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Starting off right at brass tacks: this book is written terribly, and as a memoir it has little value It is good in its own way, though, as a look at therapy in progress.
The horrible facts are these: Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped from the street when she was eleven years old, stunned with a cattle prod and dragged into the van of convicted rapist Phillip Garrido and his enabling wife Nancy. Jaycee was kept in captivity for eighteen years, bearing two daughters during that time after repeated rapes. Initially confined to a single-room shack in Garrido's backyard, she was eventually permitted to move to a two-room building, and finally was permitted access to the backyard itself after six years. When more than a dozen years had passed and her young mind had been thoroughly warped by her captor - who had convinced her that he knew everything and had all the answers - she was even going on regular trips to the outside world. So crushed was her psyche, that even when Garrido was arrested after his parole officer noticed Dugard's daughters at the sex offender's house, she still told the lies she had been instructed to tell. Phillip Garrido took a fifth-grade girl and broke her, as fundamentally as a person can be broken. He defined for her a warped world.
Dugard's memoir is a present-tense recreation of her kidnapping and captivity, interspersed with regular moments of reflection on her experiences. It is disjointed and confused, and long sections are devoted to remembering various cats, present-day therapy with horses, and jumbled speculations about emotion. It is difficult to read, and I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been to write. It is this latter quality that gives it what worth it has - through the whole of the book, Dugard expresses herself with the muddled purity of true honesty. She has some bitterness for what happened, but some affection as well - unbelievable as it may seem, she speculates that she may have been better off never having had to experience the fear of a first day at high school.
Studded among her uncertain feelings are moments of therapeutic affirmation - these are the rare times when she expresses herself directly and confidently: I know this was wrong. I know this was taken from me. It is not hard to imagine Kaycee Dugard sitting in front of her computer, jaw tight and eyes red, and taking control of her past and her mind itself; setting straight the snarled skeins of affection and manipulation that linger from almost two decades of abuse with these direct statements of what she knows should feel true to her. Her process of recovery, faltering and ongoing, is present between the lines of her memoir.
Do not read this book for lurid details about her captivity, or why she didn't escape. There are some stories about such things, but they are unsettling and confused. Read it only if you want to see a mind during the slow and painful process of recovery, with all the muddling that brings.
My Horizontal Life, Chelsea Handler
I'm not going to say this is the worst book. I've read Tucker Max's books, so I know for a fact that's not true. This isn't even that bad of an effort by the famous Ms. Handler. It's not too badly written, its message is not too abhorrent, and the structure is sensible. Unfortunately, however, it is supposed to be a work of comedy. And it is surprisingly unfunny. Like the proverbial stopped clock, you would have expected it to stumble into a joke by sheer accident once or twice. Not so.
My Horizontal Life is a series of anecdotes by Handler about her various sexual experiences. Ostensibly she's speaking about one-night-stands, but numerically far more of her stories are about near-misses and relationships: the very attractive but stupid guy she dated, the period in which she only went out with black men, the guy she dated who had a very small penis, etc. There are scatological elements, but little gross-out humor; the funny parts are supposed to be the outrageousness of her behavior and her forthright pride in sexuality. In both ways, this book fails. It is astoundingly unfunny yet completely oblivious of its tedium, like the drunk girl at a party who wants to tell you this hilarious story about how her dog likes to sniff people's butts and she once pretended to be a dog and sniff a guy's butt at a party when she was wasted and he thought she was so weird and it was so embarrassing but you know she's just gotta be herself, am I right?
There is an undercurrent of pride in Handler's telling of how she goes up to the hottest guy in the bar and asks them out, or how she cleverly manages to avoid sex with a guy she has decided against sleeping with because he shaves his chest hair. It's a dog whistle to women's lib - she's being assertive and taking control of her sexual destiny. In that sense, it's sort of admirable, and it's certainly hard to criticize her for objectifying men in some instances - I guess some of that sort of medicine needs to be dished out. But aside from that single trait, mildly redemptive, and the overall serviceable writing, this book is a complete failure. It is a crashing disaster of unfunny that barely coaxed a smile. Avoid it like the plague.
The Year of Living Biblically, A.J. Jacobs
This book is for gawking. A.J. Jacobs knows this. It's a gimmicky book, an account of a year-long stunt where he followed all the Biblical rules (no shellfish, no touching a menstruating woman, etc.) No one will or should read it looking for serious analysis or spiritual insight. This book is a circus, not a synagogue.
That said, it's a moderately entertaining circus, and somewhat better than its boring predecessor, The Know-It-All, which was about a year spent reading the whole encyclopedia (reviewed here). Jacobs carries around a special stool so he's not in danger of sitting on an unclean seat that a woman might have touched, he grows an enormous beard and side-locks, and he even goes to Israel and herds some sheep. His insight is generally shallow, and he actually seems surprised when his year of immersion in the Bible yields some genuine religious feeling by its end, which is perhaps the equivalent of spending a year in a pool and being surprised that you learned to swim.
