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Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Thanks For the Ride Lady!
2007's Stuck is a Stuart Gordon vehicle (see what I just did there?!) with a plot that in one way is as simple as that, a man stuck in a windshield and left to die. However, as it turns out, Stuck is also a deeply layered character study that goes beyond your average black comedy.
Loosely based off of an insane, yet very true story, Stuck follows two main characters; Tom (Stephen Rea), who has recently run into some very tough times in his life. Tom has been evicted from his apartment just before an interview at a job placement agency, that due to an unfortunate computer error is botched and leaves Tom with no chance of getting a job. This series of events results in Tom being homeless and sleeping on a park bench. Then there's ghetto superstar Brandi (Mena Suvari), who works as a nursing home aide and is being considered for a huge promotion at her job. Brandi celebrates this good news by going out to da club and getting cocked with here "bad news bear" boy toy/drug dealer, Rashid (Russell Hornsby), who feeds her ecstasy throughout the night.
On her way home to meet with Rashid for some of that good lovin', a wasted Brandi swerves all over the road as she is blasted and on her cell phone not paying any attention to the road. This is when Brandi and Tom first meet, unfortunately for Tom, it's because she hits him with her car head on, resulting in Tom being lodged head first in the windshield. Over the limit, and not sure what to do about it, Brandi drives home and parks her new human enhanced hybrid in the garage, leaving Tom to die as she tries to figure out what to do about the situation. Instead of resolving the problem, Brandi takes some more "E" and sticks with her original plan of getting some of that Rashid action, only to wake up the next morning to find Tom still alive in her windshield. Afraid to ruin her possible new promotion (and essentially her life) because of drunk driving, Brandi leaves Tom to die while she tries to devise a plan to get rid of the evidence, thus keeping her out of trouble. All the while, Tom tries to hold on to dear life and survive this tragic ordeal any way he can, as he is once again in a situation that he cannot control.
I'll start by saying that Stuck is a very black comedy, that while being a horrible situation, is a situation that is open to some humor. Outside of a few scenes and a funny opening at the old folks home set to some tight hip hop music, I wouldn't consider Stuck's humor to be very in your face as the comedy elements are "mostly" naturalistic and more about the naivety and lack of compassion from Brandi's character. Once scene has Tom reaching for and honking the car horn, Brandi desperately tries to stop him and in an evil turn, knocks him out with a 2x4. My favorite line in the film happens soon after that, when Brandi gets in the car and looks Tom dead in the eyes and says, "Why are you doing this to me?" That line made me chuckle quite a bit. Only thing that would have been better, is if Brandy in her best Arnold impression told Tom to "Stick around."
Of course, with a situation involving a man trapped in a windshield, there are some gruesome moments in Stuck. The initial car accident is pretty awesome looking with how its shot and is kinda frightening when it happens. Though a little on the fake side with the windshield glass breaking into big shards instead of spider webbing like a windshield does in real life. Nevertheless, it's still very cool looking, incorrect or not. Another scene has Tom trying to reach a cell phone left in the car by Brandi, but a broken windshield wiper is jammed into the side of his abdomen causing him great pain. Tom (with very little leverage) tries to lift his body and dislodge the wiper blade, and while you don't actually see it in his skin because of his clothing, its still a painful scene to watch. One other scene that was very cool and somewhat gruesome is one that I wont go into details about, because it's spoiler city. I'll just say that it proves that the pen truly is mightier than the sword…you'll know what I'm talking about if you see the film. Same goes for the justified, ironic, and very entertaining ending that had me wearing a shit eating grin and loving every minute of Stucks finale.
I can safely say that I really enjoyed Stuck for its humorous moments, and its horrific scenes, but the thing I like most about the film is the characters of Tom and Brandi, and how there lives are on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Brandi's life is going perfectly, she's young and full of life, she is doing great at work with the possibility of a promotion and she even has landed the man of "her" dreams in Rashid. Her life is on the up rise and only looking to get better, that is until her chance meeting with Tom. Tom on the other hand is as low as it gets, he's old and worn out, he's jobless, homeless, and defeated. It would seem that Tom's life couldn't get any worse, that is until he literally runs into Brandi. Now Brandi's life can only get worse, while Tom's can only get better…unless he dies that is. The two characters are complete opposites in their respected times in life, but in their encounter, everything changes and goes in a different direction for each of them. I really liked this aspect of Stuck and found it to be very smart on Gordon's (who wrote it) part to have the characters be so contrasting.
Tom's character is even more developed, intricate, and metaphoric than in his comparison to Brandi. The metaphor is as simple as a man whose life has gone to complete shit; he is so down in the dumps and has almost completely given up on life. He is figuratively stuck in a bad situation that he can't get himself out of and then literally stuck when trapped in the cars windshield. This of course gives the character another arc, where no matter how bad everything has gone for this man, he still want's to live, and he will fight as hard as he can to survive his biggest road block in life. This would seem to be a (very harsh) turning point in Tom's life, where he tries to find the strength to make it through this impossible ordeal, as opposed to just giving up as he had done before when faced with a tough challenge.
I guess you could make a similar case for Brandi's character that had everything going right for her, but now everything is spinning out of her control as her life is crumbling before her very own eyes. She finds out that Rashid isn't all that faithful to her (in what is another very funny scene); her career is in jeopardy, along with possibly her freedom if she is found to have committed such a crime. She too is stuck in a situation that she cannot control, and has no idea how to deal with it all. In addition, as with Tom, this is Brandi's life altering turning point, where she is trying to fight to keep her world from going down the proverbial toilet.
Pretty brilliant character development if you ask me.
So, with a film that for me works as a solid black comedy, I found it to be a nice surprise to have such a well developed set of characters that pushed Stuck up a few notches in the "I like this movie" category. And I did very much enjoy the film and pretty much love most of what Stuart Gordon has done all throughout his career as he is doing some solid films, and I anticipate anything he works on (AND I CANNOT WAIT FOR HOUSE OF RE-ANIMATOR!). I can feel confident in suggesting Stuck to any fan of Gordon's work, to any fan of good black comedies, and to anyone that likes complex characters, development, and depth in their films.
6 comments:
- James said...
Thanks for reviewing this Matt. I've wanted to see it for ages and after reading your review I am looking forward to seeing it even more now.
Great reviews - rock on.
- July 8, 2009 at 4:33 AM
- Emily said...
All right my fine sir, you have convinced me to check out Stuck. I'd heard mixed things, but I do trust that Stuart Gordon and the premise sounds like it's got plenty of potential.
And now I really wish I could spend my day watching Dolls.
- July 8, 2009 at 7:13 AM
- FakeShemp said...
Guess I should watch that copy I got awhile ago... I love Stuart Gordon (no really, I HEART FORTRESS, so it's obviously love).
I also heart Mena Suvari. Or I should cock. Stupid thing made me watch Day Of The Dead.
- July 8, 2009 at 12:42 PM
- Matt-suzaka said...
Thanks you for the kind words everyone! I should mention that Stuck is available on Netflix instant watch too!
James: I too wanted to see it for as long as I've known about it, and I'm glad I finally did. Hope you enjoy it when you do get to see it.
Emily: I can see why it would get mixed reviews, but if you're a fan of Gordon's previous work, then you should definitely enjoy it.
I will add that I love Dolls, and the opening of that film is soo much fun! Now I wanna watch it...
Shemp: Man I haven't watched Fortress in forever...I think I will have to get my hands on a copy so I can see it again soon.
I too love Mena Suvari is a great actress who does comedy very well. She is fantastic in Stuck and plays such a great character...a character you do not often see in many films at all. Her cornrows kick ass! I will pass on Day of the Dead though...
- July 8, 2009 at 1:42 PM
- deepfix said...
I actually think this may be Stuart Gordon's best movie. While my inner fanboy ranks this as an average film for him (not an average film just average for him.) The real world guy who says that a film that doesn't mention Lovecraft can be better than average, recognizes that Stuart Gordon directed the first David Mamet plays. And that's what this film really is, a play. And it's killer. This movie shows how much Gordon suffered as a film-maker by being caught up with Yuzna and Lovecraft. I don't want more "horror" from him, I want better realized versions of this.
- July 9, 2009 at 7:52 PM
- Matt-suzaka said...
Those are some great thoughts and I see exactly what you mean by Stuck being a film that feels aesthetically like a stage production, in fact, it would make a great play. It's definitely one of his better ones; it shows a sign of maturity that has been going on with him as a filmmaker for a while now. And I agree that a good portion of that has a lot to do with him not being associated with Yuzna as of late. I enjoy what Gordon and Yuzna have done together for the most part, but Gordon has found a nice little niche in cinema that is very different from the Yuzna produced Lovecraft films that he has done so often. His more recent fair is off kilter of the horror genre, but still has some of the roots of horror, and I like what I see out of this period in his career. Of course, he has room to grow, and he certainly has over the years, however, I still think there's room for more horror films if they are the right ones. I still consider one of my favorite Gordon films to be his last theatrical H. P. Lovecraft film Dagon. I think it's a very solid film that's really just marred by a low budget, which caused the film to be lax on special FX, and the FX that were on display, were very weak. Very unfortunate for a film with some great things going on in it. I still want to see horror films from him, but I don't want to just see only horror films from him.
- July 10, 2009 at 3:16 AM


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PLATTSBURGH — A huge vinyl sign bearing a pro-life message was stolen from the grounds of Seton Academy sometime between Sunday and Monday morning.
"It's so disappointing," Champlain Valley Right to Life Secretary and Publicity Chairperson Kitty St. Denis said.
It is unlikely, she said, that the theft was connected to the content, as only the bottom half of the 12-by-24-foot sign was secured to the backstop of the baseball field at the school, with the top part folded down over it.
"All (anyone) could see was just white," she said.
The man putting up the sign Saturday had a 6-foot ladder, too short to handle the whole project, so he fastened the section he could reach, using plastic electrical pull ties through the metal grommets on the sign.
Then, worrying that wind would toss around the top half before he could finish the job, he left it folded down and fastened it at the bottom, leaving only the plain back of the sign visible.
The front has a green background with white lettering that says, "Cherish Life: It begins at conception." There's a large image of a baby as well, along with a small one of an unborn infant, St. Denis said.
Seaway Valley Right to Life gave the sign, valued at between $400 and $500, to the Champlain Valley group.
St. Denis had hoped it could hang on a billboard on busy Route 3 in Plattsburgh, but it appeared the cost for that would be around $800 monthly, she said.
The organization instead got permission from Seton Academy to hang it, for a time, on the backstop at the corner of St. Charles and Elm streets, she said.
Champlain Valley Right to Life exists to "promote,encourage and foster public sentiment and respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death," according to its website.

