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Let us try and bring to mind a picture of
That's what it must have been like in the Age of Pericles, when the city was already very ancient. Research shows us that the area around
Sometime around the late 9th or early 8th century BC, Hesiod and Homer gave us the first myths, exaggerated, heroic tales which provided a glimpse of the kind of society where everything was dependent on an unknown divinity. During subsequent generations, these gods and heroes underwent many sea-changes in the service of local, often political needs. Myth may be a wonderful depiction of the world but it was also the easiest way for simple people to learn about their history. Thus the early inhabitants believed that their leaders-who sometimes took peculiar forms-were descended from the gods. Even their names can be explained in the light of societal needs.
Then gradually, over a period of time, the leaders ceased to be supernatural, and began taking on more human dimensions. And the people themselves, as they acquired knowledge of the outside world from the sea routes, stopped being afraid of the otherworldly and began to wonder about the world. It is a fascinating experience to watch myth evolving hand in hand with the development of a people and to discern historical truth through an imaginative construct.
Thus Kekrops and Erichthonios, the first kings of
With respect to Erichthonios, mythology provides us with a number of illuminating details. It is said that Hephaestos, the lame blacksmith of the gods, wanted to join in union with Athena, the great goddess of knowledge, but she drew back from his loving embrace and the divine seed fell on her legs. She then rubbed her leg with a swatch of the wool she was spinning and threw it to the ground. But whereas Athena refused the seed of the god, the Earth received it and thus did Erichthonios spring forth.
The Athenians always had a particular affection for their founding father in his snakish form: they built him an exquisite temple, the Erechthion, which priests made sure was constantly supplied with offerings of honey c
akes. In some myths, Erichthonios is called Erechtheas; in others Erechtheas is the grandson of Erichthonios and in a third version, Erechtheas has come from Egypt. Perhaps all these versions represented attempts to explain the successive waves of colonists inundating the Aegean during those turbulent years.
If we seek to unravel the threads of the myths, then the truth emerges in all its radiance. The name of Erichthonios shows us his origin: eriochthon means wool-earth, i.e. born of the earth and from it. His descendants intermarried with peoples from Thessaly whose genealogical tree shows their founding father to have been Prometheus. He was the wise Titan who gave mortals the gift of fire, i.e. the light of knowledge-previously the exclusive realm of the gods or perhaps of some priestly brother hood- and for this reason was cruelly punished on a rock in the Caucasus.
It was Prometheus' son Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha who brought the human race back to life in the mountains of Thessaly after the great flood. His grandson was Hellene. Today we know that the Indo-European Aryan tribes, after discovering the use of metals somewhere in the Caucasus, learned to craft strong weapons. Some tribes spread out into central Europe and the Balkans, some remained to take advantage of the good grazing lands while others pressed on southward.
The initial root began to put forth many branches as Hellene, grandson of Prometheus, had sons who were quite different one from the other. There were Aeolos, Xouthos and Doros, who gave their names to Hellenic tribes in later years. Xouthos, which means "the fair", was quite distinct from the early Athenians who had the darker skin of the Aegean peoples. He was to marry Kreousa, the granddaughter of Erechtheas: their children were named Achaeos and Ion, the forefathers of the later Hellenes. Another variation of the myth had Ion as the offspring of Apollo's secret liaison with the same princess. This detail helped advance the mythic cycle from the primeval, with its demonic forms of nature, evolving into humanized deities like Apollo who led man to thought, poetry and philosophy.
Many modern historians believe that the later Hellenes came from Pindus, on the border between Thessaly and Epirus. This fits in admirably with the Attic myths about the genealogy of their kings and the various intermarriages, documenting the arrogance of the ancient Athenians toward the other inhabitants of the region, since from the very outset, gods would frequently come down and intermingle with the mortals, lending a divine dimension to many conjugal dramas.
We know that the first inhabitants of the Attic earth were cultivators, but its poor, arid soil made them turn toward the sea. The story of Theseus who volunteered to go to Crete and kill the Minotaur, delivering
From then on, Theseus never stopped traveling, like all those who, having once experienced the vastness of new horizons, could never thereafter remain closed within narrow confines. He went with the Argonauts to the Pontus (Black Sea), fought against and defeated the imperious Amazons, winning their queen, and taught the spoiled Centaurs a hard lesson in good behavior. But he also took care of his own region, joining together little individual townships into a large and powerful confederacy, with temples in which gods and ancestors were worshiped and with a citadel for security against jealous neighbors.
Theseus was possibly a historic figure who, over the passage of centuries, has become wrapped in the glory of myth to serve domestic expediencies and presented as the scion of the divine race of Ion. A hero who was also a demi-god was always more impressive than just a worthy leader; the inhabitants of the city favored with such a leader would feel special and try to emulate him. Thus the descendants of the first Athenians began their fearless exploration of the sea. As they succeeded in guaranteeing their livelihood, their numbers grew; they learned, became wealthy and expanded their activities around the Mediterranean coasts, creating bridgeheads of commerce and free thought. The colonizers of the east side of the Aegean were called Ionians; and it was there that the ideas of philosophy, the principles of human rights, ethics, metaphysics and the harmony of the universe were born.
Economic ease created a new order of things. Until then, the head of the largest family had been king; but when other men gained power through trade, they too claimed the right to a voice in government, thrusting aside the custom of the hereditary monarchy. A special place was needed for the exchange of commodities and this was how the Agora (market) grew up. The meetings of the local people with strangers made it necessary for them to learn how to develop convincing arguments; from this need sprang the art of rhetoric.
The interests of the people had to be protected. As there were already a great many people, the proper role models had to be found on whose example they could shape their behavior, which at its most sublime moment, led to the formulation of laws by Solon the Sage in the 6th century. Developments in the administrative system were accompanied by cultural progress. The local clay was used to make ceramics which, while initially serving the needs of daily life, soon became objects of trade and then developed into works of art, since men, having assured themselves of the necessities, now sought the beautiful. Athenian potters began producing enormous grave amphoras with austere ornamentation, dominated by Greek key designs and shadowy figures. Black-figured vases were the next phase, with their stylized silhouettes; these evolved into the marvelous red-figured vases which sometimes bear the craftsman's name under vivid compositions depicting moments from the lives of gods and men.
The gods were worshiped in stately stone temples decorated with marble statues that replaced the earlier idols. The myths became overlaid by a multitude of heroic details, as gods and mortals alike came alive in a new form of ceremony which took place in the theater. Meanwhile, more and more Athenian ships were sailing to and fro in the Mediterranean, carrying new developments and provoking envy in other lands which rapidly turned into the desire of foreign leaders for conquest and expansion. The result was the Persian wars at the beginning of the 5th century BC.
The decisive military confrontation at sea and
These wonderful monuments were what roused military Sparta's ire and ultimately led to the armed confrontation. Like all civil wars, the Peloponnesian War was devastating and, unbeknownst to anyone at that time, it signalled the beginning of the end for the proud
The Christian religion which was slowly spreading hope of deliverance among oppressed peoples, began to gain followers while the philosophical schools were still full of young people seeking enlightenment on questions of rhetoric, the written word and even theology. One of the most famous students of these schools (4th century A.D.) was Julian, later the Byzantine emperor who came to be known as the Apostate because of his attachment to pagan religion; others were Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus, future Fathers of the Church. The philosophical schools of
Deprived of its intellectual nourishment, the city was gradually forgotten, destined to continue its progress through time as an insignificant village, the roads of which were studded with pieces of marble from statues that had been smashed by fanatics remembering the heathen past of this once-great city. It was this past that made the official Byzantine state neglect the birthplace of art and beauty, which they regarded as a dangerous incitement to those who tended to disagree with the medieval terms of immortality. The religious exaltation of the period could in no way be reconciled with the frivolity of the ancient gods and thus Christianity's fight for dominance was a tough one without concessions or exceptions.
In the 13th century, when the Crusaders transferred their need for expansion to the East, thinly disguised under a veil of religion, knights who had been excluded from the division of the conquered lands fanned out over the Aegean and around the coasts snatching land by brute force. During the years that followed, the Franks and Catalans established their principalities in Attica and fought to keep them safe from the rising power of Islam. All during this time, the few remaining residents of
It was these descriptions which awakened the memories of Hellas and soon the travellers would start coming in earnest to look, dig and depart in order to send others in ever greater numbers. The Ottoman conquerors, gazing down indifferently from the heights of the Acropolis, where they had established themselves for security reasons, looked condescendingly upon those who came to do research, while the suspicious local population tried to make some money by helping those people whom they, in their ignorance, termed "silly strangers". In the mid- 18th century, lists had already begun to circulate around Europe of the most significant Greek monuments; some of these lists were even accompanied by drawings. By the early 19th century a few collections of the plunder had already been established.
The French Revolution brought a different atmosphere to the intellectuals of Europe. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity became accepted values. Romantic verses by Lord Byron brought back to the Western mind the memory of Hellenic culture associated with this part of the Balkans, rather than the Greece that had become known through the wealthy Greek merchants in various cities of Europe. Thus the news that the Greek War of Independence had been proclaimed fell on fertile ground and the voice of the enslaved Greek nation was heard once again after centuries of silence, inspiring artists to paint episodes from the desperate struggle waged by the few descendants of the heroes of Marathon and Thermopylae. The scene depicting a mounted, turbaned warrior fighting against an impassioned footsoldier. In his fustanela inspired a sense of heroism and the confrontation between life and death, as well as awakening feelings of anger against the oppressors and support for the oppressed.
In June 1822, the Greeks captured the Acropolis and made it their command post, while the struggle continued with an uncertain outcome on all fronts. Five years later, Kiutahis Pasha had recaptured the citadel in a last ditch effort to suppress the revolution. But the Great Powers of the times formed an alliance -either because they wanted to bow to public opinion or because they were counting on gaining influence in the new independent state in the strategic Mediterranean region, or because they regarded the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire as inevitable-and in the decisive battle of Navarino, it was they who administered the final blow to the Sultan, which gave Greece her freedom.
As soon as it gained its independence, the newly constituted state became an apple of discord for European politicians, while the dusty village of
It was in this way that Greek archeology, the new science of antiquities, was born.


