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Jessica's potentially fatal mishap - no justice, just survivalSilver Yang - could take many nautical miles to effect a change in course - that's if it even tried to .Sadly, 16-year-old Australian Jessica Watson's collision with a ship at sea in a shipping lane is just ordinary inexperience. I could have recommended her to my four-part series of articles in Sail-World Cruising on the subject (Search 'Container Ships and the Cruising Sailor'), just one among many in other publications by more worthy writers. On a yacht at sea you can NEVER depend on a ship seeing you(for a whole range of reasons), or having a senior officer awake who speaks English at the bridge, or being able to effect a change of course within about five nautical miles, depending on the style of ship. Not desirable, perhaps, but fact. A ship such as the 63,000 tonne Silver Yang in the normal course of events would feel nothing and know nothing until they found some paint on their hull at the next port. As to their reported attempt to 'hit-and-run', the whereabouts of all ships are so well known in Australian waters that this can be discounted. No doubt this has taught her, in a most unfortunate way, to take FULL responsibility, as every yacht skipper must, for the avoidance of ships at sea. This is not a matter of justice, just survival. The good news is that Jessica's attempt to become the youngest solo non-stop and unassisted circumnavigator will not take her through many shipping lanes; and it is true (from personal experience) that surviving a potential fatality at sea can add confidence and grit for the onward voyage. While the newswires seem to be full of the achievements and woes of ambitious sailing teenagers at the moment, there IS a lot else going on on the world's oceans. Frantic behind-the-scenes negotiations are now in train for three Seychellois cruising sailors from the catamaran SV Serenity, who have been held since March 09 by pirates in Somalia. It's a tale worthy of a James Bond film, and is still going on after their aborted escape attempt this week. Down in Tonga they are holding their very first 'annual' Regatta in Vava'u, Balvenie is still doing it tough sailing in the Mediterranean (that's just jealousy speaking) and some hardy seamen are about to replicate Captain Bligh's amazing 4000 mile sail in an open whale boat in 1789. Dinghy sailors can benefit by reading the recommendations that the RYA made after two dingy fatalities in the middle of an innocent afternoon race, and there's another in our Sailing Incident Series, with the opportunity to guess the lessons that MAIB deduced. Are you sure you 'know-it-all' in yachting theory? There's a great new – and free – online theory course for old and young sea dogs alike. Read on, enjoy, and Serene sailing - and keep away from ships!Nancy Knudsen, Cruising Editor Solo teen sailor 'tried repeatedly to radio the ship.' BW Roundup, Local Australian news media have been full of solo sailor Jessica Watson's collision with the 63,000 tonne Japanese cargo vessel Silver Yang on her first night at sea. The 34-foot Pink Lady, the boat in which Jessica hopes to become the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the world non-stop and unassisted, is now back in Southport on Queensland's Gold Coast.... [more]Onsend this storySolo 16-year-old sailor hits merchant ship BW, Jessica Watson, 16-year-old who had set off from Mooloolaba to Sydney on a leg which was to be a precursor to her attempt to solo sail the world non-stop and unassisted, has hit a cargo ship less than 24 hours after leaving port.... [more]Onsend this storySwap deal fails for cruising sailors held by pirates for seven months Nancy Knudsen, A deal to swap three crew of the cruising catamaran SV Serenity and held by Somali pirates for seven months, with 23 prisoners accused of piracy, has come unstuck soon after the three had boarded an aeroplane to freedom. The plane was in the process of refuelling when halted by Somali authorities who also took the aircraft crew into custody.... [more]Onsend this storyFree online theory course for old and young sailors Blackwattle Studios, Whether your ambition is to be the best racing sailor that ever graced a foredeck, or the safest ocean cruiser with the best seamanship skills in the world, you need to know your theory, and that's where the online Aztec Sailing Theory courses come in.... [more]Onsend this storyIncident No. 10 - Dangers of rotating machinery MAIB/Sail-World Cruising, The best mistakes to learn by are other people's. This is especially so with sailing. In this anecdote, the tenth in the series, we present a real sailing situation which was investigated by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB), and THREE lessons deduced. Can you identify the lessons? (Find answers at the end of the story)... [more]Onsend this storyA Sea Change: The world without fish - is it possible? Blackwattle Studios, The oceans of the world are not only important to sailors and fishermen, but to most people on earth, whether they realise it or not. 'A Sea Change' is a poignant film which tackles the probability of a world without fish should humans continue to act and behave environmentally as we have for the past century.... [more]Onsend this storyTonga holds its first 'Annual Regatta Vava'u' Matangi Tonga/Sail-World Cruising, It is this time of year that many of the great migration of circumnavigating cruising boats pass through Tonga, so the timing of Tonga's first 'Annual Regatta Vava'u' couldn't be better.... [more]Onsend this storySailing with Balvenie - ancient Trogir in Croatia Amanda Church and Mark Farrell, Amanda Church and Mark Farrell continue their tales of sailing the Mediterranean on their 47ft yacht Balvenie. Our early morning arrival in Trogir was very welcome after our unplanned night at sea avoiding the lightening strikes and high winds.... [more]Onsend this storyMike Perham signed up for the Bounty Boat Expedition Nancy Knudsen, The Bounty Boat Expedition has just scored a coup as Michael Perham, the seventeen-year-old who has just become the world's youngest solo circumnavigator, has signed on as crew for the expedition.... [more]Onsend this storyBeneteau - sales down but 29 new models announced Sail-World Cruising, The Bénéteau Group, that doyenne of the yacht manufacturing world, has announced that its 2008/9 sales are down 30-40%, is expecting to contract by 10-15% in the coming months, but is reacting in a typically aggressive fashion by announcing 29 new models (21 renewals - 8 range extensions)for the 2009/10 year.... [more]Onsend this storySail in a real Viking sailing craft? - yes YOU can do it! Sail-World Cruising, ...but you first have to get to Denmark. In most maritime museums round the world you will find fascinating old craft, faithfully restored, but mostly you can't go sailing in them. Not so with the Viking Ship Museum on Roskilde Fjord in Roskilde, Denmark, just 30 kilometres west of Copenhagen.... [more]Onsend this storyDinghy sailing fatalities and the lessons learned Sail-World Cruising, In July this year two dinghy sailors from the same family lost their lives in a capsize. The incident happened in Keilder Water in Northumberland UK, but the lessons deduced by the RYA for dinghy sailors are applicable worldwide.... [more]Onsend this storyAustralian teen set to depart on solo round-world sail Nancy Knudsen, Acquisition of new sponsor Ella Bache has brought Australian 16-year-old Jessica Watson's attempt to sail solo non-stop and unassisted round the world closer. She is now expected to depart from Queensland in the next few days, always weather permitting.... [more]Onsend this story Click HERE to write us a letter about any of the above articlesIf you liked this newsletter, do nothing, we will send you another .. Naa, please don't send me another. Click here and we won't
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EUGENE, Ore. — Lane County Public Health is getting ready to expand its mental health services and a multi-million dollar grant is helping bring new programs to the county's behavioral health program.
This $2.4 million dollars will be split into six different areas, all working toward early intervention to help those suffering from mental illness.
Mental health issues are often said to be the cause of mass tragedies like the Sandy Hook shooting and even those closer to home, like the shooting death of Eugene Police Officer Chris Kilcullen.
"The person who shot him as it turns out with an early intervention and assessment potentially could have been prevented from actually purchasing the gun that she shot him with," said Lane County Commissioner Pat Farr.
Lane County Public Health is working to cut down on the tragedy and problems associated with mental health by early intervention. "One of them is a jail diversion grant which means we'll be doing some in reach to local jails, providing a warm hand-off for people who are diagnosed with mental illness and make sure they get into treatment," said Katharine Schneider, Lane County Behavioral Health unit division manager.
Now with the help of $2.4 million dollars in grants this goal is coming to fruition. "It's truly something we've dreamed about for years," said Schneider.
"They come in five basic areas. We're going to look at early assessment as far as mental health issues are concerned. We're going to look at keeping people out of jail, working within the mental health system to keep people out of jail," said Farr.
Not only will these grants be used to help those committing misdemeanors, but also at risk youth. "We've already started school based service, and we are sending out folks, clinicians from Lane County Behavioral Health into different school based health centers to provide counseling," said Schneider.
The goal of these programs is to spread awareness about mental health issues in the county and get help to those who need it.
Some of the funding will also be used to expand Cahoots, a mobile crisis intervention center, to Springfield. Public Health will also be starting a campaign to spread awareness and cut down on the stigma of mental illness.

subset: commoncrawl


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Rainfall prediction and socio-economic implications for Nigeria in 2009 by Nigeria Meteorological Agency Every year the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) produces and issues Rainfall Prediction for Nigeria. This exercise is in pursuance of the Agency's mandate of advising Government on all aspects of meteorology. In Nigeria, as in other sub-Saharan countries, rainfall is the key factor that determines yields and success of the other socio-economic activities. The annual Rainfall Prediction conforms with the WMO Climate Information and Prediction Services (CLIPS) project, which forms part of NIMET's effort to provide scientific information on weather for planning and decision-making in agriculture, water resources management, hydro-electric power generation, as well as other sectors of the national economy. The prediction is based on regional climate modeling, which places emphasis on the strong tele-connections between El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and sea-surface temperature anomalies in Nigerian rainfall. This prediction was constructed by running a daily crop ecological model, with maize as a test crop, for each year of historical weather data from 1971 to 2006 under the influence of such a neutral El Niño Phase as predicted in the WMO El Niño update of February 2009. The 2009 public presentation brought together the State Meteorological Inspectors (the link between meteorology and agriculture in states) from the 36 states of the Nigerian federation, state commissioners for agriculture across the country, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, representatives of farmers' unions, WMO, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, members of the Senate and House of Representatives, government agricultural extension agencies, representatives of centres of learning and individuals.
