text:
Refreshing Your Home with a New Paint Job
April 29, 2010
If your home is not looking its best and could use a fresh coat of paint, the spring months are the ideal time to provide your house with a splash of color. But before grabbing that paintbrush and bucket, be sure that the preparation work is done correctly so that the new paint job will endure for years. Take the time to cover bushes, flowers, etc., with plastic and apply some masking tape to light fixtures, door knobs and other immovable objects. Although doing these things is time consuming, it is worth the effort as clean-up afterwords will be a breeze.
It is very important that you select a high quality exterior house paint to use. There are dozens of types of paints on the market which can make the selection process a bit confusing, but a general rule of thumb is to avoid the cheap, discounted paint because it contains fewer binders. When cheap paint dries it leaves a thin coat which makes it far less resilient and more prone to chipping and cracking. You may very well be faced with having to repaint your entire house again in just a couple of years if you go with the inexpensive paint. On the other hand, a high quality paint will give you much better results which will protect your home and keep it looking nice for many years to come.
Wood siding contracts and expands with changes in the temperature so the paint for this type of exterior must be high quality. Brick is very porous and therefore requires a top quality paint that will permeate the small holes and fissures of each brick to prevent chipping. Metal siding also requires that you use high quality paint that offers superior adhesion. It is best to speak to a paint professional before making your selection as they may suggest using a particular type of paint that is recommended for the environment you live in. Factors such as the degree of temperature extremes or UV exposure that your house is subjected to are taken into consideration when determining the type of paint to use.
Considering what color to use for the exterior of your home, the easiest approach would be to use the same color that your house currently is painted. Going with a lighter or darker color will require that you apply multiple coats in order to hide the original color. It is best too to paint your house a color that blends in with the neighborhood. For example, if most of the homes in your immediate area are painted subtle shades of blue, painting your house pink may not be the best idea.
Is it Best to Use a Roller or Sprayer for Interior Painting Projects?
April 26, 2010
Painting the interior of your house is one of the best ways to greatly improve the looks of your home. Not only will your rooms look fresh and clean, but if you choose a color that is trendy and in style, you will make the inside of your home look newer which could increase its value if you decide to sell.
When tackling an interior paint job, you can either roll the paint on or use a paint sprayer. If you would like to use a sprayer, you should be aware of the fact that only the highest quality sprayer should be used. Cheap sprayers do not do a good job applying an even layer of paint and they are also prone to spitting paint and clogging. Even if you use a high quality sprayer, it is very easy to miss areas because of the large amount of mist that becomes airborne. You also have to mask off larger areas when spraying, which can take a considerable amount of prep time. What you may save in time with the sprayer will probably be eaten up by having to go back and checking for missed spots as well as having to cover windows and lights with plastic, not to mention the masking requirements.
If the room that is to be painted is very large, you could most certainly use a good quality sprayer when painting the walls and ceiling – just remember to cover any fireplaces, radiators, light switches etc., with large sheets of plastic. Also, take the time to secure the plastic with tape so that no gaps are visible because the paint mist can very easily get into these areas.
In medium to small sized rooms within your home, it is best to roll the paint on the walls and ceiling because you will achieve a consistent and uniform coating of paint. Rolling does allow you to apply the paint rather quickly once you get the hang of it. Be sure to start with the ceiling and roll the paint in the direction of the windows. This is done to make the roller lines less evident when the paint dries. Take care not to put too much paint on your roller because this will cause the paint to go on unevenly. Instead, dip your roller into the paint on just one side, then gently roll it back and forth in the roller pan a couple of times before lifting it up and rolling it on the walls.
Painting Tips for Your Home's Exterior
April 22, 2010
Painting the exterior of your home is one of the most important home maintenance projects that can be done simply due to the fact that the paint and caulking on your home is all that stands between your house and the weather.
If you are planning on painting your home's exterior, be warned that it is probably the most difficult and physically demanding home maintenance project you can do. It takes a lot of time, patience and good old fashioned hard work, but if done correctly, you will get the best value for your money because hiring a professional painter is quite expensive.
Following some good exterior house painting tips and using the best quality materials can add years of life to the outside of your home before needing to be done again. Also, using good quality painting products will result in lower maintenance and fewer repair bills in the future.
An exterior paint job requires that you evaluate the condition of your home's surfaces to see what is needed to produce the best results. A key aspect of this evaluation process is to choose the best primer to use because the primer is just as important as the paint.
Once the preparation is completed, you need to select the best paint. What paint you use depends upon the type of surface is on your home's exterior, so it is a good idea to speak to the professionals in the paint store you choose to purchase your paint from. You will be told which type of paint to use and then given some choices. Avoid buying the cheapest paint because frankly, it will not do a good job of adequately protecting your home from inclement weather.
You can either brush, roll or spray the paint on your house. If you have a single level home, brushing and rolling are often the best choice. A paint sprayer is well suited to multi-storied homes but you will be required to have a bit of skill and experience to spray the paint on your home. The method you choose will also depend upon the type of paint chosen. Regardless of what method you choose to use, be sure to use professional grade tools so that you achieve the best results.
The most rewarding aspect of exterior painting is putting the finishing touches on the trim as this is what pulls the whole house together and makes it look finished and new. Most typically, brushing the paint on the trim is the best method although you can use a roller on the bigger areas as a way to speed up the process.
If you are considering painting the exterior of your home as a DIY project, them make sure you follow some good saftey advice. One of the key items will be the use of a good ladder. Keep in mind the fact that you will have to be on a ladder a lot, so be sure to use a high quality extension ladder that is certified to be safe. If you have any doubts about any of the steps involved then it may be best that you hire a professional house painter to do the job for you.
Choosing Paint Colors For Home Redecorating
April 19, 2010
Selecting a paint color can be a really tough decision to make when decorating your home. There are so many color choices that you may end up feeling that you will never be able to decide, leaving you frustrated and confused.
When deciding on what color of paint to use for a particular room in your home, start at the beginning. Consider the features or existing finishes in the room such as the cabinets, whether the room consists of tile or brick, etc. For example, If your kitchen cabinets have a red undertone, be sure that you choose a paint color that matches that hue.
You can also choose a color that emphasizes particular architectural features in your home, such as unusual moldings or windows that are arched. Using a contrasting color or painting the surrounding areas with a glossy finish is a good way to bring out these special features. Using a common color palette in each room can create very distinctive spaces by altering the shade and hue with the palette. Considering the color of your carpeting, rugs and furniture when selecting a color for the walls should give you a good idea of what would look great.
Long and narrow rooms will appear to be wider if you use a darker color on the short walls and a lighter color on those that are longer. If you want a ceiling to look higher, apply a light color. To make a large room feel more intimate, consider painting the walls in shades of red, gold, orange or brown. Small rooms appear larger when the walls are painted in shades of blue, green or violet. Keep in mind the fact that some colors look different at various times of the day.
If the room(s) to be painted will also be re-decorated, a good way to choose a paint color is to collect samples of all fabrics, furnishings and flooring that will be in that area. Put these items on a white background to see their true colors. Next use a paint manufacturer's fan deck and rule out those groups of colors that will not match your samples. Select a few of your favorites and then further narrow it down by choosing the perfect shade.
These tips should give you a very good idea of what to consider when selecting paint colors to use inside your home. Many paint stores will allow you to take small amounts of paint home to use as samples. By painting a small area of the room with this sample paint, you can get a general idea of how the room would look in that particular color.


