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Six and counting.
That's where the growing field of candidates stands in the race for a new Lenawee County Sheriff.
Rural Clayton resident Cletus Smith, a veteran of the sheriff department, made his announcement last week on the Republic ticket.
Smith, a lieutenant with the department, is a 31-year veteran of law enforcement who worked in Hudson and Morenci before joining the Lenawee County Sheriff Department in 1980.
He served as a road patrol deputy and as a narcotics agent before his reassignment to the detective bureau. As lieutenant, he oversees the detective bureau, records and courthouse security, and is responsible for the budgets of those departments.
Smith aims to take an innovative and pro-active approach to running the sheriff's office while adhering to the budget.
"This sheriff's race is not about me, it's about the people of Lenawee County and their needs and concerns," he said.
Smith says that he has worked under two good sheriffs—Jack Germond and Larry Richardson—and he will take the best qualities of both men and combine that with his own values, integrity and leadership.
"Under my leadership, the sheriff's office will be pro-active in drug enforcement, investigations, traffic control, corrections, security and the safety and well-being of our citizens," Smith said.
He and his wife, Wilma, are the parents of four grown children. He is active in Kiwanis, Relay for Life and Meals on Wheels program.
Smith joins John Birdwell and Jack Welsh in the Republican field. On the Democratic field, Larry Weeks, Thomas Popejoy and Al Navarro will face each other in the Aug. 5 primary.


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The boy who played the role of a little Darth Vader in a Volkswagen Super Bowl ad is scheduled to undergo heart surgery Thursday in Los Angeles.
Max Page, 7, has already had six surgeries involving his heart. Thursday's procedure is needed to repair a hole in his heart and replace his pulmonary valve.
"The hardest thing as a dad is letting go of your son," his father, Buck Page, said. "We have to hand him off to the experts for surgery.
Local news from across Southern California
"But what we keep holding on to is the doctors have said is that Max has never known how good he can feel after this surgery. So this valve replacement is going to allow him to excel even more."
Max -- the mini-Vader in a 2011 ad for Volkswagen created by LA-based Deutsch Inc. -- was born with a congenital heart defect. The surgery will be performed at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, where Max serves as an ambassador working to raise funds for children with heart defects.
The family is encouraging donations to Children's Hospital, and they've created a fundraising Web page to facilitate that: www.chla.org/max.
The surgery is expected to last about four hours.
Max, a sports fan who won't go to bed until after watching ESPN's "Top 10 Plays" segment, will have to spend most of the summer around the house. That prospect didn't sit well when his parents broke the news.
"He looked around the house when we told him we were going to be here all summer. He said, 'This house is so boring,'" said mother Jennifer Page. "So we took out everything boring."
The garage is filled with paint and science experiments. It's called the "Explode Zone." There's a library room in which readers must use a flashlight.
"When you go up the stairs, you have to sign 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game,' said Jennifer Page. "We just want him to have fun where ever he turns."
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subset: commoncrawl


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Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter
To Get Revenge
With her shouting this, numerous hidden guards began swimming rapidly toward this person. Unfortunately, the distance was opened up much earlier. It seemed that there would be no chance of catching up to him.
The irritation that Feng Yu Heng had been bottling up the entire time was finally given a place to vent. She stared at the person that was swimming away, and it was as though her eyes could shoot fire and drip blood. She said to Xuan Tian Ming: "Support me well. Watch me shoot and leave that person alive but not truly alive, dead but not truly dead."
After she said this, she immediately reached into her sleeve. This time, she did not pull out a bag of oxygen. It was a fine bow and two arrows.
This bow was the one that she had used when demonstrating how to avoid a tracking arrow in the forest. Now, it was brought out but would not be used by Feng Yu Heng for a demonstration. Instead, it was for the sake of hurting someone.
She drew the bowstring and nocked both arrows before aiming at the person that was slowly getting away. With it raining heavily during this early-morning hour, there was a layer of fog on the surface of the river. In this sort of condition, it was truly too difficult to aim at someone that far away. Xuan Tian Ming naturally believed that if she shot these arrows, she would only have a 50 percent chance of striking true. But this was just hitting the target. For her to be able to choose where she wanted the arrow to land, that was definitely impossible.
But he also noticed something odd about Feng Yu Heng's bow. There was something extra that was added to the bow. It was cylindrical and was roughly one finger in length. On the two sides, there was something clear, and one side was not flat. It bulged very slightly. Feng Yu Heng placed her eye close to that thing and looked for a while. She suddenly drew the bow fully then loosed both arrows at the same time. Along the surface of this raging Peng River, the arrows created a path. The sharp arrows whistled as they moved forward. As they traveled forward, they began to arc in the direction of the escaping person.
That person partially turned his head and immediately saw the two sharp arrows. Just this glance caused him to break out into a cold sweat. Using the tracking arrow, she shot out two at once. To accomplish this, just how skilled was the person that did this!
But this person was quite resolute. Upon seeing the tracking arrows approach, he knew that continuing to escape would not be wise, thus he kicked against the water and came to a sudden stop.
Feng Yu Heng saw him stop and could not help but curl her lips into a sneer: "Sure enough, it's Qian Zhou's divine archery team, or perhaps that person is secretly related to that team. Otherwise, how could he know about the method for avoiding a tracking arrow so clearly." She fiercely stared forward with a look similar to that of a beast, revealing a look that even Xuan Tian Ming had never seen before.
"Do you believe that you can avoid it just because you stopped?" She sneered and raised her voice a little. After the hidden guards at her side heard this, they felt a cold sweat break out all over their bodies. "He's stopped moving, but the river is still moving. He does not know that my tracking arrow has a few added tricks. You want to hide? There's not a single person in the world capable!"
After saying this, the two arrows that had been shot arrived in front of that person. Although there was a fog hiding it, everyone was still able to see the horror on that person's face. He had already stopped, but the arrows did not stop ten steps away as he had expected. Instead, they continued to fly forward. Finally, both arrows pierced through both of that person's shoulders. If there was a person at his side, they would be able to see that both arrows had hit the same spot on opposite sides of the body. There was not an inch of deviation.
The person in the water had lost his ability to use of both of his arms. This was practically the same as announcing his death. Even if he could use both of his legs to ensure that he did not sink, and he could even continue swimming forward, his speed had dropped by too much. Moreover, the arrows that had pierced his shoulders had pierced more than halfway, nearly scaring him to death. He was completely unable to believe that such an arrow could be shot by a girl that looked to be so weak!
That's right, he had seen that it was Feng Yu Heng who shot the arrows. This person was thinking that if he could live to return to Qian Zhou, he would definitely need to report this news to the ruler. The legends of the imperial daughter Ji An's powers were simply rumors in the past. Now that he had personally witnessed them, they were truly shocking.
Unfortunately, before he could finish being shocked, a third tracking arrow was shot. This time, it flew straight for his chest. He could neither dodge nor stay still. In the past, he had been proud of his abilities and did not bother putting up any defenses against Feng Yu Heng. It was like a child showing off in the face of their instructor. Thinking about it, he felt that it was quite funny.
The sharp arrow pierced through his heart, but in this instant, what was pierced was not his heart. It was as Feng Yu Heng had said. He would not be alive, but he could not die.
The arrow had scraped by his heart and passed through his back. This arrow was two inches longer than the arrow that had pierced through old sixth's heart. He just felt his vision blur, and a dizziness washed over him. But he then felt his arms get grabbed on both sides. With this movement, the pain from his shoulders immediately woke him from his daze. That was how this person was. He was severely injured, but he was kept awake. Being dragged along by the two hidden guards, he was brought back to Feng Yu Heng and Xuan Tian Ming.
Xuan Tian Ming had been worrying about verifying the numbers. After this crisis on the river, there were at least 50 people that had died. His heart ached a great deal. Only after the person from Qian Zhou was brought forward did he found a place to vent his anger, just as Feng Yu Heng had.
He stared at the person and suddenly sneered: "These three arrows don't count. What remains, one arrow per person."
The person from Qian Zhou did not understand and put on a puzzled expression. Ban Zou snorted coldly and explained to him: "You sank the boat. However many people died, we will shoot that many arrows into you. Don't worry, before the last arrow is shot, you will not die."
At this time, Feng Yu Heng pulled out a needle from her space. Without a single word, she injected it into the person and said: "I know that people like you most likely have a poison hidden somewhere on your body, for example, your teeth."
As she spoke, that person was just about to bite down on the tooth that was filled with poison, but before he could break the tooth, he suddenly felt his mouth go slack. He was clearly just about to succeed in breaking the tooth. Once the poison took effect, he would immediately die. Unfortunately, Feng Yu Heng gave him this injection, and his mouth lost all ability to bite down. His tongue could move, but this was not enough to allow him to break it.
Feng Yu Heng said in an ice-cold voice: "Don't waste your energy. This imperial daughter will not let you die. You guys took my younger brother's finger. This imperial daughter will definitely cut off all ten fingers from every person in Qian Zhou. I'll just wait and see how you guys continue to shoot arrows! Without fingers to shoot arrows, what sort of reason would Qian Zhou keep you for?"
These frigid words accompanied by the surging river water and the heavy rains sounded like a voice from hell. It calmly announced the death of a person.
Feng Yu Heng sneered. Now was not the time to judge a person. The time and place were both wrong. She could not waste time here. She still had to go and save Zi Rui. Thus a devilish smile appeared on her face once more. Flicking her wrist, another needle appeared in her hand. This was a strong anesthetic. With the medicine being injected, that person fell unconscious immediately. She viciously grabbed him and tossed him into the space. When that person was tossed in, he bumped his head, and he reflexively let out a grunt; however, he remained unconscious.
Xuan Tian Ming held her and quietly said: "Let's go to shore first before thinking of what to do."
She nodded and turned her head to look. She saw Wang Chuan and another hidden guard coming back from the side of the river. The girl and Huang Quan were sent to shore first. At this time, they were coming back for them.
Everyone immediately began to move toward the shore, but when they were not too far, Wang Chuan suddenly let out an "eh" sound. Turning their heads, they faintly saw a dark shadow coming along the river in the fog. It moved very slowly. After a little longer, however, they could see that the river was being pushed by something.
At this time, the other people noticed these clues. They could not help but stop swimming and carefully observe. As the dark shadow continued to advance in their direction, the shadow in the fog began to become clearer. Xuan Tian Ming was the first to react, saying, "It's a boat."
Once this was said, Feng Yu Heng felt her heart begin to hurt. It was as though there was something tugging. It was very uncomfortable.
She held a hand to her chest. Leaning against Xuan Tian Ming's body, her breathing became a little erratic. Xuan Tian Ming anxiously asked: "What is it?"
She shook her head and curiously said: "I can't quite say. My heart hurts. It's as though that boat…" She pondered a little then suddenly felt a very strong consciousness appear from her mind. Following this, a sentence emerged from her mouth, "Zi Rui! If that is a boat, Zi Rui will definitely be on that boat!"
These words were completely unfounded. The boat that Zi Rui was on had set out two days earlier. Even if it had been delayed by strong winds, there was still a gap of one day. How could they meet up with it? But everyone was able to react. The shadow in the fog was going backward. Could it be… "That boat is coming back!" Xuan Tian Ming spoke resolutely: "The boat ahead is going back."
These words caused everyone to be surprised. It was not rare to see a boat return. After all, if it left, it had to return. It would not be rare for these boats to meet along the river. But Zi Rui's boat should not have reached Qing Zhou. How could it be returning?
While everyone was feeling puzzled, Ban Zou suddenly said: "I will go and take a look." He then dashed into the river. Not long later, a figure appeared 20 meters away. Immediately following this, he used his qinggong and rushed toward the boat.
Feng Yu Heng shouted from behind: "Ban Zou, be careful!" Her voice was mixed in with the sound of the rain, and nobody knew if Ban Zou could hear it.
Everyone was stunned and waiting in place. That boat continued to move backward. In these strong winds and heavy rain, the boat moved very carefully. After waiting for an unknown length of time, Ban Zou finally returned. Coming out of the water, his face was filled with joy. "The boat returned without reaching the other shore. I heard that they ran into strong winds and high waves. If they were to continue, they would just be going to their graves. In these sorts of helpless conditions, they could only turn back." Wiping away the water on his face, he said: "There was always someone keeping watch on the boat. If my guess is correct, it should be that group from Qian Zhou."
He spoke as if nothing was wrong, but Feng Yu Heng's eyes were sharp. She immediately saw the red in the river behind him. She could not help but feel shocked and say: "You got hurt?"
If she did not ask, perhaps things would have been better; however, with her asking, Ban Zou was like a ball that had been punctured. His head tilted back, and his eyes rolled back, as his body began to sink.
A hidden guard to the side quickly supported him and went to feel his before saying: "He was struck by an arrow." He then turned Ban Zou around to take a look. The arrow was in the middle-right of his back.
Perhaps it was because the arrow had to pass through water. Because of the high resistance underwater, the arrow did not pass through him completely, but Ban Zou endured and returned. With all of these movements, he had lost quite a bit of blood.
There was nothing that Feng Yu Heng could do. Since they were currently in the river, there was no way to treat his injuries. She could only place Ban Zou inside her space, pushing the danger further down the road to be taken care of at a later time.
The hidden guards watched once more as another living person disappeared before their eyes. Their imperial daughter was a deity! There were some that thought this way.
The boat ahead got a little closer. It was roughly 50 meters away.
Feng Yu Heng hugged Xuan Tian Ming's neck then coldly said to him: "Xuan Tian Ming, we've known each other for so long, but we've never truly worked together to fight someone. How about it, let's give it a try today?"
Xuan Tian Ming's eyes lit up. Feng Yu Heng's invitation was too enticing, especially since the enemy was Qian Zhou's divine archery team. He was unable to forget the time that they had ruined his legs. Today, he would have a chance to get revenge.
The two looked at each other then smiled. Under everyone's gaze, the two disappeared!


