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Tampa Bay area Republicans and Democrats weighed in on the most memorable and impactful moments of last night's presidential debate.
Patch surveyed 136 influential conservatives and liberals immediately following the debate and asked what they felt were the biggest moments of the night.
One Democratic respondent wrote, "The president played it safe and was not as aggressive as he should have been."
One conservative who felt Romney won the debate by a wide margin said he thought the most memorable moment was "when Romney asked the president why he spent two years focused on passing Obamacare instead of trying to get people back to work."
A Democrat who felt that Romney won the debate by a slim margin said, "the fact that the president didn't call out Romney more aggressively on numerous facts misrepresented or lied about" was the most memorable part of the debate.
Another "Blue Tampa Bay" respondent felt that the key moment was the "President's defense of Obamacare, financial reform and 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'"
When asked what swing voters in Florida would remember from the debate, one Democrat answered, "Romney can't articulate his plans for health-care reform or tax policy."
A Republican respondent felt that swing voters would notice how Romney dominated debate moderator Jim Lehrer. And another conservitive noted that swing voters now know that "these two don't like each other."
Americans will get another chance to see the two presidential candidates debate on Oct. 16 at Hofstra University in New York. The next debate starts at 9 p.m.
The "Red Tampa Bay" and "Blue Tampa Bay" Survey
Our surveys are not a scientific random sample of any larger population but rather an effort to listen to a swath of influential local Republican activists, party leaders and elected officials in Tampa Bay. All of these individuals have agreed to participate in the surveys, although not all responded to this week's questions. Surveys were conducted Oct. 3 between 10:30 p.m. and 12 a.m. Oct. 4. Patch will be conducting Red Tampa Bay and Blue Tampa Bay surveys throughout 2012 in hopes of determining the true sentiment of conservatives and liberals on the ground in Tampa Bay. (If you are an activist, candidate, party leader or elected official and would like to take part in an occasional survey that lasts just a few minutes, please email email@example.com.)
Red Tampa Bay Roster: Shirley Wood (Pinecrest912 Leader) Guyann Bracken-Fay (Liberty School) Chris Shalosky (Fishhawk Republican Club President) Kathy Brown (Fishhawk Republican Club Membership + 912 activist) Stacy Feiler (Liberty Tree Consulting) Deborah Cox-Roush (Hillsborough County Republican Party, former chairwoman; Committee on Arrangements at Republican National Convention) Clif Curry (Local attorney) Art Wood (Hillsborough County Republican Party, Chair) Betty Jo Tompkins (Candidate, House District 59) Mark Proctor (Member of the Hillsborough County Republican Party Executive Committee) Kristina Lade (Manatee County activist) William Lade (Manatee County activist) Clint Miller (East Republican Club, Republican Eexcutive Club) Vanessa Baugh (Republican Manatee County Commission candidate) Jenah Victor (Manatee County Republican Party activist) Toni Parsons (Manatee County Republican volunteer) Carol Whitmore (Manatee County Commissioner) Erwin Beck (President of Republican Club of On Top of The World) Nancy Riley (Pinellas Republican Executive Committee member) Norm Roche (Pinellas County Commissioner) Karen Seel (Pinellas County Commissioner) Joe Paige (Contractor, part of Patriots Inc.) Ginger Rockney-Johnson (Member of the North Tampa Chamber of Commerce ) Bob Silah (Founder Operation Helping Hand) Becky Burgue (Retired Gaither teacher and member of Working Women of Tampa Bay) Amber France (Member of the Carrollwood Area Business Association) Julie Higgins (Carrollwood area activist) Darrel Honick (Pinellas County activist) Allison Kuhlman (Pinellas County activist) William Steven (Pinellas County activist) Jacksons Marrero (Pinellas County activist) Jane Norrie (Pinellas County activist) Bob Newcomb (Gulfport Area Republican volunteer) Jeri Reed (Gulfport Area community activist) Andrew Reder (Gulfport Area student activist) David Hastings (Former Vice Mayor, Gulfport) Andrew Reder (Student president of Stetson Law College Republicans) Christine Brown (Gulfport Area activist ) Gina Burke (Gulfport Area campaign worker) Danie Bothem (Gulfport Area volunteer) Steve Simon (Former Pasco county commissioner) Walter Price (Candidate for property appraiser Pasco) Don Stephenson (Pasco school board candidate) Jack Mariano (Pasco commissioner) Sandy Graves (State committeewoman candidate) Mary Gray Black (Largo city commissioner) Casey Cox (President of Republican Club of Greater Largo) Tony DiMatteo (Pinellas Republican Executive Committee member) Pam Dubov (Pinellas County Property Appraiser) Barbara Stevens (President of Central Pinellas Republican Club) Mike Fasano (Florida State Senator) Bill Phillips (Pasco Republican Activist) Jeff Cannon (Historian and activist in Pasco County) Wil Nickerson (Pasco Republican Activist) Chris Sprowls (Assistant State Attorney) Gus Bilirakis (U.S. representative) Susan Latvala (Pinellas County Commission Chairwoman) Pam McAloon (President of North Pinellas Republican Club) Peter Nehr (State Representative) Bob Gualtieri (Chief Deputy, Pinellas County) Gene Webb (Republican Volunteer) David Jolly (Former aide to Congressman Bill Young, active in Pinellas County Republicans) Alan J. Suskey (Tampa Bay Young Republicans member) Asher King (Sarasota Republican Activist) Joe Gruters (Chair, Republican Party of Sarasota County) Dr. Rich Swier Sr. (Conservative talk show host) Carolyn Mason (Sarasota County Commissioner) Joe Affronti (Temple Terrace Mayor) Temple Drummond (Temple Terrace Community activist) Edward Vance (Temple Terrace City Council Candidate) David Pogorilich (Temple Terrace City Councilman) Frank Chillura (Temple Terrace Mayoral candidate) John Conneely (Delegate to the Presidency 5 Convention) Todd Marks (Lawyer who unsuccessfully ran for Florida House District 57) Greg Chesney (Westchase CDD member) Teresa Trubilla (President of Westchase Artists Society) Peter Condon (Westchase Area Business Association)
Blue Tampa Bay Roster: Martha Bingham (activist), Garry Miracle (activist), Gail Gottlieb (Candidate for State Rep.), Jeannette Figari (activist), Robert Price(president of the South Shore Democratic Club), Chris Mitchell(Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee, chair), Lisa Rodriguez(Community Advocate), Terry Flott(Seffner Community Alliance), Angie Angel(East Hillsborough County Democratic Club, president), Mark Nash(Candidate, Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, District 4), Myra Jones(volunteer), Elle Principe(Manatee County activist), Carol Graves(Manatee County activist), Sherry Emigh (Manatee County activist), Ken Kisida (Manatee County activist), Hayley Markman (Manatee Democratic Party Associate Executive Director),Adam Tebrugge(Democratic candidate for State House Dist. 71), ANN FRISBIE (President of the Northdale Civic Association), JAN FOWLER (CABA member), LISA DEMMI (CABA member), ADRIENNE FINN(volunteer), SALLY BALLAS(local business owner), Justin Dick (activist), Cristin Rosenmeyer (activist), Jennifer Agisotelis (activist), Jamie Dunnigan (activist), Teresa Householder (activist), Jan Lowe(activist), Denise Lowe (community activist), Linda Craig(community activist), Lynda Friedman (volunteer), Lynn Lindeman(Pasco County Democrats), Clay Colson(Activist: Board Director and Water Issues Chair, Citizens for Sanity.Com, Inc.), Jim Quinlan (Pasco Democrats membership chair), Calvin Branche (Vice Chairperson Pasco Democrats), Beverly Ledbetter (Secretary of Pasco Democratic Club), Rob Marlowe (New Port Richey Deputy Mayor), Bob Langford(City Councilman), Ginny Miller(Councilwoman), Lia Gallegos (Cultural Affairs Advisory), Jennifer Eichenberger(activist), Geff Strik(activist) Ken Welch(Pinellas County Commissioner), Cyndi Fernandez(local volunteer), Vito Sheeley(volunteer), Sharon Samek(New Tampa Democrats), Rodrick Colbert(USF Democrats), Matt Ortner (President of North Port Demoratic Club), Grace Carlson(political marketing), Rita Ferrandino, (Sarasota Democratic Party Chair), Adam Tebrugge (Democratic State Senate Candidate), Henry Bright(State committeeman for Sarasota Democratic Party), Tim Heberlein (president of the Temple Terrace Democratic Club), Grant Rimbey (City council candidate), Cheri Donohue(Mayoral candidate), Tim Lancaster (president of the Temple Terrace Preservation Society), Jamie Robe(community activist), David Long (business owner, former chamber president, community activist), Jeti Wilds (Former host of Citizens Report for WTMP), Venus Jones (Community Activist), Eric Holt(Westchase Dad's Club), Anna Scott (Hillsborough County Democratic Women's Club), Nate Bonilla-Warford(Westchase, Area Business Association Founder)