text:
This is a very good book indeed, but it is not quite the book I thought it was. So let's deal with that first. The title suggests that this is a book about differential forms. That's not quite right. Instead, it is a part of Cartan's course on differential calculus. It includes a long chapter on, yes, differential forms, but there are also chapters on the calculus of variations and on differential geometry. Material from the first part of Cartan's differential calculus text is assumed and often referred to. As far as I know, that volume has not been published in English. Indeed, the Cours de calcul différentiel (whose latest edition includes both parts) seems not to be available in French either, at least according to Amazon.fr.
Cartan's approach is fearlessly general. For example, whenever possible, he works in a general Banach space E rather than in the special case of Rn. Exterior products are taken with respect to a chosen bilinear pairing. Proofs are done in a take-no-prisoners style reminiscent of Bourbaki (no accident, of course). Even the typeface is reminiscent of Bourbaki, in fact. The treatment is almost always elegant and complete, with careful attention to the underlying assumptions, particularly with respect to differentiability. (This is the first time I've seen an author worry about how many times a function needs to be differentiable for certain theorems to work!) It is all extremely well done.
Readers familiar with Cartan's other books will recognize some "Cartanisms." I particularly like the notion of "primitive of a form/function along a path," later generalized to "primitive of a form/function along a homotopy"!
There are some neat moments. At one point, Cartan describes a formula as "simple and easy (and important!) to remember" (italics his). At another, he says, "The remainder of the proof may be left aside by the reader who dislikes calculations. However, it is given for the courageous reader!"
I could not find any information on who translated the book. It is occasionally a rather strange translation. Manifolds are called "varieties," which echoes the French term but goes against normal mathematical English. Vector spaces have a "base" rather than a basis. A graded algebra is called "graduated." Sometimes "commence" is used for "begin" in situations where no native English speaker would choose the fancier word. On page 12, the description of what a shuffle is clearly incorrect, as is the definition of "support" on pages 54-55. One could add many more examples.
Trying to learn this material from a book like this would be daunting for anyone but the most theoretically minded. On the other hand, reading this book after one has a good geometric picture of what is going on can be exhilarating. I would be happy to recommend it to anyone in that position.
The first mathematics class Fernando Q. Gouvêa ever taught was a vector calculus course for engineering students at the Universidade de São Paulo. He has been in love with differential forms ever since. Alas, he has never had a chance to teach this material at Colby College, where he is now the Carter Professor of Mathematics.
|Differential forms
|Elements of the calculus of variations
|Applications of the moving frame method to the theory of curves and surfaces

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Tuition, Expenses, and Financial Aid
The standard student budget for M.P.H. students for the academic year 2014–2015 is as follows:
Activity Fee
Course Materials and Copy Fees
Yale Hospitalization/Specialty Coverage
Room and Board
Personal and Transportation
Total Budget
Tuition Rates
Matriculated students who are enrolled in the M.P.H. program and are taking 4 or more course units in a term are considered full-time and must pay two full years of tuition (four terms). Students may not shorten the four-term requirement by accumulating course units sufficient to graduate at the end of three terms. Full-time students must carry a minimum of 4 course units in their final term.
Matriculated students taking fewer than 4 course units in a term are considered part-time students. Part-time students pay tuition on a per-course basis ($3,000 per course unit). Part-time students are encouraged to take at least 2 course units per term.
Advanced Professional M.P.H. Program
Students enrolled in the Advanced Professional M.P.H. Program pay two full terms of tuition and $9,375 tuition for the summer module.
Accelerated M.B.A./M.P.H. Program in Health Care Management
Students enrolled in the Accelerated M.B.A./M.P.H. Program in Health Care Management pay $9,375 tuition for the summer module and four terms of tuition equivalent to tuition rates at the School of Management.
Joint-Degree Students
Joint-degree students with the schools of Divinity, Forestry & Environmental Studies, Law, Management, and Nursing, the Physician Associate Program, the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, and International Development Economics in the Graduate School pay three terms of tuition to YSPH.
Joint M.D./M.P.H. students pay one-half the annual tuition at the Yale School of Medicine.
Yale Faculty and Staff
Yale faculty and staff members who are taking individual courses for credit will be charged tuition on a per-course basis ($3,000 per course unit). Yale faculty and staff who have matriculated in the M.P.H. program pay the appropriate tuition rate (full-time or part-time).
Auditors and Non-Matriculated Students
Auditors not affiliated with Yale University pay tuition on a per-course basis ($3,000 per course unit) and are required to receive the permission of the instructor as well as the permission of the registrar. Non-matriculated students who enroll in the summer session also pay tuition on a per-course basis ($3,000 per course unit).
Individuals affiliated with Yale (but not currently paying tuition at Yale) will be charged half of the per-course rate to audit a course. Permission of the registrar and the course instructor is required.
M.S. in Biostatistics Students
M.S. students are required to pay two full years of tuition to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and should refer to the bulletin of the Graduate School.
Ph.D. Students
Ph.D. students should refer to the bulletin of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for information about tuition and fees.
Tuition Rebate and Refund Policy
On the basis of the federal regulations governing the return of federal student aid (Title IV) funds for withdrawn students, the rebate and refund of tuition is subject to the following policy.
- 1. For purposes of determining the refund of federal student aid funds, any student who withdraws from YSPH during the first 60 percent of the term will be subject to a pro rata schedule that will be used to determine the amount of Title IV funds a student has earned at the time of withdrawal. A student who withdraws after the 60 percent point has earned 100 percent of the Title IV funds. In 2014–2015, the last days for refunding federal student aid funds will be October 30, 2014, in the fall term and March 28, 2015, in the spring term.
- 2. For purposes of determining the refund of institutional aid funds and for students who have not received financial aid:
- a. 100 percent of tuition will be rebated for withdrawals that occur on or before the end of the first 10 percent of the term (September 5, 2014, in the fall term and January 21, 2015, in the spring term).
- b. A rebate of one-half (50 percent) of tuition will be granted for withdrawals that occur after the first 10 percent but on or before the last day of the first quarter of the term (September 20, 2014, in the fall term and February 5, 2015, in the spring term).
- c. A rebate of one-quarter (25 percent) of tuition will be granted for withdrawals that occur after the first quarter of a term but on or before the day of midterm (October 15, 2014, in the fall term and March 2, 2015, in the spring term).
- d. Students who withdraw for any reason after midterm will not receive a rebate of any portion of tuition.
- 3. In the event of a student's death on or before the tenth day of a term, the tuition will be canceled in full. Should death occur after the tenth day of a term, the bursar will adjust the tuition on a pro rata basis.
- 4. If the student has received student loans or other forms of financial aid, funds will be returned in the order prescribed by federal regulations; namely, first to Federal Direct Unsubsidized Loans, if any; then to Federal Perkins Loans; Federal Direct Graduate PLUS Loans; next to any other federal, state, private, or institutional scholarships and loans; and, finally, any remaining balance to the student.
- 5. Recipients of federal and/or institutional loans who withdraw are required to have an exit interview before leaving Yale. Students leaving Yale receive instructions on completing this process from Yale Student Financial Services.
Tuition Rebate and Refund Policy for Summer Session
If the student withdraws during the first week of the program, 100 percent of the tuition will be refunded.
Withdrawal during week two of the program will result in a 50 percent refund of tuition.
Withdrawal between weeks two and four will result in a 25 percent tuition refund.
Tuition will not be refunded for withdrawals after week four of the summer session.
Student Accounts and Bills
Student accounts, billing, and related services are administered through the Office of Student Financial Services, which is located at 246 Church Street. The telephone number is 203.432.2700, or visit www.yale.edu/sfs/contactus.