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How desperate are some journalists to find newspaper work in this era of cutbacks and layoffs?
Nine or 10 journalists are reported to have fallen for a scam in which a 25-year-old accused con artist created a fake online newspaper. They joined his "staff."
Joshua Brian Randolph was in the Hall County, Ga., Detention Center Friday night on "a lot of charges, over 30 to 35," a jailer told Journal-isms. Randolph was already known in that part of the world as the man who stole the identity of a teammate on the semi-pro Gainesville Heat basketball team, of which Randolph was the coach, according to John DAquino, writing in Georgia's South Hall Gazette.
Investigator Danny Sridej of the Oakwood, Ga., Police Department said Randolph, using the name Kevin Cobb, offered employment to legitimate reporters and then used their personal information to obtain credit from vendors, B.J. Williams, editor of AccessNorthGa.com, reported.
Randolph hired nine people for the newspaper, according to Shannon Casas, reporting for the Times of Gainesville. She wrote that investigator Sridej believed the employees worked for Randolph for no more than two or three weeks. "Sridej said some of them had been paid with cash and others had been given paychecks that bounced."
One journalist smelled something fishy and pulled away before signing on as executive editor. He wrote to Jim Romenesko's media blog Friday, telling his tale on condition that his name not be used.
Here's how the South Hall Gazette began its story about the scam on Monday:
"A former semi-pro basketball coach and 'online newspaper publisher' has been arrested and charged with eight counts of transaction card fraud and theft by deception.
"According to the Hall County Sheriff's Office, 25-year-old Joshua Brian Randolph set up an online newspaper start-up called the 'Gainesville Observer' as a front to steal personal information from the employees he 'hired'; 10 in all. This online newspaper had an office located at 720 Main Street in Gainesville.
"Randolph, who used the alias 'Kevin Cobb', stole the identity of a relative and opened four accounts under the relative's name; among them were a $1,300 dollar account with American Express and a $1,800 dollars account with Bank of America.
"Authorities accuse Randolph of paying the employees of the 'Gainesville Observer' with these forged checks while also allegedly writing fake employment/income verification letters. . . ."
Randolph pleaded guilty in 2007 to impersonating an officer, the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times reported in 2009. Last October, Randolph, then head coach of the Gainesville Heat of the American Basketball Association, was arrested and charged with theft, forgery and deposit account fraud, according to WGTJ-AM in Gainesville.
There is more. "Earlier this year, Randolph was charged with transaction card fraud and identity theft in connection with stealing personal information from customers at Greene Ford Co. on Browns Bridge Road, according to an incident report filed Feb. 25 by the sheriff's office," the Times reported. And "Randolph may face extradition to Kearny County, Kansas where he allegedly presented himself as 'Jazmine Stephens,' a contractor for an online hauling company," the South Hall Gazette said.
The journalist who wrote Romenesko said he answered an ad for an executive editor on JournalismJobs.com.
"I should have known that something [was] up when I asked him for the offer letter with all the things that we agreed on, and he called it an 'officer' letter," the journalist wrote. "Also, letter wasn't on a [stationery], but on a regular plain Word doc, and it didn't mention any of the things that we talked about besides the salary (such as insurance, moving costs, etc.). . . . "
He continued, "I'm happy I dodged a bullet, but my heart goes out to the real journalists who were hired by Cobb. I asked a friend yesterday: 'What type of reporter can be scammed like this? 'But my friend and I then agreed: The economy and industry are so bad that people are desperate. And believe me I'm ashamed of myself for saying that about those reporters because I had a level of desperation too. . . ."
White Deaths Exceed Births for First Time in a Century
"Deaths exceeded births among non-Hispanic white Americans for the first time in at least a century, according to new census data, a benchmark that heralds profound demographic change," Sam Roberts reported Thursday for the New York Times.
"The disparity was tiny — only about 12,000 — and was more than made up by a gain of 188,000 as a result of immigration from abroad. But the decrease for the year ending July 1, 2012, coupled with the fact that a majority of births in the United States are now to Hispanic, black and Asian mothers, is further evidence that white Americans will become a minority nationwide within about three decades.
"Over all, the number of non-Hispanic white Americans is expected to begin declining by the end of this decade.
" 'These new census estimates are an early signal alerting us to the impending decline in the white population that will characterize most of the 21st century,' said William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution.
"The transition will mean that 'today's racial and ethnic minorities will no longer be dependent on older whites for their economic well-being,' Dr. Frey said. In fact, the situation may be reversed. 'It makes more vivid than ever the fact that we will be reliant on younger minorities and immigrants for our future demographic and economic growth,' he said. . . ."
U.S. Census Bureau: Asians Fastest-Growing Race or Ethnic Group in 2012, Census Bureau Reports
U.S. Census Bureau: Facts for Features: Caribbean-American Heritage Month: June 2013
D'Vera Cohn, Pew Research Center: Why there are more deaths than births among whites
Jenée Desmond-Harris, the Root: End of White America: Should We Care?
TheRoot.com: "Browner America" series
No Black Dads Pictured in Time Father's Day Feature
"Dear Sheryl Sandberg,
"You advise women to lean in and speak up. I'm taking your advice," Dori J. Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, wrote Friday in an open letter to the author of the best-selling "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead."
"I can't tell you how disappointed I was in the Father's Day feature on which your Lean In Foundation collaborated with Time magazine. Not one African-American father appears on the Time website. I know it shouldn't have shocked me.
"Content audits, such as one by The Opportunity Agenda, tell us that even in the age of President Obama, the media continue to pigeonhole black men, consigning them to coverage about crime, sports and entertainment, out of proportion with their actual involvement. Equally important, the media rarely show black men in all of their humanity as doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, politicians, and yes, fathers.
"Sadly, this feature is a stark example of the gap between coverage and reality, and not just because it ignores black fathers. There were also no Asian-American or Native American fathers in Time. I note that the magazine did a good job of presenting a cross section of white and Latino fathers.
"Unfortunately, the other dads of color— one black and the other Asian-American — are relegated to your foundation's website. . . ."
Time magazine received the 2012 Thumbs Down Award from the National Association of Black Journalists "for its lack of diversity within its reporting corps." Among the particulars, NABJ said "the magazine has eliminated blacks from major news coverage, including a special commemorative issue on the 10th anniversary of the [Sept. 11, 2001] terrorist attacks that depicted no African Americans. . . ."
Jessica Cumberbatch Anderson, HuffPost BlackVoices: Black Fathers Not A Complete Anomaly, New Book 'Dare To Be Extraordinary' Demonstrates (EXCERPT, PHOTOS)
Danielle Belton, Ebony: Are Women in Their Own Way? (March 13)
Daria Burke, HuffPost BlackVoices: What Lean In Means for Women of Color (April 25)
Gregory Clay, McClatchy-Tribune News Service: Sheryl Sandberg effect — Lean In or Lean Out (May 28)
Mary C. Curtis, Washington Post: Do black women need lessons on 'leaning in'? (March 25)
Tammerlin Drummond, Oakland Tribune: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg inspires women to take charge (May 26)
Hazel Trice Edney, TriceEdneyWire.com: On Father's Day: These Super Dads Defy the Statistics
Patrice Gaines, blackamericaweb.com: Faces of Hope: Every Girl Needs a Dance with Her Dad
Frederick H. Lowe, North Star News & Analysis: Federal Government to Link Fathers with Children who live in Public Housing
Dori J. Maynard, Huffington Post: Recalling Dad's Encounter With Intensive Government Monitoring
Mark Anthony Neal, Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.: On occasion, TV captures complexities of black men as fathers
Latoya Peterson, Racialicious: On Lean-ing In (March 27)
Tony Pugh, McClatchy Washington Bureau: Black family progress has stalled since controversial 1965 study, report says
Nikki Woods, blackamericaweb.com: A Special Message For the Fathers Who Earned the Title
Protection Order Against Detroit Reporter Fleming Lifted
Detroit News reporter Leonard Fleming, the subject of headlines in January when the ex-wife of state Treasurer Andy Dillon received a personal protection order against him, has been free of the order since March 21, the Wayne County, Mich., Circuit Court confirmed last week.
Carol Dillon asked the court to lift the order, and Judge Richard Halloran granted it then, according to the court clerk's office.
The personal protection order, granted without a hearing at which both sides could testify, made headlines because of its sensational allegations. Dillon filed papers saying Fleming had threatened to kill her with a baseball bat.
"According to documents in Wayne County Circuit Court, Carol Dillon also said Fleming harassed her numerous times and once texted her a photo of his penis. She said the message was: 'I would be missing this if I discontinued being his friend,' " Jeff Wattrick of Deadline Detroit wrote in January.
Fleming was transferred from his city hall beat and reportedly suspended for 10 days.
Dillon could not be reached for comment. Fleming, who is now a general assignment reporter covering transportation issues, did not want to speak on the record.
However, friends told reporter Steve Neavling in January that "the accusations are outrageous and insulting because Carol Dillon is the one who became irate and demanding when the reporter wouldn't leave his girlfriend. . . ."
Senate Democrats in Rare Q-and-A With Black Journalists
"The sole Democratic African-American senator cast doubt on the need for a 'black agenda' from the president and on its chances of passage in Congress during a Democratic forum with largely African-American reporters Wednesday," Suzanne Gamboa reported for the Associated Press.
"Massachusetts Sen. William 'Mo' Cowan said the issues that black Americans are concerned about are the same as those causing white Americans concern, although to different degrees. . . ."
Attending the on-the-record African American Media Roundtable, sponsored by the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee, were Sens. Mark Begich, Alaska; Robert P. Casey Jr., Pennsylvania; Chris Coons, Delaware; Cowan; Mark Pryor, Arkansas; Mary Landrieu, Louisiana; Tom Harkin, Iowa; Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota; Debbie Stabenow, Michigan; Ben Cardin, Maryland; and Mark R. Warner of Virginia.
Eighteen reporters were present: April D. Ryan, American Urban Radio Network; Joe Madison, SiriusXM; Keli Goff, freelancer; Michael H. Cottman ofblackamericaweb.com; Hazel Trice Edney, TriceEdneyWire.com; William Douglas, McClatchy Washington Bureau; Kristal High, Politic365.com; Denise Rolark Barnes, Washington Informer; Nia-Malika Henderson, Washington Post; Deborah Berry, Gannett News Service; Leroy Jones Jr., "Ask Talk & Listen With Political Jones" and PoliticalJones.com; Joyce Jones, BET; Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post; Gamboa, Lauren Victoria Burke of the Crew of 42; Len Burnett of Uptown magazine, Avis Thomas Lester of the Afro American Newspapers and L. Joy Williams of "This Week in Blackness," according to Tyrone Gayle, a spokesman for the Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee.
Lauren Victoria Burke, Crew of 42: Black Journos Meet Senators on Black Issues, But Shhh… Don't Say "Black Agenda"
Jonathan Capehart, Washington Post: A 'black agenda' is an American agenda
William Douglas and David Lightman, McClatchy Washington Bureau: Feinstein will seek limits on who can see NSA spy data
April D. Ryan blog: A Conversation Between Black Journalists and Democratic Senators on the Hill
Renee Schoof and William Douglas, McClatchy Washington Bureau: With student loan rates about to double, lawmakers squabble
