text:
|Harold Pinter
Poster by T.A.
Harold Pinter
The Art of Theater
No. 3
Fall 1966
The Paris Review No. 39
Harold Pinter had recently moved into a five-story 1820 Nash house facing Regent's Park in London. The view from the floor-through top floor where he has installed his office overlooks a duck pond and a long stretch of wooded parkland; his desk faces this view, and in late October 1966, when the interview took place, the changing leaves and the hazy London sun constantly distracted him as he thought over questions or began to give answers. He speaks in a deep, theater-trained voice that comes rather surprisingly from him, and indeed is the most remarkable thing about him physically. When speaking he almost always tends to excessive qualification of any statement, as if coming to a final definition of things were obviously impossible. One gets the impression—as one does with many of the characters in his plays—of a man so deeply involved with what he's thinking that roughing it into speech is a painful necessity.
He was not working at any writing projects when the interview took place, and questions about his involuntary idleness (many questions came back to it without meaning to) were particularly uncomfortable for him. His own work is alternatively a source of mystery, amusement, joy, and anger to him; in looking it over he often discovered possibilities and ambiguities that he had not noticed or had forgotten. One felt that if only he would rip out his telephone and hang black curtains across the wide windows he would be much happier, though he insists that the "great boredom one has with oneself" is unrelated to his environment or his obligations.
When he wrote his first plays, in 1957, he was homeless, constantly on tour as an actor with a repertory stage company, playing all sorts of parts in obscure seaside resorts and provincial cities. His wife, the actress Vivien Merchant, toured with him, but when she became pregnant in 1958 it was necessary for them to find a home, and they took a basement room in London's shabby Notting Hill Gate section, in a building where Mr. Pinter worked as a caretaker to pay his rent. When their son was born they borrowed enough money to move to a less shabby district in Chiswick, but both had to return to full-time acting when Mr. Pinter's first full-length play, The Birthday Party, was a full-scale flop in 1958. The production of The Caretaker in 1960 produced enough money for a move to the middle-class district of Kew, and then, thinking he could live on his writings, Mr. Pinter moved his family to a bowfronted Regency house in the south-coast seaside town of Worthing. But the two-hour drive to London became imperative too often, and so they moved once again, to a rented flat in Kensington, until Mr. Pinter's lucrative film scripts made it possible for them to buy the Regent's Park house. Though it is not yet completely renovated, the size and comfort of it are impressive, as is Mr. Pinter's office, with a separate room nearby for his secretary and a small bar equally nearby for the beer and Scotch that he drinks steadily during the day, whether working or not. Bookshelves line one-half the area, and a velvet chaise longue faces the small rear garden. On the walls are a series of Feliks Topolski sketches of London theater scenes; a poster of the Montevideo production of El Cuidador; a small financial balance sheet indicating that his first West End production, The Birthday Party, earned two hundred sixty pounds in its disastrous week's run; a Picasso drawing; and his citation from when he was named to the Order of the British Empire last spring. "The year after the Beatles," he emphasizes.
When did you start writing plays, and why?
My first play was The Room, written when I was twenty-seven. A friend of mine called Henry Woolf was a student in the drama department at Bristol University at the time when it was the only drama department in the country. He had the opportunity to direct a play, and as he was my oldest friend he knew I'd been writing, and he knew I had an idea for a play, though I hadn't written any of it. I was acting in rep at the time, and he told me he had to have the play the next week to meet his schedule. I said this was ridiculous; he might get it in six months. And then I wrote it in four days.
Has writing always been so easy for you?
Well, I had been writing for years, hundreds of poems and short pieces of prose. About a dozen had been published in little magazines. I wrote a novel as well; it's not good enough to be published, really, and never has been. After I wrote The Room, which I didn't see performed for a few weeks, I started to work immediately on The Birthday Party.
What led you to do that so quickly?
It was the process of writing a play that had started me going. Then I went to seeThe Room, which was a remarkable experience. Since I'd never written a play before, I'd of course never seen one of mine performed, never had an audience sitting there. The only people who'd ever seen what I'd written had been a few friends and my wife. So to sit in the audience—well, I wanted to piss very badly throughout the whole thing, and at the end I dashed out behind the bicycle shed.
What other effect did contact with an audience have on you?
I was very encouraged by the response of that university audience, though no matter what the response had been I would have written The Birthday Party, I know that. Watching first nights, though I've seen quite a few by now, is never any better. It's a nerve-racking experience. It's not a question of whether the play goes well or badly. It's not the audience reaction, it's my reaction. I'm rather hostile toward audiences—I don't much care for large bodies of people collected together. Everyone knows that audiences vary enormously; it's a mistake to care too much about them. The thing one should be concerned with is whether the performance has expressed what one set out to express in writing the play. It sometimes does.
Do you think that without the impetus provided by your friend at Bristol you would have gotten down to writing plays?
Yes, I think I was going to write The Room. I just wrote it a bit quicker under the circumstances; he just triggered something off. The Birthday Party had also been in my mind for a long time. It was sparked off from a very distinct situation in digs when I was on tour. In fact, the other day a friend of mine gave me a letter I wrote to him in nineteen-fifty-something, Christ knows when it was. This is what it says: "I have filthy insane digs, a great bulging scrag of a woman with breasts rolling at her belly, an obscene household, cats, dogs, filth, tea strainers, mess, oh bullocks, talk, chat rubbish shit scratch dung poison, infantility, deficient order in the upper fretwork, fucking roll on." Now the thing about this is that was The Birthday Party—I was in those digs, and this woman was Meg in the play, and there was a fellow staying there in Eastbourne, on the coast. The whole thing remained with me, and three years later I wrote the play.
Why wasn't there a character representing you in the play?
I had—I have—nothing to say about myself, directly. I wouldn't know where to begin. Particularly since I often look at myself in the mirror and say, "Who the hell's that?"
And you don't think being represented as a character on stage would help you find out?
Have your plays usually been drawn from situations you've been in? The Caretaker, for example.
I'd met a few, quite a few, tramps—you know, just in the normal course of events, and I think there was one particular one . . . I didn't know him very well, he did most of the talking when I saw him. I bumped into him a few times, and about a year or so afterward he sparked this thing off.
Had it occurred to you to act in The Room?
No, no—the acting was a separate activity altogether. Though I wrote The Room, The Birthday Party, and The Dumb Waiter in 1957, I was acting all the time in a repertory company, doing all kinds of jobs, traveling to Bournemouth and Torquay and Birmingham. I finished The Birthday Party while I was touring in some kind of farce, I don't remember the name.
As an actor, do you find yourself with a compelling sense of how roles in your plays should be performed?
Quite often I have a compelling sense of how a role should be played. And I'm proved—equally as often—quite wrong.
Do you see yourself in each role as you write? And does your acting help you as a playwright?
I read them all aloud to myself while writing. But I don't see myself in each role—I couldn't play most of them. My acting doesn't impede my playwriting because of these limitations. For example, I'd like to write a play—I've frequently thought of this—entirely about women.
Your wife, Vivien Merchant, frequently appears in your plays. Do you write parts for her?
No. I've never written any part for any actor, and the same applies to my wife. I just think she's a very good actress and a very interesting actress to work with, and I want her in my plays.
Acting was your profession when you first started to write plays?
Oh, yes, it was all I ever did. I didn't go to university. I left school at sixteen—I was fed up and restless. The only thing that interested me at school was English language and literature, but I didn't have Latin and so couldn't go on to university. So I went to a few drama schools, not studying seriously; I was mostly in love at the time and tied up with that.
Were the drama schools of any use to you as a playwright?
None whatsoever. It was just living.
Did you go to a lot of plays in your youth?
No, very few. The only person I really liked to see was Donald Wolfit, in a Shakespeare company at the time. I admired him tremendously; his Lear is still the best I've ever seen. And then I was reading, for years, a great deal of modern literature, mostly novels.
No playwrights—Brecht, Pirandello . . . ?
Oh, certainly not, not for years. I read Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, Joyce, and Henry Miller at a very early age, and Kafka. I'd read Beckett's novels, too, but I'd never heard of Ionesco until after I'd written the first few plays.
Do you think these writers had any influence on your writing?
I've been influenced personally by everyone I've ever read—and I read all the time—but none of these writers particularly influenced my writing. Beckett and Kafka stayed with me the most—I think Beckett is the best prose writer living. My world is still bound up by other writers—that's one of the best things in it.
Has music influenced your writing, do you think?
I don't know how music can influence writing; but it has been very important for me, both jazz and classical music. I feel a sense of music continually in writing, which is a different matter from having been influenced by it. Boulez and Webern are now composers I listen to a great deal.
Do you get impatient with the limitations of writing for the theater?
No. It's quite different; the theater's much the most difficult kind of writing for me, the most naked kind, you're so entirely restricted. I've done some film work, but for some reason or other I haven't found it very easy to satisfy myself on an original idea for a film. Tea Party, which I did for television, is actually a film, cinematic, I wrote it like that. Television and films are simpler than the theater—if you get tired of a scene you just drop it and go on to another one. (I'm exaggerating, of course.) What is so different about the stage is that you're just there, stuck—there are your characters stuck on the stage, you've got to live with them and deal with them. I'm not a very inventive writer in the sense of using the technical devices other playwrights do—look at Brecht! I can't use the stage the way he does, I just haven't got that kind of imagination, so I find myself stuck with these characters who are either sitting or standing, and they've either got to walk out of a door, or come in through a door, and that's about all they can do.
And talk.
Or keep silent.
After The Room, what effect did the production of your next plays have on your writing?
The Birthday Party was put on at the Lyric, Hammersmith in London. It went on a little tour of Oxford and Cambridge first, and was very successful. When it came to London it was completely massacred by the critics—absolutely slaughtered. I've never really known why, nor am I particularly interested. It ran a week. I've framed the statement of the box-office takings: two hundred sixty pounds, including a first night of one hundred forty pounds and the Thursday matinee of two pounds, nine shillings—there were six people there. I was completely new to writing for the professional theater, and it was rather a shock when it happened. But I went on writing—the BBC were very helpful. I wrote A Slight Ache on commission from them. In 1960 The Dumb Waiter was produced, and then The Caretaker. The only really bad experience I've had was The Birthday Party; I was so green and gauche—not that I'm rosy and confident now, but comparatively . . . Anyway, for things like stage design I didn't know how to cope, and I didn't know how to talk to the director.
What was the effect of this adversity on you? How was it different from unfavorable criticism of your acting, which surely you'd had before?
It was a great shock, and I was very depressed for about forty-eight hours. It was my wife, actually, who said just that to me: "You've had bad notices before," et cetera. There's no question but that her common sense and practical help got me over that depression, and I've never felt anything like that again.
You've directed several of your plays. Will you continue to do so?
No. I've come to think it's a mistake. I work much as I write, just moving from one thing to another to see what's going to happen next. One tries to get the thing . . .true. But I rarely get it. I think I'm more useful as the author closely involved with a play: as a director I think I tend to inhibit the actors, because however objective I am about the text and try not to insist that this is what's meant, I think there is an obligation on the actors too heavy to bear.
Since you are an actor, do actors in your plays ever approach you and ask you to change lines or aspects of their roles?
Sometimes, quite rarely, lines are changed when we're working together. I don't at all believe in the anarchic theater of so-called creative actors—the actors can do that in someone else's plays. Which wouldn't, however, at all affect their ability to play in mine.
Which of your plays did you first direct?
I codirected The Collection with Peter Hall. And then I directed The Lover andThe Dwarfs on the same bill at the Arts. The Lover didn't stand much of a chance because it was my decision, regretted by everyone—except me—to do The Dwarfs, which is apparently the most intractable, impossible piece of work. Apparently ninety-nine people out of a hundred feel it's a waste of time, and the audience hated it.
It seems the densest of your plays in the sense that there's quite a bit of talk and very little action. Did this represent an experiment for you?
No. The fact is that The Dwarfs came from my unpublished novel, which was written a long time ago. I took a great deal from it, particularly the kind of state of mind that the characters were in.
So this circumstance of composition is not likely to be repeated?
No. I should add that even though it is, as you say, more dense, it had great value, great interest for me. From my point of view, the general delirium and states of mind and reactions and relationships in the play—although terribly sparse—are clear to me. I know all the things that aren't said, and the way the characters actually look at each other, and what they mean by looking at each other. It's a play about betrayal and distrust. It does seem very confusing and obviously it can't be successful. But it was good for me to do.
Is there more than one way to direct your plays successfully?
Oh, yes, but always around the same central truth of the play—if that's distorted, then it's bad. The main difference in interpretation comes from the actors. The director can certainly be responsible for a disaster, too—the first performance of The Caretaker in Germany was heavy and posturized. There's no blueprint for any play, and several have been done entirely successfully without me helping in the production at all.
When you are working on one, what is the key to a good writer-director relationship?
What is absolutely essential is avoiding all defensiveness between author and director. It's a matter of mutual trust and openness. If that isn't there, it's just a waste of time.
Peter Hall, who has directed many of your plays, says that they rely on precise verbal form and rhythm, and when you write "pause" it means something other than "silence," and three dots are different from a full stop. Is his sensitivity to this kind of writing responsible for your working well together?
Yes, it is, very much so. I do pay great attention to those points you just mentioned. Hall once held a dot and pause rehearsal for the actors in The Homecoming. Although it sounds bloody pretentious, it was apparently very valuable.
Do you outline plays before you start to write them?
Not at all. I don't know what kind of characters my plays will have until they . . . well, until they are. Until they indicate to me what they are. I don't conceptualize in any way. Once I've got the clues I follow them—that's my job, really, to follow the clues.
What do you mean by clues? Can you remember how one of your plays developed in your mind—or was it a line-by-line progression?
Of course I can't remember exactly how a given play developed in my mind. I think what happens is that I write in a very high state of excitement and frustration. I follow what I see on the paper in front of me—one sentence after another. That doesn't mean I don't have a dim, possible overall idea—the image that starts off doesn't just engender what happens immediately, it engenders the possibility of an overall happening, which carries me through. I've got an idea of what might happen—sometimes I'm absolutely right, but on many occasions I've been proved wrong by what does actually happen. Sometimes I'm going along and I find myself writing "C. comes in" when I didn't know that he was going to come in; he had to come in at that point, that's all.