Yale University's official means of communicating monthly financial account statements is through the University's Internet-based system for electronic billing and payment, Yale University eBill-ePay. Yale does not mail paper bills.
Student account statements are prepared and made available twelve times a year at the beginning of each month. Payment is due in full by 4 p.m. Eastern Time on the first business day of the following month. E-mail notifications that the account statement is available on the University eBill-ePay Web site (www.yale.edu/sis/ebep) are sent to all students at their official Yale e-mail addresses and to all student-designated authorized payers. It is imperative that all students monitor their Yale e-mail accounts on an ongoing basis.
Bills for tuition, room, and board are available to the student during the first week of July, due and payable by August 1 for the fall term; and during the first week of November, due and payable by December 1 for the spring term. The Office of Student Financial Services will impose late fees of $125 per month (up to a total of $375 per term) if any part of the term bill, less Yale-administered loans and scholarships that have been applied for on a timely basis, is not paid when due. Nonpayment of bills and failure to complete and submit financial aid application packages on a timely basis may result in the student's involuntary withdrawal from the University.
No degrees will be conferred and no transcripts will be furnished until all bills due the University are paid in full. In addition, transcripts will not be furnished to any student or former student who is in default on the payment of a student loan.
The University may withhold registration and certain University privileges from students who have not paid their term bills or made satisfactory payment arrangements by the day of registration. To avoid delay at registration, students must ensure that payments reach Student Financial Services by the due dates.
Charge for Rejected Payments
A processing charge of $25 will be assessed for payments rejected for any reason by the bank on which they were drawn. In addition, the following penalties may apply if a payment is rejected:
- 1. If the payment was for a term bill, a $125 late fee will be charged for the period the bill was unpaid.
- 2. If the payment was for a term bill to permit registration, the student's registration may be revoked.
- 3. If the payment was given to settle an unpaid balance in order to receive a diploma, the University may refer the account to an attorney for collection.
Yale University eBill-ePay
There are a variety of options offered for making payments. Yale University eBill-ePay is the preferred means for payment of bills. It can be found at www.yale.edu/sis/ebep. Electronic payments are easy and convenient—no checks to write, no stamps, no envelopes, no hassle. Payments are immediately posted to the student's account. There is no charge to use this service. Bank information is password-protected and secure, and there is a printable confirmation receipt. Payments can be made twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, up to 4 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date to avoid late fees. (The eBill-ePay system will not be available when the system is undergoing upgrade, maintenance, or repair.) Students can authorize up to three authorized payers to make payments electronically from their own computers to the student's account using Yale's system.
Use of the student's own bank payment service is not authorized by the University because it has no direct link to the student's Yale account. Payments made through such services arrive without proper account identification and always require manual processing that results in delayed crediting of the student's account, late fees, and anxiety. Students should use Yale eBill-ePay to pay online. For those who choose to pay by check, remittance advice with mailing instructions is available on the Web site.
Yale Payment Plan
The Yale Payment Plan (YPP) is a payment service that allows students and their families to pay tuition, room, and board in ten equal monthly installments throughout the year based on individual family budget requirements. It is administered by the University's Office of Student Financial Services. The cost to enroll in the YPP is $100 per contract. The deadline for enrollment is June 20. For additional information, please contact Student Financial Services at 203.432.2700 and select "Press 1" from the Main Menu. The enrollment link can be found online in the Yale Payment Plan section of the Student Accounts Web site: www.yale.edu/sfas/financial/accounts.html#payment.
Financial Aid Policies for M.P.H. Students
The YSPH Student Financial Aid Office is located in the Office of Student Affairs, 47 College Street. Andre Massiah, Director of Financial Aid, can be reached at 203.785.5417 or email@example.com. The financial aid policies at YSPH are designed to assist all students as equitably as possible. Financial aid awards are determined annually based on the estimated cost of attendance for the year in which aid is awarded. Continuing students are required to reapply for aid for their second year. The estimated student budget includes all projected costs related to academic and living expenses. The budget does not include expenses related to maintaining an automobile.
Though YSPH awards a limited number of merit scholarships, the majority of Yale financial aid is awarded on the basis of demonstrated financial need. Loans are first awarded, and, depending upon the remaining need, students may receive a need-based grant from YSPH.
Federal Veterans Education Benefits
The M.P.H. program is approved for Federal Veterans Education benefits under the GI Bill. To check your eligibility for benefits, visit the Web site www.benefits/va.gov/gibill. To be enrolled, see the registrar.
For 2014–2015, all U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States may be eligible to borrow up to $33,000 from the Federal Direct loan program. This amount may vary depending on what other financial aid a student may be receiving. Federal Direct loans generally have a ten-year repayment period beginning six months after a student graduates or drops below half-time enrollment.
Students who are matriculated in the M.P.H. program and are registered for 3 or more course units per term are eligible to apply for financial aid.
International Students
International students are not eligible to receive financial aid from YSPH or federal loan programs.
Reporting Outside Resources
Additional financial support in the form of loans, scholarships, fellowships, additional family support, or employment of any type must be reported to the Financial Aid Office. Any such changes may result in a proportional reduction in the financial aid awarded, either federal loans or school grants.
Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP)
Information on SAP as it affects federal financial aid programs is available online at http://publichealth.yale.edu/gateways/students.


text:
ICBA Applauds Credit Union Charter Choice Act
Legislation Would Roll-Back NCUA Rules
Legislation Would Roll-Back NCUA Rules
Washington, D.C. (July 13, 2005) - The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) commended Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) and Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) for introducing legislation that would roll back many of the rules approved by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) that expanded the regulator's authority to oversee credit union conversions. The Credit Union Charter Choice Act of 2005 (H.R. 3206) will prohibit the NCUA from using inappropriate regulatory measures to prevent credit union members from exercising their choice to convert their charters.
"It's deplorable for NCUA to use intimidation and throw up roadblocks to stop credit unions from converting to mutual savings banks," said David Hayes, ICBA Chairman and president and CEO of Security Bank of Dyersburg, Tennessee. "A financial institution has the right to choose the type of charter under which it operates - and if a credit union wants to become a mutual savings bank, it should be free to do so."
"ICBA is delighted that Reps. McHenry and Towns have taken up this cause and are working to bring fairness back into the way NCUA regulates," said Camden Fine, ICBA president and CEO. "NCUA has allowed credit unions to proliferate and expand without restriction and without regard to the reasons they have a tax-exempt status - to serve people of modest means. If a credit union wants to play by the rules and give up this exemption, we take our hats off to it."
A recent study by the non-partisan Tax Foundation, "Competitive Advantage: A Study of the Federal Tax Exemption for Credit Unions," estimated that the federal tax loss from credit unions' special tax exemption will exceed $31 billion over the next 10 years. The study found that there is no evidence that the $650 billion credit union industry has used its tax subsidy to service low-and moderate income people and to any greater extent than banks.
For more information on the Tax Foundation study, visit www.icba.org.


