is important to analyze the origins of “social work” as a means of “social control” and “managing the poor.” Originating in the 16th century, relief giving to the poor began to be transferred from the private realm to the state. In Britain, the poor had to be registered and begging had to be authorized, and the Elizabethan Poor Laws, passed in 1572, “established a ‘poor rate’ tax and provided for secular control of the poor by justices of the peace, so-called overseers of the poor.” The poor were separated into three categories: “a) the poor by impotency, b) the poor by casualty, and c) the thriftless poor.” The third category, “thriftless poor,” were viewed as being responsible for their own condition, and thus had to “work for relief.” In the 18th century, workhouses began to emerge as a “policy innovation” to establish “worth” among the poor, to make them productive to the industrial class through contracting cheap labour in return for minor poverty relief. In the 19th century, the poorhouse “had become the official last resort for the poor.” The poorhouse and workhouse were often examined in the works of Charles Dickens. One is often reminded of the character Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, when approached by collectors seeking donations for poor relief, with the collector stating, “At this festive time of year, Mr. Scrooge, it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute.” To which Scrooge replied, “Are there no prisons?” “Plenty of prisons.” “And the union workhouses – are they still in operation?” “They are. I wish I could say they were not.” “The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” “Both very busy, sir.” “Oh, from what you said at first I was afraid that something had happened to stop them in their useful course. I’m very glad to hear it.” Refusing to donate, Scrooge stated, “I help to support the establishments I have mentioned — they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.” “Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.” Scrooge replied, “If they would rather die… they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” This scene reflected the ideology and philosophy of elites in that era, and indeed, up until present day. The poorhouses of that era were terrible, where “conditions were so awful, the act of relief itself became the test of necessity.” Much like the stigma of welfare in today’s context, “[t]hose who presented themselves to the poorhouse were casting themselves outside of moral society,” as entrance into that situation “symbolized and made painfully concrete a loss of social status, citizenship, and even the right to one’s own labor and physical freedom.” The New Deal following the Great Depression in the 1930s reaffirmed, with its expanded welfare and social services, the stipulation that relief must only be in exchange for work and labour. This represents a “moral construction” of poverty and “the poor,” because they are deemed as being required to work for relief, as in, they are undeserving of relief without conditions, regardless of their circumstances. The “stigma” of poverty and welfare are such that the poor are viewed as generally undeserving of anything, of being the cause of their own poverty, and thus, if they want/need relief, they had better work for it. It was through working and labour that the poor, then, were able to provide a “social worth” in return for “poor relief.” It is thus no coincidence that social security and unemployment insurance were “restricted to individuals classified by policy as workers, that is, individuals with a relatively prolonged and steady formal work history.” As a result, this led to the exclusion of “agricultural and domestic workers as well as those in marginal jobs who moved in and out of work,” which, not coincidentally, included a significant portion of the black population in the United States. With the New Deal, the state in America moved into the realm of activity previously the focus of the philanthropic foundation. In fact, these private foundations were pivotal in the formation of the New Deal. As Barry Karl and Stanley Katz noted, “Franklin Roosevelt preferred to conceal the fact that so many of his major advisers on policy and some of his major programmes in social reform were the result of support by one of more of the private foundations,” particularly through the Rockefeller Foundation and the Social Science Research Council, funded by the Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations. The support from such foundations, which represent the most elite interests within society and the capitalist class itself, founded and run by the wealthiest and most powerful bankers and industrialists of the era, represented an elite fear generated by the mass social unrest of the era brought on by the Great Depression, which was created by that very same class. Thus, social security and the New Deal were a means of securing social control. The New Deal, however, also had a profoundly negative impact upon the “race question” in the United States, which broadly affected the black community. As Christopher G. Wye wrote in the Journal of American History: [T]he New Deal public housing and emergency work programs played an important part in alleviating the problems generated by the Depression, [but] they also contributed to the preservation of perhaps the two salient components which combine to produce a caste-like Negro social structure – residential segregation and a distinctly racial occupational pattern. Civil Rights: From “Black Power” to “Black Capitalism” The major foundations – Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller – were also heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement, but with specific aims of social control. In the 1950s, the Ford Foundation began taking an interest in the Civil Rights movement, and after convening a study on how to “improve race relations,” the Ford Foundation began giving grants to black colleges “to improve the quality of their educational offerings.” By 1966, the Civil Rights movement was one of the major areas of Ford Foundation funding. Against the backdrop of the summer of 1966 in which there were 43 “urban disorders” (riots in ghettos), which had been “precipitated by confrontations between blacks and the police,” the Ford Foundation announced that it would “direct significant resources to the social justice area.” Among the aims of the Foundation were: “to improve leadership and programming within minority organizations; to explore approaches to better race relations; to support policy-oriented research on race and poverty; to promote housing integration; and to increase the availability of legal resources through support of litigating organizations and minority law students.” The Ford Foundation also sponsored the Grey Areas program in the early 1960s, which evolved into President Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” as a program for “urban renewal,” but was, in fact, concerned with issues arising out of poor people’s (and particularly poor people of colour’s) resistance to major urban growth projects undertaken by a coalition of corporations and corporatist labour unions following World War II. As Roger Friedland wrote: Political challenge by the poor, and especially the nonwhite poor, threatened the dominance of the corporations and labor unions and the growth policies they pursued. It was the poorest neighborhoods which were displaced by urban renewal and highway construction, whose housing stock was depleted by clearance, whose employment opportunities were often reduced both by the expansion of office employment stimulated by central business district growth and by restrictive unionization on large construction projects and municipal jobs, and whose services were constrained by the enormous fiscal costs of the growth programs. It was in this context that the Ford Foundation established programs aimed at ameliorating the antagonisms within the impoverished communities, not through structural or systemic change of the causes of poverty, but through organization, institutionalization, and legalistic reform programs, thus leading to the government’s “War on Poverty.” The same approach was taken in regards to the Civil Rights movement. There was a transformation between 1966 and 1967 of the notion of ‘black power’, which was increasingly viewed by elites and ‘authorities’, such as J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI, as “the beginning of a true black revolution.” Many advocates of ‘black power’ saw it as the beginnings of a revolt against “white western imperialist” America. The Civil Rights movement was originally “launched by indigenous leadership and primarily mobilized the southern black community.” Thus, it was essential for large foundation funding of the movement, to effectively control its direction and impetus. This “elite involvement would seem to occur only as a response to the threat posed by the generation of a mass-based social movement.” The major foundations “supported the moderate civil rights organizations in response to the ‘radical flank’ threat of the militants, while non-elites (churches, unions and small individual donors) spread their support evenly.” Elite patronage of the Civil Rights movement “diverted leaders from indigenous organizing and exacerbated inter-organizational rivalries, thereby promoting movement decay.” Foundation funding for civil rights did not become significant until 1961-62, five years after the Birmingham bus boycott, and the peak of foundation support for civil rights was in 1972-73, four to five years after the assassination of King. This indicated that foundation grants to civil rights were ‘reactive’, in that they were designed in response to changes in the movement itself, implying that foundation patronage was aimed at social control. Further, most grants went to professionalized social movement organizations (SMOs) and in particular, the NAACP. While the professional SMOs initiated only 14% of movement actions, they accounted for 57% of foundation grants, while the classical SMOs, having carried out roughly 36% of movement actions, received roughly 32% of foundation grants. This disparity grew with time, so that by the 1970s, the classical SMOs garnered 25% of grants and the professional SMOs received nearly 70% of grants. Principally, the NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund were the most endowed with foundation support. Many of the foundations subsequently became “centrally involved in the formulation of national social policy and responded to elite concerns about the riots.” It became clear that the older, established and moderate organizations received the most outside funding, such as the National Urban League, the NAACP and the Legal Defense and Educational Fund. As the black struggles of the 1960s increasingly grew militant and activist-oriented in the latter half of the 1960s, “foundation contributions became major sources of income for the National Urban League, the Southern Regional Council, and the Legal Defense and Educational Fund.” The attempt was to promote reform instead of losing their vested powers and interests in the face of a growing revolution. The NAACP and the National Urban League represent the more moderate civil rights organizations, as they were also the oldest, with membership primarily made up of middle class African Americans, leading to many, including King himself, to suggest they were disconnected from the reality or in representing poor blacks in America. The radicalization of the black protest movement led to the emergence of challenges to the NAACP and Urban League in being the ‘leaders’ in civil rights, as new organizations emerged which represented a broader array of the black population. Among them were the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which Martin Luther King led. Foundations increased funding for all of these organizations, but as activism and militancy accelerated in the latter half of the 1960s, the funding declined for the more radical, militant and activist organizations and increased dramatically for the established and moderate organizations. This trend continued going into the 1970s. In 1967, Martin Luther King’s SCLC received $230,000 from the Ford Foundation, yet after his assassination, the organization received no more funding and virtually fell to pieces. That same year, the Ford Foundation gave the NAACP $300,000, and gave the Urban League $585,000. The Rockefeller Foundation granted the League $650,000, with the Carnegie Corporation coming in with $200,000. The Ford Foundation also gave the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) $175,000 in 1967. In 1968, with the SCLC out of the picture, Ford increased funding for CORE to $300,000, increased grants to the NAACP to $378,000, and gave the Urban League a monumental grant of $1,480,000. The same year, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation gave the NAACP $500,000 and $200,000 respectively. Clearly, the foundations were supporting the older established and moderate organizations over the new, young and activist/radical organizations. For the following year, 1969, CORE received no more grants from foundations, while the Ford, Rockefeller and Carnegie foundations increased their grants to the NAACP and the Urban League. In 1974, the NAACP received grants of $950,000 from the Ford Foundation, $250,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation, and $200,000 from the Carnegie Corporation. The Urban League received grants of $2,350,000 from the Ford Foundation and $350,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation. The strategic use of foundation funding helped undermine and outmaneuver the radical and militant civil rights organizations, while strengthening and institutionalizing the reform-oriented organizations. This co-optation of the civil rights movement was so vital to these elite interests for the principle reason of the movement taking its natural course, out of an ethnic or race-based focus and into a class and global social focus. A. Philip Randolph, a civil rights leader, spoke in 1963 at an ALF-CIO convention at which he stated, “The Negro’s protest today is but the first rumbling of the ‘under-class.’ As the Negro has taken to the streets, so will the unemployed of all races take to the streets.” The aim of foundation funding for the Civil Rights movement was to direct it from a potentially revolutionary position – that of ‘Black Power’ – and transform it into a reformist and legalistic movement, ostensibly to establish “Black Capitalism.” Thus, instead of changing the systemic and institutional structures of society which had created racism, segregation, and exploitation, the “success” of the Civil Rights movement (apart from the very real achievements of securing basic civil rights for black citizens) was seen by elites as the ability of blacks to rise within the institutional and hierarchical system which dominated society, not to challenge or change it fundamentally. The “Excess of Democracy” In the 1970s, elite intellectual discussion was dominated by what was referred to as “democratic overload,” or what the Trilateral Commission referred to in a report of the same title as, “The Crisis of Democracy.” One of the principal authors of this 1975 report was Samuel Huntington, who wrote that the 1960s saw a surge in democracy in America, with an upswing in citizen participation, often “in the form of marches, demonstrations, protest movements, and ‘cause’ organizations.” Further, “the 1960s also saw a reassertion of the primacy of equality as a goal in social, economic, and political life.” Of course, for Huntington and the Trilateral Commission, which was founded by Huntington’s friend, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and banker David Rockefeller, the idea of “equality as a goal in social, economic, and political life” is a terrible and frightening prospect. Huntington analyzed how as part of this “democratic surge,” statistics showed that throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, there was a dramatic increase in the percentage of people who felt the United States was spending too much on defense (from 18% in 1960 to 52% in 1969, largely due to the Vietnam War). Huntington wrote that the “essence of the democratic surge of the 1960s was a general challenge to existing systems of authority, public and private,” and that, “People no longer felt the same compulsion to obey those whom they had previously considered superior to themselves in age, rank, status, expertise, character, or talents.” He explained that in the 1960s, “hierarchy, expertise, and wealth” had come “under heavy attack.” He stated that the three key issues which were central to the increased political participation in the 1960s were: social issues, such as use of drugs, civil liberties, and the role of women; racial issues, involving integration, busing, government aid to minority groups, and urban riots; military issues, involving primarily, of course, the war in Vietnam but also the draft, military spending, military aid programs, and the role of the military-industrial complex more generally. Huntington presented these issues, essentially, as the “crisis of democracy,” in that they increased distrust with the government and authority, that they led to social and ideological polarization, and ultimately, to a “decline in the authority, status, influence, and effectiveness of the presidency.” Huntington concluded that many problems of governance in the United States stem from an “excess of democracy,” and that, “the effective operation of a democratic political system usually requires some measure of apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups.” Huntington explained that society has always had “marginal groups” which do not participate in politics, and while acknowledging that the existence of “marginality on the part of some groups is inherently undemocratic,” it has also “enabled democracy to function effectively.” Huntington identifies “the blacks” as one such group that had become politically active, posing a “danger of overloading the political system with demands.” Huntington, in his conclusion, stated that the vulnerability of democracy, essentially the ‘crisis of democracy,’ comes “from the internal dynamics of democracy itself in a highly educated, mobilized, and participant society,” and that what is needed is “a more balanced existence” in which there are “desirable limits to the indefinite extension of political democracy.” Summed up, the Trilateral Commission Task Force Report essentially explained that the “Crisis of Democracy” is that there is too much of it, and so the ‘solution’ to the crisis, is to have less democracy and more ‘authority’. To have “less democracy,” however, required careful and strategic moves and considerations. Primarily, the means through which this objective would be reached was through the disciplinary measures of the “free market” and “regulation of the poor.” This led to the neoliberal era, where this program of “reducing democracy” took place not only in the United States, but on a global scale. The disciplinary means undertaken in the ‘Third World’ nations were brought on by the 1980s debt crisis, and the World Bank and IMF “structural adjustment programs” which invariably expanded poverty, debt, and supported ruthless dictatorships which suppressed their own populations. This era also saw the “globalization of the ghetto” with the rapid development of urban slums around the world, to the point where over one billion people today live in slums. In the United States, the middle classes began to be mired in debt, particular the expansion of student debt, which served as a disciplinary feature, so that students were no longer activists or mobilized, but simply had to graduate and get jobs to pay off their debts. A 1971 memo written by a representative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reflected the fear inherent in the Trilateral Commission report of a few years later at the problems posed to elite interests by the “excess of democracy.” It referred to these “excesses” as a “broad attack” on the American economic system. The memo noted that, “the assault on the enterprise system is broadly based and consistently pursued. It is gaining momentum and converts.” While noting that sources of the attack include leftists and revolutionaries, it also acknowledged that the “attack” was being joined “from perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus, the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and sciences, and from politicians.” The author of the memo stated that, “If our system is to survive, top [corporate] management must be equally concerned with protecting and preserving the system itself.” It went on: But independent and uncoordinated activity by individual corporations, as important as this is, will not be sufficient. Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint effort, and in the political power available only through united action and national organizations. The memo then went on to articulate a major program of “counter attack” with an emphasis on changing the educational system, the media, and bringing the state and courts more directly into the business community’s orbit. This era saw the emergence of the major right-wing think tanks, and the expanded influence of business leaders in the media, government, and universities, crowned with the Reagan-Thatcher era of neoliberalism: privatization, deregulation, debt-expansion, impoverishment, and punishment. Punishing the Poor In regards to the black population, who created quite a stir among the American elites in the 1960s and into the 1970s, the response from the elite sector was similar as to what it was during the Reconstruction period following the Civil War: mass incarceration. Reagan’s “war on drugs” led to a rapid expansion of legislation purportedly aimed to reduce the problems of the illicit drug trade in the United States (while the Reagan administration secretly supported the drug trade in covert operations abroad, such as in Nicaragua, the Iran-Contra Scandal, etc.). The growth of the prison population in the United States from 1975 onward was marked simultaneously by a decline in welfare recipients. In fact, the largest prison systems were established in states with the weaker welfare systems. Between 1980 and 2000, “the number of people incarcerated in the United States increased by 300 percent, from 500,000 to nearly 2 million.” The parole and probation population, by 2000, included 3.8 million people, and by 1998, “nearly 6 million people – almost 3 percent of the adult population – were under some form of correctional supervision.” As reported in the journal, Punishment & Society: The impact of these developments has fallen disproportionately on young African-Americans and Latinos. By 1994, one of every three black males between the ages of 18-34 was under some form of correctional supervision, and the number of Hispanic prisoners has more than quintupled since 1980. These developments are not primarily the consequence of rising crime rates, but rather the ‘get-tough’ policies of the wars on crime and drugs. As sociologists Katherine Beckett and Bruce Western wrote, “in the wake of the Reagan revolution, penal and welfare institutions have come to form a single policy regime aimed at the governance of social marginality,” or, in other words, the management of the poor and non-white populations. Thus, reduced welfare spending as a method of social control was replaced with increased incarceration and imprisonment. The prison system itself, which had its origins in the application of social control, functioned through segregation and discrimination, has not evolved from these institutional ideologies that saw its development over several hundred years. The prison and incarceration, according to philosopher and historian Michel Foucault, was “a new form of repression, designed to consolidate the political and economic power of capitalism under the modern state,” in what he termed, “the disciplinary society.” Just as took place during the criminalization of black life following the Civil War, the criminalization of black life following the Civil Rights Movement saw not only the growth of incarceration rates for the black community, but also saw the growth of the use of the prison population as a source of cheap labour. In today’s context, with privatization of prisons, outsourcing of prison labour, and other forms of exploitation of the “punished” population, this has given rise to what is often referred to as the “prison-industrial complex.” This article was but a brief sampling of some of the information, issues, ideas, events, and processes that will be thoroughly researched and written about in two chapters for The People’s Book Project. If you found the information enlightening, interesting, or important, please contribute to the People’s Grant goal of raising $1,600 to finance the completion of two chapters on this subject, which will include a great deal more than was sampled above, deeper analysis, more detailed and documented understandings, and a much wider, global contextualization. This was but a minor fraction of what can be completed with the support of readers. Help get this important information into the public sphere. As the global economic crisis rapidly expands the global rates of impoverishment, as the middle class vanishes into debt and poverty, and as our societies are reorganized to “manage” these social, political, and economic changes, this history is vital to understanding not only the objectives, ideas and actions of elites, but also the ways in which the people may challenge them. Contribute to The People’s Grant: Andrew Gavin Marshall is an independent researcher and writer based in Montreal, Canada, writing on a number of social, political, economic, and historical issues. He is also Project Manager of The People’s Book Project. He also hosts a weekly podcast show, “Empire, Power, and People,” on BoilingFrogsPost.com. A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., “Racism and the Early American Legal Process, 1619-1896,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Vol. 407, No. 1, May 1973), page 1. Ibid, page 6. David McNally, Another World is Possible: Globalization and Anti-Capitalism (Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2006), page 149. Ibid, page 150. Ibid, pages 151-152. Ibid, pages 152-153. Ibid, page 153. Ibid, pages 153-154. Ibid, pages 154-155. Ibid, page 155. William Cohen, “Negro Involuntary Servitude in the South, 1865-1940,” The Journal of Southern History (Vol. 42, No. 1, February 1976), page 33. Ibid, page 34. Brian Kelly, “Labor, Race, and the Search for a Central Theme in the History of the Jim Crow South,” Irish Journal of American Studies (Vol. 10, 2001), page 58. William H. Worger, “Convict Labour, Industrialists and the State in the US South and South Africa, 1870-1930,” Journal of Southern African Studies (Vol. 30, No. 1, March 2004), page 68. Ibid, pages 68-69. Ibid, page 85. Eduardo Mendieta, “Plantations, Ghettos, Prisons: US Racial Geographies,” Philosophy and Geography (Vol. 7, No. 1, February 2004), page 52. Ibid, pages 52-53. Carl H. Nightingale, “A Tale of Three Global Ghettos: How Arnold Hirsch Helps Us Internationalize U.S. Urban History,” Journal of Urban History (Vol. 29, No. 3, March 2003), page 262. Ibid, page 265. Karen Ferguson, “Organizing the Ghetto: The Ford Foundation, CORE, and White Power in the Black Power Era, 1967-1969,” Journal of Urban History (Vol. 34, No. 1, November 2007), pages 69, 96. William J. Quirk and Leon E. Wein, “Homeownership for the Poor: Tenant Condominiums, the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, and the Rockefeller Program,” Cornell Law Review (Vol. 54, No. 6, July 1969), pages 849, 855. Peter L. Laurence, “The Death and Life of Urban Design: Jane Jacobs, The Rockefeller Foundation and the New Research in Urbanism, 1955-1965,” Journal of Urban Design (Vol. 11, No. 2, June 2006), page 145. Robert F. Arnove, ed., Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism: The Foundations at Home and Abroad (Indiana University Press, 1980), pages 180-181. Ibid, page 181. Ibid, page 182. Ibid, pages 185-186. Ibid, pages 188-190. Ibid, page 194. Evelyn Z. Brodkin, “The Making of an Enemy: How Welfare Policies Construct the Poor,” Law & Social Inquiry (Vol. 18, No. 4, Autumn 1993), pages 655-656. Ibid, pages 656-658. Barry D. Karl and Stanley N. Katz, “The American Private Philanthropic Foundation and the Public Sphere 1890-1930,” Minerva (Vol. 19, No. 2, Summer 1981), page 268. J. Craig Jenkins and Barbara Brents, “Capitalists and Social Security: What Did They Really Want?” American Sociological Review (Vol. 56, No. 1, February 1991), page 129. Christopher G. Wye, “The New Deal and the Negro Community: Toward a Broader Conceptualization,” The Journal of American History (Vol. 59, No. 3, December 1972), page 639. Lynn Walker, “The Role of Foundations in Helping to Reach the Civil Rights Goals of the 1980s,” Rutgers Law Review, (1984-1985), page 1059. Ibid, page 1060. Roger Friedland, “Class Power and Social Control: The War on Poverty,” Politics & Society (Vol. 6, No. 4, December 1976), pages 459-461. Robert C. Smith, “Black Power and the Transformation from Protest to Policies,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 96, No. 3, (Autumn, 1981), page 438 J. Craig Jenkins and Craig M. Eckert, “Channeling Black Insurgency: Elite Patronage and Professional Social Movement Organizations in the Development of the Black Movement,” American Sociological Review, Vol. 51, No. 6, (Dec., 1986), page 814. Ibid, page 815. Ibid, pages 819-820. Ibid, page 821. Ibid, page 826. Herbert H. Haines, “Black Radicalization and the Funding of Civil Rights: 1957-1970,” Social Problems, Vol. 32, No. 1, Thematic Issue on Minorities and Social Movements, (Oct., 1984), page 38. Ibid, page 40. Martin N. Marger, “Social Movement Organizations and Response to Environmental Change: The NAACP, 1960- 1973,” Social Problems, Vol. 32, No. 1, Thematic Issue on Minorities and Social Movements, (Oct., 1984), page 22. Ibid, page 25. Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States (Harper: New York, 2003), page 464. Michel J. Crozier, Samuel P. Huntington and Joji Watanuki, The Crisis of Democracy. (Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission, New York University Press, 1975), page 61. Ibid, page 62. Ibid, page 71. Ibid, pages 74-75. Ibid, page 77. Ibid, page 93. Ibid, pages 113-114. Ibid, page 115. Lewis F. Powell, Jr., “Confidential Memorandum: Attack of American Free Enterprise System,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 23 August 1971: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/sources_document13.html Katherine Beckett and Bruce Western, “Governing Social Marginality: Welfare, Incarceration, and the Transformation of State Policy,” Punishment & Society (Vol. 3, No. 1, January 2001), pages 43-44. Ibid, page 55. Robert P. Weiss, “Humanitarianism, Labour Exploitation, or Social Control? A Critical Survey of Theory and Research on the Origin and Development of Prisons,” Social History (Vol. 12, No. 3, October 1987), page 333. Rose M. Brewer and Nancy A. Heitzeg, “The Racialization of Crime and Punishment: Criminal Justice, Color-Blind Racism, and the Political Economy of the Prison Industrial Complex,” American Behavioral Scientist (Vol. 51, No. 5, January 2008).

The Guardian On AOL Search Data [9:34 am] In March this year, a man with a passion for Portuguese football, living in a city in Florida, was drinking heavily because his wife was having an affair. He typed his troubles into the search window of his computer. “My wife doesnt love animore,” he told the machine. He searched for “Stop your divorce” and “I want revenge to my wife” before turning to self-examination with “alchool withdrawl”, “alchool withdrawl sintoms” (at 10 in the morning) and “disfunctional erection”. On April 1 he was looking for a local medium who could “predict my futur”. But what could a psychic guess about him compared with what the world now knows? This story is one of hundreds, perhaps tens of thousands, revealed this month when AOL published the details of 23m searches made by 650,000 of its customers during a three-month period earlier in the year. The searches were actually carried out by Google - from which AOL buys in its search functions. [...] All of this information is stored. Google identifies every computer that connects to it with an implant (known as a cookie) which will not expire until 2038. If you also use Gmail, Google knows your email address - and, of course, keeps all your email searchable. If you sign up to have Google ads on a website, then the company knows your bank account details and home address, as well as all your searches. If you have a blog on the free blogger service, Google owns that. The company also knows, of course, the routes you have looked up on Google maps. Yahoo operates a similar range of services. All this knowledge has been handed over quite freely by us as users. It is the foundation of Google’s fortune because it allows the company to target very precisely the advertising it sends in our direction. Other companies have equally ambitious plans: an application lodged on August 10 with the US Patent & Trademark Office showed that Amazon is hoping to patent ways of interrogating a database that would record not just what its 59 million customers have bought - which it already knows - or what they would like to buy (which, with their wish lists, they tell the world) but their income, sexual orientation, religion and ethnicity. The company, of course, already knows who we are and where we live. [...] This is knowledge beyond the dreams of any secret police in history. Earlier this year Google fought a lawsuit to keep a week’s worth of random search data out of the hands of the US government, but other search companies have handed over their data without complaint and nobody has yet discovered what deals have been struck between search engines and the Chinese government. China is generally thought of as attempting to censor the internet, which it does; search engines that do business in China must censor their own results if they are to succeed. But the real power for a totalitarian government is no longer just censorship. It is to allow its citizens to search for anything they want - and then remember it. No western government, so far as we know, has gone that far. But if one ever does, it will know where the information is kept that will tell it almost everything about almost everyone. This morning, as I logged in to Googletalk, to chat with my sister, the programme silently upgraded itself. “Would you like to show friends what music you’re playing now?” it asked. See also Technology lets ads get personal

I posted a link to my blog in another thread ( Thread: A Sandy Hook Youtube Video Based on Real Anamolies and Not Opinion but a lot of people are complaining about the background color. I will paste the content here (without pictures, videos, and a few links that GLP won't let me make). If you'd like to see the pics that go with the post please see the original blog here: [link to krystle-ann.blogspot.com] PLEASE FEEL FREE TO GIVE YOUR OPINION ON ANY OF THE FOLLOWING: BACKGROUND INFO- BEFORE SHOOTING TRAGEDY 1- Previous articles give interview with old babysitter who says mom didn't trust Adam to be left alone, even to use the bathroom. ( [link to newsone.com] This is years before his downward spiral of living in the basement and having an apparent gun/violent video game obsession. ( [link to www.nypost.com] Yet Nancy apparently felt it was fine to go on short trips by herself, leaving him home alone for days at a time? She had such a trip a few days arriving back home the night before the school shooting: ( [link to www.nypost.com] 2- I hope to see some proof in future that Adam Lanza went to shooting ranges with his mother. Most places have video surveillance, no? 2a) “He says she took her son with her to the gun range because, she said, she couldn't always leave him at home.” (Again, then why would she then feel it fine to take off days at a time?) ( [link to www.cnn.com] 2b) His mother apparently contributed to his mentally-imbalanced downward spiral by bringing him to shooting ranges and let him hole himself up in a basement obsessing over guns/video games? (In essence she then helped to enable a “monster” capable enough of pulling off the events that took place. This almost seems like an all-too-convenient-patsy-story to me.. and I'm sure to others.) 2c) Then we have family member saying he was fine a few months before the tragedy: “His aunt, Marsha Lanza, said her nephew was raised by kind, nurturing parents who would not have hesitated to seek mental help for him if he needed it. She described Nancy Lanza as a good and kind-hearted mother and said if Lanza – who she last saw in June – had needed counseling, she would have got him it.” ( [link to www.dailyrecord.co.uk] So which is it? Balanced or off the rails? 3- Any information on origin on horrible infamous Adam Lanza yearbook picture?? Wikipedia says it’s a yearbook photo sent by mass media (NBC for cropping from yearbook.) ( [link to en.wikipedia.org] If he looked like that back in high school, then why wasn’t he really getting the help he obviously needed at the time?! The black and whites out there make him appear even creepier, but this very apparent "original" yearbook photograph represents him as one frightening looking individual in my opinion. 4- Who owns the car that Adam supposedly drove to school in (and who is it registered to)? Newest reports say a “Lanza relative”? ( Thread: Story Changes on who owned the car Lanza allegedly used; it was his mom, now it's "a relative". 5- Infamous Batman reference: Of course that’s a very strange coincidence, but then I recently learned of the actual prop master from Batman, Scott Getzinger, living in Newtown that had died this past April in a car accident. (I actually blogged about it when I heard about it: [link to krystle-ann.blogspot.com] The same man that would presumably be responsible for having the neon “Aurora” lit up sign on top of the skyscraper and the Sandy Hook strike zone on map. I may be looking too deeply into this, but this sticks out from that article: "Getzinger suffered multiple broken bones, but was described as conscious and alert after being cut out of the 2002 Ford F-150 pickup truck he was driving. State police initially characterized his injuries as non-life threatening.” ( [link to www.stamfordadvocate.com] Again, this can be reasoned away since these things do happen in cases of violent accidents (I hate to mention her as an example; but Natasha Richardson, etc.)… The ties to Aurora, Colorado shooting and Sandy Hook shooting don’t just stop at the Batman movie and Getzinger though- there are theorists who say that both lone gunmen from both mass shooting tragedies had fathers involved in the LIBOR scandal, which were I believe later to be debunked. ( [link to realnewsaustralia.wordpress.com] Strange, still.. If they weren’t linked to LIBOR they were still pretty damned affluent.. Is there some kind of government tie linking both fathers and Scott Getzinger somehow? Far fetched, but everything else coming at me seems this way. 5b) Also there are theories floating that both the James Holmes and Adam Lanza suffered from government mind control experiments and/or bad side effects from use of anti-psychotic medications. ( [link to www.glp_hater] ( [link to forums.steroid.com] INFO/EVIDENCE DURING SHOOTING 6- Was it physically possible for Adam with his body weight to carry all the guns/ammo apparently used/involved inside that building that day? 7- The killings were supposedly confined to two classrooms and the hallway near the front door and office. So why do radio transcripts say victims were found in a kitchen closet? “10:28: “Roger, Closet in the kitchen, you have some victims. Let us know, we’ll call the number so you know they’re coming.” ( [link to nhregister.com] transcript) Are "victims" referring to live witnesses and not deceased victims? And call what number to let who know who’s coming? 7a) Why were there reports of children told to close their eyes while exiting gym/back areas? If that's protocol I can understand I suppose, but could they have been concealing something? 7b) Transcript says school was cleared shortly after shooting. “9:53:25: “Newtown’s reporting one suspect down. The building has now been cleared.” So why are there reports of kids/staff hiding in closets/etc. hours later? Is that really clearing a building? “She and school secretary Barbara Halstead then hid in a first-aid supply closet for up to four hours, after calling 9-1-1.” ( [link to en.wikipedia.org] 8- Initial reports said the principal, vice principal and school psychologist all left the conference room to go stop or see what was going on after hearing shooting, and that “only one came back” (Vice Principal, Natalie Hammond): “"Only one came back,” she said, the vice principal, who crawled back with a gun wound to her foot or leg.” ( [link to www.nj.com] "9:43:45: “We have one female in Room 1 who has gunshot wound to the foot.”" ( [link to nhregister.com] 8b) According to a “cited” Wikipedia article, Natalie Hammond (now known as lead teacher) apparently never left the conference room and was shot while blocking the door, twice, in arm and in leg: “Natalie Hammond, lead teacher in the meeting room, pressed her body against the door to keep it closed. Lanza shot Hammond through the door, in her leg and arm. She was later treated at Danbury Hospital.