Also interesting are the commandments that he doesn't follow. He gets a pass on animal sacrifice, since it is generally believed that the destruction of the Temple let the Jews off the hook on that one (convenient!) but his attempt at "stoning a blasphemer" involved dropping a pebble on the man's foot. I'm not saying that he should have actually stoned someone, but it would have been better to simply make a rule that he wouldn't break any laws in his Biblical life, and then frankly acknowledge that no aspect of that barbarism was even desirable. Or to put it another way, he should have admitted that no one can literally obey the Bible without being a monster. Throughout the text, he avoids stating this simple truth, despite the lengths he has to go to pretend to have a "slave" (his intern). There is one near bit, though, in a discussion of how to reconcile the bloody wars of the Bible with modern ethics:
One of my spiritual advisers, Julie Galambush, a professor of religion at the College of William and Mary, explained this tactic to me: You simply act as if the Bible doesn't say what it says. There's a passage in Deuteronomy that says the Israelites should offer peace before attacking a city outside the land of Israel. If the city accepts, you take the residents as your slaves. If the city rejects your offer, you kill all the males and make everyone else slaves. For cities inside the land, you don't even offer peace. You just kill everyone: men, women, children, cattle--"save alive nothing that breathes." Pretty shocking stuff. But when talking about this in themidrash, the rabbis completely ignore the bloodletting. Instead, they focus on the part in which the Israelites offer peace. They say, See! The passage is all about compassion (I'm paraphrasing). "It's clear the rabbis have moral objections to this passage," professor Galambush says. "So they pretend it says something they do believe in--peace-- rather than something they object to. You can't underestimate the radicalness of the rabbis."Overall, the book is about as interesting as its gimmick. If the idea of a year of near-adhesion to the Bible's guidelines seems interesting, then this will interest you. If you roll your eyes and say, "That's stupid"... well, you won't find any surprises.
Maxims, François de La Rochefoucauld (trans. J.W. Bund)
There is a deception inherent in many proverbs, a sort of politician's trick: the writer lays out the climax of a thought or lesson, and we assume they arrived at this destination by our own path. The fourth maxim by Rochefoucauld in this 1678 book, for example, is this: "Self love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world."
To me, this is saying both that are high regard for ourselves inclines us to be more deceptive towards our real intentions and virtues than any other degree of deception we might credit; we are willing to believe the absolute best of ourselves on scanty or even contrary evidence, even if we treat other's identical assertions with a curled lip and skepticism. No man's deceit could ever equal our own deceit towards ourselves.
That's a hell of a lot packed into that little maxim! And what's even better, because I did much of the work of interpreting it, blazing out a trail towards the conclusion set afar, I am very pleased to regard it as genius. Not that Rochefoucauld is wrong or banal, but so much of the delight in maxims comes from a belief that the poet is in an illusory agreement birthed from our own effort. As the translator to this edition says, "truths expressed in condensed sentences must always have a peculiar charm."
As in all books of maxims, this one is filled with broad categorical claims and absolute statements, and constant parallelisms. If A is something to B, then B is probably the opposite something to C ("89. Everyone blames his memory, no one blames his judgment.") The central theme is that vice and virtue are always entwined - we are good only because of our evil. While this approach turns out some worthy thoughts, it often turns out the obvious ("103. Those who know their minds do not necessarily know their hearts."). And even worse, sometimes it verges into downright bitterness, declaring that, "113. There may be good but there are no pleasant marriages." - a sentiment that requires a great deal of work to assume any aspect of wisdom. And of course, there are notions that are simply wrong: "204. The coldness of women is a balance and burden they add to their beauty."
There are about five hundred maxims in this book. If we ignore the thirty or forty about women (invariably poor), we find that perhaps half of what remains is worthwhile. The rest is repetition or simply wrong. This is surprising - most revered books of proverbs are crammed full of wisdom. Not so with Rochefoucauld - it's a rarity.
There are some excellent sentiments to take away, though. Among them are these:
38. We promise according to our hopes, we perform according to our fears.Take these gleanings, and go read Voltaire instead.
134. We are never so ridiculous from the habits we have as from those we pretend to have.
197. There are men of whom we can never believe evil without having seen it. Yet there are very few in whom we should be surprised to see it.
216. Perfect valour is to do without witnesses what one would do before all the world.
245. There is great ability in knowing how to conceal one's ability.
269. No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.
320. To praise princes for virtues they do not possess is but to reproach them with impunity.
413. A man cannot please long who has only one kind of wit.
423. Few know how to be old.
90 Minutes in Heaven, Don Piper
This book was a major disappointment after Todd Burpo's Heaven Is for Real. Burpo's kid Colton had a near-death experience, and could describe how Jesus looked, could recite some theology about how you must accept Jesus as savior, and was able to witness everything that had happened on Earth while he was in Heaven. But Don Piper... well, it seems like Don Piper got completely screwed.
Only a handful of pages in this book are about his trip to Heaven, because he never got past the gate. He was in a terrible car accident that tore his limbs - ripping two of them off - but he had to sit outside their "pearlescent" beauty the entire hour-and-a-half he was "dead." His friends and family came out to speak with him (they looked like he remembered them, but perfected), he heard a chorus of beautiful music, and that's pretty much it. He never even got Moses' autograph.
