text:
That S#!t Kreay
Kreayshawn's designer-bashing "Gucci Gucci" video scored her 30 million YouTube hits and a seven-figure record deal. Then this oddball ex-pimp from Oakland promptly picked fights with Nicki Minaj and the boss, Rick Ross. GQ's Lauren Bans spends an extremely bizarre New Year's with the most popular, most reviled white-girl rapper around
Kreayshawn kicks all the dudes out of the hotel room. It's just three hours before her New Year's Eve show in San Francisco, and she's acting uncharacteristically withdrawn. Meanwhile her ragtag entourage is engaged in standard pre-party activities. A skinny black rapper is perched on the nightstand rolling a blunt approximately the size of Vito Corleone's middle finger. The room is Bay Area-foggy with weed smoke and everyone else is crunking against the seventeenth-story window to blaring radio rap. But Kreay's propped up against the headboard of a double bed, finger-pecking at her phone and sharing only the occasional comment. Like when a remid version of Lana Del Rey comes on: "What is this depressing shit? I'm going to slit my ankles." This was not her usual demeanor. After all, this is a girl who pegs herself as a "bad bitch" and who, as soon as she felt the spotlight, picked a fight with Nicki Minaj and publicly joked that Rick Ross was so fat he couldn't find his manhood.
Seeing her in person you realize that she's awfully small to be starting beefs with Rick Ross. She's five feet one, tops. From the back she could be 15. From the front, she could be 15. (She's 22.) Her eyeliner swoops up fiercely at the corners like a Wingdings symbol. Tonight she's wearing a child-sized dress from Goodwill with white daises that she calls "kinda ugly" as if it's a compliment. Now she seems so distressed that she's standing at the foot of the bed bouncing up and down on the balls of her bare feet like a sprinter loosening up before the gun blast.
She corrals the boys out the door. Left in the room is her main posse, a distinctly weird mix of 22-year-old girls who could be the ensemble cast of a TV show about misfit teens. There's Avian, her soft-voiced childhood neighbor, positioned across the pillows, head propped up by her dark skinny arm, like she's posing for a cheesecake pinup. Kreay's personal assistant and roommate, Isabel, a giggly Filipina wearing a gigantic sun hat keeps looking in the mirror and proclaiming herself "sooo L.A." Then there's a Mohawked videographer in an oversize jeans jacket, Lady Tragik (not her given name), who I probably could have guessed was a lesbian, but she also screamed, "I'm gay and I love Jesus Christ!" down in the hotel lobby earlier. She's just inserted a giant gold grille over her top front teeth and keeps shining her camera light directly in my eyes asking, "Does this hurt?" It does.
Once the boys are gone, we learn the main reason Kreayshawn's been so pensive this past hour. And it's not that the pressure of her newfound, instant fame was bearing down on her with enormous psychic weight. As soon as the door shuts, she yells: "I have to POOP," like a proud potty-trained toddler. This has clearly been on her mind for some time—when I'd originally asked if I could hang out in the room while she got dressed, she'd responded, "Are you going to write about how I pooped, ate nachos, then pooped again? Men won't like that." Her girlfriends are instantly behind her in this effort, no pun intended. Lady Tragik encourages, "C'mon, girl. Poop thug life," and throws up the West Coast sign. Avian starts pumping her arm, in a sports-stadium chant: "Number two! Number two! Number two!" Kreay pumps her arm too, like an athlete encouraging the cheers. Then Avian puts on a mock-serious tone: "You prairie doggin' '?"
Kreayshawn cracks up. I ask, "What's 'prairie doggin'?" Just trying to be a good reporter. She stops before the door to the bathroom: "You know how a prairie dog kind of pops his head out and then pops it back in?" She bends her spindly arms up like prairie-dog paws and demonstrates with her head bobbing up and down. "That's what my shit is doing." The bathroom door slides only halfway shut.
Natassia Zolot came up with her stage name when she was a teenager having a very teenage thought: If I don't create every day, I will die. It's not pronounced cre-ay-shawn, though—it's bisyllabic, kray-shawn.
She'd been rapping (and, as important, filming herself rapping) since she was 10. But in May, when she posted her "Gucci Gucci" video on Twitter, it exploded like a corn kernel hitting hot oil. After two weeks, it had garnered 2 million views. In a month it was up to nearly 5 million hits, and Columbia reportedly offered her a seven-figure record deal. The video shows her and her motley gang of friends, looking like prototypical art-school kids, strutting down Rodeo Drive, spitting jabs at the designer storefronts they pass, and sharing a blunt on the hood of a Dodge Challenger. The song itself has ended up a coat hanger for a lot of grand theories. Hip-hop purists celebrated it as a rally cry against the bling fetish that's overtaken rap this past decade; academic rap nerds went even further and proclaimed that the Marxist hip-hop movement was here. Snoop Dogg anointed her "the missing link between the white girls who all love rap music and all the dudes who rap." And the "haters" hated: Who's this skinny white chick bastardizing black culture for an audience of cornfed teeny boppers? Whichever Kreayshawn interpretation you subscribe to, her blitzkrieg rise to celebrity is confusing. No one would argue Kreayshawn is an incredible rapper. She may not even be a good rapper. She sounds like a Powerpuff girl who listened to a Lil Wayne album and decided to give freestyling about blunts and bitches a try. Her pace is _Sesame Street _slow. Her rhymes are…fine. (She may be the first rapper, though, to rhyme over me with ovaries in the "Gucci Gucci" line "Nobody getting over me / I've got the swag and it's pumping out my ovaries.")
Above photo: Dress by Jeremy Scott.
Her skill or lack thereof isn't really the point. Because she's weird. Authentically weird. And weird-girl ethos is popular right now. Think of how Christian songstress Katy Perry was rebranded as a blue-haired, girl-kissing, firework-boobed rocker chick or how Lady Gaga is Lady Gaga. But whereas there's nothing raw about Lady Gaga— her persona is a rigorous, self-conscious reinvention, performance art, really—Kreayshawn actually is the kind of girl who runs her mouth without thinking and then takes a hit from a joint crammed between her friend's toes. Who presses her forehead against a web camera, making orgasm noises, and then pops up nibbling on her sweatshirt string, yelling into the lens, "I been in a mental institution!" In the photo art for her "Gucci Gucci" single, she's wearing ugly librarian glasses while she tongues a thick red Popsicle. Her eyes say defiantly, Fuck you if you make this about sex. And also: Fuck you if you don't.
Earlier that day, we'd all piled, Scooby-Doo–style, into a van and driven through Kreayshawn's old neighborhood in East Oakland, which was nicknamed "Murder Dubs" in the early '90s due to a steep rise in people shooting other people for crack. Sitting with us in the van is Isabel; Tragik; Young Hawaii Slim, a member of Chill Black Guys and Kreay's hype man; Stretch, her manager and muscle all in one; and her tour manager, who goes by the name of Cool Nutz—not because of the temperature of his genitalia but because he's "not as excitable as your Busta Rhymes, but not totally laid-back, either." Way in back is a sizable kid with goldfish lips, aptly monikered DJ Fatboy. When we first met, he warned me he says "a lot of trippy-ass shit," but in my twelve hours with him, I didn't hear him say more than four sentences. Later on that night, on the way to the venue, Kreayshawn bolted up with panic, yelling, "Where's Fatboy?!" He was sitting right behind her wearing the otherworldly expression of a porcelain doll—he's that quiet.
Kreayshawn likes talking about her childhood, for obvious reasons. When you're a skinny white girl who wears Minnie Mouse ears, people tend to question the authenticity of your thug-life upbringing. As we turn off the exit marked 23, she whoops: "Oakland, REPPIN'! This is my home turf!" Her old house is a boxy beige bungalow with bright blue window shutters built on an alley street, so there's not much of a yard. "There were hella kids on this block," she says, and points to an overgrown weed thatch across the street. "We used to play in this field and find hella knives and rusty guns and shit."
Other scenes from an Oakland childhood: Kreayshawn says her mom had a string of suitors, and moved to Canada with one of them when Kreay was 15; Kreay stayed behind, mostly crashing at friends' houses. That was the year she skipped so many classes her grade point average was "zero point zero." She started smoking weed. She remembers the entry from her diary the day she first inhaled. It reads "Hey, I'm high. Smoked weed today in the park." The next day it was: "Smoked weed again today. I could be a pothead." And the next: "Smoked out of a blunt this time, it was so different! I was really high. Definitely going to be a pothead."
She dropped out of school halfway through sophomore year and started dealing marijuana and occasionally pills. Then she ended up, briefly, an online madam; it came about on a lark, probably while high. "Some girls I was hangin' out with at the time wanted to do it, and I was like, Well I'm not going to do it, but I can, like, help you arrange it," she says casually. "We had a plan. We were gonna open up a massage parlor in the future and make it a real enterprise. It was gonna be legit. But after a week, some professionals came into the situation. And then the girls were gone." She eventually found herself on the up-and-up. At 19, after filming and editing a handful of music videos for local Bay Area rappers, Kreay spent two semesters at a film school in Berkeley. As we're speeding back over the Bay Bridge, Kreayshawn mentions offhandedly that she was almost cast on Bad Girls Club. If you're not familiar with Bad Girls Club, or would like to pretend you're not familiar with Bad Girls Club, it's a reality show on the Oxygen network that throws a bunch of female delinquents into the same house, like The Real World but 400 percent more criminal. "I like, filled out the whole thing, went in for an interview," she says. "Then before my second interview, I was watching this episode where this girl got hella bleach thrown on her, and I was like, I don't want to be on a show where I'll get chemically poisoned and get jumped out in my sleep and shit. It's not enough money for that." It's not hard to imagine Kreayshawn as a reality-TV character, a gangsta Snooki. She kind of already is a reality-TV character.