[” ( [link to en.wikipedia.org] So was it out in the hallway and just her leg or through blocking the door on both arm and leg?? 8c) The next thing said on the 911 transcript after mention of victim shot in the foot was: "9:46:20: “We’ve got an injured person in Room 9 with numerous gunshot wounds.” Who’s the other person then if previous reports only listed one injured? And which room is Room 9 supposed to be if it was supposedly contained in just two rooms/one hallway area?? “Authorities also revealed this morning that two adult women shot during the rampage survived and their accounts will likely be integral to the investigation. "Investigators will, in fact, speak with them when it's medically appropriate and they will shed a great deal of light on the facts and circumstances of this tragic investigation," Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance said at a news conference today. Both survivors are women and are now home from the hospital after being shot, police said. Officials had previously mentioned just one adult survivor. The women have not been identified and police did not give details on their injuries” ( [link to abcnews.go.com] 9- What’s going to become of those reports about teacher Rousseau 's being car all shot up? Article says re-enactment will be done to see if bulletholes in cars came from gunman shooting at police as they first responded. Well, police say they never fired any bullets so if they can't be accounted from Adam then we have a problem. I thought he took the coward’s way of shooting himself as soon as he knew they were closing in? Now they’re saying he tried shooting at them from Soto’s window?? ( [link to articles.courant.com] 9a) Could this also possibly suggest that the gunman had come out of the school during the shooting, shot up a few cars, put a weapon back into the trunk (with ammo in it that would later by discharged on video) and then went back inside for more action? But why? 9b) Why does top bullet appear like someone shot from inside of the car out? Why does it appear like there is rain on car in picture? Just morning dew, in December? I'm no meteorologist, but wouldn't there be frost if anything? It's freezing cold in my part of Connecticut and it's not as far up north as this town is. 10) Why were the paramedics strolling along as parents rush by in these pictures? I don’t know why they even bothered, by the time they get to crime scene and loaded injured victims onto the stretchers what are they going to do, run it all the way back all that distance and risk being blocked in by other vehicles? Hopefully reasoning is that those paramedics pictured are just last of many local and regional responders and that they’re sent as precaution or what not.. Just still seems like unnecessary added chaos. 10a) Why would all the vehicles be blocking in the crime scene so well from ambulances/responders? (can't link to video it's a site GLP doesn't like) Despite the woman who put this video together being a little too.."enthusiastic" I guess you would call it, she really has a point. I think it’s strange they let cars build up in such a way, but not sure of her points regarding “parking too perfectly” or whatever. 10b) Did the first responders check all deceased’s vitals that quickly that somehow knew they knew all were dead? 11- “As shots were fired, she lay among her friends’ blood pretending to be dead. San Diego’s 10 News reported that the 6-year-old girl did not leave until everything was quiet. According to the pastor’s account, the girl was the first one who came running out of Sandy Hook Elementary School. Covered in blood from head to toe, the first words that she said to her mom were, ‘Mommy, I’m ok, but all my friends are dead.’” ( [link to www.examiner.com] If the one surviving child from Rousseau’s class knew it was safe to come out (presumably just after gunman was killed in the next room), how did first responders not get to her before she was able to run out right past them, covered in blood, somehow getting right to her parents who had somehow already arrived? 12- This picture is of Lauren Rousseau's class, the first classroom the gunman is said to have visited. All children had passed away, save for the one girl in the middle (surviving as described above). Emilie Parker was apparently out sick that day and father says she’s in this class and supposed to be in picture. ( [link to blog.chron.com] So on to Soto's class… Rousseau’s class picture shows 14 victims (plus Emilie who wasn't pictured, making 15 victims total.) Ms. Soto’s class picture shows 5 child victims... (15 + 5 = 20) This conflicting article says 14 children had passed away in Rousseau's class, 6 in Soto's: ( [link to articles.courant.com] “There hung 14 jackets on the coat rack, and there were 14 corpses. He killed them all” ( [link to www.4wfca.com] 12a) And where did surviving girl's jacket go? She take it with her when she ran out covered in blood? 12b) Did Emilie Parker end up in Soto’s class somehow even though the father said she was in Rousseau’s? Why does picture only show 5 victims being in this class if they’re saying 6? Back to Soto- Articles saying 7 children were found by law enforcement (the ones that stayed put in hiding), “6” had died after coming out of said hiding, and then 6 end up escaping through and hang out with Gene Rosen at his house? That would mean 19 children were in this class, when picture shows only 15? Where did the four extra come from? Technically, after the deceased five (I’m guessing 6 is just another “misprint” by media), there are ten surviving students left to account for. If 7 were in the good old hands of first responders after being discovered, there should be THREE that have fled. ( [link to www.courant.com%2Fnews%2Fconnecticut%2Fnewtown-sandy-hook-school-shooting%2Fhc-lanza-gunjam-20121222%2C0%2C3580899.story)] Speaking of Gene Rosen….. He’s all over the discussion threads. He leads me to my next section: 13- I know it could be chalked up to trauma and shock, so I would understand, but just what the hell was Gene doing when this all went down? We heard feeding his cats, going to or coming from the local diner/etc., well which of it was he really doing? 13a) He says in one report that Soto’s surviving classmates were in his living room talking for an extended length of time. Why wouldn't he usher them right to firehouse knowing there's something huge happening? Why would he go through getting parent’s numbers from the BUS COMPANY when all he probably had to do is look outside and see all the rest of the hundreds of people being rescued/rescuing others! ( [link to www.huffingtonpost.com] 13b) Apparently there’s evidence that he’s the CEO for CTV21 Newtown CT? What happened to him being a former psychologist? I guess he didn’t want to mention his current profession and the media also saw fit not to research. 14- School custodian Kevin Anzellotti - Article calling him a hero for "checking locked doors"... Then why did a facebook friend remark on how he was on VACATION that day? It’s funny because I thought I had discovered the bombshell myself the other night, even showed my fiancé the screen shot I took of the facebook page and then I found someone else was onto it as well. [link to getthetruthout.icyboards.net] Good detective work on their part! "It was reported that school custodian Kevin J. Anzellotti ran through the school halls warning school staff and students, and checking that all the doors were locked from the inside. School staffer Shari Thornburg said that Anzelotti was also heard yelling at a gunman inside the school to "Put the gun down! Put the gun down". 14a) That also tells us that Kevin Anzelotti actually saw one of the shooters. Let's hope that this is followed up on upon in reports he is an apparent witness! NOTICE how it says “yelling at *a* gunman”.. 14b) Wikipedia article interestingly doesn’t mention Anzelotti, but mentions another custodian, Rick Thorne, who I heard nothing else about: “Custodian Rick Thorne ran through hallways, alerting classrooms.” ( [link to en.wikipedia.org] 15- “Music teacher Maryrose Kristopik, 50, barricaded her fourth-graders in a tiny supply closet during the rampage. Lanza arrived moments later, pounding and yelling "Let me in", while the students in Kristopik's class quietly hid inside.” ( [link to en.wikipedia.org] ) Why didn’t he just shoot his way into the room like he did the front entrance and apparently did when he shot Natalie Hammond through a door? And somehow he ended up over near the fourth grade classes? 16- He also apparently paid the school nurse a visit in her office....Will that and the fourth grade class visit be accounted for on timeline? When did he have a chance to visit these other rooms? 16a) Apparently no one can find record of Sally Cox being a registered nurse, when all licensed CT nurses have obtainable records. 16b) Interesting that she actually gave an interview where she said she didn’t think Adam would do such a thing and Nancy Lanza was a good kindergarten teacher? What! 17- Not smoking gun or anything but the guy doing construction work in background while child gives witness account to the media struck me as odd and inappropriate given what had just happened there. POSSIBLE OTHER SUSPECTS/SHOOTERS 18- Let's hope there’s REAL answers from law enforcement regarding EVERY PERSON they had detained/arrested during the shooting. Most specifically: 18a) Who was it running at the police officers on police radio? (“Two shadows moving past gym”) 18b) Who was it they apparently caught in the woods? 18c) This witness described someone suspiciously dressed being led out of woods in handcuffs. Is this the apparent “hunter” that is rumored to have been nearby? Seems like another convenient “excuse” for arresting someone with a gun in the area. Why would any hunter be hunting so close to a school, especially during class hours? Is this common for the area considering Gene Rosen first excused hearing a round of gunshots for assuming it were hunters? 18d) There was talk that one detained person was a parent (Chris Manfredonia?) that got there very quickly? Where did this information originate? MEDIA INCONSISTENCIES / LIES? 19- That picture of the class evacuation on Newtown Bee's site- Is there solid proof that it was created or last modified at 8 am that morning (before shooting) or was that debunked? (It seems to go back and forth so much in forums I couldn’t find a definite answer!) 20- Rumors flew about Ryan Lanza’s father being found dead in New Jersey, Ryan Lanza’s girlfriend being missing, etc. Then it was that Ryan was found dead and that his younger brother (Adam) was arrested at the scene. Again, WTH?? What horrible junk media! “At this hour, police have confirmed Ryan Lanza, erroneously reported to have been the shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary, is not believed to have had any connection with the shooting. Several reports indicate that a girlfriend of one of the Lanza brothers as well as a female friend have been missing in New Jersey since the tragedy unfolded. It is not clear which brother’s girlfriend is believed to be missing, nor has her identity been confirmed. The identity of the second person believed to be missing has also not been revealed.” [link to www.inquisitr.com] “11 a.m.: Fox News reports possibly two shooters were at the school with one shooter dead and one at large.” [link to www.examiner.com] “"We've heard like 10 different stories. We've heard that there was a dead father (of Adam Lanza) across the street — that there was a dead brother across the street. We heard that the girlfriend, that they were trying to track her down and that she could possibly be in Hoboken."” ( [link to www.nj.com] 21- Initial reports also said Ryan Lanza was the shooter. ( [link to www.dailyrecord.co.uk] 21a) I understand that the reason for Ryan being named as a suspect originally is because Adam apparently had his brother's ID on him. Let's hope for proof that the ID was made more than two years ago, because that's when Ryan claims he last had interaction with Adam. 21b) Ryan's apparent lack of involvement in his younger disabled brother's life seems to suggest that along with Nancy’s enabling of Adam’s unstable behavior, Ryan seems to have gave up hope on his little brother as well, adding to the all-very-convenient-patsy-story. 22-“Police believe there may be a second gunman and are looking for a red or maroon van with its back window blown out, 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported. Two guns have reportedly been recovered.” [link to www.krtv.com] Okay again, what the hell! Could this shot up van be shot up along with the few other cars? 23- Can media/law enforcement also explain the rumor or whatever in saying Adam had a fight with four staff members the day before? “Reports have emerged that Adam Lanza had visited Sandy Hook Elementary the day before Friday’s massacre during which he was involved in an altercation with four teachers – three of whom are now dead. The fourth teacher – and only survivor of the altercation – wasn’t at school on Friday and is currently being interviewed by investigators. It hasn’t been revealed what the argument was over or if it was reported to authorities. The staff member’s testimony might be an ‘important piece of information’ for discerning motive in this case, reports NBC.” [link to www.bellenews.com] 24- Media (AP News) AND school nurse Sally Cox during interview reported that Nancy was a teacher at the school. Later, teachers and officials denied this, and no record found of this as of now. “4:43pm: (AP) A law enforcement official says the suspect in the Connecticut school shootings is 20-year-old Adam Lanza, the son of a teacher at the school where the shootings occurred.” [link to www.wfuv.org] 25- The now infamous Vicki Soto tribute page on facebook: [link to getthetruthout.icyboards.net] The reason for the page being created on Dec. 10th was that the owner intended it for something else then saw fit to have it tribute Vicki. Does that fully debunk it? I heard that the "facebook.com/whatever-url" can’t be changed once originally created, that only the page name/information could be modified afterwards. 26- Can the Phelps family (A couple that was interviewed by media in Sandy Hook) clear up why they're supposedly the Sextons from Florida or wherever? Whoever discovered that in first place! 27- Emilie Parker's memorial fund on facebook was created that evening. I looked at the page as soon as Robbie Parker mentioned it at his press conference, saw when it was created and thought it was distasteful for a page asking for money would be up so soon. Apparently friends had started the fund up right away: Thread: Sandy Hook - The "Survivor" from Ms. Rousseau's Class (Page 2) I still think it's odd for these "friends" to jump on that so soon.. At least give the parents a few hours to let everything sink in! 27a) I’m still on the fence about Robbie Parker. Other parents I’m sure are really grieving and been through this tragedy, but I can't trust him and I know I’m obviously not the only one. The moment my mother and I both heard him speak for the press we thought something was off, but being in the mental health profession I do understand there are different variations and forms of showing one’s grief, so I can understand if it was chalked up to simply going mad with shock. 27b) I do not believe in people’s theories about Emilie Parker being alive and sitting on Obama’s lap for the press photo, it’s obvious it’s just her two younger sisters (granted the middle sister looks a lot like Emilie but that’s understandable- and it’s clear after comparison that the two aren’t identical.) The surviving sister in question is also wearing the same dress that Emilie had in a previous family photograph. We can chalk that up to the mother just having sisters share hand-me-downs, I suppose. POST SHOOTING INFO/EVIDENCE 28- Will they ever release video surveillance? There should be some sort of video taken from the front entrance since it was supposedly a very secure building. 29- Gun in the trunk: Why would police be checking or clearing the trunk so long after the crime? 29a) Obviously it was very late at night, did they know they're being filmed, or are they doing it that way on purpose to plant or modify evidence? Where did film originate from? 29b) Why were they handling the weapon like that (ejecting ammo etc.) right over the trunk? 29c) Some say there are two guns seen in that trunk? (can't link on here because it's on another forum but you can see link on my post) 29d) Will they be able to account for each and every gun that’s been heard of being involved in the tragedy? 30- Any parents/next of kin actually view bodies of the victims or just see pictures? (Apparently it’s illegal to deny viewing access) “Parents identified the children through photos to spare them some shock, Carver said.” [link to abclocal.go.com] 30a) First heard that a lot of victims were shot in the face or head, giving a “good reason” they wanted to avoid physical viewing by families. Then different article claims families were shown victim's photographed faces as ID. HELLO? 31- Just found picture of victim being “transported” in middle of the night.. How did media capture the pictures? Hiding in the woods? [link to getthetruthout.icyboards.net] 32-Medical examiner staff busted for letting husband see Adam Lanza's body two days after shooting. Did she see something worthy of getting another witness to see, or was it just morbid curiosity? 32a) If it’s because something strange was going on let’s hope she took her own pictures and hope that she and her husband don’t suddenly disappear. 33)- How come it's supposed to be “anonymous” person picking up Adam Lanza's remains, yet all of a sudden it’s public knowledge and media’s reporting that it's his father, Peter Lanza? 34- They say he might've "destroyed" hard drive evidence on his computer so badly they can’t get anything out of it, yet I read a report about “evidence on his computer” showing an alleged Taylor Swift obsession. So is this supposed to be another made up junk-ridden media story or what? (This one pissed me off because I did read an article that quoting "evidence on his computer" and now nothing can be found when I searched, but here is another article regarding his obsession: [link to www.dailystar.co.uk] 35- I won’t want to be involved with finding out too much about this, but apparently there are rumors about the Lanza family/Adam specifically being involved with Satanism, and that the town of Newtown actually has a satanic church, etc.. Also people posting in forums that there are satanic symbols in pictures of victims like they themselves are involved in it… Of course there are people saying no one actually died. I’ve heard suggestions to all sorts of things, false flag (anti gun psy-op).. If they didn’t die, where did they go? Were they were relocated, sold as slaves (actually claimed by some)? What’s the deal? Yes, apparently there are crisis actors out there whose purpose it is to train by re-enacting mass shootings, and guess what, they’re funded by FEMA! That of course will understandably add fuel to any conspiracy theory. In the case of relocation (if these victims are actors and not in fact deceased), wouldn’t all the “victims”’ families have to be relocated as well in order to be them? I think it would be a bit strange for all families of victims to pack up and leave just like that.. Unless according to these theories, it’s done gradually and over time? Seems Dylan Hockley's family is already moving, but I believe that's understandable, they lived on the same street as the supposed gunman. Or if they are really all really killed, there are theories as well. Was it an Israeli death squad as some also say? ( [link to www.presstv.ir] Was it that blood ritual sacrifice I heard of when delving into satanic theories? I’ll be patient for the sake of waiting for the official story- backed by honest, legitimate investigation… But after some of the things I’ve been reading, I almost doubt we will ever obtain honesty.