TV One to Use Hands-On TV Production to Teach STEM
"TV One will offer a educational initiative to engage middle school students in the television production field, said network officials," R. Thomas Umstead reported Friday for Multichannel News.
"The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program will provide educational support for sixth, seventh and eighth graders in the four respective subjects through hands-on television production activities beginning in September of this year. The curriculum, which will utilize original network programming, will be available atwww.tvone.tv and at Cable in the Classroom's website, www.ciconline.org.
"The program will feature such lessons as Anatomy of a Television Production, Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production, which will present students with authentic tasks that television industry professionals face, said network officials. The curriculum will also include instructional and informative interviews with production executives from TV One and those who work on its scripted original comedy series Belle's. . . ."
NAACP Fund's Ifill Calls Race vs. Class a False Choice
"The decision is in. All consideration of race in college admissions is over.
"No, the Supreme Court has not yet announced its decision in the landmark case of Fisher v. University of Texas; that ruling is expected any day now. But an alarming number of scholars, pundits and columnists — many of them liberal — have declared that economic class, not race, should be the appropriate focus of university affirmative-action efforts," wrote Sherrilyn A. Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc. and cousin of PBS journalist Gwen Ifill.
"How can we explain this decision to throw in the towel on race-based affirmative action? Are we witnessing a surrender in advance of sure defeat? Or just an early weariness with a debate that, a decade ago, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor predicted would last another 25 years?," Ifill wrote in the New York Times on Thursday.
"Perhaps it is the presence of a black president that has encouraged so many to believe that race is simply no longer a significant factor in American life. It is true that we have come a long way since the days of Jim Crow segregation. But the plain fact is that race still matters.
"It matters with frightening frequency in the encounters of young black men with the police. It matters in our ability to get access to affordable housing, and in the wealth accumulated (or not) by our families. Whether the name on our résumé is Lakeisha or Leslie matters when we try to get a job interview. And it matters often, though not always, in our views about the continuing significance of race in American life. . . . "
Among those arguing recently for class-based affirmative action was columnist Bill Keller, former New York Times executive editor.
Daniel Cox, Huffington Post: What Americans Really Think About Affirmative Action
Angela Rye, the Grio: Angela Rye's rant on affirmative action: How do you pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you have no boots?
NFL Boss Defends Redskins Name as "Unifying Force"
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defended the Washington Redskins name in a June 5 letter to 10 members of Congress who urged team owner Daniel M. Snyder and Goodell to change the name last month.
Cindy Boren reported Wednesday in the Washington Post, "He outlined the history of the Redskins' nickname, writing, 'Neither in intent nor use was the name ever meant to denigrate Native Americans or offend any group.' Goodell also cited Native Americans and polls in support of the nickname.
" 'The Washington Redskins name has thus from its origin represented a positive meaning distinct from any disparagement that could be viewed in some other context,' he writes. 'For the team's millions of fans and customers, who represent one of America's most ethnically and geographically diverse fan bases, the name is a unifying force that stands for strength, courage, pride and respect.' . . . "
Meanwhile, Matt Berman wrote Wednesday for National Journal, "Finally, the 'Redskins' nickname and mascot have been ditched. But no, it wasn't by Washington's NFL team that features phenom-QB Robert Griffin III. It was by Idaho's Teton High School, which stars kids who probably aren't as great as RGIII but probably have functioning knees.
"The superintendent at Teton High School in Driggs, Idaho, made the decision as a means of getting students to 'see people beyond the color of their skin' and 'get to know who people are without using nicknames or assumptions based on outward appearances.' The district's superintendent, Monte Woolstenhulme, dropped the name without the approval of the school board, acknowledging that he'd receive some backlash but saying, 'We're moving forward with this change.' . . . "
Africans Uneasy Over Media Focus on Mandela
"As Nelson Mandela remains in a Pretoria hospital, journalists from around the world have set up camp outside. Some residents offer help, others say the media's behavior is unethical," Thuso Khumalo reported Wednesday for Germany's Deutsche Welle.
"When the news of Nelson Mandela's hospitalisation broke during the early hours of Saturday, June 8, foreign and local journalists immediately sprang into action.
"Media teams were dispatched to take up position outside Mandela's home in Johannesburg, his rural home in Qunu, and at the entrance to the hospital in Pretoria where he is being treated for a recurring lung infection.
"The group outside the hospital consists of several dozen people. They monitor the hospital entrance day and night, taking turns to ensure no movement is missed.
"Dozens more outside broadcasting vehicles are lined up along the street, providing frequent updates about Mandela's health and information about the visitors going in.
"Day and night, the journalists' recorders and cameras are in hand, ready to record interviews, film and take photographs.
"No car arriving or leaving is spared by the cameramen and women's lens. They all hope to capture a shot of Mandela leaving the hospital or of the high profile people visiting him. . . ."
Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR: Media Focus On Ailing Mandela Is Not 'The African Way' (May 11)
Keith Somerville, African Arguments: South Africa: Framing Death — How Will the World Mark the Passing of Nelson Mandela?
"When the New York Post wrote about former CNN anchor Soledad O'Brien's cool new job as a correspondent on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, they made a not-so-tiny mistake: They illustrated it with a photo of CNN anchor Zoraida Sambolin, currently the channel's highest-profile Latina anchor," Eric Deggans wrote for the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times. "The mixup was particularly problematic for the New York Post for its recent history; it is now the subject of lawsuit by two young men featured in a cover photo during the search for suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing back in April. . . ."
"Tampa Bay Times TV/media critic Eric Deggans on Thursday was selected by the National Association of Black Journalists Arts & Entertainment Task Force as the recipient of its 2013 Legacy Award," the Times reported Thursday.
"For this week's 'News or Noise?' we look at media coverage on labor provisions in the Senate immigration reform bill [podcast]," reads an announcement for NPR's "Latino USA." "Why so much media buzz around visas for high tech workers in comparison to the coverage on the farmworker deal? María Hinojosa speaks with Ted Hesson, immigration editor at Fusion."
An unscientific online poll of current former Times-Picayune workers asked about the New Orleans paper's transition to digital-first, in which it cut back on the frequency of the print edition, found that "Almost no one thought the changes had been handled well," Rebecca Theim wrote Friday for Columbia Journalism Review. "Among current employees, 85 percent disagreed with the statement that the company had done a good job handling the changes and among former employees, disagreement was virtually unanimous. . . ."
"Richelle Carey is no longer working for HLN, a spokesperson confirms with TVNewser," Chris Ariens reported Thursday for TVNewser. "Carey was an anchor and correspondent for Prime News and had been with HLN for 7 years, joining from KMOV-TV in St. Louis. . . ."
"Nicole Marie Richardson is leaving Inc. magazine. Richardson had been with the magazine since 2008, most recently serving as executive editor, special projects for Inc.com.," Chris O'Shea reported Friday for FishbowlNY. "In an email announcing her departure, Richardson said she was leaving because she was 'ready to pursue other opportunities.' . . . "
"Journalist/activist/filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas casually mentioned his newest documentary, Documented, to me when we gathered to petition the New York Times to completely stop using the terms 'illegal' and 'illegal immigrants,' " Andrea Plaid wrote Friday for Racialicious. "But I thought he was in the throes of shooting or at the beginning of post-production. In other words, the movie was a long way off from being in the theater. Well, documentary-fan me is so happy to announce that the movie will make its world premiere next Friday, June 21, at Washington, DC's American Film Institute's documentary festival! . . ."
"A FRAGILE TRUST [trailer] is the first and only documentary to tell the shocking story of Jayson Blair, the most infamous serial plagiarist of our time, and how he unleashed the massive scandal that rocked the New York Times and the entire world of journalism," the filmmakers declared. "We are pleased to announce that after 7 years in the making, A FRAGILE TRUST will have its world premiere this coming Saturday at Sheffield Doc/Fest," in Sheffield, England. [Blair told Journal-isms by email Saturday, "I fully cooperated and think Samantha Grant is an amazing documentarian. I am sure she told the story in an excellent way. But, as I have told Sam, I probably won't watch it for years because of the painful honesty of the piece. I am proud of her doing this over 10 years. She put a look of work into [it]. We probably spent hundreds of hours communicating about it and several dozen hours filming. I didn't see CQ/CX either for similar reasons," referring to last year's off-Broadway play.]
"Scripps College of Communication Dean Scott Titsworth has announced the appointment of Michelle Ferrier, Ph.D., associate professor at Elon University in Elon, N.C., to Associate Dean for Innovation, Research/Creative Activity and Graduate Studies. She will also hold an associate professor position in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. The appointment begins in July," the college announced Tuesday.
Mark Mitchell, a collector of African American memorabilia with a substantial stock of historic newspapers, is the subject of a profile by Lonnae O'Neal Parker in Sunday's Washington Post Magazine.
WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh has announced the hiring of Bofta Yimam as an investigative reporter, Kevin Eck reported Friday for TVSpy. "Yimam comes to WTAE from Memphis [FOX-owned] station WHBQ where she was a general assignment reporter."
"Two former interns filed a lawsuit against Condé Nast on Thursday, saying the company failed to pay them minimum wage at their summer jobs at W Magazine and The New Yorker, and asked that it be approved as a class-action suit," Christine Haughney reported Thursday for the New York Times.
Among the findings from the "Unite Rochester" project of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., "59 percent vs. 34 percent favored programs to help black people and other minorities make up for past discrimination. Support was highest among city and minority respondents but was still favored by 53 percent of white respondents. . . .," Dick Moss reported Thursday. He wrote, "Since last fall, Democrat and Chronicle editors and reporters have conducted hundreds of interviews, convened numerous panels of readers, and participated in a number of community discussions — both in person and online — about racial attitudes in Rochester. . . ."
Philip Eil of the Phoenix alternative newspaper in Providence, R.I., compiled opinions from local reporters and community members about the widely circulated video of Melisa Lawrence, the mother of a 16-year-old girl who was shot at a graduation party. Lawrence curses at a reporter, "throws a rock at the cameraman, goes into the house to retrieve a baseball bat, then apparently sics her pit bulls on the news crew, sending the reporter screaming, running away, and dropping her microphone. . . ."
Follow Richard Prince on Twitter.
Facebook users: "Like" "Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.
Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.