In The Homecoming, Sam, a character who hasn't been very active for a while, suddenly cries out and collapses several minutes from the end of the play. Is this an example of what you mean? It seems abrupt.
It suddenly seemed to me right. It just came. I knew he'd have to say something at one time in this section and this is what happened, that's what he said.
Might characters therefore develop beyond your control of them, changing your idea—even if it's a vague idea—of what the play's about?
I'm ultimately holding the ropes, so they never get too far away.
Do you sense when you should bring down the curtain, or do you work the text consciously toward a moment you've already determined?
It's pure instinct. The curtain comes down when the rhythm seems right—when the action calls for a finish. I'm very fond of curtain lines, of doing them properly.
Do you feel your plays are therefore structurally successful? That you're able to communicate this instinct for rhythm to the play?
No, not really, and that's my main concern, to get the structure right. I always write three drafts, but you have to leave it eventually. There comes a point when you say, That's it, I can't do anything more. The only play that gets remotely near to a structural entity which satisfies me is The Homecoming. The Birthday Party and The Caretaker have too much writing. I want to iron it down, eliminate things. Too many words irritate me sometimes, but I can't help them, they just seem to come out—out of the fellow's mouth. I don't really examine my works too much, but I'm aware that quite often in what I write, some fellow at some point says an awful lot.
Most people would agree that the strength in your plays lies in just this verbal aspect, the patterns and force of character you can get from it. Do you get these words from people you've heard talking—do you eavesdrop?
I spend no time listening in that sense. Occasionally I hear something, as we all do, walking about. But the words come as I'm writing the characters, not before.
Why do you think the conversations in your plays are so effective?
I don't know. I think possibly it's because people fall back on anything they can lay their hands on verbally to keep away from the danger of knowing, and of being known.
What areas in writing plays give you the most trouble?
They're all so inextricably interrelated I couldn't possibly judge.
Several years ago, Encounter had an extensive series of quotations from people in the arts about the advisability of Britain's joining the Common Market. Your statement was the shortest anyone made: "I have no interest in the matter and do not care what happens." Does this sum up your feeling about politics, or current affairs?
Not really. Though that's exactly what I feel about the Common Market—I just don't care a damn about the Common Market. But it isn't quite true to say that I'm in any way indifferent to current affairs. I'm in the normal state of being very confused—uncertain, irritated, and indignant in turns, sometimes indifferent. Generally, I try to get on with what I can do and leave it at that. I don't think I've got any kind of social function that's of any value, and politically there's no question of my getting involved because the issues are by no means simple—to be a politician you have to be able to present a simple picture even if you don't see things that way.
Has it ever occurred to you to express political opinions through your characters?
No. Ultimately, politics do bore me, though I recognize they are responsible for a good deal of suffering. I distrust ideological statements of any kind.
But do you think that the picture of personal threat that is sometimes presented on your stage is troubling in a larger sense, a political sense, or doesn't this have any relevance?
I don't feel myself threatened by any political body or activity at all. I like living in England. I don't care about political structures—they don't alarm me, but they cause a great deal of suffering to millions of people.
I'll tell you what I really think about politicians. The other night I watched some politicians on television talking about Vietnam. I wanted very much to burst through the screen with a flamethrower and burn their eyes out and their balls off and then inquire from them how they would assess this action from a political point of view.
Would you ever use this anger in a politically oriented play?
I have occasionally out of irritation thought about writing a play with a satirical point. I once did, actually, a play that no one knows about. A full-length play written after The Caretaker. Wrote the whole damn thing in three drafts. It was called The Hothouse and was about an institution in which patients were kept: all that was presented was the hierarchy, the people who ran the institution; one never knew what happened to the patients or what they were there for or who they were. It was heavily satirical, and it was quite useless. I never began to like any of the characters; they really didn't live at all. So I discarded the play at once. The characters were so purely cardboard. I was intentionally—for the only time, I think—trying to make a point, an explicit point, that these were nasty people and I disapproved of them. And therefore they didn't begin to live. Whereas in other plays of mine every single character, even a bastard like Goldberg in The Birthday Party, I care for.
You often speak of your characters as living beings. Do they become so after you've written a play? While you're writing it?
As real as people you know?
No, but different. I had a terrible dream, after I'd written The Caretaker, about the two brothers. My house burned down in the dream, and I tried to find out who was responsible. I was led through all sorts of alleys and cafés and eventually I arrived at an inner room somewhere and there were the two brothers from the play. And I said, So you burned down my house. They said, Don't be too worried about it, and I said, I've got everything in there, everything, you don't realize what you've done, and they said, It's all right, we'll compensate you for it, we'll look after you all right—the younger brother was talking—and thereupon I wrote them out a check for fifty quid . . . I gave them a check for fifty quid!
Do you have a particular interest in psychology?
None at all? Did you have some purpose in mind in writing the speech where the older brother describes his troubles in a mental hospital at the end of Act II in The Caretaker?
Well, I had a purpose in the sense that Aston suddenly opened his mouth. My purpose was to let him go on talking until he was finished and then . . . bring the curtain down. I had no ax to grind there. And the one thing that people have missed is that it isn't necessary to conclude that everything Aston says about his experiences in the mental hospital is true.
There's a sense of terror and a threat of violence in most of your plays. Do you see the world as an essentially violent place?
The world is a pretty violent place, it's as simple as that, so any violence in the plays comes out quite naturally. It seems to me an essential and inevitable factor.
I think what you're talking about began in The Dumb Waiter, which from my point of view is a relatively simple piece of work. The violence is really only an expression of the question of dominance and subservience, which is possibly a repeated theme in my plays. I wrote a short story a long time ago called "The Examination," and my ideas of violence carried on from there. That short story dealt very explicitly with two people in one room having a battle of an unspecified nature, in which the question was one of who was dominant at what point and how they were going to be dominant and what tools they would use to achieve dominance and how they would try to undermine the other person's dominance. A threat is constantly there: it's got to do with this question of being in the uppermost position, or attempting to be. That's something of what attracted me to do the screenplay ofThe Servant, which was someone else's story, you know. I wouldn't call this violence so much as a battle for positions; it's a very common, everyday thing.
Do these ideas of everyday battles, or of violence, come from any experiences you've had yourself?
Everyone encounters violence in some way or other. It so happens I did encounter it in quite an extreme form after the war, in the East End, when the Fascists were coming back to life in England. I got into quite a few fights down there. If you looked remotely like a Jew you might be in trouble. Also, I went to a Jewish club, by an old railway arch, and there were quite a lot of people often waiting with broken milk bottles in a particular alley we used to walk through. There were one or two ways of getting out of it—one was a purely physical way, of course, but you couldn't do anything about the milk bottles—we didn't have any milk bottles. The best way was to talk to them, you know, sort of "Are you all right?" "Yes, I'm all right." "Well, that's all right then, isn't it?" And all the time keep walking toward the lights of the main road.
Another thing: we were often taken for communists. If you went by, or happened to be passing, a Fascist street meeting and looked in any way antagonistic—this was in Ridley Road market, near Dalston Junction—they'd interpret your very being, especially if you had books under your arms, as evidence of your being a Communist. There was a good deal of violence there, in those days.
Did this lead you toward some kind of pacifism?
I was fifteen when the war ended. There was never any question of my going when I was called up for military service three years later: I couldn't see any point in it at all. I refused to go. So I was taken in a police car to the medical examination. Then I had two tribunals and two trials. I could have gone to prison—I took my toothbrush to the trials—but it so happened that the magistrate was slightly sympathetic, so I was fined instead, thirty pounds in all. Perhaps I'll be called up again in the next war, but I won't go.
Robert Brustein has said of modern drama, "The rebel dramatist becomes an evangelist proselytizing for his faith." Do you see yourself in that role?
I don't know what he's talking about. I don't know for what faith I could possibly be proselytizing.
The theater is a very competitive business. Are you, as a writer, conscious of competing against other playwrights?
Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living. I'm never conscious of any competition going on here.
Do you read things written about you?
Yes. Most of the time I don't know what they're talking about; I don't really read them all the way through. Or I read it and it goes—if you asked me what had been said, I would have very little idea. But there are exceptions, mainly nonprofessional critics.
How much are you aware of an audience when you write?
Not very much. But I'm aware that this is a public medium. I don't want to borethe audience, I want to keep them glued to what happens. So I try to write as exactlyas possible. I would try to do that anyway, audience or no audience.
There is a story—mentioned by Brustein in The Theater of Revolt—that Ionesco once left a performance of Genet's The Blacks because he felt he was being attacked, and the actors were enjoying it. Would you ever hope for a similar reaction in your audience? Would you react this way yourself?
I've had that reaction—it's happened to me recently here in London, when I went to see US, the Royal Shakespeare Company's anti-Vietnam-War production. There was a kind of attack—I don't like being subjected to propaganda, and I detest soapboxes. I want to present things clearly in my own plays, and sometimes this does make an audience very uncomfortable, but there's no question about causing offense for its own sake.
Do you therefore feel the play failed to achieve its purpose—inspiring opposition to the war?
Certainly. The chasm between the reality of the war in Vietnam and the image of what US presented on the stage was so enormous as to be quite preposterous. If it was meant to lecture or shock the audience I think it was most presumptuous. It's impossible to make a major theatrical statement about such a matter when television and the press have made everything so clear.
Do you consciously make crisis situations humorous? Often an audience at your plays finds its laughter turning against itself as it realizes what the situation in the play actually is.
Yes, that's very true, yes. I'm rarely consciously writing humor, but sometimes I find myself laughing at some particular point that has suddenly struck me as being funny. I agree that more often than not the speech only seems to be funny—the man in question is actually fighting a battle for his life.
There are sexual undertones in many of these crisis situations, aren't there? How do you see the use of sex in the theater today?
I do object to one thing to do with sex: this scheme afoot on the part of many "liberal-minded" persons to open up obscene language to general commerce. It should be the dark secret language of the underworld. There are very few words—you shouldn't kill them by overuse. I have used such words once or twice in my plays, but I couldn't get them through the Lord Chamberlain. They're great, wonderful words, but must be used very sparingly. The pure publicity of freedom of language fatigues me, because it's a demonstration rather than something said.
Do you think you've inspired any imitations? Have you ever seen anything in a film or theater that struck you as, well, Pinteresque?
That word! These damn words and that word Pinteresque particularly—I don't know what they're bloody well talking about! I think it's a great burden for me to carry, and for other writers to carry. Oh, very occasionally I've thought listening to something, Hello, that rings a bell. But it goes no further than that. I really do think that writers write on . . . just write, and I find it difficult to believe I'm any kind of influence on other writers. I've seen very little evidence of it, anyway; other people seem to see more evidence of it than I do.
The critics?
It's a great mistake to pay any attention to them. I think, you see, that this is an age of such overblown publicity and overemphatic pinning down. I'm a very good example of a writer who can write, but I'm not as good as all that. I'm just a writer; and I think that I've been overblown tremendously because there's a dearth of really fine writing, and people tend to make too much of a meal. All you can do is try to write as well as you can.
Do you think your plays will be performed fifty years from now? Is universality a quality you consciously strive for?
I have no idea whether my plays will be performed in fifty years, and it's of no moment to me. I'm pleased when what I write makes sense in South America or Yugoslavia—it's gratifying. But I certainly don't strive for universality—I've got enough to strive for just writing a bloody play!
Do you think the success you've known has changed your writing?
No, but it did become more difficult. I think I've gone beyond something now. When I wrote the first three plays in 1957 I wrote them from the point of view ofwriting them; the whole world of putting on plays was quite remote—I knew they could never be done in the reps I was acting in, and the West End and London were somewhere on the other side of the moon. So I wrote these plays completely unself-consciously. There's no question that over the years it's become more difficult to preserve the kind of freedom that's essential to writing, but when I do write, it's there. For a while it became more difficult to avoid the searchlights and all that. And it took me five years to write a stage play, The Homecoming, after The Caretaker. I did a lot of things in the meantime, but writing a stage play, which is what I really wanted to do, I couldn't. Then I wrote The Homecoming, for good or bad, and I felt much better. But now I'm back in the same boat—I want to write a play, it buzzes all the time in me, and I can't put pen to paper. Something people don't realize is the great boredom one has with oneself, and just to see those words come down again on paper, I think: Oh Christ, everything I do seems to be predictable, unsatisfactory, and hopeless. It keeps me awake. Distractions don't matter to me—if I had something to write I would write it. Don't ask me why I want to keep on with plays at all!
Do you think you'd ever use freer techniques as a way of starting writing again?
I can enjoy them in other people's plays—I thought the Marat/Sade was a damn good evening, and other very different plays like The Caucasian Chalk Circle I've also enjoyed. But I'd never use such stage techniques myself.
Does this make you feel behind the times in any way?
I am a very traditional playwright—for instance I insist on having a curtain in all my plays. I write curtain lines for that reason! And even when directors like Peter Hall or Claude Regy in Paris want to do away with them, I insist they stay. For me everything has to do with shape, structure, and overall unity. All this jamboree in happenings and eight-hour movies is great fun for the people concerned, I'm sure.
Shouldn't they be having fun?
If they're all having fun I'm delighted, but count me out completely, I wouldn't stay more than five minutes. The trouble is I find it all so noisy, and I like quiet things. There seems to be such a jazz and jaggedness in so much modern art, and a great deal of it is inferior to its models: Joyce contains so much of Burroughs, for example, in his experimental techniques, though Burroughs is a fine writer on his own. This doesn't mean I don't regard myself as a contemporary writer: I mean, I'mhere.