The 2009 Rainfall Prediction for Nigeria consisted of the onset date, cessation date, and the length of the rainy/growing season and total annual rainfall. The earliest onset of the rainy season was between 18 February and 10 April with a duration ranging from 220 to 260 days in the southern part of the country. The latest onset was between 20 May and 20 June in central to extreme northern parts with a duration ranging from 100 to 180 days. In addition, the implications of the expected rainfall pattern for key socio-economic sectors such as agriculture, water resources, energy, transportation, construction, infrastructural development were critically assessed. The dates of the onset, cessation and length of the rainy season in Nigeria in 2009 were generally predicted to be near-normal although the onset phase was expected to be early in most states. While 2009 was predicted to have a favourable cropping season, the impacts of rainstorms may be severe in the southern part and affect river catchment and dam basins in the north. Coastal belts was expected to be dominated by varying degrees of severe rainstorms at the onset and end of rains. On the other hand, the north will experience some freak storms that could be severe in some areas with prevalent moisture surplus in river catchment basins and dams throughout the season. |
Contact: MeteoWorld Editor - WMO ©2008 Geneva, Switzerland |


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My brother works in a primary school. As well as helping out with a particularly troubled/naughty little boy, he runs a weekly after-school storytelling club. This often involves discussing the week's stories with me beforehand.
This week he was planning to use a traditional Arthurian legend: Sir Somebody-or-other and the Hideous Hag. The story irked me. In it, King Arthur is put under a sleeping spell by an ogre, who promises to lift the spell if the Arthur's knights can answer a riddle: what do all women want? The only way the knights are able to find the answer is by kissing a wise, but hideous, old hag. The answer she gives? 'All women want their own way.'*
We used to have a book of politically correct bedtime stories. Snow White and the seven people of small stature. Goldilocks and the three bears, in which Goldilocks rejects the condescending lumberjack's offers of help and deals with the situation herself, thank you very much. That kind of thing.
I suggested some changes to the story along these lines, to make it a bit less dreadfully sexist.
King Arthur is put in an enchanted sleep by an ogre. Not because ogres are more likely to engage in antisocial behaviour than other magical creatures, but because this particular ogre has unresolved psychological issues which lead him to use his powers irresponsibly, to compensate for the lack of positive attention he received from his parents during childhood. The Knights (a diverse group, some of whom opt for shining armour, some of whom condemn violence in all forms and so avoid the use of its associated paraphernalia) are sent out to discover the answer to the ogre's riddle.
The knight who finds the wise old woman is called Sir Jane (- some of the knights, of course, are women). They have a nice sit down and a cup of tea in the old woman's hovel; the roof is a bit leaky, so Sir Jane registers it on her list of homes for repair by the Knights' Community Outreach Programme. They discuss how much the forest has changed since they cleared all those trees to build the big new castle; how it's made the area much more prosperous and cosmopolitan but disrupted the local unicorn population, and whether the benefits will outweigh the losses in the long run. (Now the story passes the Bechdel test. Really not hard, is it?) They move on to the topic of the ogre's riddle, and come to the conclusion that it's a trick question; there is no one thing that all women want, because women are individuals with their own wishes and desires and can't be lumped together as one faceless generalisation.
Sir Jane returns home and informs the ogre that his riddle is based on sexist assumptions, hands him a reading list of key feminist texts and directs him to the nearest library. She then goes to King Arthur and wakes him up by throwing cold water on his face, because that always works in movies.
I think my version is much better.
Go forth, feminist parents, aunties, uncles, babysitters, storytellers generally! Tell feminist fairy tales to your kids. Teach your wee ones gender equality through the power of stories. May they grow up without preconception or prejudice, into confident, thoughtful young patriarchy smashers.
*I may have entirely misremembered the story. But I think that's more or less it.
Alice finds it a bit strange talking about herself in the third person, somebody else usually does this bit. Um. She is generally a good egg. She likes making things. Cats like her. She tweets here: @alicehaswords
]]>(Image from Huffington Post)
Russell Brand sitting opposite Jeremy Paxman, talking passionately about egalitarian states and distribution of wealth, was not something I expected to see, much less find myself nodding along to, agreeing firmly with Brand's claim that his choice not to vote is caused by indifference rather than apathy.
The political climate has shifted since the last election here in the UK, and we have a generation of young people who feel thoroughly let down by their government. We have a generation, floundering in student debt, who are applying for jobs with a mind-boggling amount of candidates before being rejected due to a 'lack of experience' or being 'over-qualified.'
For a lot of people, there's not much to recommend any of the main parties. Before the last election, a group of my friends at university campaigned hard for the Liberal Democrats, posting flyers and leaflets in the weeks running up to the election. The Lib Dems have traditionally had a strong student support base, but now those students feel utterly let down by the Lib Dems' choice to get into bed with the Conservatives, and the back down on the promise not to hike up tuition fees. I voted Lib Dem in the last election. I won't be doing so next time.
Voting Conservative is a non-option for me. As my mum put it last time, "You can vote for who you want, but if you vote Conservative, you can't live under my roof anymore." I can't get behind a party apparently determined to push the poorest in our country further into poverty, with cuts to the benefits and no response to the ever increasing energy prices.
So what about Labour? For a lot of people, Labour's legacy of making us America's sidekick and getting involved with the 'War on Terror' is a massive negative. As Brand says, we want none of these people in charge. So what then?
I think the next General Election is going to be an interesting one. I think with the dissatisfaction with the main parties, we're going to see an increase in support for smaller parties, and are very likely to have another coalition government, with votes scattered even wider than last time.
But I do think we're also going to see a manifestation of Russell's revolution. Brand has called for people to express their dissatisfaction with the current political system by not voting at all. Will we see a lower turn-out of voters?
Personally, I think we will, particularly in younger age brackets, who are more likely to be Brand fans. For myself, I am undecided. Undeniably, we need change. But is choosing not to use your voice the way to get it?
Georgina is a blogger with a passion for polka dots, tea and the Whedonverse. She blogs at www.caramellattekiss.com or can be found at @caramelattekiss
]]>Tickets are selling fast for the Feminism in London conference, which is back this year after a hiatus. FIL is the biggest feminism conference in the UK and this year it will play host to some absolutely fantastic speakers. It's a brilliant opportunity to come along and meet like minded people, get into some meaty debates, and share your thoughts on feminism in 2013.
FIL started in 2010 as an offshoot of the London Feminist Network. It's women-run and women-led, but is open to everyone to attend. This year's conference/convention will focus on activism and inspiration rather than academic discourse, though there will be something for everyone on the day.
Feminism is enjoying a bit of a resurgence in recent years, with everything from No More Page 3 to the Slutwalk. Progress is being made, but we still do not have equal pay, equal representation, or equal freedom from sexual violence. Many women might be reluctant to describe themselves as 'feminists' but it seems almost all women feel strongly that justice and equality are relevant to them today. FIL will approach these topics in a way that is engaging yet accessible.
The format of the conference will be an opening panel discussion, followed by panel discussions in the main room with breakaway workshops taking place simultaneously. These will continue throughout the day. There will also be artwork and a film room, as well as a 'soft space' for those who are triggered by subject matter, those who are non-neurotypical (e.g. people with Aspergers) and those who simply want a quiet space. There will be a creche, and workshops for children.
The event will finish with the presentation of the Emma Humphries Memorial Prize, followed by the popular Reclaim the Night march, and finally, for those who are not yet feministed out, a party. It's set to be a fantastic event!
I want to have a frank chat with you about Depression. Depression isn't something we like to talk about because it's, well, depressing. But depression is everywhere, amongst us all. Even those of us who've never experienced depression first hand will almost certainly know someone who has. It's just that we might not be aware of it, aware of the suffering that our Friend or Colleague or Teacher or even our own parents are living through, ashamed to speak out for fear of not being understood, or dismissed, or rejected, or even seen as crazy: 'It's just a cry for attention, she'll be ok'… 'She's just a bit down in the dumps, we all get sad sometimes'… 'Awww go buy yourself some ice cream, that'll cheer you up'… Blerg!
The NHS define depression as, '…a persistent sadness experienced for weeks and months, and not just a few days.' Now, although only an umbrella term, for me, the word sadness doesn't do justice to how traumatic depression really is. It doesn't efficiently depict the mental stress, the anxiety, the guilt, the tension, the fear, the constant longing to feel ok, to feel "normal", the loneliness and the shear dread of having to survive among the living, felt incessantly. Yes, each victim of this disease – because let's get one thing straight right away, depression IS a disease, a crippling one that prevents people from being able to go about their daily lives, to work, to interact with their friends and family, driving thousands to suicide each year – will experience varying levels of the severity of symptoms. Some may be able to appear normal and act as if nothing is the matter, whereas others struggle to leave the house, dress, eat and even remain awake for more than a few hours of the day.
This brings me to my experience with depression. As someone who usually struggles to get a good night's kip I slept a hell-of-a-lot when I was at my worst. I would go to sleep at around 8 or 9pm and wake-up at midday. I was asleep most of the time. Sleeping for me was the device I used to switch off my thoughts. Medically depression is a chemical imbalance (this site explains it marvellously), but I don't believe I helped myself. You see my theory is that my depression grew out of a series of negative thoughts, and, already being a mess of icky chemicals, I focused on how devastating the result of my negative ponderings had been.