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John Maddox Roberts has written numerous works of science fiction and fantasy, in addition to his successful historical SPQR mystery series. He lives with his wife, Beth, in the little coal-mining community of Pound, Virginia.
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Of course, the latter never happened for Pelfrey; instead he struggled to find a semblance of a swing-and-miss pitcher, became the embodied disappointment of Mets fans, had his elbow ligament snap and wound up in Minnesota. Quite the different career path than was envisioned for him eight years ago.
Now, a free agent coming off a middling season (5-13, 5.19 ERA), CBSsports.coms Jon Heyman, who has a close relationship with agent Scott Boras, reports that the Twins have extended a multi-year offer:
[Slams laptop closed. Goes for a long walk.]
This is all confusing. The Twins recognize they have a serious problem with their starting rotation - a rotation that has failed to miss bats at a historic rate in the modern era - but continue to pursue the same type of starting pitcher that has created the problem to begin with. As mentioned before, due to his lack of secondary offerings, even a fully healthy Mike Pelfrey fails to miss bats at even the league average rate. Over his career, he has a swinging strike rate of 5.9% while the rest of the game has been closer to 9%.
I thought we had an understanding here. I thought Jack Goin, the Twins manager of Major League Administration and Baseball Research, had sat Terry Ryan down and explained that strikeouts were not only NOT fascist, they were good and that having a lot of them made your starting rotation better. So, why Pelfrey again? The objective should be to look at your 2013 starting rotation real closely then target all the pitchers whose skill sets are the exact opposite.
Ok, that may be a large overcorrection but, still, why Pelfrey again?
It is entirely possible that Pelfreys agent is using Heyman and the Twins to drum up additional interest in his client. After all, the Twins have not confirmed that there is a two-year offer out to Pelfrey right now. That being said, at the end of last year the Twins coaching staff and Terry Ryan lauded Pelfreys second-half improvements. Manager Ron Gardenhire said in September that he believed a lot of Pelfreys problems in the later part of the year, such has too many 3-2 counts and long delays between pitches, were easily fixable.
The Twins said they liked seeing Pelfreys velocity increase, which it did from 91.9 in the first-half to 92.7 in the second-half. Gardenhire mentioned specifically that Pelfreys secondary pitches improved over the course of the year as his elbow healed, which was true in that opponents had a .700 OPS against his secondary pitches in the first-half while they had a .588 OPS in the second.
The biggest thing that may be the key as to why the Twins would entertain the notion of bringing Pelfrey back is the huge swing in a statistic that hides behind paywalls called well-hit average. This statistic tries to add description to a pitchers (or hitters) batted balls that goes beyond just the line drive, ground ball and fly ball categories. Video scouts from various companies such as Inside Edge or BIS log whether that ground ball out was smoked to second or a harmless chopper. In theory, when used in conjunction with a regularly distributed stat like batting average on balls in play (BABIP), it should provide insight as to whether a pitchers inflated/deflated BABIP was truly unlucky or not.
In Pelfreys case, consider the difference on balls in play between the first half of the year and the second half.
During the first stretch, Pelfrey was banged around to the tune of .313/.359/.478 over 16 games. According to ESPNs Stats & Info Department, he carried a well-hit average of .222 -- the highest among all starters with the exception of Joe Blanton (.235). Thats a straight-up beating by hitters. Taking the well-hit average into account, there is no risk of miscategorizing his first-half as unlucky.
Several things played a factor in these results but a recovering rebuilt elbow was likely the most significant hindrance. Admittedly, Pelfrey lacks the necessary secondary offerings to be a truly effective top-of-the-rotation starter, but his strong assortment of fastballs lacked command post-surgery which should be an expected side effect in Tommy John recoveries. So, after 16 starts and a back strain that took him down for two weeks, Pelfrey actually rebounded quite well over the second half. Over his last 13 games, hitters posted a much improved .284/.356/.374 batting line that was built on a well-hit average of .134, one of the leagues best in the latter portion of the season.
I know. That doesnt feel right, right? I triple-checked to make sure I had the stats sorted correctly. Did hitters really not hit the ball as well off Pelfrey as they did against such pitching dignitaries as Ricky Nolasco (.137), Hasashi Iwakuma (.140) or Francisco Liriano (.143) in the second-half of the season, as the aforementioned well-hit statistic suggests?
Several things to mention here:
(1) Because this statistic resides mainly behind paywalls, the well-hit average has not been vetted thoroughly by sabr-minded people. This means studies have not been conducted to determine how the well-hit average fluctuates from year-to-year. Is Pelfreys second-half decrease a true indication that he was pitching better and that this performance will continue?
(2) Even with the significantly improved well-hit average, the end product was an ugly 1-6 record with a rotund 4.76 ERA and a near .300 batting average in the second-half that contributed to the overall blah year.
(3) Who knows if the Twins have examined him from this perspective. The organization clearly has access to these reports so they should put this into consideration if thinking about r-signing him. If they have broken it down to this level, I would be more accepting of an eventual Mike Pelfrey re-signing.
In the end, going through this exercise reassured me that there is some small, faint glimmer of hope that the notion of bringing back Mike Pelfrey is not a completely bonehead move. If he signs for a two-year, $8M per deal similar to the average annual value of Jason Vargas, Pelfrey has proven in the past that he can be a mid-rotation guy (albeit one without the sexy strikeouts) and the second-half numbers could be indications that he will be that again in 2014.
But thats it, thats the ceiling: a mid-rotation guy. The Twins rotation and fans need more than that.


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Birthplace: Toledo, Ohio
H: 5' 3" | W: 119 lbs | M: 39DD-24-36
WHOLLY TOLEDO! Adept at the occult and a spellbinder in her own right, bewitching buckeye Cynthia Myers "knew" there was a playmate feature in her future We suspected a put-on, but December Playmate and cover girl Cynthia Myers swore she was serious when she told us, "I've known since I was 15 that I'd be a Playmate. It's almost as if this had been fated to happen." Cynthia's penchant for precognition can be traced to her early teens. "A junior high school friend of mine in Toledo," she says, "was a nut on palmistry, astrology and even reading tea leaves and crystal balls. Like most people, I thought is was just a bunch of baloney. But when I began reading about prophets like Edgar Cayce, I began to realize that there are strange spiritual forces in the world undreamed of even in The Playboy Philosophy." The alluring phenomenon Ohioans's belief in psychic phenomena, and her premonitory hunch that she'd be a Playmate someday, led Cynthia to write to Playboy a few years ago, informing us that she'd like to be considered as a centerfold beauty. Assistant Picture Editor Marilyn Grabowski answered with a reminder that our Playmates must be of legal age but that Cynthia should keep in touch. She did just that. Several letters, telephone calls and birthdays later, she came to Chicago for test photos after her June graduation from Toledo's Woodward High. "I was so impressed by the people I met when I visited the Playboy Mansion," she says, "that I wanted more than ever to be a Playmate." From Chicago, Miss Myers flew south for a two-week vacation in Miami Beach, where she was spotted in a bikini by an enterprising photographer for the Miami Reporter; her 39-24-36 dimensions promptly graced that publication's first page. Before you could flash another bulb, Cynthia was contacted by the Eden Roc and Fontainebleau hotels, who wanted her for modeling and public-relations work. But she had bigger things in mind. "Those two weeks in Florida, waiting to find out if I'd been accepted by Playboy, were the longest in my life." She didn't learn the good news until she got back to Toledo. "Excited isn't the word for how I felt -- and still feel. Now I hope to do promotion and modeling for the magazine for at least two years. By then, having traveled around the country meeting people on behalf of the magazine, I should be socially and mentally ready for almost any career I choose." Can our prescient Playmate predict anything about her future? "I'm going to be an actress," she says simply. "Notice I didn't say 'I'd like to be,' but 'I'm going to be.' I don't know how good I'll be as an actress, but I'll be one." Cynthia foresees only one handicap: "Like anything worth getting involved in, acting will take up almost all my time. I want to attend and graduate from college -- I'll study anthropology -- but I won't be able to get to it for several years." She hasn't styled herself after any sex star, but she'd like to have a few of the qualities of two charismatic leading ladies. "I think Faye Dunaway is terrifically talented, and I admire Raquel Welch, not for her acting but because she's worked hard to make herself a success. I'll be enrolling in an acting school soon," she says, "and when I do, I'm going to study with all the energy I have." Even so, Miss December concedes that she'll probably have to be content with walk-on roles at first, but she's sure she'll make it big eventually. Judging from her track record as a prophetess -- and from her already abundant attributes -- we'd like to venture a prediction of our own: Playmatehood should be just the beginning for the remarkable Miss Myers.
Cast: Cynthia Myers | Uploaded: 12/30/68| Views: 18,734
Anonymous wrote:
I remember when I found Cindy's playboy photo shoot in my dads old playboys. i thought all women should have tits like that! Sorry she's gone but her body set a precedent that will live on in playboy forever!
1 year ago
ROGER wrote:
Yes, please post more photos. Thanks!
2 years ago
R wrote:
Cynthia Myers is one of the most famous and popular playmates in playboy history, and you only have six nude photos. Now that's just WRONG!!!!
2 years ago
Andrew wrote:
One the best playmates, ever! I recently learned of her passing. Such a loss. What a beautiful lady.
2 years ago
Andrew wrote:
2 years ago