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Springfield Police have arrested 50
year old, Mark Brown in connection with homicide of a Springfield woman.
The Sangamon County Coroner, says
Rebecca Cleaton was pronounced dead in the 900 block of North Ninth Street on Saturday.
Springfield Police have declined to release the nature of her wounds, but the
coroner says they are consistent with homicide.
Brown is currently on parole at the House
of Rainbow in Springfield.
He removed his ankle monitor and left
the residence. Brown was located in Champaign by U.S. Marshals Violent Task Force.
Police are still interviewing the
suspect at this time.
Evangelist Franklin Graham prayed on a sidewalk outside the Pentagon Thursday after his invitation to a prayer service inside was withdrawn because of comments that insulted people of other religions. More>>
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Austin Mahone Gets Some Sun at Universal Studios
Arriving in style at Universal Studios in Studio City, CA, Austin Mahone was honored as a special guest on the celebrity show "Extra."
The "Banga Banga" singer strolled around in the park walking with a pair of burly-looking guys, who were most likely his security guards. The 17-year-old was dressed all in blue, sporting a denim button down and jeans, and wearing a yellow cap.
In related news, the Texas superstar is more than ready for the 106.1 KISS FM Jingle Ball 2013, tweeting to his fans, writing, "WHOS EXCITED FOR JINGLE BALL TONIGHT?!?"
The Jingle Ball features an impressive list of young and talented artists, including, Selena Gomez, Paramore, New Politics, Fall Out Boy, Icona Pop, Travie McCoy, Flo Rida and Fifth Harmony.
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text: Provided by Portmans and exclusive to frockwriter, a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the Australian highstreet retailer's summer campaign. Due to appear in August online and in store, the campaign stars Canadian Kelsey van Mook and was shot by Nicole Bentley on the Wolverine set on Sydney's heritage-listed Cockatoo Island. Other faces you might recognise in the background include Claudia Navone, fashion director of Harpers Bazaar, who obviously moonlights as a stylist, Portmans creative director Nikki Hillier, hair stylist Nicholas Jurnjack and makeup artist Charlotte Blakeney.


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Sovereign wealth fund not a priorityPUBLISHED: 22 May 2012 00:11:09 | UPDATED: 22 May 2012 00:33:41PUBLISHED: 22 May 2012 PRINT EDITION: 22 May 2012
Graham Bradley
New attention is being focused on whether a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) ought to be considered at the national level following the West Australian government's decision to set up a future fund.
The idea that Australia needs a SWF to manage wealth generated by our commodities boom for the benefit of future generations has attracted increased attention of late. Malcolm Turnbull has embraced the idea and the Greens are also advocating such a fund.
For some advocates, a SWF is seen as a solution to the challenges of a "two-speed economy"; a response to the high dollar, driven by terms of trade we have not seen for 50 years. For some, it takes on a moral dimension: not to have a SWF means we are consuming "irreplaceable" resources at the expense of future generations.
At first sight, the idea of a SWF is intuitively appealing. Other countries with small populations blessed with resources wealth, such as Norway, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, have established SWFs and are accumulating massive investment portfolios that will benefit their citizens for years to come.
A few countries with no great natural resources endowments have created SWFs by pooling state-owned enterprises and budget surpluses to create investment powerhouses, such as Singapore's Temasek.
On closer examination, however, the case for a new SWF for Australia is far from convincing. At least not now. To understand why, we must consider three different types of SWFs, each of which serves quite different objectives.
First, some SWFs are just large, government-managed pension reserve funds, such as Australia's Future Fund. Its specific purpose is to fund the commonwealth's future pension liabilities.
Such funds are not about the future, but the prodigality of past governments that over recent decades should have been progressively providing for future pensions, at both state and federal level.
Second, some countries have SWFs to act as fiscal stabilisation funds. Chile's Economic and Social Stabilisation Fund is an example. These funds are to build up surpluses during strong economic growth, to be drawn down for recurrent government spending in times of low growth. Such funds are inherently short term as they are not intended to accumulate assets. The hands that control such government "honeypots" often prove all too human.
Does Australia need a fiscal stabilisation fund? I would argue no, at least not now. The commonwealth has, over the past four years, borrowed more than $100 billion as fiscal policy was loosened to avoid recession and it would be meaningless to start accumulating reserves now to protect against further recessions until outstanding debt is fully repaid. To do this is likely to require years of ongoing federal budget surpluses. This should be our national priority now that our economy has broadly stabilised.
Third, some SWFs are national savings funds. Their aim is to accumulate funds either to make future longer-term investments (such as new infrastructure), or to supplement general government revenues if there is a significant change in the nation's economic circumstances.
Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Norway all set up SWFs to generate future income for their governments once their oil reserves are exhausted. It is this kind of SWF that most people have in mind when they advocate one for Australia.
Note, however, that savings fund-style SWFs are typically established by nations with undiversified sources of national income.
Australia's situation is quite different. Although iron ore and coking coal together account for about 40 per cent of total export revenue, their combined contribution to gross domestic product is less than 5 per cent. Australia's economy is far more diversified.
So why would Australia want to lock away funds to spend at some time in the distant future when we are today chronically underinvested in infrastructure and technologies needed to improve our productivity?
Would it not make more sense to invest any surplus funds in coming years, after our debts are paid down, in those vital infrastructure assets we so badly need right now? I do not believe that establishing a SWF (in addition to the Future Fund) is a priority in the near-to-medium term.
Instead, we should focus on returning to surplus, then maintaining surpluses so that the debts accumulated over the past four years can be paid down.
Graham Bradley is immediate past president of the Business Council of Australia. The views in this article are his own.
The Australian Financial Review
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|Politics /Federal Politics , Politics /World Politics , Economy /Fiscal Policy