I might not be making myself clear here… Let me explain. At first I just felt low, like that sinking feeling you get when you receive bad news, only constantly. This came on pretty suddenly and developed over the course of a month. I lost interest in socialising and seeing friends. I found it incredibly difficult to look people in the eye. I avoided my parents and whenever we did interact I was cold and loveless. Having isolated myself I then started to question my state and how long I would feel this way for, and that led me to think about Time. I would think about how every second is a second I would never win back. I would think of Time as a monster sucking the life out of me. I would spend hours, hours, hours, lying on the floor counting the seconds go by and I would see each one as a step closer towards death. Death became the next step. I felt close to it. I wanted it. Everything in life became pointless. I saw myself reduced to a mass of cells. I saw my emotions become the result of an equation, like the depression, they were merely chemical reactions. I wasn't real; I was merely a machine… These thoughts would be all I could think about. I would look at people smiling and laughing and wonder how on earth they could feel happy. What was there to be happy for? I was 21 and had just finished my first year at University. I should have been enjoying my summer, getting drunk, travelling, doing naughty things with strangers (sometimes), but instead I spent it festering in my own putrid thoughts.
The turning point came when I realised the only way out was to end my own life. I'd tried seeing my friends and talking to them about how 'down and hopeless' (I never once mentioned suicide, god forbid) I felt, but I wasn't taken seriously. I don't blame them for not taking me seriously; depression's a tricky thing to deal with. And after trying to express the severity of my state, I would simply shrug it off with fake smiles and scuttle back to my dreary den at home feeling selfish for almost infecting a friend with my excruciating darkness… So I turned to my mum. This took leaps and bounds and buckets of courage, for Mama B and I did not have the tightest of bonds. I've always loved and admired her of course, she's a wonderful woman, but growing up we never really spoke of anything other than what dinner would be, no feelings were ever exchanged and hugs were reserved for Christmas and birthdays. I blame us both for this, but anyway I digress… So I turned to my mum and I didn't have to say anything, or rather I didn't say anything to her. I simply approached her (which given our relationship at the time was in itself a massive cry for help). She took one look at me and hugged me. And then I cried. And even though I still felt utterly miserable I just remember feeling grateful. I hadn't been able to cry because I was empty. And without making y'all wanna vom, I do believe that one hug may have saved my life.
Over the next few years, and particularly in my third year at Uni, whilst I was living in France by myself, alone with my thoughts, my mum was my rock. I was able to call her up at any time, day or night and talk to her. She calmed me and I knew she was there for me. Since leaving France I haven't really felt depressed for any great length of time. I've felt low and have had days where I've not wanted to leave the house, but we all get those and in those times it really only does take a good tub of Haagen Daaz (Pralines and Cream and those heavenly caramel pockets…) to sort me out. What I'm trying to say is that for a good two years I spent my life fighting off depression but what really helped was having someone there to talk about it with: my mum. She was like my verbal diary. Everyone's experience is different but if you're not happy, and you see no way out then please, be brave and talk to someone. You might think people don't want their day ruined by a 'Negative Nancy', but you know what, if your friend isn't willing to listen to you then get them the hell out of your life. These are the people that will feed your depression and make you feel less capable and less worthy of recovering. Heck, email me. I'm here and if anything it'll be nice to feel needed.
Suicide is still the most common cause of death in males aged 35 and below and in too many of these cases close friends and family remain completely unaware of their loved one's suffering. Please, if you think you know someone who might be feeling depressed, encourage him or her to talk about it. Make sure you're a ruddy good friend and continue to be there for them, especially if you notice them trying to distance themselves socially. Depression is a massive problem and we have a tough time talking about it. So please, let's change this!
As a recent French Graduate of Kent university, Eleanor spends her days discovering new ways to eat peanut butter. She's 24, unemployed and still living at home with her parents. Her dream job would be to go around offices and people's places of work offering supportive hugs and friendly words of encouragement to the stressed, overworked, and underpaid. You can find her on Twitter at @eleanorbrownlie.
]]>I am pretty unimpressed with the decision by various universities to 'ban' the song 'Blurred Lines'. As well as being utterly toothless either as censorship or serious condemnation, since the 'bans' consist of just not playing it in the student bar, it smacks of an ill-thought-out, knee-jerk reaction, and may instead have the effect of ending the possibility of conversations between men and women that desperately need to be had.
Because of the exhaustive coverage the lyrics of the song (and the video, though I intend to concentrate on the lyrics here) have been given over the summer, it is distressingly clear that a problematic aspect of the song arises from the use of words and phrases that are enormously triggering for both female and male victims of sexual assault and rape. The way in which sexual offenders distort language to contribute to causing a range of fundamental wounds to their victims' lives is horrifying.
I don't feel it necessary to cover the same ground as so many other opinion pieces, beyond noting that the use of 'bitch' in particular grates with me whenever it is used as a descriptor for a woman. I also don't particularly like the rap in the original and prefer The Roots' version. However, I am also prepared to accept that, within the context of an adult and consensual encounter, someone who likes their sex rougher than I do may find the original rap very… compelling.
Because here's my confession: I find that song really hot. It turns me on.
Robin Thicke has attempted to respond to the criticism of the song by saying on the Today Show: "When we made the song, we had nothing but the most respect for women …We only had the best intentions…It's supposed to stir conversation… if you listen to the lyrics it says 'That man is not your maker' — it's actually a feminist movement within itself." Evidently his response has not convinced. I note the clarity of the anger expressed by, among others, The Kraken below.
However, I want to try to walk the difficult line of attempting to clarify what I believe Robin Thicke is trying to say, while accepting the validity of the conflicting views and reactions expressed elsewhere.
I think the song is exploring an experience that is familiar to me, and that is the kind of highly sexually-charged encounter or meeting with someone that I want. I don't know if this has happened to you, but it has happened to me more than once (and anecdotally it's also understood by those of my friends that I have discussed this issue with).
I mean a meeting where your eyes meet and there's an immediate, urgent chemistry. You want that person, and you both know that, at some point, you are going to have each other.
Sometimes you don't even have to have touched each other, not even in the most non-sexual way, to begin to have the conversation that acknowledges there is a powerful heat between the two of you.
While most of the commentary has focused on an interpretation in which the (undoubtedly very cocky) man is creepily singing to a woman who has shown absolutely no interest in him, an alternative scenario is that he's absolutely right. The woman does want it, she does want him, and then the lyrics become hot wordy foreplay with nary a touch needed.
I'll get on to the actual lyrics later, but want to point out that what Robin Thicke has attempted to express in his defence is an exploration of the continuing situation in which being honest, even blunt, about the strong lustful feelings women also experience is complicated at best. In this case, being a 'Good Girl' might mean feeling lust for someone, but not feeling allowed to show it or admit to it, or perhaps feeling frightened by the intensity of the body's response without input by heart or brain, or even feeling that to allow a sexual encounter to take place will cause, afterwards, an automatic reduction in one's own self-esteem and the respect in which others hold them, including the respect of the person with whom they've just been intimate!
And I find it frustrating that so many articles discussed only the scenario in which the woman is not interested – since quite clearly that's not the scenario Robin meant to explore, and he's probably a bit tired of feeling comprehensively misunderstood, the object of anger from the women he claims to respect, and endlessly lectured on what he did wrong. He is a person after all, and people tend not to respond positively to lots of criticism without also getting some praise and some guidance on where to fix things in future. Broadly, if we women keep telling men 'Don't do this' – which is perfectly reasonable – we need also to say 'But try this instead'. It's the only way to have a conversation with (rather than at) someone with whom you disagree, that doesn't immediately shut down any constructive results. And we need to have constructive conversations: about rape culture, about female sexuality, about equal pay and equal parental responsibility and all manner of things.
So I'd like to tell Robin what he did right, at least for me.
Here goes: Robin, I like your song a lot, it gets me hot, and that's because despite being fatly, happily married and 30-something feminist, I am also a highly, powerfully, sexual person and I recognise what you're talking about. It's only slightly because you're kinda my type, physically (and if I were talking to you on Twitter, there might be a winky face here.)
I know the kind of encounter you're describing, and those encounters and the physical encounters that followed have been some of the hottest and most exhilarating moments of my life.
When you sing 'I know you want it' I think of the times when the lust has been unmistakeably written all over my face. When you sing 'Do it like it hurt' I think of the times I've had when Chandler Bing might have exclaimed "My god, it sounds like someone's killing her in there". When you sing 'What you don't like work?' I hear it as a request that a sexual partner is fully engaged in the act with you, so that afterwards her muscles ache pleasurably as after a really good workout.
Most of all, I hear 'I hate these Blurred Lines' as a straightforward expression of frustration with anything other than a similarly straightforward response from a woman. Whether the answer is Yes or No.
I was a bit confused by 'Baby can you breathe?' in the context of 'Baby can you breathe? I got this from Jamaica' until I realised that, in context, it's clear you were talking about a room full of marijuana smoke. This one does seem to have got you into trouble for the wrong reason, doesn't it? Sorry about that.
I don't like women being referred to as 'bitches', in whatever context. Sorry, I can't get past this one Robin, I don't even like it in dirty talk. But I appreciate that substituting 'girl' is also a diminutive from a full-grown man such as you, and 'woman' doesn't actually fit the line. Neither, of course, has the same 'punch' as you need at that point in the song to give it a climactic moment. So I'm not sure what to suggest instead, and of course, this whole 'bitch' thing isn't something you in particular made up. But, I really think there ought to be some alternatives – perhaps you can think of some others please Robin? And tell your colleagues too. Cheers.