I have been an NTL customer since 9th July 2001, when I signed up for your 3-in-one deal for cable TV, cable modem, and During this three-month period I have encountered inadequacy of service which I had not previously considered possible, as well as ignorance and stupidity of monolithic proportions. Please allow me to provide specific details, so that you can either pursue your professional prerogative, and seek to rectify these difficulties or more likely (I suspect) so that you can have some entertaining reading material as you while away the working day smoking B&Hs and drinking vendor-coffee on the bog in your office. My initial installation was cancelled without warning or notice, resulting in my spending an entire Saturday sitting on my fat arse waiting for your technician to arrive. When he did not arrive at all, I spent a further 57 minutes listening to your infuriating hold music, and the even more annoying Scottish robot woman telling me to look at your helpful websites. How? I alleviated the boredom to some small degree by playing with my testicles for a few minutes - an activity at which you are no doubt both familiar and highly The rescheduled installation then took place some two weeks later, although the technician did forget to bring a number of vital tools - such as a drill-bit, and his cerebrum. Two weeks later, my cable modem had still not arrived. After several further telephone calls (actually 15 telephone calls over 4 weeks) my modem arrived - a total of six weeks after I had requested it, and begun to pay for it. I estimate that the downtime of your internet servers is These are usually the hours between about 6pm and midnight, Monday to Friday, and most of the useful periods over the weekend. I am still waiting for my telephone connection. I have made 9 telephone calls on my mobile to your no-help line this week, and have been unhelpfully transferred to a variety of disinterested individuals, who are it seems also highly skilled bollock jugglers. I have been informed that a telephone line is available (and someone will call me back), that no telephone line is available (and someone will call me back), that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been cut off), that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to an answer machine informing me that your office is closed), that I will be transferred to someone who knows whether or not a telephone line is available (and then been redirected to the irritating Scottish robot woman) and several other variations on this theme. Doubtless you are no longer reading this letter, as you have at least a thousand other dissatisfied customers to ignore, and also another one of those crucially important testicle moments to attend to. Frankly I don't care, it's far more satisfying as a customer to voice my frustrations in print than to shout them at your unending hold music. Forgive me, therefore, if I continue. I used to think that BT (British Telecom) were shit, that they had attained the holy piss-pot of god-awful customer relations, that no one, anywhere, ever, could be more disinterested, less helpful or more obstructive to delivering service to their customers. That's why I chose NTL, and because, well, there isn't anyone else is there? How surprised I therefore was, when I discovered to my considerable dissatisfaction and disappointment what a useless shower of bastards you truly You are sputum-filled pieces of distended rectum - incompetents of the highest order. British Telecom - wankers though they are - shine like brilliant beacons of success, in the filthy puss-filled mire of your seemingly limitless Suffice to say that I have now given up on my futile and foolhardy quest to receive any kind of service from you. I suggest that you do likewise, and cease any potential future attempts to extort payment from me for the services which you have so pointedly and catastrophically failed to deliver. Any such activity will be greeted initially with hilarity and disbelief although these feelings will quickly be replaced by derision, and even perhaps a small measure of bemused rage. I enclose two small deposits, selected with great care from my cat's litter tray, as an statement of my utter and complete contempt for both you, and your pointless company. I sincerely hope that they have not become desiccated during transit - they were satisfyingly moist at the time of posting, and I would feel considerable disappointment if you did not experience both their rich aroma and delicate texture. Consider them the very embodiment of my feelings towards NTL, and it's worthless employees. Have a nice day - may it be the last in you miserable short life, you irritatingly incompetent and infuriatingly unhelpful bunch of twats. Q:- Why are female humans considered as a weaker sex...? A:- Only male humans consider female humans to be the weaker sex...in ACTUAL fact, females are the superior sex ....just take a look at wild animals, say, lions....the lioness does the hunting whilst the lion just stupidly eats and mates... Q:- Why do ladies, in general, wear make-up...? A:- Because we girls know that in this society, we should never reveal our true selves to strangers... only loved ones get to see our real Q:- Why is it that only ladies can get pregnant and not men..? A:- Children are naturally close to mothers rather than fathers cos the women are the ones who give birth to them.... And the future lies in the hands of these children who are directly *controlled* by their mothers....So what do we have ? A future directed by WOMEN !! Q:- Why do ladies like to keep long fingernails in general...? A:- What a stupidly biased question (by a MAN, of course)... Why do men like to keep moustaches ..? Q:- Why are ladies more fuss than guys...? A:- God wanna punish guys. Q:- Why do we see that gals often dresses in guys dressing like pants, etc and not visa-versa.. ? A:- Because we gals are not afraid to try anything, unlike the other Q:- Why do guys gives flowers to their girlfriends. ...? A:- Because guys are too cheap to give their girlfriends diamonds or even cold hard cash.... and the worse thing is that some may foolishly believe the florist's claim that flowers are supposedly romantic ! Q:- Why do ladies usually cry during a wedding...? A:- Cos she suddenly realized that she's stuck with the jerk beside her for the next 50 years or so..... Boo ! Hoo ! Hoo ! Q:- What's the greatest mistake a guy could ever make..?. A:- Asking a lady all the above questions! Q. Why are men like dolphins? A. They say they are extremely intelligent but no one can prove it. Q. Why can't a man be handsome and intelligent at the same time? A. That would make him a woman. Q. Why are batteries better than men? A. Batteries have at least one positive side. Q. What's the difference between Pauly and coffee? A. None. They both get on your nerves. Q. Why do men prefere to marry a virgin? A. Because they can't stand criticism. Q. What do you call a goodlooking intelligent and sensitive man? A. A rumour. Q. Why do men exist? A. Because vibrators can't mow the lawn. Q. What would the world be like without men? A. Full of happy fat women. A man is like a video, forward backward, forward, backward, stop, eject Men are like whales No brain and all their strength in the tail Q. What does a woman not want to hear after good sex? A. Honey, I'm home! Q. What does a woman do after good sex? A. Put on her clothes and go home. 6 weeks : I love U, I love U, I love U. 6 months : Of course I love U. 6 years : GOD, if I didn't love U, then why the hell did I propose? Back from Work: 6 weeks : Honey, I'm home. 6 months : BACK!! 6 years : What did your mom cook for us today?? 6 weeks : Honey, I really hope you liked the ring. 6 months : I bought you a painting; it would fit the motif in the living room. ! 6 years : Here's the money. Buy yourself something. 6 weeks : Baby, somebody wants you on the phone. 6 months : Here, for you. 6 years : PHONE RINGING. 6 weeks : I never knew food could taste so good! 6 months : What are we having for dinner tonight? 6 years : AGAIN!!!! 6 weeks : Honey muffin, don't you worry, Ill never hold this against you. 6 months : Watch out! Don't do it again. 6 years : What's not to understand about what I just said?? 6 weeks : Oh my God, you look like an angel in that dress. 6 months : You bought a new dress again??? 6 years : How much did THAT cost me? Planning for Vacations: 6 weeks : How do 2 weeks in Vienna or anywhere you please sound?? 6 months : What's so bad about going to Istanbul on a charter plane? 6 years : Travel? What's so bad about staying home??? 6 weeks : Baby, what would you like us to watch tonight? 6 months : I like this movie. 6 years : I'm going to watch ESPN, if you're not in the mood, go to bed, I can stay up by myself. THERE IS A LESSON TO BE LEARNED HERE...... There was this man who lost one of his arms in an accident. He became very depressed because he had loved to play guitar and a lot of things that took two arms. One day he could not stand it anymore. He decided to commit suicide. He got on an elevator and went to the top of a tall building to jump off. He was standing on the ledge looking down and saw this man on the sidewalk below skipping along whistling and kicking up his heels. He looked closer and noticed this man didn't have any arms at all. He started thinking, what am I doing up here feeling sorry for myself, I still have one good arm to do things with. There goes a man with no arms skipping down the sidewalk happy and going on with his life. He hurried down and caught the man with no arms. He told him how glad he was to see him because he had lost one of his arms and felt ugly, useless and was going to kill himself. He thanked him again for saving his life and he now knew he could make it with one arm if that guy could do it with no arms. The man with no arms began dancing and whistling and kicking up his He asked "Why are you so happy anyway?" He said "I'm NOT happy; my ass itches."

Nightmare RangeThe Collected Sueno and Bascom Short Stories Soho CrimeCopyright © 2013 Martin Limon All right reserved.ISBN: 9781616953324 The mama-san didn’t know how long the body had been out there. Three, maybe four days, she said. Her girls had just conducted their business a few yards farther away from it each day. “Where is it now?” I asked. “Policeman take go.” She waved her cigarette and smoke filtered through the darkened gaps between her teeth. The morgue was in Chorwon-ni, ten miles to the south. Ten miles south of Nightmare Range, and fifteen miles from the Demilitarized Zone that slashes like a surgeon’s knife through the heart of the Korean Peninsula. The war had been over for twenty years but still it lingered: a big dumb ghost that refused to go away. No peace treaty had been signed, just a cease-fire, so the fourth and fifth largest armies in the world, armed to their squinting eyeballs, faced each other across the line; fingers on trigger housings, knuckles white, dancing to the sound of no breathing. Our police escort, Lieutenant Pak, stood back, arms crossed, glaring at the squatting woman. He was a tall man for a Korean, slim but muscular. His khakis were starched and fit as if he had been born in them. I didn’t ask him why it had taken so long to dispose of the body. The non-person status of a “business girl” follows her into death. One by one the doors to the hooches slid open and groggy young women, their faces still puffed with sleep, gaped at us curiously. Some squatted in long underwear, their arms crossed over their knees, while others lay on the floor, beneath the wrinkled patchworks that were their blankets. All of the girls were ugly in some way: ravaged complexions, tufted hair, splotches of discolored skin arrayed around their bodies. It seem more like a war for the incurably ill than a whorehouse. Maybe it was both. Lieutenant Pak asked a series of questions of the old woman and I managed, struggling, to keep up with most of it. There had been a number of American units in the field that day and just before nightfall the old woman had stationed a few of her girls near each encampment. As darkness approached the girls called to the young GIs from just outside the concertina wire. I’d seen the game before. Sometimes the GI would wade out into the tall grass and lie on the blanket, both he and the deformed girl protected by the enshrouding night. And sometimes the bolder fellows would bring the girls into their tents, risking the wrath of the Sergeant of the Guard; sneaking in and out of the camp with the stealth of a North Korean infiltrator. I pulled out a map, showed it to the mama-san, and pointed to the area around Nightmare Range and the village of Mantong-ni. The old woman looked at it carefully and consulted with some of the girls. A few of them were up now and dressed. They chattered for a while, and then came to a conclusion. With my pen I marked the area beneath the old woman’s gnarled fingernail. I asked what type of unit it was. Big guns, they decided. Lieutenant Pak wiped his hands on the sides of his khaki trousers and took a step toward the gate. “Mama-san,” I said. “This girl. What was her name?” “Miss Chon,” the old woman said. “Chon Ki-suk.” I wrote it down. “Do you have a picture of her?” The mama-san barked an order and one of the girls handed me a tattered piece of cardboard folded in half like a small book. A VD card. Chon Ki-suk peered out at me from a small black and white photograph. She had a round face with full cheeks that sagged like a bloated chipmunk. All visible flesh had been pocked by the craters of skin disease. She differed little from her sisters now breathing heavily around me; a timid little girl awaiting death. Lieutenant Pak stomped into the mud. I stood up and walked with him to the gate. As he stooped to get through the small opening I looked back at the rows of blemished faces sullenly watching our every move. None of them smiled. None of them said goodbye. My partner, Ernie Bascom, was in the jeep curled up with a brown-paper-wrapped magazine from somewhere in Scandinavia. He unfolded his six-foot frame as we approached and started up the jeep. Some people said he looked like the perfect soldier: blue eyes behind round-lensed glasses, short-cropped sandy-blond hair, the aquiline nose of the European races. What had blown it for him was Vietnam. Pure horse sold by dirty-faced kids through the wire, women taken on the dusty paths between rice paddies, the terror rocket attacks during innocent hours. His placid exterior hid a soul that had written off the world as a madhouse. Looks were deceiving. Especially in Ernie’s case. We dropped Lieutenant Pak off in Mantong-ni. A dozen straw-thatched farm houses huddled around the brick-walled police station as if longing for an extinguishing warmth. Ernie popped the clutch, our tires spun, and we lurched forward into the misted distance. The roads were still slick but all that was left of the early morning rain were ponderous gray clouds rolling like slow-motion whales through the hills surrounding the long valley. We plunged into a damp tunnel and when we came out the valley widened before us. Dark clouds in the distance glowered at us like fat dragons lowering on their haunches for a nap. “Nightmare Range,” Ernie said. “Where generals meet to see how much their boys can take.” He pumped lightly on the brakes and slid around a sharp curve. The water-filled rice paddies on either side of the road strained impatiently to embrace our spinning tires. This valley had been the scene of some of the most horrific battles of the Korean War. Americans, Chinese, Koreans, all had died her and the bones of some of them probably still embraced each other deep beneath the piled mud. I had looked it up in the military section in the library, how many had died here. All I remember is that there was a number followed by a lot of zeros. The austere cement-block building of the Firing Range Headquarters was painted in three alternating shades of green. Inside, a brightly colored relief map of Nightmare Range covered a huge plywood table. A ROK Army sergeant with short, black-spike hair and crisply pressed khaki uniform thumbed through a handwritten log of the units that had been using the training facility He came to the correct date and the correct position and pointed to the entry: Charlie Battery, 2nd of the 71st Artillery, Camp Pelham. “Tough duty, pal.” Ernie was leaned back in a patio chair at the snack stand just inside the front gate of Camp Pelham sipping a cold can of PBR. We were dressed the same way: blue jeans, sneakers, and black nylon jackets with brilliantly hand-embroidered dragons on the back. Standard issue for GIs running the ville. The outfit usually got us over. We were the right age, both in our early twenties, and we both had the clean, fresh-faced look of American GIs. If we played with the girls enough, laughed, horsed around, toked a few joints, no one would suspect that we were conducting a criminal investigation. Ernie looked like the typical American GI from the heartland of America. I looked like his ethnic sidekick. Taller than him by about three inches, broader at the shoulders, with the short jet-black hair of my Mexican ancestors. My face often threw people. The nose was pointed enough, and the skin light enough to make them think that maybe I was just one of them. But I’d grown up on the streets of east L.A. and I’d heard the racial slurs before and when some GI started in on “wetbacks” somebody usually elbowed him and whispered something in his ear and looked nervously in my direction. They didn’t have to worry though. That’s part of America, after all. I