The rest of the book - 95% of it - is devoted to his arduous physical therapy, and his therapy-related witnessing. To replace the large portions of his limbs that had been pulverized (they never even found the pieces of four inches of his femur) he had the Ilizarov procedure, which screws a metal frame into the broken parts of the bone and gradually extends them over the course of years. By his report and all other reports, it is shatteringly painful. Piper communicates his experiences adequately, if not well.
There are, of course, the usual philosophical problems that go unresolved.
"I'll tell you this," I said. "I know I had internal injuries, but somewhere between that bridge and this hospital I don't anymore." Tears ran down Dick's face, and he said, "I know. I wish I could pray like that all the time."Thank goodness Dick was in top praying form! If he hadn't been so good at praying that night, God would have let Don Piper die. Totally reasonable.
When the State of Texas was found at fault for the accident, the law limited their liability to $250,000. All the money went to hospital bills, and a quarter of a million dollars didn't make much of a dent.Thank the Republicans, Piper.
Anyway, Piper's actual Heavenly experience was so minimal, it's no wonder he wrote so much about his recovery and his ministering to others - otherwise he would have had a rather brief essay, rather than a rather brief memoir. But as a result, the book absolutely and unavoidably ends up being a disappointment. I can unhesitatingly recommend that you skip it.
Ficciones, Jorge Luis Borges
Goddamn. Read this.
Okay, wait, I better elaborate. I'll try to contain my elation - I haven't been so delighted with an author since Nabokov (and before that, Hemingway).
Borges writes short works that are a blend of short story and essay, swinging between narration and scholarly discussion of pure ideas. He was always brief, remarking in his prologue in Ficciones that the "composition of vast books is a laborious and impoverishing exercise. To go on for five hundred pages developing an idea whose perfect oral exposition is possible in a few minutes!" Thus this slender volume - with lengthy critical preface, still not topping 140 pages.
An Argentinian, he was very well-read, with a particular fascination with a few authors of unusually broad styles: Chesterton, Schopenhauer, Kafka. In no small part, he appears to have loved these authors because they wrote about the themes that interested him, rather than their particular genres or approaches. Borges was predominantly and above all interested in the infinite. He explored the infinite in the world, writing about a hidden order to a country that was so all-encompassing its very existence was in question. He wrote about the infinite in morality, positing a Judas whose sacrifice was beyond measure. He talked about the infinite in man, imagining a person whose identity extended beyond the bounds of reality.
I have tried not to spoil any of the stories in this book, many (most) of which hinge on a surprise conclusion or a hidden metaphor. Some of them, though, I can safely discuss without ruining too much. For example, his story "Pierre Menard, the Author of Don Quixote," is a scholarly discussion of a fictional writer, Pierre Menard, whose specialty was a sort of metacriticism that culminated with a complete "rewrite" of Cervantes that copied the epic word-for-word. The scholar discusses with awe Menard's lengthy efforts and his drafts (never shown to anyone and later burned) as he labored towards his rewrite, and praises the result. It was one thing for Cervantes to compose a lengthy tale with all the connotations and resonance of Don Quixote, says the scholar - easy enough for that writer to handle seventeenth-century Spanish and all its archaic phrases, when he was native to the tongue and born to it! But for Pierre Menard to turn out the same brilliant result... well, that was brilliance, says the scholar farcically. It is an absolutely brilliant and hilarious essay/story, and a great example of Borges' skill.
Read one story a day, and think about it. You will be rewarded beyond measure and fall in love. Go read this!
A Manual of Buddhism, Narada Maha Thera
I have read Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, a variety of other Buddhist texts (mostly Zen), and have spent the weekend in a Buddhist monastery. But it was good to really get at the nuts and bolts of Buddhism on a basic level, which I guess I've never done before.
There's a lot of wisdom in the old words, such as the Buddha's admonition to skepticism.
Do not accept anything on hearsay. Do not accept anything on mere tradition. Do not accept anything on account of rumors. Do not accept anything just because it accords with your scriptures. Do not accept anything by mere supposition. Do not accept anything by merely considering the reasons. Do not accept anything merely because it agrees with your preconceived notions. Do not accept anything merely because it seems acceptable. Do not accept anything because it is respected by us.
But there's also some ugliness like you find in any ancient book. The treatment of women, for example. The Venerable Narada Maha Thera, the Malaysian Buddhist who wrote/translated the Manual of Buddhism, makes sure to hedge the more outdated parts of doctrine. All modern theologians do. He says
The Buddha raised the status of women and brought them to a realization of their importance to society. He did not humiliate women, but only regarded them as weak by nature. He saw the innate good of both men and women and assigned to them their due place in His Teaching.This is (presumably) a defense of the Buddha's progressiveness: women aren't bad, just weak. That's why the first rule for the order of nuns instituted by the Buddha recognizes the inherent superiority of all male monks (Bhikkhu): "A nun, even of a hundred years' standing by Upasampada, should salute a Bhikkhu and rise before him, though he had received the Higher Ordination that very day."