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This is a little tangential for the forum, perhaps, but a friend of mine (who is herself a big comic/animation fangirl) is getting married and is looking to have a custom cake topper sculpted (of two cats - I think it'd look great in an animation style, like little maquettes). I said I'd see what I could do to help her look.
So I wonder if any of you know of someone I could contact who might be able to do something like this.
It is, I should say, a paid gig.
If anyone's interested or knows someone, please PM me. Thanks!
Small-scale sculptor recommendations?
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Wood beads with small hole
These beads have a hole that is not bigger than 6,5 mm.
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Download Endless Love High QualityWatch Movie Endless Love Streaming In HD with duration 103 Min and released on 2014-02-14 and MPAA rating is 61.
Original Title : Endless Love
Movie title in your country : Endless Love
Year of movie : 2014
Genres of movie : Drama, Romance,
Status of movie : Released
Release date of movie : 2014-02-14
Companies of movie : Bluegrass Films, Fake Empire, Universal Pictures,
Countries of movie : United States of America,
Language of movie : English,
Durationof movie : 103 Min
Average vote of movie : 6.8
Youtube ID of movie : TRXGch6675Q
Translation of movie : EN,RU,IT,ES,DE,PL,CS,TR,PT,EL,FR,NL,ZH,HU,DA,SV,
Actors of movie :
- Alex Pettyfer ( David Axelrod )
- Gabriella Wilde ( Jade Butterfield )
- Robert Patrick ( Anne Butterfield )
- Rhys Wakefield ( Anne Butterfield )
- Emma Rigby ( Jenny )
- Joely Richardson ( Anne Butterfield )
- Bruce Greenwood ( Hugh Butterfield )
- Dayo Okeniyi ( Mace )
- Anna Enger ( Sabine )
- Fabianne Therese ( Checka )
Say Goodbye to Innocence
Endless Love Synopsis:
Play Streaming Endless Love When beautiful Jade (Gabriella Wilde) meets charismatic David (Alex Pettyfer), her sheltered world of privilege is turned upside down as the pair's instant desire sparks a reckless summer love affair. While Jade leaves behind her inhibitions and innocence as she falls for David, he works to prove himself worthy of her love. But when David's mysterious past and Jade's overprotective father threaten to tear them apart, their romance will be put to the ultimate test.
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Handlebar Tape
67 results
Beginner cyclists might not think about this, but handlebar tape does wear out with heavy use. Freshly wrapped tape will give a not-so-new-anymore bike a completely rejuvenated feel. Suddenly the grip and control you have over the handlebars will feel sturdy and steady, giving a new lease of life to your aging bike.
For seasoned cyclists who've been through countless rolls of handlebar tape, buying a new wrap is a ritual well-anticipated - the feel of the new grip reminding them why they love cycling so much.
A colour for every rider
Many cyclists go for black tape, as it matches everything and is subtle in its style and look, but many can go for all manners of crazy colours. From yellow to green and red to blue, at Probikekit we have every color you could imagine, just simply match it to your frame!
We stock the more traditional cork bar tape as well as new and advanced formulas, the one you choose is entirely up to you...


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Summer is here and I am back in America! As much as I love the energy and spirit of my country, I worry about the loose regulations around the production and use of chemicals. After ten days in NYC and exposure to non-filtered shower and bath water I could see the toll on my skin – it looked dry and lifeless. But quick re-vitalization is at hand with proper filtration systems and home-made hydrating face masks.
In a day and age where we can buy everything pre-packaged and where we rush from one activity and web page to another, it pays to slow down and consider that everything we need arrives ready to use in its natural unadulterated state. And these gifts of nature can be found in a grocery store and, hopefully, your kitchen.
The following are eight of the easiest and most refreshing facials masks that you can make at home. They will nourish and moisturize tired summer skin. Remember, sun, sunblock, salt water and chlorinated water can take a big toll on skin so be sure to re-ignite it.