subset: commoncrawl


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EIFL has been working in Zambia since 2001. We supported the creation of the Zambia Library Consortium (ZALICO), and through this partnership, libraries in Zambia are providing access to a wide range of scholarly e-resources.
In Zambia, EIFL has advocated for revisions to the national copyright law to enable libraries to better meet the needs of their end users.
EIFL has also engaged with public libraries in Zambia resulting in an innovative pilot project that is helping libraries to meet the information needs of their communities.


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This morning, Bernard attempted the valiant intellectual feat of trying to get inside the mind of one W. Mitt Romney. The question: what lies behind his pre-Sandy hate on FEMA? His answer:
When Romney talked about killing FEMA it wasn't because he really thought the states could or should do it, nor did he think the private sector could or should. When Romney went after FEMA in the primary debates, it was all about letting GOP voters know that he sees the Black Helicopters too.
That's plausible, certainly, and I've no doubt that when you're betting on Romney's combination of cynicism and opportunism, you'll never lose taking the over. But at the same time, I think this particular stance was overdetermined — and that it's worse, not better, that Romney's views on federal involvement in any social good derive even in part from remnants of genuine belief.
Here I have just a hint of (one remove) personal insight to share. Y'all recall that among the Romney "home states," Mitt and his family did in fact live in Massachusetts for a lot of years. Which means he had friends here, people who knew and liked him before ambition consumed his soul. As it happened, I had dinner with a couple of those folks last week — people who had met him in the context of (non-sectarian) social action and who had become personal friends over the years the they knew each other, beginning well before Romney embarked on his political career.
My friends barely recognizes their friend any more, which saddens them, but in talking about Mitt's charitable interests, our dinner companions emphasized two things: the first is that Romney does recognize that there are people in need, those for whom a helping hand is both needed and likely to be effective.
The second: Romney possessed then, and presumably does now, an enduring commitment to the Mormon church — not just to the formal tenets of the faith, but to the institution as it saw itself, a kind of corporate entity integrated into all facets of its members' lives. That's the context in which Mitt had no problem with the idea of a group responsibility to ensure individuals' well-being-in-extremis. But such social service properly takes place (in my understanding of my friend's gloss on Mitt's views) within the private sphere, in the settings that Mormons or others find themselves. The idea of state intervention was not just unnecessary; it was an unwarranted intrusion.
The virtue of such an approach is obvious, I think: within specific communities, there are real, kept, mutual guarantees. Its defects are equally plain: for one, the price you pay for such common cause is that the gentile — and we're all gentiles to somebody — is not part of the deal; and for another, there's the problem of scale. In a country of 310 million-plus folks of all kinds of origins and destinations, the moral and practical implications of that kind of approach are catastrophic. As Sandy illustrates with brutal clarity, if your approach to the problems of society within the nation we actually inhabit is a canned goods drive…well, were he actually in charge, the consequences that would flow from what at least were once Romney's beliefs would be pretty certainly disastrous.
And hence the real problem, IMHO. Throughout this election season, plenty of folks who should know better have floated the notion that the GOP candidate seen on the stump is a fake Mitt — thus enabling the fantasy of some pragmatic, moderate Mitt who would both seek and be able to govern from the sensible center. I think that's pretty certainly hogwash on the face of it; the running mate choice, if nothing else, is the one actual Presidential decision a nominee gets to make before the election, and I think Mitt's shows the direction of a putative Romney presidency pretty clearly.
But even if there still survives some real Mitt behind the facades we've seen to date, here's the rub: to the extent that the archaeology of friendship exposes that person, we find a man who does not accept the implications of what it means to live in a heterogeneous nation and a pluralistic society.
So, that's what you have to ask yourself: is it better if Mitt didn't care what he said about FEMA before it became inconvenient to have uttered his wingnut-bait? Or should we prefer that he actually believed in the proposition?
To me, it's the second option that truly terrifies.YMMV.
Image: Egbert van der Poel, View of Delft after the Explosion of 1654, 1654.


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Bill Liesse: Thankful for an athlete that thinks of others
This Thanksgiving, we are thankful for a Cherry.
Je'Rod Cherry, former New England defensive back, owns the same three Super Bowl rings as Tom Brady, Mike Vrabel and all the other members of the Patriots' near-dynasty.
After Thanksgiving Day, Cherry will own two.
Moved to tears by a slide show he saw on world poverty while attending an annual Grace Brethren youth conference, Cherry was compelled to help.
First he thought he'd give money. Then a teenage girl asked if he'd donate a Super Bowl ring. Cherry got to thinking. He not only put one up for auction, he put up the first one.
"No one expected us to win that one," he told ESPN Radio the other day when I happened to be out getting lunch. Rather than lunge at the buttons to escape Jim Rome, I was mesmerized by this most selfless man, this humble ex-pro.
It was the Patriots' upset win over the Rams in Super Bowl 36, the post-9/11 Super Bowl, after New England had started 1-3 and late-rounder Brady took over for franchise face Drew Bledsoe.
By far, Cherry said, this ring is the most precious to him. The biggest sacrifice of the three, in keeping with the theme of the conference that so moved him.
It retails for about $35,000. Fans can buy a chance to win it for $2, with a maximum of five chances. Cherry said Tuesday they had raised $140,000 and counting at www.netraffle.org.
Hope you're reading this early, though, because the raffle closes Thanksgiving Day at 8 a.m. Central.
Someone is going to get a Super Bowl ring with 142 diamonds for $10, maybe less.
Only two things can make this story better. One, obviously, is that Cherry's money make an appreciable dent in the starvation and sex slavery and the like he saw in Africa, Thailand, Cambodia.
The second thing would be if that lucky someone turned right around and gave him back the ring.
Titans -11 at LIONS: Gee, I wonder. TENNESSEE.
COWBOYS -12 1/2 vs. Seahawks: No better way to go 0-2 in the traditional Thanksgiving games than to take neither D. I'm just the guy to do it. SEATTLE.
EAGLES -3 vs. Cardinals: Thanksgiving is about big birds, not wimpy little red ones that don't travel well. PHILADELPHIA.
Bill Liesse can be reached firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Spring is nearly here and that means one thing: scrounging up all your cash that hasn't gone to your weed budget and buying a shitbox of a car. So now let's pick the best — for thrashing, for offroading, for drifting, for even commuting to your new gig at that coffee shop next to the sneakers hut.
So in the proud tradition of 2012's March Muscle Car Madness, let me announce the Jalopnik March Madness Beat-Off, where 64 cars will enter bracket competition to be crowned the best half-rusted turdbox that even your little brother could buy. There are some real classics, there are some unappreciated wonders, and there are some horrendous abominations that will be immediately voted off, so help us all.
Here's how it'll work, as explained by my good colleague Jason Torchinsky in the old Muscle Car Madness series.
Here's how it'll work. We've picked 64
muscle carsbeaters, and divided them into four regions. We'll use the bracket down below for the pairings, and the "games" themselves will be handled via polls. Most votes in the poll wins the match, with the winner going on to next round. When it's all over, we'll have one triumphant muscle car winner, and, more importantly, the fans of 63 muscle carsbeaters — backfiring and leaking bittersweet coolant on the rug — as angry, bitter losers.
Since you're probably going to want to start doing your intense research, the full list, by region, is below, along with a picture of all of them, useful for wrapping paper!
Matches start this Thursday at noon with online polls, so fill in your brackets for your illegal pools today!
You can click to see your bracket in full right here and print it out as a .PDF right here.
And here are all the cars sorted alphabetically by region:
Bachelor's Sports Mobiles
Alfa-Romeo Spider
Chevrolet Beretta
Chevrolet Camaro
Datsun 280ZX
Fiat X1/9
Ford Mustang (Fox Body)
Ford Probe
Honda Prelude
Mazda RX-7 (FC)
Mitsubishi Eclipse
Nissan 240SX
Pontiac Fiero
Porsche 924
Toyota MR2
Triumph TR7
Gas Savers
Chevrolet Cavalier
Dodge Neon
Ford Pinto
Honda CRX
Mitsubishi Mirage
VW Jetta (Mk III)
Ford Festiva
Geo Storm
Hyundai Tiburon
Kia Sephia
Mazda MX-3
Mazda Protege
Nissan Sentra
Plymouth Sundance
Subaru DL
Toyota Previa
Acura Legend
Alfa-Romeo Milano
Audi 5000
Buick Reatta
Buick Regal
Buick Roadmaster
Ford Crown Victoria
Infiniti J30
Lincoln Mk VII
Mercedes 190E
Mercedes W123
Peugeot 505
Saab 900
Volvo 240
Volvo 740
Dirt Devils
AMC Eagle
Chevy S-10 Blazer
Chevy Suburban
Dodge Ramcharger
Ford Bronco (4th Gen)
Ford Ranger
Geo Tracker
Honda Civic AWD Wagon
International Scout
Jeep Cherokee XJ
Jeep Grand Cherokee Zj
Nissan Pathfinder (1st Gen)
Subaru Impreza
Suzuki Sidekick
Toyota Pickup (Pre-Tacoma)
VW Baja Bug
Now, you might be asking yourself what, precisely, a beater is. Basically, it's a crap car you buy without really having to care what kind of shape it ends up in. It's a car to thrash without worrying about the paint, about curbing the wheels. A truck you can jump in a field without worrying if the suspension gets shot. A car you can park by feel in the office lot. Ideally, it's a car that's so dirt cheap you don't mind leaving it in bad neighborhoods with the doors unlocked and the windows down. It's a car to beat on, hence the name.
And speaking of names, it was Gawker head honcho Nick Denton who inadvertently coined the term "bachelor's sports mobile" in his Playboy interview. It's just too perfect not to use.
Wondering how did the cars for this list got chosen? My proud Texan colleague Patrick George explains.
Your Jalopnik staff spent about 30 minutes compiling this list of beaters — and then we spent hours arguing over it. Chairs were thrown, blood was spilled, interns started crying, and Matt threatened to have the Foxtrot Alpha guy call in an air strike on our homes. But in the end, after several cases of Brefass Scotch and some awkwardly intense man-hugs, we settled on the chart you see here.
I should say that there are two cars notable for their absence here: the BMW E30 and the NA Mazda Miata. And there are good reasons why those two cars aren't in this challenge.
First of all, let me say that everyone knows both the NA Miata and the E30 are excellent low-cost cars. They drive great, they look great, they make you feel good owning them, and they're (reasonably) reliable. The problem is that everyone knows how good the E30 and NA Miata are. Maybe five or six years ago you could get a nice E30 for five hundred bucks and enter it in the 24 Hours of LeMons or Rally Mexico or whatever.
But now if you own a halfway decent E30, you can expect strangers to shove four grand in your face every time you pull up to an auto parts store. Both the E30 and the NA Miata are going to owners who are nice people, people who will follow strict maintenance protocols and wax the paint, and restore them. This means these late '80s/early '90s wonders just aren't beaters anymore. They're simply nice old cars. They great, but they just don't belong in the running.
That and all you fartsniffers would only vote for them and they would win the contest no matter what. So that's no fun.
Top Photo Credit: Raphael Orlove