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Outlook 2013: Manually set up email
Warning: These instructions are specific to setting up Workspace email. If you need to manually set up Outlook with Office 365 email, please see: Outlook: Manually set up email
Note: These instructions are only applicable to Outlook 2013 on a PC. Click here for other versions of Outlook.
- Open Outlook.
- Click File.
- Under Info, click Add Account.
- Select Manual setup or additional server types, and then click Next.
- Select POP or IMAP, and then click Next.
- Complete the following fields:
Field Enter Your Name What you want your display name to be for this account Email Address Your full Workspace email address Account Type Select either POP3 or IMAP, depending on your account.
Not sure? Learn how to find out what account type you have.
Incoming and Outgoing mail server Enter the server addresses displayed in your Email Setup Center.
Read more about the Email Setup Center.
User Name Your full Workspace email address Password Your Workspace email account password Remember password Select this option Require logon using Secure Password Authentication Deselect this option
- Click More Settings...
- Go to the Outgoing Server tab, and then complete the following fields:
Field What to do... My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication Select this option Use same settings as my incoming mail server Select this option
- Go to the Advanced tab, and complete the following fields:
Field What to do... Incoming server Enter one of the incoming ports, listed in your Email Setup Center. This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL) If the port is listed in black in your Email Setup Center, deselect this option. If it is listed in orange, select this option. Outgoing server (SMTP) Enter one of the outgoing ports, listed in your Email Setup Center. Use the following type of encrypted connection If the port is listed in black in your Email Setup Center, set this to None. If it is listed in orange, set this to SSL. Server Timeouts This selection is up to you. Leave a copy of messages on the server This option is up to you. If you have a POP account, and you will be using more than one way to access your email, you should select this. Leaving a copy on the server will use up your email storage limit, faster.
Learn about the differences between POP and IMAP for more.
- Click OK.
- In the Add Account window underneath, click Next.
- Click Finish.
Note: As a troubleshooting step, select Log on using. Then enter your User Name, and your Password. Use your full Workspace email address as your User Name.
Next steps
You now should be able to open Outlook and send and receive your Workspace email. If you are still having trouble, check out: Outlook 2010 and 2013: Troubleshooting Email