Lastly, I would really have liked it if you'd been perhaps a bit clearer in discussions about the meaning of the song, and especially I think it would be great if you confirmed for us that you do mean that when a man talks this bluntly to a woman, he should appreciate and expect honesty from her in return, so that the only sort of response to 'I know you want it' that he would even consider moving forward with is something like 'Yes, I want you too.'
Janey Burton likes to have constructive conversations with loads of people, so come and chat @JRFBurton. She also enjoys constructively criticising authors, publishers and agents as a Publishing Consultant, offering Editorial, Marketing and Contracts services at www.janeyburton.com.
]]>Oh, Robin Thicke, you clever clever man. You've done it again. Once again I am bowled over by your lyrical tenderness and perspicacity.
First off, and I think I speak for everyone when I say, thank you so much for saving us all three extra letters to write when we reference the title of your poetic genius – Give It 2 U. I, for one, find it very tiresome every time some pedantic spelling Nazis insists on using the full words 'to' and 'you'. Geez; what killjoys!
Next up, you've got a gift for me, you say? How delightful. A 'big kiss'? Riiiight. Thanks. A 'hit'? Hopefully not a physical one there, Robin. Lols. A 'big dick'? Now you're talking. I can't wait for you to give me that big dick. Oooh, and a whip too? And your balls are hard as well? You charmer.
And now you want to make everything I fantasise about come true? Do you know how much a lifetime's supply of chocolate costs? Do you? I'm not sure you've thought this one through; run a budget past your accountant and then we'll talk.
Now what's this? You want to put cheese on my face? Hmmmm. Melted? Because that might hurt, Robin. Although I am partial to some squidgy brie.
It's great that you hang out with such talented people as well; like that nice Kendrick Lamar, who lends his dulcet tones to your latest ditty, but, here's the thing, I'm not sure I want to sit on his face as he so kindly requests, nor do I want his dick. And wowsers, I'm not comfortable being his cotton candy if he wants a 'fistful', but least his heart is in the right place though as he promises he won't ejaculate inside me because he's learned his lesson; bless.
To be honest, Robin, I think you're on to a winner here, pet. You're speaking from the heart and your outpourings of deep emotional love are both riveting and highly erotic. I can't wait for you to give it to me. No, really. Go on, get that big dick up there… Did I mention I always carry around an abnormal large pair of gardening shears?
Betsy is a writer, bookworm, and editor of Excelle magazine. Follow her on Twitter.
We've all done it, haven't we? Something bad. Something naughty. Something that people will judge us for. Something forbidden. Something sinful. And no, I'm not talking about making a whole batch of cupcakes and eating them all in one afternoon. I'm talking unforgiveable. Stealing. Lying. To friends, to family, to partners. Making up stories. Sneaking around. Cheating.
Up until the very public break-up of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, cheating women were an underground movement. Women who break up marriages will be pariahs eternally (as men who leave their wives will be scumbags) but it wasn't until then that we had a Balengiaga-wearing young A-lister to hold up as our idol. She apologised, heartfelt and filled with anguish, and it seemed to work, and then it didn't.
When reading the below piece about Elle's 'controversial' memoir piece in their October issue, titled (on the newsstand cover) 'Should You Have An Affair?' the piece had the opposite effect that I think the reader intended. I was intrigued. A truly good publication will push boundaries – laugh if you want, but Vogue's decision to run a story entitled 'Poo: the last taboo' several years ago was both bold and essential, getting us talking, or thinking, on a topic that we've been trying to repress. In the same way, ELLE's piece was taking on a subject that no-one wants to talk about, that everyone wants to ignore. By calling it out, ELLE was making headlines, being 'sensationalist'…and covering a part of day-to-day life often ignored – the world's dirty little secret – that needs to be discussed as much as any other topic. I was hooked.
Disappointingly, the article itself is relatively mild; instead of being a sordid tale of married infidelity from the point of view of a bored wife or frustrated husband, it's from the point of view of 'the other woman'. So far, so routine. People were hurt, hearts were broken, life went on.
You don't need to be told cheating is bad. We know it. Cosmo's told us. All the sad photos of Kelly Brook have told us. But instead of sweeping it under the rug as 'a bad thing', praise be to ELLE for having the guts to offer a message for those who have. Who are under the rug.
Because we've grown up beyond the black and white boxes of 'bad' and 'good'. We're better than that. We're the gender that's rationalised wearing dungarees as fashion items, that somehow managed to reclaim the apron as a feminist statement, that fights for equality, bears the children then gets back to business. If we can't look a little closer at something that so many of us do, whether we like to admit it or not, preferring to mark it as 'something not to talk about', then we're not as advanced as we think we are.
Look at the woman next to you. Does she look like she's cheated? Lied? Stolen? Made up stories? Got into trouble? No, of course she doesn't. What does a cheater even look like? Do I look like one. I am one. I've cheated multiple times. Of course I'm not proud of it, but I'm glad that ELLE and others made it ok to talk about it. That Kristen did it, so that those of us who've done it can look at her going on to secure film roles and campaigns and see that the world didn't end for her when she did something bad.
Why did I do it? Why do nice people cheat? I did it because I felt trapped, trapped in a safe secure relationship well on its way to seriousness, and like a terrified child I ran to the furthest possible point, the most opposite possible man I could find to the one I left. Looking back, over the year or so after where I thought it would be a good idea to date someone ok with playing a part in breaking up a relationship, a year of ignored messages, cruel jokes and jibes, late night tearful phonecalls, texts from other girls, endless suspicion (on both our parts), screaming matches and the eventual, thankful breakdown, would I do it again? No. It exorcised the part of myself that was inclined to run and to cheat and has left me a 'better' person. Do I regret causing hurt to the man I cheated on? Of course. Do I regret the experience, what it taught me, and what I learned? No. At the end of the day, in everything, the only person you ever have to answer to is yourself. And my advice to you is this: if you're going to cheat, only do it if you think you can live with yourself. Some days I was too ashamed to look in a mirror. Because I was made to feel ashamed for doing something society says is wrong to do. Cheating, in the eyes of society, is not shameful because you're hurting someone. It's shameful because we've been told it's shameful.
I'll be a pariah if you like, something you sweep under the rug and ignore. You can mark me, and the woman in ELLE, and all the other women who write anonymous letters to Cosmo and the celebrities, as 'bad'. As cheaters. But then you're not really discussing the book, the book that exists whether you like it or not. You're judging the book by the cover. And under the cover, we're just like you. But we made a mistake, and we're working on it.
Jo is a flame-haired social media lady, writer, and reader. You can find here on Twitter at @redheadfashion. She also has a blog.
Hello AWOT darlings,
In a bid to make AWOT bigger and better, we're recruiting a team of people to curate and edit the blog. We're looking for writers, editors, tweeters, and generally awesome women to be part of a team that will take the site to new heights.
Each member of Team AWOT will be given a profile on the website (linking to blogs and Twitter accounts etc) and you will have log in details for the Twitter account, as well as management rights on the AWOT blog.
We need you to bring new blood to the blog and keep it fresh and updated. You will work independently and with the help of @peachesanscream (editor) and me (editor at large) to make AWOT even more amazing. The blog's been a bit quiet lately so we need all hands on deck to get more people writing. I don't have the capacity to be on Twitter all day any more, so I'm missing vital things we should be tweeting about – this is where you come in! We need people who are in touch with what's going on and what people are talking about, and as you will have been given the sacred Twitter log in details, you will become one of the voices of our network of awesome women.
If you're interested, please email Ashley on firstname.lastname@example.com with a bit of info about yourself and a line on why you want to be part of Team AWOT!
]]>I was queuing up at my local shop today, clutching a bumper bag of plain flour, value sultanas and a small bottle of Navy Rum to one breast and the October issue of Elle resting upon the other, torn between baking banana bread when I should be working, or reading about the latest fashions when I should be working. It was a pleasant argument to mull over and I'd yet to come to a decision when I was called up to the counter and plonked my items down. As the cashier scanned away, I glanced at the coverlines on the glossy mag before scooting over the sultanas to get a better look. And there, just to the right of Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's supremely model elbow in bold white caps, I read, "SHOULD YOU HAVE AN AFFAIR?"
"Erm, well," I thought to myself. "I suppose that's a fair question. Wait. Hang on. What?"
"Excuse me," I said to the cashier. "Umm, I've actually decided to leave the magazine this time."
"Erm, I won't be buying Elle now."
"Fine," she said, pushing it to one side without a blink. "Would you like a bag?" I walked the five minutes home and popped the sultanas in a medium-sized pan to boil with the rum and ruminated. Why exactly had I reacted so strongly to such a headline? Not doubt it was chosen by the sub-editors as a catchy line to do precisely what it had done. I'm an editor myself; I know the power of good coverline.
To be fair to the article in question, as I didn't buy the magazine, I still don't know how it was going to play out. Perhaps the very well reasoned answer is, "No. No, you should definitely not have an affair. And here's why…" But I've noticed an alarming trend recently that suggests otherwise. Only the other day I was streaming a programme on my laptop for a pop-up window to appear advertising a dating website that dealt exclusively with those looking for an affair, only rather than asking if I should have an affair, its chosen tagline was "Life's too short; have an affair". No questions asked here, ladies and gentlemen.