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August 20, 1981
PIX #1 - The front entry hall room and open stairway...the oldest look remain- ing in the house.
PIX #2 - The dining room, with a Tiffany lighting fixture recently installed to replace the original one removed by Watkins when Shiff purchased the prop- erty.
Another Heritage House story is overdue, and the delay in presenting one has been complicated by some confusion about the historical data for the two houses which were selected for subjects.
Those two were Floyd Harrison's house at 215 W. Tiffin St. and the one beside it at 223, now owned by Stuart Shiff. Both were illustrated and discussed briefly in the book "Fostoria--A Bicentennial '76 History." Therein they were mentioned as "constructed during the early days of Rome and are believed to be the oldest homes on the street (Tiffin). The Harrison house was con- structed first, with the other one built two years later as a servants quar- ters."
Perhaps by word of mouth, the story has been propagated through the years that the Harrison house was built in 1834 and the other one in 1836, which could be correct, but in the absence of an abstract for the Harrison house, but with one available for Shiff's house, I doubt it very much.
Therefore, I have elected to present in today's column the story of the Shiff property, which some will better remember as the Donald Watkins house, since it was labeled in the Bicentennial History. The Harrison house at 215 W. Tiffin St. will be dealt with later...perhaps when reliable statistics are available.
The land for the Shiff House was acquired by Patent Deed by James Anderson of Wayne County, Ohio from the U.S. Government June 1, 1832, when Andrew Jackson was president. The land consisted of 81 and 36/100 acres, known as the west half of southwest quarter of section 6 in township 2, north of range 3.
It became known as Anderson's addition to the Town of Rome, inasmuch as it was situated immediately west of Rome. Gideon Jones surveyed the land in November 1853, laying out the streets to be a continuation of Center, Tiffin and South streets in Rome. The accompanying sketch shows the addition as surveyed in 1853.
The house, subject to today's article later was built on Lot No. 5, which was later renumbered to be 287.
According to the old abstract, James Anderson and his wife, Mary, sold inlot No. 287 to James Sabins in February 1858 for $200. Certainly a house did not exist on the land at that time to sell for $200. This change of ownership was handled by Junius V. Jones, an ancestor of Richard Musser, 844 W. Tiffin St.
The old record of James Anderson was found in Beers History of Seneca County, wherein he was listed as an elected trustee of Louden Township in 1835, also in 1838, 1840 and 1842.
A Rev. James Anderson established the first Methodist church in Rome at Wood and Tiffin streets, and was so recorded in Baughman's History of Seneca County. He was also mentioned in Mel Murray's History of the Methodist church in early Fostoria. It is unknown if the two Andersons were one and the same.
Also, in Beers History, Mary Anderson wa mentioned as the oldest resident of Fostoria at the time of her death June 22, 1882, being 92 years old.
I could not find any record of James Sabins in old histories.
From the time the property was sold to Sabins in 1858 until 1873, when Paul T. Norris purchased it from Sabins and his wife, Mary, for $2,400, it had changed ownership several times. The $2,400 figure indicates a house had been built on it by then.
Then in 1883, Paul T. Norris and wife, Nancy, sold it to Margaret E. Green for #3,100.
The Bicentennial book says "The house (223 W. Tiffin St.) was owned for sever- al generations by the Martin Green family, of the Green and Heilman Planning Mill Company. The Greens remodeled the original brick structure in the 1880s, at which time the back addition of the house and the Carpenters Gothic trim were added." That information would seem to coincide with the abstract data. However, no one seems to be able to verify where the data came from.
In 1896, Martin V. and wife Margaret E. Green, sold the property to Rosa Mill- ler for $1,200, or perhaps it was a temporary transfer of ownership for a loan. The entry is not clear. Miller in turn assigned it to Laura L. Lock- hart, adopted daughter of the Greens, for "value received." Another entry in the abstract indicated Laura Lockhart came into full possession of the prop- erty in 1902.
About the Green and Heilman Planning Mill, it was located at 215 E. South St., according to an 1890 directory. At that time the Greens were living at 223 W. Tiffin, and J.F. Heilman at 253 E. Center St.
The Lockhart family remained in possession of the property until 1945. Mrs. John (Laura) Lockhart continued to live there after the death of her husband in 1927 and until her death in 1938, at which time the estate was settled.
William Lockhart and wife Lorraine, moved into the property after the death of his mother and stayed there until the estate was settled in 1945, at which time it was sold to Lester C. and Thornel Crosby.
Other owners in succession were:
Richard F. Cushman and Joyce, 1957.
Charles J. Watkins and wife, Audrey R., 1962.
Charles J. Watkins (after death of wife), 1968.
Donald J. and Richard M. Watkins (sons), 1972.
Richard Watkins and wife, Wanda, 1972.
The accompanying photos tell the story pictorally of the house in its later years, when the Lockharts lived there. The photos were made available through the thoughtfulness of Karen Purser, San Francisco, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Lockhart.
According to the Bicentennial book, "the interior of the original brick por- tion of the house was constructed of thick, local, American walnut (a trash wood in those days).
The house still contains all of the original hardware with brass door knobs, plates and knockers, dated 1828.
When I visited the house recently, Mr. Shiff said that when he purchased it from Watkins he had already removed the large Tiffany lighting fixture that was in the dining room.
My only other remembrance of being in the house was many years ago, when Mrs. Lockhart invited all of us boys in Bill's Presbyterian SundaySchool class to help him celebrate a birthday. That must have been in about 1915. We had refreshments in that dining room.
J.W. Lockhart was editor of the Fostoria Daily Review in 1913...his father having also been a newspaper man. In 1915, Lockhart was president of Vega Separator Co. In 1919 and until his death he was city editor of The Review Times.
William Lockhart wa Fostoria's city chemist at the Fostoria Water Purification Plant. Both he and his wife are deceased.
Robert Lockhart, deceased, became a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy (see Potluck April 13, 1978). His wife, Ina K., survives and lives in a Navy retirement complex in the Washington, D.C. area.
When the Watkins family owned the property, every attempt was made to put it in good repair, but there isn't much of the "old look" about it one the in- side, except the open stairway leading to the second floor, as shown by one of the accompanying photos. In that photo, mounted on a part of the stairway, can be seen what appears to be a small lighting fixture, but I am told it is a quite old repository for holding the ashes of a burned mortgage when it was paid.
The entry hall, living room and dining room have hard wood floors which are apparently refinished by the Watkins.
The oldest look in the house appears in the basement, where there is a storage room for fruit, vegetables, and canned goods, including a bin for potatoes and apples.
Evidence in every detail in the basement points to the construction of the house in about the early 1870s, including ceiling joist trimmed to equal size (not rough hewn timbers).
The house is now completely heated and air conditioned by modern equipment in the basement, although there is a fireplace in the living room.
There are two bedrooms on the second floor.
It is a solid and comfortable house for a small family wishing one with an unusual exterior appearance.
The original lot wa 280 1/2 feet deep. In more recent years the lower por- tion of it, facing South Street was sold and a house built on it, presently occupied by Mr. and Mrs. William E. Phillips. However, the original lot is still quite large and well shaded and landscaped. A large oak tree, nearly 100 feet tall, probably dating back to the early days of the property, still remains in the back yard. The original 16 1/2 feet alley still provides ac- cess to the properties abutting it.
The house, which I figure must be about 110 years old, is in excellent shape, and will provide comfortable living for its present owner Stuart Shiff, or others, for many years in the future.