Once "Gucci Gucci" landed, there were years of her life already online to be discovered, linked to, tweeted about, embedded, watched, rewatched: montages of Oakland dance parties featuring her friends' sweaty faces. Clips of her smoking dope with the White Girl Mob, which got its name from the fact that they were "just some mobbin' white girls in Oakland." There are hours and hours of UStream footage of Kreay in a tank, face leaning expectantly into her laptop camera, like a bored girl in a banner ad for live chat sex.
Above photo: Blouse by Joyrich. Bracelet by Pierre Hardy.
Actually, she looks like this a lot, or at least enough times to warrant mention. There's a music video from before she was famous called "Online Fantasy": Kreayshawn's in a sheer lace robe when a soft-looking girl wearing a bra apparates through her laptop screen and they commence kissing and heavy petting. It's all wonderfully self-serious and terrible, not to mention lit like a laser-tag palace. (Kreay told me she is bisexual, but not that bisexual: "I'm, like, a person who likes love. And I can find love in any type of person. I've dated girls and I've liked girls. But they're usually straight girls, so it never works out. I mean, I'm not that gay, so I don't have the energy to convince someone else to be gay, you know?")
It's impossible to imagine her becoming famous before the Internet, in the same way that it's impossible to picture Madonna predating MTV. And you can fall down the wormhole of Kreayshawn's online life the same way you end up unintentionally butt-planted for six hours watching a Jersey Shore marathon or staying up till 3 A.M. clicking through an old high school girlfriend's 4,000 Facebook pictures.
After Kreayshawn's out of the bathroom, we repack ourselves into the van and head to the Regency, a mid-size concert venue in Polk Gulch. On the way there she gets a call from a teenage fan, Stacy, who's flown in from the Midwest for the New Year's Eve concert. Apparently, Kreayshawn gives out her number. She's also promised to get Stacy and her mom backstage. She puts the call on speaker.
Kreayshawn: "What up, this is Kreayshawn."
Stacy: "OMG, HI. I'M GONNA FAINT."
Kreayshawn: "How many people you with, Stacy?"
Stacy: "Just my Mom," she replies, breathing like she's on mile twenty of a marathon.
Kreayshawn: "Okay, go to the merch booth...hello? Are you listening?" [to us] "She's not even listening!"
There's a pause, and then a sweet Midwestern voice—think the Mom on That 70's Show—comes on:
Stacy's Mom: "Hello! Kreee-shawn? This is Stacy's Mom! Thank you so much for everything! So you want us to go where?"
Kreayshawn: "Go to the merch booth—where they're selling shirts—and find Danny D and tell him 'Luxton Park Crip Gang' and he'll let you backstage."
Stacy's Mom: "O-key! Thanks so much Kreee-shawn. You said go up to him and say what?"
**Kreayshawn: **"Luxton Park Crip Gang."
Stacy's Mom: "I heard 'Something something China Day?'"
**Kreayshawn: **"Never mind, just tell him you're supposed to be backstage."
Stacy's Mom: "Oh o-key, o-key. You are just so wonderful. Can I put Stacy just back on to say goodbye?"
**Kreayshawn: **"Yeah."
**Stacy's Mom: **"Okay, thanks!"
Stacy again, breathy: "Hello?"
**Kreayshawn: **"Hey"
Stacy sounds like she could burst into tears any second. "I love you, man."
**Kreayshawn: **"I love you too."
The backstage at the Regency is the size of a storage compartment, with a dirty dorm couch. There's maybe ten feet of narrow hallway to stand in if you can't finagle yourself a position in the room. Just one joint would be sufficient to hot box the area, and there are three going around. Kreay's White Girl mobster, V-Nasty, is already there. V-Nasty is taller, maybe five feet six, and more menacing than Kreayshawn. She dresses like a skater boy, in oversize tees and space-shoe sneakers. Plus, she's jumpy—her eyes dart around a lot, like she's tweakin' and might pull out a knife and cut you. Or maybe she is actually tweakin' and about to pull out a knife and cut me.
V-Nasty brought her mom, a sweet blonde woman who looks like she could be a former pageant winner and her aunt, who has dark wet curls and a nose piercing. V-Nasty hasn't had the best time with the press. For the most part, she's been that white girl who wouldn't stop saying the N-word. Not as a racist slur, it's clear, but in the way a kid who grows up with a dad who yells "cockshit!" every time the Jets miss a pass will one day incorporate "cockshit!" into her vernacular. (That's her reasoning too, blaming the whole "hood" culture of Oakland: "It's how I grew up. Motherfuckers never told me to don't do it or that I was doing something wrong.") Trying to talk to her is like trying to talk to the Joker: She answers questions in a singsong rhyme. For example, when I ask her if she has a New Year's resolution, she does a little leprechaun dance and sings, "I'm here to get the CH-CH-CH-CH-CHEEEESE, you know what I mean?" I don't, but I think she's asking rhetorically, anyway. I chat with her mom, who seems a little out of her element backstage. "Are you proud?" I ask.
"Well... I am," she replies hesitantly, "It's better than what she was doing before. She really turned her life from a negative to a positive." Her aunt pipes in, "Are you a reporter?" I nod. "Yeah, I thought so." She shoots her sister a wary glance like, Ask these things before you start chatting away. "Listen, here's all you need to know about Vanessa. She's always been the way she is. Since she was 5 years old, she's been that way." And what way is that? At the moment, V-Nasty is a few feet away bent down and hyperbolically grinding her butt against the wall for no apparent reason.
"Just the way she is," her aunt replies.
_Above photo: Top and skirt by Mara Hoffman. Stockings by Wolford. Heels by YSL from Barneys New York, Beverly Hills. Earrings by Opening Ceremony. _
When Kreayshawn takes the stage at eleven forty-five, the first thing she says to the sea of white faces is, "I'm prolly gonna mess up the countdown tonight, so happy 2012 End of Days." They erupt into hoots and applause. It's hard to single out her voice when she performs. She's flanked on both sides by V-Nasty and Hawaii, and they rap every word along with her into the mike, drowning her out. Perhaps this is by design. I could see how Kreayshawn, alone on stage, could be an awkward sight. Her first music video, an over-Autotuned trancelike club song called "Bumpin' Bumpin'," is almost hard to watch in that regard. It shows her on a roof in an oversize Fred Flintstone sweatshirt swinging her arms in that half-helpless but still determined way dads do when they slam a stiff drink and command themselves, Get up and dance; it's your child's wedding, for Chrissakes! She does this move over and over—it's called "cooking." And that's what it is, basically. With one arm she holds an imaginary bowl, and with the other she stirs the imaginary contents of the bowl with an imaginary spoon. It's a comfort move. Cousin to the lawn mower, the grocery cart, the robot—a move invented for the white person to fall back on when the cruel world requires dancing.
During the show, I'm standing with a cluster of backstagers off to the left. Stretch, Isabel, Avian—the entire crew is here. There's Jeff, a cute hipster kid from Baltimore who won a plane ticket out here after he designed a t-shirt of Kreayshawn's face superimposed on a cat's. (Later on that night, Kreayshawn would text Jeff, "Yo, can I sleep in your room?" It was a joke, kind of. She was high. But he was already asleep.) Bopping to the music nearby there is also a pack of five white 16-year-old girls dressed like little hoochie zygotes in tight sparkly minidresses and meticulously straight-ironed hair. Their parents rented a limo to bring them here tonight, and apparently this show of effort was enough to actualize their tiny groupie dreams of hanging with the star. Their limo driver, an older gentlemen in a costumey red tux, somehow ended up backstage, too. He keeps taking iPhone photos of himself posing with a joint in his mouth.
When the lights finally go up at 2 A.M., Kreayshawn climbs down to the floor to take pictures and sign autographs for the fans who've stuck it out for this express purpose. Kids hand her pot gifts wrapped in tinfoil like yuppies bringing wine to a dinner party. One girl lifts up her shirt, exposing some ginormous breasts packed into a sparkly black bra, and asks Kreayshawn to autograph them. It's 3 A.M. by the time she's done talking to everybody. Still, she's promised to take a ride in the limo with her 16-year-old fans. The question is, where to? Stretch and Fatboy want food, and Fatboy finally unleashes his forewarned whack- assery in the service of his stomach. He barks at his iPhone, "Siri, find me a motherfuckin' Denny's!" When she comes back with a listing for a "Martin Denny," he clarifies, "Denny's, the restaurant, you stupid fucking lady!" We end up driving aimlessly until Stretch spots a little taco joint in the Mission, the only florescent storefront left glowing on the block.
We all peel out of the limo and van to wait on the curb where a drunk girl is puking into a garbage bin marked COMPOST ONLY and a passed-out homeless man is blocking a dumbfounded couple from entering their apartment building. The limo teens look like they're freezing. One, wearing a sleeveless sequined dress, has visibly chattering teeth. Earlier I'd had a conversation with this girl, about why she loves Kreayshawn so much, and she had told me, "She shares so much with us."
Maybe this explains Kreayshawn's fame: When she thinks something or feels something, she puts her face in front of a webcam or pulls up her Twitter and broadcasts those feelings. If she happens to consider restraint for a moment, that thought goes online, too. It doesn't matter that she may not be a profound technical rapper or if she looks like a hot mess. Her ability to expose and be exposed is her real, unique talent. She's probably closer than most of us to what future human beings will be like.