subset: commoncrawl


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Dancing Dragons - Coasters
"Dancing Dragons" from Harantula
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Our Premium Beverage Coasters feature full color prints on a glossy hardboard top. Coasters are backed with medium-density fibrewood (MDF) cork and measure 3.75" x 3.75". Available as a single coaster or a pack of four.
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In France, both labelling and traceability are regulated by the corresponding EU Directive. Food inspections in 2005 found no infringements.
On 11 October 2006, the administration for competition, consumption and frauds released its 2005 report on food inspections. In 2005, 69 products were tested for genetically modified organisms (GMO). In 17 samples, traces of GMOs were found, the amount always below the labelling threshold of 0.9 percent.
In France, only a few laboratories are in charge of GMO testing. To reduce costs and risks, the analyses are conducted at early stages of the food production chain.
In 2006, the unapproved GM rice LL601 was found in several European countries, France being among them. All affected product charges were immediately removed from the market.


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Maud Lindsay (1874-1941), daughter of the only foreign-born governor of the state of Alabama and the childhood friend of Helen Keller, established Alabama's first free kindergarten in East Florence in what was then a cotton-mill district. In addition to teaching there for 42 years, she wrote numerous children's books, poems, and a play.
Maud McKnight Lindsay was born in Tuscumbia on May 13, 1874, to Sarah Miller Winston Lindsay and Robert Burns Lindsay. She was one of nine children, only four of whom survived into adulthood. Her father had emigrated from Scotland at the age of 20 and served as professor of languages at Willingham College in North Carolina before becoming Alabama's governor in 1870. Although she had no formal higher education, Lindsay became interested in teaching kindergarten. After working as a music teacher in a private kindergarten in Tuscumbia, Lindsay in 1898 opened her free kindergarten. The school, now known as The Maud Lindsay Free Kindergarten, is still in operation.
As part of her mission to teach, Lindsay wrote and published numerous children's books. Her first book, Mother Stories (1900), prefaced each story with a "motto" for the mother that was intended to teach lessons about life. Among her best known works were her Selected Poems (1900), More Mother Stories (1905), A Story Garden for Little Children (1913), and two book-length tales, Little Missy (1922) and Silverfoot (1924). Most of Lindsay's works reflected her own childhood experiences in Alabama. In A Story Garden for Little Children, for example, she describes familiar southern customs: "Saucer Pie" describes the practice of baking a child's pie in her own small saucer, and "Thimble Biscuit" relates the custom of giving children the remnants of biscuit dough so that they might cut out their own tiny biscuits using their grandmother's thimble.
In all of Lindsay's work, the underlying message is that life is full of richness and possibility no matter what the circumstances. She devoted her entire life to her teaching and writing, never marrying. She died in her sleep on May 30, 1941, and was buried in the Winston family cemetery in Tuscumbia.
Additional Resources
Butler, Mary S. "Maud McKnight Lindsay." Alabama Historical Quarterly 3 (Summer 1941): 178-188.
Additional Resources
Butler, Mary S. "Maud McKnight Lindsay." Alabama Historical Quarterly 3 (Summer 1941): 178-188.


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Hotel Anemomilos Villa
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With a stay at Anemomilos Villa in Santorini (Fira), you'll be minutes from Petros M. Nomikos Conference Centre and Wall Paintings of Thira Exhibition. This hotel is within close proximity of Megaro Gyzi and Catholic Cathedral. Take advantage of recreational opportunities offered, including an outdoor pool, a spa tub, and a seasonal outdoor pool. This hotel also features complimentary wireless Internet access, concierge services, and a television in the lobby. Featured amenities include limo/town car service, a computer station, and multilingual staff. A roundtrip airport shuttle is complimentary at scheduled times, and a ferry terminal shuttle is also provided at no charge. Make yourself at home in one of the 14 air-conditioned rooms featuring refrigerators. Rooms have private balconies or patios. Complimentary wireless Internet access is available to keep you connected. Bathrooms have showers and hair dryers.
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Other names for Hotel Anemomilos Villa:
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Location: Hotel Anemomilos Villa
The preferred airport for Anemomilos Villa is Thira (JTR-Santorini National) - 4.1 km / 2.5 mi. Distances are calculated in a straight line from the property's location to the point of interest or airport and may not reflect actual travel distance. Distances are displayed to the nearest 0.1 mile and kilometre.


text: May I kindly request anybody here (especially Till) help me understand a little things about ISPConfig SpamFilter...To start with: 1. About Whitelist / Blacklist When adding such a record, am required to choose a user (which would be created from an existing email box) and my understanding is that such a white/blacklist would ONLY apply to that user. QN: If I want that rule ie black/white-list to apply to the entire mail domain name or to ALL the mailboxes, is there away to go around that? Imagine if its the user him self doing it .. Thanks, Joseph


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NEW YORK — In the final All-Star game of Mariano Rivera's distinguished career, who got the save for the American League?
"That could be a trivia question," Joe Nathan said. "I'm sure everyone will get it wrong."
Nathan had better not miss the answer, since he is the answer.
Rivera, the legendary New York Yankees closer, worked the eighth inning in Tuesday's All-Star game, just in case there would be no bottom of the ninth inning. That left the ninth inning for Nathan, the Texas Rangers' closer, who converted the save in the 3-0 AL victory.
Rivera congratulated Nathan on the save.
"That was awesome," Nathan said.
In turn, Nathan gave Rivera the ball used for the last out.
"It was a no-brainer," Nathan said. "I wanted it. I wanted to give it to him even more."
Nathan laughed off the idea that Rivera, 43, could have gone six outs for the save.
"You don't want to do that," Nathan said jokingly. "He's an old man."
Torii Hunter tribute
Detroit Tigers Manager Jim Leyland, the AL manager, made sure Rivera got a high-profile salute. Leyland also made sure Tigers outfielder Torii Hunter got a little-noticed salute.
Hunter played most of his career in center field, winning nine consecutive Gold Gloves from 2001 to 2009. He moved to right field with the Angels in 2011, making room for youngsters Peter Bourjos and Mike Trout in center field.
In the eighth inning, as Rivera took the mound, Hunter replaced Trout in center field.
"Jim set that up," Hunter said. "He said, 'I want you to play center field.' It was pretty awesome."
Local news
When Trout left the Angels' clubhouse Sunday, Albert Pujols sent him off to the All-Star game with these words: "Go deep on the first pitch."
Trout came close enough. He led off for the AL and doubled on the first pitch, a 97-mph fastball from Matt Harvey of the New York Mets.
"It was the first time I ever saw Harvey," Trout said. "I knew he had some good off-speed stuff, and I just didn't want to go deep into the count and get it.
"I just went up there hacking. Usually, I don't swing at the first pitch."
With that hit, Trout had reached base in all three All-Star game plate appearances. That streak ended in his next at-bat, when he flied out against Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.
Trout finished with one hit in three at-bats. Kershaw worked one perfect inning. In his three career All-Star appearances, Kershaw has pitched a scoreless inning every time.