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Sugar Minott's role in globalizing reggae and dancehall can't be understated. At the same time, he never lost his local relevance in Jamaica. Coming up as a selector through Kingston soundsystems and as a singer in the African Brothers group, he built a solid recording catalog through Studio One and other labels before launching his own Black Roots imprint. His first release through VP was the lovers rock single "New Love" in 1980, a strong statement in a reggae subgenre he helped establish. He would have five albums and dozens of singles released through VP before his death in 2010, but the most artistically successful release through VP was the 12-inch single of his production of Tenor Saw's "Lots Of Sign" in 1985, now an all-time dancehall anthem, including as part of VP's Down In Jamaica – 40 Years Of VP Records deluxe box set.
Few artists had the impact on Jamaica's dancehall scene as Sugar Minott. His releases provided the blueprints for the rise of the contemporary dancehall style, he was also equally influential as a producer, and his extraordinarily popular sound system helped launch numerous new DJs into the limelight. Lincoln Barrington Minott was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on May 25, 1956. He began his career in the sound systems while still a child, working as a selector for the Sound of Silence Keystone outfit, before launching his own Gathering of Youth sound system just as he hit his teens. There, too, he carried on merely as the selector. However, in 1969, Minott decided to take the mike himself, not as a DJ, but as a singer, one third of the African Brothers roots trio, alongside Tony Tuff and Derrick Howard. The group initially made its way around the amateur talent show circuit, but eventually linked up with the Micron label. African Brothers released a number of singles over the next few years, including "Party Night," "Gimme Gimme African Love," and "A Di System" cut with producer Jah Bunny. The trio also began self-producing (its first attempt was "Torturing"), and then launched its own Ital label. By this time, the trio's Abyssinians influence was becoming prominent, as can be heard on "Righteous Kingdom," "Youths of Today," and "Lead Us Father."
In 1974, African Brothers cut "Mysterious Nature" with producer Rupie Edwards, which brought them to the attention of Studio One. Their debut song for that label, "No Cup No Broke, was also their last, and the trio split to pursue solo careers. (Tony Tuff would continue his cultural career before switching with great success to dancehall.) In 1987, the Uptempo label gathered up the African Brothers singles for the compilation album Collectors Item, crediting it to Sugar Minott & the African Brothers. Coxsone Dodd was keen to keep Minott, whose talents extended beyond vocals and into session work as both a guitarist and drummer. However, the artist had an even more innovative talent tucked away — an extraordinary ability to compose new lyrics to old songs.
In a scene split between toasters and deep roots, Minott had invented an entirely new style and Dodd was quick to take advantage. It was pure serendipity, or incredible forethought, that the rhythms the pair used were ones that would soon be tearing up the dancehalls. It took a few releases for the Jamaican public to catch on, but by 1978, Minott had his first hit with the single "Vanity." More quickly followed and before the year was out, he released his debut album, Live Loving, which many credit as the first true dancehall album. It would revolutionize the entire Jamaican musical scene. Minott's follow-up album, 1979's Showcase, was equally revolutionary and included not just dub versions, but featured the hip new syndrums that would soon rule the dancehalls. Both albums also doubled as hits collections, and included such smashes as "Wrong Doers," "Oh Mr. DC," "House Is Not a Home," and such Niney Holness-produced chart-busters as "No Vacancy," "Give Thanks and Praise," and "Babylon."
In 1983, the Hitbound label gathered up a batch of the Holness-produced hits on With Lots of Extra, making up the numbers with extra songs that were equally good. The singer scored another major hit with "Never Too Young," produced by Prince Jammy, who also oversaw Minott's third album, 1979's Bitter Sweet. But that did little to prepare listeners for Minott's third full-length release that year, the phenomenal Ghetto-ology, a deeply roots album featuring such tracks as "Dreader Than Dread," "Never Gonna Give Jah Up," and "Africa Is the Black Man's Home." A superb dub companion remixed by King Tubby in one of his final projects accompanied the album, and in 2000 the Easy Star label appended this to Ghetto-ology's CD reissue. The album was the beginning of Minott's move into a dread sound. Black Roots, its follow-up, picked up precisely where its predecessor left off and continued down the deep roots path. However, Roots Lovers, also released in 1980, showed a seismic shift in direction as Minott moved strongly into the lovers rock arena, while still maintaining a roots approach. Minott's energy and enthusiasm seemed boundless and this year also saw the launch of his own labels, Youth Promotion and Black Roots. He debuted his new labels with the self-produced "Man Hungry" and followed it up with "Hard Time Pressure." That latter single was Minott's British debut and went down a storm. That, coupled with the success of Roots Lovers in a U.K. in the feverish grip of lovers rock frenzy, prompted the singer to relocate to London after he played Reggae Sunsplash that same year.
Minott may have been on the other side of the Atlantic but this did not put a dent in his release schedule, and new singles continued to appear with amazing regularity. Alvin Ranglin oversaw "Not for Sale," there was a clutch cut with Linval Thompson including "Run Come" and "Hold On," while Ranking Dread oversaw "African Girl," the title track from Minott's new album. It was Donovan Germain, however, who helped Minott achieve his first U.K. hit with a cover of Michael Jackson's "Good Thing Going." This brought a distribution deal with the RCA label for the smash hit follow-up album Good Thing Going. One of the masterpieces of the lovers rock era, Good Thing was to be Minott's last new album for two years, given that the market was now being glutted by compilations of older material. In the meantime, the singer released a string of seminal singles, "Lover's Rock," a cover of David Gates' "Make It with You" (a duet with Carroll Thompson), "In a Dis Ya Time," "Africa," and many more.
Meanwhile, Minott also returned to Jamaica to look after his labels. They were not merely vanity outfits, but real concerns, where the singer nurtured young talent. He financed his efforts by freelancing around the studios, cutting tracks for numerous producers and labels. But in truth, Minott loved the workload and would have inevitably been just as prolific even if he didn't have a business to support. He celebrated his return home to Jamaica in fine style with a stunning performance at Reggae Sunsplash in 1983; he would appear annually at the festival for the next three years.
Jamaica had undergone a dancehall revolution in his absence and Minott was keen to participate, releasing the Dance Hall Showcase album that same year. The singer was back in top form in 1984, releasing a trio of albums and a string of hit singles. Herbman Hustling was first off the mark and featured a sublime blend of dancehall styles and roots sensibilities, with a touch of lovers rock thrown in for good measure. Slice of the Cake was overshadowed by its predecessor, but was still a stellar dancehall record fired by the Roots Radics, while the Lloyd Barnes-produced Wicked Ago Feel It equally embraced both cultural and lovers themes. A fourth album was actually recorded with Sly & Robbie, although it did not appear until 1986. However, the pairing did produce the single "Rub a Dub Sound Style," which predated ragga but certainly heralded the new style's imminent birth. Another trio of albums, Leader of the Pack, Rydim, and Time Longer Than Rope, arrived in 1985, along with a further string of singles. The latter two albums were both produced by George Phang and boasted the unmistakable rhythms of Sly & Robbie. There was also an excellent clash album with Leroy Smart, Award Winners, and a slew of singles. Somehow, Minott also found time to launch his own sound system, Youth Promotion, with Jah Stitch brought in as selector. Like his labels, the Youth Promotion outfit was a hands-on concern. Minott gave a host of hopefuls a crack at the big time, going on to record the best on his own labels. Ranking Joe, Captain Sinbad, and Ranking Dread all got their start there, while Abashanti, another artist mentored by the singer, was even brought to Reggae Sunsplash, where he appeared beside Minott in 1985 and 1986. The British label Uptempo's Presenting the Posse features a host of the sound system's talent and even adds some dub mixes from Peter Chemist as an added bonus.
Over the years, Minott's labels released cuts from the likes of Junior Reid, Tenor Saw, and Barry Brown, and while none would equal Minott's own, the label head gave as much attention to his artists as to himself. Sugar & Spice, recorded two years previously with Sly & Robbie and featuring the single "Rub a Dub Style," finally saw release in 1986, as did a number of re-recorded songs from Herbman Hustling. A new album also arrived in the form of the hits-heavy Inna Reggae Dance Hall, a classic record of ragga roots dancehall style. Then it was back to New York and a reunion with Lloyd Barnes for Jamming in the Streets the following year. A pairing with Gregory Isaacs resulted in the Double Dose album from the sweetest and smoothest vocal duo brought together on record.
An entire shelf-full of albums arrived in 1988. Minott recorded Buy Off the Bar with George Phang, and had a major hit with the title track, which boasted a fabulous rhythm courtesy of Sly & Robbie. Sufferer's Choice also features the duo's sharp rhythms; it was overseen by Peter Chemist, who created a fabulous mix of cultural cuts and lover's concerns. Lovers Rock Inna Dance Hall created a similar split of theme and sound, while Ghetto Youth Dem Rising and Sugar Minott & Youth Promotion also kept the singer's name on the street. Equally of note was that same year was African Soldier, a concept album concerned with the current state of the continent. It contained some of Minott's most passionate lyrics and emotive vocals, but was mangled by the synth-heavy arrangements and lightweight dancefloor pop production. Around this time, Minott linked with a teenaged hopeful named Frankie Paul on the Joe Gibbs-produced Showdown, Vol. 2, a showcase for both the veteran and the young superstar to be. Meanwhile, Black Roots released the Best Of, Vol. 1 compilation, bundling up a clutch of the label's releases. (In 1999, the Easy Street label would gather up two volumes' worth of Black Roots material, boasting both hits and unreleased tracks for the Sugar Minott's Hidden Treasures collections, albums that for once live up to their advertising.)
But by the end of the '80s, Black Roots was closed and Minott's star was starting to fade. The Boss Is Back suggested the opposite was true, while the upbeat Ghetto Child saw the singer flirting with an urban contemporary sound, but in the end, this album too just seems lightweight. Perhaps Minott had simply taken on too much or spread himself too thin, and his work was now suffering in the process. However, he continued to make the studio rounds and released some quite good singles, while a successful appearance at Reggae Sunsplash in 1989 boded well for the future. In the new decade, Minott recorded two albums for Jammys, 1990's Smile and the following year's A Touch of Class. While neither were totally disposable, they certainly weren't his greatest work. Perhaps in an attempt to shake things up, the singer recorded Happy Together, also released in 1991, and arguably his most adventurous album ever. Recorded in New York, London, and Kingston with a variety of musicians, the record is a blossoming of innovative musical hybrids, a true magical mystery tour. Run Things, two years, later was nowhere near as innovative. The following year's Breaking Free found Minott working with Tapper Zukie and was a strong return to form with some stunning cultural numbers.
Scientist oversaw 1996's International, an equally strong set, while the next year's Musical Murder and 1999's Easy Squeeze found the singer still a force to be reckoned with. In many ways, he was doing his best work on-stage, as proven by his performances at Reggae Sunsplash in 1992, 1995, and 1996. In the studio, meanwhile, he was cutting his best material on singles in collaborations with other artists: 1992's "Wah Them a Do," with former protégé Junior Reid, was a crucial cut; equally good was "Chow," a 1994 single that paired the singer with the gruff-voiced DJ Shaggy, while another notable release, "Wise Up," partnered him with Mutabaruka. In the 2000s Minott remained a popular live performer, with his studio work largely limited to guest appearances, although he released the occasional album as leader, including 2008's New Day, featuring appearances by Toots Hibbert, Sly Dunbar, Dwight Pickney, and Andrew Tosh. Sugar Minott had been diagnosed with heart problems in 2009, and died on July 10, 2010 following his admittance to a Kingston hospital after he had complained of feeling poorly. He was 54 years old.


