text:
That last paragraph. Wow. Glad to have this sort of content on GB again, Austin.
@alex said: @ripelivejam said: @pangst said: Great video, vinny is really funny, alex is ok too.@alex is ALWAYS ok too!You're both very kind.Hell, I think you're downright adequate.
Whoever sent that copy of Transformers: The Movie to Dan as anime, you need to get up in front of the whole class and apologize, right this minute.(It's a great movie, and anime is not bad, but it is ...
Jeff, I'm genuinely saddened by your loss. I, myself, lost my mother several years ago. It was devastating and, sometimes, it still is. You don't move on, but you learn to live with it. You learn to s...
Good God, Dan is infuriating.
I thought this was a really beautiful, educational panel, and somehow I'm still surprised and disheartened by the number of comments that completely miss the fucking point and try to make this all ab...
@eternalhav0c said: @Nephrahim said: Dota and League are the exact same game, and neither require any kind of strategy. — Dan Ryckert (@DanRyckert) September 1, 2014Those games are just Command & ...
@synekal said:They have the best repartee together and so soon after Dan joining -- I love it. I could watch these two all day.Dan and Drew are the new Hollywood power couple. Rycanlon? Scankert?Sorr...
"Mods ruin the purity of Blizzard's aesthetic design, alright!"Sigh. Oh, Brad, you silly old dinosaur.
@fcdrandy said:We really need to reconsider Brad's diet. Dude is pudging up.It's probably all that Dota. (No, really. I bet it is. Either way, it doesn't matter how much he weighs, so long as he's ke...
Wow, some of the guys in these comments sure go out of their way to defend the existence of gratuitously sexualized, shitty-looking female protagonists. Surprise, surprise.
@hef said:The hilarious part is that if he did that ballon quest he'd have gotten a petHe did do the balloon quest. However, the pet the quest gives you cannot battle. (Granted, it's been over a year ...
I think WoW is great. My then-girlfriend got me into it in 2013, and I loved it. I'd probably still be playing it, but money has been tight, and $15 a month for WoW is not something I can currently j...
I don't know if I can watch this. I'm just... I'm just going to save this for later.*wipes brow*
It's not censorship. Google is well within their rights to determine what is and is not sold/available on their platform(s). I wouldn't want this shit on my own platform, if I ran one. Now, if the gov...
Watch the movies. Absolutely, watch the movies. If you're a fan, you consume all of it. That's what fans do. Don't be a baby. The key is to lower your expectations. First Contact is the only truly gr...
It's poorly written garbage. That is it. That is all. The end.
@marino said: @evajolli said: as an aside: are there even non white male mods here?Yes.I'm going to need to see your birth certificate, photo I.D., and family genealogy please, sir.<3


text:
|Find court records by County
|Find court records by town or zip code
|Find court resources by category
|Find court records in other states
|Please select a Missouri County below to view directory of all courts with links to court record resources for each court.
|Find Missouri court pages by Town or Zip Code.
|Select a court record or online resource category below to view all resources at both the statewide and county level.
|Go to the court records pages for another state.
116 North Kansas Avenue, Marceline, MO 64658
Phone: 660-376-3528 Fax: 660-376-3898

subset: commoncrawl


text:
LOCATION IN MALL: JCPenney Wing
(317) 577-0406 | Driving Directions | Hot Topic Website |
View Deals | Mall Map
More stores to consider
Louie's Tux Shop
Universitees by T.I.S.
Lands' End Shop at Sears
We're ready for #AnimeExpo. Kaneki and Hide approve. ?? #TokyoGhoul https://t.co/MALAeY9jt0/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Think you know the answer? Take the quiz and find out! Click the link in our bio or go to hottopic.com/justiceforallquiz #DCcomics #justiceleague
Posted by: hottopic
Read More
Hot Topic
Email email@example.com for more details.
Posted by: hottopic
Don't miss the @HerUniverse fashion show at #SDCC! Plus, a big announcement you won't want to miss...#SDCCGeekCouture http://t.co/G7hStNjyZM/p>
RT @gothicmermaid13: My #Fannibal shirt came today! #happyfannibal @NBCHannibal @HotTopic http://t.co/ad7evsktLD/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Neon Red or Fuchsia Fatale? #repost @misai_drums #hottopic
Look who we found on the streets of LA! ?? ?? #gudetama
Posted by: hottopic
Water bottles? Containers used to store liquids, silly. *Punny* http://t.co/xByaUPJkeD http://t.co/2WesTIDnjX/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
RT @Sherlockspam: I'm on a #Sherlock scavenger hunt at the mall! Lol @HotTopic http://t.co/qvKifb3spb/p>
A good year...a great band. #repost @sacksmel #hottopic
Posted by: hottopic
So gotta get this @piercetheveil tank. http://t.co/e7HLDMKlSU http://t.co/8eUuwNVwjX/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
You had us at Of Mice & Men and Pierce the Veil. #warpedtour #caughtinHT
You're asking for treble. http://t.co/htHLVTi8m2 http://t.co/m7lH1FUUW5/p>
Is it just us or is anyone else having serious #GameOfThrones withdrawals?
Hey @HannahRubyisms We'll pass a restock suggestion along for you!/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Ed Sheeran ?? ?? https://t.co/EHUSUzoICo/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
No such thing as TOO excited. https://t.co/YPL9iB48vu/p>
"We're not as frail as the strings would make us believe." #papertowns #johngreen https://t.co/E6sBCSWiIp/p>
Time to dye it back? https://t.co/Q4VtJ4cYL2/p>
Please tell your grandma we don't bite. https://t.co/bwh4cypjZ5/p>
RT @HerUniverse: Happy #HUFriday Going to meetings wearing my @hottopic Loki dress designed by artbyabc and… https://t.co/w0ciEhQTVr/p>
RT @fouryearstrong: Our @HotTopic exclusive vinyl is the one in the middle. @purenoiserecs & @PiratesPressMFG did damn good. http://t.co/Jf…/p>
RT @_penny_michelle: very successful day @HotTopic ?? thanks grandma http://t.co/XXZ8srKLLJ/p>
Love is love. #LoveWins http://t.co/uFp6VD4q11/p>
The first 3 people to come in to a selected Hot Topic and proclaim their love for @Citizentheband will get one of these signed prints! Click the link in our bio to find the list of participating stores.
Got one? Make sure to post a photo and tag #Ev
Posted by: hottopic
The first 3 people to come in to a selected Hot Topic and proclaim their love for Citizen will get one of these signed prints!
List of selected stores: http://hottopic.me/6wzp
Got one? Make sure to post a photo and tag #EverybodyIsGoingToHotTopic
Posted by: hottopic
Such mad organizational skills! RT @QueenxJessica: IVE OFFICIALLY RUN OUT OF BRACELET SPACE @HotTopic http://t.co/oYCRubjYmA/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Look up 2 the skies and seeeeeee…@TheAVClub http://t.co/EZbJxVZRUO #Queen/p>
RT @HannahRubyisms: My new favorite @OrphanBlack dress from @HotTopic. Rockin' the guns. http://t.co/c0HLD1L8rz/p>
RT @AndyJardy: Super excited about my @hottopic purchases. #MegaMan #Zelda https://t.co/FugyFtvz1o/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Who knew an assassin could be so adorbs? Available online and in stores now. Supplies are limited.
Get yours now: http://hottopic.me/6r0G
Posted by: hottopic
RT @GhostTown: Off With Her Head tank is back up @hottopic link in our bio ?? http://t.co/ZtBTQNuDCP/p>
RT @alexstabile_: Wearing my new @falloutboy shirt from @HotTopic because why the fuck not?! #everydayisafalloutboyday http://t.co/GKJvqsY4…/p>
RT @DCComics: #DCAllAccess chats with some of the talent behind BATGIRL, GRAYSON, AQUAMAN, and WE ARE ROBIN in this new clip: https://t.co/…/p>
RT @Shea_loft: Got 2 New shirts from @HotTopic and im loving them! cant wait to wear one to the @5SOS concert in a few months! http://t.co/…/p>
RT @fouryearstrong: Head to @HotTopic now to pick up our self titled exclusive vinyl on coke bottle clear w/ mint/Ox Blood splatter. Who ha…/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
? this! RT @SweetoGummyBear: @HotTopic Your stickers give my longboard life 0-0 http://t.co/97I82uhygZ/p>
RT @RobertHiddles: @HotTopic 's snapchat gives me life ?????? #ironman http://t.co/LbOTXRoPlR/p>
Oh, yes! $20 today only with any #DoctorWho purchase. #WhosDayTuesday
Posted by: hottopic
It's just so...so...magical. RT @alltimejec: Fave shop in yyc. @HotTopic #bands http://t.co/QAA46SZsyU/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Happy B-day! RT @PsychOxQueeN18: @HotTopic thank you for having me spend all my birthday money at your store ???? http://t.co/9CKo0JETuv/p>
RT @Doris_Pineapple: Finally got my things from @HotTopic and I love them!! ??? http://t.co/YDNljhmJ7G/p>
Makin' bacon pancakes. http://t.co/TJemlTymlZ http://t.co/zNP5APJZCo/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Ant-Man is here - and he glows in the dark!
Get yours now: http://hottopic.me/6cGH
Posted by: hottopic
Tees $3.99 & up. Dig in: http://t.co/02pHuc6g1B #HotMess http://t.co/0uFcDMIENY/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Meow. #Caturday #shoes #catsrule https://t.co/OtAyeAlldq/p>
Don't miss our #Snapchat story from the first day of #WarpedTour in Pomona! Add us: hottopichq
Posted by: hottopic
Starting the weekend off right with this amazing kid. @viralnova http://t.co/k2UeVrRx0O/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Hey #LasVegas - come get your airbrush tattoos for #EDC at #FashionShowMall! @skinwarsshow http://t.co/75ZZEzSLOG/p>
RT @morganirwin20: @HotTopic digging the whole outfit thanks!???? http://t.co/IN1uA18DLg/p>
Get in the ring with PVRIS.
Catch them on #WarpedTour all summer long.
Posted by: hottopic
In Vegas for #EDC? Pick up your weekend outfits at Hot Topic Fashion Show and stop by for FREE body painting, presented by @SkinWarsShow. TODAY only, 2-5pm.
Posted by: hottopic
Zippers, D-rings & grommets, oh my! http://t.co/GrzMxsh6i3/p>
So awesome it's luminous! RT @sara_luvs_5sos_: @HotTopic @SWStheband this is my favorite shirt everrr???? http://t.co/KJ9O5ez9Av/p>
RT @OC_Queen: This is probably the best purchase from @HotTopic I could've ever bought. My poor bbys....I will avenge all of you. http://t.…/p>
Funko Pop! - Hot Topic Exclusive: Bing Bong: http://t.co/gBfmNnUEA3 via @YouTube/p>
RT @piercetheveil: Stream our new single #TheDivineZero available now on @AppleMusic -- http://t.co/4VX1C6KcZj!
RT @FFDP: Pre-order #GotYourSix on @AppleMusic NOW and get an INSTANT DOWNLOAD of #JekyllandHyde - http://t.co/josauuu6vc http://t.co/3smoD…/p>
Posted by: HotTopic
Happy Birthday @joshuadun! |-/
Posted by: hottopic
Stay *ghoul*: http://t.co/kZrkN7ad27 #TokyoGhoul http://t.co/SEbCHJJZ5w/p>
Then Get Our Can't Miss Style Reports, Retailer Offers
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text:
New Faculty, Dr. Kelly McDonough
Posted: May 24, 2012
Professor Kelly McDonough completed the PhD at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2010. She is the author of a book currently under advance contract with the University of Arizona Press, titled Reading and Writing Nahuas: Mexican Indigenous Intellectuals from the Colonial Period through Today to be published in 2013 as a part of the First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies initiative. In it, she challenges the assumption that indigenous intellectual activities in Latin America ceased or decreased dramatically with the advent of the European conquest and colonization. In addition to this book project, Professor McDonough has co-edited a volume on Human Rights in Latin American and Iberian Cultures, and she has published two scholarly articles: "Indigenous Intellectuals in Early Colonial Mexico: The Case of Antonio del Rincón, Nahua Grammarian and Priest" in the Latin American Colonial Review and "Estrategias discursivas de la Reconquista y la Conquista" in Confluencia: Revista Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura.
Professor McDonough is a regular participant of the Zacatecas Institute for Teaching and Research in Ethnology (IDIEZ), Associate Editor of the Hispanic Series and Hispanic Issues Online of the University of Minnesota, and a member of the Abya Yala Working Group of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association.