Still, Buddhism's core beliefs are interesting and unobjectionable: life is suffering, suffering comes from desire, and you can eliminate that desire and suffering by following the Eightfold Path. The rules for life demand no stealing, no killing, no lying, and so on. The Buddha speaks out against slavery, class stratification, and other things. There are also psychic powers, magical karma reincarnation, and flying deities - but hey, nothing's perfect.
This text is a workhorse, carrying the reader by measured paces through the essentials. There's no eye to beauty or cleverness: it just get the job done. Check it out, if you're interested in Buddhism.
Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert
If you are going to read this book, be prepared to read a lot about what Elizabeth Gilbert is thinking and feeling. Unlike its predecessor, Eat, Pray, Love, there is no framework of travel or action - she barely goes anywhere or does anything in the whole of the book. It begins in media res (of course) but there's hardly any res to be in media: Gilbert's fiance is held up at immigration, they speak to the DHS officer who tells them they should get married if he wants to enter the country again, they travel to Southeast Asia for a while, and then they come back to the States and get married. That's the whole of what happens.
This scant series of events must bear the weight of a huge amount of neurotic contemplation (Gilbert had a bad first marriage) and contradictory family characterization (her father is both a chauvinist monster who forced her mother to give up her dreams, and a miserably henpecked victim whose life is dominated "95%). There are some amusing factoids and anecdotes scattered in but for pages and pages Gilbert is talking about her last marriage and worrying about whether she needs to have babies and worrying about whether marriage means her career might be over and so on. It is terrible.
Typically, it goes something like this (fabricated example):
Throughout history, women have always had to clean the floors. When Queen Victoria was married, she said this sort-of-relevant quote about floors: "Fuck do I hate cleaning this floor." The ancient people of the KlingWrap even have a custom about the household floor and women's role with it: on the bride's wedding day, they strap her to the floor and then they sing a long song about floors. But I found myself wondering if that was really a vital part of marriage: do women always have to clean the floor? Would I have to clean the floor? Would my darling Juan, the man who solved all of my problems in my previous book, make me clean the floor? I didn't want to clean the floor. I talked to my mother, and she said that she hated cleaning the floor. But she did it anyway. Because marriage isn't neat or simple, but it's complicated. In the end, though, Juan told me that he didn't care if I cleaned the floor, because he is so amazing and nontraditional and beats the shit out of your husband bitches!And that's pretty much how it goes. Skip it.


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1. Colostrum is the first breast milk in the production of the breast during pregnancy. The body of pregnant women begins to produce colostrum at 3-4 months of gestation. But generally, the mothers do not realize they produce it except when the milk is leaking a little towards the end of pregnancy.
2. Colostrum is also the first milk out since the mother gave birth to the baby age 4-7 days. Can be a clear liquid, can also be golden yellow thick. The amount of colostrum is a little (150-300 cc per day) but great inability. This special milk is low in fat but high in carbohydrates and protein.
3. The composition of colostrum differs from breastmilk coming out on the 4th day of the 7th day to the 10th day of birth (transitional breastmilk), and also different from the milk that comes out after the 14th day (mature milk). Breast milk contains at least 100 ingredients that are not present in cow's milk and can not be made in the laboratory.
4. Colostrum is rich in antibodies (body defense substances to fight foreign substances that enter the body) and immunoglobulin (immune substances to fight infectious diseases). Colostrum contains a large number of living cells, so colostrum can be considered the first natural vaccine that is 100% safe. Colostrum contains an antibody called secretory immunoglobulin A (SigA), which is a new substance for newborns.
When in the womb, the baby receives the benefit of another antibody called IgG, via the placenta. igG works through the baby's circulatory system. However, SigA directly protects infants in areas where germs and infections are frequent, ie the mucous membranes of the throat, lungs, and gastrointestinal tract.
5. Colostrum contains immune body 10-17 times more than milk cooked. Functions include protecting the baby from diarrhea. Infants who were not breastfed would be likely to die from diarrhea 14.2 times higher than breastfed babies. It also decreases the likelihood of a baby getting ear infections, cough, runny nose, and allergies.
6. Colostrum also contains leukocytes (white blood cells) in high quantities, which can destroy bacteria and viruses that cause disease
7. Colostrum contains higher minerals especially potassium, sodium, and chloride. All three play a role in intestinal peristaltic movement (movement encourages food) and maintain fluid balance of cells.
8. Colostrum contains more fat-soluble vitamins and contains substances that can block the digestive tract hydrolyzing (decomposing) proteins. So the anti-infective substance that generally consists of protein is not damaged.
9. Colostrum is very easy to digest and is the perfect first food for babies. Therefore in the first days, it is advisable to breastfeed at least 9-12 times a day, more often better. This is so that babies get all the benefits of colostrum and also stimulate milk production. Frequent feedings will also help prevent spit up.
10. Colostrum has a laxative effect (urus-urus, laxative) that helps the baby remove meconium, the feces of early black-colored birth, and remove excess bilirubin so that the baby does not experience jaundice yellow.
11. Colostrum is produced when the baby's body's defense is the lowest. So to say, there is no replacement colostrum. Breastfeeding a baby with colostrum will provide a small antibody that is priceless, which helps the baby fight the disease in the first month of life.