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In January, Bill Gates made his last CES keynote speech, and ever since he stepped down from Microsoft to work full time at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, eyes have started to look for his replacement.
In his last keynote, Gates was helped out by Robbie Bach, the president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, and right then many predicted he would be the new face of Microsoft at the consumer technology tradeshow. Not so. It turns out that CEO Steve Ballmer will be taking Bill Gates' pre-CES keynote at the 2009 International CES, scheduled for January 8-11, and will be giving the speech for years to come. Sony's Sir Howard Stringer and Ford's Alan Mulally will also be giving keynote speeches.
Steve Ballmer will deliver his speech on January 7, 2009, at 6:30pm PST. Ballmer is known for his love for Microsoft, and has given very intense and exciting speeches at company events before. At the same time though, he's a businessman (he was hired by Gates as the company's first business manager in 1980) so it will be quite a challenge for him to talk about the future of technology beyond just what Microsoft has in store. Ballmer may be very passionate about Microsoft, but whether he can pull off the pre-CES keynote as well as Gates did for the last few years is a question that can't be so easily answered.
Further reading:
- CES: Press Release


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The difficulties we face in coming to understand the sonic relation and its relation, in turn, with the social relation more broadly are symptomatic, I suggest, of a crisis in the imagination of the common. The key to thinking the sonic/social relation is obscured precisely because it is interdicted by the forces that seek to hold us in thrall to the charm of property.[i] Without property, we have come to believe, we will be excluded from political representation, destined to dwell in the twilight of the amorphous proto-dēmos, without demand, without voice, without future. To answer the first question I raised above, then (how, that is do we constitute ourselves sonically?), it is in the process of attaching ourselves to an ideal scene of pastoral calm, the private imagined acoustically, that we think ourselves to be whole. It is not that we are all dreaming of a rural idyll, or seeking to live a life like Edward Carpenter's glorious peasant isolation, but, rather, that we have come to identify with a certain sonic scene in which we have full control over the boundary between the inside and the outside. In what John Picker has termed the 'soundproof study', in a model, that is, of a certain imagination of social autonomy, subjects have come to think themselves as authors of their own soundscapes. Noise has become, quite simply, the name we give to the failure of that authorial control.
Yet there have been, as we have seen, some striking moments at which the desire for quiet and the private has been put aside for a desire for the communion of political activism. When the dēmos spills out into the streets and demands to be heard, and citizens leave their purportedly 'silent' bubbles and are absorbed into the throng, then glimpses are briefly afforded of some of the ways in which the demand for representation is made. In Madrid, that moment was constituted around the notion that the 'we' of the dēmos had been excluded from representation: the 'they' of a patrician elite not unlike the nomenklatura of the Soviet Union had deliberately sought to foreclose the representational matrix around a simple political equation (i.e. 'Basque separatists are the enemy' and 'we have not endangered Spain by joining the Iraq war') such that the 'we' of the dēmos is held in a state of hysterical exclusion.
'Why won't they be silent', Nicolae Ceauşescu once asked his assistant, as he stood, on 21 December 1989, on the balcony of the headquarters of the Rumanian Communist Party in the Piaţa Palatului in Bucharest, trying to address the crowds that had gathered there in protest at the government's actions in the Timişoara uprising. His failure to silence them, the puzzled and frightened expression on his face, the roar of boos, hisses, jeers and jibes, all this signalled the breaking of the channel and the forging of a new political matrix in which the demand of the dēmos to be heard had become deafening. In the light of the structural exclusion of both the Spanish and the Rumanian majority, a certain jouissance, or enjoyment attaches to the solemn coming together, at Cibeles, at the Piaţa Palatului, or at almost any place you care to mention, in the shiver of communion, and participation. That coming together, moreover, has a very particular sonic character, as an investment in unisonality, the speaking of many as one.
So what, then, to reiterate my second question above, are the processes by which we seek out and pleasure in this unisonality? Psychoanalysis has its own kind of answer to this question: we seek out this unisonality, it says, for gratification, for the need of contact, for the will to cohere, share, be a part of a movement that nourishes. And it does seem right to me that we seek it out because we are hopeless romantics, wilful idealists. The social is always an act of faith, a giving of oneself to the dangers of misunderstanding, offence, contagion. We seek out unisonality precisely, I suggest, because it seems to offer a raw and automatic communion, an alignment without introduction, intercourse without seduction, and it places us in the comfortable place of the passive who takes what is given, not having to steer, but being steered, not having to think but being thought. In becoming the object of political action, the thing in the mix, we can still the inner cacophony of the soundproof study and listen to the needs of others. We seek out unisonality because it seeks us. It wants us for a host.
This sonic alignment, this taking up a newly aligned sonic relation with others, engages what Gustav le Bon termed a psychologie des foules, a psychology of crowds. The crowd, for le Bon, is a site of madness, contagion, idiocy.[ii] Yet it is precisely these kinds of 'idiocy' or contagion that constitute the critical moment at which the dēmos is constituted. The roar of the crowd, the flatline lo-fi hum of communion, the to-and-fro of shouts, chants, demands – this is the noise that demands; it is a noise excluded from the patrician signals of political work; it is the parasite that builds in the channel until that channel is saturated and breached. The sentimental materialism of noise cannot help us here: this is no simple material as such, no special sonic domain all of its own, no island of sounds written out of political discourse. Noise is here the sound of new signals being sent, new channels being opened, new demands of the political matrix being made. Noise is nothing more (and nothing less) than the call for a new relation.
As Žižek puts it, 'Politics proper … always involves a kind of short-circuit between the Universal and the Particular',[iii] or, to put it another way, the political is that space in which the demand enacts a kind of denaturalisation or estrangement of the status quo such that exclusion from that order becomes sufficiently audible as to demand that someone, or some group be granted entry. Knock knock knock. Let us in.
[i] It is no coincidence that the recent financial crisis began in the Anglophone property sector, with an overheating of unregulated speculation on subprime mortgages. It is as if property had come to constitute in itself the ground for a certain kind of citizenship, to which all others inspire, and against which all other forms of citizenship are found wanting. To be a member of what Margaret Thatcher called the 'property owning democracy' (a fundamental oxymoron, of course), had become not simply a way (as had been the case in earlier decades) of becoming a member of the middle classes (meant here in the British sense), but of becoming socially agentive. Property came to equal representation as such.
[ii] '… the individual forming part of a crowd acquires, solely from numerical considerations, a sentiment of invincible power which allows him to yield to instincts which, had he been alone, he would perforce have kept under restraint.' Gustav le Bon, Psychologie des foules (Paris: Félix Alcan [1895] 1907), 17.
[iii] Žižek, 'Lesson', 70.


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I highly recommend DVD if you can get it, the slo-mo capability is worth it.
This release has a lot of very useful information, especially in a bare-knuckle context. Vladimir shows some of the tactics he uses for handstrikes, and how to turn your body into a conduit for kinetic energy. The work ..read more >>


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Easy Scientific Notation In LaTeX
filed in LaTeX, Math, Physics on Mar.02, 2007
I use LaTeX for all my physics homework and lab reports, and I'll be using it for a master's thesis in the next few years, so I'm constantly adding to my library of LaTeX commands to save some typing. Here's a good one when you need to use scientific or engineering notation. Put the following in the document preamble (before \begin{document}):
\providecommand{\e}[1]{\ensuremath{\times 10^{#1}}}
Then, typing
The [111] crystal planes are 3.2\e{-10} m apart.
gives you: The [111] crystal planes are 3.2×10-10 m apart. whether or not you're already in a math environment. If the exponent is just one number, you can omit the braces, like this: 3\e8 m/s. Cool, huh?
(Of course, for 10-10 m you can just use Angstroms, \AA. If you're in a math environment, use \text{\AA}, or else the circle won't line up with the A. That is, if you're okay with non-SI units.)


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S&P 500 lists the 500 largest companies in America by Market Capitalization. In this article, I will look at five companies that are all leaders within their industries. They are facing tough headwinds like a still lagging housing market and stiff competition. Yet, their strong performance is being driven by several positive catalysts including highly diversified product offerings and innovation in web based presence. Also, shares of these companies are selling at attractive price levels right now. Based on my analysis below, these companies could potentially bring stability and secure long term prospects to your portfolio. Here is what I found:
Goodrich Corporation (GR)
After close to 10 decades of transformation and dabbling in many industries from radios to tires, GR finally found its feet in the Aerospace and industrial components industry. Pursuant to its divestment from specialist chemicals industry; and strategic acquisitions culminating in the adoption of its current name, GR has become the worlds largest supplier of parts and components therein. Future prospects look bright in light of its relationships with some of the biggest buyers including the US Military, Polish Government and Boeing as evidenced by its receipt of the Boeing Performance Excellence Award, Fly Dubai Recognition of Excellence on its DURACARB carbon brakes among other accolades.
Boeing is set to continue dominating the commercial aircraft market due to its fuel efficiency, in this era where there is continued upward pressure on fuel prices. This will support demand for GRs products by Boeing. GR is currently trading around $126. This compares favorably with the offer from Unitech Technologies Corporation (UTX) to buy the company at $127.50. However, there has been a significant reduction in the premium at the announcement of the said deal (40% in September 2011). Going forward, there will be minimal growth in demand for commercial aircraft, (commercial aircraft business drives 70% demand for GR), this year due to increased fuel prices and concerns about the global recession. In that light, I recommend GR as a HOLD, with strong long-term prospects.
Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD)
Home depot Inc. is the worlds largest supplier of Home improvement goods and services, and Americas fourth largest retailer. The global recession of 2008 and its adverse effects on the housing market dealt a heavy blow on the company. However, the company has since been on a recovery path, growing revenue at 2.5% per annum to date.
HDI is expected to release its results next week. Expectations are high that reported earnings will be 14% higher, year on year. Of concern is the relatively high debt: equity ratio (51.61%). The company is trading around $45, (PE 14%). This is a bit steep, considering that its closest rival Lowes (NYSE: LOW) is trading at a PE of around 12%.
Buoying future prospects are the companys efforts to be at the cutting edge of innovation. Recent developments include the arrangements to run trials with Paypal as well as significant presence online. However, until and unless the housing market fully recovers, this industry and HDI will continue to be dragged by low demand for new houses and renovations as there is a glut of houses on the market. There is safety in the size of the business and I recommend the stock as a strong HOLD.
D R Horton Inc (NYSE:DHI)
D R Horton Inc. is Americas biggest home builder in terms of volumes of houses. The company, like any other construction industry player, is still reeling from the sub-prime crisis triggered housing market crash.
The companys sheer size and order book puts it ahead of competitors who happen to be mainly small localized players. The company can leverage on its size to reduce costs of construction and selling prices. The inclusion of a financial services boutique in its stable adds value to the company as a home-solutions provider; so does its geographical spread, with operations in 27 states. The major threats to its future remain the credit market and general economic health. Interest rates have eased off but there is still a lot of upward pressure and defaults. High interest rates and low employment will remain serious challenges in this industry in the short to medium term. I cannot be overly bullish on this stock. It is a HOLD.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Ever since it overtook yahoo in January 2009 as the leading online search engine, google has not looked back. The company has gone on to diversify its product portfolio to include email services (gmail), instant chat (google chat), smart phone applications (android) among others.
A deliberate focus on product development as evidenced by an allocation of a significant 9% of total expenditure to this area in sharp contrast to yahoos focus on sales has kept google a step ahead. The company has managed to diversify its product mix, and income streams. Paid for advertising online has been identified as a growth area and google is focusing on that. With this form of advertising taking up less than 10% of total advertising expenditure by US businesses, there is still a lot of growth to be tapped in this market.
Major threats come from social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and MS Bing. However, none of the companies is diversified enough to effectively compete with Google. The stock is currently trading around $610. It is a well diversified stock, driven by innovation and growing demand for internet services. I recommend Google as a BUY.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS)
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is a US bank holding company. The company has a reputation for consistently performing above market and industry standards. The financial market crisis of 2008 did not leave it untainted though.
The resultant regulation is going to deal a major blow to the company. Of notable concern is the new restriction of proprietary trading in cases where there is material exposure toto high risk assets, conflict of interest, or high risk trading strategies. It remains to be seen how this legislation will be interpreted and implemented but it could significantly curtail the companys room to profit from proprietary trading. Further, it is planned to limit banks exposure to hedge funds; GS is heavily invested therein. The group remains fundamentally strong but the hanging legislative contingencies call for caution. I recommend the stock as a HOLD.
About the author:
I practice Judaism and my faith is very important to me. I visit family in Israel once a year, but I am educated and work in the United States where I hold an MBA and a bachelor's in English. I am a patient man, enjoy wine but am not a connoisseur, and I listen more than I speak.