text:
Shortcrust Pastry
|Plain flour
|6 Ounce (185 Grams)
|To Taste
|2 Ounce (60 Grams)
|1 Ounce (30 Grams)
Sift the flour with a generous pinch of salt.
Rub the fats into the flour (start by cutting them into chunks, then use the fingertips) until you have the texture of breadcrumbs.
Add a bare 2 tablespoons of very cold water and stir the mixture with a knife until it sticks together in lumps.
If the mixture looks very dry and is reluctant to form lumps, add a little more water, but take care not to add too much or the pastry will be sticky and difficult to roll out.
Use one hand to gather the pastry together in the bowl, then knead lightly for just a few seconds so that the dough is smooth.
Roll out immediately, or, if you have time, leave it to rest for a few minutes in a cool place.
(If you put it in the refrigerator, be sure to cover it with plastic wrap.) Use as required.
As a general rule, shortcrust pastry should be baked at 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6, until lightly browned.


text:
by Staff Writer
Everybody puts pictures in picture frames, and for good reason. Frames draw attention to pictures as something of importance, but it doesn't have to end there. Whether you have antique wood frames or sleek metal photo frames, with a little creativity, you can use picture frames to create distinctive style in your home.
A picture: Using a frame to hold a picture isn't a new concept, but try doing it in a different way. Enlarge a picture of a beautiful landscape and cut it into four rectangles. Put each rectangle in its own frame and hang them with a few inches between each.
Wine corks or sea shells: Glue old wine corks, or sea shells from a vacation or a craft store, onto cardboard. Completely cover the surface so none of the cardboard backing shows through; then frame it after removing the glass from the frame. It is best to lay out your design before gluing to see how it looks and fits together.
Memories: Put ticket stubs from your favorite concert or the playbill from the time you saw a Broadway play in the picture frame. You can even collage several items from one or many vacations.
Material: You can fill your frames with any interestingly patterned material. If you find some wallpaper you like but don't want to wallpaper a whole room, just frame a rectangle of it. The same can be done with some leftover fabric. You could also frame some mosaic tiles meant for a kitchen backsplash.
Nothing: Consider putting nothing in your picture frames. Remove any backing or matting and lean the empty frames against the back of a bookshelf or hang them on the wall. You might be surprised at how good it looks. You can also paint a rectangle of color on the wall and frame that to give some easy color to a room without the trouble of painting the entire wall.
One of the great qualities of frames is that it is so easy to change their contents. So be brave. You can always change out what is inside.


text:
First Niagara Financial ReviewsFirst Niagara Financial 58
I have been working at First Niagara Financial full-time (More than a year)
Work with a great group of people
Constantly pushing sales with sometimes no benefit to me
First Niagara Financial Interviews
Interview Experience
Interview Experience
Getting an Interview
Getting an Interview
Interview Difficulty
- Accepted OfferPositive ExperienceEasy Interview
I applied through college or university – interviewed at First Niagara Financial.
All Behavioural Interview and Resume based interviews
Applied on College career portal and got the screening call within a week. However, got the next round call only after 2 months as they freezed the hiring process for a while.
1.) Firstly, HR Screening
2.) Onsite interview with Hiring Managers
3.) Onsite interview with higher management
Interview Questions
- Resume based questions and would you like to settle in Buffalo Answer Question
First Niagara Financial Awards & Accolades
Let us know if we're missing any workplace or industry recognition – Add an award
Additional InfoUnlock Profile
A lot of water and a few barrels have gone over Niagara Falls since First Niagara Bank was founded. Tracing its roots to 1870, the flagship subsidiary of acquisitive First Niagara Financial operates about 300 branches in upstate New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. The bank offers financial services like deposits, loans, insurance, investments, and wealth management. Commercial real estate loans, business loans, and residential mortgages account for most of the bank's loan portfolio. Subsidiary First Niagara Commercial Bank accepts municipal deposits.


text:
Clif Martinez makes some really good music to listen to while working and being productive. It's in the background, but not too boring. It changes and flows but it doesn't distract.
Tag: music
One morning at six o'clock he read the words of Amsterdam to Fernand, a restaurateur who was about to set off fishing for scorpion fish and conger eels for the bouillabaisse. Overcome, Fernand broke out in sobs and cut open some sea urchins to help control his emotion.
They only want you when you're seventeen.
The perfect ringtone
The really perfect ringtone made me smile. It's now my default ringtone.


text: https://bbs.archlinux.org – WorMzy is telling you that there is no fancy mounting tricks or anything needed, you only need the /boot partition, which can be pretty small, and the bootloader installed to that drive. In fact, you might even be able to get away with the bootloader alone (and its config?). WonderWoofy https://bbs.archlinux.org/profile.php?id=60312 2013-02-25T01:44:59Z (HowTos)


text:
Parents of Cotton, Pryor on stump to define sons
Posted: July 20, 2014 at 3:39 a.m.
Avis Cotton and Barbara Pryor both wear mementos near their hearts that remind them of their sons.
This story is only available from our archives.
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100 in LR rally against Gaza Strip violence
About 100 protesters gathered in the River Market District on Saturday between noon and 1:30 p.m., rallying in opposition to Israel's ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. Read »
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Starting next year, state employees' high-deductible health insurance plans will no longer pay for dozens of brand-name prescription drugs that have cheaper generic equival... Read »


text:
seems to me mr kelly is demanding too much from nfl teams. same thing happened last year with tampa bay!
Originally written on 60 Max Power O | Last updated 1/6/13
One day you're hot, the next you're not. The Cleveland Browns have shifted their focus and are moving on from onetime favorite, Oregon's Chip Kelly. Kelly, after his first meeting with the Browns, made his next stop with the Philadelphia Eagles, who are also interested and rumored to have had a marathon 9 hour meeting. Reports on Saturday had Kelly pretty much a done deal in Cleveland, but Kelly left without an agreement.
8 Comments:
Can we find writers who can spell?
Browns should go after JIM TRESSEL!!!!!!
No! Not Jim Tressel. The NFL requires long sleeve sweaters!
The Browns look like losers right now, but in the long run they will be better off without Kelly. His offense will be as successful as the wild-cat. He'd go through 4 QBs a year running his offense.
Go with a real winner like COACH JIM TRESSEL
same old story/new owner/no one wants to come to cleveland and it cannot be the fans. better beg, pleed,sell the house, get nick saban. but that wisenhent guy will probably win the job by default.forget tressel his style isnt for the pros,oh wait a minute run the tailback on the first two downs and throw on third and long, wait a minute thats what we just did. should have keep coach m and gave him fair chance.
Give Romeo another shot!
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text:
Originally written on Larry Brown Sports | Last updated 10/26/12
Stephen A. Smith alluded to the controversial phrase many believed he said in Thursday's edition of "First Take" during the opening moments of Friday's show, telling viewers he would speak "slowly and clearly" to avoid future misunderstandings. "You know what? I'm very, very good," Smith said after being introduced by the show's moderator. "I'm just very determined to speak very slowly and clearly today, so everybody's clear about the things that come out of my mouth." Smith and fellow debater Skip Bayless then were asked to discuss Sunday's New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys game. He again mentioned that he would speak slowly. "Well, speaking very slowly, I cannot believe that this is even a legitimate question. I do not believe that the New York Giants will lose twice to the Dallas Cowboys in the same season." Many people who watched Thursday's show, or later saw the clip online (watch it here), believe Smith said "n—a please" during a discussion about Kobe Bryant. During another appearance on ESPN later in the day, Smith denied saying that phrase. "There have been numerous reports out there that I uttered a word that I should not have uttered. I'm going to repeat this one more time: I did not do so. "I'm a New Yorker, I speak very, very fastly, and sometimes my words are misconstrued and I get that. If I were to say such a word, because I work for this network, because this network would never condone such a thing, I would instantly issue an apology because obviously it would be a huge mistake on my part if I did utter such a word. But I did not. "I was speaking fast and I can understand how it could be misconstrued for those that were listening. But I did not utter that word. This is the second time in my career at First Take that I've had to say I did not utter that word. "I hope this is not something that I have to revisit in the future. Maybe I need to slow down, articulate myself more clearly and precisely every single word that I utter out of my mouth. But please understand I did not say the things they are reporting that I said. And hopefully I will not have to ever address this again." We have reached out to Smith via email to ask him what he did say.
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text:
Velma Rae Dunning Porter passed away August 7, 2014, after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 78. Velma was born on December 7, 1935, in Vicksburg, MS, where she lived until her graduation from Carr Central High School in 1954. She achieved her B. S. Magna Cum Laude in Mathematics in 1958 and her M. S. in Teaching Mathematics in 1971 from the Mississippi University for Women and spent many years teaching. She taught high school math and science in Abilene, Texas; Carr Jr. High, Vicksburg, MS; Belleview High School, NE; Heritage Academy, Columbus, MS; and at Henderson Jr. High and Starkville High School. Velma retired from teaching in the Starkville Public School System in 1992.
Velma was a long-standing member of the First United Methodist Church in Starkville where she enjoyed singing in the choir and participating in the Savage Bible Group and the Methodist Women's Group. She was a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Kappa Kappa Iota, Starkville Newcomers and was a past president of Friends of the Starkville Public Library and of the M' Lady Garden Club. She was an outstanding teacher, wife, mother, grandmother, volunteer and compassionate friend to many in the community.
Velma is preceded in death by her parents, Raymond K. Dunning and Sarah M. Hallberg Dunning and her siblings: Edward G. Dunning, Thomas (Ted) Dunning and Margie Mai Dunning Bawduniak. She is survived by her husband of nearly 58 years, William M. Porter; her daughters, Devra Kay Rich (Mark) and Susan Rae Shaffer (Lee); grandsons, Dr. William A. Shaffer, Thomas P. Shaffer and James D. Shaffer.
Visitation will be at the Starkville First United Methodist Church on Tuesday, August 12 from      10:00- 11:00 AM with a celebration of her life to follow at 11:00. A private interment will be held at the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg, MS.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Methodist Senior Services, Friends of the Starkville Public Library, or the Alzheimer's Association.
You can go online and leave the family a condolence at: www.welchfuneralhomes.com.