Now might be a good time to clarify that I don't see myself as being a prude and I don't come from a family with divorced parents, however, I have been cheated on, twice, both times leading to a breakdown of my mental health (which, admittedly, says as much about me, the cheatee, as it does the cheater), and am currently watching one very close friend having to deal with the effects of her father having an affair and the resulting messy, blame-riddled divorce.
Affairs aren't fun; they aren't lighthearted, at least, not in the long run. They destroy lives. I imagine for some people my attitude is terribly bourgeois, and naïve, especially in a world in which Fifty Shades of Grey is a bestseller. Surely I should be strapping on a gimp mask, hog-tying myself and awaiting the arrival of my dangerous lover; right? Compared to that, affairs are nothing; small fry; sooooo last year, and yet, here I am, getting my knickers in a twist when I had a lovely wasteful afternoon of baking planned.
Perhaps it's the very casual nature of the 'new breed' of affairs that disturbs me; you're not doing this because you've fallen in love with someone else, more that an extramarital fling is now the norm, or worse, that it will somehow be healthy for your current relationship. And then there's the connotation that if you're not ok with that, if you're not blasé about affairs in general, then somehow you're doing something wrong, you're not down with the kids; you're *gasp* old-fashioned. Affairs are the new bondage, peeps. Oh yeah. Whatever.
Let's stop beating about the bush and say it: affairs aren't cool. They're not the new bondage; they're not the new black; in fact, they're not the new anything. They've been around since the dawn of time. There's nothing casual about letting someone get happy with your goodies. There's nothing positive about cheating on your partner.
Remember getting caught for cheating at school? You'd be punished for that. Now extrapolate. This isn't about being enlightened. This isn't about equalising sexuality. This is about popular media and culture trying to create a new buzz topic to sell products. This about condoning morally poor behaviour. "Should you steal from your flatmate?" No. "Should you rape that pretty girl over there with the short dress on?" No. "Should you kill your annoying co-worker?" No. Simple, really.
So Lorraine Candy (Editor of Elle and married to husband, James, for more than a decade, with several children), "Should you have an affair?" No. Affairs create victims, and let's face it, three is always a crowd.
Betsy is a writer, bookworm, and editor of Excelle magazine. Follow her on Twitter.
Hello darlings,
Ashley here! So there's been a sliiiight change of plan. Due to insane schedules and whatnot, the bake sale plan for Saturday has fallen through. However we are STILL meeting up for anyone that fancies coming along.
This AWOT gathering will be a picnic slash tea party in Regents Park, near the peddlo boat thingy whatsits. It's also going to be boy friendly, so menfolk are more than welcome to come too.
Bring a blanket, bring a bottle, and bring whatever food you fancy nomming. I will be baking something or other for the event and naturally I encourage all of you to do the same.
I'm still hoping to do a bake sale but I think it will be later in the year.
If you fancy coming along, we'll meet at Regents Park tube and head over to the park at 12:30 on Saturday (20th). It's very informal so do come a bit later if you like. At soon as we've sat down, I will tweet a screen shot of the map so you can find where we are.


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the main problems seem to be that we dont have a plan b.we where not passing the ball very well,but still left the best passer,(fox) sitting on the bench.also ,hoots will not go for a win in the last third of a game.i would have played two strikers in the last 20 mins.otbc
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Ticklists: Ron Fawcetts 100 extremes in a day.
greasy. that's my excuse anywayAlex@home - Lead dnf - 07/Sep/14 with The Doctor
dannyboy83 - Lead O/S - 31/Aug/14 with Lena, Banksy
Get your Gritstone on Albachoss - Lead β - 31/Aug/14 with lena, Dan
Made it to the bottom of the last block but couldn't traverse back onto the face. A badly positioned cam and green slime didn't help. Escaped onto cheque.MD - Lead dnf - 27/Jul/13 with Jo
Second to retrieve gear but cams below top block well out of reach so abseiled after stepping left onto Cheque to retrieve them. No idea how the top block would be done - didn't fancy it on the ab!Happy Wanderer - 2nd dnf - 27/Jul/13 with Mike D
Escaped on the left (Route called Cheque HVD) after 2 attempts and 2 falls. Crux well protected, but tricky move to gain the final slab, I tried to fist jam the horizontal crack, but fell off grasping the sloper above the nose/roof of the route. There was a sort of under cut hold in the horizontal crack, that would certainly been better than a fist jam, but was not visible until after the traverse. Sebastien Gastaud - Lead dnf - 19/Jun/12 with Tim Selvage
tigertim - 2nd - 19/Jun/12 with Sebastien Gastaud
Too warm for the moves bernie's excuseSi Croft - 2nd dnf - 03/Jun/11 with James, Bernie, JD
keith leonard - 2nd - 2010
Simon Pearce - 1999


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An Interview with Will Tuttle, Author of "The World Peace Diet," Part 1
February 18, 2011 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Diet And Nutrition, Featured, Health And Wellness
Today we have Part 1 of a 3-part interview I recently did with Will Tuttle, author of the book The World Peace Diet.
Will Tuttle is a nationally recognized writer, educator, pianist and composer devoted to providing words and music that inspire insight and compassion. An award-winning author and Dharma Master in the Zen meditation tradition, his Ph.D. from U.C. Berkeley focus on educating intuition, and he has taught college course in music, philosophy, mythology, and creativity.
His book, The World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony, has been called one of the most important books of the 21st century: the foundation of a new society based on the truth of the interconnectedness of all life.
It is the first book to make explicit the invisible connections between our culture, our food, and the source of our broad range of problems – and the way to a positive transformation in our individual and collective lives.
It is a brilliant book, and I highly recommend it. It is far-ranging in its scope, and leaves no stone unturned in its quest to help us all understand who we are and where we are going.
To learn more about Will Tuttle, and to buy his book, go to his website, http://willtuttle.com
Will also has a World Peace Diet group on Facebook, which you can join.
Part 2 of this 3-part interview will be next time…
The Low Density Lifestyle book is now out! You can check out an excerpt from the book, and buy it, at the Low Density Lifestyle bookstore.
Evil Terrorists Kidnap Ronald McDonald!!
February 8, 2011 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Diet And Nutrition, Featured, Health And Wellness
The Low Density Lifestyle book is now out! You can check out an excerpt from the book, and buy it, at the Low Density Lifestyle bookstore.
In an act of cowardice that only evil terrorists are capable of doing, an American icon, Ronald McDonald, was recently kidnapped and is being threatened with execution by Feb. 11, 2011, unless the demands of the terrorists are met.
What is wrong with these people? Don't they understand that Ronald McDonald represents the pinnacle of American living? You can't get much more Americana than Ronald.
I mean, if we allow this dastardly act to succeed, then we are all doomed – because then nothing will be sacred.
Who are these cowards who have committed this heinous act? Not much is fully known about them, except that they go by the name of the "Food Liberation Army."
We do know the details of the crime. The perpetrators marched into a restaurant in Helsinki, Finland on Jan. 31 posing as maintenance personnel, and then kidnapped the statue of Ronald McDonald.
Since committing this reprehensible act, the group has posted a video on YouTube where, wearing hoods over their heads and holding the statue with a bag over its head, they demand that the world's largest food chain answer questions about its corporate responsibility and food production. You can watch the video above.
"We love burgers, fries and McDonald's, but we can no longer watch in silence as the food we love is being destroyed and brought to shame because of greed and indifference," one of the terrorists said, speaking in Finnish.
And that's the thing about terrorists. They can make themselves sound like they have a reasonable case, but we all know they are madmen bent on destruction.
For what are we without McDonalds? What would happen to our way of life?
I ask all of you, pray that Ronald McDonald is saved before the execution date of Feb. 11. But yet, we can never cave into the demands of terrorists.
For if they get their way, next they'll be making demands that we have to eat things like brown rice and organic vegetables and locally produced foods.
And if that were to happen, it would be devastating to all the businesses that make mega-gobs of profits off the unhealthy living habits of people.
Goodbye Jack, It Was a Pleasure Knowing You
January 24, 2011 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Featured, Health And Wellness, Longevity
Today I take a break from the series on the Masters of Enlightenment, to share with you this story that was in today's, Jan. 24, 2011, New York Times.
It's about Jack LaLanne, who was featured in these pages a year ago, during the series on Longevity.
Jack passed away yesterday, Jan. 23, 2011, at the ripe age of 96, so as a tribute to him, I thought it would be best to republish the story from the NY Times.
Jack LaLanne, Founder of Modern Fitness Movement, Dies at 96
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Jack LaLanne, whose obsession with grueling workouts and good nutrition, complemented by a salesman's gift, brought him recognition as the founder of the modern physical fitness movement, died Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay, Calif. He was 96.
The cause was respiratory failure resulting from pneumonia, said his son Dan Doyle.
A self-described emotional and physical wreck while growing up in the San Francisco area, Mr. LaLanne began turning his life around, as he often told it, after hearing a talk on proper diet when he was 15.
He started working out with weights when they were an oddity, and in 1936 he opened the prototype for the fitness spas to come — a gym, juice bar and health food store — in an old office building in Oakland.
"People thought I was a charlatan and a nut," he remembered. "The doctors were against me — they said that working out with weights would give people heart attacks and they would lose their sex drive." But Mr. LaLanne persevered, and he found a national pulpit in the age of television.
"The Jack LaLanne Show" made its debut in 1951 as a local program in the San Francisco area, then went nationwide on daytime television in 1959. His short-sleeved jumpsuit showing off his impressive biceps, his props often limited to a broomstick, a chair and a rubber cord, Mr. LaLanne pranced through his exercise routines, most notably his fingertip push-ups.