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Welcome back, Dark Side Demons!!!! There seems to be a tremor in the Force in the year of 2013.. His name is Master Terrell Pryor! Nah, I was just kidding, you rebel scum.. I actually wanted to write that name down just to make your eyes pop out of your sockets and give you all hope- "a new hope" , for that matter. Honestly, do you still think he is the future of this team??!?!? I sense more and more positivity from Fans as the long days pass into Training Camp and Pre Season. The great hype has drifted from last 2 years of play. Yes, I know we have heard it all before- the pros and the cons listed many, many times. Me? I always like to look at the negatives (Dark Side) first to ruffle your feathers a bit. So let's do this.. Point uno: He has a weak arm. Did anyone else observe that the Coaches limited long pass plays? I sure as Hell did. Search you feelings Nation, you know the reason why. Has anyone ever seen a Duck fly? That's what I think of when I see TP3 throw a long ball. Yes, I know some of our best Raider Quarterbacks have lacked this ability as well, but they made up for their lack of a bullet arm with toughness, intelligence and extreme vision. Which brings mean to my next point.. Point dos: Has anyone noticed the lack of vision that he and the rest of our Quarterbacks share? He had Juron Criner open on that Interception pass! He also had a possible chance to run into the End Zone for a Touchdown. I understand he was trying to show off the rest of his talents on the field, but I'm sure T- Pry didn't get on anyone's good side after making this kind of decision on a Red Zone play. Point très: I believe a couple of other things that are really holding our prized Jedi down is his Football intelligence and experience. After watching him closely in Training Camp, it seems he still isn't quite sure of when to run, when to throw, when to throw it away and how to read defenses. A few times, he even seemed lost to me. The good: Damn, are those feet quick or what? Anytime, those Receivers are covered up? The kid runs faster than the Millenium Falcon at light speed. He jukes, he spins and he gets out of trouble that Carson Palmer would otherwise find. This seems to be his best ability. I'm sure all of the Receivers and Linemen love his scrambling since it can create more time on any given play. Maybe that's the reason I have always loved this ability in Quarterbacks. Hey, don't get me wrong, I WANT this guy to be successful, I just don't want to see too many mistakes while watching him! Can he improve his mechanics through familiarity after more repetitions? Of course he can. If that day ever comes? watch the F#@ out, NFL.
The Rest of team played ok. To be honest, I really didn't get too high or too low during this game. Matt Flynn was limited in throwing the tough balls, so it's kind of unfair to grade his talent this early in the Pre-Season. Greg Olson seemed to keep his attack steady and balanced in order to make Flynn look good. Matt McGloin did very well and threw the lone TD. We all loved those Pryor Pistol formations. Hopefully, we haven't seen the last of those packages. Brice Butler was the MVP. That kind of catch does not happen very often in the O. The Offensive Linemen seemed to lack the push we have been looking for. This is a cause for concern since fans originally thought as soon as power blocking would be implemented, we would see a difference. I have to tell you; we have some ways to go. Captain Darren McFadden had 5 yards on 3 carries. Rashad Jennings (9 for 39 yards) and Latavius Murray (8 for 29 yards) seem to be battling for the #2 position. This battle is what Pre-Season is all about. The Defense still lacks the ability to get to the Quarterback. Sio Moore had a sack, but it only came after 5 plus seconds of Tony Romo stalling to get a ball thrown. The run stopping was average. The coverage seemed to be somewhat improved. We'll see how much better the Defensive Backs can be when 1st Round Pick, DJ Hayden hits the field in a couple of weeks. From NFL.com game summary: After forcing just 16 turnovers under fired coordinator Rob Ryan last year, the Cowboys have been very opportunistic so far this preseason by forcing four turnovers in the first two games, including rookie J.J. Wilcox's end zone interception against Terrelle Pryor. But the Raiders got a 30-yard touchdown pass from undrafted rookie Matt McGloin to fellow rookie Brice Butler and a go-ahead field goal from Eddy Carmonain the fourth quarter after B.W. Webb fumbled a punt at his 9. It was a rough night for Dallas' special teams as the Cowboys had a field goal blocked and allowed a 51-yard kickoff return. "Those are plays that are going to hurt you," Garrett said. "Those aren't winning football plays. We got to make sure we correct that." Tony Romo, who sat out last week against Miami after offseason surgery to remove a cyst from his back, completed 6 of 8 passes for 88 yards in his first two series of the preseason. Kyle Orton threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Cole Beasley and rookie Joseph Randle scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter for Dallas. Flynn's tenure in Oakland got off to a rough start when he was sacked by an unblocked Lee on his first drive, leading to a fumble that Jason Hatcherrecovered for Dallas at the Raiders 16. After a holding penalty, a tipped pass and a sack by rookie Sio Moore on Romo's first drive of the preseason, the Cowboys were lucky to get a field goal out of that gift field position when Dan Bailey connected from 38 yards. Both quarterbacks fared far better on their second drives with Flynn converting a pair of third downs on passes to Denarius Moore and Rod Streater to set up a 51-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski.
Flynn's night was over after going 4 for 5 for 37 yards.Romo completed 5 of 6 passes for 77 yards before Bailey's field goal attempt was blocked by Tyvon Branch. "We're making strides," Flynn said. "We still have a lot of work to do. I think that timing, that trust factor is coming. There are definitely things we need to clean up. My job is to get the ball in the hands of the playmakers." Pryor came in and mixed in some electrifying plays with questionable ones. Pryor ran 13 yards on a read option on his first play, delighting the fans who have been partial to the former Ohio State star since he joined the Raiders in the supplemental draft two years ago. Pryor also showed poise in the pocket, throwing an 18-yard screen to Jamize Olawale and converting a third-and-8 with a 9-yard pass to Andre Holmes. But those promising plays were erased when he rolled out on third-and-4 from the 6 and threw late across his body when he had room to run and was intercepted by Wilcox in the end zone. "It was just me being greedy," Pryor said. "I looked at the pictures and I could have ran it easy. That was just me being greedy." Pryor bounced back after Orton completed all six passes on an 80-yard touchdown drive and completed three passes for 54 yards in the final minute to set up a field goal by Janikowski. "He's really a dual threat," Raiders coach Dennis Allen said. "He can run the football and I thought he threw the ball pretty well at times tonight. That's one of the things we want to try to use, that skill set, and hopefully it will be another dimension to our offense." To read the entire game Summary, click here:
Damn, it's sure feel good to watch Raider Football again. I'll see you next week after we handle the Saints in Nawlins. Keep it crispy and on the Dark Side! -Darth Raider


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Camar ft. DJ Rhymer - Ride [Stream]
It's been over six months since R&B/dancehall up-and-comer Camar's Booth-approved second single, She Love Me Luv, hit our front page—what's changed since? Well, not a whole lot; debut LP Yard... Read More
Camar - She Luv Me Love [Stream]
Okay, try to follow along… in late July, DJBooth featured She Loves The Flava, the debut single of Slip-N-Slide recording artist Camar. Roughly four months later, the Jamaica native, who is also known as "Flava... Read More
Camar - She Loves The Flava [Stream]
Upon first glance, Jamaican singer Camar might seem like a replica of other Caribbean crooners like Sean Kingston. Actually, Camar brings a refreshing, new perspective to urban music with his upcoming Slip-N-Slide Records... Read More


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Give yourself more creative ability and make the most of your DSLR by adding one of our impressive lenses to your DSLR kit. The right lens is the key to achieving striking compositions. You can control all aspects of your photography to shoot the subject with more creative prowess.
Every lens is specially designed for specific types of photography. Capture your creative eye through gorgeous depth-of-field, stunning macro close-ups or a wide angle frame. Take a look at our extensive range of versatile lenses - be prepared on photography adventures!
Moreover, a two year guarantee is offered to give you peace of mind.
Follow your photographic dreams with the Canon EOS 7D Digital SLR Camera!
Product code: 335261


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The Dallas Mavericks are currently in hot pursuit of Dwight Howard but that doesn't mean they can ignore other free agents on the market. Dallas has to be realistic and understand that their chances of landing Howard aren't the best and while they do have a good chance, signing Howard won't complete their team. This is why, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon, the Dallas Mavericks have shown an interest in free agent guards Jose Calderon and Mo Williams.
It's no surprise then that the Mavs are among several teams to express interest in point guards Jose Calderon and Mo Williams, according to a league source. The Mavs have long been intrigued by Calderon, who they discussed trading for last season.
Before free agency kicked off, the Mavericks reportedly inquired about Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo and they're still currently on the hunt to find a guard that can hep lead hem next season with or without Howard. The Mav's have been purging whatever contracts they can in an effort to clear up cap space to sign Howard but that doesn't mean they can ignore other needs.
Signing Howard means he's the leader of the team but he can only play center for the Mavericks, not fill holes at other positions. Calderon is likely going to get a bit expensive for the Mav's if they want to still land Howard but their interest in the two guards reminds us all that they have more than one need this offseason and things could get interesting if they land Howard.
Tags: Dallas Mavericks Jose Calderon Mo Williams NBA Free Agency


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Ultimate Doppler HD is showing our November storm system beginning to wrap up and wind down.
It looks like the worst is over, FOX 29 Meteorologist Justin Ryan says. The center of the low is just off the Delmarva Peninsula.
At 4 p.m., there was a break in the rain from Philadelphia back into South Jersey.
But on the western flank, we're seeing some snow showers breaking out as the cold air collapses on the back side of the storm.
CHECK: Latest Weather Warnings, Watches, Advisories
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We started this morning in the low- to mid-60s, and we're in the 30s by late afternoon.
It looks like the system will be racing out of town during the dinner hour. We'll be left with clouds for the rest of the evening.
It is gusty out there. We're seeing gusts up to nearly 30 mph in the Philadelphia area, and they could go up to 40 mph in some coastal areas.
With temperatures diving, there is a concern for some icing tonight.
WATCH LIVE: Ultimate Doppler Radar
The biggest mess this morning was clearly on the Schuylkill Expressway, where a deadly crash and flooding near Montgomery Drive had some motorists parked on the highway for several hours.
By 8 a.m., one lane was getting through in each direction, and things were improving westbound. Eastbound, however, things were still at a crawl late in the morning, probably due in part to people still heading to the airport.
You could have allotted two extra hours and still missed your flight today!
Problems at airports all along the eastern seaboard also took their toll at Philadelphia International Airport, too. By 7 a.m., arriving flights were delayed on average 1 hour and 55 minutes. Departure delays were creeping up, and there were even some cancelations on the flight boards.
CHECK: Latest Traffic Conditions
With these winds and heavy rains came reports of power outages throughout our area.
By mid-morning, PECO was reporting almost 3,000 customers without power, down from 4,400 earlier, most of them in Montgomery County.
Atlantic City Electric had about 1,000 outages throughout South Jersey, about half the number from earlier.
Delmarva was reporting scattered outages after having more than 900 customers without power earlier in Delaware.
PSE&G had slightly more customers, 2,000, in the dark by late morning than they did overnight.
REPORT, CHECK: Local Power Outages
We'll be continuing to track travel conditions tonight on the FOX 29 News at 5, 6 and 10!
WATCH ONLINE: FOX 29 News At 5, 6 & 10


text:
PPA Department Faculty
Faculty Governance
Department Document
ARTP Procedures (in pdf)
The Department's guidelines for appointing and evaluating faculty members are set forth in its ARTP processes and procedures document, which has been approved by the University administration. This document applies to both full-time and part-time faculty.
The Department uses a set of standing committees for making various decisions. For the 2013-14 academic year the committees and their memberships are as follows.
- Full-Time Faculty Appointments Committee: Rob Wassmer (chair), Mary Kirlin, Su Jin Jez
- Human Subjects Committee: Su Jin Jez (chair), Rob Wassmer, Mary Kirlin
- Part-Time Faculty Appointments Committee: Rob Wassmer (chair), Su Jin Jez, Mary Kirlin
- Part-Time Faculty Evaluation Committee: Rob Wassmer (chair) and Mary Kirlin
- RTP Committee: Rob Wassmer (chair), Mary Kirlin, member selected from outside PPA
The Department's representative to the Faculty Senate is Su Jin Jez: Rob Wassmer is the Department's alternate representative.
College Document
College of SSIS Appointment, Retention, Tenure and Promotion Procedures
University Policy