12. If from the beginning the baby is fed colostrum, the mother's breast will be stimulated to produce mature milk. The disease-fighting properties of breast milk do not diminish as colostrum tasks are completed. Because although breast milk is more dilute and antibody content decreases, the baby will balance it by sucking more milk.
12 the wonder of colostrum
1. Colostrum is the first breast milk in the production of the breast during pregnancy. The body of pregnant women begins to produce colostrum at 3-4 months of gestation. But generally, the mothers do not realize they produce it except when the milk is leaking a little towards the end of pregnancy.

subset: commoncrawl


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I guess he's going to choose to do it 'the hard way.'
So be it.
The evidence is rapidly accumulating that his large and complicated web is unraveling. Details of the Sandlin land deal have grown into a wide reaching investigation of alleged bribery, kickbacks and other schemes with Renzi running for Congress essentially out of the proceeds. The FBI raid last week resulted in the seizure of documents, presumably related to the ongoing investigation. And with Attorney General Gonzales in the crosshairs for the firing of U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton in what it is increasingly clear was an effort to sidetrack the Renzi investigation, don't expect that Congressman Renzi will get any more favors from the Justice Department-- Attorney General Gonzales is desperately trying to hold onto his own job, and the last thing he will do is stick his neck out again to save Rick Renzi's.
I'm not sure whether his leaving the committees will make much difference, because Rick Renzi has scores of absences from committee meetings and committee votes during the past four and a half years, so by resigning from the committees he was serving on he only makes official what was unofficial before-- that he's just not interested in the day to day work of House committees. However, as the only member of Congress without any committee assignments, I'm not sure what exactly Mr. Renzi is supposed to do. More to the point, as the print edition of the Arizona Republic pointed out this morning, his no longer serving on the committees will cause his source of donors to dry up.
Politically, it is hard to see how Renzi can survive this, even if he tries to stay in Congress. He does have broad support here, having crafted a coalition of Republicans and Native Americans (since he has spread a lot of Congressional money around on the reservations.) But while his support is broad, it is not deep. I've met Republicans (and occasionally others) who are willing to go the wall for, say, Jon Kyl or Jake Flake-- they just fundamentally believe in and support those candidates. I may disagree with their supporters, but in many cases they are voting for Jon Kyl or for Jake Flake very specifically because they like them. On the other hand, I've hardly ever met anyone who was excited about Rick Renzi. Republicans vote for him because he is a Republican, Native Americans vote for him because they expect Federal money back as a reward, but I don't ever think I've met anyone who was really jacked up about voting for (or working for) Rick Renzi. At events I've seen him or his representatives at like parades and fairs, the only people wearing 'Renzi' attire were his campaign staff-- mostly college age interns imported from someplace else (like Renzi himself is) and presumably expected to don his campaign wear. So what I'm saying is that if, say, Jon Kyl for example were involved in a similar scandal (not that I have any hint or reason to believe right now that he might be), he'd have some core level supporters who would stick with him no matter what. Renzi just doesn't have that depth of support.
Renzi refusing to resign also puts the GOP in a pickle. On the Democratic side, State legislator Ann Kirkpatrick, who represents the Navajo reservation in addition to Flagstaff and Sedona, had been considering running against Renzi even before this all broke. I'd say at this point it is highly likely that she will run, and if/when she does she will make a formidable candidate. On the Republican side, they have a tough situation. If Renzi left Congress soon enough then they could put together a challenge, possibly by former State Senate President Ken Bennett. But if he stays and fights, then do they run against him in the primary and risk weakening him further? If not, then might he end up being indicted a la Tom DeLay and Bob Ney and hand the seat to the Democrats anyway?
On the national level, he also puts the GOP in a jam. Last year when they lost soundly in November the two main issues according to exit polling were Iraq and the 'culture of corruption.' As I blogged on Wednesday, with the President failing to budge on getting us out of Iraq and finally beiong confronted on it by Congress, that issue will work to the advanted of Democrats in 2008. So now thanks to Rick Renzi, the corruption issue will now be front and center. In other words, the GOP will be heading into the 2008 election cycle without having gotten out from the wrong side of the two issues which worked so devastatingly agains them in 2006, and Rick Renzi fighting it out will be like Bob Ney and Tom DeLay trying to fight it out were in 2006-- the kind of slow drip story that will keep GOP corruption in the headlines (although after Renzi, ongoing investigations against Reps. John Doolittle, Tom Feeney and Gary Miller will keep the pipeline running.)
Labels: corruption, Rick Renzi


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Every Baby Boomer knows someone who is 50+ and who is single; either because they have never been married, they became a widow or they divorced.
A new website named Stitch helps create companionships for the Baby Boomers, because everyone regardless of age could use some companionship.
For more on Stitch click here for a short YouTube movie.