He built an audience by first drawing in children who saw his white German shepherd, Happy, perform tricks.
"My show was so personal, I made it feel like you and I were the only ones there," he told Knight-Ridder Newspapers in 1995. "And I'd say: 'Boys and girls, come here. Uncle Jack wants to tell you something. You go get Mother or Daddy, Grandmother, Grandfather, whoever is in the house. You go get them, and you make sure they exercise with me.' "
His show continued into the mid-1980s.
"He was perfect for the intimacy of television," Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, told The San Jose Mercury News in 2004. "This guy had some of the same stuff that Oprah has and Johnny Carson had — the ability to insinuate themselves in the domestic space of people's lives."
Long before Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda and the Atkins diet, Mr. LaLanne was a national celebrity, preaching regular exercise and proper diet. Expanding on his television popularity, he opened dozens of fitness studios under his name, later licensing them to Bally.
He invented the forerunners of modern exercise machines like leg-extension and pulley devices. He marketed a Power Juicer to blend raw vegetables and fruits and a Glamour Stretcher cord, and he sold exercise videos and fitness books. He invited women to join his health clubs and told the elderly and the disabled that they could exercise despite their limitations.
At 60 he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf handcuffed, shackled and towing a 1,000-pound boat. At 70, handcuffed and shackled again, he towed 70 boats, carrying a total of 70 people, a mile and a half through Long Beach Harbor.
He ate two meals a day and shunned snacks.
Breakfast, following his morning workout, usually included several hard-boiled egg whites, a cup of broth, oatmeal with soy milk and seasonal fruit. For dinner he took his wife, Elaine, to restaurants that knew what he wanted: a salad with raw vegetables and egg whites along with fish — often salmon — and a mixture of red and white wine. He sometimes allowed himself a roast turkey sandwich, but never a cup of coffee.
Mr. LaLanne said he performed his exercises until he experienced "muscle fatigue," lifting weights until it was impossible for him to continue. It produced results and, as he put it, "the ego in me" made the effort worthwhile.
The son of French immigrants, Jack LaLanne was born in San Francisco on Sept. 26, 1914, and spent his early years on his parents' sheep farm in Bakersfield, Calif. By the time he was 15, the family having moved to the Bay Area, he was pimply and nearsighted, craved junk food and had dropped out of high school. That is when his mother took him to a women's club for a talk by Paul C. Bragg, a well-known speaker on health and nutrition.
That talk, Mr. LaLanne often said, turned his life around. He began experimenting with weights at the Berkeley Y.M.C.A., tossed aside cakes and cookies and studied Gray's Anatomy to learn about the body's muscles. He graduated from a chiropractic school, but instead of practicing that profession he became a pitchman for good health.
He opened his first health studio when he was 21, and a decade and a half later he turned to television. He was first sponsored by the creator of a longevity pill, a 90-year-old man, but it sold poorly and he obtained Yami Yogurt as his new sponsor. "It tasted terrible, so I mixed it with prune juice and fruits," he told The New York Times in 2004. "Nobody thought about it until then. We made the guy a millionaire."
Mr. LaLanne, 5-foot-6 and 150 pounds or so with a 30-inch waist, maintained that he disliked working out. He said he kept at it strictly to feel fit and stay healthy. He built two gyms and a pool at his home in Morro Bay, and began each day, into his 90s, with two hours of workouts: weight lifting followed by a swim against an artificial current or in place, tied to a belt.
"The Jack LaLanne Show" may have run its course in the mid-1980s, but it had a second life in reruns on ESPN Classic. "We have over 3,000 shows," Mr. LaLanne said in 2004. "I own everything."
In September 2007, "Jack LaLanne Live!" made its debut on the online VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness Radio Network. He appeared on it with his wife and his nephew Chris LaLanne, a personal trainer.
In addition to Dan Doyle, he is survived by his wife, Elaine; their son, Jon; and a daughter, Yvonne.
Mr. LaLanne promoted himself and his calling into his final years, often accompanied at events by his wife, a physical fitness convert but hardly a fanatic. He brimmed with optimism and restated a host of aphorisms for an active and fit life.
"I can't die," he most famously liked to say. "It would ruin my image."
The PETA Interviews, Part 3
November 10, 2010 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Diet And Nutrition, Featured, Health And Wellness, Meat
Today is the final segment in this three-part interview with Ashley Gonzalez of PETA.
In case you missed Part 1 or Part 2, here's the links:
The PETA Interviews, Part 1
The PETA Interviews, Part 2
In this interview we talk about talks about PETA"s mission; animal cruelty in slaughterhouses and on farms; the prevalence of E. coli and salmonella in animals and why this occurs; the detrimental effects of eating dairy foods; and PETA's sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest.
After you watch this video, I'm sure you'll agree with me that it is a very enlightening discussion.
To learn more about PETA, go to peta.org, and to learn about the sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest, go to PETAprime.org.
The PETA Interviews, Part 2
November 5, 2010 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Diet And Nutrition, Featured, Health And Wellness, Meat
Today I give you the second part of a three-part interview with Ashley Gonzalez of PETA.
The other day was part 1 of this interview, and in this interview we carry on from there.
In this interview we talk about PETA's outrageous billboard they put up in downtown Glasgow, Scotland; the health benefits of not eating meat; the relationship between eating meat and climate change – meat production is the number one cause of climate change; animal cruelty and the meat industry; how far removed we are from the source of our food; PETA's educational outreach programs in schools; the origins of the swine flu; and much, more more.
I'm sure when you watch the above video you'll agree with me that the discussion is an enlightening one.
To learn more about PETA, go to peta.org
This interview will be continued next time…
The PETA Interviews, Part 1
November 2, 2010 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Diet And Nutrition, Featured, Health And Wellness, Meat
Last week I mentioned that PETA had announced their 2010 sexiest vegetarian male and female over 50 contest, and today I follow that up with the above video, which is the first part of a three-part interview with Ashley Gonzalez of PETA.
I've written about PETA in the past – I wrote articles about Mimi Kirk and Julian Winter, the winners of PETA's 2009 sexiest vegetarian female and male, and I also did a three-part interview with Mimi.
I've also written about some of the outrageous things PETA has done with the article The PETA Hijinks. The article covered such things as their banned Super Bowl ad "Veggie Love," their attempt to pay the city of Topeka, Kansas $6,000 to fill potholes in their streets and mark the repairs with messages condemning Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the billboard they put up in Glasgow, Scotland linking meat eating to man-boobs.
Today's interview discusses PETA's mission, their origins, their work in animal rights, their sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest (and their sexiest vegetarian next door contest), the benefits of a vegetarian/vegan diet, and their famous "Veggie Love" ad.
To learn more about PETA, you can go to PETA.org. And to enter into the 2010 sexiest vegetarian over 50 contest, go to PETAprime.org.
To be continued next time…
Who Will Be PETA's 2010 Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50?
October 26, 2010 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Diet And Nutrition, Featured, Health And Wellness
Last week I started a new series on Spirituality, and started it off with poetry by Vermont-based poet David Tucker.
Before I continue with the series, I have some news to pass on, courtesy of PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
PETA has launched the 2010 SEXIEST VEGETARIAN OVER 50 CONTEST, with the tagline:
Healthy, Hot, and Compassionate—After Five Decades, These Folks Are Just Getting Started
Why am I passing on this news? Because in 2009, I wrote articles profiling the winners of PETA's 2009 Sexiest Male and Female Vegetarian Over 50 contest.
The winners were Mimi Kirk and Julian Winter.
In addition, earlier this year, I did a three-part video interview with Mimi Kirk. Here's the interviews:
An Interview with Mimi Kirk, part 1
An Interview with Mimi Kirk, part 2
An Interview with Mimi Kirk, part 3
So here's the news, directly from PETA:
Norfolk, Va. — Ask most vegetarians over 50 if they've ever been complimented on their healthy and radiant appearance, and you can bet the answer is, "Yes." It's no wonder, when you consider that many of their meat-eating contemporaries are suffering from heart disease, high cholesterol, and other diet-related health problems. That's why PETA Prime is showcasing just how vibrant and appealing older vegetarians can be through its 2010 Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50 contest.
"Vegetarians—of any age—are, on average, healthier, fitter, and trimmer than meat-eaters are, and that makes them sexier too," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "And because the fat and cholesterol in animal-derived products can slow the flow of blood to all the body's organs, vegetarians' love lives can go full throttle for years—even decades—longer."
PETA Prime is accepting contest entrants from now until October 29 with public voting rounds to help PETA pick winners running until December 3. On December 10, PETA Prime will crown two winners, one male and one female, as this year's Sexiest Vegetarian Over 50. Each winner will receive a five-night stay at the luxurious and eco-friendly Laguna Lodge in Guatemala.
More and more people are kicking the meat habit after learning that going vegetarian is the best thing that they can do for their own health, the planet, and animals. According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarians are less likely to suffer from obesity, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Also, going vegetarian is one of the most effective ways that people can slash their carbon footprint. And, each vegetarian saves the lives of approximately 100 animals every year.
For more information , please visit PETAPrime.org and to enter the contest, please visit features.peta.org.
Wilhelm Reich – Putting the Body in Mind-Body Healing, Part 3
October 15, 2010 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Featured, Health And Wellness, The Roots of Healing
Today's article is the last of a three-part article on Wilhelm Reich. The first article in this series, Wilhelm Reich – Putting the Body in Mind-Body Medicine, Part 1, discussed who Reich was and why his ideas were so radical and pioneering for his time, the early to mid 20th century.