text:
Here's more information about the marriage and divorce of Sara Evans and Craig Schelske.
News Updates:6/14/2008: Sara Evans and Jay Barker were married in an evening outdoor ceremony "at a Franklin, Tenn., farm near Evans's home."
Source: Eileen Finan, "Sara Evans Marries Her Football Hero", People.com, 6/15/2008.
3/24/2008: Sara Evans and Jay Barker became engaged. The couple started dating in November 2007. Jay proposed to Sara in New York City "in a little park where they had their first date."
Source: Eileen Finan, "Sara Evans's Engagement Is 'Out of This World,' Says Pal", People.com, 3/26/08.
Barker, a radio host and former quarterback at the University of Alabama, was previously married and has four children.
Born:Sara Lynn Evans: February 5, 1971 in New Franklin, Missouri.
Craig Lyons Schelske: About 1963 in Salem, Oregon.
How Sara and Craig Met:Sara and Craig met in 1991 in Nashville, Tennessee while they were both waiting tables at the Briley Parkway Holiday Inn. Their first date was on September 20, 1991.
Wedding Date:Craig and Sara married on September 25, 1993 in Sara's hometown of Boonesboro, Missouri.
Children:Sara and Craig have three children:
- Avery Jack Lyons Schelske: Born on August 21, 1999.
- Olivia Margaret Schelske: Born on January 22, 2003 in Missouri.
- Audrey Elizabeth Schelske: Born on October 6, 2004 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Residences:Sara and Craig have a home in Franklin, Tennessee and a 35-acre farm in Slayton, Oregon.
Occupations:Sara: Award winning pop-country singer and songwriter.
Craig: Musician, Republican politician who ran for Congress in 2002 representing Oregon's 5th District, and nonprofit organization executive.
Craig is listed as the Executive Director for American Destiny, a group devoted to helping Americans discover their spiritual roots. Craig is also the Chairman of CRAIG PAC, a "national political action committee dedicated to electing Republicans at the federal and state level."
Divorce:The grounds for divorce as filed by Sara on 10/12/2006 are:
- Irreconcilable Differences
- Inappropriate Marital Conduct
- Adultery with Alison Clinton, former nanny to the Schelske children. Alison has denied the allegation stating that at her wedding, Sara was her matron of honor and Craig was a groomsman.
Sara ended her relationship with the popular ABC series "Dancing With Stars" so she could spend more time with her three children.
Divorce Timeline:
09/28/2007: The Evans/Schleske divorce was finalized with the couple agreeing to alimony, asset division, and custody of their children. Criag will receive $600,000 alimony payable over 10 years and the two homes they owned in Oregon. He will also have visitation rights to see their children. Sara will keep the home they shared in Tennessee.
10/20/2006: In papers filed with the Williamson County Chancery Court in Franklin, Tennessee, Craig Schleske alleges that Sara Evans had an affair and a nervous breakdown.
Source: People.com
10/17/2006: Craig Schleske's statement regarding Sara's allegations, "I cannot explain why Sara is waging a false media campaign, but I intend to defend myself in court and protect my children as best I can."
Source: People.com
10/12/2006: Sara Evans filed for divorce and requested a temporary restraining order against Craig Schelske.
Source: Tennessean.com
Sara Evans' Quotes About Love and Marriage:Sara on her decision to divorce: "It was always my intention to try to take things very slowly in the marriage. I'm completely against divorce. My intention was to continue to try everything within my power [to save the relationship] ... Things drastically went downhill 100 miles an hour."
Source: People.com
Sara on the best advice she received on marriage, 10/2005: "Keep your romance alive with your spouse. Keep yourself looking your best for your spouse. Acting your best. Behaving your best ... My advice would be just to be sweet to one another, and don't fight in front of your kids. The best gift that you can give your children is to have a great marriage."
Source: CMT.com


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It has been a rough few weeks for those of us who enjoy spending our money at locally run small businesses and who appreciate the sense of continuity and history long-running establishments bring to a neighborhood. But there is still much to celebrate in the local business community.
First, the sad news.
Last month, Frank and Ted Monroe announced they will close Derby Square Book Store in Salem after 39 years.
Customers from all over visited the Essex Street store to marvel at its wide, moderately priced selection and to wonder at how the teetering stacks of more than 10,000 books seemed to defy the laws of physics by staying upright.
"It's living Jenga," Salem State University student and Derby Square Book Store fan Kathy Farias told reporter Tom Dalton.
The eclectic inventory included everything from George Eliot's "Adam Bede" to E.L. James's "Fifty Shades Darker" to Barack Obama's "Dreams from My Father."
In Beverly, Cabot Street Cinema's owners recently decided to stop showing films at the historic theater, which has been up for sale for almost a year.
The theater had been showing movies since it opened on Dec. 20, 1920, with the silent film "Behold My Wife," starring Mabel Julienne Scott, Milton Sills and Winter Hall.
On its opening night, the Beverly Times labeled it "Beverly's palatial new playhouse," calling it "the finest theater of its size east of New York."
The 2012 closing of the Le Grand David and His Own Spectacular Magic Show, however, spelled the end of the Cabot as we know it, as the income from the movies was used to help keep the show running.
Now, owner David Bull said, "It's strange to be in town and not have the marquee lit up."
Meanwhile, over in Hamilton, Robert McRae, owner of Mac's Shoe Repair, is closing his shop after 64 years.


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"How many intellectuals does it take to crash two bicycles?" asks Craig Brown in Hello Goodbye Hello. Hello Goodbye Hello is jampacked with nervous encounters between famous artists.
Brown is a satirist based in London and he weaves together dozens of chance encounters between famous authors into a glittering chain that reads like a mathematical proof of the theory of six degrees of separation.
It zigzags across decades and it illustrates the "cosmic serendipity of life", somehow managing to connect the dots between Rudyard Kipling and Helen Keller (both knew Mark Twain), between Frank Lloyd Wright and Nikita Khrushchev (both met Marilyn Monroe), and between Diana, Princess of Wales, and Raymond Chandler. (Diana met Princess Grace of Monaco, who had worked with Alfred Hitchcock, who had worked with Chandler).
This Is Henry, Henry Miller from Brooklyn
Henry Miller is a philosopher who sought to reestablish the freedom to live without the conventional restraints of civilisation. This tribute to Miller is based on the documentary film called The Henry Miller Odyssey and features interviews and still photos from the film. But hardly anywhere does Miller's spirit shine more brilliantly than in this piece. A poignant "oracle of writing", this book gives us more-than-a-tour into a brilliant mind.
The Girls of Atomic City
In The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II, Denise Kiernan tells the story of the Oak Ridge center of the Manhattan Project, a town of 70,000 workers — primarily women — who lived in a camp-like environment of propaganda, barbed wire, checkpoints, code words, and spies, while working a thousand different jobs, all of which contributed to the events of August 6, 1945 and the dropping of the atomic bomb.
A lively story about the tens of thousands of women who made the bomb from the power-plant janitor struggling each day through the mud to the exiled physicist in Sweden, the book offers a bottom-up history revealing that the atomic bomb was not simply the product of J. Robert Oppenheimer's genius, but also of the work of women at every level of education and class.
One Nation Under Stress
Modern neuroscience has strongly suggested that optimism might benefit physical health, and researchers are now confirming that psycho-emotional stress might actually trigger physical inflammation in the body. But what, exactly, is stress and how did we come to think of it the way we do? In "One Nation Under Stress: The Trouble with Stress as an Idea", Dana Becker investigates the origins of our stress metaphors. A professor of social work, she explains that the concept of stress has become inflated to a deleterious degree over the past 40 years, critiquing our cultural tendency to approach stress management and the preservation of sanity as a matter of perpetual bandaging of symptoms rather than a deeper concern with understanding and healing the underlying causes.
Cambridge University philosopher Stephen Cave explores the inner workings of that ancient impulse, inviting us on a mind-bending, intense, at times unsettling and at times deeply comforting journey into curious corners of the human psyche.
Since the dawn of time, it has been the human instinct to resolve the psychological dilemma by constructing various immortality narratives. Cave argues that besides our immortality narratives, what sets us apart from other sentient beings are our highly connected brains and our self-awareness adaptive developments that have enabled us to foresee different possibilities and make sophisticated plans, but also, in envisioning the future, to grapple with the terrifying prospect of our own demise.