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I always wondered what the story was between Alvis Oliver and Simeon Williams. Now, I already knew that no one called these 2 brothers by their full names. They were known as A.O. and Sim, and you might remember A.O. by his beautiful pocketwatch that I've already shared with you here. Also, A.O. was the father of the beautiful Pearl (Williams) Pointer [the wife of Harve Pointer], making Sim her "Uncle Sim".
With every census that I found them in, I found them together. Even after A.O. Williams married his wife Nancy Catherine Odell. I wondered why. Perhaps I analyze the census too much. [So sue me.] But I was right to wonder why. Lo and behold, there is a story. And my husband's Great-Uncle Donald [one of Harve's and Pearl's boys] had it, and he shared it with me. And here's part of what Great-Uncle Donald had to say in his memoirs about them:
Sim was my Granpa's William's brother and never married so he had always lived at home with his mother also, and when Granpa Williams got married I guess Grandma Williams just moved in with them...I never heard Granpa and Sim swear at each other but they argued almost constantly and always called each other cantankerous, contrary old cusses. They may have swore at each other when they weren't around us boys but they might as well done it in front of us because we all knew how to swear...Granpa and Sim were always poor they made a living doing cement work, Carpenter work, Just handy man work like that. They had a cement mixer that was powered by a single cylinder gas engine. A team of horses and a buggy and a light buckboard type spring wagon which they used to go to work with and haul tools in...Their rent couldn't have been much seems to me if I remember about 5 dollars a month. I don't know what they got for wages probably two to five dollars a day...They had to buy coal to heat with in the winter. But they didn't have no light nor water nor gas bills to pay. They did have to buy feed for the horses because they have to eat whether they work or not...I don't remember when Granpa and Sim had two horses I only remember the one they had left...His name was Sam. He was a tall long legged black beautiful horse. Of course I didn't realize that at the time, like a lot of other things, but I do now...and then Sam died of old age and that left Granpa and Sim afoot. Sometimes I do remember them walking to our place but not together I think they needed all of their energy to walk with none to spare for bickering. Uncle Sim used to say that walking wasn't very crowded but it was kinda lonesome. Granpa and Sim never owned a home nor a car so I guess the only thing that they owned was their tools and what little household furniture they had.
Now, I still don't know why Uncle Sim never married, but I do know the "how" now [brown cow]. How A.O. and Uncle Sim never really got along. But somehow they lived together. And now they lie next to each other in the Collins Iowa Cemetery. They shared a house. They shared an occupation. And they even share a tombstone. They just couldn't share the same dang road. I think it's as funny as all get out. [Sorry. That's a Texas expression.] I wonder if they're still arguing? [Snort.]


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Find the perfect hotel in Stoughton using our hotel guide provided below. Find cheap and discounted hotel/motel rates in or nearby Stoughton, MA for your upcoming personal or group trip. We list the best Stoughton, Massachusetts motel and hotel rooms. Browse the Stoughton area hotels to find the perfect lodging! Please use the provided map of the Stoughton hotels. Coordinating a group? Get Stoughton Group Hotel Rates
The Stoughton center is about 5 miles southeast of Norwood Memorial Airport and 7 miles east of Gillette Stadium - New England Patriots.
How should we direct your call?


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Women who have their ovaries and uterus removed - to treat fibroids, for example - tend to gain more weight in the years afterward than those who only have their uterus taken out or don't have surgery at all, a new study hints.
The findings suggest that surgery to remove the uterus, called a hysterectomy, doesn't have much effect on weight on its own - contrary to what many women may believe, according to Patricia Moorman, a women's health researcher at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
"It's encouraging in that respect," added Moorman, who wasn't involved in the new study.
About 600,000 women in the US have a hysterectomy each year.
Some earlier research had shown women who have their uterus removed tend to be heavier than those who don't have the surgery - but the studies could not say whether they were also heavier to begin with.
For the current study, researchers tracked women for up to 10 years, beginning before menopause and ending after natural menopause or surgery.
The women were in their 40s or early 50s at the start of the study, conducted at sites across the United States.
Most of the women - 1,780 out of 1,962 - did not have surgery and went through menopause naturally.
Among those who had surgery to remove their uterus, 76 kept their ovaries and 106 had both of their ovaries removed, which is done to prevent ovarian cancer.
Women who ended up having a hysterectomy started out the study heavier, on average, than those who went through natural menopause. That difference was about two points on a body mass index (BMI) scale - equal to about 10 pounds.
Carolyn Gibson, the lead author of the study and a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, said conditions that lead to hysterectomy - such as endometriosis and uterine fibroids - are linked with higher weight, which might explain why the surgery groups were heavier to begin with.
Over time, women in all three groups tended to gain weight. And the women who had a hysterectomy with ovary removal put on more pounds than those who didn't have surgery or only had their uterus out, the researchers reported in the International Journal of Obesity.
Women who had a hysterectomy and ovary removal gained 0.21 BMI points each year after surgery - equal to about one pound, depending on a woman's exact height and weight. Those who didn't have surgery gained 0.08 BMI points each year post-menopause, on average.
Changes in hormone production after surgery probably explain the findings, said Gibson, although her study can't prove that's the case.
Women who go through menopause naturally experience a gradual drop in hormones, whereas ovary removal causes an abrupt halt to some hormone production.
Moorman said she would be cautious about making too many conclusions based on the findings because so few women in the study had their ovaries removed compared to the large majority of women who did not have surgery.
Gibson pointed out that the differences between the groups were slight, but that a potential increase in weight gain should be something women and their doctors consider when deciding whether to remove the ovaries, given the link between higher weight and chronic health problems.
"It's often done to decrease the risk of ovarian cancer, which is of course a very serious consideration," she told Reuters Health. "That said, if it is conferring risk for other chronic diseases that might have health consequences for women down the road, I think it's certainly something to take into account."


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CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Penn State Lehigh Valley Continuing Education has announced its schedule of professional development courses for the fall. These courses, which begin on Sept. 5, are offered to professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds who desire to sharpen their skills by earning a professional certificate or sitting for industry specific credentialing.
The following programs are being offered:
Contemporary Leadership Series – Each of the courses in this four part series explores the issues of supervision and management and the skills required to be successful. The courses can be taken individually or as a series to maximize professional growth and continue building lifelong leadership skills.
Principles of Inventory Management (APICS – The Association for Operations Management curriculum) – Part of a five-course series, Principles of Inventory Management can provide principles, techniques and terminology related to inventory management to participants who are new to materials and operations management, as well as those with a fundamental understanding of basic concepts.
Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Review – These are two distinct FE Review courses: one geared toward professionals taking the October 2013 exam and an FE Civil Review course for those taking the newly formatted exam in 2014.
Project Management Certificate and PMP Boot Camp – These programs are geared toward project managers who wish to become familiar with and/or master PMI (Project Management International) terminology, concepts and calculations. Penn State Lehigh Valley is a PMI Registered Education Provider (REP).
SHRM Essentials of Human Resource Management and SHRM Learning System – These courses are offered in partnership with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world's largest association devoted to human resource management. They cover the role of human resources in business at both the entry level and the certification level.
For more information about professional development opportunities including specific course dates, visit www.lv.psu.edu/ce/profdev or contact Diane McAloon at 610-285-5066.