In the second part of this series, Wilhelm Reich – Putting the Body in Mind-Body Medicine, Part 2, I discussed Reich's discovery of orgone energy, and his development of the orgone energy accumulator, or orgone box.
The box was used to heal cancer and other chronic, degenerative illnesses.
Today, in the last part of this series, I'll discuss why the U.S. government, threatened by Reich's orgone energy, went after Reich with a vengeance.
Reich's downfall began in 1947 with an article entitled "The Strange Case of Wilhelm Reich" that appeared in New Republic magazine.
Authored by freelance writer Mildred Edie Brady, it was filled with distortions and innuendos about Reich's sexual theories and orgone research. Brady's most inflammatory claim was that Reich was building accumulators of orgone energy "which are rented out to patients who presumably derived orgastic potency from it."
Implying that Reich was a danger to the public, Brady challenged the medical authorities to take action against him. Two months later, the article was brought to the attention of the Food and Drug Administration. The result was a ten-year campaign by the FDA designed to destroy Reich's work.
The FDA focused on the orgone energy accumulator which Reich and his physicians were using experimentally with patients. Convinced that the accumulator was being fraudulently promoted as a sexual and medical device, FDA agents spent years interviewing Reich's associates, physicians, students and patients, looking for dissatisfied users. None were ever found. As the FDA's investigation continued, so did Reich's work.
Reich continued to develop new ways to visualize, measure, and harness orgone energy from the atmosphere. The cloudbuster, for example, was an experimental instrument that could affect weather patterns by altering concentrations of orgone energy in the atmosphere. It comprised a set of hollow metal pipes and cables inserted into water, creating a stronger orgone energy system than that in the surrounding atmosphere.
Water, which strongly attracts and absorbs orgone, draws the atmospheric orgone through the pipes. This movement of orgone from a lower to a higher energy system was used by Reich to create clouds and to dissipate them.
Reich used the cloudbuster to conduct dozens of experiments involving what he called "Cosmic Orgone Engineering (C.O.R.E.)." One of the most notable occurred in 1953. During a long drought that threatened the Maine blueberry crop, several farmers offered to pay Reich if he could bring rain to the parched region. The weather bureau had forecast no rain for several days when Reich began his cloudbusting operations.
Ten hours later, a light rain began to fall. Over the next few days, close to two inches fell. The blueberry crop was saved, and in local newspaper articles the farmers credited Reich.
In February 1954, the FDA filed a Complaint for Injunction against Reich in the Federal Court in Portland, Maine. The Complaint declared that orgone energy does not exist, and asked the Court to prohibit the shipment of accumulators in interstate commerce and to ban Reich's published literature which they claimed was labeling for the accumulators.
After considerable thought and discussion of this matter, Reich responded with a lengthy letter to Judge John Clifford, explaining that he could not appear in Court, since doing so would allow a Court of law to judge basic scientific research.
He wrote:
"Scientific matters can only be clarified by prolonged, faithful bona fide observations in friendly exchange of opinion, never by litigation… Man's right to know, to learn, to inquire, to make bona fide errors, to investigate human emotions must, by all means, be safe, if the word FREEDOM should ever be more than an empty political slogan.
Furthermore, Reich asserted, if his painstakingly elaborated and published findings "…over a period of 30 years could not convince this administration, or will not be able to convince any other administration of the true nature of the discovery of the Life Energy, no litigation in any court anywhere will ever help to do so. I, therefore, submit, in the name of truth and justice that I shall not appear in court as the 'defendant' against a plaintiff who by his mere complaint already has shown his ignorance in matters of natural science."
Judge Clifford did not accept Reich's letter as a valid legal response, and on March 19, 1954, a Decree of Injunction was issued on default as if Reich had never responded at all. But the Injunction itself was even more excessive than the initial Complaint:
• it ordered orgone energy accumulators and their parts to be destroyed
• it ordered all materials containing instructions for the use of the accumulator to be destroyed
• it banned a list of Reich's books containing statements about orgone energy, until such time that all references to orgone energy were deleted
After the initial shock, Reich continued his research, traveling to Arizona to experiment with the cloudbuster in the dry desert environment. While he was there, and without his knowledge, one of Reich's students—Dr. Michael Silvert—moved a truckload of accumulators and books from Rangeley, Maine to New York City, a direct violation of the Injunction.
As a result, the FDA charged Reich and Silvert with criminal contempt of court. Following a jury trial, both men were found guilty on May 7, 1956. Reich was sentenced to two years in federal prison, Silvert was sentenced to a year and a day. The Wilhelm Reich Foundation—founded in Maine in 1949 by students and friends to preserve Reich's Archives and to secure the future of his discovery of the Cosmic Life Energy—was fined $10,000.
While Reich appealed his sentence, the government carried out the destruction of orgone accumulators and literature. In Maine, several boxes of literature were burned, and accumulators and accumulator materials either destroyed or dismantled.
In New York City, on August 23, 1956, the FDA supervised the burning of several tons of Reich's publications in one of the city's garbage incinerators, including titles that were only to have been banned. Among the materials burned were:
• Orgone Energy Bulletin (12,189 copies)
• International Journal of Sex Economy and Orgone Research (6,261 copies)
• Emotional Plague Versus Orgone Biophysics (2,900 copies)
• Annals of the Orgone Institute (2976 copies)
• The Oranur Experiment (872 copies)
• Character Analysis
• Cosmic Superimposition
• Ether, God, and Devil
• Listen, Little Man
• People in Trouble
• The Cancer Biopathy
• The Function of the Orgasm
• The Mass Psychology of Fascism
• The Murder of Christ
• The Sexual Revolution
This destruction of literature constitutes one of the most heinous examples of censorship in United States history.
On March 8, 1957, Reich signed his Last Will and Testament. Among its stipulations was the establishment of The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust Fund as the legal entity charged with operating Orgonon (Orgonon was Reich's 160-acre farm in Maine) as The Wilhelm Reich Museum; protecting, preserving, and transmitting his scientific legacy to future generations; and safeguarding Reich's Archives.
All appeals denied, on March 12, 1957—two weeks shy of his 60th birthday—Wilhelm Reich was temporarily incarcerated at the Danbury Federal Penitentiary in Connecticut. On March 22, he was taken to the Federal Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. He died there of heart failure on November 3, 1957, and was buried at Orgonon.
Wilhelm Reich – Putting the Body in Mind-Body Healing, Part 2
October 6, 2010 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Featured, Health And Wellness, The Roots of Healing
In the last article, Wilhelm Reich – Putting the Body in Mind-Body Medicine, Part 1, I discussed how Reich, an Austrian-American psychiatrist who trained under Sigmund Freud, is the person most responsible for uniting mind and body and pioneering mind-body medicine.
And as I mentioned in the article, he is largely forgotten now. Reich died in 1957 a broken man, in prison, having been persecuted by the U.S. government.
The year he went to prison, in 1956, the U.S. government burned tons of his writings and papers. And as a consequence of that, Reich wrote in his will that his remaining papers were to be sealed and not opened for 50 years, in 2007, because he felt that by then a more enlightened society would exist that could appreciate his ideas better.
And what was Reich's terrible crime that had the U.S. government coming after him?
His crime was his promotion of what he called orgone energy. In the 1930s Reich discovered a physical, biological energy in all living matter that he called "orgone," and for the next two decades devoted his life to the investigation of its laws and properties.
Through his research, Reich confirmed the existence of this energy in the human body, verified its presence in the atmosphere, developed instrumentation to observe and collect it, and harnessed it for a variety of purposes from cancer treatment to motor power to weather experimentation.
This is what he had to say about orgone energy:
"I am well aware of the fact that the human race has known about the existence of a universal energy related to life for many ages. However, the basic task of natural science consisted of making this energy usable. This is the sole difference between my work and all preceding knowledge."
Reich had started his career as a protege of Sigmund Freud, but broke with him over differing views of libido and sexual energy.
Freud had originally discovered that neuroses are caused by the conflict between natural sexual instincts and the social denial and frustration of those instincts. Freud had also hypothesized the existence of a biological sexual energy in the body. He called it "libido," and described it as "something which is capable of increase, decrease, displacement and discharge, and which extends itself over the memory traces of an idea like an electric charge over the surface of the body."
But over the years, Freud and his followers diluted much of this concept, reducing the libido to little more than a psychological energy or idea. By 1925, Freud had concluded that "the libido theory may therefore for the present be pursued only by the path of speculation."
But Reich's clinical work and research led him to believe otherwise. He observed that sexual energy is more than just an idea, and that sexual gratification, in fact, alleviated neurotic symptoms. He discovered that the function of the orgasm is to maintain an energy equilibrium by discharging excess biological energy that builds up naturally in the body.
As he continued his research into primordial sexual energy, using technical equipment to measure biological activity and phenomena related to sexual energy, what he found was at the root of this energy was a type of radiation emitted that did not obey any known laws of electricity or magnetism. Reich called this energy "orgone," because its discovery had evolved from his investigation of the orgasm function, and because this energy could charge organic materials.
He determined that orgone radiation seemed to permeate all substances, which led him to constantly confront questions about the origins of this energy. Where did orgone energy come from, he wondered?
To isolate and collect orgone, Reich relied on the results of several laboratory experiments. These experiments demonstrated that organic or non-metallic materials—such as cotton, wool or plastic—attract, absorb, and hold the energy. Metallic materials —like steel and iron—attract the energy and quickly reflect it in both directions.