text:
Jun 09, 2014
AMMAN [MENL] -- Jordan has hosted a major exercise that stressed bordersecurity.
Jun 08, 2014
TEL AVIV [MENL] -- President Barack Obama was expected to seal a U.S.reconciliation deal with Iran in the fall of 2014.
Jun 05, 2014
ANKARA [MENL] -- Turkey has signed several cooperation agreements withWestern defense majors.
May 29, 2014
AMMAN [MENL] -- The United States has brought additional equipment to secureJordan's northern border with Syria.


text:
Martial Arts Sparring Gear Sets
- $42.95
- $74.95
- $94.95
Kickstarted 'Kung Fury' Premiers Today!
It wasn't but just over a year ago that, armed only with the trailer below, the creative talents behind Kung Fury successfully Kick-started their film fantasies with a whopping $630,019 crowd-funded campaign that would allow them to complete their 1/2-hour short film.
Last month th
9 Year-Old Girl Amazes Britain's Got Talent with Her Martial Arts Skills!
Recently, Jesse-Jane McParland, a 9 year old girl from Ireland wowed the judged on Britain's Got Talent with her amazing martial arts skills. She began practicing in the martial arts at the age of 3 and has only been studying for a total of 6 years. In the video, she states that she started in bal
April 2015 - New Products
In this video, our customer service guy Ian takes a closer look at some of our newest products. The Halo Reach Energy Sword, the Compact Pepper Spray Keychain, the
Happy 75th Birthday Chuck Norris!
For many of us, the high-kicking feats of the great bearded one served as our gateway to the martial arts. Come share in a short internet video celebration of Mr. Chuck Norris. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll see many, many roundhouse kicks.


text:
Mission & Purpose
Mission: Spill Prevention and Technical Assistance
Purpose: To provide technical information and guidance to assist storage tank owner/operator with:
- Development and implementation of preventative measures to reduce the potential for releases from underground storage tank systems, including measures operators can take to reduce the likelihood and minimize impact of spills during filling operations.
- Procedures for reporting releases or threats of a release from underground storage tanks (UST) or aboveground storage tanks (AST).
- Guidance for assessment and remediation during tank removal.
- Guidance for Homeowners with:
- underground storage tanks for heating oil
- release of heating oil from tank or piping
- Guidance for oil delivery professionals.
- Spill Prevention Contingency Plan development assistance for facilities with AST and/or UST.
Information & Forms specific to fuel oil and storage tanks
- Help for Homeowners & Businesses
This series of explanations, guidelines, recommendations, and tips are provided to help you through the process of preventing and cleaning up spills on your property.
- WSC-402-96 Underground Storage Tank Closure Assessment Manual
- WSC-94-400 Interim Remediation Waste Management Policy for Petroleum Contaminated Soils
- WSC-02-411 Characterizing Risks Posed by Petroleum Contaminated Sites: Implementation of the MADEP VPH/EPH Approach file size 1MB
- A Guide for Oil Companies: Preventing Costly Spills During Heating Oil Deliveries
- Interim Final Petroleum Report: Development of Health-Based Alternative to the Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH) Parameter
- Underground Storage Tank (UST) Program
Effective January 2, 2015, new MassDEP Underground Storage Tank (UST) Regulations (310 CMR 80.00) address the registration, installation, operation, maintenance, closure and inspection of UST systems used to store petroleum fuels and hazardous substances. The UST program is a major component of the state's groundwater resource protection efforts.
The Massachusetts Legislature transferred most responsibility for UST regulation from the Department of Fire Services (DFS) to MassDEP in 2009. The new MassDEP rules replace DFS regulations at 527 CMR 9.00, which were rescinded on January 1, 2015, although the fundamentals of the program, including most basic DFS requirements, remain the same. MassDEP has also incorporated recent federal requirements and added new provisions to ensure that UST systems are properly installed, operated and maintained; that leaks and spills are prevented and contained; that UST systems and components found to be leaking or not working properly are repaired or replaced; and any resulting environmental damage is limited, assessed and cleaned up. Learn more about the new MassDEP regulations.
- UST Query Tool - Records of UST-Related Leaks and Spills
- Welcome to the Department of Revenue's Online Service Center for the Underground Storage Tank Program
This unit oversees the operations of two programs: the Petroleum Product Cleanup Fund and the Cities and Towns Municipal Grants Program.
- US EPA: Office of Underground Storage Tanks


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Dreams can come true...and now it is your chance to purchase the castle of your dreams.
With nearly 8100 square feet internally, situated on a 31x100 square foot lot and resting graciously in one of the most sought after locations in Hamilton Heights this building boasts an exquisitely crafted facade and large windows throughout with three exposure. This extraordinary house has five floors, a finished basement, eleven rooms, six baths. The high ceilings, stained glass windows, french doors and parquet floors will remind you of the craftsmanship of another time.
Currently configured as a 2-family unit home, this remarkable property has a two car garage and a Japanese-themed garden.
A building of this quality won't last long so hurry to view this beautiful home.
Showing by appointment only.
For more information: jrgomes.com or 917-445-0628
A Remarkable opportunity to own a low maintenance, large, one bedroom/ one bathroom apartment in a beautiful Prospect Heights Co-Op. Each room has large windows that afford plenty of light throughout the apartment. High ceilings and street views add to the impression of a grand space. This apartment needs renovation, but once completed, this apartment would have all the grandeur of a stately home.
This established prewar building has solid financials and offers a doorman, live-in super, laundry facility, elevator, bike storage and recently renovated lobby. Ideally located, this pre war gem sits elegantly on the corner of Eastern Parkway and Washington Avenue directly across the street from the Brooklyn Museum. Just steps away to the 2/3 trains, Brooklyn Botanical Gardens & Central Library at Grand Army Plaza as well as the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket. Just a stroll to Prospect Park with your dog since this is a pet friendly building!
Contract signed! Rare and elegant Classic Seven with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and copious closet space. he approximate 2200 Sq. Ft. gem also boasts a Formal Dining Room, Maids Quarters and Breakfast Room. This gorgeous pre-war property, perfect for family and entertainment, is conveniently located within a short distance to the Brooklyn Library and Grand Army Plaza Farmers Market. The generous windows throughout three of the rooms offer the spectacular views of the newly renovated and redesigned Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Botanical Gardens. With 10 foot ceilings and hardwood floors, this apartment offers free flowing space as well as the comfort of home.
Why use our agents?
* A dynamic, full-time professional, fiercely committed to advocating on your behalf.
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* A New York expert who knows the local market and its neighborhoods.
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* A socially conscious agent and company you can feel great about: we are active supporters in the city through volunteerism and charitable donations.
She is highly recommended "Talia worked harder on our behalf than any other broker we had ever used before. She spent weeks and countless hours helping us navigate the Harlem market.With her perseverance we were finally able to find a townhouse that fit our needs and budget!"
Gloria Desmond
November 28 2014
"Lenn was extremely helpful. He is honest and a dedicated professional who was able to turn our apartment search into a successful, stress free experience."
Mary Bologne
October 9 2014


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KDL Recommends > Staff Picks > LibraryReads Nationwide Staff Picks > September 2013 LibraryReads List
KDL Recommends
A House in the Sky: A Memoir
Title: A House in the Sky: A Memoir
Author: Amanda Lindhout & Sara Corbett
KDL Description:
"Absolutely gripping, harrowing and unforgettable! This well-written memoir is a true testament to the strength of one woman's spirit and her will to survive in unimaginable circumstances. The family issues that led Amanda Lindhout from her home in Canada to a life of world travel and a career in journalism are as richly detailed and compelling as the brutal account of her fifteen month-long captivity by Somali Islamist rebels in 2008. She tells her story with such vulnerability and honesty that it is a privilege to read it."
—Mary Coe, Fairfield Woods Branch Library, Fairfield, CT
Amazon Description:
The dramatic and redemptive memoir of a woman whose curiosity led her to the world's most beautiful and remote places, its most imperiled and perilous countries, and then into fifteen months of harrowing captivity—an exquisitely written story of courage, resilience, and grace
As a child, Amanda Lindhout escaped a violent household by paging through issues of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. At the age of nineteen, working as a cocktail waitress in Calgary, Alberta, she began saving her tips so she could travel the globe. Aspiring to understand the world and live a significant life, she backpacked through Latin America, Laos, Bangladesh, and India, and emboldened by each adventure, went on to Sudan, Syria, and Pakistan. In war-ridden Afghanistan and Iraq she carved out a fledgling career as a television reporter. And then, in August 2008, she traveled to Somalia—"the most dangerous place on earth." On her fourth day, she was abducted by a group of masked men along a dusty road.
Held hostage for 460 days, Amanda converts to Islam as a survival tactic, receives "wife lessons" from one of her captors, and risks a daring escape. Moved between a series of abandoned houses in the desert, she survives on memory—every lush detail of the world she experienced in her life before captivity—and on strategy, fortitude, and hope. When she is most desperate, she visits a house in the sky, high above the woman kept in chains, in the dark, being tortured.
Vivid and suspenseful, as artfully written as the finest novel, A House in the Sky is the searingly intimate story of an intrepid young woman and her search for compassion in the face of unimaginable adversity.