Kreayshawn had been plucking at her phone all night—texting, tweeting, filming—and, of course, at 4 A.M., it was dead. For the first time since I'd met her, she's without a link to the larger world. On the street now, shrinking inside a dark blue hoodie and without her hulking manager standing over her protectively, she blends in pretty seamlessly with her circle of 16-year-old fans. A trio of Indian guys walk by, smoking cigarettes. Kreayshawn calls out, "Hey! I'm Lady Gaga! Gimme a cigarette." They don't even turn around.
Lauren Bans is a GQ associate editor.


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Abdul Bird, the 14-year-old Long Beach Middle School student who was hit by an SUV while skateboarding on Lido Boulevard at Greenway Road on June 19, continues to show signs of improvement, according to his wrestling coach, Miguel Rodriguez.
"Abdul has been taken out of the ICU and relocated to the adolescent recovery unit," Rodriguez said after visiting Bird on June 24 at North Shore-LIJ. "His condition is improving. He is responding to commands, but still unable to speak."
After a visit from his wrestling coach last week, Bird was said to be moving his arms and legs, but was still unconscious.
"He opened his eyes for me and nodded his head when I asked him questions," Rodriguez said.
Police said the incident occurred at 7:55 a.m. on June 19, when a 2011 Mercedes Benz travelling west on Lido Boulevard struck the eighth-grader, who was skateboarding east. According to 4th Squad detectives, Bird was taken to Long Beach Medical Center and then airlifted to Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, where he was listed in critical condition.
He was not wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, and Nassau County Police Department spokesman James Imperiale said that Bird sustained a serious head injury. He was later transferred to North Shore-LIJ.
Schools Superintendent David Weiss said that Bird, a member of the Long Beach Gladiators wrestling team, was on his way to the middle school for a rehearsal for Wednesday's moving up ceremony when the incident occurred. Bird's family could not be reached for comment.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the student and his family and friends," Weiss said in a statement. "We hope for a full and quick recovery."
Bird's doctors have declined to provide an update on his condition.
Alex Michelman, whose son was on the wrestling team with Bird, said that stretch of Lido Blvd. is particularly hazardous for students who walk to school because sections of the sidewalks … More
Washington D.C. is probably my favorite city in the country.
Behind Manhattan, that is, of course…
My girlfriend and I headed to D.C. last weekend to visit some of her college friends and get away for a couple of days. We hung out with her friends, went to a museum (the Newseum, to be exact, since I'm a big geek like that), went out to eat, went out for drinks, and just had a good time.
Which in a sense, is a challenging feat for me…
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the time I have to relax when I have it. It's just difficult for me to let go of work to fully let go. I know that holds true for so many other people, as well.
We're living in a unique time; not only are we — as a society and as a global community — in the midst of a technological and digital revolution and transition period, but it's occurring during the worst economy and job market in almost one hundred years. Times haven't been this hard since the nation was crippled by The Great Depression.
That creates an interesting, and at times, certainly unfortunate yield. Because of the challenging job market and economy, people are under even more pressure to perform at work and even excel, but without promotions or raises. After all, no one wants it to go the other way and be the one to get the axe if layoffs become necessary.
This, all the while, during a digital revolution, where to keep up with the newest technologies — ranging from something as simple as cable television (rather than a digital converter box for basic broadcast channels) to something a bit more intricate like a data package for an iPhone — incurs a monthly cost. Don't pay it and you'll fall behind the curve and get left behind. Not to mention that the technology that we all have at our fingertips also keeps us much more connected to our jobs, and our jobs much more connected to us.
That's by no means the only rationale for why … More
If you're a woman, don't try to play a round of golf at Augusta National.
I mean, you can try, but it ain't gonna happen. They aren't going to let you.
The golf club founded in 1933 clearly thinks it's still in the 1930's. They don't let women join the club, period. Not that their discriminatory membership policy against women was OK even then, but…
The most elite golf club in the country is also home to The Masters golf tournament which, of course, just concluded. IBM is the largest sponsor of the tournament, and traditionally, the CEO of the company is always extended an invitation to become a member of Augusta National. The computer giant, at least publically, has never voiced opposition to this policy.
But this year, there's a new wrinkle. For the first time, IBM has a female CEO, Virginia Rometty.
What an opportunity for IBM to step up and take a stand for the betterment of our society and our country — to tell Augusta National and The Masters that if they don't change their policy, IBM will pull its sponsorship dollars from the tournament.
It would have been nice if the company did so when they had male CEOs, or even if other sponsors of the tournament had done so, but there's a window here now, with a female CEO who can't be genuinely OK with this policy of gender discrimination.
As the CEO of IBM, Ms. Rometty may want to ignore being blackballed by Augusta National because sponsoring the tournament is good for business, but how good would it be if protesters decided to boycott her products?
Besides, as a female, Augusta's discriminatory policy surely has to irk her. And as a person, she has to recognize that she's now in a position to do a great deal of good, not just her gender, but our society and nation as a whole.
It's amazing to me that in this day and age, a club in the United States of America, private or otherwise, still has a … More
The Giants are Super Bowl champions again!
Great game, great win…
The same was true a couple of weeks ago when they won the NFC Championship. I watched that game with a bunch of friends at a Kodiak's in Farmingdale, and the place was packed. Everyone was clearly having a great time and enjoying the game and having fun spending time with friends…
And then, the you-know-what hit the fan…
In the middle of the third quarter, we heard the sound of a glass breaking and yelling from the other side of the bar. Our eyes found the beginnings of a fight that had just broken out, and fists flying.
A fight… at a bar… during a football game. How cliché.
Cliché or not, however, it is what happened. It took about a half a dozen staff members from the bar to eventually separate the two guys. Luckily, after being separated, they dropped it and it was done and over with.
Well, one of the two guys dropped it and was done, anyway. The other gentleman, well, not so much…
After both were ejected from the bar by some of the larger waiters — who locked the side glass door behind them — one of them proceeded to punch that door over and over again until it broke. When the police arrived shortly after (you had to know that cops were going to enter the equation here sooner or later), the story of what had caused the fight finally made its way around the bar.
And this is the part that really pisses me off…
As it turns out, the guy who just wouldn't let it go was at the bar with his sister, his girlfriend, and his buddy.
The story was that the guy who threw that first punch had been slapping around his girlfriend, and his buddy tried to get him to stop.
Apparently that effort wasn't appreciated.
Obviously, a few ridiculous things are in play here, from the fight itself, to breaking the door, to not letting it go. But what aggravates me the most, of course, is that … More
The break is over…
The holiday break that is… Not just for me, since clearly I'm back with a new column…
But for everyone… And I know this because everyone is back to being completely self-centered and obnoxious as they are during the remaining days, weeks, and months of the calendar.
Is this surprising? Drum roll please… no, not at all.
Unfortunately, this has been the pattern I've noticed over the last several years. The holidays roll around, and everyone is in a great mood and is all nicey-nice to one another… actually polite to one another… actually considerate of others. And then, as New Year's becomes more of a distant memory, so does that behavior.
Case in point: I was in the library in the days leading up to Christmas, and a man rushed in to return his books. Smiling and happy, he told every person he saw "Happy holidays! Happy new year!" whether they worked at the library or not. But then, when I returned to the library about a week and a half ago, with the holidays in the rear view mirror, I witnessed a patron throwing a fit to a librarian about, well, I don't even know what…
Shocker, shocker…
Clearly the holidays bring out the best in people quite a bit of the time, if not — dare I say — the vast majority of the time. But unfortunately, this is a temporary phenomenon. It comes and, of course, goes on a yearly basis. The consistent niceness and politeness comes every year along with the arrival of Christmas decorations and goes every year with the ending of the good sales at the mall.
I understand why the holidays always seem to bring out the civility, friendliness, and niceness in people. What just doesn't quite seem to compute in my head is why it takes the holidays to bring it out in the first place, and why it can't last all year round. I mean, if people have the ability to behave so well at one point in … More
I tell my friends I think a girl is cute all the time…
And I've never been accused of sexual harassment…
A couple of weeks ago, a 9 year-old 4th grader in North Carolina did just that. He told a friend in his class that he thought a girl was cute. In this case, the girl in question was his teacher, who happened to be out that day. His substitute teacher heard this comment made to his friend, and reported it as a complaint to the school's principal. The school's principal then in turn, suspended the 4th grader.
Take a second and think about that.
Really think about that for a second…
A 9 year-old boy… was suspended, for sexual harassment… He's 9 years old! He doesn't even know what sexual harassment is!
Unless he's Courtney Love's son or something… which certainly doesn't seem to be the case…
And yet, this 9 year-old boy, for making what in his mind was surely an innocent, innocuous comment, was punished and given a 5 day suspension.
Now, a few days later, a higher power stepped in and wrong was righted when the district overturned the suspension, expunged it from his record, sent a formal letter of apology to his mother, the principal resigned, and the boy was given additional instruction assistance for the time he forced to miss in his class.
But all of this makes me wonder: Have we taken things too far in regard to rules and regulations, and do we take the execution of them to a ridiculous extent at times?
There's been some ridiculousness at the TSA over the last few weeks as well. Three elderly women and grandmothers, all of whom were over the age of 65, and all of whom have medical conditions, were forced to submit to strip searches at JFK airport here in New York.
Really? Grandmas? You're going to go after grandmas? They're now the big threats to our national security? Is it the sucking candies or reading glasses … More
It's that time of year…
Time for the proverbial "it's Thanksgiving, so that's what I'm going to talk about" column…
But I don't want to do the usual. I kinda want to do the opposite, since I hate doing "the usual."