text:
Text Editors Software
- OS: Project is an Operating System Kernel ×
Linux Kernel Programming IDE (LinK+)
A Simple 'IDE'A for Linux Kernel Developers247 weekly downloads
Agaseous- SuperWikia Font Deployment
Agaseous is the premiere font & text management program for SuperWikia Alpha. Add Text Asset Content (TAC's) to data constellations using import Autofont stylesheets. Spawn new glyph families, format text pages & embed into SuperWikia text applications.0 weekly downloads
CodeTime Parallel Software Platform
The CodeTime platform covers every aspect of parallel software from authoring, through distribution, to run-time. Its goals are: high programmer productivity; write once, run high performance anywhere; and wide acceptance.0 weekly downloads
Escape the Island
You are trapped on an island. What are you going to do? You choose. It's your adventure.0 weekly downloads
Mpp Project
MPP is a C-based programming language that allows you to code more eas0 weekly downloads


text:
Sweet Summer Strawberries
Posted by dynise | Posted in Recipes
For those of you that do not look forward to fresh strawberries every year, I pity you. One of the simplest joys in life is holding onto the leaves of strawberry and biting in and savoring the sweet, succulent juiciness that is a ripe strawberry, maybe even licking the dribbling juice that starts to flow down your chin. Tuscan food lovers are not different than Americans when it comes to these ruby colored little treats and will eat them in almost every incarnation possible.
But here is one of my favorites, combining the sweet juiciness of the ripe strawberries with the creamy decadence that is panna cotta, life does not get much better.
For the compote (this is actually good over pancakes and other things as well so a double recipe of this would not go to waste)
3/4 lb strawberries
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tsp granulated sugar
For the panna cotta
1lb sliced strawberries
1 3/4 cup buttermilk, vigorously shaken
6 tbsp granulated sugar
2 1/2 tsp gelatin (plain)
1/2 cup half and half
For panna cotta
Put your strawberries, buttermilk and sugar into the blender and blend until very smooth, at least three minutes. Strain thoroughly, you want no solids left or they won't gel as well. Put half of your half and half in a bowl and add the gelatin and let it sit. Take the other half, warm slowly to a boil, stirring very regularly and add the gelatin after you have achieved a boil. When all the gelatin has dissolved pour your warm cream mixture into your strawberry mixture and stir until you have an even consistency. Pour into gelatin molds and set, overnight is the best option.
For compote
Warm the ingredients just enough for the sugar to dissolve and have the mixture coat the strawberries and then pour over the panna cotta.
Two variations I like on this are making extra compote and warming until the berries are softened to top pancakes the next day, and adding a little Cointreau when beginning the compote. Yum.


text:
Uncle Jack
Last Thursday, heading out from the Loop to my apartment in Hyde Park, I was listening to a golden-oldie station. They were playing a tape from famous radio programs, and one of them was from the old Art Linkletter Show. Linkletter is asking a little boy what he wants for Christmas, and the kid says he wants a new bed. Linkletter asks why. The kid says because he usually sleeps in the same bed with his mother, but now he has to sleep on the couch because his uncle is staying over with her, only you see, he isn't really his uncle. Roaring laughter. "Kids," the ever unctuous Linkletter signs off, "say the darnedest things."
I winced. Although I didn't grow up sharing a bed with my mother, I too had one of those uncles who wasn't really my uncle. Only my uncle, as I would learn, was one of the most powerful men in America. Not many people knew about him, but the small handful who did used to refer to him as Mr. Fix-It. The "it," as I was to discover when I grew older, covered a lot of territory.
My uncle could get the unions off your back, or get you a sweetheart contract, or get you a million-dollar loan out of union pension funds at an attractive interest rate at a time when a million dollars was a million dollars and not the salary of a utility infielder. He could get major zoning ordinances changed, or set in motion the gerrymandering of congressional districts. He could persuade all sorts of people in politics, show business, and sports not to be stubborn about deals and contracts. I heard it said—whispered, actually—that, should it be required, he was the man to see if you needed to have a business partner, or a wife or husband, removed in a quiet and completely efficient manner. Jack Rafter was my uncle's name.
I have no memory of my father. He went off to war in 1942 when I was two years old and died when I was five, shot down co-piloting a B-17 over Dresden in early 1945. A photograph of him in uniform, wearing his officer's hat in a fifty-mission crush, used to sit on the small mantle of our apartment on Pine Grove, off Addison. He is handsome and in the photograph looks very serious, though my mother told me that one of the things that originally attracted her was his sense of humor. Asked what he did for a living, he might answer, with a convincingly straight face, embalmer or safecracker or lion tamer. He was, in fact, an electrical engineer.
When I was a boy I used to fantasize that my father would return home happily recovered. He would take me to baseball games, teach me about electricity, instruct me in life's tricky spots, show me the ropes. I'm not sure which is worse, losing someone you've known and loved or losing someone you've never known at all. But I sorely missed not having a father, and even now, in my early sixties, I sometimes think I'm still not over it.
Twenty-six when he died, my father left little in the way of savings or insurance. Like me, he had been an only child, and his parents, who were immigrants, were in no position to offer my mother much help. Her own father had died in his forties, and her mother, my grandmother, lived with a brother in San Francisco. Soon after getting her sad telegram from the War Department, my mother went to work at Rafter's, a high-line women's clothing shop on north Michigan Avenue.
Twenty-four years old, a redhead with a natural sense of style in clothes—"stunning" was how other women often described her—my mother quickly caught on. Lou Rafter and his wife Estelle, who were childless, took to her straight off, and soon included us in holiday parties at their large apartment on Lake Shore Drive near Temple Sholom. It was at one of these parties that my mother first met Lou Rafter's brother Jack. He lived on the "coast," as people in Chicago used to say, and he was a lawyer, but the kind of law he did was unclear. He was twelve years older than she.
"Jack walked into every room confident that he was the most important person there," my mother told me much later. "And the fact is, Billy, he was. Did I ever tell you that President Kennedy's father used to send him a case of Piper-Heidsieck every year at Christmas?"
I never learned how Jack Rafter had swept my mother away, but it's not hard to imagine. A man who was said to own four points of the Riviera Hotel in Vegas, large tracts of real estate in Boca Raton, and the land in San Diego on which the San Diego Padres built their stadium, a man who in a pinch could convince Jimmy Hoffa to call off the dogs—such a man could not have had much trouble convincing a war widow in her twenties, alone in the world with a young son, that he would watch out for her for the rest of her life. Which, after his fashion, and to give Uncle Jack his due, he did.
Tie problem was that when he met my mother, Jack Rafter was already married, with two daughters. He lived in Beverly Hills, and he wasn't the type to divorce or to abandon children, if only because divorce was much too sloppy for a man who instilled, maintained, and flourished in order. But evidently he did need a regular lady friend in Chicago, which he visited at least once and sometimes twice a month. He was a man working deals sixteen hours a day, his mind churning away full time—manipulating, maneuvering, figuring angles—and, although he could have had a different woman every night, he must have wanted company and stability of a different kind: the kind a woman as attractive and sensible as my young mother could supply.
In the early years, when their affair first began, I was shipped out to my mother's older sister, my Aunt Florence, and her husband Julius, who lived on Sheridan Road with Lake Michigan as their backyard. This was no hardship, especially since I liked their two sons, my cousins Eddy and Sherwin, who flanked me by a year on either side. I must have been eight years old when my cousin Eddy told me my mother had a boyfriend. Until that moment, I knew nothing about it. He said it was practically his mother and father's only topic of conversation.
When I confronted my mother, she said it was true she had a friend; she never used the word "boyfriend." Things were complicated, she said, and she would try to explain them to me, though not all at once. Her friend was the younger brother of Uncle Lou and Aunt Estelle (as I had long ago begun calling the Rafters) and lived in Los Angeles, but she saw him when he came to Chicago.
"Are you going to marry him?" I asked. In those days, I was still hoping to acquire a father.
"I don't think so, Billy."
"Then what's the point, Mom?"