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Darvin wrote:- 2) Beating the "The New World" subdungeon on Dragon Isles, I picked up the two 5% trinkets. One for damage, the other for magic resist. Though the items state a conversion value of 10, converting each one gave something closer to 40 or 50 each.
Would you happen to be a wizard? They have a special ability that lets them get extra conversion points (it's drained out of their glyphs) whenever they convert anything.
Nurator wrote:When you play as a warlord, the +30% dmg from Mana Potions also works like a Might Buff, reducing enemy resistances. The +30% dmg when you are below 50% life dont do that.
These two effects should be consistent!
Wargasm wrote:We suspect there may be a bug with the Steam achievement "masochist." No one seems to be able to get it. Heh.
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Alpha Delta Phi: Seth Eaton (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Alpha Epsilon Pi: Ari Hirsch (email@example.com)
Beta Theta Pi: Sam Kececi (email@example.com)
Delta Sigma Phi: Andrew Penn (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Phi Gamma Delta: Alex Swanson (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Kappa Delta Rho: Jake Killingsworth (email@example.com)
Pi Kappa Alpha: Rahil Patel (email@example.com)
Sigma Chi: Casey Mariucci (email@example.com)
Sigma Nu: Michael Fagundo (email@example.com)
Sigma Phi Epsilon: Nicholas Liu (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Zeta Beta Tau: David Lalo (firstname.lastname@example.com )
Welcome to the official website of the Interfraternity Council at Columbia University. Here, you will find information about the Interfraternity Council and the 11 national fraternities on campus that fall under its governance. The Interfraternity Council (IFC) is the student-run governing board that regulates and unifies the fraternities and communicates with the larger community to promote a positive image for fraternity life on campus.
Comprising over 500 men, the fraternal system at Columbia consists of a large and growing portion of the overall student body. Our chapters are committed to the principles of scholarship, philanthropy and service, leadership, brotherhood, and development, as echoed in the Columbia University Fraternity and Sorority Statement of Shared Values. Becoming a member of a fraternity is a rewarding, life-long commitment. With 11 Interfraternity Council chapters on campus, there is a diversity of interests represented by each of our chapters. Each fraternity provides a unique experience, but all strive to maintain a group of determined, motivated young men. A fraternal brotherhood provides invaluable friendships, which serve as a strong base for social and personal development. All of our chapters remain at manageable sizes, which cultivate more meaningful brotherhoods.
Fraternity and sorority life promotes high academic standards as well as fulfills a commitment towards philanthropic pursuits. Chapters in the IFC collaborate with the other fraternities and sororities in the Intergreek Council (IGC) in addition to many other organizations on campus to undertake philanthropic and community service endeavors. Additionally, the IFC and IGC partner up with campus service initiatives such as Relay for Life and Columbia Community Outreach for events that promote Greek-wide bonding and reinforce a positive presence in the community.
Please use this site as a resource to become familiar with the fraternity system at Columbia. Feel free to contact our president at email@example.com if you have any questions or concerns. We appreciate the continued support of our members, peers, administration, and neighborhood that allows for such a thriving community!
We welcome you to visit these related links:
Alpha Delta Phi Society
Delta Chapter
Nickname: ADP
Year Founded: 1832
Year Chartered at CU: 1836
Colors: Emerald & Pearl
Location: 526 W 114th St.
Alpha Epsilon Pi
Iota Chapter
Nickname: AEPi
Year Founded: 1913
Year Chartered at CU: 1923
Colors: Blue & Gold
Location: N/A
Beta Theta Pi
Alpha Alpha Chapter
Nickname: Beta
Year Founded: 1839
Year Chartered at CU: 1881
Colors: Pink & Blue
Location: 550 W 114th St.
Delta Sigma Phi
Beta Chapter
Nickname: Delta Sig
Year Founded: 1899
Year Chartered at CU: 1901
Colors: Nile Green & White
Location: 531 W 113th St.
Kappa Delta Rho
Nu Alpha Chapter
Nickname: KDR
Year Founded: 1905
Year Chartered at CU: 1982
Colors: Blue & Orange
Location: 548 W 114th St.
Phi Gamma Delta
Omega Chapter
Nickname: FIJI
Year Founded: 1848
Year Chartered at CU: 1866
Colors: Royal Purple
Location: N/A
Pi Kappa Alpha
Iota Lambda Chapter
Nickname: Pike
Year Founded: 1868
Year Chartered at CU: 1990
Colors: Garnet & Old Gold
Location: N/A
Sigma Chi
Nu Nu Chapter
Nickname: Sig Chi
Year Founded: 1855
Year Chartered at CU: 1894
Colors: Blue & Old Gold
Location: 523 W 113th St.
Sigma Nu
Delta Gamma Chapter
Nickname: Sig Nu
Year Founded: 1869
Year Chartered at CU: 1908
Colors: Black, White & Gold
Location: 556 W 113th St.
Sigma Phi Epsilon
New York Phi Chapter
Nickname: Sig Ep
Year Founded: 1901
Year Chartered at CU: 1999
Colors: Purple & Red
Location: 550 W 113th St.
Zeta Beta Tau
Delta Chapter
Nickname: ZBT
Year Founded: 1898
Year Chartered at CU: 1993
Colors: Blue, White & Gold
Location: N/A
The Interfraternity Council is the governing body of the 11 national fraternities at Columbia University. Led by its five executive board members, the council meets monthly with the 11 chapter presidents and representatives from each fraternity to discuss and vote on matters related to the IFC. The IFC governs chapters that are predominantly male, with the exception of one chapter, the Alpha Delta Phi Society, that is co-educational.
The IFC's mission was developed in accordance with objectives outlined by the North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC). Its purpose is to serve as a resource for the fraternal system in the development of fraternity men in the areas of scholarship, leadership, brotherhood, and service. To that end, the IFC develops projects and policy to foster inter-Greek relations, promote academic excellence, and advocate for the Greek community on Columbia's campus. The IFC additionally serves as a financial resource for its fraternities. Recognizing those fraternities that are in good standing with Fraternity and Sorority Life and the University, the IFC will grant co-sponsorships to support events that it views to be in line with the Statement of Shared Values.
The Interfraternity Council is part of the larger governing board, the Intergreek Council (IGC). The Intergreek Council is made up of three sub-councils: the Interfraternity Council, the Panhellenic Council, and the Multicultural Greek Council. While Columbia has a rich history of fraternity life, it lacked an IFC until 2008 - a cardinal feature of thriving Greek systems around the country. In December of 2007, the Intergreek Council developed into the three sub-councils. As part of the IGC, the IFC works closely with the other sub-councils as well as other student governing bodies and the Columbia administration to support the academic and social goals of the university. The IFC addresses fraternity-specific concerns and fosters cooperation between Columbia's fraternities. Additionally, the IFC helps to coordinate Greek-wide programming events with the other sub-councils of the IGC, including the annual Intergreek Council formal, Relay for Life, and the New Student Orientation Program Meet and Greet.
The Interfraternity Council proudly stands behind the values stated in the Columbia University Fraternity and Sorority Life Statement of Shared Values. Recognizing everything the fraternal bonds have done in influencing and supporting our paths in life, we present the Statement of Shared Values:
The fraternity and sorority community at Columbia University strives to foster a holistic collegiate experience that will strengthen a commitment to life-long membership and our alma mater.
We believe that through our dedication and promotion of social consciousness we greatly contribute to the creation of a vibrant cultural community that emphasizes diversity, inclusiveness, and mutual respect. We are values based organizations and, through our actions, we embody these ideals and inspire others.
Leadership. Scholarship. Empowerment.
The Greek Judicial Board is the judicial body comprised of members from the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Council, and Multicultural Greek Council chapters that was established to ensure excellence and promote cooperation in Columbia's Greek community. It acts upon reports of alleged chapter misconduct and holds weekly hearings that parallel the Dean's Discipline process. The goal of these hearings is to facilitate a student-led adjudication of Fraternity and Sorority policy violations.
The Chair of the Greek Judicial Board, part of the Associates Board of the IGC, leads the Judicial Board and is elected by the chapter delegates at the end of each calendar year at the Intergreek Council meeting. The Chair of the Greek Judicial Board helps to select six additional members with the help from Judicial Affairs deans and the Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life. An application and interview process ensures that the Judicial Board members are both qualified and dedicated. Each week, the Board meets to hear reports of alleged policy violations filed by Columbia community members. All parties involved have a chance to speak and ask questions. Afterwards, the Board deliberates and submits written decisions. These decisions will ultimately determine which chapters are in good standing with the IGC.
Although the Greek Judicial Board often recommends certain sanctions in response to violations, it is by no means a purely punitive body. It seeks not only to ensure adherence to Fraternity and Sorority Life, Columbia University, and New York state regulations, but also to resolve inter-Greek conflicts and improve the public image of the Greek system by promoting responsible, cooperative behavior. To that end, the Board tries to develop creative solutions in tandem with Columbia administrators and Greek organizations to maintain high standards in doable ways.
The Greek Judicial Board has become a prime example of student autonomy and self-governance on Columbia's campus. We believe the Greek Judicial Board will remain an important part of our vibrant Greek community for years to come.
For more information, please contact the IGC Judicial Board Chair at email@example.com.
Steven Hyland
Alpha Epsilon Pi
Jacob Zucker
Sigma Nu
Martin Munoz
Phi Gamma Delta
Quincy Meng
Sigma Nu
Kwabena Ayim-Aboagye
VP-Community Relations
Sigma Phi Epsilon
Eric Ng
Honor Court Chair
Zeta Beta Tau
The members of the Executive Board of the Interfraternity Council at Columbia University are strongly dedicated towards establishing expectations on appropriate behavior and respectful relations with our Morningside Heights community, with a strong emphasis on providing viable and fair solutions. This can relate to, but is not limited to, monitoring of social events and levels of noise heard from within and outside these social events. The IFC at Columbia University has embarked on the monumental task of establishing an effective and communicative relationship between the residents of the Morningside Heights Community and the residents of the fraternity brownstones of Columbia University. With this goal in mind, the position of VP Community Relations was added to the IFC Executive Board to address these concerns.
To promote and foster such a healthy relationship, we ask that when a resident(s) files a noise complaint that it:
With such information provided, you can expect a prompt response from the IFC VP-Community Relations after the complaint is filed and registered. Importantly, if the proper details are not filed and stated in the initial reports, the initial response from the VP Community Relations will be one asking a series of important and informative questions. The IFC VP Community Relations can be reached via email at firstname.lastname@example.com. Please also feel free to reach out with any other questions, suggestions, or concerns. We hope to facilitate a positive and open dialogue with our community.
Fraternities provide a unique, enriching experience both during your college years and as an alumnus. As you may be exploring many exciting extracurricular opportunities at Columbia, we especially encourage you to consider joining a fraternity in the IFC. Becoming a fraternity man gives you an experience that most other organizations cannot - a life-long brotherhood. A brotherhood is a social network of men who support each other through common interests that continues beyond the undergraduate years as an eternal bond.
Today, with 11 fraternities and over 500 members, the fraternity community at Columbia is as strong as it has ever been. The fraternity and sorority community at Columbia consists of approximately 15-20% of the student body - a significant portion of the undergraduate population. It is an intimate community that welcomes people from all backgrounds, with each organization representing a diversity of interests. Fraternities have been present on campus for over a hundred years, and the number of students involved in Greek life continues to grow each year. Being a member of the Greek community gives students the ability to meet and socialize with members not only from their own organization, but also with members from other fraternities and sororities at various events throughout the semester as well.
A brotherhood promotes excellence in all areas of one's undergraduate career. IFC fraternities pride themselves on their philanthropy, scholarship, tradition, and integrity. Our organizations boast campus leaders in every field, such as student government, CU athletics, cultural organizations, pre-professional societies, and community service-based clubs. Members in all of our organizations are consistently recognized for their academic, athletic, and philanthropic achievements. Fraternities provide a great source of academic support throughout one's undergraduate career. Whether this means gaining advice from older brothers on different classes and majors, or spending time in the library with fellow fraternity members, a fraternity serves a strong academic resource. Fraternity men can always be found doing service for their community through semesterly philanthropic events. In terms of athletics, many fraternity members are also members of varsity sports teams, such as football, basketball, swimming, baseball, and rowing. Some fraternities even create teams that compete in the intramural sports league. In addition to service and athletics, there are a plethora of opportunities for leadership within one's own fraternity, the Intergreek Council, and the Greek Judicial Board.
Not every current fraternity man at Columbia came to Columbia knowing that he was going to join a fraternity. However, after meeting the brothers at various recruitment events, many have gained a completely new perspective on what fraternity life is like here at Columbia, which certainly defies many stereotypes. Most often people say that it has turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences of their time at Columbia. We hope that you will look into our chapters and find one that is right for you!
Rush is the period of time before bids are given when prospective fraternity members can look into the different fraternities. During this time, which usually consists of the first three weeks in the beginning of each of the fall and spring semesters, fraternities hold rush events to recruit new members. This should give a prospective member time to meet the brothers and see what fraternity life is all about. At the end of the rush period, the prospective fraternity member may receive a bid from the fraternity that he was looking into, which is an invitation to join the fraternity. Should he choose to accept the bid, he must reject any other offers from other fraternities. Rush is a non-binding process, so the student may choose not to accept any bids, and may reconsider rushing in a later semester.
At this time, Columbia does not have a formalized rush process for IFC fraternities, although there are several arranged Meet and Greet events. Each fraternity hosts its own recruitment events, so prospective members should seek out chapter Facebook pages and websites to find out when those events are being held. Alternatively, prospective members should feel free to contact the IFC Executive Board if they need any help finding out rush schedules or being put in contact with any of the fraternities.
In accordance with the Office of Residential Programs- Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, Columbia fraternities must abide by a dry recruitment policy, which means that no alcohol may be present at rush events in any capacity. A man should choose to join a fraternity not based on whether alcohol is present, but rather on the types of brothers that he meets and the connections that he establishes. If alcohol is present at an event, then the organization is breaking the rules that have been established the North-American Interfraternity Conference.
A man is eligible to join a fraternity if he is enrolled at Columbia University as a full-time student, meeting the minimum GPA requirement of 2.50. A full-time student is defined as taking twelve credit hours per semester, excluding correspondence courses and courses at other universities.
Columbia fraternities abide by a strict no-hazing policy. Some examples of hazing situations may include any type of physical brutality; any activity involving consumption of food, liquid, alcoholic beverage, liquor, drug, or other substance which subjects the student to an unreasonable risk of harm; any activity that intimidates or threatens the student with ostracism, that subjects the student to extreme mental stress, shame, or humiliation; or any activity that induces, causes, or requires the student to perform a duty or task which involves a violation of the law. Hazing is prohibited by Columbia University and New York State Law. Please immediately inform the IFC Executive Board or the Associate Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life in 515 Lerner Hall if you feel that you have been a victim of hazing or are aware of any such activity.