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The 15th edition of Headlight Anthology has arrived!
Concordia University's literary anthology publishing both students and alumni, founded by Joshua Knelman, offers up a sophisticated collection on the theme of Lost, Found, and Stolen in it's 15th anniversary issue.
Editors-in-Chief: T Noah J Nazim, Kathryn Pobjoy, and Katherine Sehl did a fanstastic job bringing everything together and designer James Bouthilier has impressed the hell out of me with this classy tome.
I'm not just saying that because I'm in it either!
It is a beautifully designed book. But you don't have to take my word for it! Go pick up your own copy and see for yourself! Just 7 bucks!
Headlight Anthology can be found at these particular locations:
The Word Bookstore
The Concordia Co-op Bookstore
The National Library
Argo Books
Drawn & Quarterly
Or simply fire them a message at email@example.com or on their facebook page!
This volume features the work of:
Jesse Anger
Heidi Barkun
Michael Belcher
Emily Comeau
Natalie Draz
Stefani Forster
Celyn Harding-Jones
Richard Harvor
Fazeela Jiwa
Aliya Kahsay
Rebecca Loughead
Jessi MacEachern
Aeron MacHattie
Rabecca MacPhee
Edith Maisonneuve
Domenica Martinello
Elena Blanco Moleon
Tyler Morency
Lizy Mostowski
T. Noah J. Nazim
Ali Pinkney
Kathryn Pobjoy
Diandre Prendimano
Laura Rokas
Bailey Seybolt
Adam Simms
Jenny Smart
Ksenija Spasic
Ben Spencer
Julian Stamboulieh
Andrea Sun
Stephanie Wong Ken


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~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL
R.I.P. my camera, which died just after I finished taking yesterday's pictures. I've got to get a new one ASAP!! I discovered today that a couple of my lantana plants are starting to send up shoots–which means, spring is really springing!!
While driving around a couple of days ago I heard a public service announcement for either the Boys' and Girls' Clubs or The Big Brother program, I forget which one. Anyway, guess who was delivering the PSA? Laura Bush! Which got me thinking…I'm wondering when we start hearing from Michelle Obama? I wonder what causes she will lend her services to?? Or is she too busy visiting all the governmental agencies so she can deliver hubby's message of hope and change?
Truth is Gold had a really excellent post up on Friday called Lest We Pay the Price Too Dear…Learn From History!
An excerpt, with permission:
I cross post today an urgent message, gleaned from three very well informed journalists who know their history well. Urgency dictates that I introduce them and furnish you with the links from which to read their messages in entirety.
The first, by Eric Margolis, reminds us of Afghanistan's solid history of making mincemeat out of its invaders, from Alexander the Great in 327–325 BC, to the Soviets in 1989, disasters all.
In the second, Kevin Barrett reveals in OpEdNews's "Obama: Political Messiah, or Just Another Third World Dictator?" the facts behind the most recent resident of our White House and cites Webster Tarpley's work in detail, Tarpley being among the foremost political and historical researchers of our time. Further research has substantiated the fact that indeed, Tarpley's work is almost faultless in terms of his list of players and the historical context in which they exist.
The third of this terrifying trilogy is Christopher Bollyn's work on Obama's new budget director Peter R. Orszag.
Orszag, for example, could start by explaining exactly what happened to the Icelandic economy. Orszag was, after all, the founder and president of the economic consultancy firm which advised the Central Bank of Iceland – before it went bankrupt. How did Icelandic banks become so indebted? Ask Peter Orszag.
Read the whole post. Read about his links to Robert E. Rubin, Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury and recently resigned head of Citigroup. It isn't looking good…
By the way, the Central Bank of Iceland just hired an interim governor, an economist from Norway. One of the former governors of the CBI who was asked to resign has been offered a job at….the Norwegian Central Bank. And, a possible snag?
"Law professor Sigurdur Líndal told Fréttabladid that he doubts a foreign citizen can be hired to the position, explaining that the constitution states that no one can become a public official in Iceland without holding the Icelandic citizenship."
There's that "citizenship thing" again…
Here's some more news that will cheer you up…not. Let's catch up with some of China's latest moves. How will this play out?
First, China is on the prowl, looking to buy foreign oil companies. From The Telegraph:
China is preparing to open a new phase in its race for the world's resources by using its huge currency reserves to buy foreign oil and gas companies.
SNIPA conference of officials from the National Energy Administration has agreed to consider establishing a special fund for China's state-owned companies to buy oil and gas firms overseas. The beneficiaries would be the Beijing's three giant energy companies – Petrochina, Sinopec and CNOOC.
The possibility of a Chinese state subsidy for overseas acquisitions may ring alarm bells in Western economies. Four years ago, CNOOC tried to buy an American oil company, Unocal, and succeeded in outbidding its main US rival. But the Chinese firm eventually withdrew its offer amid opposition from American Congressmen. They opposed the idea of a private US firm falling into the lap of a state-owned company, bankrolled by the Chinese Communist Party.
This time, China may calculate that Western governments are in a weaker position to object. They are, after all, spending billions on taking over their own companies, notably the banking sector.
More background on China's increasingly bold investments abroad.
And what's this? SPIKING DEATHS IN AFGHANISTAN??
While visiting RBO, I happened to see this ANNOUNCEMENT about America's new name, Barackistan.
New! Congratulations to Cinie of Cinie's World who has found the perfect title for the leader of Barackistan — "Just Barely President, Baracus Hubris Maximus (hail Ceasar!)". Psst! Baracus Ceasar Obamacus is good, too.
Thanks to Insight Analytical's Grail Guardian, America will be referred to as Barackistan and all you little former free-thinking, openly-voting Americans as Barackistanis.
RBO couldn't think of any more fitting name for the White House/West Wing/Congress than Barackistan HQ.
Any questions?
Signing off from Free America…where we're still "thinking freely"…
*By Kenosha Marge
Saturday Sanity: The Antidote to the Madness–the Garden Waking Up! (Pic Heavy)
Obama Energy Plan Includes Nano-Generators That Bite
Canadian Banks On the Move Buying U.S. Banks While Bailout Recipient AIG Sells Canadian Life Insurance Business to Bank of Montreal ("Picking over the Carcasses")
A Giant White Rabbit in Britain Reminds Us How "Logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead"…
The SCANNER–International/Political Edition, 2/24/09 (Which Deficit is Obama "Halving"?; Canada Rubs U.S. Nose into Its Stable Banking System; GM/Chrysler Beg for Bailout Help in Canada, Too; Half of Foreign Criminals in Canada Are Fleeing to the U.S. [???])
*Maudlin Mawkishness in the Age of the Gush
The Past Week: February 15-21, 2009 ("Efficiency" Experts Michelle and "3-Card Monte" Barack Obama…Michelle's Legacy at U of Chicago Hospital Under Fire by ER Physicians; Hubby Plans to Halve the Deficit via "Efficiency" (Among Other Things…); Spring Garden Prep!
Filed under: Current Politics | Tagged: Barackistan, Barackistan HQ, Barackistanis, Baracus Hubris Maximus, Central Bank of Iceland, China, China buying gas companies, China buying oil companies, China's currency reserves, China's National Energy Administration, Christopher Bollyn, Cinie's World, Citigroup, CNNOOC, Erico Morgolis, Grail Guardian, InsightAnalytical, Kevin Barrett, Laura Bush, Lew Rockwell, MIchelle Obama, Peter R. Orszag, Petrochina, Public service announcements, RBO, Real Barack Obama, Robert E. Rubin, Sinopec, SNIPA, Truth is Gold, Unlocal, Webster Tarpley | 12 Comments »


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Wednesday, April 28, 2010
You Capture: Spring in Oma's Garden
Posted by Kristin @ Yellow Bliss Road at 4:21 PM
17 comments:
- Jade @ Tasting Grace said...
Oh CUTE!! I can practically smell that red, red rose, just looking at that picture!
- April 28, 2010 at 8:08 PM
- Bec said...
how neat to carry on your grandma's traditions!
- April 28, 2010 at 8:14 PM
- Kristen said...
Great pictures, I'd love to see a distance shot of the garden!
- April 28, 2010 at 8:18 PM
- Jess said...
Ohmygoodness, of all the things of your Oma's to have. Her garden! You are so blessed.
Seriously, you cannot have all those wonderful things growing already!??? Wow.
Love the depth of field and the angle on your second shot.
- April 28, 2010 at 10:18 PM
I love the calla lily, just lovely.
- April 28, 2010 at 11:53 PM
- Alita said...
The fourth shot (the calla lily) is elegant. Great pic! Oh and the last one of course.
My boys both call their grandma on my hubby's side Oma, too. I'm sorry about your loss.
- April 29, 2010 at 5:02 AM
- Brooke said...
Beautiful post! And gorgeous flowers!
- April 29, 2010 at 6:31 AM
- Colleen said...
So many pretty flowers. How nice that you were able to inherit such a beautiful garden.
- April 29, 2010 at 7:28 AM
- Jen said...
What lovely flowers! Nice job!
- April 29, 2010 at 9:22 AM
- Katie said...
That last red rose is amazing. It almost doesn't seem real to have such perfect color!
- April 29, 2010 at 10:39 AM
- Mimi's Toes said...
Beautiful captures. I love how close he is to that rose and just taking it all in.
- April 29, 2010 at 12:38 PM
- Unknown said...
That rose is gorgeous!!
And the calla lily. So pretty.
- April 29, 2010 at 1:36 PM
- Stillmary said...
All really beautiful flower photos. The red in that rose is gorgeous and I love the detail in the shot just before the red rose. I think the white rose is also exceptional.
- April 29, 2010 at 3:01 PM
Beautiful ! My grandma's garden was beautiful but not like the flowers you captured.
- April 29, 2010 at 3:43 PM
- juliannah said...
I love the last picture! Great post!
- April 29, 2010 at 3:55 PM
- The Mommy said...
Lovely flowers!! I like all your shots:)
- April 30, 2010 at 10:20 AM
- Stylist A said...
oh wow... those are definitely some great shots. I can definitely see one of those as your nature picture for Mono Monday. :) I love the story behind your garden.. Way cool that you now live in the house your grandma owned :) xoxo
- April 30, 2010 at 12:10 PM