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I am surprised to learn that it is only 4 out of 8. I would have guessed more. What's worse is that I can only remember one outing this year where he came in and retired the side 1-2-3. Even when he is not allowing runs, he quite often allows multiple baserunners.
I think if you looked at Kansas City you would see that it was only recently that they went young. They built a cycle of mediocrity around the signing of players like 36 year old middle infielder Mark Grudzielanek. Look at their 2006 roster and decisions. Looks like the blue print Ryan is following. I don 't want the Twins to follow the same path.
All good points, FDG. I think a lot of fans tend to overrate and overestimate prospects; they are eternally convinced the solution to everything is to bring of a bunch of guys from AAA. Some of them even want to move every veteran off the team and basically make this Rochester West.
I'm fine with giving young guys who have earned it a shot, but when you blow the whole thing to smithereens and go in full-scale rebuild mode, it can be hard to get out of.
Look at Kansas City, they've been the team of the future for 10 years now.
Age is a huge consideration.
Very few players have significant careers when the reach the 1000 plate appearance threshold after their age 26 season (July 1 age of given season). Any player who is in the age 24 season needs to be on track towards getting significant playing time by next year. A players best years center 26-29. A team should want those years to be in the majors and not adjusting to the majors.
If they are called up after the super two deadline at age 24, the arbitration should not be a consideration. They will be under team control through their prime. The clock is not a factor for these players.
These players are old enough to meet that threshold
Diamond, 25
Slama, 28
Dozier, 25
Benson, 24
If they are called up after super 2 is not a possibility, they will not be eligible for arbitration for 3 more seasons. None of them is a super prospect. If the biggest problem the Twins have is that they will be due a huge salary as they near or pass 30, they will have been a very productive player by then.
Guerra should be added to the list also. Though he is younger, he will be out of options next year and the Twins will better be able to decide if he is part of the bullpen solution. Herrmann is also 24. However, he is learning to catch.
Your second point about development cited Gomez who came up at age 21 and had 600+ plate appearances at age 22. Young came up at 20 and had 600+ plate appearances at 21. I agree with your point and wouldn't suggest that Sano or similar should be promoted to the majors soon. The Harper/Trout comment also fits Sano but not the above list. Any player 24+ years old has had years of instruction and teaching. It is time to see if they can adjust to the major league level. There will be growing pains. The Twins can afford to suffer through those pains the second half of this year.
I agree. I think it is important not to hold guys back when they are ready. I think certain guys can be fast tracked a little bit, but on the whole rushing guys to the bigs when they aren't prepared can hurt their confidence and stunt their development as players. I think if the season continues to go the way it has been, there will be some guys ready for a taste later in the year.
Good article... I agree with what you've got here.
And I guess there's:
Jamey Carroll "Burnett"
I'll take a crack at some pitchers:
Jason Marquis "de Sade"
Jeff "Shades of" Gray
Liam "Jimi" Hendriks
Nick "Blackburn's Ghost"
Carl "Hey!" Pavano
Matt "Don't Give Me That" Maloney
Alex "Carol" Burnett
While my wife tends to call Justin Morneau "Mr. Hot Pants" (in honor of her 1st base vantage point which for many years provided a view of something she liked) I like other, sometimes less considerate nicknames
Matt "Capps Shoot"
Joe "Chairman Mau"er
"Save Big Money with" Denard S.
and recently my brother has taken up the task of popularizing:
"Country Superstar" Jamey Carroll
(Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised to hear, "That was a classic cut from Vince Gill and now the new hit from Jamey Carroll "Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Middle Relievers")
I would say that I am definitely in it for the "ride." I obviously want some "glory" mixed in but not at the price of uncompetitive baseball for long periods of time.
I have watched the Twins year in and year out, whether they are bad or good. I will say I loved the underdog role in the Dome, low budget lots of enthusiasm, great defense, solid pitching. The "new" Twins have none of that. As much as I didn't like "little Nicky Punto", I kind of wish we had that 16 year old babe ruth style excitement. I will root for the Twins forever, right now it is hard because I am not finding much to root for.
When it comes to the Twins, definately the ride. I have been a Twins fan since I could actually figure out what a fan of something was, and I stick to them no matter how bad they are doing. All I need to remember is the epicosity of Game 163 in 2009 and I am good no matter how bad things get (not entirely true; if the Twins lose 110+ games I might have to start at least partly following a NL team to compensate)
This is a nice blog entry. I too am in it for the ride, though I think you can have the glory too. You build a team to be competitive year in and year out -- to get you into the playoffs -- but you also must make additions to help succeed in the playoffs. This is doable in my humble opinion and that is what frustrates me the most about this organization; well, until now when they are just horrible or playing well, but well below what they're begin paid to do. Keep 'em coming!
Great post, FDG. For me, it's much more about the ride, but I see both perspectives. If you're going to consider every season that doesn't end with a parade a complete failure, you're not to going to have a lot of fun. And it's baseball, it's supposed to be fun.
It was fun watching the low-budget Twins beat out much more heavily-funded teams for playoff spots, even if those postseason runs fizzled early. When I think back to 2009, I think of the Twins piecing together an improbable late season comeback with a bunch of September callups, that culminated in an unforgettable game 163 more than I do another frustrating defeat at the hands of the Evil Empire.
But by 2010, the whole "little team that could" thing had gotten old and a divison title seemed a lot less satisfying. That team was good enough to beat the Yankees, but the Bombers barely had to break a sweat.
Great post, I'm glad I inspired you to write it. And thanks.
With all due respect, this is what I am talking about.The select few that do not hate Gladden provide excuses for him: It's my fault for not listening, he is learning the ropes and is getting better, people like Minnesota bumpkinism...
I really wouldn't have a problem if he stuck to the color, but when he does PBP I have to turn the radio off. He has not improved in this area in all the time he has been here, yet they give him 3+ innings per game. It's a travesty.
I'll tell you some things I've observed from good baseball broadcasters. First of all, sometimes when you call a play, you might anticipate a possible catch and then the runner is all the sudden is able to make it into third base because the fielder missed the ball. Tangents are a good thing when there's not much action going on. You might think that Dan Gladden has missed something. Really, you don't need to call every single pitch but most of them. ,You might think that Gladden has missed an out, but it could be that you maybe weren't listening at the time and missed something. The only time where I can see this happening is when they've some guest in the booth which I'm not a big fan of unless it's a former player. As for dead air, that can be a good thing in a baseball game. Gives you an idea of what the ball park sounds like. And the most important thing of all, Dan Gladden's commentary represents the Twins way. He will criticize when a play's not done fundamentally sound.


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King of Asgard
Swedish Viking black metal-tinged act, King of Asgard has released their new album 'Karg' today via Metal Blade Records. The album has received high critical praise and a great reception.Read More
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Heavy metal stalwarts Slough Feg have announced that longtime drummer Harry Cantwell will be leaving the band after their July 28 show at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco.Read More
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American Death Metal Icons, CANNIBAL CORPSE, are pleased to announce the release of their thirteenth full-length, entitled, A Skeletal Domain. New Song And Pre-order Packages Now AvailableRead More
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Rumor Patrol: Ryan Gosling In 'Star Wars,' Kimye's Gold Toilets, More
July 27th, 2013 1:07pm EDT
You can't go one week without hearing a ridiculous story involving some of your favorite celebrities. Thankfully, the Starpulse Rumor Patrol is here to sort out what's real and what's fake.
Ryan Gosling and Zac Efron Cast in Star Wars Sequel: Disney has hired their leading men for the upcoming Star Wars sequel, nabbing both Ryan Gosling and Zac Efron. Sounds too good to be true!
Verdict: These aren't the actors you are looking for. Seems pretty early to be casting parts, since an alleged script of the film was hinted at by Bad Robot only a week ago. Reps for both actors told Gossip Cop there's no truth to the story.
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West Buy Gold Toilets: Hey, somebody's gotta buy gold toilets; it might as well be Kimye. Allegedly the couple spent loads of money to fill their Bel Air mansion. This included $750,000 in gold toilets and about a million dollars on six beds.
Verdict: False. The Sun's report is as false as their reported exclusive on the couple getting engaged.
Blake Lively Pregnant: OK! Magazine was confident enough in their report that Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds were expecting their first child that they put the story on their cover. A source claims Lively is hiding a growing baby bump.
Verdict: False. A source tells Gossip Cop that "The story is 100% false. Blake is not pregnant." So much for that cover. We took on this same rumor back in September, mind you.
DMX Was Not Charged With DUI: The rapper was allegedly arrested for DUI, adding to his total of over a dozen arrests. However, his representative says DMX was not drunk and was not charged with anything!
Verdict: Unknown. "Allegations about DMX being arrested for drunk driving are false. He was arrested early this morning but quickly released. X was given a breathalyzer test and easily passed it," his rep wrote in a statement. Considering DMZ was in and out of the South Carolina detention center in under an hour, it could be possible this is just a misunderstanding.
Related: Blake Lively, DMX, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, Zac Efron, Starpulse Exclusives, Celebrity, Columns, Rumors, Rumor Patrol
Photo Credits: PR Photos; David Gabber / PR Photos; Darla Khazei, PacificCoastNews.com; © Sony BMG
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Guy Fieri®
Everyday Whisk
Guy Fieri products incorporate style with unique function built expressly to the specifications of the famous chef and restauranteur. This Everyday Whisk is ideal for whipping cream, beating eggs, and mixing dry and liquid ingredients. Features sturdy stainless steel wires and a loop at the top keeps the wires secure for efficient beating. Dishwasher safe. Everyday whisk measures 10 inch long.