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"IT" entries
Deploy Continuous Improvement
Balancing the work it takes to improve capability against delivery work that provides value to customers.
Download a free copy of Building an Optimized Business, a curated collection of chapters from the O'Reilly Web Operations and Performance library. This post is an excerpt by Jez Humble, Joanne Molesky, and Barry O'Reilly from Lean Enterprise, one of the selections included in the curated collection.
In most enterprises, there is a distinction between the people who build and run software systems (often referred to as "IT") and those who decide what the software should do and make the investment decisions (often called "the business"). These names are relics of a bygone age in which IT was considered a cost necessary to improve efficiencies of the business, not a creator of value for external customers by building products and services. These names and the functional separation have stuck in many organizations (as has the relationship between them, and the mindset that often goes with the relationship). Ultimately, we aim to remove this distinction. In high-performance organizations today, people who design, build, and run software-based products are an integral part of business; they are given — and accept — responsibility for customer outcomes. But getting to this state is hard, and it's all too easy to slip back into the old ways of doing things.
Ghosts in the machines
The secret to successful infrastructure automation is people.
"The trouble with automation is that it often gives us what we don't need at the cost of what we do." —Nicholas Carr, The Glass Cage: Automation and Us
Virtualization and cloud hosting platforms have pervasively decoupled infrastructure from its underlying hardware over the past decade. This has led to a massive shift towards what many are calling dynamic infrastructure, wherein infrastructure and the tools and services used to manage it are treated as code, allowing operations teams to adopt software approaches that have dramatically changed how they operate. But with automation comes a great deal of fear, uncertainty and doubt.
Common (mis)perceptions of automation tend to pop up at the extreme ends: It will either liberate your people to never have to worry about mundane tasks and details, running intelligently in the background, or it will make SysAdmins irrelevant and eventually replace all IT jobs (and beyond). Of course, the truth is very much somewhere in between, and relies on a fundamental rethinking of the relationship between humans and automation.
Read more…
Elvis has left the ivory tower
Pragmatism now rules in team structure, technology, engineering practices, and operational innovation.
Ancient history in computer science (2004) provides a gem about the personas that Microsoft envisioned as users of the development environment Visual Studio. They developed three:
- Mort, the opportunistic developer, likes to create quick-working solutions for immediate problems. He focuses on productivity and learns as needed.
- Elvis, the pragmatic programmer, likes to create long-lasting solutions addressing the problem domain, and learning while working on the solution.
- Einstein, the paranoid programmer, likes to create the most efficient solution to a given problem and typically learns in advance before working on the solution.
These designations received a lot of negative press, particularly around the Mort persona, but I want to focus on Einstein and Elvis.
Formerly, software architects exemplified the Einstein persona: isolated from day-to-day development details, focused on building abstractions and frameworks. The isolation is so common that it spawned its own "Ivory Tower Architect" derogatory phrase. But the realities of building systems that scale as fast as the business does invalidates that approach. Now, Elvis, the pragmatic developer, has ascended to architect while simultaneously descending from the Ivory Tower. Modern architects don't have the luxury of isolation from the gritty realities of software development today. Pragmatism now rules in team structure, technology, engineering practices, and operational innovation because:
DevOps keeps it cool with ICE
How inclusivity, complexity, and empathy are shaping DevOps.
Over the next five years, three ideas will be central to DevOps: the need for the DevOps community to become more Inclusive; the realization that increasing Complexity of systems is the underlying reason for DevOps; and the critical role of Empathy in the growth and adoption of DevOps. Channeling John Willis, I'll coin my own DevOps acronym, ICE, which is shorthand for Inclusivity, Complexity, Empathy.
There is a major expansion of the DevOps community underway, and it's taking DevOps far beyond its roots in agile systems administration at "unicorn" companies (e.g., Etsy or Netflix). For instance, a significant majority (80-90%) of participants at the Ghent conference were first-time attendees, and this was also the case for many of the devopsdays in 2014 (NYC, Chicago, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and others). Moreover, although areas outside development and operations were still underrepresented, there was a more even split between developers and operations folks than at previous events. It's also not an accident that the DevOps Enterprise conference took place the week prior to the fifth anniversary devopsdays and included talks about the DevOps journeys at large "traditional" organizations like Blackboard, Disney, GE, Macy's, Nordstrom, Raytheon, Target, UK.gov, US DHS, and many others.
The DevOps community has always been open and inclusive, and that's one of the reasons why in the five years since the word "DevOps" was coined, no single, widely accepted definition or practice has emerged. The lack of definition is more of a blessing than a curse, as DevOps continues to be an open conversation about ways of making our organizations better. Within the DevOps community, old-time practitioners and "newbies" have much to learn from each other.
Cloud security is not an oxymoron
Think your IT staff can protect you better than major cloud providers? Think again.
I just ran across Katie Fehrenbacher's article in GigaOm that made a point I've been arguing (perhaps not strongly enough) for years. When you start talking to people about "the cloud," you frequently run into a knee-jerk reaction: "Of course, the cloud isn't secure."
I have no idea what IT professionals who say stuff like this mean. Are they thinking about the stuff they post on Facebook? Or are they thinking about the data they've stored on Amazon? For me, the bottom line is: would I rather trust Amazon's security staff, or would I rather trust some guy with some security cert that I've never heard of, but whom the HR department says is "qualified"? Read more…
Interim report card on O'Reilly's IT transformation
Six months in and there is much to celebrate and plenty of work still to be done.
Implementing O'Reilly's new IT strategy is like swapping out airplane wings mid-flight. We're making considerable change, but at the same time we can't disrupt the services and projects that are already underway.
3 types of IT leaders: maverick, innovator, guarantor
Understanding why an IT leader operates a certain way can net better results for everyone.
It can often appear there is only one type of person leading IT. That's not the case. Understanding an IT leader's motivations and needs will ultimately benefit all involved.
Can good IT managers make great business leaders?
The best IT managers have a background in IT and general management.
Being a good IT manager is hard. Being a great business leader is harder. What separates them is not just the ability to continually and uniquely inspire, but to also be a well-informed and skilled business manager.
White House proposes sweeping federal IT reforms
Federal CIO Kundra has released a 25-point plan to reform the troubled federal IT sector.
The Obama administration has proposed a 25-point strategy to reboot how the federal government purchases and uses information technology, including new consideration for startups and a "cloud first" approach to new investments.
The four pillars of O'Reilly's IT strategy
We're embarking on a journey that will transform how we deliver and support our technology needs.
O'Reilly's new IT strategy had to consider the company's culture of innovation while introducing the right level of predictability. Too much unmanaged innovation or codified predictability would limit our ability to grow and be a recipe for IT failure.


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Survivor for iPod touch (5th gen.)
+ 6 More Colors
Happy 4th of July! Enter code ID30 at checkout to save 30% through July 5th, 2015
Survivor Slim gives you and your iPod touch protection enough to pass military-standard tests, yet it's slim enough to go with you everywhere.
We paired a super-protective polycarbonate shell with tough, resilient silicone. We added a touch-through protective film for your touchscreen, and silicone covers for the controls and Home button. The result is Survivor Slim: full-time shock/drop/vibration protection for your iPod touch that you never have to think about, in a slim, pocketable profile.


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What's in a name? If the mission revolves around promoting activities and strategies that help residents of the community live better and longer, then a name can be instrumental in focusing people on that mission. That name can be especially helpful when it already possesses some familiarity in th...Read More
Healthy Communities Collaborative
by Jennie Zeitler, Staff Writer The annual Community Thanksgiving Meal will be served Thursday at the Little Falls Community High School (LFCHS) from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and everyone is welcome to the free event. This is be the 31st year the meal will bring people together to celebrate and give thank...Read More
by Jennie Zeitler, Staff Writer Members of the Live Better! Live Longer! (LBLL) initiative have been holding community gatherings around the county during the past year. Wednesday featured two such gatherings in Little Falls — one at breakfast and one at supper. The agenda included a meal followed...Read More
By Jennie Zeitler, Staff Writer St. Gabriel's Hospital is required to conduct a comprehensive health needs assessment of the county every three years. In partnership with Morrison County's Public Health and Social Services departments, a survey was completed in 2012. "We sent 800 surveys to ho...Read More
By Tina Snell, Staff Writer Robert Sweetgall, author, speaker and walker extraordinaire, spent Wednesday in Morrison County talking to residents about living healthier. The sessions were sponsored by Healthy Communities Collaborative and Live Better, Live Longer. Sweetgall's scheduled talks inclu...Read More
Talks include how to add years to one's life and life to one's years By Tina Snell, Staff Writer The Live Better Live Longer (LBLL) – Move Team has enticed motivational speaker Robert Sweetgall to speak in locally. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, May 15, at two venues in Morrison ...Read More
Focus to increase support for breastfeeding among employers, community by Jennie Zeitler, Staff WriterAs part of the Live Better! Live Longer! project led by Healthy Communities Collaborative (HCC), a new initiative is being established in Morrison County to encourage and support breastfeeding. St...Read More
By JENNIE ZEITLER, Staff Writer [email protected] The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is encouraging all residents who may be eligible to apply for help with their food costs. SNAP used to be called the Food Stamp Program. Benefits are now accessed through a card...Read More
Alcohol and tobacco-free family event comes to downtown Little Falls Friday, May 18 There will be plenty to do at Le Bourget Park Friday, May 18, starting at 5 p.m. with local bands "Big Sweet Life" and "Sons of Knut" headlining local music talent while the concession stand and grill opens. ...Read More