"The point is that he's very nice and wants to help us."
"You'll see," my mother said. "Mr. Rafter is a very important man."
"What does he do?"
"He's a lawyer," my mother said, "but his real work is to smooth the way for people who need special favors."
I have never forgotten my mother's formulation of Jack Rafter's life's work. As pure description, I still cannot better it. Nor can I forget my mild surprise the first time I entered the large office he kept in Chicago to find not a single law book in the place. So far as I know, he never appeared in court or handled a legal document.
I was nine by the time I first met him. The ordinariness of his appearance threw me. He was compact, 5′9″ or so, trim, not more than 140 pounds. Over the nearly 40 years I would know him, his weight never changed. His shoes were always shined to a high brilliance, his nails were manicured, and his black hair, lightly pomaded and parted on the left, had that perfect kemptness that comes from getting a haircut every week. He exuded an expensive smell, good leather mixed with lemon. All his shirts had French cuffs, and once I noticed the U.S. presidential seal on his links. Years later I read a novel by Henry James in which the main male character was described as not overly concerned with clothes but careful to own no vulgar things; I thought at once of Uncle Jack.
"Billy," my mother said the day she introduced me, "this is my friend Mr. Rafter. He would like it if you called him Uncle Jack."
"I'd like it a lot, Billy," he said, smiling and putting a steadying hand on my shoulder. "I don't have any nephews or nieces, and I'd really like to think of you as my only nephew."
He said that he'd heard I was a sports fan and wondered if I'd go with him to a game. The day must have been a Sunday, in early or mid-September, because I still remember the choices: "We can go to Wrigley Field and watch Bob Waterfield and the Los Angeles Rams play the Bears, or we can go to Comiskey Park and watch Bob Feller pitch against the White Sox. Up to you, Billy."
I chose the Bears. We were driven there, only a few blocks away, in a dark blue Buick Roadmaster by a large black man named Greenwood. At the stadium Uncle Jack had seats on the forty-yard line, in a box five or six rows off the field.
"I want you to meet someone," he said once we were seated. He took my hand and we walked to the rail, where he called out, "Bob, Bobby, over here."
A tall deeply tanned man in a gold-and-blue uniform trotted over. "Jack," he said, "how goes it?"
"It goes well, Bobby," he said, shaking the man's hand. "Bob Waterfield, I want you to meet my nephew, Billy Siskind. Billy, this is the great Bob Waterfield, ail-American quarterback of the Los Angeles Rams." I put out my hand, which was lost in his.
"Great to meet you, kid," he said, then signaled to the Rams bench where someone threw him a football. "Have a pen on you, Jack?" he asked. My new uncle took out a black Parker 51 with a gold cap. The ball was signed "To my friend Billy, best wishes, Bob Waterfield."
I still own that football—a Duke, the laces rising in high relief off its richly pebbled, deep brown leather—and the inscription and signature are still visible. Not long afterward, I learned that Bob Waterfield was married to Jane Russell, the actress whose low neckline in The Outlaw caused a great stir in the 1940's. Uncle Jack, as he used to put it, "represented" her. I may have been only nine years old, but I recognized even then that this new uncle of mine was no ordinary man.
Soon my mother and I had moved into a three-bedroom apartment on the ninth floor at 3300 N. Lake Shore Drive, with a swell view of Belmont Harbor from the French windows in our enormous living room. One bedroom was my mother's, one mine, and one was reserved for Uncle Jack. It contained a single bed, a desk, a phone with his private number, and a tall mahogany dresser. In the closet he kept two suits, both of lawyerly dark gray, and a beautiful maroon-colored silk robe and pajamas from Sulka along with slippers and an extra pair of shoes in trees. The desk drawers were locked, and I was instructed by my mother never to answer the phone, which usually only rang when he was in town.
Around the same time my mother acquired a sky-blue Chrysler convertible with real wood paneling and I was transferred out of Le Moyne, the public school where I had gone since kindergarten, and put in Francis Parker, a private school. My mother kept her job at Rafter's on Michigan Avenue.
Jack Rafter always went first-class, and as long as my mother was his special friend, so did we. But they seldom went out together in public. Like many beautiful women, my mother was an indifferent cook, so when Uncle Jack stayed over we either ordered in or ate at small and inconspicuous neighborhood restaurants. A couple of times he had his driver take us out to an Italian restaurant in Melrose Park called Slicker Sam's, where he was treated with almost regal regard and not allowed to pay his check. We never traveled as a family, but when my mother and I went anywhere he always saw to it that we had the best accommodations. He even arranged, through John Balaban, who ran the Balaban & Katz movie chain in Chicago, a free pass admitting two to all the chain's theaters. It had my name on it and made me a great figure among my classmates.
I always knew my mother was a great beauty. She stood 5'8", which in the high heels of the day made her taller than Jack. Her face resembled Susan Hay-ward's a little, with something of the same knowing intelligence the actress so successfully portrayed, but hers was warmer, less been-around-the-block. At what point I became aware of her real relationship with Uncle Jack I cannot say for certain. They were always highly discreet around me.
At the age of eleven, when I was sent off to a summer camp in Eagle River, Wisconsin, I learned the facts of life. No boy, I suppose, wishes to apply these facts to his own mother, and so long as there is a father on the premises he needn't really do so. But my mother's irregular connection with Jack Rafter put such matters all too squarely in the forefront of my consciousness. One of the few words absent from the otherwise nearly full sex lexicon I learned at Camp Ojibwa was "mistress," which of course is what my mother was.
One day Uncle Jack gave her a full-length mink coat, which in her excited pleasure she modeled for us the minute she took it out of the box. I shall never forget the sound and the sight of the hem swishing and sweeping just above the floor, my mother's thick auburn hair doing something of the same almost six feet above. At that instant I had no trouble understanding why a man like Jack Rafter would go to such trouble to be with a woman like her. Perhaps that was also why I was less than shocked when, a year or two later, my mother first told me he had a wife and two daughters in Los Angeles whose lives he did not want to disrupt. One girl was fifteen, the other my age. "Very vulnerable ages for girls," my mother said.
So far as I knew, Uncle Jack did everything he could to spare my mother the awkwardness of her position. In all their years together, I never heard them quarrel. Each accepted the limitations imposed by the relationship. When I had my bar mitzvah, Uncle Jack came to the small but elegant party at the Drake Hotel that he no doubt paid for, but he didn't sit at the head or family table. On all holidays, Jewish or otherwise, his family in Los Angeles, it was understood, had first call on him. He took my mother to New York on a couple of occasions when I was growing up, but I never went along.
In high school I finally came into a more precise knowledge of Uncle Jack's position in the world. As best as I could piece together the story of his career, not long after graduating from Loyola Law School, Jack Rafter went to work for some of the Mafia-controlled unions in Chicago, the movie projectionists prominent among them. From there he had spread out in a three-pronged attack—you have to imagine here a Movietone News map of the Allied fronts during World War II—in which his reach extended from the Mafia and the unions to the entertainment industry itself. When the three overlapped, as when the "boys" took over Las Vegas, or when strikes were threatened in Hollywood, Uncle Jack was in a commanding position.
In those days people in Chicago talked about crime the way other people talked about sports. Everyone was an expert on the subject. Bugsy, Greasy Thumb, Big Tuna, in Chicago these were names that resonated like the Babe, Joltin' Joe, the Splendid Splinter. People used to wonder why Jack Rafter was never called up before the Kefauver Commission on organized crime—his name was mentioned on a number of occasions during the televised hearings. Another unanswered question was how, playing with the rough crowd he did, and at such a high-stakes game, he managed to avoid being killed.