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Richard Behar, Contributor
Investigative journalist, at work on a book about Bernie Madoff.
"Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, and Nazareth are ours.
[I] Muhammad sing about the Galilee and the Golan [Heights].
Jaffa, Acre, Haifa and Nazareth are ours.
[I] Kabha sing about the Galilee and the Golan [Heights].
From Bethlehem to Jenin is Palestinian,
Ramle, Lod and Sakhnin are Palestinian.
Nowhere is more beautiful than Jerusalem;
no matter how much we travel
From Safed to Al-Badhan is Palestinian;
Tiberias and Ashkelon are Palestinian."
–A song on Palestinian Authority TV, broadcast 17 times in the West Bank in 2012, most recently on November 2nd.
(Note: Twelve of the places or cities cited in this song are Israeli.)
When an anti-tank missile struck an Israeli military jeep on November 10th — on Israel's side of its border with Gaza– it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. It was "the immediate catalyst" for the massive escalation of the Israel-Gaza conflict that occurred in the days that followed, according to an Israeli military spokesman who I spoke with this week.
The four soldiers who were inside that jeep included a 21-year-old distant relative of mine (not that Jews can ever be truly distant, given our history.) To say they're all lucky to be alive is – well, hell, – no words will make the rest of this sentence right. Instead, have a look at the video that Hamas's operational arm – the Popular Resistance Committees — made of the occasion, before they claimed responsibility for it. They set the video to jihadi music, amid their tiresome cries of "Alahu Akbar" [God is Great].
Watch it a few times.
I viewed it for the fifth time yesterday, as the United Nations – a 40-minute walk from my office in New York – was voting in favor of granting the Palestinian delegation non-member observer status. "Palestine comes today to the General Assembly because it believes in peace and because its people, as proven in past days, are in desperate need of it," said Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas in his opening bromide. He then launched into the usual timeworn tirade against Israel.
For all of the rhetoric, Abbas still won't meet with Israel to negotiate that peace — preferring instead to continue letting his people suffer without their own state. But he promises to try and patch things up with Gaza's Hamas, despite the fact that the U.S., Israel, European Union and Canada classify the group as a terrorist organization. The PA is considered more "moderate" than Hamas, but as I'll be demonstrating here, that's open to debate if you consider what they are actually showing on official PA media, and teaching in PA-controlled schools, summer camps and other institutions. In short, they are indoctrinating the next generation for war with Israel, not for a peaceful statehood alongside it. And it's hard to imagine how that could change for the better after a merger with the maniacs in Gaza.
The missile that nailed my cousin and his fellow soldiers was identified in media reports as a Russian-designed or reverse-engineered "Kornet," which can penetrate up to 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) of the tank's steel skin. My information is that it was not a Kornet — but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declines to say what type it was, in part because they are still investigating the incident.
Still, when used for their intended purpose – in other words, when fired at tanks, not jeeps – all of these laser-guided missiles employ two stages. First, they lodge themselves deep into the wall of a tank. In the second stage, they are supposed to explode, producing a jet of heat that burns through the armor. The molten armor becomes roastingly-hot fragments that annihilate the crew and detonate the tank's ammunition.
But in this case, the missile blew right through the jeep without exploding inside of it. That's probably why my cousin (he was the jeep's commander) and his buddies are still breathing. But not without serious injuries, in part because the missile went through the jeep's windshield and – before continuing its journey — struck a metal section of the jeep. That caused them all to be lacerated with glass, and lots of flying chunks of that metal.
Thanks to family members, I'm able to provide some exclusive details. My cousin escaped with the lightest injuries – which in this case meant no fewer than 35 shards of metal inside his right arm and leg, plus a blown-out eardrum. Worst hit was the driver, with serious head injuries, blindness in one eye, and still-ongoing medical operations to try and save the other eye. (As my cousin was lifting the driver from the jeep, he saw that part of his brain was exposed.) The jeep's medic suffered metal pieces in both eyes, but he is expected to be okay. The fourth soldier was an Arabian Bedouin 'tracker' who underwent one operation to remove shrapnel from his body. (The Bedouins are known as "the IDF's sharpest eyes" because of their historic ability to spot and trace even the lightest footsteps in desert terrain.)
It was this incident – the attack on a patrol jeep making a routine drive approximately 150 meters (500 feet) from the border with Gaza — that was a game-changer for Israel. For one thing, Israeli civilians are living barely a half-mile from the border. Moreover, in such attacks, IDF soldiers could more easily be kidnapped, dragged through border tunnels, and made to suffer the same fate as Gilad Shalit (also spelled as Schalit)– the soldier held for five years in wretched conditions by Hamas. "The attack on the jeep was the immediate catalyst for the escalation of this month's conflict," says an IDF spokesman, Captain Eytan Buchman.
"That kind of thing — an attack on Israeli soldiers inside Israeli territory — you can't let go unanswered," he adds. "Although from a macro perspective, the situation has been building for years." Indeed, in the period from Israel's 2005 evacuation of Gaza until the jeep attack, more than 9,000 rockets were fired into southern Israel.
We all know the rest of this month's story. By November 11, the horrific skyfall had begun – hundreds of rockets into Israel, and hundreds of attacks by the Israeli Air Force seeking out terrorist targets in Gaza. The fighting multiplied after the assassination on the 15th of Hamas's top military commander, Ahmed Jabari, who –among other accomplishments — oversaw the kidnapping of Shalit. (He had also promised more hostage-taking.)
On November 21, the ceasefire went into effect.
Although I'm related to the jeep's commander, IDF rules forbid soldiers from speaking with reporters without permission. And at the request of his immediate family, I'm keeping his name anonymous. (Let's call him "Alon" — pronounced ah-Lon — which is Hebrew for "oak tree (tall and strong)." But while I couldn't talk with him, I was able to interview his dad, Gil (his real name), and various other cousins. They helped me stitch together details of the attack, more of which I'll share further down.
And then suddenly, I got intercepted.
I was gathering some of those missile-to-jeep details from my Israeli cousin Liraz, when she alerted me that a rocket had just smashed into an apartment building in Rishon LeZion, Israel's fourth largest city. It was the first time that Hamas managed to hit a populated area in central Israel – in this case, just 20 miles from Tel-Aviv. While I have close cousins in Rishon (pop: 250,000) on another side of my family, I figured the odds were close to zero that the rocket could have landed on, or even near, them.
In fact, it hit 100 feet from the apartment of my late grandmother's nephew, Josef, and his wife Chaya –both of whom are in their late 80s. The rocket took out three floors in the building directly across their street, injuring six people — while the force of the impact blew out all of my cousins' windows. The photo below was taken from their balcony by their son, Shaul, who I've long considered a brother. Just hours after the blast, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the site to see the damage for herself.
Fortunately, my elderly cousins were uninjured, as they had sat huddled in a concrete-reinforced room in their apartment – following an air-raid siren that gives residents of Rishon a generous 90 seconds to take cover. Cousin Josef, a prominent Israeli artist, fought in Israel's 1948 war of independence. Chaya lost her entire family in Nazi death camps before coming to Israel. They are deeply emotional people, but have had to be strong their whole lives. "We worry, we don't worry," says Josef. "You know, this is not the first time they bomb Israel. What can we do? This behavior does not suit human beings."
Your are being disingenuous. The real reason you won't is because you cannot. Israel is not occupying anyone else's land. No other country besides Israel and no other nation besides the Jewish nation have a valid claim to the land west of the Jordan.
The ancient Israeli's were Semites. The modern Israeli's, being 85% Khazarian are Japhethites. If the definition of Israeli is so flexible to extend lancient land rights to Khazars, why not to Palestinians who are likely VASTLY more genetically related to those who lived there long ago?
There's no way to justify the firing of rockets at civilians over a land dispute. Throughout the Middle East there is Arab on Arab violence. Israel is no different.
I am convinced that most people are barking up the wrong tree in regards to what they believe about Benghazi. That whole scenario came about so that the Libyan arms could be forwarded to Gaza instead of Syria. The more I hear of such weapons as anti tank missiles such as discussed above and Hamas firing on an Israeli helicopter with a MANPAD, the more certain I am.
Richard, So sorry about your relatives that it hit THEM this time :-(
It is a sad reality that we must change.
Our biggest problem of both sides is Lake of ability to give up the Ego and sit down to negotiate. the question was always: "negotiate with whom? well, they should find out a way to create new cooperations. i'd like them to act and create culture exchange instead of Missles exchange, I'd like the palastianisns to make thier first approach by understanding that they must eccept the fact that Israel is a FACT and stope waisting thier energy on hattred & violence.
I'd also like the Israeli leadership to stop settelments & create War -elections on behalf of innocent citizens that just wish for peaceful life.
I'd like to focus on Peace instead of War, sorry i'm not so educated niether interested in killing weapon.
I'd like to see new faces as leaders with A NEW VISION, new approaches and new AWARENESS that many things has been changed in the past year , It is a very difficult process that needs to change it's prefrences from WARS & hatred to PEACE.
Dorin, you write:
"Our biggest problem of both sides is Lake of ability to give up the Ego and sit down to negotiate. the question was always: "negotiate with whom?"
No, that's NEVER been the problem. Israel has always known who to negotiate with, and has negotiated, and then promptly went back on their word.
That's nothing but a long-standing myth, just as this "recognition" business has. Ask former President Bill Clinton have the Palestinians recognized Israel and he will regale you with the story of how they did just that, unanimously, in Gaza City with Clinton in attendance.
Then Israel changed the demand once again as they always do. No matter that the Palestinians have been "negotiated" down to 22% while Israel gets 78% of the original mandate. Never mind about Israel's forced removal of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land during the Nakba.
In Serbia they called that ethnic cleansing, because that is what it is.
My best suggestion to you is to start reading some non-fiction from the New Historians, including Tom Segev and his seminal offering "1967″, and learn the real history about Israel's true desires and the plans put into effect decades ago where they hoped by using certain tactics, they could drive the Palestinians out and wind up with "Eretz Israel".
In other words, you have been bamboozled as so many others have. Israel wants all of the land, none of the Palestinians, and in truth, it is they who wish to literally drive the Palestinians into the sea, or Jordan.
They care not which, they just want shut of all Arab Palestinians and they want all the land.
There are plenty of historical documents that bear this out, this is the official policy of almost every government around the world, and it is why the entire world now except for Israel and it's protector (us in the United States) sees Israel as a pariah and a rogue state.
Simply read the State Department report for each year going back decades that states year in and year out how the "settlements" (actually colonies by the colonizer/occupier country Israel) are illegal.
The Geneva Conventions which Israel is a signatory of also make clear that Israel's transfer of 500,000+ of their citizens onto belligerently occupied land is illegal.
Israel could have had peace years ago by simply following the law and fully joining the community of nations. That's all the Arab Peace Initiative stipulated was simply that Israel follow the law and the relevant UN resolutions, and there would be a blanket recognition and even trade agreements ready and waiting for Israel.
But Israel, never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity turned its back, and now there is no going back. The state of Israel has made it impossible for there to be a two-state solution.
Now the future holds one outcome, the One State Solution(tm) where Israel either respects all of those within its borders or becomes a fully-fledged Apartheid state.
Israel is already nearly there and soon enough there will be no going back.
Loved this piece and thought you might like to see this video clip taken in Soroka Hospital shortly before the cease fire was called, though more rockets fell in Beer Sheva even after the supposed cease fire. Th mother of one of the soldiers injured in that jeep is speaking to One Family visitors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vStcRUzsgbs&feature=plcp
The ancestors of many of these people who call themselves 'Palestinians' came into the Land after Aliyah of Jews who established kibbutzim and moshavim in order to find work. Certainly there were clans living here along side Jews who had also been living here for hundreds of years – those who never left even after the expulsion by the Romans. Many of the Arabs in Judea and Samaria are actually descended from Jews who had been forcibly converted to Islam when the Muslim hordes invaded Eretz Yisrael in the 7th century. We have NEVER given up on coming back to our Land. Our prayer books are full of references to Eretz Yisrael. When we pray for rain throughout the world, we are praying for rain in Israel. At the end of Yom Kippur and the Pesach seder, we say 'Next Year in Jerusalem.' We pray in the direction of Jerusalem. 'If I forget thee oh Jerusalem, let my right hand wither and let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.'
A great piece. Eloquent and fair!
A reminder of what journalism in its true form should be like.