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Pamela's Healing for Life
Newsletter & Blog
I will be posting a monthly newsletter. Weekly I will go more in depth over a few of the topics or other thoughts that I have. Our mission at Kankakee Natural Foods is to 'Empower you to reclaim your health" Our focus is to help educate and make you aware to make better choices to lead a healthier lifestyle. We are here to help, do not hesitate to ask questions or stop in!
2014 Health and Wellness Expo Highlights
2013 Health and Wellness Expo Highlights
2014 Newsletters


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Instant "Members Only" Coupon Codes Emailed NOW When You Sign Up for FREE Membership!
You are already an existing user.
Do you want to opt back in?
Please check your email inbox for a confirmation message.
Just click the link to complete your subscription and receive your coupon codes.
Popular Destinations
- Mexico
- Caribbean
- Las Vegas
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- Costa Rica
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Jam Sil Tourist Hotel
With a stay at Jam Sil Tourist Hotel, you'll be centrally located in Seoul, convenient to Kidzania and COEX Convention and Exhibition Center. This hotel is within close proximity of Seoul Nori Madang and Lotte World. Read More About Jam Sil Tourist Hotel
Jam Sil Tourist Hotel Deals & Specials
215-sq-foot (20-sq-meter) room with city views
Entertainment - Free WiFi, LCD TV with cable channels
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- 24 Hour Room Service
- Business Center
- Coffee Shop
- Concierge Desk
- Conference Rooms
- Dry Cleaning Service
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- Express Check-In
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- Laundry Services/Laundry Facility
- Multilingual Staff
- Wedding Services
(+) = Additional fees may apply for the use of these amenities.
(*) = Free, some restrictions may apply.


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Rated #1 in photo quality, Artisan inkjet printers also deliver incredible performance, with the Artisan 730 achieving the World's Fastest 4" x 6" photo print speeds1. Get 4" x 6" photos in as fast as 10 seconds1. Speed through everyday projects. The Artisan 730 gives you all the tools you need with a smart touch panel and 2.5" LCD. Print, scan, and access memory card slots1 from any room in the house with Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ n wireless networking1 and built-in Ethernet networking. Or, use Epson Connect to print directly from your smartphone, iPad®, tablet and more1.
Customer Reviews of Epson Artisan 730 All-in-One Printer with Copy, Scan, Fax, Black
Very happy!1/6/2013
Great value and quick service!
No Fax Functionality12/25/2012
Since there is no fax functionality as advertised, I could not rate it higher than a 3. I bought the printer with a high consideration for the fax function. As a regular printer though, it is very good.
So far, this Epson printer is performing as expected, excellent. And at a great price. That said, as with all printers, Ink cost appears to be high. Otherwise, I really like this printer.
Great printer12/6/2012
This is an excellent printer - this is the second one I've bought. I especially like the clog-free, dye-based inks.
Great printing from anywhere!11/16/2012
The printer was easy to set-up and use and it works great with the iprint app. The built-in duplexer is going to make saving paper printer. Having a wireless printer is nice for everyone to use, including my roomates
Awesome printer11/6/2012
I had the epson artisan 710 for about 3 years and the heads finally wore out. I purchased the epson artisan 730 & I love the little upgrades they did. Still prints the best photos out there and it's still fast as can be. I don't think I'll buy any other printer other than the artisan line from epson. Only down fall, the 730 does not have fax, you'd have to get the artisan 837 for that.
EPSON Artison73010/29/2012
This is a phenomenal unit for the price! Very easy to set up on my network and had all computers in the house connected wirelessly in a snap. Very impressed.


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To automatically re-order this item before you run out, select the recurring order option during checkout.
A Complete Guide to the Basics Level 1
This is the ultimate self-teaching method designed to offer quality instruction, terrific songs, and a high-quality CD with 45 full-demo tracks. It can be used by students who want to teach themselves or by teachers for private or group instruction. Simply follow the tips and lessons in the book as you listen to the teacher on the CD. This book includes over 40 great songs and covers: songs, chords and melodies; bass and chord patterns; playing tips and techniques; music notation; and more. Learn at your own pace and open the door to the world of accordion music!
|Play Today Instructional Series
|Play Accordion Today!


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It takes guts to be a parent. Anyone who is a parent will tell you that as they're (a) scrubbing crayon drawings off the new flat-screen TV, (b) getting another call from the principal, or (c) raising bail money. Parents may fret about world trade imbalances, the environment health of our planet and what sort of message they're sending by buying a chicken sandwich … but if you want to see them get really stressed, tell them their pride and joy is taking off his shirt and waving it around like a matador cape during snack time.
NBC's Parenthood is based on the 1989 cinematic comedy of the same name and is produced by that film's director, Ron Howard. Don't be expecting a bouncy, one-liner-filled romp this time around, however. The hour-long TV version is much more of a dramedy that unfolds slowly while examining the various frazzled parents who are members of the extended Braverman clan.
Lots has happened since the show premiered in 2010. As we write this latest review update near the beginning of Season 6 (reportedly the last one), Adam and Kristina are raising a boy with Asperger's syndrome, and their grown daughter Haddie is in a same-sex relationship. Single mom Sarah, who's dating divorcé Hank, is now responsible for two grown children, with one of them, Amber, pregnant and preparing to raise a baby of her own—on her own. (Her one-time fiancé is out of the picture.) Julia and hubby Joel are on the edge of divorce, even though they both still seem to care about each other. Crosby, married and a father himself, tries to come to terms with being a grown-up. And while Zeek and Camille are the patriarchs who helm this motley yet lovable crew, the deck of their own marital ship is not always so stable either.
Need a few more curveballs to go flying into the backstop? Try to put a glove on cancer, puberty, drug abuse, high school sex, marital infidelity and abortion. Every trial and moral quandary possible to mankind seems fair game here.
That's a lot for one show to handle. And, frankly, Parenthood doesn't always do the best job of keeping all those moral and relational juggling pins up in the air. Sure, it adequately illuminates how messy family dynamics can be: The parents we see are flawed (good television-based role models went out with The Cosby Show) but filled with the very best of intentions. Everyone wants to do right by their kids … they just don't quite have a handle on what "doing right" involves. Parenthood pounds no lesson harder than "Wow! Being a parent sure is hard," as if the parents were in some sort of touchy-feely childrearing class where good grades are given just for trying.
Yes, the Bravermans are likeable enough. Yes, they mean well. Yes, they love their children in their own ways, and that's really encouraging in context. Yes, the writing here is crisp and multilayered, and the family dynamics we see may feel very—perhaps even too—realistic. Yes, snippets of dialogue seem pulled right from dining room tables across the country. But this particular tribe hasn't fully grasped the idea that raising children well requires more than love and good intentions. It requires patience, discipline, perspective and an ever-firm but ever-flexible game plan. And it requires parents to be, most importantly, good, living role models—templates from which their children can see how adulthood does (or at least should) work.
Even that doesn't guarantee success, of course. Parenting is as much art as science. But it helps.
Positive Elements
Spiritual Content
Sexual Content
Violent Content
Crude or Profane Language
Drug and Alcohol Content
Other Negative Elements
Pro-social Content
Objectionable Content
Summary Advisory
Plot Summary
Christian Beliefs
Other Belief Systems
Authority Roles
Discussion Topics
Additional Comments/Notes
Episode Reviews
Sarah's mortified when Amber runs away and moves in with her boyfriend—and when she smokes cigarettes, and when she and Adam's daughter get arrested for possessing pot. But all is temporarily forgiven when Amber helps Sarah dress "sexier" for a date—that culminates in sex and an embarrassing walk-in by Sarah's son, who then runs away to live with his drug-addicted father, who rejects him. After a sexual romp with his girlfriend, Crosby finds a canister of another man's semen in her fridge: she wants a baby, it seems, so to mollify her, Crosby promises that he'll have one with her … in three years.
Sexuality, if you haven't noticed, is everywhere, from Zeek's hidden stash of condoms to references to "makeup sex" and masturbation.
Adam, while coaching his son's baseball team, screams at the ump and gets kicked out of the game and off the team. His boy, meanwhile, gets elbowed during a driveway basketball game by Zeek, who wants to toughen him up.
God's name is misused about 10 times, and profanities such as "d‑‑n" and "h‑‑‑" share space with euphemisms such as "frigging" and "fricking."
"These Are the Times We Live In"
Hank, struggling to relate to Sarah, his ex-wife and his daughter all at the same time, confesses that he thinks he too probably has Asperger's. Drew hurts his grandpa's feelings by rejecting an outing with him, then makes it up to him by taking him to a shooting range. Amber—temporary "parent" in charge of Max and Nora—misses a field trip to Alcatraz, which causes Max to freak out. "You're going to be the worst mother in history!" the boy shouts.
Dealing with their looming divorce, Joel gives Julia the house. "It's not an asset, it's a home," he tells her. "If I can't have you in it, I don't want it." But Zeek encourages Joel to not give up on his marriage. "You love her?" He tells him. "Fight for her. Don't leave." And so Joel begins to do just that. He drives to their—Julia's—house and tells her, "I want you back."
Zeek inadvisably pulls out a gun in a liquor store parking lot. Sarah lets Hank's daughter, Rose, watch a television-edited version of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, much to the chagrin of Rose's mother. After missing the trip to Alcatraz, Max spends the evening watching a Chucky horror movie and binging on junk food. "The system has broken down," he explains. Sarah and Amber talk about "poo." Julia shares a glass of wine with her new boyfriend, and he intimates that he wants to spend the night. We hear "h---" (three times) and "d--n" (once). God's name is misused about 10 times.
"I Hear You, I See You"
Parenthood's second season starts off with patriarchs Zeek and Camille working on their broken relationship and Zeek implementing relational techniques given to him by their marriage counselor. The session's "seeing and hearing" injections in Zeek's otherwise obtuse norm seem to be working, even though he confesses, "$150 an hour, and I don't understand a d‑‑n word." (The word "h‑‑‑" shows up elsewhere.)
Adam is feeling pressured at work, and he gets his boss off his back by grabbing credit for a new shoe idea that sis Sarah actually came up with—another thing to feel guilty over. At home, Adam's wife, Kristina, and daughter, Haddie, are at each other over highly stressful driving lessons. "Dad, do you guys have some stupid agreement about not acknowledging each other's flaws?" Haddie asks her dad in exasperation. "Yeah, it's called marriage," he replies.
Meanwhile, Crosby is missing his son, Jabbar, and girlfriend, Jasmine, since she landed a dance job in New York. That strain is all the more exacerbated when his "Skype sex" attempt with Jasmine falls flat because of a Wi-Fi glitch and she begs off on a visit. And finally, Julie and Joel have unexpected anatomy lessons to teach when 6-year-old daughter Sydney wonders, "Did I come out of a vagina?"
"Small Victories"
Drew's girlfriend Amy discovers she's pregnant (we see the two teens briefly in bed together during the "previously on Parenthood" sequence). Amy goes to Planned Parenthood (the clinic's logo gets quite a bit of play) and receives a litany of options, including abortion.
Viewers never actually hear the word abortion, but Amy does. "There's only one option, right?" she says later. Drew tells her that he'll be with her and will support her if she decides to have the baby, but Amy's insistent, asking Drew to help round up the needed money. He does, from his sister, and both cry. "I just don't want to go through with it, you know?" Drew says. Neither Drew nor Amy tell their parents. But Sarah knows that Drew is troubled, grilling him lovingly—and receiving lies in return. "You would tell me, right, if there was something?" Sarah asks. "Yes," Drew lies again.
After the abortion, Drew drives Amy home, both silent. Though the "procedure" seems to have gone "smoothly" and hasn't bothered Amy physically, the crisis takes an emotional toll, and she coldly tells Drew she needs "space." The episode ends with Drew falling into his mother's arms, weeping uncontrollably.
Elsewhere, Max's parents talk with him about puberty. We hear lots of dialogue about body odor, pubic hair, sexual urges, erections and wet dreams. Locked out of his own bathroom, Crosby eventually relieves himself in the backyard. Angry and resentful, Victor wrongly accuses Julia of child abuse. We hear characters say "a‑‑" (twice) and "h‑‑‑" (once). God's name is misused a half-dozen times. Crosby's mother-in-law talks about "what a beautiful morning the Lord has brought," and we see Crosby move aside her Bible.
"Left Field"
Crosby mocks Adam's and Kristina's hyper-regimented lives (complete with times slotted into the calendar for sex). But when Crosby forgets to pick up his own son from school, Jasmine and he submit to a scheduling system of their own. Kristina gets hit with a wallop of a surprise after a breast scan at the doctor's office. (We see her in the examination room, shoulders bare.)
Julia promises Victor that she'll wait in his school's parking lot all day—just in case he needs anything. Sarah obsesses over Drew's recent breakup. Drew pushes his mom away, but seems helped by a conversation he has with her boss, Hank (guest star Ray Romano), who tells Drew he's still "mad as h‑‑‑" over a breakup he suffered 30 years ago and that happy endings are a myth. On the plus side, he also says it's OK to be sad.
We see Crosby and Jasmine post-coitus from the shoulders up, lying on the floor. They talk about where they want to do it the next time, and he later invites her to shower with him. Adam and Kristina call their intimate times "Funkytown" and allude to what might happen during their next trip there. Zeek compares knowledge to a breast, telling Drew he should "suck" it. Drew announces he's gotten spam to make his penis bigger, and he jokes about suicide. Hank blurts out misogynist remarks and suggests to Sarah that Drew should sleep with his ex's best friend. We hear "a‑‑" once and "h‑‑‑" three or four times. God's name is misused nearly a dozen times.
"Man Versus Possum"
Adam and Kristina learn that their son, Max, has Asperger syndrome and begin to develop a strategy with how to cope. Meanwhile, Crosby, who still hasn't told his girlfriend that he has a son by another woman, skips out on a romantic getaway to spend time with his progeny.
We see Crosby's girlfriend in lingerie and hear joking speculation that Julia's husband may be having an affair. Several profanities ("h‑‑‑," "b‑‑ch" and "a‑‑" among them) mix it up with pseudo profanities ("fudge" and "frickin'") and a half-dozen misuses of God's name.
Conversations between siblings and between parents and kids can sometimes be both poignant and even useful. Other times, not so much. Adam and Kristina disapprove of their daughter smoking dope. But then Crosby and Kristina smoke some while other family members look on and laugh. In Parenthood's ethos, pot smoking—and, by extension, hypocrisy—is seen as one big joke.
Readability Age Range
Drama, Comedy
Peter Krause as Adam Braverman; Monica Potter as Kristina Braverman; Erika Christensen as Julia Braverman-Graham; Dax Shepard as Crosby Braverman; Sarah Ramos as Haddie Braverman; Lauren Graham as Sarah Braverman; Craig T. Nelson as Zeek Braverman; Bonnie Bedelia as Camille Braverman; Sam Jaeger as Joel Graham; Savannah Paige Rae as Sydney Graham; Joy Bryant as Jasmine Trussell; Miles Heizer as Drew Holt; Mae Whitman as Amber Holt; Tyree Brown as Jabbar Trussell; Jason Ritter as Mark Cyr; Xolo Mariduena as Victor Graham