Books for Boomers: Reviews & Coaching Tips (FREE ebook edition)
Boomer Retirement Life Tips ($.99 ebook edition)


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131 Tasting Notes
I had not been in the local Teavana for more than a year, but saw their signage for their Heavenly Tea sale, and thought I would check them out. Most items of my taste were already gone, but the salesperson did a good sell on this Oolong, which was 75% off and did smell fantastic. I brewed up a gaiwan full when I arrived home, and am mighty glad for the purchase.
1st steep: 4 minutes at 200 F, yields a nice amber brew with nice aroma of roasted bamboo. Taste is really surprising. Honey and toasted almonds… a bit like the Honiglebkuchen cookies that I had as a child. Faint wisp of floral notes are there waaay in the background.
2nd steep: 3 minutes at 190 F. Stronger aroma, wonderful flavor. Less sweet, more toasty, and definitely a well defined oolong flavor. Quite surprised by the excellent quality, and beautiful color.
More steeps to follow, and can recommend picking this one up at this deeply discounted price.
After roasted oolong earlier in the day (2011 Golden Key Wuyi), I really wanted to spend a bit of time trying this lovely Autumn Tieguanyin brewed gong fu style. I loaded up my little glass 100 ml oolong pot, broke out my gong fu tea tray and ru kiln cup, and let myself really get absorbed in the flavors and aromas that emerged.
It is such a pleasure when a tea opens up to reveal it's true nature. Orchid, rock sugar, sweet grass, with spicy notes too — mmm. Enticing aroma that is both seductive and intriguing. I make it through three short steeps before I get a bit of the saffron flavor to emerge, then the hint of apricot and peach, and a wonderful tart edge. At 9 steeps, the flavors keep on coming. Grassy fields and dried flower tones emerge… as Spock says, "fascinating!"
This is my second session with Verdant Teas Hand Picked Tieguanyin, and I look forward to more in the near future. :)
It was a nice cool, crisp morning and I had a hankering for a nice roasted Oolong. This "Golden Key" has been a really wonderful friend, but I had not had any since Christmas… so I brewed up a nice large cup full before heading to work, and set aside a second steeping to have cold later on. I love the nice roasted aroma and flavor of fresh baked sugar cookies. When hot it is extremely satisfying, and cool it is quite refreshing. I may have to order more of this before all of the 2011 batch is gone. ;-)
What is it about this tea that is so addictive? I had to bump my rating up a few points, as I have turned to this buttery green tea once again, this time brewing it exactly as Den's recommends. 1st steep, 1 minute with boiling water (!!!), 2nd steep for 15 seconds with boiling water.
This is the only loose leaf green that actually tastes better when made with boiling water. Most are best at 180 F or below, but this tea is just so much more forgiving. As other have recommended, I have cold brewed this bancha, ice brewed it on one occasion and never had a bad cup of tea. Not terribly complex, but refreshing, bright and nice vegetal flavor. Thanks Den's Tea for offering such great Japanese teas!
So I finally ordered from Upton Tea Imports, mostly a batch of samples priced from $1 to $1.50. Their shipping is very inexpensive, and Alex Z at RateTea.net has given good marks for many of their teas. This one intrigued me, and is the first I tried.
The aroma of both the dry and wet leaves is amazingly more like a very green oolong. The flavor is also like a fall oolong, with hints of smoke, sweet grass, and a light fruity aftertaste. Yet this is a green, and carries a bit of astringency and freshness as well. A very pleasant tea, and one I look forward to spending more time sipping.
Thinking that it may be a while yet before post-holiday budget allows for discretionary tea funding (poverty builds character, yes?), but when it's available, an experimental order from Upton may be in order. They appear to be a good, solid bang-for-yer-buck supplier.
Once again started my day with this fascinating green tea. It brews so perfectly in my Koryo (Korean) celadon infuser cup, warming my hands and warming my soul. I went back to review my previous tasting notes on this one and it continues to amaze me that it fuses some of the best qualities of Dragonwell/Longjing with the Gyokuro and Laoshan green flavors and aromas. I had a second steep an hour after the first, putting me in a good mindset to make it through another day! :)
When this arrived in my December box o' teas from Verdant, I was really smiling. I love ginger, I love Thai food, and the blend of ingredients sounded just fantastic. I didn't have a chance to try it right away, but after a day of sniffles and sore throat thought this would be the "cat's whiskers." And it certainly was! Energizing, warm and cozy — and I haven't even had a chance to try it blended with tea.
A quick side note. Growing up in Miami, we had lots of ginger growing all around. It was brought from Asia to the Caribbean and is a mainstay in the cuisine and drinks. My friends from Jamaica and Trinidad always had homemade ginger beer and ginger ale. Galangal, which makes up a large portion of this blend, tastes similar to ginger, but has a more pronounced peppery flavor, and less of the ginger "heat" or "bite."
The fennel, saffron and burdock were ingredients I had never tried with ginger or galangal, and they add so much to the brew. In fact, they add an aroma that is not unlike Thai Pandan tea…hmmm, could this have influenced the naming of this blend?
This week I have had this blend hot, cold, and room temperature — mostly without sweetener, but once with just a little honey (yum). I have not found a way in which I did not enjoy it! In fact, I used a bit of the leftover tea to flavor some steamed rice and callaloo stew. I am sure it is going to pair nicely with black tea or pu'er too.