We'll see how that goes now, I suppose…
So, aside from the upcoming holiday, I've also been thinking a lot lately about the idea of hope. It's not a concept new to my mind, though. It's definitely something that's entered my consciousness a fair amount.
I've noticed through the years that hope is a funny thing. It's of course, not something tangible or literal. You can't touch it, or hold it. And yet, it's something that so often, gives so many people a positive mindset that they've been in search of, and are perhaps in need of.
People have problems in their lives. Come on, admit it, you do. Hell, we ALL do. Any person you meet who says they have no problems whatsoever in their life is either lying to you, or is the luckiest person on the planet. And, I've not met that person yet, or even come close. We've all got problems and issues to contend with, and that's just part of the deal and part of life.
And of course, sometimes those problems can be somewhat overwhelming, and persistent and constant, more than the average. Enter, hope.
Hope can keep people going, fighting through those difficult circumstances each day. Hoping for a better circumstance, for things to get better, for things to turn around, envisioning that arena of their life the way they want it to be… It can allow people to temporarily escape from their present reality which they don't like, and give them the push to continue on.
I know what you're probably thinking… "What a bunch of crap!" And the cynic in me would venture to agree with you, quite frankly. I mean, I'm … More
Apple is freakin' awesome.
No, not the fruit. The company.
Their products are pretty amazing, you have to admit. You can listen to music on players the thickness of two credit cards, some of which have widths as small as a large eraser. They have cell phones that do pretty much, well, everything. They have tablets that weigh nothing and do everything as well, and laptops that are just pretty cool.
In large part, we can thank Steve Jobs for all these amazing innovations and products. Of course, he passed away a couple of weeks ago from cancer but, he certainly made the most of his life while he was with us.
He had a dream and a passion, and overcame a ton to achieve it and follow his heart. He was given up at birth by his biological parents. He dropped out of college (to audit classes solely in the arena he was interested in) and didn't get a degree. He went through multiple versions of his first product before finding one that actually worked the way he wanted. Oh, and not to mention he was kicked out of his own company after he'd found success.
Not bad, huh?
Everyone (or most people at least) have a dream of what they'd like to do with their lives. Much of the time, these aspirations are a bit more traditional, like becoming a doctor or a lawyer. Other times, however, as was the case for Mr. Jobs, the dreams we aspire to achieve and what we want to become are a bit more off the beaten path. Create a brand new product, put together a new computer program, come up with new ideas for television shows or movies…
I'm talking about innovation…
and not just innovation, but genuine creativity and following your passion.
This is such a genuinely two-sided topic, because innovation can be a real roll of the dice. On the one hand, if you go after your dream and fight through the frustration and leap the hurdles and achieve it, it can be terrific — not just for you, but as was certainly the case for … More
To all of my Jewish brethren out there, Shana Tova and I hope that you had an easy fast.
It is, of course, the High Holy Days for those of us in the Jewish religion, where we celebrate the new year, and repent for our sins of the last year.
For many of us, however, it's also the first time we've been to temple since the High Holy Days twelve months ago.
I know that I'm in that grouping…
I've not always been that way, though. Up until a handful of years ago, I used to go to services a couple of times a month. Not even for holidays. Just to go…
No, I'm not apathetic, and no, I'm not lazy…
Fine, I'll just say it… I have a problem with religion.
There, are you happy now?
And to clarify, I don't have a problem with just my religion, but religion in general, across the board.
It just doesn't feel right to me. So many elements of the empirical beliefs of all religions, whether Judaism of Catholicism or Mormonism or any of the others, and the idea of religion as a whole, that I can't wrap my head around lately. As hard as I try, it just doesn't add up and make sense for me.
And let's be clear, it's not an arbitrary, non-sensical issue with religion. I have what I consider to be some genuine beefs with the concept of religion, and believing in a "higher power" and "all knowing entity" so to speak.
I have issues believing that if I simply pray for something, it will help it to actually happen. What about our own actions? Don't they matter? Doesn't our behavior, or lack thereof, have relevance? Doesn't logic suggest that our actions would be the much more dominant and overriding factor in what actually does and doesn't occur?
I have issues buying into the idea that religions have as a tenet, whichever religion you subscribe to, that G-d, regardless of which G-d you believe in, needs … More
I've been thinking a lot about loyalty lately.
Not just the last few days or weeks or so, but for a few years now it's been a consistent topic on my consciousness.
I'm what I've noticed is a bit atypical on this topic. Now, I understand that there's a reason that the "survival of the fittest" theory exists (thank you, Charles Darwin). After all, there is some logic in play there. But, at the same time, there's gotta be a line where you still feel a loyalty to your friends and loved ones, and act on it.
Doesn't there?
For me, I think it's pretty logical… If someone does something detrimental or negative to a friend of loved one of mine, I think ill of that and also think ill of the person who engaged in that behavior. And I take that approach regardless of whether the person committing the infraction, so to speak, is a friend of mine or someone close to me.
After all, wrong is wrong. Just because I'm close to someone and we have a relationship of whatever sort, that doesn't magically make the behavior acceptable.
And OF COURSE, the same concept applies to me. Logically, I'd expect my friends and loved ones to hold me to the same standards. I'm no different so…
Now, of course there are lines and limits here. Naturally, the degree that I look negatively on a detrimental action and the person who commits it differs based on what it is and how legitimately bad it is. There's a difference between bumping into someone and not saying "excuse me" and simply not showing up for a close friend's birthday without a word… Between forgetting to call someone back and constantly bad mouthing someone behind his back with facetious comments… Between being a few minutes late to pick someone up, and treating a former boyfriend or girlfriend like crap.
You get the idea…
To me, this is all just very logical. It's … More

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
Recent comments by Phil Robertson of A&E's Duck Dynasty fame have once again pushed the debate over religious liberty forward in the public square. After stating to a reporter from GQ Magazine his belief, based on his Christian faith, that homosexuality is a sin, Robertson was suspended indefinitely from his role on the reality TV series by the cable network.
An outcry from both camps followed, with one side applauding the decision and another decrying it. Phil Robertson is hardly a theologian. The founder of a company that made its fortune in duck calls, he and his family have become cult figures with their ZZ Top beards and blue-collar bluntness. An avowed Christian who often prays on the show, Robertson professed to be condemning the sin and not the sinner. The language in which he professed his belief, however, undoubtedly was coarse and devoid of the mercy Pope Francis is repeatedly encouraging. While we must stand up for what we believe as Christians, our pope is also calling us to a higher standard — to stand up for our beliefs with love.
But there's also no doubt that Robertson is being punished for stating forthrightly his religious beliefs in the public square. Like the canary in the coal mine, Robertson's case may be a warning to U.S. Catholics. The backlash suggests that we can expect to see more people punished for stating their beliefs publicly. Beliefs will be tolerated, but only if they are kept private. This not only inhibits free speech, but it also inhibits freedom of religion.
While the Robertson case has attracted media attention, Catholics are increasingly concerned about threats to religious freedom that are not attracting as much coverage: We can be pro-life as long as Catholic hospitals provide abortions. We can go to church, but our job might be in jeopardy if we practice what we preach. We can run businesses as long as we provide health insurance that covers contraceptives, abortifacients and sterilizations.
The U.S. bishops recently recommitted to their fight for religious freedom and against the HHS mandate in a November statement saying that the mandate "establishes a false architecture of religious liberty that … reduces freedom of religion to freedom of worship." In a recent article commenting on Quebec's proposed Charter of Values, which critics also see as a dangerous suppression of religious practice in the public square, Margaret Somerville, a professor at McGill University in Montreal, describes the threat. There are, she wrote, three types of religious freedom.
In "freedom for religion … there is no state religion and the state does not interfere in religious matters," she writes. In "freedom of religion … there is freedom to worship and practice one's religion according to one's beliefs." But in "freedom from religion … religion is barred from the public square."
What is happening in Canada may soon happen in our own country. And as same-sex marriage is legalized in more states, the concept of religious freedom vs. freedom from religion will be further tested. It is important in this environment that Catholics treat those with whom they disagree with respect and avoid every appearance of bigotry. At the same time, Church leaders and ordinary Catholics must be vigilant in both protecting their own rights of speech and religion as Americans and in truly and fairly presenting the fullness of the Church's teachings.
Editorial Board: Greg Erlandson, publisher; Msgr. Owen F. Campion, associate publisher; Beth McNamara, editorial director; Gretchen R. Crowe, editor
Copyright © 1996-2019 Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.


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Skip to comments.Media lies about President Bush and mass spying
Posted on 12/18/2005 3:53:16 PM PST by luv2ndamend
As soon as the New York Times hit the streets with its mendacious attack on President Bush, accusing him of ordering the National Security Agency to secretly spy on Americans, I knew instantly that this vile hit job would be parroted in the Australian media virtually word for word. And so it came to pass, as the Good Book would say. David Nason and Patrick Walters led the attack on President Bush with
George W. Bush has allowed the US National Security Agency to spy on hundreds and possibly thousands of American citizens since 2002 without the court-approved warrants that make such surveillance legal (No warrants given for mass spying, The Australian, 17 December).
This was followed by the accusation that the covert operation [was] secretly authorised by the President, thus conveying the impression that the President acted alone. This is a brazen lie. This pair of phoney reporters then admitted that the sole source for their agitprop was the New York Slimes Bush-hating national security reporter James Risen.
Why didnt this pair of intrepid journos investigate the story further rather than relying on the viciously partisan NYT whose reputation for integrity and disinterested journalism has been reduced to tatters by its publisher Pinch Sulzberger? Any man in the street would have had enough sense to smell a rat. Not this pair of Bush-hating lefties. If the so-called paper of record says Bush violated Americans civil liberties then that is good enough for them.