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Most Recent Articles In Fashion Features
Latest Fashion Features Articles
- Louis Vuitton Opens Private Museum Near Paris
- Pigalle Paris Wins ANDAM Prize
- Renzo Rosso Counsels Fashion Students
More Articles By
Between same old and silly lies a wealth of wonderful fashion. Here, red-carpet suggestions to suit Hollywood ladies from A-list goddess to adorable ingénue.
RELATED STORY: Bridget Foley's Diary: Step & Repeat, Repeat, Repeat >>


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Originally written on hov-mma | Last updated 10/13/12
We are now just moments away from UFC RIO 3. Here are the final adds brought to you by the fine folks over at bovada. Time is running out. Get a piece of the action! Main Card PPV (10 PM ET) • Light Heavyweight Bout: Anderson Silva (-1000) vs. Stephan Bonnar (+600)• Heavyweight Bout: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (-300) vs. Dave Herman (+230) • Light Heavyweight Bout: Glover Teixeira (-400) vs. Fabio Maldonado (+300) • Welterweight Bout: Jon Fitch (+120) vs. Erick Silva (-150) • Light Heavyweight Bout: Phil Davis (-400) vs. Wagner Prado (+300) • Welterweight Bout: Demian Maia (-155) vs. Rick Story (+125) FX Prelims (8 PM ET)• Featherweight Bout: Rony Jason (-260) vs. Sam Sicilia (+200) • Lightweight Bout: Gleison Tibau (-150) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (+120) • Featherweight Bout: Diego Brandao (-210) vs. Joey Gambino (+170) • Welterweight Bout: Sergio Moraes (-240) vs. Renee Forte (+190) Facebook Prelims (7 PM ET)• Middleweight Bout: Luiz Cane (-160) vs. Chris Camozzi (+130) • Lightweight Bout: Reza Madadi (-185) vs. Cristanio Marcello (+150)
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Persona 4 Endurance Run Weight Loss Thing: Episode 10
By G0rd0nFr33m4n 2 Comments
22 minute run tonight :)
I stayed at my girlfriend's one extra day which is why this is going up a day late.
Going to be running again tomorrow too so hopefully I get a lot of running in.
Here is the link:
Great episode, nothing major happens really, but the friendship system was introduced so that was cool to see again :)


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Press release from PR Newswire
Cisco Recognizes Marvell with Excellence in Delivery & Flexibility Award
Monday, September 24, 2012
Cisco Recognizes Marvell with Excellence in Delivery & Flexibility Award09:00 EDT Monday, September 24, 2012SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Marvell (Nasdaq: MRVL) today announced that it has received the 2012 Excellence in Delivery & Flexibility award from Cisco.(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100719/SF36559LOGO-b)This prestigious award recognizes Marvell for not only consistently supporting upsides and other inventory redirects, but demonstrating proactive world class leadership in collaborating with Cisco in the areas of delivery and flexibility. The distinction was awarded during Cisco's 21st Annual Supplier Appreciation Event, held September 6 at the Santa Clara Convention Center."Marvell delivers outstanding supply flexibility by maintaining best in class cycle time to recovery (CT2R) across all products, and also by consistently exceeding our expectations with an on time delivery performance of 99 percent," said Roger Bhikha, Senior Director, Global Supplier Management, Cisco. "Marvell has demonstrated outstanding collaboration and adoption of the Global Hub Process, and we are pleased to honor them with the 'Excellence in Delivery and Flexibility' award.""Marvell is deeply invested in the success of our customers and partners. It is an honor to receive the Excellence in Delivery & Flexibility award from Cisco, which recognizes Marvell's consistent and dependable delivery of products. After being named Cisco's 'Supplier of the Year' in 2011, this recognition highlights Marvell's strong partnership and commitment to the world's leader in networking," said Weili Dai, Co-Founder of Marvell. "I truly believe this award can be attributed to our core business philosophy of 'win-win'. I would like to thank Cisco for its trust in Marvell, and I'm very proud of our team and would like to express my gratitude for their innovation and dedication." Cisco presented awards to suppliers in recognition of their contributions to Cisco's success in fiscal year 2012. At the event Cisco celebrated the shared successes of its global value chain with strategic suppliers and manufacturing partners and reaffirmed its commitment to a strong, continued partnership that will further accelerate innovation.About MarvellMarvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) is a world leader in the development of storage, communications and consumer silicon solutions. Marvell's diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure, including enterprise, metro, home and storage networking. As used in this release, the term "Marvell" refers to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit Marvell.com.Marvell and the M logo are registered trademarks of Marvell and/or its affiliates. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.For Further Information Contact: Marvell Media RelationsDaniel YooTel: firstname.lastname@example.com Kim AndersonTel: email@example.com Marvell Semiconductor, Inc.