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A report on E-Online says that Drew Brees' wife Brittany is expecting the couple's fourth child.The article said that the couple made the announcement on the red carpet at a Super Bowl-related event Saturday night.The child will be the fourth for Drew and Brittany. They already have three sons - 5-year-old Baylen, 3-year-old Bowen and 1-year-old Callen.
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January 7, 2008
Valdosta - A World War Two veteran from Savannah received one of the Air Force's top awards, 63 years after his heroic service.
Henry Baker was a flying safety officer honored for the 300 plus hours he spent in the India-China Division, covering a very dangerous route where enemy attacks were probable and expected.
Monday, Lt. General Gary North presented him with the Flying Cross Medal for his heroic actions.
That medal is presented to someone who distinguishes himself by heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight.
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text: 76 miles separate the Pacific Ocean from the Caribbean. Separating the West from the East is part of the great Andean-Sierra Madre mountains with 7 active volcanoes and the highest point at over 12,000 feet. It runs the entire length of the country, from Nicaragua to Panama. It is these mountains, shrouded in cloud and rain forests, that bring water to the lowlands creating varied habitat for plants, trees, and wildlife. Twelve major rivers carve dramatic valleys through 12 life zones, from the high mountains to the sunny beaches. The Osa Peninsula is so abundant with unique flora and fauna that National Geographic calls it "the most biologically intense place on Earth." This is Costa Rica!


text:
Pictures: Oktoberfest in Germany
Raise your glass and enjoy the annual German festival from afar.
Image 5 of 58
Oktoberfest 2013 - General Views( Lennart Preiss, Getty Images / September 22, 2013 )
Riflemen dressed in their traditional uniform clink their beer glasses in a beer tent of the historical part at the Oktoberfest 2013 beer festival at Theresienwiese on Sept. 22, 2013 in Munich, Germany. The Munich Oktoberfest, which this year will run from Sept. 21 through Oct. 6, is the world's largest beer fest and draws millions of visitors


text:
Enjoy a nice cup of rice with some beef stew and vegetables from this soft touch sensor logic cooker. With its many functions and preprogrammed settings, this cooker's meals produce something for everyone to savor. The cooker is also easy to clean up and avoids most spills, so there are no regrets and everyone will want to make food preparations with this cooker again!
Weights & Dimensions
|Product Type: Rice cooker
|Primary Material Details: Polycarbonate
|Number of Handles: 1
|Lid Finish: White
|Dishwasher Safe Parts: Spatula and measuring cup
|Assembly Required: No
|Product Warranty: 1 year limited
|Shape: Round
|Removable Lid: Yes
|BPA Free: Yes
|Installation Required: No
|Additional Parts Required: No
|Finish: Silver, White with Black Panel, White with Chrome Pane
|Heat Resistant Handle: Yes
|Primary Material: Plastic
|Number of Items Included: 4
|Pieces Included: Measuring cup and spatula
|Tarnish Resistant: Yes
|Stain Resistant: Yes
|Odor Resistant: Yes
|Shatterproof: Yes
|Non-Skid Base: Yes
|Handles Included: Yes
|Lid Included: Yes
|Steaming Basket Included: No
|Temperature Probe Included: No
|Auto Shut-Off: Yes
|Locking: Yes
|Non-Stick: Yes
|Portable: Yes
|Removable Interior: Yes
|Warming Setting: Yes
|Operation Type: Manual
|Cool Touch Exterior: Yes
|LED Power Indicator: Yes
|Dishwasher Safe: Yes
|Wattage: 350 Watts (W)
|Voltage: 120 Volts (V)
|Amperage: 2.9 Amps
|Capacity: 1 Quarts
|Rice Capacity: 4 Cups
|Product Care: Hand wash inner pot
|Country of Manufacture: China
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Kathy from Punta Gorda, FL– Verified Buyer
This rice cooker was used in a cooking class I took. The instructor loved it. It works fine on white rice but not so good on brown rice. Since I eat mainly brown rice It isn't really a great buy for me.
Lauren from AZ
This is a good product. I am very happy with my purchase. The online description was fitting. I got just what I expected. This is well made & a good deal for what you get. I would recommend.
Rice cooker
Carl from Silver City, NM– Verified Buyer
Finally! I can have perfect rice in a matter of a few minutes. I recommend this product.
Excellent product
JoeB52 from Fontana, CA.
It has made a perfect batch of steamed rice everytime. And it's so easy, even the brown rice cooks perfectly.
blah from WI– Verified Buyer
Great, quick, easy clean up
Rice-o-holic from San Francisco, CA– Verified Buyer
This product is a great addition to the kitchen. I use it almost everyday. It's convenient and easy to clean.
Works great!
yoi from Denver, CO– Verified Buyer
Bought this as a house warming gift for my younger brother when he moved into his own apartment. It works great - no issues with it. Nice compact size and the cooked rice is enough to feed 4 people!
Very impressive for a tiny cooker!
Kate from Vermont– Verified Buyer
I just love it. I make rice at least 3 times a week, and its always fluffy and perfect. Better than the rice from the local Chinese Restaurant. It doesn't take up any space on the counter like my old one. And looks sharp.
Great Rice Cooker
blackbob from Houston, Texas– Verified Buyer
Follow the instructions, but add just a little more water than recommended. Makes perfect rice every time.
Love this Rice Cooker
flowerjudy from Columbus, NE
I love this little rice cooker. I have cooked white, brown and wild rice. I use 3 cups water to 1 cup rice for the brown and it comes out perfect. The cookbook doesn't say to, but I add boullion, some chopped vegetables, other seasonings sometimes.
OUR SKU # ARO1017This item is also sometimes listed under the following manufacturer numbers: ARC-914B, ARC914S, ARC914SB


text:
A Glenn Avenue resident reported two men stole $60 to $70 in cash from her, after engaging in a discussion of roof repairs to her house, Green Brook police said.
The woman said she was carrying groceries into her home at about 3:30 p.m. on Monday, when a mid-sized blue pickup truck stopped and two men got out to ask if she would be interested in having some repairs made to the roof of her house.
While in discussion, one of the men asked to use her bathroom. The other man continued to try to negotiate with the homeowner. After they left, she noticed the bathroom towels were not used and several drawers in bedroom furniture had been disturbed.
She discovered somewhere between $60 and $70 cash she'd had in her purse had been taken.
A neighbor confirmed noticing the truck, which had the tailgate down blocking the license plate. The witness also noted the truck was carrying several small motors.


text:
Monday, July 09, 2007
Memories and Influences
I wanted to call it memories and influences.
It's in response to an article by Lindsay http://straightlinesout.blogspot.com/ about the earliest influences on her art and the fact that she moved around causing her to have deep feelings about her area and put down roots in response.
I too moved around as a child. My father was in the RAF, in Coastal Command, and we lived in Gibraltar when I was small - my earliest memories are of sitting in my grandmothers garden in England when I was one. I can date it because it was before moving to Gibraltar. There are no words but I was sitting on the lawn on a rug in the dappled light from the tree and I loved it.
I remember the vivid blues of the sea and the flowers in Gibraltar and our street - one of those streets of broad steps. I played with the girl next door who spoke Spanish and I think only learnt about one word - Anda! - go away! I hated the way that the locals would ruffle my blonde curls and say 'Ahhh rubio, rubio' - redhead - and that was my polite response! oh dear! I was only 2.
Then we moved to Cornwall and stayed there for a very formative part of my life. We lived just about a mile from the sea, a couple of miles by road. http://www.bedruthanstepshotel.co.uk/webcam.html this is a webcam shot of our nearest beach - and we are staying there in a few weeks :) overlooking the beach with a view very near to this :) It's called Mawgan Porth (even if the webcam does say bedruthan - ignore it! that's the name of the hotel I think - Bedruthan is further up the coast).
I loved, and still do, the ever changing light and weather, the narrow flower filled lanes, the glimpses, through gateways in high banked hedges, of the sea or valleys and hills; going down 1:3 hills to little coves that were always different - tide in or out, sea calm or rough, blues, greens, wild surf ..... always lovely and always different.
There are tiny ancient stone walled harbours and high cliffs, dramatic winter gales, swirling mists and beautiful summer days.
I missed it terribly when we left. Especially as we moved to a very very flat area, East Anglia, over 300 miles upcountry with drainage dykes and rivers higher than the flat farmland - I hated it :( I can appreciate it now with it's huge skies but at the time I was deeply unhappy to have been uprooted from Cornwall that I loved so much. In Cornwall the high banks meant that every twist and turn of the road was a surprise view - in the flat countryside you could see for miles - no suprises :( , no sudden glimspes of the sea - just cabbages and potatoes and sugar beet. We were in fen country.
Next we moved to the north of Scotland, 30 miles from Inverness on the Moray Firth. There was a wonderful 7 mile sweep of beach on one side of the village and a small almost perfectly circular bay with a narrow mouth - a natural harbour - on the other. It was beautiful. It was far too cold for people to swim but a fantastic beach for walking and beachcombing. We lived just a few miles from Cawdor Castle, where Macbeth is set, and I was reading Macbeth for my English exam :) We also did a lot of border ballads and Robert Burns.
We explored the farthest north of Scotland and the beautiful west coast while we lived there (we lived on the east coast) - again a wonderful light and glorious colours.
Next was Malta - blue Mediterranean, heat, honey coloured stone, prickly pears, fresh grapes, oranges and melons, fiestas and fun. I did my 'A' levels there - 3 hour exams in blistering heat is an unforgettable experience! I loved it (other than that!).
All these places had their own special light and ambience and I'm so glad now that I had the experience - it was traumatic at times though, being uprooted from friends and familiar places and having to start again. I miss out on friends that date back to 'way back when'.
Both these paintings are Cornwall - the top is of Trevose Head, near Harlyn Bay (just a few miles from the webcam), showing the typical beautiful blues and greens of the sea on that part of the coast and the waves crashing on the rocks. The other is of Charlestown - a small stone harbour with an inner and outer section. The inner section contains tall ships and ancient offices and warehouse built into the rock - many films have featured it, including the series The Onedin Line.
Cornwall had, I think the strongest influence - as we returned home after visiting family in the Midlands the light would change once we were a few miles from the coast and we knew we were home :)
I'm hoping to be able to paint while we are there this year.
I think our ideas of what is beautiful in the landscape is very much affected by where we are in our youth. I love wild beaches, high cliffs, clean sand, pounding surf and rock pools, lonely and isolated with noone else there. The trees are bent out of shape by the prevaling wind off the sea, leaning to one side. There are woods inland, on the sheltered creeks of the southern side and in sheltered valleys inland but no forests. The spine (Cornwall is a peninsular) has some bleak wild moorland, which again I loved.
My father grew up in Hampshire/Kent and loves woods and forests and really doesn't like anywhere that lacks trees. He has absolutely no feeling at all for the coast and the sea and a great deal for trees, woods and forests. I don't like being in deep forests, though I like open woodland, well especially the edges of it - I long for a view over hills and fields or sea if I'm in the middle of a forest - he doesn't like rocky landscapes, I love them. My husband is harder to categorise, he's quite urban.
7 comments:
- jafabrit said...
I enjoyed reading your post. I have lived in many placed too. At my heart and soul I am a Geordie lass. I love wild coastline/beaches, and moors. I lived in London during my teens and love the life of a city. I have loved living in so many places for so many reasons, and while I felt homesick at times, I never felt a loss of who I am. I think having a strong sense of identity helped.
- 5:01 pm
- vivien said...
you are a heroine for reading through that lot!
The north of England is beautiful too :)
I can't honestly say I love the life of a city - I'd miss some of the facilities but I'd much rather live by the coast, somewhere small. Of course, having put down roots could I stand the wrench?????
- 6:10 pm
- Katherine said...
I love that first work - I don't think I've seen it before
All that travelling around and where you lived certainly explains your love of coasts.
- 1:26 pm
- WILSONART said...
Vivien, what a pleasant visit I've had on your blog! Enjoyed all you terrific work, and especially these seascapes!
Paint on,,,,,,,love seeing you in the forum.
- 5:31 pm
- vivien said...
Babs and Katherine thanks :)
yes, living by the coast at a very formative age probably is why I love it so much - and especially the wild Atlantic coast :)
- 3:51 pm
- Lindsay said...
Hi Vivien! I only just got back from a camping trip to the beach this week. Thanks for mentioning my blog and for your wonderful artwork and description of the places you have lived. Quite varied!! The web cam shot was wonderful! The shape of the coast reminds me of the Cambria area of California but the light is very much diferent! I hope to visit Cornwall one day and see it for myself. Have a wonderful vacation and I look forward to seeing the work that will grow from that visit.
- 6:20 pm
- vivien said...
Hi Lindsay
I hope it was great holiday? (vacation)
Cornwall really is lovely and the light changes constantly - the weather is just horrible at the moment so the light is very different from sunny days.
I hope it's nice when we go
- 6:58 pm