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From the SPCA of Westchester:
I am a sweet, friendly, talkative and handsome young guy.
So what am I doing at the SPCA? Well that's a good question.
I know I had a home at one time but my people got lost. I went looking for them and wandered through an open gate into the rear yard of someone I did not know. Fortunately this "someone" turned out to be a very Good Samaritan." He took me into his home, fed me and introduced me to his feline friends. Well that was a mistake. We did not get along. I was OK but I think his cats looked at me as an intruder.
Anyway my Good Samaritan called all of the area shelters but no one wanted me except the SPCA. They said bring him to us. We will take care of him until we find a good family for him.
I am very happy that the SPCA invited me in because they made me feel welcome and safe. Life is almost good again. It will be very good when I find a forever family!
View the video above for mor e about Trailway.
See here for more information about the SPCA of Westchester or call 914-941-2896 ext. 22.


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Daniel Fisher, Forbes Staff
I cover finance, the law, and how the two interact.
Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry made a quick tour of California to remind business owners that life's a whole lot easier in the Lone Star State. Perry's California critics called him "Governor Oops" for his miscues during the presidential debates, and Gov. Jerry Brown dismissed the Texan's recruiting drive as "not a burp," and barely even a certain bodily release of gas.
Laugh away, Californians. But Perry is playing the stronger hand here. Texas trounced the rest of the country our latest survey of the Best Cities for Good Jobs, with five metropolitan areas in the Top Ten, including the four best cities to find jobs in the next few years.
(See Also: How We Picked The Best Cities For Jobs)
This year's winner is Dallas, which shrugged off the Nov. 2011 bankruptcy of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. to rack up 2.1% job growth last year and is projected to continue adding jobs at a 2.8% rate through 2019 – more than 300,000 on top of the 2.1 million already in Dallas and its Plano and Irving suburbs.
"The explanation is we have an incredibly diversified economy," said Bernard Weinstein, who's been tracking the north Texas economy since 1975 and is associate director of Southern Methodist University's McGuire Energy Institute. "As the national economy improves, we're getting better."
To construct this list, Forbes gathered data from Moody's Analytics on the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. We then ranked the cities according to recent and expected job growth, current unemployment rate, and current and expected per-capita income. We threw out cities with high unemployment rates or that are clearly rebounding from severe economic distress, such as Stockton, Calif., which came in first on 2012 job growth at 3.7% but still sports a 14% unemployment rate. We also gave increased weight to areas with high and growing per-capita incomes, to avoid steering people to cities that are adding lots of low-wage jobs. A description of the methodology is here.
The Moody's data show that Texans didn't suffer as much in the financial crisis, and they're doing much better now. The Texas unemployment rate rose from below 5% in 2007 all the way to a little above 8% in 2010, but now it's falling back down again to a current 6.2%. The U.S. unemployment rate peaked at 10% and is still stuck at about 8%, with states like California, Illinois and New York well above that.
"You've got these two economic powerhouses, Texas and California, and you have to ask why we are outperforming," Weinstein said. "It's a real testament to the diversity and strength of our economy, that through good times and bad we are outperforming the nation."
(See Also: How We Picked The Best Cities For Jobs)
One explanation that is definitely false: Texas isn't growing on the backs of underpaid, non-union workers. While Texas is a right-to-work state, many of the highest paying jobs in the Dallas area are with unionized defense manufacturers like Bell Helicopter and Lockheed Martin, which produces the F-35 Lightning II fighter at a mile-long plant in Fort Worth.
Asked about the state's reputation for union-busting and low-wage jobs, Dallas Federal Reserve Economist Pia Orrenius said "we get a lot of that."
"People say it's all low-pay jobs, so I looked at employment growth by wage quartile," she said. And guess what? Not only is the Dallas-area per-capita income of $39,548 comfortably above the national average of $37,000, but it's growing fastest in the top half of wages above $16 an hour.
Dallas doesn't have the booming energy industry of Houston – No. 2 on the list with expected 5-year job growth of 2.6% a year – but it has a prosperous and growing financial and professional-services sector. Bank of America has large back-office operations in the Dallas area and the city is home to large law and accounting firms as well as professionals who serve the energy industry. "Those are your extremely high paying jobs," Orrenius said, paying an average of $28 an hour.
The relatively higher wages in Dallas are what pushed it to the top of the list, but for raw growth the Austin area wins at No. 2 in the nation with an expected 5-year annual growth rate of 3.9%. (No. 1 was Honolulu, which but for recent hiccups in its job market and lackluster projected income growth would be in the Top 10 overall). Austin is sucking in high-tech jobs from more expensive California and struggling to keep up with growth in demand for houses and roads.
"The hottest place to be in Texas is Austin," said Orrenius. "They're just booming."
The fastest-growing city for good jobs outside of Texas was another tech capital, Seattle, which is expected to add 136,000 jobs over the next five years. Others include Oklahoma City, prospering on the shale-fracking boom in oil and gas, and Denver, which is adding jobs in construction, professional services and mining.
(See Also: How We Picked The Best Cities For Jobs)
Very strange how all of the prosperous states are Republican and all of the bankrupt states are Democrat.
Most of it is bad or terrible goverment management. When states tax businesses too much they move, When states have law that help only union workers and destroy businesses they move. It really very simple. Become business friendly and the jobs start coming. Those legacy cost spoke of are reminents of bad ideas.
How do you explain s*&tholes like Mississippi? (edited by blog administrator – let's keep it clean, folks)
It should be noted that Dallas, Houston and Austin (especially Austin) are heavily democratic cities. Additionally, don't confuse job growth with prosperity. Those are two different things, i.e. apples and oranges. This article is discussing job growth specifically. San Francisco, Boston, New York and other cities are far more prosperous than Houston, Dallas and Austin, but they are established cities that have slower job growth than newer, Western cities. While you may despise taxes (not surprising or unusual) and dislike California, something like 130,000 businesses are created every year in California (2nd to Texas). If taxes were such an impediment you would not have that many new businesses created every year.
Actually there is more poverty, crime, abortion etc. in red states than blue states. Blue stated also pay more into the federal government while red states get more out of federal government. That could be the reason why red states right now are growing faster than blue states. Another reason why red states currently may be growing faster than blue states is that if you start from lower position than growth is easier.
This is a good point. I do believe business friendly "red-state" policies factor into the equation, but they are not the whole story. Legacy costs also play a role.
Check out quality of life also! Texas has one of the lowest in the nation. New residents that travel outside the city limits of Austin are in for a rude shock as they encounter the real Texan, an unreconstructed holdover from the civil war. Rick Perry should be a warning to anyone thinking of moving there.


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Technology reporter Stanley A. Miller II tracks news and trends, from the coolest new gadgets to the latest stuff on the Web
Pew: 35% of U.S. adults own smartphones
One third of American adults – 35% – own smartphones, according to a new survey from the Pew Internet Project released today.
The survey, performed in May, also found that 83% of U.S. adults have a mobile phone of some kind and that 42% of them own a smartphone, translating into 35% of all adults, Pew says. The project released its first "stand alone" findings on smartphone ownership and use based on new survey data. The findings include:
- 35% of U.S. adults own a smartphone of some kind. The financially well-off, college graduates, those under the age of 45, and non-whites are especially likely to be smartphone owners.
- 25% of smartphone owners say that they do most of their online browsing on their smartphone, and around one third of this group lacks traditional broadband access at home.
- 35% of smartphone owners have an Android phone, while iPhones and Blackberry devices are each owned by 24% of smartphone adopters. Android phones are especially prevalent among young adults and African-Americans, while iPhone and Blackberry adopters skew towards those with relatively high levels of income and education.
Tags: Hardware : iOS : Android : BlackBerry : Study : Survey : Pew
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The Meridian Star
Memorial services for Mitsy Stewart Tucker will be held Saturday, at 2 p.m., at Long Creek Baptist Church. Burial will be in the church cemetery with Robert Barham Family Funeral Home in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Tucker, 52, of Meridian, died Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013, at Anderson Regional Medical Center.
Family and friends may sign the online guestbook at robertbarhamffh.com.