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Vehicle: 2013 Dodge Ram 1500
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Map View 2D/3D with 13.19.0 update
I'm new to forums so I hope I'm in the right place. I just bought two vehicles, a 2013 Dodge Ram 1500 and a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The uconnect system on the Jeep is software version 13.10.0 and the Ram is 13.19.0. On the older version (Jeep), the Map View 2D shows the street names very clearly labeled on the streets and when you switch to 3D the street names go into what I call little cartoon bubbles. There also are not as many streets labeled in 3D. On the new updated version (Ram), the street names are in little cartoon bubbles on 2D and 3D! There are not very many streets labeled and they are very hard to read. The dealership says that is just the way the new version is! I really find that hard to believe. Does anyone know if this is correct? If so, Uconnect needs to do another update and correct this problem! I will never update the Jeep if it is going to change the way I veiw the map!
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PAWTUCKET ŌĆö MondayŌĆÖs city championship meet at Slater Park featured an expected victory by the St. Raphael Academy boys and an end to the SRA girlsŌĆÖ six-year run as champions.
TolmanŌĆÖs girls, coached by former Tiger star Kayla Fleming, beat the Saints 22-33 to capture the city title. Shea High finished a distant third in the meet. Tolman placed five runners among the first seven finishers.
St. RaphaelŌĆÖs Catherine Piper won the race in a personal-best time of 20 minutes, 27 seconds but TolmanŌĆÖs depth and pack-running technique proved difficult to beat.
ŌĆ£Our team has been improving every week,ŌĆØ Fleming said. ŌĆ£IŌĆÖm really proud of the girls.ŌĆØ
The SRA boys rolled to a pair of easy wins over Tolman and Shea as Bobby Parker and Sam Reinhardt led the way, finishing way ahead of the field. Parker was clocked in 16 minutes, 11 seconds over the 2.9-mile course while Reinhardt came home second in 16:43. Teammate Bill LaRose led the next wave, placing third in 18:26.
Tolman edged Shea 28-29 in the battle for second place.
ŌĆ£I figured we would finish 1-2 with Bobby and Sam,ŌĆØ Saints coach Al Vanasse said. ŌĆ£It was just a matter of whether our 3-4-5 runners would come through and they did.ŌĆØ
The Saints placed five runners among the top eight in the boysŌĆÖ race. Justin Rivera took sixth and Alex Wisnewski finished eighth.
SheaŌĆÖs Abraham Kerkula placed fourth in 18:28, followed by TolmanŌĆÖs Ryan Deighan in fifth, seven seconds behind the Raider. Tolman, coached by John Toth, got three runners in the top 10 as Frank Dugan (ninth) and Steve Taveras (10th) finished strong. The Tigers managed a slightly better finish among their top five runners than the Raiders did, allowing them to win by a narrow point.
Piper finished the girlsŌĆÖ meet in good shape, barely breathing hard as she recounted the race.
ŌĆ£That is my best time on this course,ŌĆØ the senior admitted. ŌĆ£It didnŌĆÖt feel like a personal record. I wasnŌĆÖt really pushed in the race so it surprised me a little. My best time before this one at Slater Park is in the high 20:40s.ŌĆØ
TolmanŌĆÖs impetus for winning came with the 2-3-4 finish of junior Brittany Black, senior Kaitlyn Camara and sophomore Amanda Matuszek. Kelly and Lisa Mongeau placed sixth and seventh to seal the victory for the Tigers.
BoysŌĆÖ race
St. Raphael 17, Tolman 38; St. Raphael 18, Shea 38; Tolman 28, Shea 29.
Top 20 finishers: 1. Bobby Parker (SRA) 16:11; 2. Sam Reinhardt (SRA) 16:43; 3. Bill LaRose (SRA) 18:26; 4. Abraham Kerkula (S) 18:28; 5. Ryan Deighan (T) 18:35; 6. Justyn Rivera (SRA) 18:40; 7. Omar Ndiaye (S) 18:54; 8. Alex Wisnewski (SRA) 19:09; 9. Frank Dugan (T) 20:10; 10. Steve Tavera (T) 20:11; 11. Xavier Wallace (S) 20:19; 12. Benton Newray (S) 20:33; 13. John Pacheco (T) 20:35; 14. Wayne Whitaker (T) 20:49; 15. Ethan Mendes (SRA) 20:52; 16. Kyle McIlmail (T) 21:10; 17. Mike Majdalani (T) 21:31; 18. Jake Sawyer (T) 21:35; 19. Corey Letendre (T) 22:01; 20. Mason Delisle (S) 22:05.
GirlsŌĆÖ race
Tolman 22, St. Raphael 33; Tolman 15, Shea 50; St. Raphael 15, Shea 50.
Top 15 finishers: 1. Cat Piper (SRA) 20:27; 2. Brittany Black (T) 21:49; 3. Kaitlyn Camara (T) 21:56; 4. Amanda Matuszek (T) 22:19; 5. Michelle Torres (SRA) 22:31; 6. Kelly Mongeau (T) 24:36; 7. Lisa Mongeau (T) 24:29; 8. Marybeth Mennucci (SRA) 26:45; 9. Hannah Coderre (SRA) 26:45; 10. Joanne Ramirez (S) 31:53; 11. Lupe Rojas (T) 32:59; 12. Neshondra Smith (S) 34:26; 13. Anissa Vargas (S) 34:45; 14. Soleil Mendes-DaGraca (SRA) 36:54; 15. Telanni Mack (S) 36:59.