Every year I get a special gift around the holidays, passed on to me by a friend or family member, and best known as the common cold. Ugh! It messes with my ability to appreciate the taste and aroma of my beloved teas, and makes me quite grumpy. This year, I have found two teas that not only make me feel better, but woke up my taste buds again and make me feel alive again… Verdant teas Thai Ginger Fire, and this wonderful Laoshan Village Chai.
The base to this brew is a great tea in it's own right, and the pairing with these spices is truly artful. I have never heard of saffron or burdock in chai, and it gives extra special layers of flavor and aroma. I have been brewing this using an infuser in a glass tea mug, and didn't add anything the first time around. I kept inhaling the steam, and sipping the tea, and could feel the good energy seeping into my body. By the second steep, breathing easier and sore throat soothed, I added a touch of really dark local honey. Nice! :)
I will eventually try this with some soy or almond milk, but for now I am just absorbing the flavors and aroma — enjoying this fabulous blend.
I think you will love it! You might try the Verdant Thai Ginger Fire to mix with some of your pu'er and black teas… :)
Oh My… I've been spending the past hour brewing multiple infusions of a little sample bag that was included with my first order from Mandala Tea. It said simply, "Milk Oolong" so I really had no idea what joy was in store. I had not read anything about it, had simply eyed the nice dark green rolled leaves, smelled the aroma of sweet grass, and thought I would use my little 100 ml glass oolong pot to do a quick tasting.
1st steep: quick 5 second rinse of the leaves, followed by 205 F water for 25 seconds. Nice Green/Gold infusion. Aroma is pure melted butter, with just a hint of coconut. Wow! Not super sweet, but just a pleasing creamy feeling in my mouth. And an aftertaste of passion fruit?
Ok, I am fascinated. I go for a second steep, thinking this is just a really nice Taiwan style oolong.
2nd steep: 205 F for 40 seconds. Big change! The color is now pure gold, no green. Aroma: butter, coconut and a hint more of floral tones. The flavor is even more intense. There is still that buttery creaminess, but the coconut is even more prominent, and I definitely taste tropical fruits at the sides of my mouth.
I am so impressed, I go to Mandala tea's website to see what it is I am drinking. Sure enough, this is one great quality tea, and the flavor profiles match pretty close to what I was tasting. I start looking for the other flavors described in the next few steepings, and I have to say I am really pleased. This one is definitely going on my shopping list!
Oh this flavor must be natural. It comes from some very talented Tea Master that has paid attention to every step of growing and processing for maximum flavor. It is truly an art… :)
Hello friends! The tea is not scented nor is anything added. It is the certain temperature, altitude, soil conditions which yield this gem. From what I understand from my source for this, there is certainly skill in the processing which also helps :) When I sit with this tea, I typically start with 10 to 15 second steepings for the first 5 or 6 infusions and slowly increase from there.
Alex, thank you. I am so happy that you enjoyed this. It is certainly a hit with us and our customers/friends.


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1974 Pamplona (Navarra), Spain
Educational History
2006 - 2008 Grand Central Academy of Art, New York
1999 - 2004 National Academy of Design, Three Year Certificate Program, New York
1999 - 2004 Art Students League, Nueva York
1998 - 1999 Mikel Esparza's Studio, Pamplona (Spain)
1997 - 1998 Escuela de Anticuariado y Restauración (pintura y escultura), Pamplona (Spain)
1990 - 1994 Superior Technician Degree in Arts and Design, Pamplona (Spain)
Solo Exhibitions
2010 "Cultur 2010", Navarra's Government. Palacio Señorío de Bertiz, Navarra
2009 "Rhapsody". Galeria Ormolu, Pamplona, Spain
2007 "Visceral", Galeria Ormolu, Pamplona, Spain
1998 "Rural Architecture of the North of Spain", sepia washes Galería Lacava, Pamplona, Spain
Group shows and Selected exhibitions
2018 "Peers, Influences and Inspirations" The Bo Bartlett Center, Columbus, GA
2016 LA Art Show. Arcadia Contemporary Gallery
2015 "Works on Paper", Arcadia Contemporary, NYC
2015 "Nude", Eleventh Street Arts Gallery, Long Island City
2015 "The Still Life show", Eleventh Street Arts Gallery, Long Island City
2014 Ann Long Gallery, SC
2013 Museum MEAM. Figurativas VI. Selected paintings, Barcelona (Spain)
2012 "Converge", CPW gallery, NY
2012 Permanent Collection MEAM Museum, Barcelona
2012 Russian Academy of Arts and Zurab Tsereteli Art Gallery, Moscow
2010 Art Auction 2010Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama
2010 "The Human Figure", John Pence Gallery, San Francisco. CA
2009 Hudson River Revival: Contemporary Landscape Painting. Springville Museum. Utah
2009 Young Collector's Sale. Ann Long Gallery, Charleston, SA