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My Party
- 80 guests
- 14 September 2012
- 1two3 Dining & Lounge Bar / Gold Coast / Queensland / Australia
PhotosView all 33 photos →
Did you make the "burlesque" graphic yourself? And the cupcake topper "legs"- did you buy those pre-made or were they custom made? Beautiful party!
Where did you find the gold gumball machine and did you makes the burlesque nane tags and gold coin bags? Thanks in advance
We'd love you to leave a comment, but you need to be logged in.
Party Highlights
Party Favors
Lollies and gold chocolate coins in drawstring 'Burlesque' bags
What People Ate
red chocolate covered Oreo cookie lips, Burlesque dancer styled cupcakes, shimmer pearl cakepops, gold dipped strawberries and a selection of gold, red and black lollies
What People Drank
Moet champagne and 42 below vodka


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PULLMAN, Wash. - Jordie the cat is blind, and his owners, Mark and Wiwiek Bordsen of Colfax, say he possesses uncat-like abilities. By meowing boldly and threading himself around his owners' legs, he reminds them to raise the American flag in front of the house each morning and to lock the main door each night. He even follows commands, they contend. He sits. He stays.
What's more, if you whistle the theme song from the musical "Cabaret," he follows.
The Bordsens and Jordie returned to Washington State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital recently to visit the surgeon who operated on this wonder cat two years ago.
After entering the examination room, Mark Bordsen, to prove his point, began whistling a few bars from "Cabaret." Jordie twitched his ears and began to slink out of his cat carrier in the direction of his owner.
'I just knew'
Ten years ago, Wiwiek Bordsen saw the headline "Loving home wanted" on a small newspaper ad. Placed by the Colfax Veterinary Clinic, it featured a photograph of a large, cream-colored cat - one eye sewn shut, the other milky and bulging from its socket.
The image latched onto her brain and wouldn't let go, she said: "I just knew we were supposed to have that cat and I couldn't stop thinking about it. He was like a magnet."
The Bordsens moved the cat into their home on a trial basis. At first, he moved tentatively and low to the ground, using his extended over-sized paws to feel his way around the house, they recalled.
The veterinarian in Colfax speculated that Jordie's left eye had been surgically removed after it was damaged by herpes feline virus when he was a kitten. His right eye appeared to be left with little vision, said Mark Bordsen, former planner for Whitman County.
"We figured out that he couldn't see stationary objects but he could see some light and movement," Bordsen said. "And he didn't know what to make of us. Whenever I tried to pet him, he pulled away."
Jordie may have been blind, but he knew good pet owners when he found them. Over time, he began sitting on their laps and following them around the house. And like any much-loved cat, he nestled comfortably on the bed.
Slowly, he started responding to basic commands and making sure daily routines were followed, such as putting up the flag and locking the door, said Bordsen.
"We realized what an extraordinary cat he was and felt blessed to have him in our lives," he said.
WSU saves eye
In 2010, Jordie injured his remaining eyeball. Fortunately for him – and his by then adoring owners – WSU's veterinary hospital has an ophthalmology unit. Terri Alessio is board certified in veterinary ophthalmology, the medical and surgical care of animals' eyes.
She examined Jordie and found that he had severely punctured his cornea - the dome-like covering of the eye - although it wasn't clear how.
"I gave the owners a grave prognosis for successful repair of the cornea and vision," recalled Alessio. Because the Bordsens wanted to try to save Jordie's eye, Alessio covered the puncture with a tissue graft from another part of the eye and sutured it to the cornea.
The procedure worked.
To have access to skilled veterinary specialists and high-tech treatments in a quiet region surrounded by wheat fields "is truly remarkable," said Bordsen. "The procedure Dr. Alessio performed helped save what vision Jordie still had. I doubt many places could have offered this level of care," he said.
Life is a cabaret
When the Bordsens brought Jordie back to WSU to reunite with Alessio on a recent Friday, Mark Bordsen - who, in his dark cowboy hat, Wranglers and sports vest, resembles a horse person more than a cat person - performed his whistled rendition of "Cabaret." As Jordie meowed, everyone beamed around the exam table.
Afterwards, Alessio examined Jordie's eye as the Bordsens looked on: "The graft is in place and the shape of his cornea looks a lot better. You two did a great job taking care of him," she said.
"We did, but it helped that we had such a good surgeon," replied Mark Bordsen, as Jordie's favorite tune seemed to linger in the air:
"What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a cabaret, old chum,
Come to the cabaret."


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Please Help Us Reach John Kerry, My Own Senator
by ralphlopez, Wed Jan 27, 2010 at 02:02:23 PM EST
The lead in the US Army Times says:
"A new initiative to persuade low- and mid-level Afghan insurgents to lay down their weapons and rejoin society is already bearing fruit and holds great promise for the future, say senior officials in the NATO coalition."
The military now understands that insurgents are aching for a way to put down their arms and re-join society. Will American political leaders see that they are being penny-wise and pound-foolish? For lack of what we spend on the military occupation every 2 weeks, this insurgency could be deflated and American troops could be on their way home sooner rather than later.
In addition to precious lives, the war is now costing us, according to General Barry McCaffrey, about $9 billion a month, which he called the war's "burn rate."
That would pay for a Cadillac health plan for every American, OR a Maserati green jobs program, OR a $100 billion reduction of the deficit each year. Which is better depends on your political leanings. It could be split among all three. With war, no one's getting any of it, except for military contractors.
"Though the Afghanistan "reintegration" initiative is only now getting off the ground, hundreds of insurgents have taken advantage of it and many others are waiting for the Afghan government and the coalition to announce the specifics of the reintegration plan, said Maj. Gen. Mike Flynn,the director of intelligence for the International Security Assistance Force."
One young fighter actually came down the mountain on his own to ask if there were any jobs, so he could give up, along with his 50 fighters. Most likely mostly brothers and cousins. They would take work and relocation to just quit. They didn't want cash payments, they wanted jobs, and the dignity of work, any work. The Army Times writes:
"Coalition officials have monitored insurgents talking about the reintegration effort...The essence of the conversations is that the insurgents want to know what the finished reintegration plan will be,"
NATO and the Afghan government have found out that most Afghan insurgents are economically desperate young men who fight for the Taliban wage, and that they can be brought in from the cold with simple jobs which benefit their communities, and a modicum of vocational training. They don't want to be Taliban. They want to learn to be carpenters, and bricklayers. Hence the new Afghan Reintegration initiative which will be discussed at the London Conference on Afghanistan tomorrow, Thursday. The Conference may be NATO's last chance to get it right.
The Army Times:
The [reintegration] initiative is based on the strong belief at ISAF headquarters that most insurgents are not ideologically committed to their leaders' aims and would be willing to quit fighting under the right conditions. "What we're finding is the dissatisfied, disenfranchised, traumatized folks who are the ones who are the foot soldiers for the ideologues or the radical folks ... often find themselves in a position where if they need to take care of their family, the only way to do that is to implant IEDs or to fire shots at the coalition," said Col. John Agoglia, director of the counterinsurgency training center here. "A majority of these folks, if given the means to provide for themselves and their family, will very easily lay down their weapons."
Here is the problem. The current initiative aims only at Taliban fighters laying down their arms, not the rest of the fighting-age males suffering from 40 percent unemployment. For the amount the US spends in less than two weeks on military operations, about $4 billion, a program can be put in place which will put to work those who have NOT joined the Taliban. Otherwise, this could be perceived as rewarding folks who did join the Taliban, to the exclusion of those who "said no."
The administrative apparatus would be the National Solidarity Plan, which has been widely hailed by players across the board, from the US military to Afghan civil society. It may be the one part of the Karzai government which actually works.
What about jobs for Americans rather than Afghans? News flash: Any funding for your job programs are going down the toilet of war. $100 billion per year, remember? According to McCaffrey's estimated "burn rate." Not spending four dollars to save one hundred dollars is called penny-wise and pound-foolish.
So far most civilian aid to Afghanistan has been miserly and ineffective, compared to military costs. They have been aimed at contractor profits, to build substandard schools with no teachers and clinics with no doctors. You wake up one fine day and there is a school across the meadow. But you didn't get paid to help build it, and you still can't eat.
NATO has found something else out about simple income programs, paying men to clear irrigation ditches, improve dirt roads with shovels and gravel, or clear rubble from canals which lays exactly as it fell when the Soviets bombed it. It solves the security problem. NATO's General Chris Kolenda told the Army Times:
"I've seen time and again, when communities have sufficient support and leverage they just start kicking these guys [the Taliban] out of their local areas."
This turns "No development without security" on its head. The truth is, there can be no security without development. NATO is finding out that, in a land of mountain warriors where you get your first AK when you are 12, breaking the economic hold of the Taliban's $10 a day is often all that is necessary for insurgents to turn their guns the other way.
US soldiers have started using a term they picked up from the Afghans, the "upset brothers," upset because they have watched billions being squandered on showcase development, but their hungry lives never changed. After 2 years of WPA-type jobs the informal economy can stand on its own.
Afghans are very enterprising people. They don't need factories. They hacksaw an old Soviet shipping container in half and hang a curtain across the front for a door. Then you scrounge for old bicycle parts and you've got a parts store. But you need a few bucks to pay the guys doing the sawing, and for the new curtain, and for pegs, grease, and naval jelly.
And security is the by-product. What a deal! Colonel Kolenda, one of the many NATO officers who seems to have gone native judging by his nuanced understanding and admiring tones when speaking of Afghan society, tells the Army Times "The Afghans have this great saying — 'If you sweat for it, you protect it.'"
The legislation to make this happen is a fairly straightforward congressional appropriation, which pumps up what works: the National Solidarity Plan. Activists have been about the Capitol in DC talking to congress members about it. They have met with many offices who say they are behind it, but it takes the lead of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to make the $4 billion happen. "Anybody on the committee would be good," a staffer in Senate Appropriations told us, "Kerry, as chairman, is the key. With Kerry behind it, the appropriation request to support the policy will happen."
But John is hard to get hold of. We have called many times for an appointment, even with a foreign policy staffer, visited his office in DC, dropped off materials for the proper staffer, but no one ever calls you back. Worse, he is my own senator, and many of us are constituents.
Shucks, even a Texas congressman was ready to march down the hall to meet us about our proposal, being told we came all the way to DC and all, without an appointment, until he found out we weren't constituents, which is fine. He was ready to shake hands and give us our 3 minutes of face time, and make the big shots in the other room wait. No one was going to call him out of touch. We still had a nice talk with his staffer.
We know it's just crossed wires, John, we know you're a busy man. Perhaps input from other folks excited that there is a light at the end of the tunnel would help. The US can easily afford this, since it's what we spend anyway on bullets and bombs in 2 weeks. It could bring stability to Afghanistan, cut short a war, and save $9 billion a month for other purposes. It could save an awful lot of American and Afghan, lives. Tomorrow is the London Conference. This would be a perfect time to file the legislation. It would be fitting that a man whose remarkable career began with principled opposition to a war crowned it with a vital achievement which will stop one.
Please take the time to call Senator's Kerry's office, leave a message for him to "Please submit the Exit Strategy Appropriation proposed by Jobs for Afghans." Follow up with an email with this post copied-and-pasted and the link for this PRESS RELEASE. To his credit the Senator's general mailbox is accessible to anyone, not just constituents. Thank you.
(202) 224-2742 - Phone
(202) 224-8525 - Fax
The diarist represents Jobs for Afghans.
Tags: aghan war, Barack Obama, NATO, london conference, national solidarity plan, chris kolenda, Afghanistan (all tags)