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Cauliflower cheese & bacon quiche
A lovely combination of cauliflower cheese and quiche Lorraine - make sure you pick the freshest cauli around
Nutrition and extra info
- Freezable
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal752
- fat60g
- saturates35g
- carbs33g
- sugars0g
- fibre3g
- protein22g
- salt1.23g
For the pastry
- 225g plain flour, plus extra for rolling out
- 140g cold unsalted butter, roughly cubed
- 1 large egg yolk
The ultimate convenience food, eggs are powerhouses of nutrition packed with protein and a…
- 2-3 tbsp ice-cold water
For the filling
- 1 small cauliflower, broken into smallish florets
A brassica, like cabbage and broccoli, cauliflower is a mass of tiny, tightly packed flower…
- 100g thick-cut unsmoked streaky bacon, roughly chopped
- 3 large free-range eggs
The ultimate convenience food, eggs are powerhouses of nutrition packed with protein and a…
- 284ml carton double cream
- 175g/6oz cheese, finely grated (combine two or three of the following: parmesan, cheddar and gruyère or emmental)
- 2 tbsp snipped chives
- good grating of nutmeg
One of the most useful of spices for both sweet and savoury…
To make the pastry, briefly whizz the flour with a pinch of salt in a food processor, then add the butter and whizz until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Whisk the egg yolk with 2 tbsp water and pour in. Process until the pastry forms a ball round the spindle, add a 1⁄2-1 tbsp water if necessary. Pat into a thick disc, wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes or up to 48 hours.
Return the pastry to a cool room temperature. Roll out as thinly as you can and line a 4cm deep, 23cm round tart tin with a removable base. Tuck pastry into the corners, without stretching it, and trim off the overhang (watch our video which shows how to do this neatly). Chill for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to fan 170C/conventional 190C/gas 5. Line the pastry with foil (no need to prick pastry), weigh it down with ceramic or dried beans, then bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove foil and beans, and cook for another 5-7 minutes until the pastry has lost all rawness but is still pale golden.
Meanwhile, bring a saucepan of salted water to boil, add the cauliflower and cook for 5 minutes, timed from when the water's back to the boil. Drain well and leave to cool.
Spread out the bacon in a cold non-stick frying pan and cook over a low-medium heat for 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the fat runs and the bacon's coloured but not crisp. Leave to cool.
Combine eggs, cream, all the cheese, chives and nutmeg with black pepper and a little salt. Stir in the cauliflower and bacon, then pour the mixture into the case. Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and the filling is set but just trembles. Leave for 30 minutes, as quiche is at its best served warm.


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King's Restaurant
Dine like a King
The brand-new and extended free buffet is already a treat but wait until you have tried the à-la-carte restaurant at King's Rozvadov and you will feel like a king. For moderate prices, you can eat like the rich and beautiful high rollers. Let our experienced chefs/wizards, surprise you with tasty and refined dishes all year long.
Steak are the number one request by our guests but if you are willing to trust our chef, your meal will become more of a culinary adventure than just eating. Recent gastronomy trends tend to create individual meals depending on the customer's needs and requests. This has been the case for a long time already at King's and it has proven to be very successful and appreciated by our regular and occasional visitors.
Basically, you mention what you like or dislike mentioning a couple of key ingredients and you let the magic operate in the kitchen waiting for your individualised menu. Fish, meat, vegetarian, soups, starters, desserts - there is the right menu at King's for everybody.
For those who think that they will not be able to afford such a service, King's is proving you wrong every day. Of course quality has its price but it does not have to be painful. For €20-25 per hungry person, you can enjoy a multiple-course meal for a pleasant moment at another table than a gambling table for change.
For reservations please contact our hotline:
+420 374 616 050
The King's Restaurant Team is looking forward to your visit!


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Earth Day Diet
For more than 40 years, Americans have celebrated Earth Day on April 22nd in efforts to promote a cleaner, more healthful environment for current and future generations. The Campaign for Earth Day 2011 – A Billion Acts of Green®: Personal, organizational and corporate pledges to live and act sustainably.
Locally let's do our part and try a few acts ourselves.
Eat locally. Buying foods grown close to home reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Shop at your local farmers market, road side stands on your way home or grocery stores that support and offer locally grown produce.
Eat fewer processed foods. Buy fresh ingredients and cook from scratch. It uses less packaging to reduce land fill space. Also, less pollution and energy to process and transport the process foods.
Eat organic. Select USDA certified organic foods to reduce pollution in the air, soil and water by reduced use of pesticides.
Check out Earth Day's website and make your pledge.


text: I am Tehol Beddict! And I see a whole army of my fantasy men/women, here in defiance of less knowledgeable and dreadfully boring fantasy websites! Read these other sites and you may win. Run to them and you may stay afloat, at least for a while. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here as young men and tell these underachieving fantasy advice sites that they can take your wives but they will never take your loyalty from Razzball and the Freeeeeeeedom it gives you from never having to go to any other site for sound information. You've bled with Grey and Rudy! Now bleed with me!Please, blog, may I have some more?


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Hear Sublimation Paper QTP039
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Item Number: QTP039 The advantages of sublimation transfer are subtly bright and rich, and the effect can be compared with printing. Sublimation transfer is to make the thermal transfer ink sublimate into the object at high temperature, and the color is bright after condensation. Image. The inkjet paper for thermal sublimation transfer has no film on the surface of the substrate, so the feel and visual effect of the pattern are far superior to those of the ordinary ink plus transfer paper, which is colorful, non-fading, non-cracking, The advantages of good ventilation make the world of thermal transfer products prevail. The photo banners, street lamps, ribbons, handbags, bags, posters, paintings, double-sided flags, clothing, ceramic tiles, glass, etc., which are produced by the sublimation transfer process are competing. Stand out in the fierce market. Application: ESPON, Mimaki, Roland, MUTOH.....
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This paper is the most suitable paper to prevent so called "ghosting effect" which happens mostly by the unstable coupling between the fabric and the sublimation paper when the ink is evaporated during the heat pressing. It's preferably used to produce high quality sublimation works, especially sportwears, swiming suits...etc


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Malaysia Conducts Autopsy To Find Cause Of Death Of UK Teen
SEREMBAN, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian doctors conducted a lengthy autopsy Wednesday to determine the cause of death of a 15-year-old London teen whose naked body was found nine days after she mysteriously disappeared from a nature resort.
Nora Anne Quoirin's body was discovered Tuesday beside a small stream about 2.5 kilometers (1.6 miles) from the Dusun eco-resort in southern Negeri Sembilan state, where she went missing on Aug. 4. The body was airlifted to a hospital, where she was identified by her parents.
Negeri Sembilan deputy police chief Che Zakaria Othman told reporters at the hospital morgue that the post-mortem was still continuing late Wednesday, more than eight hours after it began. He said it was conducted by a medical team including a senior pathologist from Kuala Lumpur, and that he couldn't say how long it would take.
Police hope to release details of the autopsy on Thursday, he added.
Local media reported that a forensic team also went back to the area where the body was found to search for evidence. Police didn't say how long the body had been there or why rescuers apparently missed it earlier in the search operation.
Her family earlier Wednesday thanked the more than 350 people who helped search for the girl, who has learning and physical disabilities.
"Nóra is at the heart of our family. She is the truest, most precious girl and we love her infinitely. The cruelty of her being taken away is unbearable. Our hearts are broken," the family said in a brief statement issued by the Lucie Blackman Trust, a charity that helps families of Britons in crisis overseas.
"We will always love our Nóra," they said.
Police from Ireland, France and the U.K. are in Malaysia to assist in the investigation. The girl's mother is from Ireland and her father is French, but the family has lived in London for 20 years.
Malaysia's queen joined Cabinet ministers and foreign leaders in sending condolences to the Quoirin family.
"May God give you the strength in your hour of need," Queen Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah tweeted.
French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Secretary of State Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said they were grateful for the solidarity shown by the Malaysian people. "French authorities are at the disposal of Malaysian authorities so that full light is shed on the circumstances of her death," they said in a statement.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the family has "experienced every family's worst nightmare."
"I'd like to pay tribute to everyone who searched for Nora. May she rest in peace," he tweeted.
The Paris prosecutor's office said Wednesday that it has opened a preliminary investigation into the girl's death, on potential charges of kidnapping and sequestration. The prosecutor's office wouldn't elaborate. French authorities often open such investigations when French citizens are victims or otherwise involved in suspected crimes abroad.
Quoirin's family arrived Aug. 3 for a two-week stay at the Dusun, a small resort located in a durian orchard next to a forest reserve 63 kilometers (39 miles) south of Kuala Lumpur.
Police believe the teen climbed out through a window in the living room of the family's resort cottage. They listed her as a missing person but said the investigation included possible criminal aspects. The girl's family has said she isn't independent and wouldn't wander off alone, and was likely to have been abducted.
Sankara Nair, a Malaysian lawyer hired by the family, said Wednesday that the family hopes police will investigate possible foul play in her death. If the autopsy isn't conclusive, he said the government could hold an inquest later on to identify the cause of death.