text:
Whether its been because of terrible managerial decisions, struggling stars, or inconsistent pitching; the Royals just have not been able to put together any success. Some people think the team is pressing, some think we are just too young, but one thing is for sure this team is extremely young and talented.
Coming into the season before the injuries of Perez and Soria I had us winning 81 games. With the injuries it came down to 76. Now with the awful start I think well be lucky to hit 70. Which would be an embarrassment on the year we host the all star game. So my panic level is at 7


text:
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
4 large peaches, pitted and quartered
Mint leaves or cinnamon, for garnish
Add the water, sugar, vanilla bean, and vanilla bean scrapings into a saucepan. Stir the mixture over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Allow the liquid to simmer for 10 minutes or until the liquid becomes thick. Add the peaches, and continue to cook over low heat for 5 minutes until peaches are poached.
Transfer the peach sauce mixture to small dessert bowls. Garnish with mint or cinnamon, if desired. Serve immediately.
Calories: 131 cal
Total fat: 0g
Saturated fat: 0g
Monounsaturated fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 0mg
Potassium: 183mg
Carbohydrate: 33g
Fiber: 1g
Calcium: 6g
Protein: 0g


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By gregdowney Posted: January 5, 2011
How might it feel to sense your own sanity eroding? Would you realize it? How might you sift the phantoms from physical reality, daydream from delusion, the irrefutable from the implausible? Or, as author Rachel Aviv puts it, When does a strong idea take on a pathological flavor?
How does a metaphysical crisis morph into a medical one? At what point does our interpretation of the world become so fixed that it no longer matters "what almost everyone else believes†[part of the definition of 'delusion' in the DSM]? Even William James admitted that he struggled to distinguish a schizophrenic break from a mystical experience. (Aviv 2010: 37) Aviv wrote in the December issue of Harper's Magazine: Which way madness lies: Can psychosis be prevented? As Aviv told me in an email, the story arose, in part, out of following young patients at clinics who might be in the prodrome to psychosis, the early stages of experiencing intermittent breaks from shared reality that might lead up to schizophrenia.
Based on interviews with patients and clinicians, Aviv explores how both seek to cope with the warning signs that someone may be sliding toward a definitive break, or 'conversion' as it is termed in psychiatry, bolstering the individual's sense of self and reality against corrosion. The piece is a powerful, troubling, and thought-provoking read. Aviv explains: It is impossible to predict the precise moment when a person has embarked on a path toward madness, since there is no quantifiable point at which healthy thoughts become insane. It is only in retrospect that the prelude to psychosis can be diagnosed with certainty.
What I particularly appreciate about Aviv's account is that she writes extensively about the nature of the delusions themselves, about the flow of delusional ideas, their relation to the collapse of a clear sense of self, and the challenges facing an individual who begins to feel the implausible welling up in everyday reality. She writes that much of psychiatry has tried to get around the specificities of the delusions — Who's putting thoughts in your head? How are you being watched? What sort of ghosts or angels or aliens are following you?
Patients and some clinicians alike have a vested interest in discrediting the content of delusions, dismissing the ideas as errant chemicals or glitches in brain function. But as Aviv so clearly demonstrates, the specificities of the delusions are both what the patients struggle with daily and the source of the leverage that some of them find to fight off further drift into idiosyncratic worlds. The delusions matter, both because patients search in them for signs of their truth or unreality, but also because the details of the delusion, not just the fact of having them, arise from our shared reality.
As Aaron (not his real name) told Aviv: 'What happens if there's some truth to your delusion? What if it is tied to reality?… They don't want you to come up with mythical explanations. So they keep telling you over and over again that it's just your brain' (44). This will be part one of a two-part post, the first of which will explore Aviv's writing and the controversy around prodrome; the second post will follow by tomorrow and talk about the anthropological study of schizophrenia and my own thoughts on the how the content of delusion might affect the experience of psychosis.
Rachel Aviv's work on prodrome Rachel Aviv has won a number of awards for writing about mental health, but in 2010 she secured a Writers' Award from the Rona Jaffe Foundation. Aviv used the support to follow young people who had been identified as in danger of schizophrenia at a Maine psychiatric clinic and at a specialized clinic in upper Manhattan. As she explained on the Rona Jaffe Foundation webpage, 'I am drawn to [the Maine] clinic because it offers a rare glimpse into a community of adolescents self-consciously struggling to maintain their grasp on reality.'
Aviv, out of the blue, sent me her wonderful article in Harper's Magazine: Which way madness lies: Can psychosis be prevented? (appeared in the December 2010 issue). Consider it my belated Christmas present to all of you to recommend that you should go read Rachel's powerful piece, available through Harper's online archive. The only reason I haven't posted something on it sooner is that I wanted to do Ms. Aviv's piece justice, and it's taken me longer to do it than I like. According to Aviv, sixty clinics around the US work on early psychosis, about a third of which focus exclusively on people in the prodrome of psychosis. The prodrome is: the aura that precedes a psychotic break by up to two or three years. During this phase, people often have mild hallucinations—they might spot a nonexistent cat out of the corner of their eye or hear their name in the sound of the wind—yet they doubt that these sensations are real. They still have "insightâ€â€"a pivotal word in psychiatric literature, indicating that a patient can recognize an altered worldview as a sign of illness, not a revelation.
In other words, mild (or not so mild) hallucinations alone are not the specific problem with psychosis, but the failure of what we might call the ability to recover the normal, the 'insight' to realize that something was a hallucination. Other symptoms seem to precede the onset of serious psychosis — conversion — and demonstrate a process of degeneration. More recent studies have shown that in the years before people have a psychotic break, they struggle to identify tastes and smells—a banana no longer tastes like a banana, or fresh water begins to carry the odor of mold—and they lose gray-matter volume in certain parts of their brains, particularly the hippocampus, which is crucial for learning and memory.
In another study, researchers found that subjects with a tendency toward psychosis could discern words in recordings of multiple voices intentionally overlaid so as to make it impossible under normal conditions to understand what was being said. Normal subjects could not perceive anything. Part of the loss of reality then was an over-projection of meaning and exaggerated concentration on some aspect of reality that most of us, by consensus, choose to ignore (I'll come back to this because of course, the consensus is not everywhere the same).
Rachel tells Anna's story – One thing Aviv brings to the piece in Harper's is a non-judgmental gentleness and generosity to people who are clearly experiencing the fragility of their own grasp of reality. Aviv tells the story of 'Anna' (not her real name), a young woman who had grown up with a schizophrenic mother and lived in fear of following her mother into madness. Although Anna struggles to communicate her profoundly alien sensations — she described in her personal journal, written while first experiencing troubling thoughts, feeling 'migrating electrical sensations' and the sense that 'words were alive' (Aviv 2010: 37) — together, Anna and Rachel produce a moving description of the edge of our shared reality. I emphasize this because I don't want to underestimate the skill of either Aviv or the people she interviewed in piecing together compelling accounts of unusual realities. As an anthropologist, I very much appreciate the skill of the translator, making another world comprehensible and yet preserving its distinctiveness. I'm going to take the liberty of piecing together from a number of places in the article a version of the story of Anna because I think it captures with profound sensitivity the fragility of her reality.
Aviv's (2010) telling of the story is excellent, and I don't think I can do it justice in paraphrase.
I met Anna last year at her Illinois home, a small, brightly painted town-house apartment, and she tried to pinpoint when she had stopped believing in the reality she'd contentedly inhabited all her life. A petite twenty-eight-year-old with cleanly parted blond hair, she spoke in a thin, strained voice and avoided looking at me. My lips, she said, appeared as if they were moving at a different pace than my voice, and she had to bat away the thought that she was watching a dubbed film. Anna's mother is schizophrenic, and Anna had always found her mother's world-view—derived in part from messages she deciphered in processed-food packaging—distasteful and impossible to comprehend.
She assumed that when her mother had a schizophrenic break, the delusions had taken her by force, engulfing her. But an alternate reality did not come to Anna fully formed…. One day, wandering the halls of an academic department, she became fascinated by the physical details of the building: tiny cracks in the wall, a light switch, a rubber doorstop that looked luminous and functionless. A bust of Plato, which she had never noticed before, seemed to be calling out to her. As she gazed at Plato's mournful expression, she imagined that he had singled her out to unburden himself and shed light on the "overwhelming strangeness of the world.†… She blamed herself for attending too avidly to the stream of her own consciousness. "It wasn't as if this bust suddenly started talking to me out of thin air,†she told me. "I wanted him to, and then I sort of convinced myself that he did. It didn't feel like I was passively being subjected to another reality. It felt like I somehow actively engaged in creating it.â€â€¦
[In] the course of a few months, she had become too suggestible: she would come up with sweeping theories about the structure of reality— that time no longer existed, that the world was made entirely of gasses— and then, moments later, scold herself for allowing the experience when there was "not a shred of scientific evidence.†She kept waiting for the particles to vanish on their own. When they didn't, she worried she was "addicted to an idea.†She felt that by wondering about the properties of matter—by blowing on books to see whether they would disintegrate—she had taken some irrevocable step toward illness….
For Anna, there was no single moment of "conversion,†no sudden break from one state of mind to the next. If there is a boundary between health and insanity, Anna felt herself creeping across it with pained self-awareness. She remembered as a teenager feeling dismayed by her mother's inability to communicate: her thoughts no longer conformed to the "laws that literally allow us to make sense.†Now Anna worried that she, too, had somehow been unmoored from the rhythms of everyday life. … The last time I spoke with Anna, in June, more than two years after she first became a patient at the clinic, she said her delusions had become less compelling. Ordinary activities, like lounging on a bed and trusting that it wouldn't sink through the floorboards, no longer felt alien and unnatural. She said that her psychologist and psychiatrist strongly believed the change came from her taking a new antipsychotic drug, asenapine, for the past two months, but she couldn't convince herself of this explanation and was thinking of stopping the medication.