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U.S. auto industry unites after terrorist attacks DETROIT — Big Three leaders joined hands with labor, government and suppliers Sept. 18 for a combination pep rally/brainstorming session to put the world on notice the industry will remain strong and united in the wake of terrorist attack. The unusual gathering at General Motors Corp.'s Hamtramck, MI, Cadillac plant, was at the request of U.S. President George W. Bush, who directed U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and Labor Secretary ...
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book review
Nairobi — In Beyond the Storm: Treating the Powerless and the Powerful in Mobutu's Congo/Zaire, Dr. William T. Close, an American surgeon, was an eyewitness to the near stillborn birth of an African nation-state. Close would spend sixteen years in the Congo, after initially committing himself to a six weeks tour of duty with a missionary organisation. His most recent book is a fascinating and ultimately heartbreaking chronicle of not only a life lived through army mutinies, coup d'etat and civil war in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the rise and fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, the man to whom Close would become the personal physician. Africa Insight's CURTIS ABRAHAM reviews the book and talks to Dr Close.
During the post-World War II optimism of 1950s America, Close and wife Bettine Moore became involved in the Moral Re-Armament (MRA), a religious movement that was started by the American Lutheran minister Frank Buchman. Bachman's preaching's centered on personal change through the application of what he believed to be the four absolute moral standards: honesty, purity, unselfishness and love would create a "force" of men and women capable of changing the world (years later though the MRA would shift its focus from personal change to what Close calls "a highly vocal anti-Communist lobby".
In May 1960 the MRA developed a plan to send a team from their group to the Belgian Congo. The idea was for the MRA group to help with the smooth transition from Belgian Congo to independent nation-state.
"I was chosen to go because I was bilingual in French I wanted to get out of the headquarters and do something useful," Close told me in a recent interview from his home in Wyoming.
There was practically nothing that connected Close to the African continent.
No sooner had Close stepped foot off the 707 jet airliner in Leopoldville (Kinshasa today), the Belgian Congo capital, when all hell broke loose.
In June 1960 when the Belgian Congo became independent Patrice Lumumba became the country's Prime Minister and Joseph Kasavubu became president. However, not long after that the Congolese army mutinied against the Belgian officers who still controlled it.
Mutiny in Leopoldville
Soldiers in the Congolese army stationed in Leopoldville broke into the armouries and went of the rampage. Reports of murders and rape spread across the city. Bands of armed soldiers roamed the streets stopping Belgians or pulling them out of their vehicles in a frantic search for firearms and valuables. A massive exodus of Europeans occurred from the city. Close estimates that some three thousand Europeans, boarded ferries and barges from Leopoldville heading to Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo (RC) just across the Congo river.
Meanwhile, Close looked for some way of putting his medical skills to good use. He had heard that the majority of the Belgian doctors had also fled the chaos and there were no Congolese doctors for the simple reason that none had been trained by their colonial masters. Darting through the besieged streets of Leopoldville Close managed to push his way through an unruly mob and into the Hopital des Congolais, the city's largest hospital.
During that first day, Close was given a crash course in developing and fixing film for x-rays by the long suffering Belgian doctor Marcel Pirquin. Close, Pirquin and other hospital staff took care of the numerous victims and perpetrators of the violence, both Congolese and Belgian alike.
In the weeks that followed Close went from taking x-rays to making plaster casts for fractures and eventually to surgery. However, hospital conditions were appalling. There was no blood in the blood bank. Used gauze pads were retrieved from the bins, washed and re-used. There was no laboratory to speak of. However, Close quickly became a master at surgical improvisation. He concocted his own gas-oxygen-ether anesthesia and taught Makila, the floor sweeper, to push on the balloon in rhythm with his own breathing to administer the anesthesia. He would use a brace and a drill bit from a carpentry shop to make a burr hole in a small boy's skull to relieve the pressure on his brain- "primitive craniotomy," he called it.
During these turbulent days Close and the surgical staff were conducting many of their operations at gunpoint. Once a Congolese soldier who had been shot in the thigh by a Belgian paratrooper was stretchered into the operating room by three fellow soldiers dressed in full combat gear. When Close tried to get more catgut from an adjacent room
Two of the soldiers blocked his way with one declaring: "You can't leave. If you don't save our man, I'll kill you."
Mobutu enters the scene
Meanwhile Joseph Desire Mobutu had been appointed Chief of Staff with the rank of colonel. The Force Publique would now be called the Armee Nationale Congolaise and according to Close: " Mobutu, addressing the troops in Lingala, the official language of the army, announced that they should elect their officers, designate which white officers were acceptable, and restore order in the camps."
But this did little to prevent the mutiny from spreading to Elisabethville, capital of the mineral-rich Katanga (Shaba) province. Secessionist Moise Tshombe, who was also a client of Close, declared Katanga independent from the rest of the Congo. This move was said to be backed by Belgium and the United States. Belgium's colonial policy cared only for natural resource exploitation and gave no thought to good governance. An estimated sixty percent of the Congo's national income came from the mines in Katanga.
While the Congo struggled with its growing pains as a newly independent nation, Close was having his own personal struggles. His dedication to Hopital des Congolais led to conflict with his MRA colleagues. Peter Howard, who became leader of the MRA following the death of Frank Buchman in 1961 and who had been a political correspondent and investigative reporter for the London Daily Express, wrote to Close saying that he, Close, had an unhealthy obsession with the Hopital des Congolais and advised him that: "You must, can, and will cut with that hospital."
Instead, Close decided that his responsibility as the only surgeon at the hospital greatly outweighed obligations to an evangelical movement and resigned from the MRA rank and file.
Close's first encounter with Mobutu occurred within the background of the unfolding violence in Leopoldville and the Congo generally. "At the time I had just become the physician for the First Parachute Battalion and Mobutu's house was in the paratrooper's camp", says Close, "We were having huge amounts of trauma in the operating rooms and I had been told by the British military attaché, Colonel John Sinclair, that Colonel Mobutu was the most effective guy in the army. So as a sort of typical naïve American, I waved for his car to stop as he was leaving his house and said: 'Bonsoir, mon colonel. I am the surgeon at the Hopital des Congolais, and I wondered if you can do something about all the violence in town so we can catch up in the operating room.' He looked at me and sort of raised his eyebrows and said: 'Oui, c'est possible', and then he rolled up the car window and sped away." Not long after that encounter Close noticed a decrease in the steady stream of trauma cases.
A family affair
Some weeks later Mobutu summoned Close to tend to the medical needs of several family members.
He was asked to remove a fish bone that was stuck in the throat of one of the colonel's great aunts. He would also ask the American surgeon to circumcise a new born son, a procedure Close had not previously performed. Mobutu also asked him to go and sit with his extended family as one great aunt lay dying.
If Close's bold approach to Mobutu to reduce the violence in Leopoldville and his successful medical care with his relatives won him over, then Close was equally enamored with what he saw as Mobutu's courage and compassion. Once there was an attempted mutiny at the police barracks. Mobutu, Col. Sinclair and Close along with three paratroopers went to confront the mutineers. Mobutu told the others to stay back as he walked towards the armed and angry rebels.
"Mobutu halted in front of the police. Slowly and deliberately he scrutinized the men," remembers Close in Beyond the Storm. "Then, standing at attention with his shoulders back and fists clenched, he commanded: Deposez vos armes- drop your weapons' A low murmur came from the men. No one moved. Their weapons were leveled at the colonel. I held my breath. Two men in the front row dropped the butts of their rifles, released the barrels, and the guns clattered to the ground. In seconds, the crashing of weapons echoed in the camp. The handful of defiant men in the front row stepped forward and saluted. The mutiny was over."
Mobutu was a member of the Ngbandi ethnic community. He was born in Lisala, in Congo's northern Equateur province on October 14, 1930.
His family was dirt poor. Although he was christened Joseph-Desire in 1972, however, he acquired the name Sese Seko koko Ngbendu Wazabanga. Literally translated as "hot pepper", "green," and "it stings". Kuku ngbendu wazabanga is an Ngbandi proverb whose translation could mean: "Even if it is not ripe, hot pepper stings"
Mobutu's mother Marie-Madeleine Yemo was abandoned by her husband Alberic Gbemany. She joined the fraternity of femmes libres or 'free women', a lightly veiled euphemism for a prostitute. Such women were ordered by the colonial medical authorities to undergo a monthly medical check-up for STDs. Although she never married again Mobutu was the result of one of numerous liaisons she had. Mobutu (and his siblings) had no knowledge of the identity of his (their) biological father.
Mobutu was a bright but undisciplined student when he attended primary school in Lisala during the 1930s. When Marie-Madeleine moved back to Gbadolite, hunting and fishing with his maternal grandfather and a great uncle occupied most of his time. However, he returned to school. When the Catholic missionaries organized a football team, young Mobutu became the team's goalkeeper. But years later he was booted out of high school when the missionaries learned that he had spent his vacation in Leopoldville (a place forbidden for students) boozing and cavorting with girls.
Such individuals were immediately drafted into the Force Publique, the Congolese national army. Mobutu was all of nineteen years when he donned the uniform of the Force Publique.
Mobutu the journalist
Mobutu's command of the French language landed him the position of secretary-accountant to the commander of the special company. Less than a year later he was sent to the Ecole Centrale in Luluabourg in the south of the country. After successfully completing his studies Mobutu was sent to army headquarters in Leopoldville where he was assigned to the Provincial Secretary of G2, the unit dealing with intelligence, mobilization and operations. He was promoted to sergeant in April 1954. It was around this time that Mobutu married his fifteen year old fiancée, Marie-Antoinette.
It was around this time that Mobutu parted company with the military and became a freelance journalist and began writing articles for L'Avenir, the only newspaper at the time that accepted articles from the Congolese. He became responsible for the editorial pages of both L'Avenir and its successor Actualites Africaines. Patrice Lumumba, who was at the time imprisoned for alleged embezzlement, read and admired Mobutu's articles. When he was finally released from prison Lumumba appointed Mobutu his personal secretary, a position that was made official in July 1960 when Lumumba became prime minister. Not long after that Mobutu was appointed Army chief of staff with the rank of colonel.
During the chaotic "Congo Crisis" period following Lumumba's assassination and power struggle between Joseph Kasavubu, Moise Tshombe and Antoine Gizenga (now current Prime Minister of the D.R.Congo) Close continued his surgical work at the Hopital des Congolais despite the atmosphere of sectarian Congolese politics.
A cheating big man
In January 1962 Mobutu appointed Close chief doctor for the Armee Nationale Congolaise, shortly thereafter he became Mobutu's personal physician. His surgical work at the Hopital des Congolais came to an end in February that year.
In the years to come Close and Mobutu enjoyed a friendly doctor/patient relationship. Evenings at Mobutu's house in the paratrooper camp would be spent playing thirteen games of checkers with Close and drinking cognac.
Mobutu often cheated and Close often lost even if he did catch the general cheating. There were also boat excursions on the Congo River. Both Close and Mobutu would bring families on board during these occasions.
They also became intimate friends. When Close and his wife found it difficult to pay for a Greenwich, Connecticut wedding for their actress daughter Glenn, Mobutu stepped in and offered to pay the American surgeon a $20,000 annual retainer fee as well as an additional $40,000 for his decade of service to him and the people of Congo. This amount not only catered for their daughter's wedding but was also used as a down payment on a ranch in Wyoming where the couple still lives today.
Mobutu was also quite a serious bibliophile. He admired Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince. This is hardly surprising since Machiavelli's tome describes the arts by which a prince can retain control of him realm and Mobutu was one of the undisputed grand masters of holding onto power in Africa.
Napoleon Bonaparte and Gen. Charles De Gaulle, two French-speaking Europeans, were his historical mentors. He was also a voracious reader of economics, geopolitics and history.
Following Mobutu's bloodless coup in 1965. Close's wife Bettine and three of her four children would come and live in Leopoldville.
But all was far from well in the first republic. Political intrigue was always part and parcel of the Congo's political landscape. In 1966 four cabinet members were arrested on charges of complicity in an attempted coup d'etat. One of the alleged coup plotters, a man by the name of Evariste Kimba, had been taken care of by Close when he was under house arrest with Moise Tshombe.
Reportedly, the plot had been brewing in Colonel Bangala's house in the paratrooper's Camp not far from the Close family home. As for Close he remains uncertain whether or not there was indeed a plot. The evening before the executions were to take place Mobutu told Close that Pope Paul VI had urged clemency for the accused coup plotters. Nevertheless, Mobutu remained steadfast and felt that they should be made an example of.
If there was a starting point where Close appears to be questioning his relationship with Mobutu then this might have been it. "I was uncomfortable and insecure after the horror of the hangings," he writes.
In 1968 Mobutu asked Close to take over the administration of Hopital des Congolais. The hospital had become a "death trap" since Close had worked there in 1960-61. With the aid of doctors recruited from the United States, Canada and Europe the hospital underwent renovation and was again fully staffed. In time it became a national referral center of over 2,000 beds. Hopital des Congolais was later renamed Mama Yemo Hospital, after the dictator's mother.
According to Close it later became one of the biggest centers in Africa for patients with AIDS. Sadly, in October 1991 the Congolese army mutinied once again and the AIDS research facilities were destroyed.
Close gives credit to the late Congolese leader for taking seriously the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the threat it posed to the Congolese people. In 1985 the Congolese Minister of Health, a man by the name of Mushobekwa and Dr. Malongo Miatudila, his technical adviser who is also co-author of Beyond the Storm, met with Mobutu and informed him of the seriousness of the pandemic.
Franco's Aids song
Not long after, says Close, Mobutu removed all constraints dealing with AIDS and "An aggressive multimedia campaign was launched against HIV." Francois Luambo Makiadi a.k.a "Franco", one of the Congo's most popular musicians at the time was drafted into the HIV/AIDS campaign. 'Franco', who ironically is suspected to have died of AIDS some years later, wrote a song called 'Attention Na SIDA' (Beware of AIDS) about how the disease is acquired and what can be done to prevent transmission.
"Franco's intervention, which was heard all over the city and most of the country, in all bars large and small, on radio and television, has an immediate effect of exposing the taboos", writes Close.
Close credits Mobutu's intervention with the Congo keeping its national HIV prevalence at an astonishing 5 percent despite the prolonged years of armed conflict throughout the county.
But the Congo as an emerging nation-state was in precarious health. The rot had already taken hold of Mobutu's government. The kleptocracy was firmly entrenched. At the time Close was unable to comprehend the corruption and patronage that Mobutu's family members and close allies would come to expect of one of their own. But he would understand it in retrospect. "Mobutu used money to buy loyalty," says Close, "but that's a very slippery path to be on because you end up needing more money."
The final break between the doctor and patient came about during Mobutu's vaction in Baden Baden, Germany. At the end of the Baden Baden trip in 1974, Close expressed disgust with all the people who were hanging around Mobutu. He became very really annoyed that his own doctor would criticise him to someone else. Mobutu told Close to go back to Kinshasa immediately. Close's contract was terminated. He hated being fired but says that on the train ride along the Rhine he was relieved of carrying that black bag all the time.
Mr Curtis Abraham is a freelance writer and researcher on Africa issues. Africa Insight is an initiative of Nation Media Group's Africa Media Network Project.