wouldn’t deny them their fun. The afternoon was glorious but cold. The crisp, clear blue sky of the DMZ, far away from the ravages of industrialism, seemed to welcome even the likes of us. Camp Pelham is in the Western Corridor, about twenty miles from the Division Headquarters at Camp Casey and forty miles from Nightmare Range. The Western Corridor was the route the North Korean tanks had taken on their way to Seoul in the spring of 1950. It was expected to be the route they would take again. The camp was small, you could walk around it in ten minutes, but it still managed to house the battalion’s three batteries of six guns each. The big howitzers of Alpha and Bravo Batteries pointed to the sky, their barrels snugly sheathed in plastic, behind protective bunkers. Charlie Battery was out in the field again but scheduled to return that afternoon. We heard distant thunder and ran to the chain-link fence. Across the narrow river, rows of dilapidated wooden shacks sat jumbled behind a main street that was lined with nightclubs and tailor shops. Charlie Battery rumbled down the two hundred yard strip. A small jeep maintained the lead while six big two-and-a-half ton trucks barreled after it as if trying to run it down. A half dozen 105 millimeter howitzers bounced behind the big trucks like baby elephants trotting behind their mothers. The men of Charlie Battery stood in the beds of the trucks, shouting, the flaps of their winter headgear bouncing wildly in the wind. An M-60 machine gun crowned the cab of each truck, partially hidden behind bundles of neatly tied camouflage netting. Rolls of razor-sharp concertina wire, draped over stanchions on either side of the truck bed, swayed lazily with the rattling of the trucks, like huge and sinister gypsy earrings. Some of the villagers of Sonyu-ri waved happily at the unstoppable convoy. Others scurried desperately to get themselves and their children out of the way. When the Camp Pelham gate guards swung open the big chain-link fence, the men yelled and laughed and the drivers gunned the big truck engines. Diesel fumes billowed into the air. The jeep sped by and headed for the Battery Orderly Room. The truck turned in the other direction to get hosed down at the wash point and topped of with diesel at the fuel point. We finished our beers and walked down the road. In front of the Orderly Room a disheveled-looking little man rummaged through the back of the jeep trying to locate his gear. I spotted his name tag. Sergeant Pickering, the Chief of the Firing Battery. “Chief of Smoke,” I said. He looked up and squinted; a crooked-toothed weasel who hadn’t shaved in a couple of days. “Who are you?” I showed him my identification. “George Sueno, Criminal Investigation Division. This is my partner, Ernie Bascom.” He looked at the badge and turned back to his gear. “Why ain’t you wearing a coat and tie?” he asked. “I thought you guys always wore a coat and tie.” “Not under cover,” Ernie said. The Chief of Smoke ignored us and continued to rummage through his gear, sticking his hand way down into the depths of his dirty green canvas. “Here’s the son of a bitch,” he said. “Kim! Kim! I found it.” His Korean Army driver came running out of the Orderly Room as the Chief of Smoke wrenched his hand free from the enveloping material. He held up a dirty, unwrapped, white bread sandwich and they both beamed. He tore it and handed half to the Korean. They munched contentedly and the driver, smiling, returned to the Orderly Room. “Kimchi and bologna,” the Chief of Smoke said. “Made it myself.” His mouth was open. The odor of the hot pickled cabbage flushed the diesel fumes from my sinuses. He didn’t offer us any. “The last field problem you were on,” I said, “you were at Nightmare Range.” The Chief looked at me, still chewing with his mouth open, but didn’t say anything. “There was a problem,” I said. “Somebody from your unit went a little too far with one of the girls outside the wire.” He closed one eye completely. “What do you mean, ‘too far?’” “He killed her.” The Chief of Smoke chomped viciously on his sandwich. Cabbage crunched. “Probably deserved it.” He continued to chew, turning his head to squint at the brilliantly outlined hills in the blue-sky distance. “I know my first wife did.” “Did you notice anything unusual that trip? Anything that might have . . . “ “Had to be Bogard. Only one mean enough to do it. And he was always messing with those girls out in the field. Didn’t pay ‘em I don’t think. Never had enough money anyway what with all the trouble he’s been in.” “Yeah. Article Fifteens for not making formations, over-purchasing on his ration card, shit like that.” “Where’s he at now?” “He’s not in your unit anymore?” “Well, we’re still carrying him on the books. They say he’s down in the ville.” The Chief of Smoke swallowed the last of his rancid sandwich, turned away from the hills and looked at me. Bread and bologna still stuck to his teeth. “He’s been AWOL ever since we came back from Nightmare Range.”

When a police officer fires shots in Knoxville, Tenn., police investigate but, unlike in Madison, the people have the power of review. It started 18 years ago when, just like in Madison in recent months, police shootings divided the Knoxville community. After Madison police cleared an officer who shot and killed Paul Heenan in November, some in Madison are asking why the city doesn't have independent oversight of police shootings. Knoxville has a lot in common with Madison -- a major university, a bustling downtown and an engaged police department. In her fifth-floor office in Knoxville's city-county building, Avice Reid gets several copies of the police department's internal investigation reviews a month. Reid, who doesn't wear a badge, is the executive director of Knoxville's Police Advisory Review Committee and can do everything from interviewing officers to watching squad car dash cams "We have access to KPD's information, and that's very powerful, because the citizens in the past did not have access to that information," Reid said. Eighteen years ago, four separate police shootings in Knoxville and an outraged community forced the city to do something. After three years of deliberation, the result was a seven-member panel of well-known, diverse community members to check everything the police did. It wasn't an easy decision. In fact, the mayor at the time had to do it by executive order because the city council wouldn't go along with him. But over time, the committee's had success and become popular. Even police say they've accepted it, and it has made the city better. Knoxville Police Chief David Rausch was a young patrolman when the review panel was up for debate, and he opposed it. "What we didn't want was a witch hunt. What we didn't want was some panel set up of folks in our community that just wanted to see policemen get in trouble," Rausch said. What Rausch didn't see then was how the community viewed the department, and how a panel of their peers could help. "I've got the advantage of now having that 20/20 insight, of being able to look back and say, that's what my concerns were then and now having the clarity of it and seeing how it has helped this agency," Rausch said. Rausch said the biggest help has come in building trust. As an example, he pointed to a problem his agency faced last November. A Knoxville officer shot and wounded a suspect in a mall parking lot. Weeks later, Rausch went on TV to say his officer had made a mistake. "We train that you don't put your finger on the trigger until you've made that decision to fire, and he had his finger on the trigger," Rausch said. "We haven't had this outcry of an issue. The officers didn't get excited because I went on and said we made a mistake. The community didn't get excited because I went on and said we made a mistake, and that's because of this partnership that we have and this understanding that things are going to be done transparently and fairly." Only one man in Knoxville has been police chief and review committee chairman -- although Sterling Owen said he didn't want the committee position at first. "I was concerned as to how it would be accepted, by both sides," Owen said. The former FBI agent became chief after six years heading the review panel. He said that while it has subpoena power and can put up a fight, the real value is the partnership between police and the people. The review panel meets every three months in different parts of the city, and the executive director and police chief meet more often. The chief gets insight into the community's concerns, while the panel gets answers to its questions. "I think it has gained in credibility over time, but it's because we went in there saying it's going to be a level playing field," Owen said. Reid said the best marker of success may be a smaller workload. The number of community complaints against police have dropped from 270 when the review panel started to about 100 last year. Reid said most of the cases prove the police were right. "We've proven that we're fair, that we're honest, that we want the truth, and because of that, they are accepting of us," Reid said.

Your week in beer: Tuesday, February 22, 2011 Founders Tasting: Gahanna, Ohio 7:00PM-9:00PM @ Lounge 62 Not sure what the tap list is here, but its Founders, so its sure to impress! Check it out and report back! Wednesday, February 23, 2011 25 Beers for 25 Years: Ann Arbor, Michigan 11:30AM-12:15AM @ Ashley’s Restaurant & Pub This is amazing- 25 years is epic and so is this tap list: Celebrating Bell’s Brewery with twenty-two beers on draft all day and three special releases beginning at 9 PM. 9PM Hopslam Firkin release 9:45 PM Batch 10,000 release 10:15 PM Black Note release Special guest Larry Bell, owner and founder of Bell’s will arrive around 8:30 PM. Complete Bell’s Draft Line-Up: Lager of the Lakes Quinnanan Falls Special Lager Third Coast Beer Third Coast Old Ale Best Brown Ale Hell Hath No Fury Double Cream Stout Thursday, February 24, 2011 Mardi Gras Mambo with Oskar Blues: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 3:00PM-3:00AM @ The Sidecar Bar & Grille I left a piece of me when I moved from New Orleans, so to honor the city- here is a Mardi Gras event….not in New Orleans… You know us, then you know how we do, especially with the NOLA vibe – we’ll have the Oskar Blues premiere line on the taps, Chefs Brian Lofink & Kevin McCue with be throwning DOWN with the New Orleans fare and we’ll be spinning the best in New Orleans music – now and then~ Taps for the night will be updated soon! Friday, February 25, 2011 9th Annual Barleywine Bacchanal: Seattle, Washington 2:00PM-2:00AM @ Beveridge Place Pub Twenty-four (24!) dedicated taps for the biggest, boldest brews born between Bellingham and Boulder (and elsewhere, too)! Over fifty barleywines in all! This event will boast new beers through March 5. Saturday, February 26, 2011 Washington Beer Open House: Seattle and outside of Seattle, Washington 12:00PM-4:00PM @ various locations Today, breweries in and around Seattle open their doors for beer lovers to sample and experience their beers. Admission is free but beer prices at the various locations will apply. Check out the Washington Beer Commission’s website for details of where to go and what to do! Sunday, February 27, 2011 Sunday Funday: Escondido, California 11:00AM-9:00PM @ Stone Brewing Co. Every Sunday Stone offers something from “the cellar.” Today its 2005 Russian Imperial Stout. This stout is top notch, my personal favorite of all the Stone brews. Check out what the 2005 has to offer! To add to the excitement, we’ve raided our cellars for some awesome rare and vintage brews. Every Sunday, we’ll have these special beers available either to purchase in bottles or to fill up your growlers. Monday, February 28, 2011 Randall, Meet Bacon. Bacon, Meet Randall: Providence, Rhode Island 6:00PM-8:00PM @ Graduate Center Bar (GCB) The first time that Randall visited the GCB he went nuts with peanuts and dried cranberries in Dogfish head’s Raison D’Etre… now he’s coming back and bringing the bacon…and roasted peppers. Keith will be with Randall and infusing Palo Santo Marron with thick cut bacon and roasted hot peppers. Come check it out! If you want us to post about an event or if you went to an event and want to tell us about it, leave a comment or email me at [email protected]! Cheers! Oh yes, the annual RateBeer.com awards are upon us. Every year in January, beer nerds come out from the woodwork, run a regression analysis, compute multiple methodology, average the cosign – plus tangent – and come up with these pretty rad rankings. Bon appetite. I believe its a bit more simple than I made it out to be, but the rankings are up and that means the chatter begins. I have always been a staunch supporter of the RateBeer rankings. In fact, they have led the way on a number of significant beer tours around this great globe. Lets see how they did this year. Here are the top performers in each category and some notes about NW people performing well: Best Beer: (Click here to see list) Närke Kaggen Stormaktsporter – If you have had this beer, kudos to you. I have looked, believe me. From Belgium to the Netherlands, you aren’t going to find it. Someday, someday. It is interesting to see Westvleteren 12 unseated. Perhaps the lore of Michael Jackson has finally left the building. For the NW – Deschutes Abyss came in at a very impressive #17. Hair of the Dog’s Matt and Adam both made the Top 100. Surprising that Adam still topples Fred. Top Beers By Category (Click here for the list) I am not going to spend a lot of time on these, you can review them here. Suffice it to say that the only showings from the NW were from a sake producer out of Oregon and a surpirsing top spot in dark lager for Rogue’s Chatoe Rogue Dirtoir Black Lager. Yikes. While expected, its so sad to see this repeated each year. Russian River whooped some ass, once again. Best Beer in USA (Click here for the list) Russian River Pliny the Younger – By now, we are all familiar with this hop monster. Though we would prefer to see something with a bit more complexity, its a deliciously unmatched hop beast. As for the NW, Deschutes Abyss at #13 and Hair of the Dog Adam #43 are all that made it. Strikeout, Washington. Best Brewer in World (Click here to see list) Three Floyds Brewing – I like em; hell i love em. But are they really the best? Their lengthy list of offerings and impressive showings in multiple categories (stout, IPA, pale, etc.) probably gets them the spot. My choice would have been the #2 on the list – Founders Brewing Company. Great to Hoppin Frog, Akron, OH, at #17. Great work Fred! Oregon did incredibly well: Rogue #21, Hair of the Dog #24, Deschutes #49, Cascade Brewing #57, and Upright Brewing #92 (wow). Washington = Elysian #92. I was actually surprised not to see Black Raven Brewing on this list. I think this is a testament to the fact that Black Raven is not yet bottling. Upright is probably smaller in production, but they send bottles into various states. I think thats the ticket here (plus great brewing). Best Beer Bars in World (Click to see list) The Kulminator – Its probably the most deserving, considering their iconic collection of cellar aged beers. Kudos to them for keeping this epic collection rolling. Our visit to Kulminator in March could not have been more eye-popping. The most amazing thing on this list – Avenue Pub at #8!!! Congratulations to Polly, the bar’s owner, who has worked her ass off to deserve this recognition. This is the only must see in New Orleans. This is typically a strong category for Washington – perhaps the only one where they typically overtake Oregon. This year they did the same, but only 2-0. Uber Tavern was #14 and Brouwers Cafe was #22. This is a bit of a drop for both of these two. The list also booted Naked City Taphouse, who made a daring showing last year. Nothing in Oregon made the list. Best Brewpubs in World (Click to see list) Brouwerij de Molen – The Windmill strikes again! This place has climbed up and up the list and I will agree that it deserves this spot. In a remote area of Holland, Bodegraven’s only beer spot is hidden inside a windmill. Inside you can enjoy excellent food, phenomenal beer and a pretty incredible bottle shop with a collection of US brews that makes me jealous in Seattle. This is a must see for anyone in Northern Europe. Great to see Walking Man make the list at #10. We finally got out there this past summer and thoroughly enjoyed this sunny spot. Deschutes Brewing was #18, Cascade’s Racoon Lodge was #48 (and will be bumped next year for the new Barrel Room) and then there is Pelican Brewing at #26. 