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The nuances that deserve attention when visiting the site:
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Visitors to the site can advertise for free.
You can start using the resource right now! Through Narmala.ru you will quickly acquire, sell or rent real estate.


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In its upper stories, the Flex bathhouse in Cleveland feels like a squash club for backslapping businessmen. There's a large gym with free weights and exercise machines on the third floor. In the common area, on the main floor, men in towels lounge on couches and watch CNN on big-screen TV's.
In the basement, the mood is different: the TV's are tuned to porn, and the dimly lighted hallways buzz with sexual energy. A naked black man reclines on a sling in a room called ''the dungeon play area.'' Along a hallway lined with lockers, black men eye each other as they walk by in towels. In small rooms nearby, some men are having sex. Others are napping.
There are two bathhouses in Cleveland. On the city's predominantly white West Side, Club Cleveland -- which opened in 1965 and recently settled into a modern 15,000-square-foot space -- attracts many white and openly gay men. Flex is on the East Side, and it serves a mostly black and Hispanic clientele, many of whom don't consider themselves gay. (Flex recently shut its doors temporarily while it relocates.)
I go to Flex one night to meet Ricardo Wallace, an African-American outreach worker for the AIDS Task Force of Cleveland who comes here twice a month to test men for H.I.V. I eventually find him sitting alone on a twin-size bed in a small room on the main floor. Next to him on the bed are a dozen unopened condoms and several oral H.I.V.-testing kits.
Twenty years ago, Wallace came here for fun. He was 22 then, and AIDS seemed to kill only gay white men in San Francisco and New York. Wallace and the other black men who frequented Flex in the early 80's worried just about being spotted walking in the front door.
Today, while there are black men who are openly gay, it seems that the majority of those having sex with men still lead secret lives, products of a black culture that deems masculinity and fatherhood as a black man's primary responsibility -- and homosexuality as a white man's perversion. And while Flex now offers baskets of condoms and lubricant, Wallace says that many of the club's patrons still don't use them.
Wallace ticks off the grim statistics: blacks make up only 12 percent of the population in America, but they account for half of all new reported H.I.V. infections. While intravenous drug use is a large part of the problem, experts say that the leading cause of H.I.V. in black men is homosexual sex (some of which takes place in prison, where blacks disproportionately outnumber whites). According to the Centers for Disease Control, one-third of young urban black men who have sex with men in this country are H.I.V.-positive, and 90 percent of those are unaware of their infection.
We don't hear much about this aspect of the epidemic, mostly because the two communities most directly affected by it -- the black and gay communities -- have spent the better part of two decades eyeing each other through a haze of denial or studied disinterest. For African-Americans, facing and addressing the black AIDS crisis would require talking honestly and compassionately about homosexuality -- and that has proved remarkably difficult, whether it be in black churches, in black organizations or on inner-city playgrounds. The mainstream gay world, for its part, has spent 20 years largely fighting the epidemic among white, openly gay men, showing little sustained interest in reaching minorities who have sex with men and who refuse to call themselves gay.
Rejecting a gay culture they perceive as white and effeminate, many black men have settled on a new identity, with its own vocabulary and customs and its own name: Down Low. There have always been men -- black and white -- who have had secret sexual lives with men. But the creation of an organized, underground subculture largely made up of black men who otherwise live straight lives is a phenomenon of the last decade. Many of the men at Flex tonight -- and many of the black men I met these past months in Cleveland, Atlanta, Florida, New York and Boston -- are on the Down Low, or on the DL, as they more often call it. Most date or marry women and engage sexually with men they meet only in anonymous settings like bathhouses and parks or through the Internet. Many of these men are young and from the inner city, where they live in a hypermasculine ''thug'' culture. Other DL men form romantic relationships with men and may even be peripheral participants in mainstream gay culture, all unknown to their colleagues and families. Most DL men identify themselves not as gay or bisexual but first and foremost as black. To them, as to many blacks, that equates to being inherently masculine.
DL culture has grown, in recent years, out of the shadows and developed its own contemporary institutions, for those who know where to look: Web sites, Internet chat rooms, private parties and special nights at clubs. Over the same period, Down Low culture has come to the attention of alarmed public health officials, some of whom regard men on the DL as an infectious bridge spreading H.I.V. to unsuspecting wives and girlfriends. In 2001, almost two-thirds of women in the United States who found out they had AIDS were black.
With no wives or girlfriends around, Flex is a safe place for men on the DL to let down their guards. There aren't many white men here either (I'm one of them), and that's often the norm for DL parties and clubs. Some private DL events won't even let whites in the door. Others will let you in if you look ''black enough,'' which is code for looking masculine, tough and ''straight.'' That's not to say that DL guys are attracted only to men of color. ''Some of the black boys here love white boys,'' Wallace says.
While Wallace tests one man for H.I.V. (not all DL men ignore the health threat), I walk back downstairs to change into a towel -- I've been warned twice by Flex employees that clothes aren't allowed in the club. By the lockers, I notice a tall black man in his late teens or early 20's staring at me from a dozen lockers down. Abruptly, he walks over and puts his right hand on my left shoulder.
''You wanna hook up?'' he asks, smiling broadly.
His frankness takes me by surprise. Bathhouse courtship rituals usually involve a period of aggressive flirtation -- often heavy and deliberate staring. ''Are you gay?'' I ask him.
''Nah, man,'' he says. ''I got a girl. You look like you would have a girl, too.''
I tell him that I don't have a girl. ''Doesn't matter,'' he says, stepping closer. I decline his advances, to which he seems genuinely perplexed. Before I go back upstairs, I ask him if he normally uses condoms here.
As a recurring announcement comes over the club's loudspeaker -- ''H.I.V. testing is available in Room 207. . . . H.I.V. testing in Room 207'' -- he shakes his head. ''Nah, man,'' he says. ''I like it raw.''
If Cleveland is the kind of city many gay people flee, Atlanta is a city they escape to. For young black men, Atlanta is the hub of the South, a city with unlimited possibilities, including a place in its vibrant DL scene.
I went to Atlanta to meet William, an attractive 35-year-old black man on the DL who asked to be identified by his middle name. I met him in the America Online chat room DLThugs, where he spends some time most days searching for what he calls ''real'' DL guys -- as opposed to the ''flaming queens who like to pretend they're thugs and on the DL.'' William says he likes his guys ''to look like real guys,'' and his Internet profile makes it clear what he isn't looking for: no stupid questions, fats, whites, stalkers or queens.
I told him I was a writer, and he eventually agreed to take me around to a few clubs in Atlanta. With one condition: ''You better dress cool,'' he warned me. ''Don't dress, you know, white.''
William smiles as I climb into his silver Jeep Grand Cherokee, which I take as a good sign. Two of William's best friends are in the car with him: Christopher, a thin, boyish 32-year-old with a shaved head, and Rakeem, an outgoing 31-year-old with dreadlocks who asked to be identified by his Muslim name. We drive toward the Palace, a downtown club popular with young guys on the DL.
William doesn't date women anymore and likes guys younger than he is, although they've been known to get more attached than he would prefer. ''Yeah, he's always getting stalked,'' Rakeem says enthusiastically. ''The boys just won't leave him alone. He's got this weird power to make boys act really stupid.''
It's easy to see why. William radiates confidence and control, which serve him well in his daytime role as an executive at a local corporation. He says his co-workers don't know he likes men (''It's none of their business,'' he tells me several times), or that after work he changes personas completely, becoming a major player in the city's DL scene, organizing parties and events.
Christopher, who sits in the back seat with me, is the only one of the three who is openly gay and not on the DL (although he won't tell me his last name, for fear of embarrassing his parents). Christopher moved to Atlanta when he was 24 and was surprised when black men in the city couldn't get enough of him. ''They would hit on me at the grocery store, on the street, on the train, always in this sly, DL kind of way where you never actually talk about what you're really doing,'' he says. ''That's actually how I met my current boyfriend. He followed me off the train.''
Rakeem, a roommate of William's, moved to Atlanta five years ago from Brooklyn. He says he's ''an urban black gay man on the DL,'' which he says reflects his comfort with his sexuality but his unwillingness to ''broadcast it.'' People at work don't know he's gay. His family wouldn't know, either, if a vindictive friend hadn't told them. ''I'm a guy's guy, a totally masculine black gay man, and that's just beyond my family's comprehension,'' he says.
While Rakeem and William proudly proclaim themselves on the Down Low, they wouldn't have been considered on the DL when men first started claiming the label in the mid-90's. Back then the culture was completely under the radar, and DL men lived ostensibly heterosexual lives (complete with wives and girlfriends) but also engaged in secret sexual relationships with men. Today, though, an increasing number of black men who have sex only with men identify themselves as DL, further muddying an already complicated group identity. And as DL culture expands, it has become an open secret.
For many men on the Down Low, including William and Rakeem, the DL label is both an announcement of masculinity and a separation from white gay culture. To them, it is the safest identity available -- they don't risk losing their ties to family, friends and black culture.