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Foundation Volunteers
Volunteers are the heart of any technical society…they shape the direction of the organization and help it to grow and prosper.
ASM International has many dedicated volunteers who do everything from chairing high level committees and leading chapters to unsung heroes helping students at a Materials Camp for example.
Volunteerism is key to the longevity of ASM International as well as to the implementation of products and services needed by the materials science and engineering community. The rewards and benefits of volunteering are many, including networking and personal and career growth.
We look forward to your anticipated involvement and participation in making ASM "The Materials Information Society."
ASM Materials Camp Student or Teachers Camp
Volunteers are always welcome as mentors and organizers. Are you interested in organizing or helping to set up an ASM Materials Camp for teachers or students in your area? Camps are held throughout the United States, Canada, and India, so join us for this most rewarding experience!
Organizing an ASM Materials Camp Student Camp or Teachers Camp is a tremendously satisfying experience for those who volunteer their time and creativity.
All costs to run a Student Camp will be shared by your ASM Chapter and local businesses. In the case of a Teachers Camp, all costs will be absorbed by the ASM Materials Education Foundation and your local ASM Chapter. Please look at the sample budget provided in the Guidelines as a reference point for what your Materials Camp might cost.
Materials Camp Student Camps can be anywhere from one to five days long. Teachers Camps are usually five days long. Whichever camp you choose to organize, you'll need months to get ready. Fortunately, all planning activities have been compiled in an easy-to-follow format.
Best Practices for a Materials Camp Student and Teachers Camp
If you have any questions, please contact Jeane Deatherage at email@example.com.


text: Beautiful/Decay is pleased to announce to release of 8 brand new prints from our ever-growing poster series. Each poster is printed on full, heavy-weight, archival quality paper. The new prints, "Darkness," "Bathead," "Satellite," and "Space" are a bold cocktail of the amazing and beautiful images you've come to expect from us. And if owning Issue: K and Issue: T weren't enough, now you can have the mind-bending cover art of Alex Trochut and Aya Kato. So what are you waiting for? Pop on over to the shop and legitimize your walls already!


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A person who is compelled to actively participate in various Web 2.0 based web sites. Often times suffers from OCT, OCH, and may even be considered a Mouse Potato. Spends a disproportionate amount of time with Social Netorking sites than physically interacting with human beings.
You've got a MySpace page, del.icio.us links, share photos on Flickr, tagged the contents of your refrigerator and never knew Ajax was a cleaner. You're such a Web 2.Ho.
by Donald Farland December 22, 2006
buy the domain for your cat blog


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About STEP
STEP is a New York State Department of Education grant-funded enrichment initiative designed:
- to foster academic excellence
- to nurture students' preparation for college
- to cultivate student independence
- to enhance students' college experience
- to increase awareness and opportunities for historically underrepresented, economically disadvantaged youth in math, science, technology, and health related fields
- for those seeking professional licensure
- for those in pre-professional or professional undergraduate study
STEP students will:
- be open to new experiences in regard to their future opportunities in college and in math, science, health, technology and in licensed professions.
- participate in internships, job shadowing, weekly tutorial services, research projects for poster presentations, monthly professional speaker series, college visits, academic/personal/career advisement, counseling, and workshops and seminars. Eligible participants must be members of historically underrepresented populations: African-American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American/Alaskan or economically disadvantaged; a U.S. citizen or permanent New York State resident; maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.5.
Jean Leandre - STEP/CSTEP Director
Ushona McLean - CSTEP and STEP Coordinator
Lol-Kirk Miller - STEP Program Specialist
J. Manny Sabillon - CSTEP Program Specialist
Alumni College Center 204
1101 Sherman Drive - Utica, NY 13501


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Just copy and paste the code below to embed this station in your blog, website or social profile.
You've chosen La Grosse Tambouille, if you want to select another radio station, go back to the Radio Directory
Back to La Grosse Tambouille - Toulouse.
Note: You can also go further and add a Banner of Streema in your site, to do that, go here.