2008 Jacob Collins and The Hudson River School of Landscape, Hunter, NY
2008 Art Renewal Center Scholarship Exhibition
2005 New York Times, Two painters one city with Jennifer Fairbanks. Galeria Ormolu, Pamplona
2005 "Brush with Greatness". Neo Studios. Graduated Students from Art Academies, New York
2004 Iberian Festival, Roger Smith Hotel, NY
2004 Three Year Certificate Exhibition, Museum of the National Academy of Design, NY
2004 "What's Around Us" Shepherd Art Gallery. Ellicott City, MD
2004 Selected works of the National Academy of Design, Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, NY
2003 National Academy Students, Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, NY
2002 National Arts Club, 26th Annual Student Exhibition, NY
2001 2000 Merit Awards of Art Student's League, Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York
2001 59th Audubon Annual Exhibition, Salmagundi Club
2007-8 Hudson River school for Landscape Painting Scholarship, Hunter, NY
2007 One Year Studio Space Scholarship, Navarra's Government, Spain
2003 Inga Denton Scholarship, National Academy of Design, NY
2002 Newington Cropsey Scholarship to study in Italy, National Academy of Design, NY
2001 National Serge Hollerbach Scholarship, National Academy of Design, NY
2001 Lorraine Grace Scholarship, National Academy of Design, NY
2000 Valerie Delacorte Scholarship, National Academy of Design, NY
2000 Merit scholarship, Art Students League, NY
1999 Evelyn Chard Kelley Memorial Scholarship for women painters under 30 years old, Pen and Brush, NY
2018 Second Prize, Drawing Category, Art Renewal Center, International 2017-2018 Salon
2015 Honorable Mention, Art Renewal Center, International 2014-2015 Salon
2013 Finalist at Fundación de las Artes y los Aristas. Barcelona
2012 Selected for the Russian Government and Kraft-Partlova Fundation for the project "Image of Rusia, Moscow"
2004 Three Years Certificate Travel Scholarship, National Academy of Design, NY
2003 Second prize in portrait, National Academy of Design, NY
2002 Distinction in figure, National Academy of Design, NY
2002 Richild Von Holtzbrink Award, National Arts Club, NY
2002 Honorable Mention, painting exhibition, Salmagundi Club, NY
2002 Anonymous Award, Salmagundi Club, NY
2001 Ralph Weiler, Mid Year Student prize, National Academy of Design, NY
2001 Honorable Mention, Watercolor Exhibition. Pen & Brush, NY
2001 Thomas E.Picard Award, oil painting, Salmagundi Club, NY
2001 Honorable Mention, Figure Composition, End Year Student Exhibition, NAD, NY
2001 Honorable Mention, sculpture exhibition, Salmagundi Club, NY
2001 Steven Leitner Award, National Arts Club, NY
2001 Allied Artists Award, Audubon Artists, Salmagundi Club, NY
2000 Merit Award, oil exhibition, Pen and Brush, NY
1999 Pauline Law Memorial Award, Pen and Brush, NY
Teaching experience
2016 Adjunct Professor of Anatomy and Drawing at The New York Academy of Art, NY
2015-Present Principal Instructor at The Florence Academy of Art US branch, NJ
2009 -14 Anatomy and drawing instructor at Escuela Superior de Dibujo Profesional (ESDIP),Madrid
2009-14 Drawing and painting classes private atelier, Madrid
2015 - 2016 The Da Vinci Initiative workshop hosted by The Florence Academy of Art US branch.
2012 - 2014 Painting and drawing workshops at The Art Students League of NY.
2012 Painting workshop, Janus Collaborative NY
2010 - 2014 Painting and Drawing Workshop, Museum of Navarra, Spain
2011 Portrait Painting Workshop, Círculo de Bellas Artes Madrid, Spain
2009 - 2012 Figure Drawing and Portratit ESDIP, Madrid. Spain
2009 Figure Painting Workshop, Civican Pamplona. Spain
Working experience
2008 Mural Painting Restoration at Hotel Atlantis The Palm, Dubai
2008 Albino Gonzalez's Mural painting for Atlantis The Palm, Dubai
2000 Illustration for the Catalog of Archaeology, Museum of Navarra, Spain
2017 "The Line" Productions, Episode 2
2017 "Pencil Art Workshop: Techniques, Ideas and Inspiration for Designing with Pencil", Matt Rota. Rockport Publishers, MA, page 64, 65, 138
2016 "Lessons in Classical Painting", Juliette Aristedes. Watson-Guptill Publications, NY, page, 63
2012 25 Artist of Tomorrow. American Artist's 75th Anniversary Special Issue
2012 "Lessons in Classical Drawing", Juliette Aristedes. Watson-Guptill Publications, NY, page, 56 and back cover
2011 American Painting Video Magazine, Featured Artist. Fall Issue


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No one was injured when fire destroyed a mobile home just north of Amarillo Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters said when they arrived about 3:35 p.m. flames were coming out the windows on the mobile home at 1303 C Nez Perce Trail. Potter County Fire-Rescue crews saved a neighboring mobile home, where heat from the blaze melted the vinyl blinds inside the windows.
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"When I saw it, I thought, 'Oh, my gosh,'" Maness said.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation Sunday.
- Staff writer Joe Gamm


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