It wasn't as if her perceptions had become normal again, she argued. Hard surfaces still felt airy and insubstantial, but now she made conscious decisions every day to rely on them just as she had before. It was a matter of ignoring swaths of her own perceptual experience, of relearning how to construct the world in her mind…. The illness was about not just the active symptoms but also a more fundamental shift that made them plausible. "The symptom that bothers me the most is the one I can't even begin to describe,†she said, leaning back on her white couch, the sun pouring into her living room. After months spent struggling to articulate what she was going through, she felt her memories of the experience slipping away. "I can resort to bizarre metaphors, but I can't even in the grossest, roughest way communicate that state of mind.†She paused, looking away. "The substance of my experience is thrown into doubt. I am left with this incredibly deep sense that none of these things ever happened to me.â€
One dimension of Aviv's account that I find most interesting, but that gets lost in my encapsulation of the nine page piece, is that Anna actively tried to make sense of a world that seemed perceptually so unstable. The delusional theories she comes to do not hatch from nothing, but from a mind actively trying to figure out why solid objects suddenly seem less than fully tangible, why people appear distant and small, why time temporarily shifts and becomes disarticulated into unconnected moments. Her odd worldviews and theories about reality do not create the delusions but rather arise from an attempt to impose sense on the increasingly nonsensical.
Whether this powerful interpretive process is part of Aviv's artistry in telling the story, something distinctive about Anna, an unusually intelligent and intellectually gifted individual, or a general property of prodromal experience, I cannot tell. But I think it's part of what unsettles Anna so much: that her own mad theories seem plausible to her, that she can't discount what she knows, on some level, is an absurd proposition that she herself is making.
Practical problems of diagnosing the prodrome The attempt to get prodrome of schizophrenia itself recognized as a psychiatric condition arises from a belief that, if the precursor symptoms could be diagnosed more widely, individuals might be helped to avoid entirely or postpone the onset of schizophrenia, either through prescription anti-psychotics or through cognitive therapy. When patients possess higher levels of insight (awareness of their condition, possibility to label one's condition, ability to stay on treatment regimen), prognosis for patients improves. The problem is that even the best clinics have a hard time discerning which patients who demonstrate warning signs are likely to undergo conversion to fully psychotic symptoms.
The most sophisticated and optimistic studies place the success rate at about 40-50%, with the outcome muddied by a suspicion that intervention might have either helped or that early detection is generating false positives. Longitudinal studies have shown that individuals who go on to schizophrenia often have a host of developmental delays, speech problems, clumsiness, higher rates of playing alone, social anxiety, and other anomalies. But the symptoms have low specificity, with too many showing up in individuals who end up developing normally to offer prediction of future psychosis (Corcoran et al. 2003). Moreover, since early detection is so difficult, generating sufficient subjects to do statistically significant research results requires either a lot of time or widespread cooperation among clinics and researchers (Addington et al. 2007).
In the case of the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study discussed by Addington and colleagues (2007: 666), several independently conceived projects had to come together and retrospectively integrate their diagnostic procedures. The North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study (NAPLS) is a consortium of eight independent longitudinal research programs on the trajectory of prodrome all funded by the National Institute of Mental Health: 'The consortium combined previously collected prospective, longitudinal data from these eight sites into a common federated database including 291 prodromal individuals, 35% of whom converted to psychosis within 2½ years' (from the NAPLS website; see also Addington et al. 2007).
The ethical problems of recognizing prodrome So designating a preliminary syndrome is diagnostically tricky, but it's also fraught with attendant ethical problems. In a letter to the board of the American Psychiatric Association last year, Allen Frances, chair of the DSM-IV Task Force, and Robert Spitzer, who directed production of the influential DSM-III, wrote to the American Psychiatric Association to caution especially about the inclusion of preliminary syndromes in the forthcoming DSM-V: The suggested subthreshold and premorbid diagnoses. If these were to become official categories in DSM-V, they could add tens of millions of newly diagnosed "patientsâ€- the majority of whom would likely be false positives subjected to the needless side effects and expense of treatment.
The APA might well be accused of a conflict of interest in fashioning DSM-V to create new patients for psychiatrists and new customers for the pharmaceutical companies. Certainly, the DSM-V Task Force does not have these motives but, in its effort to increase diagnostic sensitivity, it has been insensitive to the great risks of false positives, of medicalizing normality, and of trivializing the whole concept of psychiatric diagnosis.
This letter is part of the larger debate raging about the DSM-V (see Vaughan at Mind Hacks recent piece on the broader debate at The war of the manual of mental illness which also has links to earlier pieces). Corcoran and colleagues (2003) also warn of the false positive issue, especially in relation to likely attempts to use anti-psychotics on premorbid patients: Identifying a population that has a 40–50% conversion to psychosis within 1 to 2 years is impressive, though it still means that 50–60% of individuals identified as at risk for a stigmatizing condition may never develop psychosis, and therefore be exposed unnecessarily to powerful medications which have unknown long-term effects on the developing brain.
Aviv similarly highlights the fact that being diagnosed as in danger of schizophrenia may have effects on the patients that are more subtle, even if medication is not involved: Many psychiatrists worry that young patients will become fatalistic about their future and define themselves in relation to a chronic disease they may never develop. Yet once people have a full-blown psychotic episodes—the schizophrenia diagnosis requires a month of psychotic behavior—there may be irreversible changes in the brain. Studies have shown that the longer someone is unhinged from reality before getting treatment for the first time, the worse their long-term prognosis. (2010: 36)
Determining who might be at risk In order to determine who should be admitted, Aviv reports that most clinics use a battery of tests, including background checks to see about any family history of schizophrenia, measures of cognitive degeneration, patterns of social problems, and a set of questions designed to illuminate what she calls the 'the earliest flickers of psychosis' (see also Addington et al. 2007): Do you daydream a lot or find yourself preoccupied with stories, fantasies, or ideas? Do you think others ever say that your interests are unusual or that you are eccentric? Do familiar people or surroundings ever seem strange? Confusing? Unreal? Not a part of the living world? Alien? Inhuman? Have you ever felt that you might not actually exist? Do you ever think that the world might not exist?
The test also checks for a subject's ability to engage in abstract thought because, perhaps ironically, the early stages of psychosis involve diminished ability to see abstract patterns. As Aviv explains, patients are asked to, describe the similarities between an apple and a banana. The correct response— "Both are fruitâ€â€"eludes some of the sicker patients, who instead home in on concrete characteristics. The psychologist who administers the exam told me that one of the most common wrong answers is "Both have skin.â€
Although they do not enumerate them quite in the way I do, Corcoran and colleagues (2003; adapted from Møller and Husby 2000) suggest that parents and family members of those later diagnosed as schizophrenic observed six recurring elements in the lead-up to conversion: significant decreased attendance and performance in school or work; a major and persistent change in interests that was evident to others; significant social withdrawal, isolation and passivity; clear and lasting change in appearance and behavior; disturbance in self-perception; and preoccupation with overvalued ideas.
The difficulty, of course, is that at least the first five of these are pretty typical — albeit in greatly attenuated form — in many young people as they transition through adolescence. My comment is not to diminish the severity of either schizophrenia or prodromal disruption but to highlight why such a severe condition can frequently go undiagnosed and untreated for long periods of time, even years, as family members try to figure out just how troubled their child might be. Aviv discusses how Cheryl Corcoran, also director of the Center of Prevention & Evaluation (COPE), the prodromal outpatient clinic of the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City, must try to judge how convinced patients are of their delusions: how clearly do you hear the voices, or do you think that your feelings of having your mind read could be your imagination?
Aviv describes how patients in the early stages seek to dismiss their troubling thoughts, discounting them as 'goofy' or 'absurd' (40). Corcoran explains: 'When people are not entirely convinced, you can work with that insight…. The experience doesn't have to impose a change on their identity' (Aviv 40). Making sense in a mad world From the point of view of the patient, however, the change can look quite different; capturing their perspectives is where Aviv's sensitivity as an interviewer is particularly laudable in her piece in Harper's.
Although the literature on pre-schizophrenic patients and their parents' descriptions may portray them as withdrawing from reality, in their own accounts, the increasingly delusional young people are often plumbing quite deep questions, questions that are not theirs alone. The only commonalities were that nearly all of [the prodromal interviewees] had moved through childhood and adolescence feeling more thoughtful, intelligent, or probing than their family and peers and that there had been an existential tinge to their preoccupations years before their symptoms emerged.
Aaron, a patient at Aware who had been the president of his high school class, said that he and the others in his therapy group had "all gotten caught up on the deep, fundamental questions—religion, morality, ethics—and sucked in by them.â€Â (Aviv 40). Leaving aside the brain pathology and focusing on the experience, the prodromal individual spends an inordinate amount of time on existential questions — what is the nature of reality, who am I, what if all of this is an illusion — that many of us also cannot answer, but simply foreclose speculating upon. That is, some of the questions are legitimate existential inquiries, but they seem to come to dominate prodromal individuals and take on a particularly phantasmagoric nature.
In addition, as the prodromal patient Anna suggests, she has a hard time throwing out speculations about these questions that most of us will discount on the basis of our own experiences. Not surprisingly, as anyone who has hung out with individuals taking psychoactive substances knows, when reality is similarly intruding into by odd and inexplicable sensations, many normal individuals also resort to the same sorts of wild speculations and ad hoc theories about existence.