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The U.S. National Texting Competition will be starting today in New York where the fastest texters in the United Sates are facing off. BlackBerry smartphones are known for their quick and easy use for pushing out emails, messages, etc due to their exceptional keyboard designs. However, the U.S. National Texting Competition has one slight problem, it is sponsored by LG Electronics.
The competition consists of 11 contestants, who will battle it out today in Times Square. The winner gets $50,000 (€40,000). Competitors range from 16 to 24 years old. Last year's champion Austin Weirschke is coming back to defend his title.
Three skills are tested: speed, accuracy and dexterity. There are three rounds to the competition: texting while blind-folded, texting with hands behind their backs and Text Blitz, where phrases are shown to the contestants for a length of time and they have to copy them as fast as they can.
It would seem like a killer publicity stunt if some of the competitors showed up with BlackBerry devices to battle against the LG devices. Perhaps people would then see how fast a user can text/type on the amazing keyboards BlackBerry users have come to love. Do you think RIM should get in the game?
via Huffington Post


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History of the Cook Engineering Design Center
The Cook Engineering Design Center was established in 1978 to create a bridge between industry and Thayer School. Several companies signed on to provide financial support and bring in projects for graduate engineering students, who would work in close collaboration with industry representatives.
Former overseer John Brown Cook '29 was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the concept of the Center. After Cook's death in 1979, his widow, Marian Miner Cook, succeeded him as Overseer and made a generous financial gift to support the design center. The Center, originally called INVENTE, was renamed the Cook Engineering Design Center (CEDC).
During its first five years (1979-1984), more companies joined with an increase in industry-funded research. The Cook Center Associates Program was established in 1983 as a mechanism to generate and maintain a continuing relationship between interested companies and Thayer School.
During Dean Elsa Garmire's tenure, the CEDC became a virtual center with a formalized fee structure for projects and process by which corporate partners were recruited.
In 2005, in collaboration with SMT Magazine, the CEDC began to offer Six Sigma workshops for corporate professionals and Dartmouth engineering students. The workshops cover topics such as statistics, the design of experiments, and design for manufacturability and continuous improvement plans, along with other topics developed with the help of industry and the Tuck School of Business.


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Committee holds IRS official in contempt
A key committee in the House of Representatives voted Thursday to bring contempt charges against a former top official of the International Revenue Service for refusing to answer questions from lawmakers.
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in a 21-12 party-line vote, sent to the full House of Representatives a request that Lois Lerner be held in contempt of Congress. If the full House finds her in contempt, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia could bring criminal charges and issue a fine up to $100,000.
Lerner was director of the Exempt Organizations division of the IRS, in charge of determining which non-profit organizations quality for tax-exempt status. Last May, she acknowledged, while answering a planted question at a legal conference, that conservative applicants were subjected to inappropriate additional scrutiny.
What followed was a media and legal circus. Lerner went before the oversight committee last year, issuing a lengthy statement in her defense but then pleading her 5th Amendment rights against testifying. She was brought before the committee, headed by California Republican Darrell Issa, last month, where she again asserted her right to not testify.
That set in motion Thursday's votes. Issa and fellow Republicans insist that by giving a statement and looking over some documents during the hearing, Lerner had effectively waived the right to avoid questions from lawmakers. They argued repeatedly Thursday that Lerner's targeting of conservative organizations trampled on their First Amendment rights to political speech.
Democrats also argued rights, saying that holding Lerner in contempt of Congress trampled on her right to not be forced to testify because anything she said could be used against her later in a court of law.
The American public has only seen glimpses of the actual underlying issues. Issa has selectively released portions of transcripts of his committee's interviews of IRS employees and some media have been allowed to see, but not possess, some but not all transcripts. Without viewing the full context, it is difficult to know for sure motives of Lerner and subordinates and details of how they came to conclusions.
"Chairman Issa, why don't you put the whole thing out?" demanded Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., shortly before the committee denied a request from Democrats to make all materials public.
In response to complaints, Issa insisted that he didn't want to let potential future witnesses know too much.
"It is ill advised … because it does provide a road map as to the questions and answers," said Issa, adding that the IRS continues to withhold many of Lerner's emails and said some information could take two years to get to him.
If the full House also votes to hold Lerner in contempt, existing law specifies the U.S. attorney has the duty to bring criminal charges.
But Raymond Shepherd, head of the Congressional Investigations practice at the law firm Venable LLP, cautioned that federal courts have traditionally given prosecutors wide latitude in actually bringing charges.
"No court has ever been asked to consider the bounds of this discretion nor has one ever compelled a prosecutor to bring a contempt charge," Shepherd wrote in a review of the legal matters provided to reporters. He listed a number of past congressional contempt cases that did not end with charges.
These include contempt citations by Congress against Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Anne Gorsuch Buford in 1982; former White House Council Harriet Mires and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten in 2008; and Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012.


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Sunday, December 14, 2008
holy crap dudes, let's win this xkcd contest!
Click it for a link to the site with the rules and stuff. The deadline is in like three days so enter, enter enter! How cool would it be if one of us won? It would be very cool, is the answer.
Comment with any ideas you think of / submit officially. I shall choose my own winner who shall win Fame and Pride and nothing else.
And if one of you gets to be a finalist I will work my ass off to get you thousands and thousands of votes so you win.
My ideas:
"I'm trying to figure out if your bitchiness is genetic."
"I wanted to tell her you were pregnant. By the way, you're pregnant."
"Why the hell isn't my hat black?"
"Oh, nothing...just warning her that her daughter's funeral was scheduled for next thursday..."
"Did you know that the Palm company makes thousands of high quality technology products, all available on their website, www.palm.com? It's true!"
"To remind her, once again, that you're the stupider sibling."
"Because the current state of mobile communications is....adequate."
Eh, these aren't all so good. I like #5. What do you guys have?
update: I forgot to write about how utterly stupid this whole thing is. How uncharacteristic of me. But yeah - the comic is basically finished as is, with no added punchline (and is actually better than most of the current comics). It is really, really difficult to imagine a winner to this contest that actually adheres to the rules being even vaguely amusing:
--It "may not be offensive" according to the details, yet it is fundamentally a your-mom joke. Good luck.
--You can't "invade upon the publicity rights or privacy of any person or otherwise infringe upon any person's or entity's intellectual property, personal or proprietary rights" so throw all those ghostbusters references out the window.
--"Use of the Palm logo or any intellectual property owned by or licensed to Palm is prohibited" and they're the freaking company sponsoring the contest.
--Most limiting of all, "it should convey...something about the state of mobile communications." Woo, lots of room for some kind of cell-phones-give-you-cancer joke, I guess.
And of course you need to have this HILARIOUS PUNCHLINE appeal to the judges that Palm hires.
OH ALSO the entries are judged as so: "(i) Humor/Originality – 25%; (ii) clarity of Expression including spelling & grammar – 25%; (iii) Relevance to broader Palm community – 25%; (iv) Appropriateness to Contest Theme" Good luck with number iii there.
(incidentally I did send in my maximum allowed number of entries, namely one, and I tried to make it actually fit their guidelines to actually try to win. But it's so stupid I am not going to write it here.)
Clearly, this contest is destined for total and utter failure, and I am very excited for it.
18 comments:
"It was all an elaborate setup for a your mom joke. ...your mom."ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 14, 2008 at 9:34 PM
#1 and #2 are funniest, IMO.ReplyDelete
"Palm connects me with all the most important people in my life. And your mom."ReplyDelete
Guys, I think I am not very good at writing punchlines.
- DoubleBlackbirdDecember 15, 2008 at 3:41 AM
"Wouldn't anyone need comforting after their husband dies?ReplyDelete
...oh, you didn't know?"
- Lint of DeathDecember 15, 2008 at 3:50 PM
"I do what she says, and am who she does."ReplyDelete
"Because if you never call, somebody has to, you heartless bitch."
"Because I'm YOUR FATHER. Also I can't shut up about how much I <3 www.palm.com"
"I'm trying to fuck up her quantum suicide experiment."
"I want to get to know her as best I can before I go back in time and use her murder to negate your pathetic existence."
i hope to god you all actually sent these in.ReplyDelete
I tried to come up with something, but I guess I'm not feeling too inspired right now. I do kind of like how one of the criteria is "relevance to the broader Palm community", though. Does anyone actually self-identify as a "member of the Palm community"?ReplyDelete
Also this is really nitpicky but did anyone else notice white hat guy's little finger gesture in panel four? Randall does this a lot, when one of his characters says the punchline, and it really bothers me for some reason. You don't need to point to your joke Randall, it's obvious enough already.
Anyone else mind this? No?
Jay - I think that is his "in fact" gesture, no? Or sometimes more of an "uhmmmmm wait a minute." It doesn't really bother me but maybe now it will because I never thought of it as a "point to your joke" gesture. But isn't it sort of like the arms-above-head implies excitement?ReplyDelete
I cannot think of anything, maybe I should just submit my captcha: reemichi.
"Why is my mom 80% of your recent phone calls?"
Okay apparently I entered the captcha wrong or something because now it is giving me "trolygli."
"Why is my mom 80% of your recent phone calls?"
"Because.. I AM TROLYGLI!!!!"
Nah, I like the first one better.
I guess the "in fact" gesture would be a better way to put it. His characters seem to use it whenever they think they've scored a Point. You can also see it here and here.ReplyDelete
It shouldn't bother me this much, but it does. People in real life don't do that.
I kind of do. But I apparently am insane, and do not assume other people have my bizarre mannerisms.ReplyDelete
argh now in addition to being freaked out by amanda's observation that half the time the character's heads are floating above their bodies I'm going to start noticing this, too. soon xkcd will be nothing but a jumble of tiny drawing idiosyncrasies, and it will drive me mad. Well, madder.ReplyDelete
- AmandaJune 7, 2009 at 5:07 PM
I suck ass turds.ReplyDelete
Oh amanda you silly person, that's not what you are supposed to do with ass turds!ReplyDelete
- AmandaJune 7, 2009 at 5:58 PM
Ok, I eat ass turds.ReplyDelete
Aww. How come I didn't know I did this?ReplyDelete
Wow. This troller is good.ReplyDelete
Wow. This troller is bad.ReplyDelete
Wow. This troller is good.ReplyDelete