Far from acting in secret, and without the knowledge of Congress, President Bush made a point of briefing congressional leaders. How come Nason and Walters didnt bother to find this out? Moreover, this pairs outrageous insinuation that thousands of innocent Americans were spied on is refuted by the fact that the program is directed against the international communications of people within the US who are believed to be linked with terrorist organizations.
Yet Nason and Walters made no mention of this vitally important fact. Even more sickening is that the NYT had this fact in its possession but chose to ignore it in a despicable attempt to smear Bush as a danger to Americans civil liberties.
The liars at the Times claimed that they delayed publication of Risens article for a year to conduct further investigations. But we now learn that Risen had written a book on the subject that will be released in less than a week even though he finished it more than three months ago!
One would have to be a complete idiot, or a leftwing journo, not realise what the hell is going on here. Additionally, these scumbags also timed publication of Risens article to bury the good news from Iraq. They are obviously hoping that the books publication will continue this process. Hence, in their perverted eyes, they will have killed two birds with one stone. Only this time the liars are not getting away with it.
Its becoming increasingly clear that Risens book State of War is another leftwing hit job on Bush. The book is being published by Simon & Schuster using the same person who acted as editor for Richard Clarke and Hillary Clinton. A coincidence? Not likely given that Simon & Schuster is owned by Viacom, a company with strong links to the Clintons. Furthermore, Viacom owns CBS. It also runs the leftwing Sundance Film Channel, promoted leftists activities and practiced censorship.
So how did Nason and Walters manage to overlook these connections and the Times obvious conflict of interest? And why do I get the feeling that what we have here is ideologically motivated selective reporting?
Now lets examine another fact that these fearless defenders of the publics right to know managed to overlook. Senator Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was fully informed of this program from the beginning as were other members of Congress.
It was Rockefeller who requested that the special court that overseers the program should re-examine some of the NSAs new powers of surveillance. Yet not a peep from Nason and Walters about this. According to them Bush did it all by himself. As far as they are concerned, Bush is the real enemy. And these political bigots have the nerve to call themselves journalists.
Its more than obvious that partisan Democrats within the CIA are intent on destroying the Bush presidency irrespective of the damage it does to national security and the danger in which it puts their fellow Americans. In this regard they have a lying media fully on side.
For years now Congressional Democrats like Leahy, Rockefeller, Durbin, Kennedy and Levin have been embroiled in a number of national security scandals. Yet this has never been reporting in the Australian media. Moreover, the Democrats are notorious for using security agencies for partisan ends. In addition, evidence is surfacing that the Clintons used the IRS to harass their critics. This is another story that our media spiked.
The media are the real scandal here not George W. Bush.
Gerard Jackson is Brookes economics editor
Aussie Bump!
later read
Media lies about everything!
1) The spying is only done on those people within the United States who are known to have association with Al Qaeda.
2) The NYT article makes clear that no laws were broken. Any democrat saying differently is playing politics, imo.
3) The NYT article also says that the C.I.A. seized the terrorists' computers, cellphones and personal phone directories, said the officials familiar with the program. The N.S.A. surveillance was intended to exploit those numbers and addresses as quickly as possible, the officials said. In addition to eavesdropping on those numbers and reading e-mail messages to and from the Qaeda figures, the N.S.A. began monitoring others linked to them, creating an expanding chain. While most of the numbers and addresses were overseas, hundreds were in the United States, the officials said.
They were tracking numbers that were tied to confirmed terrorists and according to reports, stopped 3 terrorist attacks within the US. This is EXACTLY how the 9/11 attacks were coordinated - between jihadists and sympathizers of other terrorists living in this country.
4) The NYT article also states that the government DID use subpoenas for domestic taps in a great many instances, mostly related to conversations between terrorist within the US.
5) Clinton used NSA satellites to spy on Americans after the Oklahoma City bombing incident. The leftists never had a problem with that and all the complaints we hear from them now about American's civil rights being abused pale in comparison when one remembers what happened to women and children at WACO and how Clinton abuse his office and used the IRS to target his political enemies.
Love how they don't pull punches. Calls "liars" what they are!
I see yet another Democrat blunder as they complain that Bush broke the law, violated the rights of American citizens, etc... only to find out that MOST people support what the president is doing and that he is also within his constitutional perogative.
The military does not request permission of the courts to perform their job. This is a military issue... we are at war.
Amazing it needs to be said.
Great points! Thanks for clarifying.
Media lies and has done a sickening job, in this war on terrorism. Calling the Media pea brains would be an undeserved compliment.
I keep hearing the MSM saying that "members of both parties" are calling for investigations. Of course they never point out that's just Senator Spector. [*rimshot*]
It would be nice tonight for the President to give dates of such briefings and who was in attendance.
I would also like to hear him have the Justice Department go after ALL the leaks.
1802. Electronic surveillance authorization without court order; certification by Attorney General; reports to Congressional committees; transmittal under seal; duties and compensation of communication common carrier; applications; jurisdiction of court Release date: 2005-03-17
(a) (1) Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year if the Attorney General certifies in writing under oath that—
(A) the electronic surveillance is solely directed at—
(i) the acquisition of the contents of communications transmitted by means of communications used exclusively between or among foreign powers, as defined in section 1801 (a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title; or
(ii) the acquisition of technical intelligence, other than the spoken communications of individuals, from property or premises under the open and exclusive control of a foreign power, as defined in section 1801 (a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title; [e.g., defined as terrorists /angkor]
(B) there is no substantial likelihood that the surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person [e.g. citizen or perm. resident /angkor] is a party; and
(C) the proposed minimization procedures with respect to such surveillance meet the definition of minimization procedures under section 1801 (h) of this title; and if the Attorney General reports such minimization procedures and any changes thereto to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence at least thirty days prior to their effective date, unless the Attorney General determines immediate action is required and notifies the committees immediately of such minimization procedures and the reason for their becoming effective immediately.
Excellent summation regarding the law! Thank you so much; saved under my file on this matter. And I'm sending it around to my e-mail group.
Please spread it around, people need to be informed.
By the way, it's not a summary, it's the verbatim text of 50 USC 1802.
I think that you need to email that to Feingold--the ignorant dunce.
Yes, you're right.
And I just posted the link to your post on the Live President Bush thread and pinged you to it and mentioned that you posted it. Thank you again and I will spread it around on appropriate threads.
Great post, thanx
Thanks. We have a dupe post, I put it on the live thread just before you. We'll live with it :)
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text:
From The Files Of March 8, 1990 '90 Ray Koontz, owner of Penn's Village Shopping Center is building an addition on the east end of Hollinshead's Store for the store
to expand to furniture sales. Fred Waite is constructing the new addition.
No one was injured in an early morning fire Monday, March 5, which gutted a fire along Pa. Route 475 in Taylor Township. Hustontown Fire Co. was called to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Gartland, one-half mile north of Clear Ridge. When firefighters arrived, the kitchen wall and ceiling and second-story bedroom were well engulfed. The home was insured and the occupants are now staying with relatives nearby.
Forbes Road School Board Monday night approved in principle the sale of unused school property located behind the Dallco Industries sewing plant in Hustontown to that company for a planned expansion project.
Mr. and Mrs. Hal Gobin of Virginia Beach, Va., announce the birth of their daughter, Sara, January 29.
Southern Trail Beverage Distributor recently opened for business at 109 South Seventh Street, McConnellsburg, under the ownership and management of John Kauffman. His father owns K&K Beverage at Fort Littleton.
A fire which destroyed a vacant house along a Thompson Township road late Friday night, February 23, has been ruled an arson by Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal Gary Trivelpiece. The fire at the vacant house owned by Edward Younker of Warfordsburg was an "incendiary fire" and that signs indicated the fire began outside the south end of the house. The home had no electrical service hooked up and no heat, indicating that there were no accidental sources for ignition.
Sgt. Kimberly Foster has arrived for duty at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. She is the daughter of James and Beverly Foster of McConnellsburg.
A surprise party was held March 3 in honor of Catherine J. Sipes' 80th birthday at Knobsville United Methodist Church.
Deaths: Harold "Tom" Richards, 64, McConnellsburg; Robert DeShong, 56, McConnellsburg; Anna Beard, 94, Westminster; Robert R. Everts, 76, State Line; Armeta Stonebraker, 51, Hagerstown.
30 Years Ago
From The Files Of March 6, 1980 '80 Temperatures of five degrees above zero and below were reported in the county over the weekend, but even those people vacationing
in the sunny South, to get away from the cold, were shivering – it registered 32 degrees in Miami on Saturday. The snowstorm which dumped around two feet on places as far south as North Carolina, missed this area except for a light cover.
Nellie Covalt, a remarkable woman of good farm stock, will be 100 years old on March 17 and will become, as far as can be determined, Fulton County's only centenarian. Though now a guest in the Extended Care Unit at the Medical Center, Mrs. Covalt was born on a farm and spent the biggest part of her life as a farmer's wife, raising a family of eight. Hard work was something she was used to, but she says thing are a lot easier for a farmer's wife today.
A four-room frame house, owned by Betty Malot of Hustontown and rented by Pete Hockensmith, was severely damaged in a fire which was started by an overheated woodstove in the living room last Wednesday. Hustontown Fire Co. was called to the residence, located on Route 655, by a neighbor. There was considerable heat, smoke and water damage, which made the home uninhabitable.
McConnellsburg IGA owner Ray Koontz unveiled plans for his new supermarket to be built at Penn's Village Shopping Center at an Ayr Township supervisors meeting on Friday.