Uncle Jack didn't travel with bodyguards, and as far as I know carried no gun. The closest I ever came to hearing him brag was when, staying in our apartment once recovering from a bad case of flu, he told me that he had to get back on his feet soon. "I owe it to people, some of them fairly important, who get nervous if I show up with even a light cold. One of the secrets of life, Billy, is to arrange things so that even to your bitterest enemies you're much more valuable alive than dead." This, too, though its meaning was a little unclear to me then, has stuck with me forever.
Although he was always attentive to my mother, and even set something of a model for how a gentleman ought to behave with a lady, Uncle Jack chose not to take the place of the father I had never known. With what I now regard as a species of high tact, he kept a restrained distance, somehow making it plain that, though we had no true blood ties, he would be there if I ever really needed him. He would occasionally take me along to a big sporting event—a heavyweight title fight, a crucial pro football game—but my allowance through high school came from my mother and so did all my disciplining and advice. I never mentioned Jack Rafter to any of my friends at high school, and those I brought home, if they hadn't heard otherwise, may have assumed that our money came from my mother's family.
Meanwhile, I was flourishing at Francis Parker, which I continued to attend all the way through high school. Everyone there was very bright; and so, I discovered, was I. I ran track, specializing in the grueling 440, and I found and fell in love with mathematics.
One night toward the end of my junior year Uncle Jack handed me a blank slip of paper and asked me to write down the names of the five colleges I most wanted to attend. I handed it back with the obvious names—Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Chicago—and saw him tuck it into the pocket of his suit jacket. The following spring I received letters of acceptance from all five colleges.
It was a week or so later that Uncle Jack took me to the Cubs opener against the Cardinals. We sat in a box on the third-base line two rows behind the Cubs dugout. The day was cool, still in the low 50's. He was wearing a black coat, perfectly fitted, with a Chesterfield collar and a white silk scarf. His black hair was turning silver at the temples.
"You're mother is very proud of you," he said. "Getting into every school you applied for is no small thing, especially with the Jewish quotas that some of them have. Where are you thinking of going?"
"I was thinking Harvard," I said.
"I want to ask you a favor," he said. "I want you to go to the University of Chicago. Naturally I'll pick up the tab."
"Why Chicago?"
"Because it's close to home, and I don't want you to be too far from your mother. She needs you."
"She told you that."
"She didn't have to, I can sense it. In the end, you know, you're all she's got."
"What about you?" I said, feeling that, as soon as the words were out of my mouth, I was sailing into dangerous water.
"Your mother is very dear to me. But for reasons I think you know about, Billy, I can't be with her all the time. I'm not asking you to be with her forever, but for now I think it best you be nearby."
"Can I think about it?"
"Of course," he said, "take all the time you need. But remember, I'd consider this a very big favor."
"Now can I ask you a question?" I said.
"Sure," he said, "anything you like."
"You didn't by any chance have anything to do with my college acceptances, did you?"
"Not a thing. If you'd needed me to intervene I would have been glad to help. But the fact is you didn't. You have my word on it."
"Have you ever done anything like that?"
"I'll tell you a story," he said. "A fellow in town here, a man in the appliance-parts business in Glen-view named Meisels, called me one day to tell me that his son was on the waiting list at Northwestern Law School, and that he'd be grateful for anything I could do to get him accepted. I told him I'd look into it."
He paused to light a Dunhill out of a red and gold box. "I didn't feel there was much urgency about the matter, and anyway I had more pressing business to attend to. Three weeks later, the son was notified that a place had been found for him, and that same week the man sent me a check for $25,000."
"Did you keep it?" I asked.
"Of course. I didn't really have a choice. To return it would have been damaging to my reputation as a man of all-powerful influence," he said, smiling almost imperceptibly. "How about a hot dog?"
I lived at home for my first two years at Chicago, but for the second two my mother insisted that I take an apartment on campus. I sometimes thought with regret about Harvard, but in my senior year all such thoughts disappeared when I encountered a brilliant teacher, a slender and warm-hearted Argentinian named Alberto Calderone, whose mathematical specialty was wave theory. Taking me under his intellectual wing, Professor Calderone arranged a graduate fellowship, and I eventually went on to do my doctorate under him.
Uncle Jack was unable to attend my graduation. But a week later, I received a letter, on his office letterhead:
Dear Billy,
Congratulations on your undergraduate accomplishments, which have made your mother rightfully proud.
Four years ago, when I asked you to stay in Chicago for your education, I told you that I would consider this a significant favor, and I am a man who repays such favors. I would like you to know that my repayment is a small trust I have set up for you. It will provide you roughly $1,500 a month. This sum is not enough money, I hope, to smother your ambition or set you on the path to ruin, but something of a cushion and a comfort during your years of graduate study. The trust begins with the enclosed check. It is to endure for five years, after which I feel confident you will no longer need it.
I see I have neglected to add that your achievements have made me very proud also.
Jack Rafter
The year was 1961, and it is perhaps a sign of Jack Rafter's personal wealth that he was unaware that the $18,000 annual income from this trust, peanuts to him, was four times a college instructor's salary of $4,500. The money, coming in more than handy, gave me independence, the means to travel every summer to Europe for long holidays, and that greatest of all freedoms, not having to think about money at all.
But by then Uncle Jack was staying in our apartment less and less frequently How my mother felt about this was not known to me. Maybe she was relieved. Maybe she felt she was losing her grip. Here was this beautiful woman, Jack Rafter's girlfriend, approaching her mid-forties, getting a little old for the job and perhaps beginning to feel it. I wonder if she worried about his looking for—or having already found—another woman, a younger version of herself, tucked away in Manhattan or even in Chicago.
One night not long before I finished graduate school, I brought in Chinese food and my mother and I shared not one but two bottles of the fruity, slightly sweet Riesling wine she favored. As we worked our way through the second bottle, I found the courage to bring up the subject.
"Mother," I asked, "was Uncle Jack a mistake?"
"Whatever do you mean?" she said.
"I mean your friendship with him made it impossible for you to find another husband."
"Uncle Jack and I made a bargain, and he's kept it to the letter. I knew at the outset what I could expect from him and what I couldn't. I have no complaints, Billy, I want you to know that."
"Do you love him, Mother?"
"I've loved only two men in my life, your father and you. But I have the greatest regard for Jack. He's made it possible for us to live as we do. We were alone in the world before he came along."
"Did you do it for me?"
"If I said yes I'd be a heroine, wouldn't I? The truth is I did it only partly for you. I did it for myself, too. Jack isn't exactly charmless, you know. And his power in the world has its attractions, even if I share in it in only a very small way."
"If it were possible, would you prefer to be married to him?"
"I hope this doesn't shock you, Billy, but I don't think I would ever care to have been married to Jack Rafter." And here she paused. "He cheats on his wife, you know," she said, finishing the little bit of wine left in her glass.
Just then the phone rang. My Aunt Florence, a famous gabber, kept my mother on the line for 25 minutes as I cleared the table and washed the dishes. We never returned to the subject.
The blessed Professor Calderone arranged a job for me in the university's math department, and six years later I got tenure. In the same year I married another mathematician, which turned out to be a mistake: it lasted three years, with no children and no great recriminations afterward. It was shortly after my divorce that my mother began to get dizzy spells.