26? Cmon man. If you have ever been to this magical surfers cove, you would spit at anyone that left this out of their Top 5. Go visit. Best Beer Store in World (Click here to see list) Het Oude Schooltje – Struise Brouwers @ The Old School – Ummm, I’m confused. I was in Oostvleteren and never saw this place! Kill me now. This is my own fault and I’m stuck with the consequences. Next time. Great to see some Washington guys on here as well: Malt & Vine #27 and Bottleworks #29. Oregon got showings from The Bier Stein in Eugene and Belmont Station in Portland, who fell all the way to #44. Best Restaurant in World (Click here to see list) Ebenezer Kezars Restaurant and Pub – This is on my list and will be visited in June when we do a brief NE trip. Tucked away in the Maine mountains in the little town of Lowell – this gem awaits. Is it shocking to anyone else that despite the NW’s extremely well-received culinary presence and beer presence, we cannot produce one beer restaurant in the Top 50? What about Brouwers Cafe? Ebenezars is just a pub, too. Best Breweries to Visit in World (Click here to see list) Picobrouwerij Alvinne Den Bier- en Proefzolder – Yes, yes and yes x 1000. This is the single greatest beer visit of my entire life. If its a little strange that we have yet to speak about this visit here on BB.com, its because I am intimidated. Timperial and I have feared drafting this inconic article for just about a year. Alvinne is located in a large barn-like space off a highway in Belgium. We arrived after closing on St. Patricks day and were awarded with private drinking stock from the owner. An unprecedented adventure. I was so glad to see Hair of the Dog Brewing on here as well at #2. Alan Sprints has done an incredible job putting together their new taproom, which is a must for any visitor to the NW. Great to also see Upright Brewing (Portland), who has a very cool tasting room where you can grab some schooners and some tunes for a few hours. Rogue, Bridgeport and Hopworks also made the list. A complete zero for Washington. Ugh. Washington has to take a failing grade this year. I am really disappointed to see so many of the stalwarts take drops. It was very encouraging to see the locations do alright, but what about our beer?! In short, most of our beer stays here. I think you can somewhat blame that on our alcohol regulation rules, because they facilitate a healthy market at home. But, you can see that the Oregon brewers making a name for themselves are selling bottles. Forget Rogue and Deschutes – they are pretty big. But, think about Hair of the Dog, Hopworks and especially Upright. These guys all have bottle sales that go across state borders. That stuff helps. In the near future, we hope to see bottles from great upstarts like Black Raven Brewing, Schooner Exact, Fremont Brewing and more. Hopefully, we can start to show the world why Washington beer is so damn good. Since I am not currently indulging in libations, Im going to cut to the chase– Your week in beer! Tuesday, January 24, 2011 Jolly Pumpkin, Stone and Nogne-O Collaboration Dinner: Detroit, Michigan 6:30PM-9:30PM @ Michael Symon’s Roast Detroit Stone Brewing’s Greg Koch, Jolly Pumpkin’s Ron Jeffries and Iron Chef Michael Symon of Roast come together for the release of JP Collababiere, the final brew of the three brewery collaboration (between Jolly Pumpkin, Nogne-O and Stone) series. Each beer was brewed at each breweries facility in their own style with a base recipe and a local ingredient. The three beers will be featured within a four course meal along with other favorites from the three breweries. The event starts at 6:30 and there will be two live bands as well. The restaurant is closed to the public for this event. Wednesday, January 26, 2011 Founder’s Double Trouble Tapping Release Party: South Bend, Indiana 5:00PM – 12:00AM @ Fiddler’s Hearth Public House We are talking one of the best Double IPAs in the country- made by Founders. Tonight taste this epic brew and its brandy barrel aged version. Hot damn! Thursday, January 27, 2011 Dogfish Head Night: Hulmeville, Pennsylvania 6:00PM-9:00PM @ Hulmeville Inn There is a pretty amazing line up to accompany the firkin Dogfish Head 75 min IPA and it goes a little something like this: 75 Minute firkin 90 Minute on the Randall with homegrown Cascade hops World Wide Stout Palo Santo Marron maybe the Punkin’ Friday, January 28, 2011 16 Tons IPA Fest: Eugene, Oregon 5:00PM-10:00PM @ Sixteen Tons Beer & Wine January 27th-29th Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 5-10pm Featuring 60+ IPAs! No entry fee. Cash Only Event. Beers are $1-$2 for 3oz tasters. Event will be held at 16 Tons. Friday & Saturday eat dinner at the Fest! Nosh Pit will be set up out front making a fresh delicious sandwiches with local ingredients. Initial Breweries/Beer List here: http://sixteentons.biz/blog/?page_id=527 (work in progress) * Sierra Nevada Hoptimum * Uinta Crooked Line Detour Double IPA * Vertigo Brewing Friar Gone Wild Imperial IPA * Coalition IPA * Fort George OmegaTex * Hop Valley Alpha Centauri Binary IPA * Avery duganA IPA * Mikkeller 10 * Revelation Cat Woodwork Series Acasia * 10 Barrel Apocalypse IPA * Alameda Yellow Wolf Imperial IPA * Southern Tier Oak Aged Un*Earthly * Victory Yakima Glory * Victory Hop Wallop * Silver Moon HOPpopatamus * Southern Tier Gemini * BrewDog Hardcore IPA * BrewDog Mikkeller I Hardcore You * Firestone Walker Double Jack IPA * Flying Dog Double Dog * Marin Eldridge Grade White Knuckle DIPA * Midnight Sun Cohoho * Midnight Sun Mayhem * Mikkeller 1000 IBU * Mikkeller I Beat yoU * Mikkeller Single Hop Simcoe IPA * Moylan’s Hopsickle IPA * Natian Old Grogham Winter IPA * New Belgium / Elysian Trip VII Black Belgo Winter Here / Summer There * Cascade Lakes Centennial IPA * Deschutes Hop Henge * Dogfish Head Burton Baton * Draper Brewing IPA * El Toro IPA * Southern Tier Iniquity Imperial Black Ale * Deschutes Hop Trip * Deschutes Red Chair Northwest Pale Ale * Dieu du Ciel Corne du Diable * Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA * Elysian Avatar Jasmine IPA * Epic Armageddon IPA * Flying Dog Raging Bitch * Great Divide Hercules Double IPA * Green Flash Imperial IPA * Green Flash West Coast IPA * Hale’s Supergoose IPA * Lompoc C-Note Imperial IPA * Mad River Steelhead Double IPA * Ninkasi Mystery IPA * Ninkasi Tricerahops * Oskar Blues Gubna * Sierra Nevada 30th Our Brewers Reserve * Southern Tier Un*Earthly IPA * Stone Cali-Belgique IPA * Stone IPA Stone Lukcy Basartd Ale * Three Creeks Hoodoo Voodoo IPA * Victory HopDevil * Widmer Brothers Deadlift Imperial IPA * Alaskan Double Black IPA * Beer Valley Leafer Madness Saturday, January 29, 2011 Cigar City Brewing Total Tap Takeover: Sarasota, Florida Sunday, January 30, 2011 Stout Brunch: Exton, Pennsylvania 11:00AM-3:00PM @ The Drafting Room Taproom And Grille Forget the brunch buffet- check this mouth watering list out! Port Older Viscocity Founder’s Kentucky Bourbon Stout Rogue Russian Imperial Stout (Vintage 2009) Flying Fish Exit #13 Dogfish Head World Wide Stout Stoudts Fat Dog Long Trail Coffee Stout Broolyn Black Chocolate Stout Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout Weyerbacher 15th Anniversary Nogne Dark Horizon (First Edition) Victory Storm King “Cask Conditioned” East Meets West: Doylestown, Pennsylvania 7:00PM-9:00PM @ M.O.M.’s – Maxwell’s On Main Ballast Point Brewing Company from San Diego, Ca Big Eye IPA Dorado Double IPA Piper Down Scotch Ale Paired with a selection of East Coast cheeses! Come join us!!! Call or inquire within $30 per person. Limited Seating – RSVP now! If you go to an event or want us to promote an event on the site, email me at [email protected]! Happy New Year to all! Can you believe another decade has come and gone? What will this year in beer bring? Can’t wait to find out! But now, your week in beer. Tuesday, January 4, 2011 Beer Geek Tuesday: Atlanta,Georgia 7:00PM-9:00PM @ Cypress Street Pint and Plate Tonight He’brew Jewbelation 14 will be tapped. “14” stands for fourteen malts, fourteen hops, and fourteen percent ABV all in one glass. Hot Damn! Wednesday, January 5, 2011 Founders Tapping: Chicago, Illinois 6:00PM-11:00PM @ Haymarket Pub & Brewery This Wednesday Haymarket Pub & Brewery will be holding its first big tapping event. 12 of our taps will be taken over by Founders Brewing specialties. Hopefully this will help hold everyone over until the Pub Beers are available in the second week of January. The final list for this event is not finalized but we should have both CBS, Black Biscuit, & Nemesis ’10 along with other hard to find kegs from our friends in Grand Rapids. Come in and enjoy these great taps and try some of the items off of the Pub’s menu. Thursday, January 6, 2011 Big Beers, Belgians and Barleywines: Vail, Colorado 7:30PM-10:30PM @ Vail Cascade Resort & Spa If you love big beers, you must come have dinner with us! The 2011 event will be a tremendous treat. The original weekend event was suggested by Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, and much ado has been made of them by our guests. The celebrity beer pairing dinners show off the ultimate flexibility of beer with food. The Traditional Brewmasters’ Dinner shows off our Featured Brewmasters for this year’s event, and the Calibration Dinner with Avery & Dogfish head really starts our celebration weekend off “calibrating your palate”! For more information visit http://www.bigbeersfestival.com/ ! Friday, January 7, 2011 4th Annual Williamsburg Cask Festival: Brooklyn, New York 1:00PM-1:00AM @ D.b.a. Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned (including secondary fermentation) and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure. Cask ale may also be referred to as real ale, a term coined by the Campaign for Real Ale, often now extended to cover bottle-conditioned beer as well. Today, stop by D.b.a for an amazing line up of 15 rare, cask conditioned beers all on tap at once! This event will last all weekend long! Saturday, January 8, 2011 13th Annual Ice Cold Beer Festival: Minocqua, Wisconsin 1:00PM-5:00PM @ Campanile Center For The Arts Tickets: $25 in advance; $30 at the event Tickets available at the Minocqua Brewing Co. & at participating Trig’s Cellar 70 locations. Micro-Brews from around the state. Food and Music. This wonderful event benefits the Dr. Kate Hospice / Ministry Home Care. Please call 715-356-2600 for more information. Hope to see you there! Sunday, January 9, 2011 Belgium Beer Class: Annapolis, Maryland The Belgians have a remarkable brewing tradition, so much so that breweries all over the world work to perfect Belgian style brews. Learn about and taste some of our favorite Belgian beers from award-winning breweries in Belgium (of course) and the U.S. Snacks and beer are provided. $30 per person. Classes tend to fill quickly, so please make your spot reservations early. Call us at 410-571-7744 or email us at dmccabe @ punksbackyardgrill.com with questions or reservation requests. Obviously, you must be 21 years of age or older to participate. Monday, January 10, 2011 Bell’s Hopslam Release Party: Indianapolis, Indiana 6:00PM-11:00PM @ Beer Sellar You know how we love Bell’s Brewing Co. and this tap list is rocking my world! Monday, January 10, Beer Sellar Indianapolis will join Bell’s Brewery in releasing HopSlam to the market. On tap Monday will be: HopSlam (tapped at 6pm) Batch 10K (tapped at 6pm) If you go to an event, want us to post about an event or have an event for next week, email me at [email protected]. Cheers! The New Year quickly descends upon us. What will you be drinking to ring in 2011? After a trip to Ohio full of endless Great Lakes Christmas Ale, we arrive back in Seattle. But now for your week in beer. Tuesday, December 28, 2010 Meet the Bruery Fundraiser: Santa Monica, California 6:00PM-9:00PM @ the Library Ale House The Bruery is one of the newer, yet highly acclaimed breweries in Southern California. Tonight, they will be tapping kegs of 3 French Hens and Rugbrød. Rare bottles of Workman’s Friend Imperial Porter will also be available. A flight of all three will be available for purchase. In addition small bites for pairing will be provided: – Workman’s Friend with Turkey Meatloaf – Rugbrod with Jerk Chicken – 3 French Hens with Bread Pudding Fellow SoCal brewery Port Brewing will have Santa’s Little Helper for your enjoyment. Wednesday, December 29, 2010 Pint Night with Breckenridge Brewery: Exton, Pennsylvania 6:00PM-11:00PM @ The Drafting Room Taproom and Grille Pint Night at The Drafting Room Taproom & Grille featuring Breckenridge Brewery Join us on Wednesday, December 29, 2010 at 6:00 On Tap from Breckenridge: Christmas Ale (Winter Warmer) Lucky U IPA (American IPA) Avalanche (American Amber) 471 IPA (Imperial IPA) Regal Pilsner (Imperial Pilsner) Hope to see you there Thursday, December 30, 2010 Founders and Friends Benefit and Tasting: Columbus, Ohio 7:00PM-11:00PM @ Bob’s Bar All things good in the Midwest (and more) will be available on tap tonight! 1) Founders Brewing – Backwoods Bastard Tapping 2) Columbus Brewing – 12 Hops of XMas (Firkin) 3) Fatheads – Headhunter IPA (1st columbus tapping) –> THIS BEER IS SO GOOD!!! 4) Stone Brewing – First tapping of their collaboration with Fatheads (brewed during Cleveland Beer Week) 5) Sierra Nevada – Celebration and 30th Anniv. 6) North Coast – TBA 7) Troegs – Mad Elf and perhaps a little surprise from the brewery Friday, December 31, 2010 New Beer’s Eve: Chicago, Illinois 4:00PM-12:00AM @ Fountainhead Ok this event is only $30.00 per person and the beers on tap and the food look amazing- this might be the best New Year’s Eve deal in the country. New Belgium/Allagash – Vrienden Left Hand – Fade To Black Bierbrouwerij Emelisse – Triple IPA Two Brothers – Bare Tree Weiss Wine Dogfish Head – Bitches Brew Bear Republic – Apex Imperial IPA Mikkeller – Rauch Geek Breakfast Stout Anderson Valley – Imperial Boont Amber Half Acre – Big Huggs Bells Two Hearted Three Floyds Alpha King New Beer’s Eve Pre-Fix Dinner: Beer Cheese Soup, Spicy Beer Cheese Soup with Potatoes, Lime Cream, Bacon, Grilled Rye & Sourdough Crispy Salad, Spiced Walnuts & Diced Apple with Goat Cheese over Mixed Greens & Cherry Vinaigrette Pot Roast, Rioja Demi and Root Vegetables over Parsnip Puree Bourbon Maple Glazed Salmon with Root Vegetable Succotash and Celery Root Salad Generous slice of Belgian Chocolate Bread Pudding with Caramel and Candied Pecans Each course paired with a beer by our Beer Director Pre-Fix Dinner by reservation only, 4-8 pm, $30 per Person Please email by Wed. Dec. 29th with Preferred Time, Number of People, & Course Choices to: [email protected] New Beer’s Eve Small Plates, 8-11pm Saturday, January 1, 2011 20 Stouts on Tap: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 12:00PM-12:00AM @ Monk’s Cafe Yep, we’re doing it again. Every line will have a stout running though the spout. As always, we’ll have some recognizable stouts and a few keg that most of you have not tasted before. Come in out of the cold and warm up with some hearty food and robust stouts. Cash Bar, starts around noon. Sunday, January 2, 2011 All of the events I can find today are not worth going to. Sit at home with some friends and break open something from the cellar. Monday, January 3, 2010 Diners, Drive-In and Dives Party: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 10:00PM-11:00PM @ Memphis Taproom The Memphis Taproom will be featured on the Food Network’s show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Tonight, celebrate with PENNY DRAFT BEERS for one half hour! During commercials only — when the show’s on, you will have all eyes on the TV! If you want me to post about an event, want to talk about an event you went to or just want to talk about beer, email me at [email protected] or leave a comment!! Cheers! Timeless. Classic. Diverse. Words used to describe Bob Seger‘s musical gift – and wouldn’t you know, Founders Brewing’s beers. Mull that while I wax poetic. Founders Brewing has been my favorite brewer since I first dabbed a droplet of their Double Trouble IPA on my tongue, over a year ago. Captivated, entranced and bewildered I sought out more of this unknown brewer’s stock. It took no further than my third beer, and not even a departure from one style, before I decided that this could be the one – the brewer for which my palate yearns. Founders Brewing can be found along the Grand River, in the Western portion of the State of Michigan, in a nice little town called Grand Rapids. The mighty Grand Rapids is the second largest city in Michigan and was once referred to as “Furniture City” because, well, take a guess. While it might not be the maxim of metropolis, it once was a heavy industrial area that thrived throughout the auto and lumber boom of the early 1900s. As the auto industry boomed, so did Detroit’s music scene. Berry Gordy’s Motown thrived throughout the 60s and 70s, launching the careers of iconic stars like Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye. We also saw Rock & Roll take a new form in Detroit. Iggy Pop & The Stooges, Ted Nugent, Alice Cooper and – perhaps most importantly for this article – the great Bob Seger, all saw incredible success with their raw, uncensored and blue-collar version of music’s greatest gift (um, Rock & Roll). But like all great things, Michigan took a hard turn in the late 20th century. The adversity facing the Great Lakes State drove a major artisan sub-culture that helped bring Detroit out of the ashes. From that, we saw the birth of funk from George Clinton, which some say spawned the creation of techno – the Detroit spectacle that arose from Parliment Funkadelic melodic melodies. A new progressive culture remained. Also, from the ashes came a focus on reviving dead markets. Once a major player in the beer brewing industry of the U.S., the beer production industry had shrunk to producing nothing more than Strohs by the 1970s. By 1985, Strohs’ brewery was destroyed and not one brewery remained in Detroit’s once vast beer industry. The company finally sold off to Pabst in 1999. Beer came back to Michigan in the 1980s, but this time it went West. Bells Brewery began operations in 1983 in Kalamazoo, MI. After 8 years as the only (still remaining) craft beer producer, Founders Brewing joined the fold in 1991. Its funny to think that a short stretch of 50 miles of highway is all that separates two of America’s pioneering, and still dominate, craft breweries. Founders Brewing epitomizes everything about survival in the craft beer industry. Two college grads who enjoyed homebrewing decided to make a go for it, quit their jobs and make beer. After years of making balanced beers to pander to blue-collar Michigonians (made that term up), they hit the brink of bankruptcy. Realizing that they had to quit or develop their own unique niche, they decided to dump the “crap” beer and move on to a bigger challenge: “complex, in-your-face ales, with huge aromatics, bigger body, and tons of flavor.” (from their website) Well hell yes! Nothing like a little American ingenuity and a dab of elbow grease to get the fire cooking on a damn good idea. By taking the plunge into uber-complexity, Founders risked utter decimation. Alas, they knew that separating themselves from the herd of 1990s lightly malted, pathetically hopped beers, was the way to go. They flourished. Founders Brewing now takes on a bevy of intriguing, mouth watering, mind melding styles. Check out their Breakfast Stout, which by the way, is made from an abundance of flaked oats, bitter and imported chocolates, and Sumatra and Kona coffee. No big deal, its only one of the most revered beers in American beerdom (again, made up). Not enough stuff? How about the Kentucky Breakfast Stout, which adds CAVE-AGED (no lie) oak bourbon barrels at 11.2%. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’d hate that 100 on Rate Beer. But alas, it was the IPAs which made me fall on bended knee. It was the sweet taste of unearthly nectar that said – “Hi, I’m beer. Know nothing else.” Founders packs a lineup of 4 incredible hop bombs. Centennial IPA is a standard used for Beer Judge training, Red Rye PA is no doubt the best rye IPA on the market (and I will physically fight you if you say otherwise. Seriously, grab a 2×4 and meet me behind your parent’s house), and Double Trouble turned my head Beetlejuice style, for about 5-6 minutes. But there was one more that I had yet to try – the gem of our 4 beer panel this week: Devil Dancer Triple IPA. Just wait, I’m getting there. For our tasting panel, we selected 4 amazingly diverse styles. We tried to have no beers overlap because we wanted to savor the magnificent diversity of….NAY! we just had dumb luck and it worked out that way. Hooray random success; boo excess beer terms. The board: Cerise Cherry Fermented Ale, Porter, Devil Dancer Triple IPA and 2010 Nemesis. We proceed. This one had caught my attention during a press release earlier this Summer. The beer was marketed as a “cherry fermented ale” which to me screamed “something like a kriek.” I could have not been further from actuality. I have read many that say that the beer has a slight tartness and soft fruity aroma and flavor. I’m just not there. I had the Cerise once back in Ohio when it was fresh from the case and again during this panel, about 2 months from purchase. The first tasting opportunity brought a very rich fruit flavor that mimicked cherry soda; the panel tasting was straight blush wine. I believe that the first tasting was more of what they were going for, a fruity summery ale that packed a lot of cherry blast. Our panel version might simply have been the victim of skunk. It was interesting to see that much change in only 55 days or so, but worse things have happened. Its not easy to diss an offering from your favorite brewer – but skip this one. I think that increasing the tartness with a wild yeast might add something to this guy, but right now its a straight fruit beer that gets easily agitated. Again, I have danced with this guy before. Once upon a time, I was dying of heat exhaustion after trouncing the streets of Washington DC in 99 degree weather. Lugging my baggage for 5 hours had left me screaming for a beer, and as always, I plead for something new and mind-bending. We came across Pizzeria Paradisio in Dupont Circle and had heard of its lore. A dedicated pizza and alehouse, they offered some damn good choices across the board. One of those, was this guy – Founders Porter. I placed myself in a bubble, blocked out the heat and grabbed a pint from the tap. Delicious. One of the greatest, most complex porters that I have ever seen, smelled or tasted. Our panel got to sample a bit of the goods. As I lifted the hood on this dark, sexy vessel of black grog, it exploded all over the place (not sure if this is sexual innuendo…still mulling it over). The beer had either been primed too much or aggressively disturbed during storage and retrieval – we shall never know. But, the beer had a much more aerated body this time around, and I like the subtle difference in how it affects the flavors. The mass of chocolate and rich caramelized sugar prevails in this guy. This is a meal in a glass and a no-brainer for any dark beer fanatic. Get this one. Devil Dancer Triple IPA. The lore of this beer runs rampant. Rumors of its existence had plagued me for days, months,.. ok thats it. But still, I wanted it. When I got the call that the final bottle available at our favorite Cleveland shop had been acquired – I literally shot out of my pants. Devil Dancer: how I have waited for this dance. The beer opens perfectly and with a moderate carbonation and maximum aroma that almost blows my eyes into their sockets. The beer pours with flawless orange-auburn hue and a slight head. We can dig in quickly. The scent is explosive and I wonder what the hop bill must have looked like. This puppy is packing 112 IBUs and 12% alcohol, but the floral aroma hides the fermented wonder inside the bottle. Devil Dancer is an exploration through hop science. 10 different types of cones dry-hop this mother over the course of 26 days, to reach hop maxim. Though the malt bill is designed to allow the hops to prevail, they aren’t absent from the beer. I taste a simple butterscotch or caramel flavor that gives this monster some balance. The resins alone will baffle you. Buy every bottle you see, inject them with formaldehyde (don’t do this) and preserve them for yourself. Seriously, don’t share. What an amazing name eh? I think about this now and I say: “what’s my nemesis?” and “Is the beer trying to be the drinker’s nemesis, or its own nemesis?” Yep, we go that deep. If I had to create a beer that had to be its own nemesis, I think that I would try to pack as many aromatic malts and the brightest hops in a bottle and add a psychotically active yeast. That’s the ticket. Lets see who wins! Hahaha (morbid laugh). Well, that’s not my own creative brilliance, because I think that is exactly what they did. Nemesis is classified as a dark barleywine and we had some disagreement about this nomenclature. One of us called it an imperial stout (its black and 12%); one said it was a crazy ole ale (it has a ridiculous aged malt flavor) and I called it a hoppy barleywine (its 100 IBUs). Whatever you call it – you should make sure to use the adjective “spectacular” because this beer is a gauntlet of flavor. The beer pours a deep black with almost no head. Its thick like maple syrup and has a mild burnt sugar scent. The beer develops from the first sip to the swallow, starting bitter and ending with a furious “I just ate a meal of pancakes” syrupy swarm. As the beer warmed up, I noticed that the hops became more noticeable and I thought it was a great touch. The beer somewhat resembled a dark roasty version of Avery Brewing’s Hog Heaven, though more complex and inevitably better. If you read anything above, you can guess my recommendation. Get it. When we do these panels, we like to think about the brewer. Each brewer has a story behind its operation; its location, history, culture and its message are oh so important to the beer’s delivery. So, when I thought about which Michigan musician’s music would best espouse the Founders Brewing delivery – the Silver Bullet smacked me in the face. For decades, Bob Seger has developed a musical sound that it fights for relevance, meets the needs of the everyday man, and yet strives to remain timeless with its unique character. Seger and Founders each fought from the trenches for relevance and after many years in the game, find themselves just as beloved as the day their first single (bottle) hit the market. For me, they are both beloved because they each speak to the common man’s desire for something to love. With Seger, it was “working on those night moves” and for Founders, its working on those complex romances that fit in a glass. Kudos to you both for making Michigan proud and the rest of us happy rock & roll infused beer fanatics. I have usurped control of this column for this week. This is primarily for the sole reason that this is the most mindless and least intimidating of all of our columns. Hooked yet!? No really, I need some spiritual soul seeking, and a look at the beer calendar might just satisfy my urge. What, pray tell, did our squad do last week, you ask? Lots. Depending on who you asked, we either visited some pretty amazing beer taps in New Orleans (Brooklyn Detonation Imperial IPA!!!!), hung out at Brouwers Cafe’s Washington Beer Fest, dabbled in a first-time Jillian’s craft beer night, soaked up an epic and undeniably amazing Elysian Great Pumpkin Beer Fest (we all were there – no way to miss that) or we brewed a massive batch of our very first pumpkin beer during Harvest Fest 2010. Yep, we were busy. But, as we spend the week saturating the blog with mouth-watering tales of yesteryear – we focus on the week ahead. Giddy up. Monday, October 18, 2010 Hoptoberfest Brewer Shenanigans: Seattle, WA All Month Long @ Beveridge Place Pub Since we are already a bit late on this event, I thought I would borrow from the comments of the amazing people over at Washington Beer Blog, Kendall and Kim Jones. Today, they ran a piece on the Elite Eight selections for the Hoptoberfest at Beveridge Place Pub. Hoptoberfest is an annual event spanning the month, during which Beveridge Place Pub slowly eliminates IPAs to eventually select its house IPA for the next year to come. They are now down to the final eight at the mid-point of the month and the heat is on to make the final 3. Kendall Jones at Washington Beer Blog has been discussing the rumors of brewers sending in-house squadrons down to stuff the ballot box to ensure that they land in the top 3. Black Raven is trying to remain at the top spot, while Boundary Bay is trying to grab back what was their’s just two years ago. By 6 PM, Kendall and Kim were already there at the Pub. But since that time, nothing to report on. Hopefully, they are simply inundated with enjoyment to give us an update. Regardless, if you want IPA, you still have two weeks of madness over at Beveridge Place Pub. Check it out and don’t forget to vote. Tuesday, October 19, 2010 Can You Handle the Randall?: Cleveland, Ohio Part 1: 4:30 – 6:30PM @ Winking Lizard Tavern (Gateway Location) Part 2: 7:00 – 9:00 PM @ Winking Lizard Tavern (Cleveland Heights Location) If you have yet to explore the wonderful world of Dogfish Head Randalls – do not miss this event! Dogfish Head started using Randall at many of their nationwide events several years back. If you have no idea what this is, check this picture, and then understand that you stuff it full of flavorful things and pump beer through it. We have had the pleasure of tasting the Aprihop with fresh apricots and hops, as well as the 90 Minute Double IPA with Woodford Reserve soaked oak chips. Both were incredible. Well, now here is your chance at two different locations. More from the event pub kit: Donn B. from Dogfish Head and Kev from Winking Lizard hit the Gateway Winking Lizard Tavern with Randall the Enamel Animal and a keg of 90 Minute IPA! Randall will be packed full of fresh hops and filter the 90 Minute IPA through it imparting even more hoppiness into an already ultra-hoppy Imperial IPA! Randall the Enamel Animal leaves Gateway to make an appearance at the Coventry Winking Lizard Tavern. This time Randall gets packed full of fresh Saaz hops and hooked up to a keg of Dogfish Head Midas Touch. Find out what happens to Midas Touch, Dogfish Head’s mead-like ale, when it gets filtered through Saaz hops! Can you handle Randall? Wednesday, October 20, 2010 Farm to Table & Field to Pint: Boulder, CO 7:00 – 10:00PM @ Avery Brewing Company Everybody is going local these days. Join the movement. Freshcraft is a new bar and restaurant in downtown Denver, with an impressive beer list. They are joining forces with one of our favorites, Avery Brewing, for a night of local food and amazing beer. Check out these fairly rare Avery brews: Freshcraft is one of Denver’s hottest new craft beer / fresh food joints to hit the scene. Owners Jason and Lucas have a particular fondness for great beer, and that’s where we come in! Freshcraft has devised a three course meal paired with three Avery brews (duganA, Fumator and Out of Sight), and Society members can sit down the for the entire meal or pick and items a la carte. The Avery crew will be out in force for this evening, and Freshcraft will be bringing a speaker from one of their local produce suppliers to talk about farm to table. Thursday, October 21, 2010 Founders Night: Cleveland, Ohio Part of Cleveland Beer Week!!! 6:30 – 9:30 PM @ The Brew Kettle This is one of our favorite joints in all of Cleveland. The Brew Kettle is putting on a pretty special lineup for the festivities of Cleveland Beer Week, which spans from this past weekend through the end of this weekend. The Brew Kettle is down in Strongsville, OH, about 20 minutes outside downtown Cleveland. This place has amazing BBQ, phenomenal taps and even a U-Brew component in the back. We noticed their quite impressive affiliation with Grand Rapids brewer (and my personal favorite) Founders Brewing when we visited back in September. Here is a chance to meet the brewer and taste their hop shocker, Devil Dancer Triple IPA: Come meet Founder’s John Host and Dave Engbers as they walk you through a lineup of six beers which will include some seasonal/specialty offerings including DEVIL DANCER TRIPLE I.P.A. The beers will be complemented with different appetizers. For a backup event: do not miss Light Up Night at the ABC Tavern in Cleveland. Founders Brewing’s & Victory Brewing’s brewers will be on hand to pour their amazing ales until 2:00 AM! Friday, October 22, 2010 Naked City Brewing’s 2nd Anniversary Party: Seattle, Washington All day long @ Naked City Brewing & Taphouse You might have read about this can’t miss event on our website today. I am re-posting because of the urgency of this event. Its happening one day only people – be there. Here is the presser: Join us for Naked City’s 2nd Anniversary Celebration Friday, October 22nd Open-Close! We will have prize giveaways and some very special one-off beers on tap for the occasion. Here is a sampling: Double Header Anniversary Ale (Oak Aged Imperial IPA) New Riders of the Purple Sage (Blackberry Sage Porter) Tay Yay Inna Win (Barrel Aged Sour Ale) Whiskey Oaked Brimstone & Treacle (Cask Old Ale) The Big Lebrewski (White Russian Imperial Stout) Boo Radley Pumpkin Ale Big Chocolate Wood (2010 Pro-Am by Dan Hansen & Will Fredin) Broken Bicycle (Fresh Hop Saison) You get the picture…Mark your calendars!!! Tapping of a keg of Breakfast Stout that was brewed in 2008. Part of Brew Kettle’s vintage and rare keg tapping series (every day at 5pm during Cleveland Beer Week). Saturday, October 23, 2010 Bay Area Craft Beer Fest: Martinez, California (near Vallejo, CA) 12:00 (VIP start time) or 1:00 – 5:00 PM @ Martinez Waterfront Park This is the first go-round for this festival. But, its located in a very cool inland area on the Bay and it has a fairly exhaustive list of Bay Area brewers on tap. Check out the website for further details on the festival layout and how to get there. Ticket prices are $35.00, and they offer a DD option. Check out the list right here: 21st Amendment Brewery Third Street AleWorks Bear Republic Brewing Co. Black Diamond Brewing Co. Blue Frog Grog & Grill Firestone Walker Brewing Co. Gordon Biersch Brewery Grand Teton Brewing Co. Hoppy Brewing Company Iron Springs Pub & Brewery Lagunitas Brewing Co. Lost Coast Brewery Marin Brewing Co. Russian River Brewing Co. Speakeasy Ales & Lagers Two Rivers Cider Co. Amazing Alternative: Check out the Pizza Port Hoptoberfest! This string of Southern California brewpubs took major metal home from GABF this year: Join us for a rooftop party with lots of hoppy beers and a Pig Roast! We’ll be pouring around 40 (yes 40!) beers with tasty hops… wet hops, IPAs, Imperials IPAs, and maybe even a worthy strong pale ale or two! For your convenience and hoppiness, we’ll also be running a bus from Pizza Port Solana Beach and Pizza Port Carlsbad up to the event. $54 includes roundtrip transportation, beer on the bus, and admission into Hoptoberfest. Bus trip ticket will be on sale at pizzaport.com Sunday, October 24, 2010 BeerTownAustin & Craft Austin Bike Pub Crawl: Austin, Texas We very seldom come across a beer event down in Texas. But, if we were to find one, we would guess it would be in Austin. Two great Austin beer groups are joining forces to put together one heck of a beer crawl by bike. So hop on your pedal machine and get moving. You do not want to miss this one: Join us Sunday, October 24th for the most epic of pub crawls. It will be a clash of the fanboy titans as BeerTownAustin and Craft Austin go head-to-head in gruesome bike-pub-crawling. There will be biking. There will be pub crawling. There may be copying/pasting. We will start the ride at Flying Saucer, hit up Draught House, then onto Billy’s on Burnet, with a swing through Thunder Bird, and end up at Black Star Co-op, with local beer specials along the way for everyone on the ride. Have anything else to announce? Feel free to post below in comments or contact us at [email protected]! Have good beer drinking!