Specials at the IGA: Kessler's hams, 79 cents lb.; pork shoulder steaks, $1.19 lb.; boneless chuck roast, $1.59 lb.; Hills Bros. coffee, $7.99, 3 lb.
Births at the Medical Center: a son to Mr. and Mrs. Marlyn Lynch of Warfordsburg on February 22; a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Michael Chilcote of Mapleton Depot on February 24; a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Shope of Saltillo on February 24; a son to Mr. and Mrs. Richards Snyder of Breezewood on February 26; a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. James Johnson of McConnellsburg on February 28.
Deaths: Gladys Fix, Fort Loudon; Mrs. Hazel Broadwater, Waterfall; John Hollenshead, St. Thomas; Wilmer Johnson, Hershey; Lewis Conner, Duncansville; James Hess Sr., Hancock; Marshall Daniels, Hancock; Pearl Landers, Hancock; David J. Simmers, McConnellsburg; W. Bruce Mathias, Shade Gap; Belle Elizabeth Pyles, Neelyton.
40 Years Ago
From The Files Of March 19, 1970 '70 The Sagner Inc. plant in McConnellsburg, together with similar clothing factories across the nation, will close down on Thursday
at 10:00 a.m. so that workers may rally to protest the rising volume of Japanese and other foreign made, low-profit imported clothing into the United States, which threatens to wipe out this country's men's clothing industry.
The Tuscarora Hillclimb will be held this year on June 20 and June 21.
Veryl Donald Mellott, 38, Chambersburg, was killed in a truck accident on Route 30, one mile west of Breezewood, last Tuesday, March 10, at 9:15 p.m. Mellott's rig ran into the rear of a tractor-trailer operated by a Michigan man. The Mellott rig overturned and he was pinned in the wreckage.
Mr. and Mrs. Ross Garland will mark their 50th anniversary on April 3.
The H-H Market is moving its place of business from Lincoln Way East to Harrisonville.
Deaths: Earl Sipes, Howard Peck, McConnellsburg; John Ray, Hancock; Howard Parsons, Fort Littleton; Lloyd King, Kissimmee, Fla.; Mack Clevenger, Fort Loudon; Dale Garland, Johnstown.
Now playing at the Fulton Theatre: "The Outdoorsman" and "The Great Bank Robbery."
Births at the Medical Center: a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. James Long of Breezewood on March 7; a son to Mr. and Mrs. Roger Black of Greencastle on March 8; a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Warren Gordon of Mercersburg on March 8; a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Boyd Varner of Three Springs on March 12; a son to Mr. and Mrs. Homer Stine of Chambersburg on March 12; a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Marlin Hollenshead of McConnellsburg on March 12; a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Ray of Needmore on March 12; a son to Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Powell of Hancock on March 13.
Specials at the IGA: IGA ice cream, 59 cents, half gallon; Kraft macaroni and cheese dinner, 19 cents; tissues, 25 cents box; ground beef, 69 cents lb.; chuck roast, 50 cents lb.
50 Years Ago
From The Files Of March 24, 1960 '60 A small headstone, measuring eight inches wide and 10 inches long, was unearthed last week from under The First National Bank
during excavation work to expand the basement for storage space. It bore the inscription "Florence V., daughter of James and Malinda Lin Coivan, who died January 31, 1855, age 12 years and 22 days." It is thought that the headstone was among the rubble hauled in for reinforcement when the bank vault was installed several years ago. Wooden water pipes installed when the bank was built 90 years ago were also found during the excavation, still in good condition.
George Smith of Cashtown, son of Mr. and Mrs. Brooks Smith of Warfordsburg, has been appointed sales representative for the Speedy Manufacturing Co. of Oelwein, Iowa, with a territory covering western Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York.
Bishop Howard J. Carroll, head of the Altoona Johnstown Catholic Church Diocese, died early Monday at Washington Hospital. His diocese included Fulton County.
A defendant in court last week, pleading guilty to transporting untaxed liquor, was fined $100 and costs. The court ordered the liquor confiscated and given to the Medical Center.
Over $280,000 will be spent on the 1960 highway program in Fulton County, which includes 13 projects of new and resurfaced roads and the completion of the Route 29037 bridge north of Needmore, which is 50 percent complete.
A fried chicken dinner will be served at the local American Legion home on Sunday. The price will be $1 and free refreshments will be served.
P.A. Mellott, a salesman at Fulton Motor Sales, Mc- Connellsburg, will be presented with a 300-500 club award as a top ranking salesman for 1959 at a banquet in Pittsburgh on March 26. The average salesman sold 100 new cars and 70 used cars in qualifying for the national honor, according to the district Ford sale manager.
Buhram Stahle of Amaranth was presented a certificate for 45 years of service as a fire warden at the annual meeting at the Buchanan State Forest District on March 11.
Doctors Robert Fry, Gerald T. Lorentz and Russell McLucas will sponsor the kickoff dinner at the Medical Center for the Fulton County Unit of the Cancer Society on March 31
Roger Daniel of Needmore, who was seriously injured in a car accident on January 29, has returned home from the Chambersburg Hospital and is back in high school. He will graduate in 1961.
Mrs. Robert E. Riggs entered Chambersburg Hospital on Thursday for surgery.
With a view to opening a carpentry shop, Charles Croft of McConnellsburg has purchased a 100-foot fronting on Route 16 from Humphrey Yaukey.
At a meeting of the Fulton Chamber of Commerce, W. Pyles, president of the town council, told members he felt sure the borough could supply the amount of water needed to provide a sprinkling system for the Fulton Manufacturing Co., but to meet the requirements specified by the insurance underwriters was an almost impossibility, considering the size of the town and the available water supply.
K.G. Richards, local Dodge dealer, was informed this week that Richards Motors had achieved the highest rating of sales for February, compared to sales of other dealers of like sales areas.
Pennsylvania's new equal pay law prohibiting discrimination in payment of wages on the basis of sex went into effect on March 17.
Births at the Medical Center: a son to Mr. and Mrs. William Kendall, Washington, D.C., on March 14; a son to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Rogers, Harrisonville, on March 14.
Mrs. Sadie Peterson, former Burnt Cabins postmistress, died unexpectedly at her home last Wednesday.
Mrs. Galen Kling, Burnt Cabins, is a surgical patient in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Duane Parsons, Burnt Cabins, who was injured in a car accident last week, has returned home from Chambersburg Hospital.
James Shank of Homestead, Pa., died last Friday and was buried in the Buck Valley Methodist Church Cemetery.
Keith Hixon, Amaranth, who is serving in the U.S. Army at Fort Knox, Ky., spent the weekend with his parents.
Cpl. Joseph Miller of Camp Lejeune, N.C., while visiting with his wife in the Robert Shaw home, Wells Tannery, was stricken with appendicitis and was rushed to Bedford Hospital.
The Knobsville correspondent writes, "Did you see the Northern Lights the first of last week? They were beautiful."
A birthday dinner was held recently in the John R. Pittman home in honor of Mr. Pittman, Lloyd Fahnestock and his triplet sons, Dale, Dean and John, and Rev. John Peffer of Carlisle.
Army Pvt. Glenn M. Layton, 18, of McConnellsburg, recently arrived in Baumholder, Germany, and is now a member of the 8th Infantry Division.
Deaths: Mrs. Maye Sheetz Miller, McConnellsburg; George W. Doyle, McConnellsburg; Alfred C. McCoy, Fort Littleton; Ms. Sadie K. Peterson, Burnt Cabins; Mrs. Victoria Erhardt, Roaring Spring; Albert S. Heer, New Grenada; Sarah Catherine Everts, Needmore.
The Keystone Kustard Kitchen at Knobsville will open on March 25.
There will be a grand opening of the Harris Hotel dining room on March 25 with a square dance in the evening.
60 Years Ago
From The Files of March 23, 1950 '50 For the first time since the start of construction, the board of directors met in the new Fulton County Medical Center on Monday
Births: a son to Mr. and Mrs. Merrill Richards of Webster Mills on March 19; a son to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Raker of McConnellsburg on March 20
Fulton County's only centenarian, John W. Comerer, died on Sunday at the home of his son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Ott of McConnellsburg. He was aged 100 years, one month and 20 days.
Willis Preston Hawbaker Jr. and Dorothy Chamberlain were married on March 4.
Harold Eugene Chesnut, 61, McConnellsburg, died at the home of his son, Claude, in Chambersburg, on March 16. He was a former treasurer of Fulton County.
The Mixed Chorus of the McConnellsburg High School will present the operetta, "Belle of Barcelona," on March 31. Taking the female leads will be Martha Culler and Virginia Gress. Starring in the male roles will be Bob Cutchall and Stanley Kline.
Deaths: Mrs. Dora Means Hendershot of Buck Valley; Mrs. Mary Ellen Creek of Warfordsburg; Billy Glenn Foster of Wells Tannery; John Sollers of Mount Union; Elder Hugh Gallher of Fargo, N.D.; Margaret M. Cook; George Cutchall of McConnellsburg; Russell Sanford Garland of Lansdale.
70 Years Ago
From The Files Of March 21, 1940 '40 An Easter service will be presented in the Knobsville Church on Saturday evening.
Sunday School class members taking part will be Betty Miller, Jean Hamil, Maxine Cline, Oscar Kerlin, Ruth Miller, Adrian Reeder, Dorothea Reeder, Marveline Croft and Arlene Glunt.
Deaths: Mrs. J.C. Maun of near McConnellsburg; Isaac Beatty of Buck Valley; Moses Gordon of Sharpe.
Local firemen were called Wednesday morning to extinguish a chimney fire at the home of Mrs. Martin Souders at Jugtown.