At first she thought it might be diabetes, which ran in her family, but when she proved negative for that they put her through the full buffet of tests and discovered cancer of the liver. It had metastasized from the pancreas, and the prognosis was not good. With chemotherapy, she was told, she could live two, maybe two-and-a-half years. She had not yet turned sixty.
When Uncle Jack found out he insisted she go to Mayo for a second opinion. We went, more to accommodate him than for reassurance. With Jack Rafter as our sponsor, the red carpet was set out, but in the end the verdict and the sentence were the same: liver cancer, two to three years to live if treated chemically.
My mother, usually so wonderfully in control, somehow saw her cancer as a judgment—and one she didn't quite understand. "Billy," she would say to me over and over, "did you ever think this would happen to me?" "Mother," I more than once replied, "it can happen to anybody. In a way it has nothing to do with you." But after a while I stopped saying such things, realizing that I was, in effect, asking her not to take her death personally.
Uncle Jack told me not to worry about expenses. Anything my mother wanted, she was to have. The problem was that there was nothing she really wanted but to be well again. He called nearly every night, asking how she felt, giving her what I took to be little pep talks that did absolutely no good. Not even the great fixer could fix this one.
Then one afternoon, when I had come to take her shopping for groceries, she called out from the kitchen:
"Billy, come back here, please. There's something I want to show you."
She was seated at the counter. She had been losing weight, and the chemo had caused her skin and hair to lose their luster. I was grateful she hadn't yet lost her hair altogether. In her beautiful eyes was that slightly terrorized look of people with terminal cancer.
She pushed a copy of the Sun-Times across the counter, turned to the page with Kup's Column. "Look at the last item but one," she said.
In bold type I read Jack Rafter's name. The item read: "Influential West Coast attorney Jack Rafter in town for re-opening of Mr. Kelly's."
When I looked up, my mother said: "He called, as usual, but he never told me he was in Chicago."
"What does it mean?"
"It means your Uncle Jack doesn't like losers," she said, seeming oddly unmoved.
I was in my mother's apartment the next night when he called, heard her respond to his questions about her health, heard her ask about his own. She gave no hint that she knew he'd been in town.
Of course she was aware that she was dying. One Tuesday morning, after helping her into the front seat of my Volvo to take her to chemo, I reminded her to put on her seatbelt. She shot me a look suggesting I had made a joke in extremely dubious taste. On the short ride to the hospital, a barely perceptible groaning sound was mixed with her regular breathing. We seemed, my mother and I, to have run out of things to talk about.
"It won't be long now," she said after she had grown so weak she had to be hospitalized. And it wasn't. I sat by her bedside at Weiss Hospital, held her ringless fingers in my hand, listened to the moaning that accompanied her breathing. My beautiful mother, I thought, I will not remember you in this terrible condition. I will remember you in your natural elegance, and I will always remember that you were the one person in this life on whom I could count.
She died on a Saturday night, which meant that Jack Rafter probably wouldn't get word till Monday: I didn't have his home number, and anyway it wouldn't be right to try him there. Instead I left a message on his office answering machine.
He called back Monday morning at ten, Chicago time.
"Billy, I can't tell you how sorry I am. It's a great loss"—he paused—"for both of us." There was something, I thought, ever so slightly perfunctory about his voice, as if he had already filed the subject away in a folder and placed the folder in an outbox.
The funeral service and burial were scheduled for the next day. He said he hoped I would understand that he couldn't attend. "Lots of complications involved."
"I understand," I said.
"If you need help with any of the bills, please send them to me."
"No help needed," I said.
"Perhaps we can meet in a couple of weeks. There are a few items in my desk at your mother's apartment that I need to clean out."
When he stepped off the elevator, Uncle Jack seemed smaller than I'd remembered him—age, perhaps, although age certainly didn't detract from his standard, understated stylishness. He was wearing a dark gray hat—men of his generation didn't go out without a hat—and one of his perfectly fitted black suits, with a lush, solid silver-hued necktie. He was carrying a plain black leather briefcase. At seventy-three or so, he was still very much in the game.
We shook hands. Looking down, I noted that he still had the benefit of a manicure. "You holding up okay?" he asked.
"I'm okay," I said. "How about you?"
"Being in this apartment shakes me up a little," he said. "Your mother's death marks a major subtraction in my life."
I wondered. Jack Rafter was a man who never said anything that he hadn't carefully weighed, calculating its effects, side-effects, and possible after-effects ten years down the road.
"Sorry to burden you with this," he said, after emerging from his old bedroom, "but I've left a couple of suits and some shoes in the closet. No hurry, but when you get a chance you could maybe send them to me at my LA office. Bill me for the cost."
"I'll do it in a day or so," I said. I tried to imagine him leaving this apartment carrying his shoes and with his clothes over his arm, but I couldn't do it. Other people carried things for Jack Rafter.
"Well, kid, what can I say? Life goes on. Let's be grateful for your mother's existence."
"Look," I found myself saying, "there's something I have to know before you leave. What exactly did my mother mean to you?"
"She was a charming and beautiful woman," he said, "and I cared very deeply for her."
"Do you have another woman in Chicago lined up to take her place?"
"A little out of line, don't you think, Billy?"
"Maybe it is, but who drew the damn lines in the first place?"
"Your mother and I had a deal, and we both lived up to it."
"Strange kind of deal," I said.
"Your mother knew everything it entailed, down to the fine print. She never complained. Which is apparently more than can be said for you—though you also benefited considerably from our little arrangement."
"Little for you, maybe," I said. "For my mother it was her whole life."
"What exactly do you want, Billy?"
"I want you to tell me that my mother wasn't your whore."
"I never thought of her that way, I assure you."
"Then how did you think of her?"
"I've already told you, as a charming and beautiful woman who meant a great deal to me."
"A great deal sounds right, but then you're the world's premier maker of great deals, isn't that so, Uncle Jack."
"If taking a few shots at me will make you feel better, please, be my guest."
"Was my mother ever anything more to you than a convenience, a place to hang your goddamn Sulka robe?"
"If I said yes, would you believe me, Billy? Forgive me if I doubt it. I wonder if something else isn't at work here."
"Like what?"
"Like resentment. Some of us have tried to shape the world to accommodate our desires. You either dominate life or you're dominated by it. Don't know if that information is available to a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago."
He glanced at his watch. "My driver is waiting," he said. "I'd better get a move on."
"We probably won't see each other again," I said.
"Probably not." He put out his hand. "Good luck, Billy."
"You, too," I said, deciding, what the hell, to shake his hand.
I walked him out to the elevator. As he got in, and the door began to close, I glimpsed him standing there alone, ever so briefly, smiling, for some reason, to himself. The son of a bitch, I thought, he's probably working out the details of a deal with God, with a small but decisive advantage to himself.


text:
Quantity Available:
Founded in Eastern Pennsylvania in 1983, ELK Lighting designs and delivers "Lighting for Distinctive Homes." As such, the exclusive line of ELK Lighting products has extraordinary designer appeal matched by an emphasis on value and craftsmanship.
The Chadwick Pendant with Glass Shade is available with the following:
- Dome-shaped Frosted glass shade
- Frosted bottom glass diffuser
- Metal frame
- Round ceiling canopy
- One 6" and two 12" extension rods with swivel
- UL Listed
- Made In China
Finish: Antique Copper with Frosted, Oiled Bronze with Amber Frosted, Polished Nickel with Frosted, Satin Nickel with Frosted
- One 72 Watt (1490 Lumens) 120 Volt E26 Base Halogen Lamp(s) (Not Included)
- One 100 Watt (1600 Lumens) 120 Volt E26 Base Incandescent Lamp(s) (Not Included)
- Fixture: Height 14", Diameter 13"
- Suspension: Length Adjustable From 21", Adjustable To 45"
Ratings: Based on 2 reviews, this product is rated 4.5 out of 5.