William parks the car in a secluded lot about a block from the Palace. As he breaks out some pot, I ask them if they heard about what happened recently at Morehouse College, where one black student beat another with a bat supposedly for looking at him the wrong way in a dormitory shower.
''I'm surprised that kind of stuff doesn't happen more often,'' William says. ''The only reason it doesn't is because most black guys are sly enough about it that they aren't gonna get themselves beaten up. If you're masculine and a guy thinks you're checking him out, you can always say: 'Whoa, chill, I ain't checking you out. Look at me. Do I look gay to you?' ''
Masculinity is a surprisingly effective defense, because until recently the only popular representations of black gay men were what William calls ''drag queens or sissies.'' Rakeem takes a hit from the bowl. ''We know there are black gay rappers, black gay athletes, but they're all on the DL,'' Rakeem says. ''If you're white, you can come out as an openly gay skier or actor or whatever. It might hurt you some, but it's not like if you're black and gay, because then it's like you've let down the whole black community, black women, black history, black pride. You don't hear black people say, 'Oh yeah, he's gay, but he's still a real man, and he still takes care of all his responsibilities.' What you hear is, 'Look at that sissy faggot.' ''
I ask them what the difference is between being on the DL and being in the closet. ''Being on the DL is about having fun,'' William tells me. ''Being who you are, but keeping your business to yourself. The closet isn't fun. In the closet, you're lonely.''
''I don't know,'' Christopher says. ''In some ways I think DL is just a new, sexier way to say you're in the closet.''
Both have a point. As William says, DL culture does place a premium on pleasure. It is, DL guys insist, one big party. And there is a certain freedom in not playing by modern society's rules of self-identification, in not having to explain yourself, or your sexuality, to anyone. Like the black athletes and rappers they idolize, DL men convey a strong sense of masculine independence and power: I do what I want when I want with whom I want. Even the term Down Low -- which was popularized in the 1990's by the singers TLC and R. Kelly, meaning ''secret'' -- has a sexy ring to it, a hint that you're doing something wrong that feels right.
But for all their supposed freedom, many men on the DL are as trapped -- or more trapped -- than their white counterparts in the closet. While DL guys regard the closet as something alien (a sad, stifling place where fearful people hide), the closet can be temporary (many closeted men plan to someday ''come out''). But black men on the DL typically say they're on the DL for life. Since they generally don't see themselves as gay, there is nothing to ''come out'' to, there is no next step.
Sufficiently stoned, the guys decide to make an appearance at the Palace. More than anything, the place feels like a rundown loft where somebody stuck a bar and a dance floor and called it a club. Still, it's one of the most popular hangouts for young black men on the DL in Atlanta.
William surveys the crowd, which is made up mostly of DL ''homo thugs,'' black guys dressed like gangsters and rappers (baggy jeans, do-rags, and FUBU jackets). ''So many people in here try so hard to look like they're badasses,'' he says. ''Everyone wants to look like they're on the DL.''
As I look out onto the dance floor, I can't help doing the math. If the C.D.C. is right that nearly 1 in 3 young black men who have sex with men is H.I.V.-positive, then about 50 of the young men on this dance floor are infected, and most of them don't know it.
''You have no idea how many of the boys here tonight would let me'' -- have sex with them -- ''without a condom,'' William tells me. ''These young guys swear they know it all. They all want a black thug. They just want the black thug to do his thing.''
While William and many other DL men insist that they're strictly ''tops'' -- meaning they play the active, more stereotypically ''masculine'' role during sexual intercourse -- other DL guys proudly advertise themselves as ''masculine bottom brothas'' on their Internet profiles. They may play the stereotypically passive role during sex, they say, but they're just as much men, and just as aggressive, as DL tops. As one DL guy writes on his America Online profile, ''Just 'cause I am a bottom, don't take me for a bitch.''
Still, William says that many DL guys are in a never-ending search for the roughest, most masculine, ''straightest looking'' DL top. Both William and Christopher, who lost friends to AIDS, say they always use condoms. But as William explains: ''Part of the attraction to thugs is that they're careless and carefree. Putting on a condom doesn't fit in with that. A lot of DL guys aren't going to put on a condom, because that ruins the fantasy.'' It also shatters the denial -- stopping to put on a condom forces guys on the DL to acknowledge, on some level, that they're having sex with men.
In 1992, E. Lynn Harris -- then an unknown black writer -- self-published ''Invisible Life,'' the fictional coming-of-age story of Raymond Tyler, a masculine young black man devoted to his girlfriend but consumed by his attraction to men. For Tyler, being black is hard enough; being black and gay seems a cruel and impossible proposition. Eventually picked up by a publisher, ''Invisible Life'' went on to sell nearly 500,000 copies, many purchased by black women shocked at the idea that black men who weren't effeminate could be having sex with men.
''I was surprised by the reaction to my book,'' Harris said. ''People were in such denial that black men could be doing this. Well, they were doing it then, and they're doing it now.''
That behavior has public health implications. A few years ago, the epidemiological data started rolling in, showing increasing numbers of black women who weren't IV drug users becoming infected with H.I.V. While some were no doubt infected by men who were using drugs, experts say many were most likely infected by men on the Down Low. Suddenly, says Chris Bell, a 29-year-old H.I.V.-positive black man from Chicago who often speaks at colleges about sexuality and AIDS, DL guys were being demonized. They became the ''modern version of the highly sexually dangerous, irresponsible black man who doesn't care about anyone and just wants to get off.'' Bell and others say that while black men had been dying of AIDS for years, it wasn't until ''innocent'' black women became infected that the black community bothered to notice.
For white people, Bell said, ''DL life fit in perfectly with our society's simultaneous obsession and aversion to black male sexuality.'' But if the old stereotypes of black sexual aggression were resurrected, there was a significant shift: this time, white women were not cast as the innocent victims. Now it was black women and children. The resulting permutations confounded just about everyone, black and white, straight and gay. How should guys on the DL be regarded? Whose responsibility are they? Are they gay, straight or bisexual? If they are gay, why don't they just tough it up, come out and move to a big-city gay neighborhood like so many other gay men and lesbians? If they are straight, what are they doing having sex with guys in parks and bathhouses? If they are bisexual, why not just say that? Why, as the C.D.C. reported, are black men who have sex with men more than twice as likely to keep their sexual practices a secret than whites? Most important to many, why can't these black men at least get tested for H.I.V.?
The easy answer to most of these questions is that the black community is simply too homophobic: from womanizing rappers to moralizing preachers, much of the black community views homosexuality as a curse against a race with too many strikes against it. The white community, the conventional wisdom goes, is more accepting of its sexual minorities, leading to fewer double lives, less shame and less unsafe sex. (AIDS researchers point to shame and stigma as two of the driving forces spreading AIDS in America.)
But some scholars have come to doubt the reading of black culture as intrinsically more homophobic than white culture. ''I think it's unfair to categorize it that way today, and it is absolutely not the case historically,'' says George Chauncey, the noted professor of gay and lesbian history at the University of Chicago. ''Especially in the 1940's and 50's, when anti-gay attitudes were at their peak in white American society, black society was much more accepting. People usually expected their gay friends and relatives to remain discreet, but even so, it was better than in white society.''
Glenn Ligon, a black visual artist who is openly gay, recalls that as a child coming of age in the 70's, he always felt there was a space in black culture for openly gay men. ''It was a limited space, but it was there,'' he says. ''After all, where else could we go? The white community wasn't that accepting of us. And the black community had to protect its own.''
Ligon, whose artwork often deals with sexuality and race, thinks that the pressure to keep homosexuality on the DL does not come exclusively from other black people, but also from the social and economic realities particular to black men. ''The reason that so many young black men aren't so cavalier about announcing their sexual orientation is because we need our families,'' he says. ''We need our families because of economic reasons, because of racism, because of a million reasons. It's the idea that black people have to stick together, and if there's the slightest possibility that coming out could disrupt that, guys won't do it.'' (That may help explain why many of the black men who are openly gay tend to be more educated, have more money and generally have a greater sense of security.)
But to many men on the DL, sociological and financial considerations are beside the point: they say they wouldn't come out even if they felt they could. They see black men who do come out either as having chosen their sexuality over their skin color or as being so effeminate that they wouldn't have fooled anyone anyway. In a black world that puts a premium on hypermasculinity, men who have sex with other men are particularly sensitive to not appearing soft in any way. Maybe that's why many guys on the DL don't go to gay bars. ''Most of the guys I've messed around with, I've actually met at straight clubs,'' says D., a 21-year-old college student on the DL whom I met on the Internet, and then in person in New York City. ''Guys will come up to me and ask me some stupid thing like, 'Yo, you got a piece of gum?' I'll say, 'Nah, but what's up?' Some guys will look at me and say, 'What do you mean, what's up?' but the ones on the DL will keep talking to me.'' Later he adds: ''It's easier for me to date guys on the DL. Gay guys get too clingy, and they can blow your cover. Real DL guys, they have something to lose, too. It's just safer to be with someone who has something to lose.''