Results 1 to 30 of 292 October 28th, 2006 #1 Chris Noeth's SKETCHBOOK - Update: JAN 20/2014 After being a Conceptart.org member for some time now and all the great inspiration I got from the incredible artists in this community so far I think it is time to start my own sketchbook. I will give my best to update on a regular basis... PS: Please check out my FREE digital comic MAYA (for iPads/iPhones and all Android devices) at www.mayacomic.com NEW STUFF AT THE END OF THE THREAD! Last edited by Chris Noeth; January 20th, 2014 at 04:19 AM. Reason: update Hide this ad by registering as a memberOctober 29th, 2006 #2 After some thumbnail 'problems' in my first post I moved the attached images to this second post hoping it works this time... So here are some steps on how I make most of my colored sketches: Here is the final image (step 9): October 29th, 2006 #3 This two images are from my concept art workshops in the German developer magazine GameStar/dev. I used 3D for the basic geometry. October 29th, 2006 #4Registered User - Join Date - Jun 2005 - Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts cool stuff, i really like the robot its very crisp October 29th, 2006 #5 October 30th, 2006 #6 "Stupid Heroes?"... begins here! wareagle: Thanks! It was an example on how to make a quick concept design without too much details. madplanet: Thank you! Maybe I will show some of my older stuff later down the road because I started this sketchbook to create new stuff and get motivated to draw more regular (beside work stuff). I also don't want to confuse people who know my other stuff by posting it here again... I think if I did they maybe will get a feeling like "Hey... this guy is posting his old stuff over and over... can't he draw something new?". I want to avoid this... But great you like all my stuff... Here is a new one. This is the first in a series, called "Stupid Heroes?" A BIG thank you to Dan Taylor for the right grammar! November 3rd, 2006 #7 My C.O.W. 66 entry... November 8th, 2006 #8 Alpha Bettie concept art and stuff... Attention: For all visitors who know the stuff in this post please read on with new posts when I have some. I will post new art with the next posts! I decided to post some of my older work from my comic project I started months ago. But I will not show old stuff from my website because I want this sketchbook to be a motivation to work on some more 'practice' stuff regularly and a place to go and see my new sketches and concept work. I am working on my first US comic project called "Alpha Bettie" written by IDW editor Dan Taylor. I had to take a break from working on sequentials and will start again soon working on the pages. There were different reasons for the break. The main reason is me and my wife got a little boy and the little buddy needs most of my time... not only because of changing diapers... hehe Some months ago I started with some quick concept stuff for the comic... some of it you can see here: First an alternate filthier version of the robotdesign from above: And here are some of the first character designs and sketches: Some fighter designs: A promo image from 2005 and the exhibition pieces with some making of images from the German comic convention 'Comic Salon Erlangen 2006'. In the last one you can see the first finished page from the sequentials: I hope you guys like the designs. November 8th, 2006 #9 chris- cool stuff, I like the alpha betty stuff a lot. November 9th, 2006 #10 Life on Mars... approved! Newbs: Great to hear you like it so far. Thank you! Watch out for the new Bettie stuff I will post soon. Here is an 'fan'image of a martian from Topps 'Mars Attacks'. I wanted to show some kind of fifties scene like from an old episode of 'Lassie' combined with the horror shown in the original card series 'Mars Attacks'. I love the idea of ultra violent trading cards for kids... hehe ... whoever was responsible for the original cards had a sense of good old morbid humor Prepare to get plasmarized!... November 14th, 2006 #11 I had too much other work the last days... but it was enough time for a Creature Of the Week quickie... And a new version with less saturation... Last edited by Chris Noeth; November 14th, 2006 at 02:24 PM. Reason: new image added... November 14th, 2006 #12 Some old sketch stuff... I wanted to upload some of my old space related sketch stuff for some time... so here it is... some more 'archive' stuff... Don't worry... I will not post older stuff as I said before this sketchbook is mainly for new work Last edited by Chris Noeth; November 14th, 2006 at 03:52 PM. November 14th, 2006 #13 November 15th, 2006 #14 November 15th, 2006 #15 Alpha Bettie sequential page 1 Dreamworker: Thanks for the nice words. It is great you like the stuff. Because I was asked for a big version of the Bettie Page (mhhh... this sound familiar... hehe )... here it is: More Bettie stuff will follow... November 16th, 2006 #16 This page is much pretty. I love the mixture ancient/futuristic of the starfighter. November 16th, 2006 #17 Kick ass work! I will have to pick up a copy of Alpha Betty when it comes out. I too hope to get into the comics field one day. The chick with the broken helmet is great, and I really like the Sky God a lot. The second post is quite helpful as well for someone learning to color in photoshop. November 19th, 2006 #18 Hey Chris, thanks for posting a boatload of your comic, I enjoyed seeing the designs, especially the corsair ones. Very cool. When i said before about posting some sketches like in your website, I didn't mean to post the old ones, just something along that line, like the pencil sketches, which I enjoy seeing. Hope that made sense. Congrats on the newborn. November 21st, 2006 #19 New C.O.W. entry... Dreamworker: Thank you. If you like the ancient futuristic designs you should check out the comic (when it is finished)... Discoskull: Thanks a lot. Great you like the stuff and want to buy Alpha Bettie. This is very motivating... hehe madplanet: Ah... now it makes sense ...thx. I will post some more pencil stuff as soon as I have some new. Right now I am working 100% digital. And a big thank you for the congrats! It is a great feeling to be a dad Here is my C.O.W. entry for this week... December 8th, 2006 #20Explorer's descendant - Join Date - Nov 2006 - Thanked 8 Times in 6 Posts They all have big... boobs. December 9th, 2006 #21 Dan Grr: Of course they have!... ... hehe. Thanks for your visit... maybe the girl in this post is more what you like!? December 13th, 2006 #22 thanks for dropping by my sketchbook - great work here, really like your comic panels - i'm jealous of your clean linework ! January 3rd, 2007 #23 Happy New Year!!! A Happy New Year to everyone here at conceptart.org! For me 2007 is a special year because I will finish my first US comic in february 07. I can't wait to hold the finished issue in my hands... mrdigs: No problem. Thank you for your kind words. My linework could be cleaner I think... but it is a matter of time which I don't have enough Here is a sketch of the HULK to start the new year with something BIG... (No color because of my other comic work!) January 18th, 2007 #24 Good this is a really nice. Do you make a comicbook? How to draw quikly. I draw slowly. Please help. This is a realy problem: January 18th, 2007 #25 Hi Chris, very nice updates. I like the Hulk with dog eheheh is so crazy! Happy new year to you January 19th, 2007 #26 Awesome! Just fricking awesome. Very nice concepts. I was rolling after looking that your Hulk sketch I like your style, I'll definitely be checking back! Feel free to checkout my work: Don't forget to visit the Critique Section!! * Help a CA artist! Visit the Constructive Critique section! * January 19th, 2007 #27 Cool sketchbook. I like how you have began pushing the perspective. Transition from Art Critic to Artiste - Diligence, that's all I need. January 19th, 2007 #28 Nice sketchbook. hmm... everything looks good so far. The only thing that bothers me a little on some of the images, I think the coloring and style of the heads dont match with the details of the body. Only on a couple of them though. I like the robots and ship designs. keep em coming. January 20th, 2007 #29 I said I'd stop by so here I am... Some nice stuff here, although I was expecting(hoping) to see 'reeal' sketchbook stuff...anatomy studies, still lifes etc...most of this stuff looks 'finished' to me. The head sketches: I'll not comment on your Wacom technique...cos I know fuck-all about that, but as for the basic drawing of the face I think you are maybe pushing 'cute' a little too far. As a result, you're slightly loosing the form of her nose..the tip (which I think is slightly too long even for this style) appears to be bending away from us, & the hole of her nostril appears to be placed more on the side of her nose rather than on the underside . Totally dig the stylised hair cut tho..even without seeing the rest of the figure this is obviously a sci-fi image. Supergirl: LOL..you're a bad man Chris! I think you need to adjust the perspective on her extended arm, it just looks too long, & if her arm was so extended, herher deltoid would be much closer to her head. Fun pic tho, I have a friend who is a Supergirl nut, I'd like to send them this if you don't mind. Alpha Bettie concept stuff: These are nice, even if I do find that all your female faces look too similar, & that padded black outfit is gonna be a bugger to draw panel after panel. The plane/fighter ship designs are awesome...I'm a sucker for this futuristic-retro stuff . The actual strip is good, the story telling is fine (although I'd like to see more) & you have achieved a good sense of scale. Mars Attacks: Awesome! lol Pink COW: Like it, of the two I prefere the saturated version Greyscale pieces: My favorite stuff on here, & more like the kind of stuff I was expecting. i think the 'TC' girl is your best female face, a nice balance between realism & comic-book cute. Star Trek: Judging by the girl, it's definately cold in space. Hulk: Aw, poor doggy! I can see what you're trying to do with the pumped up anatomy, but it's not quite coming off. You can't just take regular anatomy & make it bigger. For example, in really muscular specimins, the sheer mass of the pec's & delt's mask the form of the clavicle, making it all but hidden, & the 'bump' on the inner elbow caused by the humerous on a regular proportioned person is totally covered by mass of the forearm flexors on some one as massive as you have represented the HULK. On the whole, nice work Chris, I'll stop by again some time soon. The Following User Says Thank You to Staz Johnson For This Useful Post: January 20th, 2007 #30 I finished an image (see below) I did for my workshop series in the German game developer magazine 'GameStar/dev'. So if you live in Germany and want to know how the image was made go and buy the next issue of the mag in february... ...hehe. Thanks for your comments guys! Here is my feedback... legionare: Thx! Yes I'm working on my first US comic 'Alpha Bettie' right now. It isn't finished yet because I had to take some months off last year. I do it all in my spare time. I will finish it the next weeks. I'm working on the pencils of the last pages and have to finish inks and colors after that. To draw more quickly you should start sketching without concentrating on your linework. Take a look at other sketchbooks here at conceptart.org... there is so many good stuff out there you can learn from. I think I should post more sketches here (right Staz? ) Dreamworker: Thank you! darkchild: Thanks man! Great you like it so far and want to check by more often... NicoRaven: Thx! I like to play with perspective in 3D and I think I should play a little more in my 2D works too. This is only the beginning. kuroart: Thank you! You noticed what I prefere to draw ... I really should work on every part equally. I will work on it Staz: A big THANK YOU for stopping by. This is my chance to say it here in my sketchbook: "Your Civil War oneshot ruled man!". Thank you for all your comments and taking the time to analyse my work in detail. I totally appreciate it... and because from now on I will buy everything you work on... promise hehehe. Thx again man. Oh and Staz is totally right... my posted stuff is looking too finished. I think I should post more sketch stuff in the future. ... but first another 'finished' piece... I call it "Scientist In Love"... Last edited by Chris Noeth; January 20th, 2007 at 07:02 PM.

- Lawrence Reed faces murder charge in Marco McMillian's death - McMillian was found dead miles from his wrecked SUV, police say - Mississippi authorities say Reed was found in McMillian's SUV - McMillian had national recognition for his civic achievements Authorities in Mississippi are being tight-lipped about the death of a mayoral candidate and the arrest of a man found alone in the candidate's damaged SUV. On Thursday, the Coahoma County Sheriff's Office announced that a suspect, Lawrence Reed, faces a murder charge in the death of Marco McMillian. Reed, 22, was found in McMillian's wrecked SUV on Tuesday morning and was taken to a hospital. He is in good condition, the Sheriff's Office said Thursday. On Wednesday, authorities found McMillian's body near a levee between Sherard and Rena Lara, two unincorporated communities about 15 minutes away from Clarksdale in northwestern Mississippi's Delta region. Officials have yet to comment on why or how McMillian was killed. "It's too early in the investigation to know what the motive is," Sheriff's Office spokesman Will Rooker said of McMillian's death. McMillian's body was taken to the capital, Jackson, for an autopsy. Patricia McMillian said that even though media reports since her son's death have labeled him as openly gay, his death likely had nothing to do with his sexual orientation. She told CNN that her son had told only family and friends that he was gay. "He did not announce in public that he was gay," she said, adding, "I don't think he was attacked because he was gay." She said that she didn't know Reed. "We never heard of him," said Amos Unger, Marco McMillian's stepfather. McMillian's Facebook page shows a glimpse at a man who was politically ambitious. It includes a picture of McMillian posing with President Barack Obama. His campaign motto: "Moving Clarksdale forward." McMillian's short biography on Facebook said he had spent much of his career raising money for universities after he graduated from Jackson State with a degree in elementary education. He also received a master's in philanthropy and development from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. Condolences flooded the page, including one from a man who wrote that McMillian, 34, was one of Clarksdale's best leaders. "The shocking news of Marco's death is beyond difficult for us to process," his campaign team posted Thursday. "We remember Marco as a bold and passionate public servant, whose faith informed every aspect of his life." Bill Luckett, who like McMillian was running for mayor as a Democrat, said he thought the politician was "cordial and articulate." "It's a bizarre situation," Luckett said. "A sad story." McMillian picked up a host of awards in recent years. In 2009, he received the Thurgood Marshall Prestige Award from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. In 2004, Ebony magazine recognized him as one of the country's top leaders younger than 30. His fraternity, Phi Beta Sigma, released a lengthy note about McMillian's accomplishments Thursday. McMillian "made an incredible difference in his community" it read, adding that he was the executive director of the fraternity from 2007 to 2011. McMillian secured the first federal contract to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS among African-Americans for the fraternity and helped it form partnerships with organizations such as the U.S. Marine Corps and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in discussing the disease.