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On the first full day of his life, I held a swaddled Ryan and rocked him for three-plus hours while I watched a college football game.
Not just any college football game. A Michigan game.
My school.
My team.
The school I was already dreaming of seeing Ryan attend. Maybe, just maybe, I dreamed of him wearing the famed winged helmet one day and taking the field at Michigan Stadium in front of 100,000-plus people.
I was certainly dreaming of taking him to his first game, teaching him about the sport, and teaching him the words to the school's fight song, The Victors.
We would definitely watch games together, celebrating the wins, anguishing over the losses — like the stomach-punching one they suffered on his first full day in this world — and bonding over this shared love.
I was already wondering about the appropriate age to take him to his first game. Five? Six?
Veronica probably laughed at the absurdity of it, but to her there was nothing strange about me needing to see the Wolverines play the day after my son was born, and whispering to him all about the team. She was used to my obsession and being a huge sports fan of her own, completely understanding of it. I think she was just happy I managed to get through the game without waking him or dropping him after yet another drive-crushing Michigan interception.
For me, there was no doubt. My children would grow up Michigan fans. Watching games together would be a ritual in our household. Attending games in Ann Arbor would be an annual excursion. It was just a matter of when.
Autism would present a challenge to those dreams. Ryan showed no interest in football and sitting and paying attention to anything for three hours was always going to be an issue for him. His fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth years passed without us making the pilgrimage to Ann Arbor. In the interim, he began to develop the serious interest in hockey that is documented throughout this blog.
Leading up to his ninth birthday, we were trying to figure out what to do for a party. He had outgrown the age where kids typically invite everyone in their class to a party at some venue, and in truth he did not have a lot of true friends. It wasn't that he was disliked, but rather just unable to develop those kinds of connections due to his social deficits. We were encouraging him to pick out a special activity that he wanted to do.
Because of his burgeoning interest in hockey, he said he wanted to have a hockey party. I figured that would mean taking the family and a few others to see our local team play. But when I offered to do that, Ryan had other ideas.
"I want to see a Western Conference game," he told me, having become a fan — entirely of his own choosing — of the San Jose Sharks.
"Fine, when the Sharks come to town, we'll get tickets and go," I countered.
"No. I want to see a Western Conference team play a Western Conference team."
Dollar signs were adding up in my head. We live in the Northeast. This was going to involve a flight — never the easiest thing with Ryan — and quite a few other expenses. But I was determined to come through for my boy since he had rarely expressed much interest in celebrating his birthday before.
Suddenly — an idea.
"Ryan, what is the closest Western Conference team to us?" I asked, as we had been working on using the NHL standings to learn geography.
"Umm, Detroit?" came the correct answer.
Detroit. Not so far. A quick flight. You know what else is near Detroit?
Ann Arbor.
Home to the University of Michigan. As Ryan's is a fall birthday, I was already planning this out. We would figure out a way to see a game in Detroit and a Michigan football game — all in the same trip.
There was a slight problem. Michigan usually has seven home games. Maybe four of them coincide with the NHL regular season. We'd have to find a Red Wings game on a Friday night (against a Western Conference team, of course) on a home football weekend. The task was about to get more complicated.
"Dad, I want to the Sharks play the Red Wings in Detroit."
Bigger problem. The Sharks visit the Red Wings exactly two times in a season that stretches from October to April. Whatever the odds were, they weren't good.
Now I'm not a religious person. I don't believe much in higher powers. But I do think once in a while that things happen for a reason, whether it's people that are brought into our lives or seeming coincidences that create incredible opportunities. I have no problem admitting I believe that what happened with the Detroit Red Wings and Michigan football home schedules that fall was no accident.
As I raced to check the Wings schedule, I found it almost immediately. A Thursday night home game against San Jose, two days before a Michigan home game against Purdue. I called Veronica.
"Honey, you're not going to believe this. I can make this work. He'll have to miss a couple of days of school, but it will be worth it."
"Hey, isn't that the kids' fall break weekend?"
And so it was that my children happened to have a four-day weekend EXACTLY coinciding with the four days I would need to take Ryan to Detroit, allow him to see a Western Conference vs. Western Conference NHL game, with one of those Western Conference teams being his new favorite, the San Jose Sharks, AND fulfill my life-long (at least the length of Ryan's life) dream of taking my son to Michigan Stadium to see the Wolverines play.
Who's pulling the strings up there?
Before Veronica could begin to list all the challenges we'd face, I had booked the entire trip. Flights, hotel, game tickets, rental car, and in Ann Arbor, a reservation to stay at my good friend's house. This was going to be one memorable weekend.
But, there were going to be challenges. Like most kids on the autism spectrum, Ryan craves routine. Sleep is challenging even with all the comforts and routines of home. We were going to be sleeping in two different locations, both completely unfamiliar, over three nights. He would be up late for the hockey game — further affecting his sleep. With lousy sleep typically comes difficult behavior. I'd have to find a way to get him his favorite foods and drinks since his eating was so restricted. I knew the hockey game would be no problem since he had developed such a love for the sport, but I'd have to coax him through a football game that can last up to four hours, navigating an enormous, crowded stadium and the need to arrive early after a lengthy walk from my friend's house.
Maybe I was biting off more than I could chew?
I readied myself for the challenge. This was too big an opportunity to pass up, and if we lasted for a half of the football game, I'd consider it a win. Little did I know the victories I was about to witness.


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A simple leaf blade is undivided as shown on the left (though
the margins may be toothed or even lobed). The blade of a compound
leaf is divided into several leaflets as shown on the right.
If there is doubt as to whether you are looking at a leaf or
a leaflet, locate the lateral buds. Each leaf, whether simple
or compound, has a bud at its base (on the twig). There are no
buds at the base of each leaflet. In the diagram at the left we
would expect a bud at the base of each petiole, but no bud at
the base of eatch leaflet of the compound leaf (see diagram


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By: Lew Sichelman
Published: July 8, 2010
Foreclosure may seem like someone else's problem, but when it happens in your neighborhood, it's going to cost you money, too.
Each foreclosure within 660 feet (1/8th mile) of your house can drop your home's value by a factor of almost 0.75%, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, a consumer watchdog group.
The closer a foreclosure is to your house, the bigger the impact. A university of Connecticut study suggests one foreclosure within 300 feet of your home will lower your property value by 1%.
If you live in a neighborhood with few vacant homes and a foreclosure occurs within 250 feet, a University of California, Berkeley study suggests you could lose 2.2% of your home value.
Do troubled owners deserve help?
Some people think the homeowners facing foreclosure got themselves into trouble because they bought more house than they could afford with toxic mortgages for which they never should have been approved. At least one study of the 2007 and 2008 foreclosure crisissuggests that was indeed the case.
Foreclosures become comparable sales
Even if you don't feel compassion for those facing foreclosure, you might feel sorry for yourself. Homebuyers and mortgage lenders use foreclosures as comparable properties to value your home when you sell or refinance. And the discount at which foreclosures sell is a hefty 27% on average.
Although most appraisers adjust the value of your home upward compared with a foreclosure, a homebuyer may consider the foreclosure equally valuable to your home and base his offer on that instead of your property's real worth. If that happens, your real estate agent can argue that non-distress sale comparables and better condition make your property worth more.
Foreclosures lower tax revenues
Drops in property values brought on by foreclosures don't just hurt your property value; they also cut away at the whole property tax base, the source of revenue for local government. Elected officials then have to either charge you higher taxes or cut services to make up for the shortfall.
What you can do about foreclosures
To limit foreclosure damage in your community, ask local officials to pass laws forcing lenders to maintain the properties they now own and to pay the taxes and homeowners association dues on them.
If the town isn't forcing lenders to maintain a foreclosure in your neighborhood, organize a volunteer effort to cut and trim the shrubs at vacant houses on a round-robin basis, and report vandals or squatters to the police. A well-kept foreclosed home will attract more buyers than one with a weed-filled yard. Take trespassing laws into account as you organize your effort.
If you're selling or refinancing and the appraiser uses foreclosures as comparable sales to determine the value of your property, ask your real estate agent to make sure the appraiser accounts for the distressed nature of those sales and the condition of the properties as they compare to yours. Ask your agent to seek out other comparable sales the appraiser might have missed, which show your home in a much better light.
Syndicated housing columnist Lew Sichelman lives in a ranch house on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay and has been writing about housing for more than 40 years.


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Bernalwood has received several reports of coyote sightings in northeast Bernal Heights during the last few days, and most of them have been charming. But today, Neighbor Jeff writes about a more aggressive encounter along Bernal Heights Boulevard that took place early this morning:
Wanted to report that the coyote living on Bernal Hill attempted an attack this morning at 5:30.
I was walking my dog along Bernal Heights Boulevard when I spotted the coyote standing on the hilltop watching us. As we continued toward Folsom St., the coyote followed us along the ridge, then sprinted down the hill and charged us.
I stopped and turned to face it as it held its ground about 15 feet away.
I then started to yell at it very loudly to try and scare it off. My third yell had some success as it scampered across the road and jumped the road barrier. But then it jumped over the barrier and charged us again. This time coming up about 10 feet away from us and getting ready to pounce.
At that point, a car came down the road and conveniently scared it away.
We were very lucky.
My dog is a 130 lb Mastiff, so this would not have been easy pickings for the coyote. It was incredibly bold and aggressive.
IMAGE: Coyote on grassy slope on Alabama just below Bernal Heights Boulevard, March 8, 2016. Photo by Judy Ko.


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Blog Archives
LUSH Product Review: Ro's Argan Body Conditioner
LUSH is a store that I can play in for hours. The all-natural varieties and the amazingly fragrant atmosphere almost hypnotize me to purchase.
Ro's Argan Body Conditioner is an in-shower moisturizer that leaves skin insanely hydrated. Infused with argan oil, brazil nut oil, cocoa butter, almond oil and rose extract, this product replaces the need for après body lotion.
The creator of this product,"Ro," loved the silky feel of her hair after applying conditioner and envisioned a similar conditioning product for the body. In the shower, smooth the Argan Body Conditioner all over the body. Let the cream sit on the skin for a minute or two, then rinse. When washed away, a layer of oils and moisterizers are left on the body, keeping it protected and hydrated. The sweet vanilla/rose-scented cream lingers on the skin for hours.
I would suggest to sample this product before purchase. The layer of film left on the skin is a different sensation to those who prefer a squeaky-clean feeling.


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A Red Paisley and Ruby inspired Indian custom wedding invitation. 5×7″ Pocket-fold style. Double-layered on the inside with metallic-ruby purple and printed on matte-ivory paper. To view our extensive portfolio or to customize your own, please contact us at http://www.VibrantWeddings.com, email@example.com or (619) 852-6886.
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Includes 5X7″ Pocket-fold invitation in thes Red-Paisley-printed pattern, a Double-layered printed outer seal, Double-layered invitation on the inside, a flat RSVP card and two blank champagne metallic envelopes. Invitation printed on ivory matte card-stock.
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Envelope addressing is available at $0.50 per address in font and color of choice.
All of our invitations can be customized in color and pocket style of choice. Different pocket orientations and sizes available.