D. says he prefers sex with women, but he sometimes has sex with men because he ''gets bored.'' But even the DL guys I spoke with who say they prefer sex with men are adamant that the nomenclature of white gay culture has no relevance for them. ''I'm masculine,'' as one 18-year-old college student from Providence, R.I., who is on the DL told me over the phone. ''There's no way I'm gay.'' I asked him what his definition of gay is. ''Gays are the faggots who dress, talk and act like girls. That's not me.''
That kind of logic infuriates many mainstream gay people. To them, life on the DL is an elaborately rationalized repudiation of everything the gay rights movement fought for -- the right to live without shame and without fear of reprisal. It's a step back into the dark days before liberation, before gay-bashing was considered a crime, before gay television characters were considered family entertainment and way, way before the current Supreme Court ruled that gay people are ''entitled to respect for their private lives.'' Emil Wilbekin, the black and openly gay editor in chief of Vibe magazine, has little patience for men on the DL. ''To me, it's a dangerous cop-out,'' he says. ''I get that it's sexy. I get that it's hot to see some big burly hip-hop kid who looks straight but sleeps with guys, but the bottom line is that it's dishonest. I think you have to love who you are, you have to have respect for yourself and others, and to me most men on the DL have none of those qualities. There's nothing 'sexy' about getting H.I.V., or giving it to your male and female lovers. That's not what being a real black man is about.''
Though the issues being debated have life-and-death implications, the tenor of the debate owes much to the overcharged identity politics of the last two decades. As Chauncey points out, the assumption that anyone has to name their sexual behavior at all is relatively recent. ''A lot of people look at these DL guys and say they must really be gay, no matter what they say about themselves, but who's to know?'' he says. ''In the early 1900's, many men in immigrant and African-American working-class communities engaged in sex with other men without being stigmatized as queer. But it's hard for people to accept that something that seems so intimate and inborn to them as being gay or straight isn't universal.''
Whatever the case, most guys on the DL are well aware of the contempt with which their choices are viewed by many out gay men. And if there are some DL guys willing to take the risk -- to jeopardize their social and family standing by declaring their sexuality -- that contempt doesn't do much to convince them they'd ever really be welcome in Manhattan's Chelsea or on Fire Island. ''Mainstream gay culture has created an alternative to mainstream culture,'' says John Peterson, a professor of psychology at Georgia State University who specializes in AIDS research among black men, ''and many whites take advantage of that. They say, 'I will leave Podunk and I will go to the gay barrios of San Francisco and other cities, and I will go live there, be who I really am, and be part of the mainstream.' Many African-Americans say, 'I can't go and face the racism I will see there, and I can't create a functioning alternative society because I don't have the resources.' They're stuck.'' As Peterson, who says that the majority of black men who have sex with men are on the DL, boils it down, ''The choice becomes, do I want to be discriminated against at home for my sexuality, or do I want to move away and be discriminated against for my skin color?''
So increasing numbers of black men -- and, lately, other men of color who claim the DL identity -- split the difference. They've created a community of their own, a cultural ''party'' where whites aren't invited. ''Labeling yourself as DL is a way to disassociate from everything white and upper class,'' says George Ayala, the director of education for AIDS Project Los Angeles. And that, he says, is a way for DL men to assert some power.
Still, for all the defiance that DL culture claims for itself, for all the forcefulness of the ''never apologize, never explain'' stance, a sense of shame can hover at the margins. It's the inevitable price of living a double life. Consider these last lines of a DL college student's online profile. ''Lookin 4 cool ass brothers on tha down low. . . . You aint dl if you have a V.I.P. pass to tha gay spot. . . . You aint dl if you call ur dude 'gurl.' . . . Put some bass in ur voice yo and whats tha deal wit tha attitude? If I wanted a broad I would get one -- we both know what we doin is wrong.''
The world headquarters of the Web site www.streetthugz.com is a small, nondescript storefront next to a leather bar on Cleveland's West Side. The site's founder, Rick Dickson, invites me to watch one of its live Web casts, which he says feature ''the most masculine DL brothers in the world doing what they do best.''
Rick opens the door holding a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. Inside, a group of young black men sit in a thick haze of cigarette smoke as the song ''Bitch Better Have My Money'' plays from a nearby stereo. By the far wall, two men type frantically on computer keyboards, participating in 30 chat-room conversations at once. Near the street-front window, which is covered by a red sheet, there are three muscular black men in their early 20's.
Rick sits down and lights another cigarette. A part-time comic who goes by the stage name Slick Rick, he has a shaved head, piercing green eyes and a light-skinned face with a default setting on mean. Twice a week, Rick's thugs, as he calls them, perform a sex show for anyone who cares to log on. Although less than a year old, the site has developed a devoted following, thanks mostly to chat-room word of mouth. ''We're going to be the next Bill Gates of the Internet industry,'' he assures me. ''We got black DL thugs getting it on, and that's what people want to see!''
One of the site's most popular stars is a tall, strikingly handsome 23-year-old former Division 1 basketball player, who goes by the name Jigga. When I first meet Jigga about 10 minutes before the show, he's naked, stretching and doing push-ups in an adjacent room as he peppers me with questions about journalism and sportswriting. ''I want to be a sportswriter,'' he says. ''Either that, or a lawyer. I love to argue.''
Unlike some of the other streetthugz stars who dropped out of school and hustle for money, Jigga says he comes from a close middle-class family and always did well academically. Considering all that, I ask him how he came to find himself here. ''It's some extra cash,'' he says. ''But mostly, it's 'cause I like the attention. What can I say? I'm vain.'' Jigga says he has sex with both men and women, but he doesn't label himself as bisexual. ''I'm just freaky,'' he says with a smile.
Like many guys on the DL, Jigga first connected to other DL men through phone personals lines, which still have certain advantages over Internet chat rooms. ''You can tell a lot right away by a voice,'' he says later. ''There are guys who naturally sound masculine, and then there's guys who are obviously trying to hide the fact that they're big girls.''
At 10:07 p.m., seven minutes behind schedule, Rick announces, ''It's show time at the Apollo.'' He unfolds a burgundy carpet that serves as the stage, and Jigga and two thugs take their places. The phone won't stop ringing as viewers call to make requests (''Can I talk to Jigga when he's done?''), and Rick answers each call with an enthusiastic reference to the caller's location. ''Hey, we got Detroit in the house! Say wuzzup to Detroit!''
The show temporarily goes ''off air'' when Chi, a 32-year-old promoter for the site, trips over the MegaCam's power cord. While someone else plugs it back in, he takes a seat on the sidelines. Thin and deceptively strong, Chi looks younger than his age. He has a tattoo on his left arm, which he tells me is a reminder of his gang days. Back then, he says, before he moved to Cleveland, his life was a disaster: he had three kids with three women and spent most of his 20's in jail for drug trafficking.
Chi says he doesn't deal drugs anymore -- not since his mother, a heroin addict, died with a needle in her arm. Today he works at a fast-food joint in a shopping-mall food court and is a talent scout for Rick, which means that if he spots a young black man with ''the look'' (tough, masculine and preferably with a wild streak), he'll ask him if he'd like to take some pictures for money -- or, better yet, act in one of the site's live sex shows. Chi has a fiancée he has been with for four years.
When Rick has seen enough foreplay, he throws condoms at the boys. Rick has been making a big deal to me about how his site promotes safe sex, which he insists is a moral obligation at a time when so many young black men in America are dying of AIDS. But previous viewers of the show told me they didn't see condoms being used, and the site boasts of keeping everything ''raw.'' I ask Rick about the discrepancy. ''It's just an expression, man,'' he says, and explains that the sex is sometimes simulated.
The actors seem somewhat bored, but the point, I gather, is not what they do on camera, but how they look. And these guys look straight -- in fact, they look as if they might rather be having sex with women. That, Rick knows, is the ultimate turn-on in much of the DL world, where the sexual icon is the tough unemotional gangster thug.
''Do these guys ever kiss?'' I ask Rick.
''Well,'' he explains, ''thugs don't really kiss. Sometimes they stick their tongues in each other's mouths, but it's not really kissing. Gay people kiss. DL thugs don't kiss.''
In May 1986, Sandra Singleton McDonald showed up at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, eager to begin her research into diseases affecting blacks in the South.
''Well,'' said a young research assistant there, ''then you'll want to look into AIDS.''
McDonald laughed. ''Baby, you must have misunderstood my question,'' she said in her loving, motherly voice. ''I'm talking about African-American diseases.''
''Yes, I know,'' the man said. ''Like I said, you'll want to look into AIDS.''
McDonald did, and what she learned floored her. ''This wasn't just a gay, white man's disease like we had all been told from the beginning,'' recalls McDonald, the founder of Outreach Inc., an Atlanta-based nonprofit organization providing services to those affected by AIDS and substance abuse in the city's black communities. ''I went out and told leaders in the black community that we needed to start dealing with this now, and they looked at me like I was crazy. People were outraged that I was even bringing this up. They said, 'Oh, be quiet, that's a white problem.' But why would we think that a sexually transmitted disease would stay within one racial group, or within one geographic area? It made no sense. The public health community made a lot of mistakes and gave out a lot of wrong information. Once we became aware of the impact of the disease, we did a lot of blaming and shaming so that we could feel O.K. and say, 'This isn't about us.' ''