On the basis of these findings, Reich constructed small boxes with alternating layers of organic and metallic materials, with the inner walls lined with metal. By looking through a specially designed lens inserted into a wall of each box, one could observe orgone radiation within the enclosure.
Reich now faced the daunting possibility of having discovered a biological energy that seemed to be everywhere, while still pondering the perplexing question of where orgone energy originated.
Reich was living in New York City by this time, and the accumulator quickly became an increasingly vital tool for his research. The accumulator's organic layers attracted the atmospheric energy which was directed inward by the metal layers. Any energy reflected outward by the metal layers was immediately re-absorbed by the organic material, attracted back to the metal, and directed toward the inside of the box. The result was a higher concentration of orgone energy inside the box. The more layers, the stronger the concentration.
The accumulator now allowed Reich to test the effects of orgone radiation on cancer mice, by simply placing the mice inside the metal-lined enclosure. Because his results with cancer mice were so promising, Reich decided to test the effects of orgone radiation on humans. He constructed accumulators large enough for a person to sit in, and in 1941 began experimental treatments with cancer patients.
They were all terminal cases. Reich promised no cure nor charged any money, as shown by the affidavit that his patients and/or their family members were required to sign:
"I state herewith that I came to see Dr. Wilhelm Reich for possibly helping the case of my _____ who suffers from cancer. I came because I was told of the experiments that Dr. Reich has made with cancer mice and human beings. Dr. Reich did not promise me any cure, did not charge any money, and told me that only during the last few months has he tried the orgone radiation on human begins who suffer from cancer. Death or abscesses could occur as a consequence of the disease. I told Dr. Reich that the physicians have given up the case of my _____ as hopeless. Should death or abscesses occur during the time of the experiment, it will not be because of the treatment."
Over a period of time, the patients showed marked improvement: relief of pain, healthier blood condition, weight gain, and the shrinkage and elimination of tumors. Despite these positive results, the patients died, reinforcing Reich's conviction that cancer is a bio-energetic shrinking following emotional resignation, and that the tumors themselves are not the disease, but merely a local manifestation of a deeper systemic disorder. Once again, Reich's focus became prevention.
Next time: Why the U.S. government, threatened by the concept of orgone energy, went after Wilhelm Reich.
Wilhelm Reich – Putting the Body In Mind-Body Healing, Part 1
September 28, 2010 by Michael Wayne
Filed under Featured, Health And Wellness, The Roots of Healing
During this series on The Roots of Healing, I've been writing about different systems of medicine and healing. The last article in this series was on homeopathy.
Today I will veer away from discussing systems of healing to discuss a pioneer in the field, someone who put the body back in mind-body medicine.
His name was Wilhelm Reich, and he was a man far ahead of his time, but unfortunately he is for the most part forgotten.
Born in 1897 in the part of Europe that was once the Austro-Hungarian empire, he went to medical school and became a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. In the 1920s he became a protege of Sigmund Freud, and was considered one of his top underlings.
Yet as the years progressed, Reich saw limitations in the traditional psychotherapeutic approach, and felt that just working with the mind was insufficient in helping people free themselves of their burdens. He maintained that the body needed to be involved in psychotherapy also, and he founded the entire approach of body-centered psychotherapy, of which to this day there are many schools of thought.
Thus, the entire realm of mind-body medicine has Wilhelm Reich to thank, because he was willing to break with the convention and doctrine of his time and take medicine and healing into new frontiers.
Many well-known psychiatrists and psychologists followed Reich's lead and developed new body-centered psychotherapies.
The first generation of Reich followers were such people as Alexander Lowen, who developed Bioenergetic Analysis; Fritz Perls, who developed Gestalt Therapy; Arthur Janov, who developed Primal Therapy; and Ida Rolf, who developed Rolfing.
Thus, without the pioneering work of Wilhelm Reich, there would have been none of these other breakthrough therapies.
Yet today, Reich is sadly forgotten. Part of that is because he died in jail a broken man, in 1957 at the age of 60, completely humiliated by the U.S. government. He was sentenced to two years in prison in 1956, for the crime of inventing something called an orgone energy accumulator, which he claimed could heal illness and restore a person's energy field.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigated the orgone accumulator and decided it had no merit, and put a cease order on their sales. When an associate of Reich's violated the order by selling some, the FDA came after Reich and threw him in jail.
Also in 1956, in conjunction with Reich being jailed, in one of the worst incidents of censorship in U.S. history, several tons of Reich's publications were burned by the FDA.
Reich was living in Germany in 1933 when Hitler and the Nazis came to power, and he immediately left, going to Vienna, then Scandinavia, and then eventually settling in the U.S. in 1939.
His pioneering work broke many taboos of psychiatry. The field was dominated by the work of Freud, and focused on individual neuroses. But Reich was more interested in character structure.
From 1930 onwards, Reich became more interested in his patients' physical responses during therapy sessions, and toward the late 1930s, he began to treat patients outside the limits of psychoanalysis's restrictions, though well within the scope of general medicine.
He began to sit next to his patients, rather than behind them, in order to make stronger "contact." He started touching them, to both increase awareness of tension and contraction and to relieve it directly. He began talking to them, answering their questions, rather than the stock, "Why do you ask?" analyst's response.
From a psychoanalytic point of view, this undermined the position of neutrality. The analyst is meant to be a blank screen onto which the patient projects his old desires, his loves, his hates, his neurosis—a process known as transference.
Reich wrote that the psychoanalytic taboos reinforced the neurotic taboos of the patient. He slowly broke away from them, writing that he wanted his patients to see him as human.
He would press hard on their "body armor," his thumb or the palm of his hand pressing on their jaws, necks, chests, backs, or thighs, aiming to dissolve their physical and mental rigidity. He wanted to see their movements soften, their breathing ease.
This dissolution of the "body armor" also brought back the repressed memory of the childhood situation that had caused the repression, he wrote. If the session worked as intended, he wrote that he could see waves of pleasure move through their bodies, a series of spontaneous, involuntary movements. Reich called these the "orgasm reflex."
The two goals of Reichian therapy became the attainment of this orgasm reflex during therapy, and orgastic potency during intercourse. Reich called the flow of energy that he said he observed in his patients' bodies, "bio-electricity."
He felt this could free their body, mind and emotions, and lead to a full recovery of their health problems.
And herein is where Reich touched a raw nerve: he delved into the taboo area of sex in a way that Freud had never. Whereas libido and sexual repression was an important part of Freudian psychology, it was all still conceptual, and the work with patients was all conventional psychotherapy.
Reich took it one step further, and worked with people to break free of what he called the body armor, the holding patterns that caused rigidity of the body, mind and emotions.
Reich's work was like a breath of fresh air for 1940s America, and he enjoyed a largely uncritical press in the U.S. Along with that, his psychoanalytic theories were taught in universities and discussed in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the American Journal of Psychiatry.
To be continued next time…


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Best Western Plus Dockside Waterfront: "very clean and comfortable room. had a great balc..." stayed May 2014 reviewed by myrtle from camdenton. posted 2014-05-31 20:28
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Dale Dable- Waukesha, WisconsinUpdated June 11, 2012 |
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Currently looking for death records for Green o p Duskey, Mahala Duskey, Edmond Sisk, Mahala Sisk. All from missouri, 1860-1920's. Also August Buelo. born 1908, in mukwanago, wisconsin. Died 1939, Looking for death records on all. |
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(BaseballStL) -- Of all the current Cardinals getting thrown around in "Junior GM" trade proposals, and there are a lot of them, David Freese just might get thrown around the most. I get it.
He plays a position that top-five-MVP-finisher Matt Carpenter naturally plays. There's the next big prospect ready for a Major League job where the former is currently located.
Throw in the fact Freese had a down year (.262 avg, 9 HRs, 60 RBIs) and is due to start making more than $4 million and you have the proverbial odd man out.
To that, however, I say hogwash.
For a multitude of reasons, David Freese needs to return in 2014. First and foremost, if nothing else, he would provide a heck of a bat off the bench that this team has not had in years. They tried with Ty Wigginton. They had one with Matt Adams until he was forced to start due to Allen Craig's injury. The result has been a very weak bench with little-to-no pop.
Would $4 million be a lot for someone backing up Matt Carpenter at third base and Matt Adams or Allen Craig at first? Sure. But don't sit here and tell me this team can't afford it given all the salaries that are coming off the books. With Carlos Beltran, Chris Carpenter, Jake Westbrook, Rafael Furcal and Edward Mujica leaving, a ton of money has been freed up.
Even with the addition of another high priced star, Freese's salary could easily be swallowed by the payroll.
The next reason Freese needs to return is Kolten Wong insurance. I'm as much of a fan of Wong as the next person, but how can anyone in good conscience just hand him the second base gig with no other real options?
I'm sure Wong will hit. I'm sure he'll play extremely well. But wouldn't he play even better if he wasn't guaranteed anything?
It's human nature for someone to get the most out of themselves when pushed by competition. It's only natural. Like I said earlier, if Wong produces and takes the lion's share of at-bats at second base (pushing Carpenter to third on those days and thus Freese to the bench) that's not the worst thing in the world. Freese helps the bench.
It would provide a nice transition year until 2015 when Wong really would necessitate all the at-bats at second base and Freese's salary would jump even higher. Then I could understand moving Freese.
But not now. Not while the bench needs help like it does. Not while Wong is completely unproven and another option is needed.
Keep David Freese for another year.


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