The Lions Club egg hunt at the school grounds on Saturday will be under the supervision of Prof. Owen C. Fries, Joseph Shelly and Howard Peck.
Indicted on Friday by the grand jury, a local man went on trial on Monday on a charge of murder in the fatal shooting of a state patrolman outside a local restaurant on January 3. Judge W.C. Sheely is presiding at the trial and a day and half were spent in selecting the following jurymen: Harold Martz, Jacob B. Mellott, Omar Layton, Jay W. Alloway, John Chamberlain, Harvey Bishop, David P. Bowman, James Harris, Paul Gordon, John Vanhorn, Earl M. Akers and Frank Chilcote.
The season for trout fishing will open at Cowans Gap on April 15 instead of April 1, the opening date for the remainder of the state.
Icy road conditions were the cause of a collision between a 1939 Chevrolet truck, operated by Merrill Culler of McConnellsburg, and a Desota sedan, operated by Dorothy M. Pine of Hagerstown, near Sylvan on March 17. There were no injuries.
The Fulton County Fair Association has received a payment of $790 from state Treasurer F. Clair Ross as its share of $50,000 in state-aid payments to 84 fair associations in 51 counties.
Admitted to Everett Hospital during the past week were Arthur L. Cady of Harrisonville for medical treatment and Mrs. Minnie Leasure of Mc- Connellsburg for treatment and observation.
The operetta, "Top of the World," will be presented by the McConnellsburg Glee Club next Tuesday. Taking the leading roles will be Bonnie Cutchall, Lyle Duffey, Paul Ott, Mary Jane Hamil, Grace Raker, Lewis Largent, Eleanor Stevens, Robert Raker, Dorothy Paylor, Arthur Grissinger and Robert Hays.
Richard K. Deshong and Marjorie Ella Metzler were married on March 17.
Wendell R. Henry and Dorthy M. Fraker were married on March 16.
Mrs. Mary Vallance continues seriously ill at the home of her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Harr, near town.
Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Richards announce the birth of a son at Chambersburg Hospital on Thursday.
George Grissinger attended the Federal District Court at Scranton last week where he served as a juror.
A daughter, who has been named Charlotte Rebecca, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn Barnett of Hustontown, on February 29.
Guy, little son of Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Strait of Hustontown, died last Wednesday evening of pneumonia.
Mrs. Lillian Fraker of Fort Littleton was admitted to the Huntingdon Hospital on Friday.
80 Years Ago
From The Files Of March 20, 1930 '30 Deaths: Peter Culler of Johnstown; Austin Allen
Clymans of East Bevier, Miss.; Florence Jeannette Hauman of Mount Union.
Jacob Mottor has sold his property at Thomastown, consisting of a frame dwelling on four acres of land, to Charles B. Paylor for the sum of $1,000. Mr. Motter purchased the adjoining property, with a dwelling and one acre of land, from Scott Oliver for $200.
Death: Jon W. McCoy of Fort Littleton.
A.L. Weaver's sale at the Hykes farm last Thursday amounted to $1,900. His highest priced cow brought $103.
State police arrested a Saluvia man on Saturday, charging him with forging a license plate by changing 1928 to 1930.
Recent births: a son on March 8 to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bolinger of McConnellsburg; a daughter on February 25 to Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Souders; a son, Paul Andrew, to Mr. and Mrs. Amon Fittery of Mc- Connellsburg on February 18; a son, Donald Pittman, to Mr. and Mrs. John H. Divens of near Knobsville on February 21.
Death: Mrs. Rebecca Deshong of Johnstown.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Steckman of Northcraft was saddened by two deaths the past week. On Tuesday, Jake Steckman of Clear Ridge, who spent the winter in the above home, died at the age of 8 years. The following week, Mrs. Mary Steckman, a member of the same home, died at the age of 80 years. Both deaths were caused by influenza.
Born: a son, Herman Eugene, to Mr. and Mrs. Rankin Mellott of Needmore on March 13; a son to Mr. and Mrs. Orville DeShong also.
Claude Smith of Brush Creek was admitted to the Roaring Spring Hospital on Thursday where he underwent an operation for appendicitis
Pearl Bishop, teacher at the Fairview School, fell last week and broke her wrist.
Death: Dr. Martin G. Brumbaugh, president of Juniata College.
On February 27, a party was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. L. Brady Mellott of near Hustontown in honor of the 20th birthday of their daughter, Helen.
F.S. Ambrose, president of the United Coon Hunters' Sportsmen's Association, has started a dog kennel on the old W. King property, midway between Mc- Connellsburg and Hustontown, which will be known as the Blue Ridge Mountain Kennels. In the near future, all kinds of sporting dogs will be boarded and trained at the kennels.
The mud has dried up at last!


text: This photograph, as well as a call for assistance to determine my Porter family's relationship to the men in the picture, was first published in a post I wrote for the Attala County Memories blog in September 2008. The photograph, actually a "picture postcard" that I found in my grandmother's photo album, is my submission to Smile for the Camera, 9th Edition, "Who Are You - I Really Want to Know." Someone long ago wrote the names of the men in the picture on the back of the postcard, but what I really want to know is how these men fit into my Porter family tree. The five men in the photograph were identified by the note on the postcard as David Porter, Payton Porter, David Blair, Hall Hart, and John Shearfield. The card has no stamp and no postmark, so it is safe to assume it was never mailed. Written in the space intended for a mailing address is "From Ellie to Vertie, Helena, Ark." Vertie Porter was my paternal grandmother's sister, my great-aunt, and she once taught school in Arkansas. But who was Ellie? And why did Ellie send Vertie Porter a picture of these five men? It goes without saying the two Porter men must have been relatives, but were the other three men relatives, too? And finally, why would my grandmother continue to hold on to this picture long after her sister's death?


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Design a Logo
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Online store selling size from small - plus size
Rather than selling clothes, we want to create value in womens' life.
Theme color : Black & Gold
Black represent mysterious ladies
Gold represent classy
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text:
Proliant DL760 G1 900MHz (4P) 2MB Cache
Part# 212692-001
Note: Due to a weight greater than 100lbs Part# 212692-001 will be shipped via our "Ground" service.If you require faster shipping please call us during normal business hours for a shipping estimate.
Overview:With up to eight Pentium III Xeon processors and 16GB of memory the Proliant DL760 is the server that can handle anything your business has to throw at it all in only 7U of rack space. This model is configured with four 900MHz Pentium III Xeon processors each with a 2MB write-back L2 cache an integrated Smart Array controller with support for RAID levels 0 0+1 and 5 and 2GB 100MHz ECC SDRAM (expandable to 16GB). In addition to the 100MHz front bus speed the Proliant ML750 contains a 3.5 1.44MB floppy disk drive and a 24X (max. speed) slimline CD-ROM drive. There are four hot-plug drive bays that provide a maximum internal storage capacity of 145.6GB (4 x 36.4GB). Because there is no pre-installed Hard Drive you are free to configure storage to fit your needs. The Compaq NC3134 Fast Ethernet Dual Port 10/100 PCI NIC (upgradeable to gigabit) takes care of your networking needs while the 10 free hot-plug PCI slots offer plenty of room for expansion. The integrated PCI graphics and 2MB of video memory support resolutions up to 1024 x 768 in 256 colors. There is no pre-installed operating system. Supported operating systems include: Microsoft Windows NT Server; Microsoft Windows 2000; Novell NetWare; SCO UnixWare; LINUX (RedHat S.U.S.E. TurboLinux Server Caldera eServer); and Sun Solaris Intel Platform Edition.


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"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." John 17:16
Suggested Further Reading: Leviticus 19:35-37
Look at Jesus' character; how different from every other man's—pure, perfect, spotless, even such should be the life of the believer. I plead not for the possibility of sinless conduct in Christians, but I must hold that grace makes men to differ, and that God's people will be very different from other kinds of people. A servant of God will be God's man everywhere. As a chemist, he could not indulge in any tricks that such men might play with their drugs; as a grocer—if indeed it be not a phantom that such things are done—he could not mix aloe leaves with tea or red lead in the pepper; if he practised any other kind of business, he could not for a moment condescend to the little petty shifts, called "methods of business." To him it is nothing what is called "business;" it is what is called God's law, he feels that he is not of the world, consequently, he goes against its fashions and its maxims. A singular story is told of a certain Quaker. One day he was bathing in the Thames, and a waterman called out to him, "Ha! there goes the Quaker." "How do you know I'm a Quaker?" "Because you swim against the stream; it is the way the Quakers always do." That is the way Christians always ought to do—to swim against the stream. The Lord's people should not go along with the rest in their worldliness. Their characters should be visibly different. You should be such men that your fellows can recognise you without any difficulty, and say, "Such a man is a Christian."
For meditation: When the Christian thinks to himself "But everybody else does it", he is thinking of denying Christ (Ephesians 4:17,20).
Sermon no. 78
24 November (Preached 22 November 1855)


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Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Important Copyright Case: Will Review First Amendment vs. Copyright Issue
from the fingers-crossed-that-they-get-this-right dept
The second case, challenging the registration/automatic question, pointed out that under the Eldred ruling, the 1976 Copyright Act should be reviewed for First Amendment issues, since it certainly changed the traditional contours by switching copyright from "opt-in" to "opt-out." Actually, it didn't even switch it to opt-out, as there's really no way to officially opt-out of copyright coverage. That seems like a massive change to the traditional contours of copyright law. However, the appeals court got confused and simply assumed that what was being argued was the same issues in Eldred.