Five years later, that fiction ceased to be viable when Magic Johnson told a national television audience that he was H.I.V.-positive. AIDS organizations were flooded with calls from panicked black men and women wanting to know more about the disease. Meanwhile, Magic dismissed the rumors that he'd slept with men during his N.B.A. career, insisting he didn't get infected through homosexual sex, but rather through sex with a woman. Young black men on inner-city basketball courts weren't so sure. They wondered if maybe Magic had men on the side.
That it took Johnson's announcement to introduce the reality of AIDS to the black community goes to the depth of the denial around the disease. By 1991, 35,990 African-American men had been reported with AIDS (roughly half having contracted it through sexual intercourse), accounting for about a quarter of all AIDS cases in America. But while there was a mass mobilization around AIDS in the early 80's among gay white men, there was no similar movement among black men with AIDS, black leaders, politicians, clergy or civil rights organizations. ''There was a real sense in black communities that you had to put your best face forward in order to prove that you deserve equal rights and equal status, and that face didn't include gays and IV drug users with AIDS,'' says Cathy Cohen, author of ''The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics.'' ''It's been a very slow process for the black leadership in America to own up to this disease. Not acknowledge it in passing, but own it.''
Black churches, which are the heart of many African-American communities, were particularly slow to respond to the crisis, and many still haven't, even despite the disease's ravages within their parishes. In 1999, after female congregants of Cleveland's Antioch Baptist Church told their pastor that they were H.I.V.-positive, the church started an AIDS ministry that has been applauded for its courage and effectiveness. Still, the black church -- like many in white America -- is careful not to condone homosexual behavior. ''Some gays want a flat-out, standing-on-the-tower affirmation from the church that the gay lifestyle, or the lifestyle of whoring around with men, is acceptable,'' says Kelvin Berry, the director of the Antioch program. ''And that's not going to happen.''
Combating AIDS in these communities also means confronting popular conspiracy theories that claim that H.I.V. was created by the U.S. government to kill black people. One study in the 90's by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference found that 54 percent of blacks thought H.I.V. testing was a trick to infect them with AIDS. In the early 90's, the rapper Kool Moe Dee and Spike Lee expressed concern that H.I.V. was a part of a calculated campaign intended to rid the world of gay men and minorities, and as recently as 1999, Will Smith told Vanity Fair that ''possibly AIDS was created as a result of biological-warfare testing.''
Pernessa C. Seele, founder and C.E.O. of the Balm in Gilead, an international AIDS organization that works with black churches, explained, ''For the most part, we don't want to get tested, and we don't want to get treatment, because we really believe that the system is designed to kill us.'' She continued: ''And our history allows us, or helps us, to believe that. We have documented history where these kinds of diseases have been perpetuated on us. And that's why it's so important for the church to get involved. Black people trust the church. We don't trust health care. We don't trust doctors and nurses, but we trust the church. So when the church says, 'Get tested,' when the church says, 'Take your medicine,' people will do it.''
Other black AIDS organizations are focused on prevention. In some cases, the strategies are straightforward: push condoms, distribute clean needles. But reaching men on the DL is difficult. James L. King, a publishing executive, spoke about his former DL life at a National Conference on African-Americans and AIDS. ''I sleep with men, but I am not bisexual, and I am certainly not gay,'' King said. ''I am not going to your clinics, I am not going to read your brochures, I am not going to get tested. I assure you that none of the brothers on the Down Low are paying the least bit of attention to what you say.''
Earl Pike, executive director of the AIDS Task Force of Cleveland, agrees that many of the prevention messages aimed at black men have been unsuccessful. ''Up to this point, we've failed to make a convincing case to young black men about why they should listen to us when we tell them to put on a condom, mostly because we've had the wrong people delivering the wrong kind of message,'' he says. ''The usual prevention message for all these years can be interpreted as saying: 'Gee, we're sorry about racism. We're sorry about homophobia in your homes and churches. We're sorry that urban schools are crappy. We're sorry that you can't find a good job. We're sorry about lack of literacy. We're sorry about all these things, but you really need to start using condoms, because if you don't, you could get infected tomorrow, or next year, or some point during the next decade, and if you do get infected, at some point, you could get sick and die.' ''
Many AIDS organizations now say that frank, sexy prevention messages that use the masculine imagery of hip-hop culture are the only way to reach men on the DL. In St. Louis, for example, a $64,000 federal grant financed a billboard campaign -- depicting two muscular, shirtless black men embracing -- aimed at raising AIDS awareness. But Mayor Francis Slay called the billboards inappropriate and ordered them taken down.
''I need a beer,'' Chi says as we drive through downtown Cleveland on a Saturday night, looking for something to do. It's been three months since I last saw him at the streetthugz.com filming. As we stop at a red light, he turns to get a better look at a young Hispanic woman in the car next to us. ''That girl is beautiful,'' he says. ''But she needs to lose the car. What a shame -- a beautiful woman driving a Neon!''
Chi loves women. He also likes men, although, like many guys on the DL, he doesn't verbalize his attraction to them, even when he's with like-minded people. When I ask him about this, he's stumped to explain why. ''I don't know,'' he says. ''Maybe it's because being black, you just learn to keep that to yourself.'' Anyway, he always had a girlfriend. ''Guys were there for sex.''
Unlike many other DL guys, who never tell anyone about their private lives, Chi opens up with little prompting. He says that he loves his fiancée but that he doesn't consider the sex he has with men to be cheating. ''Guys are a totally different thing.''
Unbeknown to his fiancée, he has been casually dating his male roommate for several months. ''I told her that he's gay and makes passes at me,'' he says, ''but she doesn't know we have sex.'' On some level, Chi says he feels bad about the deception. Right now, though, he isn't feeling guilty. His fiancée just called to tell him that she's going out tonight -- and that he needs to come over to pick up their feisty 1-year-old son.
''She just wants to go out and shake her groove thing with her friends instead of taking care of him like she said she would,'' Chi says. ''Man, she's selfish sometimes. I love her, but sometimes I hate her, you know what I'm saying?''
We pull up to Chi's apartment, where his fiancée and two of her friends are waiting for him in the driveway. Inside the apartment, the couple argue about whose turn it is to take care of their son while I sit in the dining room and watch him fearlessly attack the four house cats. In the dark living room, Chi's roommate, who is white, lounges on the couch in blue boxers, chain-smoking as he half-watches television.
Chi's fiancée eventually leaves, after which Chi changes out of his work shirt and mixes a drink for the road. ''We've been on shaky ground,'' Chi tells me, referring to his roommate. ''He loves me, but I'm committed to someone else. I think he has problems dealing with that. Like I tell him, 'I care about you, but I can't be that guy you want.' '' What Chi means, I think, is that he can't be gay.
Chi puts his son in the back seat of the car, and we drive toward Dominos, a black gay bar where we're supposed to meet Jigga. Chi spends most of the ride complaining about his fiancée. His son finally starts crying and kicks the back of Chi's seat. ''Yeah, defend yo mama!'' Chi says, laughing.
They wait in the car as I walk into Dominos looking for Jigga. The long, rectangular-shaped bar is packed with regulars tonight, mostly middle-aged black men -- some openly gay, others on the DL -- and a few tough-looking younger guys. Jigga spots me first and waves me over to the bar. He tells me a lot has changed since the first time I met him. He's in law school now and has put aside the sportswriter idea. And while he is still on the DL (his co-workers and most of his straight friends don't know he likes guys), he has a serious boyfriend who is also on the DL.
Four months ago, having a serious boyfriend would have been inconceivable to him. ''I think I love this dude,'' he tells me as we walk to the car. ''He's got a lot of attitude, but I kind of like that. We have fistfights all the time, and we don't stop until somebody has blood. Then we have sex.'' Jigga laughs as he opens the car door. ''But I must really love him, because I never got in fistfights with any of my exes.''
I'm about to question his definition of love when Chi interjects. ''I still need a beer,'' he says, pointing the way toward a nearby gas station. We pull into a tight parking spot, careful to avoid the young black man with a sideways baseball cap who leans into the car next to us, blocking Chi's passenger-side door. ''Move your ass,'' Chi says, knocking the kid out of the way with the car door. The boy laughs it off, avoiding a possible confrontation.
''I think I hooked up with him,'' Jigga says, craning his neck from the back seat to get a better look at the kid. ''Actually, nah, that's not him. Looks like him, though.''
Recently, Jigga told his parents that he's interested in both guys and girls. ''I was drunk when I told them,'' he says. ''But I'm glad I did. They've been really cool about it.'' It takes me a few seconds to process the words. Really cool about it? In six months of talking to young black gay and DL men, I found that Jigga is one of the few who told his parents, and the only one who reported unconditional acceptance. ''I'm blessed,'' he says. ''I realize that. Black parents don't accept their gay kids. Black culture doesn't accept gay people. Why do you think so many people are on the DL?''
Jigga is proof that being on the DL isn't necessarily a lifelong identity. He seems considerably more comfortable with his sexuality than he was the first time I met him, and I suspect that soon enough, he may be openly gay in all facets of his life without losing his much-coveted masculinity. I tell him what I'm thinking. ''Who knows, man?'' he says. ''Two years ago, I wouldn't have believed that I'd be having sex with guys.'' Chi opens the car door, cradling a six-pack of beer. ''I love beer,'' he says, smiling. As we drive away, he checks out a young woman stepping out of a nearby Honda Civic. ''Damn, that girl is fine!''


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