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With the Minor League season winding down it's time to turn our prospectin' attention to gio2chat's favorite subject.... (aside from monkeys) WINTER LEAGUES! There are a number of different Winter Leagues associated with MLB. The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is the most prominent of these. The Arizona Fall League gets underway in early October and runs through mid-November. There are also the 4 leagues that comprise the Caribbean League: one in Venezuela, one in the Dominican, one in Mexico, and one in Puerto Rico. And then there is the Australian Baseball League.
Since the cream-o-the-crop of players generally end up in Arizona, I'd like to take a look at some potential candidates O's fans could look for out in the desert. But first, a look at the eligibility requirements that MLB has established in order for players to be allowed to participate.
The rules for Arizona Fall League eligibility are not too complex. Each MLB club sends 6 players to the team they have been assigned. The O's play for the Mesa Solar Sox, along with prospects from the Cubs, Pirates, Twins, and White Sox. Any player in AAA or any player who has been in AA since at least August 1 is eligible to be sent to Arizona. Only 1 player from lower than AA is allowed. No players with more than 1 year of MLB service time can be sent, excepting players picked up in the most recent Rule 5 Draft. There are also rules relating to foreign players and to players who were on the DL during the year. So, with that primer out of the way let's briefly look at who the O's sent last year, and then prognosticate on who the O's might send this year.
For some reason, and I don't know why, the O's had 7 players representing the organization in Arizona last year: (OF) Xavier Avery, (C) Brian Ward, (1B) Joe Mahoney, (P's) Steve Johnson, Cole McCurry, Sean Gleason, and Casey Lambert. So who could be going this year? Let's take a look....
(OF) L.J. Hoes. Little Jerome has had himself a pretty excellent season this year. Across two levels (AA-Bowie and AAA-Norfolk) L.J. has put up a .297/.382/.396 line while drawing a BB for nearly each K (70:63). Sending him to Arizona could give the O's an opportunity to see just how well his skills match up with other top-tier young talent throughout the league.
(SS/2B) Jonathon Schoop. I'm not entirely clear on how the rule for foreign born players works, but I think Schoop would be eligible since he is from Curacao, and not from either Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, or the Dominican Rep. Schoop got off to a slow start for the Bowie Baysox, but has put up increasingly impressive numbers with each passing month. More impressive is that he's done this while being the 3rd youngest player in the Eastern League (only uber-prospects Manny Machado and Nick Castellanos are younger). A stint in Arizona this fall could give the O's a chance to see if Schoop will need more developmental time in Bowie to start next season or if an aggressive assignment with Norfolk is in order.
(3B) Ty Kelly. Mr. Kelly has become a bit of a personal favorite of mine. All he's done, and at whatever level the O's place him, is hit. A .346/.460/.513 line with High-A Frederick. A .278/.350/.389 slash line during a brief stint filling in as an injury replacement with AAA Norfolk. And now a .307/.377/.378 line over 34 games so far with AA Bowie. The diminishing power is concerning. And he is already 24 years old. Time to see if he can hang with the big dogs. I'll be rooting for him.
(RP) Clay Schrader. Dude's got a howitzer attached to the right side of his torso. Problem is that it sometimes sprays rounds like an uzi; all over the place. A 13.1 K/9 earned him a promotion from Fredrick to Bowie during the summer. Alas, he brought a 6.9 BB/9 rate with him. And those numbers have basically reversed during his time in Bowie: 5.3 K/9, 10.1 BB/9. Perhaps some further instruction and top-notch competition could do him some good.
(SP) Mike Wright. Another young arm who's fine form in Frederick earned him a promotion to Bowie during the summer. Wright's sinking fastball burns up a lot of worms, resulting in a 1.26 GO/AO rate this season. He had a nice run of success after returning from a D.L. stint, but has scuffled a bit over his past 3 outings. Further development and instruction is definitely warranted should the O's wish to keep him as a Starter. If they see his future as being in the bullpen then an assignment to Arizona would probably be unnecessary.
(SP) Kevin Gausman. This is a bit of a wild card. He threw 123.2 IP while with LSU (and who knows what his pitch counts were like). He's thrown 9 IP between Aberdeen and Frederick thus far, with another 9 or so likely before the season ends. That would place him in the neighborhood of 140 IP total on the season. Might be better just to shut his arm down for the winter. A placement in Arizona would be an aggressive move.
(OF) Brendan Webb. Another favorite of both myself and Mr. j.q. higgins. Webb is a 3-true-outcome type of hitter. Exiled in the land of duck for most of the year, Webb excelled nonetheless. His stats seemed to suggest that he was not being particularly challenged by SAL pitching. And, well, Carolina League pitching hasn't impressed him much either as of yet. Though his power has declined slightly, he is still putting up a OPS over .800. The real concern has been his BB:K rate in Frederick. 87 BBs to 108 Ks with Delmarva, he has 8 BBs to 22 Ks with the Keys. Would love to see how his batting eye handles the competition in Arizona though.
Other players of note who could be candidates (but whom I don't wish to write a blurb about at the moment) include: (SP) Tyler Wilson, (SP) Parker Bridwell, (1B) Tyler Townsend, (3B) Torsten Boss, (OF) Glynn Davis, and (OF) Johnny Ruettiger. Sucks about Nick Delmonico's knee injury. Due to it he will not be eligible for the league, though he would have been a strong candidate for it.
So, thoughts? Additional names you'd like to mention? Have at it, Chatters.


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YAHOO.COM - Texas tuner John Hennessey's work on big Detroit iron has its acolytes and detractors, but the man knows how to show off his wares. To highlight the top-speed performance of some of his big rigs, Texas authorities let him take a full-speed blast down the state's newest toll road outside Austin that opened today, one that features an 85-mph speed limit. It's just long enough for the 1,200-hp, twin-turbo Cadillac CTS-V coupe to hit 220.5 mph.
Hennessey told Jalopnik that the stunt came about after a conversation with state officials and an offer to test out a toll tag system to see if it could accurately report fines at triple-digit speeds. In addition to his 1,200-hp CTS-V coupe, Hennessey also brought a 707-hp Chevy Camaro ZL1 that managed to hit 203.9 mph along the same strip, with an even better sound. Hennessey says the CTS-V might have done 230 mph had he been granted another mile of tarmac. click here to read more


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Drug Combo Effective Against Leukemia Researchers Say Combining 2 Drugs Helps Fight Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia WebMD Health News By Salynn Boyles Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD More from WebMD Woman...
Click here to read the full story.
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