The third case is this case, the Golan case -- which noted that due to a treaty agreement, the US took some foreign books that had been in the public domain, and retroactively put them under copyright protection, putting some sellers of those books at risk for infringement. Two years ago, we were a bit surprised to find a court agreed, and said that this part of the Copyright Act was unconstitutional. Basically, the court suggested that Congress could have written the law in such a way that left those works in the public domain. Last summer, the 10th Circuit appeals court reversed the lower court, and basically said it was okay to take these works out of the public domain, and that there was no First Amendment issue in doing so, because copyright law "addresses a substantial or important governmental interest." For a variety of reasons, I found this reasoning to be quite problematic.
Golan appealed, and it was just announced that the Supreme Court will actually take the case and will review the First Amendment issue (along with the Progress Clause issue). While I wouldn't be surprised if the Court made a ruling that flies in the face of reason, as it did with Eldred, perhaps we can be hopeful that some on the court will finally recognize how the massive expansion of copyright over the last century really does raise serious First Amendment issues. This is an important case to follow, even if it seems likely that the Supreme Court will make another bad ruling. And, even though it may be a narrow issue, getting the Supreme Court to actually look at some of the issues when the First Amendment comes into conflict with copyright is still important.


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Winemakers at a recent Wine Institute press conference in San Francisco gave their assessments of the earlier-than- normal growing season, region by region.
In view of some 40,000 new acres of bearing vineyards and high inventories already throughout California wineries, several said they welcomed the shorter crop and some said quality compares with the 1997 vintage.
The industry earlier girded itself for as much as 500,000 tons more than the California Department of Food and Agriculture's harvest-end estimate. Even so, a global sea of surplus wine awaits navigation in the coming months.
Cal Dennison, senior winemaker at Guinness UDV Wines, San Francisco, said grapes in Lodi and the Sacramento Valley, where crops were shorter after a hot spell in May and June, were harvested rapidly and the wines are likely to win many awards.
Redwood Valley's Gregory Graziano, owner of Domaine Saint Gregory, said overplanting has occurred in Mendocino and Lake counties and oversupplies of grapes have toppled prices. However, the third-generation grower-vintner added, new acreage of Rhone and other varieties are "a real bright spot" for Mendocino County.
For Monterey County, Chris Glynn, grower relations representative at Gallo's Anapamu Cellars, gave the year high marks for Chardonnay, as well as red varieties, because of longer hang-time for complete maturity as sugars accumulated.
New vineyards
Glynn said several new vineyards of Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Syrah, and Mouvedre are coming on-line this year and next, especially in the southern part of the county.
Napa Valley growers coped with challenges of short rainfall in the winter and spring, followed by a warm March and damaging frost in April, according to Richard Ward, partner at Saintsbury, Napa. Some vineyards lost half their crop, but a slow growth period later promised balanced components in the wines.
Ward, a specialist in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, said the area's whites "are precociously aromatic and intense while the reds are concentrated in color, tannin, and flavor and destined for graceful long lives."
Valerie Vanni, owner of Solis Winery at Gilroy, said the San Francisco Bay region, where growers cultivate improved relations with a surging urban population, saw cool weather in September and October that promoted average yields but "better-than-normal" quality.
Canandaigua's Mark Gabrielli at Madera said an April frost, the first in years, in the San Joaquin Valley thinned an average crop to less than normal, but later weather fostered small berries, packed with flavors, tannins, and color.
Harvest was early, and many varieties matured simultaneously, challenging winery efforts to conserve limited energy. In addition to on-farm energy-saving innovations, quality-conscious valley growers concentrated on water and canopy management.
From the 2,000- to 3,000-foot elevation Sierra Foothills, Edgar Coulson of Coulson Eldorado Winery at Camino said harvest was two weeks early, and dry-farmed vineyards yielded 10 percent to 25 percent less.
The crop formed high sugar, high acid, and low pH, but longer hang time moderated acid levels as mature flavors developed. Winemaker consensus, he added, is that early varieties are average and later varieties are superior.
Sonoma County yields
Yields in Sonoma County slipped about 10 percent after one of the driest seasons in memory, Laurence Sterling, partner in Iron Horse Vineyards at Sebastopol, told the gathering. Fruit, however, flowed into the crushers evenly and in good condition.
Sonoma County growers, mindful of preserving the long-range viability of the their industry, continued to diligently apprise their urban neighbors of vineyard practices.
The earlier-than-normal harvest on the South Central Coast saw growers, keen on energy conservation and wine quality, employing deficit irrigation to manipulate berry size for intensity of color and flavor. Don Ackerman, viticulturist at Meridian Vineyards at Paso Robles, said the techniques, although they limit yield, are pleasing to both growers and vintners.
From Temecula, the largest of Southern California's five viticultural areas, Peter Poole, president of Mount Palomar Winery, brought good news that several of his colleagues rate wine quality as the best they've seen in 15 years. Practices such as cover crops, foliar nutrient spraying, and leaf pulling are credited for the gains.
Rallying against losses to glassy-winged sharpshooters and Pierce's Disease, Temecula growers also lost traditional winery markets as buyers rejected the certification process of the bulk grape movement protocol required to ship grapes outside the area.
In response, said Poole, growers are catering to the quality needs of local vintners to hold some outlets for their grapes. Bulk wine production and custom crushing and pressing have picked up as a result.
Further, Poole noted, some relief from the insect and the deadly disease it vectors has been achieved after a two-year campaign. The insect's populations are low, and research trials have been moved elsewhere.
Treatment of targeted citrus groves has eliminated the need to ground-spray vineyards, and native parasitic wasps have "made a large impact on sharpshooters," he said.
Wasp value question
The outcome of releases of imported wasps released by the University of California, Riverside, however, remains to be seen.
California's 847 commercial wineries, predominantly family-owned and operated businesses, shipped 445 million gallons to domestic and foreign consumers in 2000.
That year California sales of 393 million gallons accounted for 70 percent of the total of 565 million gallons of domestic and foreign wines consumed in the United States.


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- Drop-lock design offers easy access for pin adjustment
- Range of motion can be set in 10° increments
- Superior and inferior score zones for length adjustment
- Dial can be locked to encourage patient compliance
- Circumferential loop lock straps allow for even compression
- Trimmable softgoods available in full or cool foam options
INDICATIONS: Post-operative stabilization and rehabilitation; Post total knee replacement; Post ORIF; Fractures of the femur, tibia, fibula or patella; Ligament reconstructive procedures; Meniscal repairs; Post-fracture management
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"Why do you carry your dog, does he like it?"
Sometimes the Market guards give me a hard time about having him here, it's a little better if I carry him.
"You should just get your Doctor to certify that you need a companion animal. It's easy. I did that with my two. When I asked, he said, 'Are you kidding? You don't need a companion animal!' So I told him I was homicidal! Bang! Two stamps for my dogs!"


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I spent twelve years in various forms of school uniforms. Plaid jumpers with knee socks and white shirts with peter pan collars, plaid skirts with knee socks, white shirts with peter pan collars and cardigans, black skirts and navy skirts with button down shirts….you get the idea. Parochial school did not have "Office Fridays" in the 1980′s and my off-time clothes didn't have a whole lot of variety, especially in elementary school. I wore a lot of hand-me-downs, mostly from my cousin Elena. For all intents and purposes, I was a fashion "no". Though I remember a pair of worn out jeans that had applicaqued vines and flowers up the leg that I wish I still had to this day.
For anyone old enough in The City of Presidents to remember, my mother shopped for any new clothes in The Bargain Center. Ahhh, The Bargain Center. It was that space between The Salvation Army and Marshalls. Overstock from anywhere, it was a dimly-lit labyrinth where every mom within a 50 mile radius went to buy pretty much everything – towels, sheets, every pair of brown leather mary janes I wore every year from 1st to 6th grade…an institution. My mother dragged our sorry butts in there at least once a month. My brother would complain of "dizzy spells" and collapse in towers of towels, marked $1 a piece, until she'd snap her fingers in a gesture for him to move his sorry ass and get going or get smacked for dragging his feet. Then TJ Maxx opened ("Get the max for the minimum at TJ Maxx!"). They had lay-a-way!!! And so, we moved up in the world. And The Bargain Center closed.
Anyway, as I mentioned earlier, I spend a great deal of time dressing in clothes that my cousin had already worn. We spent weekends in Plympton where my cousins Elena and David lived, collecting pine cones for some craft project that never came to fruition. I suspect now that said project were ideas planted by mothers who wanted us to go outside and occupy ourselves so we'd get out of their hair. I remember collecting a whole green trash bag full of pine cones that the boy across the street stole from us and then hid it amongst similar bags of leaves. He said I could only have it back if I guessed the right bag. I was six. He was ten. A ten year old dickhead.
Anyhow, we'd come back from those trips with bags of clothes. The problem was that by around 10 years old, Elena had shot up into a tall girl like her parents, and I was fairly short. I continue to remain fairly short. Her hand-me-downs didn't fit me anymore and my mother was forced to buy me clothes. And take us shopping with her. And we dreaded every single moment of the entire shopping experience. While my brother was having dizzy spells in piles of folded towels and clothing, I could be found hiding in the middle of the circular clothing racks, either in a ball on the floor or hanging from the bars like an orangutan. Either way, my mother was not amused. We all hated every moment of it.
These days, I do 90% of my shopping online, including groceries and drugstore items. So after all of this, how is it that I have a six year old who cannot help herself but to pull every dress, every frilly skirt, every pair of shoes off of every rack and shelf within reach to plead with me to buy it and then stand in front of any mirror available anywhere to pose in her haute couture, real or imagined?
What child is this?
I need to find a Bargain Center and drag her there every weekend until the damage is repaired.