Need help with some of our terminology? Check out Lumens' Lighting & Design Glossary.
Related Items
72W 120V A19 E26 Clear Halogen Bulb (2PK)By Satco Lighting$4.99(1){boxId:"compareuu518423", id:"uu518423"} See Comparison


text:
Below is the poem entitled I am which was written by poet
matt T.
love. Please feel free to comment on this poem. However, please remember, PoetrySoup is a place of encouragement and growth.
Read Poems by
matt T.
Matt T. Love
I'm not, what her brother wants me to be.
I'm not, what her friends expected me to be.
I'm the man I was meant to be.
Live and free.
With the desire to fulfill my dreams.
I'm not what her cousin thinks me to be.
I'm not what her aunt has heard of me.
My biggest hater,
doesn't even know me.
Never seen me.
Never heard my voice.
She lost.
That was her choice.
Reality is,
I'm just me.
Happy, live and free.
Respectively, but definitely,
the livest figure
that ever came into Jersey.
She was the right dime,
glass of the right wine,
at the finest of dines.
Just all at the wrong time.
She will always be in my heart;
doing time.
Which is fine.
I'll always be the man i was meant to be.
Happy, live, and free,
living my life; for me.


text:
A. The color of semen can vary depending on many factors particularly diet and certain medications. However the normal color of semen is usually an off shoot of white or clear. Most men ejaculate pearlish white or slightly darker, almost creamish or cloudy color.
Q. What can cause the color of semen to change?
A. Many men have reported that colorful fruits and drinks can pass on their color and in some cases taste to semen. For example, excessive consumption of fruit juice such as mango juice can turn the semen color to reddish. To remedy the situation, you should stop consuming the particular fruit or juice in question and see if semen returns to normal; if not, consult a physician.
Q. My semen is yellow greenish, what is wrong?
A. Excessively yellow or greenish ejaculatory fluid often indicates an infection of the urinary tract. One of the many possible causes could be Gonorrhea which is a sexually transmitted disease and affects the "tube" which transports sperm and urine from the male body. Many infections can be treated by oral or intravenous antibiotics. You need to speak with your physician to have the antibiotics prescribed to you.
Q. I have blood in my semen, why is this?
A. The presence of blood in semen can indicate a serious problem. The cause of this often related to some type of injury or infection of the Prostate Gland. The prostate gland is the male organ responsible for producing the bulk of the semen. During ejaculation, the prostate gland contracts and relaxes. The contractions of the gland can cause a blood vessel to burst and allow the blood to enter the semen. This condition should be taken seriously and a medical professional should be consulted.
Q. Why is my semen sometimes brown and sometimes black?
A. Again, any semen color other than clear, off white is not normal, especially brown or black semen. The possible causes for this in a healthy male could be the introduction of blood into the semen due to some type of a trauma to the seminal vessels causes by prolonged periods of activities such as bike riding or forceful ejaculation. Another reason for it could be the infection of the prostate gland as noted above. In either case, you need to get yourself checked out by a urologist or your family doctor.
Q. Can clear semen cause pregnancy?
A. In an ideal environment, No. However, it is unlikely you will find semen without sperm cells. Even if the semen only contains one live sperm cell, it is enough to cause pregnancy.
Q. Are there supplements to help increase semen volume?
A. Yes, there are many natural supplements on the market which can help increase semen volume and increase sperm count and motility. The two most widely used semen volume enhancers are VolumePills and Semenax semen increasing pills.
Q. Does more semen mean better sex?
A. While the quality of your sex life is dependant on many factors including physical attraction, and your comfort level with your partner, more semen could lead to better orgasms. The intensity and the duration of the male orgasm are directly linked to the amount of semen and sperm the male ejaculates. Therefore, it would stand to reason that the more semen the male has to ejaculate, the longer it would take and thus longer the orgasm would last.
Q. Can swallowing semen be dangerous for women?
A. There is no evidence to suggest that swallowing semen itself is dangerous to women health. However if the man has Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD), it can be transferred to the woman via semen. Therefore women should take precautions such as placing a condom on the penis or simply refuse to engage in oral sex with someone infected by STD's. HIV, gonorrhea, Chlamydia are some of the common STD's which can be transmitted via semen.
Q. What is CUM anyway?
A. Cum is a slang term used by men and women, often in an erotic setting, to describe semen and sperm. Cum is a combination of both semen and sperm.
Q. How much semen can a man ejaculate?
A. most men ejaculate only about a half tablespoon. The amount of semen produced by men can vary on several factors including the use of semen increasing supplements, whether the body is constantly kept hydrated with fluids, etc.
Return from common questions about semen to semen volume enhancers
Return from common questions about semen to male sexual health needs


text:
How to Eat Ice Cream
Eating ice cream is a very enjoyable experience, but it tends to melt before one can finish eating it! It can also cause brain freeze due to its uncomfortable coldness. This article will teach you how to eat and enjoy ice cream.
This article has been tagged as a stub.
That means it's off to a good start, but still has room to grow into a more helpful resource. Until the article reaches its full potential, it will be hidden from search results. Can you help it flourish? If you think the article offers complete and accurate instructions, feel free to remove this tag.
1Buy the ice cream. If you're too young to go out and buy some yourself, ask your mom or dad to buy you some.
2The minute you receive your ice cream cone, quickly lick up any melting ice cream that is dripping down the side of the cone. You don't want any ice cream wasted!
3Wrap a little piece of aluminum foil or a napkin around the base of an ice cream cone. Not only will this prevent the ice cream from melting, but it will also keep your hands from growing cold. This is especially handy for youngsters.
4Sit down somewhere where you can enjoy your ice cream. Make sure it's a safe place where you and your ice cream won't be prone to accidents. There is simply nothing worse than someone bumping into you and spilling your ice cream all over!
- You don't have to worry about bugs or insects trying to get at your ice cream. Although bugs and insects enjoy sweet things, they most definitely despise going after extremely cold foods - your ice cream included!
5Clear the ice cream resting on top of the cone before starting to nibble at the cone. Once the ice cream is gone, you can start eating the cone, but never start eating from the base! Most likely, there will still be some melted ice cream inside your cone. If you eat the base, the leftover ice cream will fall out! Start eating the top of your cone and travel down. When you hit the melted ice cream, drink or suck on it before finishing off the rest of your cone.
- Instead of biting your ice cream, lick it with your tongue. Never take a huge bite of your ice cream. It will freeze your teeth and make them ache; plus, it takes out all the fun of enjoying it. If you prefer to bite your ice cream, take small bites to prevent your teeth from aching.
6Once your treat is gone, wipe your hands and mouth with a napkin. Throw your trash away and look forward to the next time you'll eat ice cream!
We could really use your help!
- Don't eat too fast or you'll get brain freeze!
- Always have a napkin handy when eating ice cream. You never know when you'll have a spill!
- If the bottom of your cone is leaking, you can regularly suck out the drips from the bottom.
- If you prefer a cleaner, easier way to eat your ice cream, getting ice cream in a bowl or a cup is an excellent idea.
Things You'll Need
- Ice cream
- A spoon (optional)
- A napkin
- Toppings (optional)
- A bowl, waffle bowl, or cone
Article Info
Categories: Stub | Eating Techniques
In other languages:
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 73,500 times.