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WASHINGTON – The White House said a deal had been reached to avert the "fiscal cliff" and dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to Capitol Hill late Monday, an indication lawmakers were heading toward a possible late-night vote on the proposal to avert sweeping tax hikes and spending cuts.
The major outstanding issue – how to handle the automatic spending cuts that are due to begin on Wednesday – was resolved as the White House and Republicans agreed to a two-month delay, as well as a mix of additional revenues and spending cuts intended to offset the lost savings.
The agreement would give Congress time to try to find a permanent deficit reduction solution.
QUIZ: How much do you know about the fiscal cliff?


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A cigarette is to blame for an early morning fire that destroyed a home on the northwest side of Tyler.
Just after 3:30 am, the son woke up to the smell of smoke in his bedroom in the 2300 block of N. Grand Avenue near Texas College. According to authorities, he had been smoking a cigarette before going to bed and put it in an ashtray by the bed which sparked some nearby blankets.
The Tyler Fire Marshal says the house is a complete loss. There were four people in the house at the time of the blaze, but all four were able to get out of the house unharmed.
Copyright 2012 KLTV. All rights reserved.
472 Craighead Co. 766
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Availability: Knights Inn Orillia
Orillia hotel with a complimentary breakfast
Situated in Orillia, this hotel is close to Orillia Opera House, Leacock Museum, and Orillia Community Centre Arena. Local attractions also include Couchiching Golf and Country Club and Mara Provincial Park.
Hotel Features
In addition to complimentary wireless Internet access, Knights Inn Orillia provides a 24-hour business center, free self parking, and a 24-hour front desk.
Room Amenities
Televisions come with cable channels. Guestrooms also feature complimentary wireless Internet access, refrigerators, and microwaves.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Knights Inn Orillia Amenities
- General
High-speed wireless Internet access is complimentary. A 24-hour business center is on site. Guests can enjoy a complimentary breakfast. Onsite self parking is complimentary.
Knights Inn Orillia is a smoke-free property.
- 24-hour business center
- Total number of rooms - 35
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Number of floors - 2
- Free breakfast
- Free Wi-Fi
- 24-hour front desk
- Free self parking
- Smoke-free property
- Internet
Available in all rooms: Free Wi-Fi
Available in some public areas: Free Wi-Fi
- Parking
Free self parking
- Room Amenities
- Connecting/adjoining rooms available
- Cribs/infant beds (complimentary)
- Iron/ironing board
- Desk
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Air conditioning
- Phone
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
- Daily housekeeping
- Private bathroom
- Shower/tub combination
- Cable TV service
- Free Wi-Fi
- Dining
Guests are offered a complimentary continental breakfast.
Knights Inn Orillia Policies & Fees
- Check-in
Check-in time starts at 3 PM
- Check-out
Check-out time is 11 AM
- Payment types
Accepted at this hotel: American Express, Diners Club, Discover, JCB International, MasterCard, Visa
- General
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- Fees
- The following fees and deposits are charged by the property at time of service, check-in, or check-out.
The above list may not be comprehensive. Fees and deposits may not include tax and are subject to change.
- Rollaway bed fee: CAD 10 per night
- Additional Details
The property has connecting/adjoining rooms, which are subject to availability and can be requested by contacting the property using the number on the booking confirmation.


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Tag: Travelodge HotelsView All Tags
Hotel News / Toiletry Bags / Hotel Studies / Travelodge Hotels / UK Hotels / Budget Hotels / → All Tags
Left Behind: How Much is Your Toiletry Bag and its Contents Worth?
In response to a growing number of toiletry bags being left behind at its hotels, Travelodge conducted a study of UK travelers that revealed they were grossly underestimating the value of the bag and its contents.
Louis Vuitton and other designer bags are obviously worth a pretty penny, but we're talking about the contents of everyday toiletry bags that, while seemingly meaningless, carry a surprisingly high replacement cost. The study found that while the average toiletry bag and its contents are worth about $240, the British travelers estimated that they were worth only $80.
This, obviously, got us thinking. How much is our bag and its contents worth? We must admit we are very simple travelers -- we don't have a lot of stuff -- but a quick inventory revealed that even the most basic items would still be kind of annoying to replace. Here's a rundown of our bag:
Travelodge Hotels / UK Hotels / Budget Hotels / Ice Hotels / Unusual Hotels / → All Tags
Travelodge Built a Hotel Room at Summit of Britain's Highest Peak
In a quest to raise money for charity as well as for purposes of publicity, Travelodge constructed a demo of their new room design at the summit of Britain's highest peak, Ben Nevis (4,409 feet), at the end of June. A team of 36 made the 11-mile round trip journey, including the construction of the room, in about eight and a half hours. It was built upon the still-remaining snow and consisted of two walls, a bed, a duvet, a sheet with four pillows, a chair and a picture.
Not quite an ice hotel, but close!
The effort, while on one hand only a novelty, was able to raise almost $79,000 for charity, which we obviously applaud. Apparently this is not the first time Ben Nevis has hosted a hotel. The Temperance Hotel operated at the summit from 1894 to 1916 as a barracks for climbers during the summer months.
Hotel News / UK Hotels / London Hotels / Travelodge Hotels / Budget Hotels / → All Tags
London Travelodge Rolls Out Joke Toilet Paper
To celebrate its first hotel above a comedy club, Travelodge has rolled out a "loo laughs" campaign at London's new 131-room Bethnal Green location in hopes of keeping its guests entertained at all times. That's right -- there are jokes and cartoons on the toilet paper.
The idea was inspired by the hotel's position on top of British comedian Lee Hurst's Backyard Comedy Club, but it was also backed up by a bit of data. Travelodge ran a survey of 2,000 Britons that revealed 49% of them like to read on the loo.
Based on what we've seen, it doesn't appear they got much professional help with the joke writing, despite its location. The two samples we've seen haven't exactly been side-splitters. For example, Why are men better than dogs? Because they have only two muddy feet to walk into the house. Or, worse: How many men does it take to change the roll of toilet paper? We don't know... it's never happened. Oh, dear.
Hotel Woes / Travelodge Hotels / San Francisco Hotels / Hotel News / → All Tags
San Francisco Travelodge Accused of Racist Behavior
More bad news in the hotel world today: SF Weekly is reporting on a rather unpleasant situation that unfolded at a San Francisco Travelodge on Thursday night.
According to the story, Leo Nocentelli, a guitarist from the Meters Experience, attempted to check into the hotel along with two other members of the band. When he handed over his credit card to cover incidentals during the stay, the hotel manager refused to take it.
Except there was nothing wrong with the card—just the manager, who somehow didn't like the look of these guys. When Nocentelli's friend later showed up to see what was wrong, the manager told him he didn't accept credit cards from black people.
Um. We always knew Travelodge was kind of an outdated brand, but...seriously?
Cool Hotel Jobs / Hotel News / Travelodge Hotels / Celebrity Hotels / Budget Hotels / Hotel Books / → All Tags
Travelodge Gets A Writer In Residence, Tries To Promote Itself As A Celebrity Magnet
Most of the time, a writer's fate is to be stuck behind a blank computer screen, itching for an excuse to get up and go do something else. Once in a while, however, some writers actually score gigs worth envying, as in the case of celebrity journalist Neil Sean, who's become the first-ever writer in residence for budget hotel chain Travelodge.
As part of the deal, Sean will travel to some of the brand's 504 European hotels throughout England, Ireland and Spain, while writing his latest book, How To Live Like A Celebrity For FREE. Interesting title. In the guide, Sean will apparently share some money-saving tips he's learned over the years from interviewing A-listers like J-Lo, Simon Cowell and Beyonce.
Step one, we're guessing, involves saving piles of money by staying at a—wait for it—Travelodge!
London Hotels / Cheap Hotels / Budget Hotels / Travelodge Hotels / Mint Hotels / Tune Hotels / easyHotels / → All Tags
Five Cheap London Hotels To Avoid a Craigslist Scam
Last week The New York Times' Frugal Traveler got scammed after booking an apartment on Craigslist and that sucks. So being the nice people that we are we thought we'd give you a list of cheap London hotels so you don't have to trawl for a cheap flat and end up getting burnt. Also worth noting: people in London use Gumtree over Craigslist, anyways.
Tune Hotel Westminster
The Tune Hotel Westminster is one of our favourite cheap hotels. It has everything you need from a budget hotel – a bed and a bathroom. There's also a TV, but, like everything else you need to pay to use it. Even with all of the extras, though, it still works out pretty cheap: under Ł60 when we stayed there.
Room Rate Gimmicks / Travelodge Hotels / Hotel Deals / Hotel Sales / London Hotels / UK Hotels / → All Tags
The Travelodge's Biggest Room Sale EVER Starts on Wednesday
Make sure you set your alarms this Wednesday and do not oversleep! That's because UK budget hotel chain, Travelodge, is holding one of its famous Ł9 room sales.
The sale kicks off at 6am UK time with thousands of rooms available at Travelodges all over the UK.
The Ł9 rooms (approx $14 USD) will be available on selected dates throughout the whole of next year. Yes, that's right-- we said the whole of next year, from 1st January 2011 - 28th December. 2011. And we thought Christmas was already over!
So if you're after a cheap room for the night, log onto the website this Wednesday, December 29 at 6am. All rooms are subject to availability, and are valid for a limited time only.
With over 300 Travelodges in the UK, 10 of which are located in London there are plenty to choose from. But remember, most of the good dates and locations sell out fast so be super quick!
Hotel Fights / Hotel Ads / Hotel Woes / Budget Hotels / Travelodge Hotels / Premier Inn Hotels / → All Tags
It's War in the UK Between Travelodge and Premier Inn
Click on Lenny – not to his left
Trouble is brewing in budget UK bedland. The catalyst? Premier Inn's promotion, fronted by an E list celeb (Lenny Henry) and offering 1,000,000 rooms for Ł29 on stays from Thursdays to Mondays until April 2010.
The T&Cs were a little daunting – stay two nights (why would you want to stay two nights in a Premier Inn?) or one on a Sunday, book 21 days ahead (if we ever get so organised that we'll book a motel three weeks in advance, we'll rip out our own fingernails) – but apart from that, fair enough.
Except, then Premier Inn's main rivals, Travelodge, checked out the offer and discovered that there was a confusing, two tier booking system on the website.
If you click on Lenny Henry's face, under "Premier Offers", you've got a 24 per cent chance of bagging a cheapo room. But if you click on the "Quick Booking" facility just to its left – which you might be more likely to do if you had a specific date in mind – there's less than 1 per cent chance of getting one.
As reported by The Times, Travelodge – which is currently boasting rooms for Ł9 in its Easter sale - have whipped it up, lodging a formal complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority , mentioning it in its weekly mailshot and setting up an anti-Premier Inn petition.
But it may just have backfired. Not only are people hitting the comments boards slagging off Travelodge for the state of its rooms, but it's also alerted its entire customer base to a cheap deal with its rival. Meanwhile, Premier Inn have vowed to correct the booking "anomaly".
We still think it was bad form of Premier Inn not to have the cheap prices running throughout the website, but Travelodge, you're not looking good right now. Frankly, we'll be boycotting the pair of you.
iPhone Apps / Hotel Technology / Hotel News / Four Seasons Hotels / Starwood Hotels / Omni Hotels / Choice Hotels / Travelodge Hotels / → All Tags
For Better or Worse, These Hotels Have Realized 'There's An App For That'
We've been variously hot and cold about hotel chain iPhone apps. As a rule we embrace anything that can help us travel easier while already on the road, and we certainly embrace it if it lives in the App Store. But hotel apps fall into that dicey category where we're not sure that the bother that goes into them is worth whatever comes out.
Hotel iPhone applications generally help you find a nearby chain hotel and check in through your rewards account. Sometimes they may automatically dial customer service. All of which is great except people rarely book within just one chain. Price is usually the most important factor, which means using a search engine, and rarely is someone in so much of a pinch that exact GPS-pinpointed location matters.
As for checking in, well, we're not talking about flights. The hotel will still be there waiting when you arrive, and you'll still have to wait in line to get it. Checking in doesn't have to happen from the road.
Nonetheless, hotels aren't going to stop producing apps. It's just what companies do these days. So here's our roundup of the industry's current offerings. Feel free to sound off in the comments: would you make space on your beloved iPhone for something like this?
Budget Hotels / Ibis Hotels / Etap Hotels / Golden Tulip Hotels / Travelodge Hotels / Holiday Inns / Hotel Hell / → All Tags
The Five Worst Budget Brands In Europe
You're headed to Europe and despite all the talk about airline deals, getting there has eaten up a lot of your budget. So you're going to stay on the cheap. Yesterday, we listed our Five Best Budget Brands in Europe so that you will know the best hotels to hit up and what you get for your money.
But you also need to know which ones to avoid. Sure, the prices are right at these budget brands but there are times you may want to pay a little more for your peace of mind.
Budget Hotels / City Inn Hotels / NH Hotels / Mercure Hotels / Travelodge Hotels / EasyHotels / → All Tags
The Five Best Budget Brands in Europe
In need of a cheapo vacation? Thinking that the $100 and $150 deals we were talking about here are out of your price range this time round? It's time to rediscover the joys of the budget hotel.
And while Europe doesn't have quite as many as America (in other words, there isn't a choice of about five chain motels at every motorway exit), it's still possible to know roughly what's in store when you book into a budgie room. Here are our Five Best Budget Brands in Europe. Tune in tomorrow for our picks for the worst.
Anti-View / Travelodge Hotels / Budget Hotels / → All Tags
This Canadian Hotel is 'Not Exactly Couples Paradise'
You know the scene. You open the door to your brand new hotel room, run over to the window, open the blinds and bam, you are hit with the anti-view. Maybe you are looking down a dirty alley, witnessing a drug deal, staring at an air shaft in the face, or seeing a brick wall. Whatever you are viewing it is not extremely pleasurable. Help out your fellow hotel mavens by uploading your anti-views to the HotelChatter/Flickr photo pool, or by sending the photo along to us. Remember to tell us the name of the hotel and the room number with the not-so-easy-on-the-eyes view.
Oh, goodness. This is not very nice. This hotel advertises itself on its website as Regina, Saskatchewan's "premier hotel for business or leisure." We would like to contend this claim; instead, we submit that this is the world's premier hotel for people watching and sort of nothing else.
This is a shot out the window of a hotel room (yes, a hotel room) at the Travelodge in Regina, Saskatchewan, taken by Flickr user emmerogers, who notes that this view makes the hotel "not exactly couples paradise." Uh, yeah. Agreed.
Anyway, this is a budget, family-friendly hotel, but it is not really conducive to, er, makin' the family grow, if you get our drift. It's got an on-site family restaurant, this indoor pool and waterslide complex and offers free parking, and rooms run around $139.00. Should you ever find yourself in Regina with the kiddies or a deep urge to people watch, why not go for it?
[Photo: emmerogers]


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Chattahoochee High School soccer will sponsor a 5K race and 1M fun run/walk March 23 on the Hooch track and cross-country trail. The 5K race will start at 9:30 a.m. and the 1-mile fun run/walk will begin at 10:30 a.m.
Entry fees range from $10 to $20 and include a T-shirt option. In addition to benefiting Hooch Soccer, a percentage of early registration net proceeds will be donated to STAR House in Roswell, which supports at-risk children in North Fulton by providing after-school tutoring, school supplies, leadership activities and recreational programs.
Ribbons will be given in the fun run/walk and awards will be presented in the 5K race for first, second and third-place finishers, male and female, in the following age groups: 10 & under, 11-14, 15-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, and 50 and up. Each participant will receive a race bib, goodie bag, chance to win a prize and a T-shirt (guaranteed only to those registered by March 9 and with a paid T-shirt option).
To register, go to www.active.com/5k-race/johns-creek-ga/chattahoochee-hs-5k-and-fun-run-2013. Mail registration forms and checks, made out to CHS Soccer 5K, to Chattahoochee High School, Attn: Soccer 5k/Fun Run, 5230 Taylor Road, Johns Creek, GA 30022. For more information, email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Product Recall: Voluntary recall of 260 cases of Velveeta Original Pasteurized Recipe Cheese Products. Click Here.
18 SKUs of Knudsen Cottage Cheese, 9 SKUs of Breakstone's Cottage Cheese, 5 SKUs of Simply Kraft Cottage Cheese and 2 SKUs of Daily Chef Cottage Cheese. Click Here.
HEAT oven to 400°F.
COOK cream cheese and broth in large saucepan on low heat until cream cheese is completely melted and mixture is well blended, stirring frequently with whisk. Stir in chicken, vegetables and garlic powder.
SPOON into 9-inch pie plate. Whisk egg and milk in medium bowl until blended. Add baking mix; stir just until moistened. Spread over chicken mixture. Place pie plate on baking sheet.
BAKE 25 to 30 min. or until golden brown.


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An Opinion piece about Nick Foligno of the Ottawa Senators
Per Brent Wallace (and all of the other Senator Reporters) Bryan Murray has decided to send Mika Zibanejad back to the Swedish Elite League for the remainder of the season to play for Djurgarden.
In an interesting move, the Ottawa Senators have assigned winger Nikita Filatov to Binghamton of the AHL. Guess it is better than him sitting in the press box, but it will be interesting to see how he responds.
via 2.bp.blogspot.com A satirical spin on the Sens goaltending situation*Please note: This article was written in jest, making light of Leclaire's ridiculous injury problemsOTTAWA -- So finally,...
The Ottawa Senators found their man in Craig Anderson, and showed him by signing him to a four-year, $12.75M deal.
The Ottawa Senators prove an NHL season can be won or lost in just 11 games
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text: Yep,friggin' thing. Monster 5100 series,all lights are on but the outlets on the back aren't getting any juice.Allready checked the inline fuse.Thing is about 7 years old,is that about normal for these things or should I call Monster and see if their customer service will do anything? You guys have any experience with PC's that crap out ? Maybe I should just toss the frocker and get another more reliable one. Any suggestions for a new one?