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Potato strips are cut at a desirable pre-determined size from raw potatoes and blanched. The blanched strips are covered with a batter slurry comprising, as a percentage of a dry batter used to make the slurry, 97.4 to 99.8% by weight of a batter base selected from a modified food starch batter base and a flour batter base. The batter base comprises a modified food starch of from 10 to 60% by weight of the batter. The modified food starch is acetylated, cross-linked or acetylated and cross-linked. The dry batter further comprises from 0.0 to 1.0% by weight of calcium lactate and from 0.1 to 1.6% by weight of de-oiled lecithin. Such strips are then par-fried and preferably frozen. The frozen strips, once reconstituted, retain their crispness under adverse, e.g. high humidity, conditions such as those encountered under take-out conditions where the strips are placed into a closed container for home delivery or take out.
1. A dry batter for use in preparing a batter slurry for coating potato pieces prior to par-frying of the potato pieces, which dry batter comprises:
97.4 to 99.8% by weight of a batter base selected from the group consisting of a modified food starch batter base and a flour batter base, wherein said batter base comprises a modified food starch of from 10 to 60% by weight of the dry batter, and wherein said modified food starch is acetylated or cross-linked, or acetylated and cross-linked;
0.0 to 1.0% by weight of calcium lactate; and
0.1 to 1.6% by weight of de-oiled lecithin.
2. The dry batter, as defined in
3. The dry batter, as defined in
4. The dry batter, as defined in
5. The dry batter, as defined in
6. A batter slurry for coating potato pieces prior to par-frying of the potato pieces, said batter slurry comprising a mixture of dry batter in water, said dry batter comprising, as a percentage by weight of said dry batter:
97.4 to 99.8% by weight of a batter base selected from the group consisting of a modified food starch batter base and a flour batter base, wherein said batter base comprises a modified food starch of from 10 to 60% by weight of the dry batter, and wherein said modified food starch is acetylated or cross-linked, or acetylated and cross-linked;
0.0 to 1.0% by weight of calcium lactate; and
0.1 to 1.6% by weight of de-oiled lecithin.
7. The batter slurry, as defined in
8. The batter slurry, as defined in
9. The batter slurry, as defined in
10. The batter slurry, as defined in
11. The batter slurry, as defined in
12. The batter slurry, as defined in
This invention relates to a batter coating, to the preparation of potato pieces, such as French fries, using the batter coating, and to potato pieces coated with the batter coating. The potato pieces so prepared have extended crispness holding qualities in high humidity and high temperature situations such as those encountered in restaurant take-out applications, e.g. where French fries are portioned in closed boxes to be taken home prior to serving and consumption.
Retention of crispness of French fries is of great concern for take-out food operations which package the French fry strips, after finish frying, into various types of packages for transport to consumers' homes. While being transported home, French fries are subjected to conditions of high heat and humidity in the packages. The result is re-hydration of the batter on the surface of each fry and, consequently, an undesirably limp, soggy and tough French fry. Various procedures have been proposed for extending the crispness-holding quality of French fries after finish frying.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,885,639 relates to a procedure for extending the crispness-holding time of French fries through application of a pre-coating containing a hydrocolloid prior to coating the strips with a batter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,141,759 relates to a procedure whereby potato strips with increased crispness are obtained by coating the strips prior to par-frying with an aqueous slurry containing chemically modified, ungelatinized potato starch, chemically modified, ungelatinized corn starch, and rice flour.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,227 relates to coating potato strips, prior to deep frying, with a coating of high amylose starch for the purpose of increasing the crispness of the strips.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,410 discloses application of a glaze coating of hydrolysed starch with a DE of less than 12 at pH levels of 5.5-8.5, to increase the crispness of French fry strips.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,944 relates to use of a batter mix containing a leavening agent, a blend of starch and high amylose starch, dextrin and a food gum to increase crispness.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,741 discloses that strips coated with a slurry of corn flour, corn starch and low solubility dextrin prior to par-frying yields a product which, upon re-frying, exhibits increased crispness.
These prior procedures have met with qualified success in the potato processing industry. All of these procedures appear to address the need for a French fry with improved crispness over an extended period of time. However, they all only address the need for enhanced or extended crispness under conditions found in fast-food and eat-in restaurants, where French fries are either served immediately upon reconstitution, or held under sophisticated holding stations and/or operating procedures until served. None of the patents addresses the loss of crispness of French fries, either coated or uncoated, when they are subjected to the high heat and humidity conditions imposed by take-out restaurant operations. There is, therefore, a need for a means to extend the duration of crispness of take-out fries and other take-out potato products under take-out food conditions.
The invention provides a novel batter coating for potato pieces, preferably potato strips such as French fries, prior to par-frying of the potato pieces. The batter coating is a slurry comprising a dry batter mixed in water, i.e. a "batter slurry" herein. The dry batter comprises from 97.4% to 99.8% by weight of a modified food starch batter base or flour batter base, wherein the batter base comprises a modified food starch of from 10 to 60%, preferably from 30 to 50% by weight of the dry batter, from 0.1 to 0.7% by weight of de-oiled lecithin and from 0.0 to 1.0% by weight of calcium lactate, preferably from 0.1 to 1.0% of calcium lactate. The modified food starch is acetylated, cross-linked, or acetylated and cross-linked. A "modified food starch batter base" herein is a batter base in which there is more modified food starch than any other constituent. A "flour batter base" herein is a batter base in which there is more flour than any other constituent. Preferably, the flour is a wheat flour. The term "potato pieces" used herein and throughout this application includes potato pieces of various shapes and sizes, preferably potato strips for French fries, and the pieces may be cut or shaped from potatoes.
In another aspect the invention also provides a process for producing either non-frozen refrigerated, or frozen, par-fried potato pieces, preferably par-fried potato strips such as French fries, which, when heated for consumption, have extended crispness in relatively high humidity food storage environments. The process comprises applying the foregoing described batter slurry of the present invention to potato pieces for par-frying to produce battered potato pieces, then par-frying the battered potato pieces to produce par-fried potato pieces, and then freezing, or refrigerating without freezing, the par-fried potato pieces.
In a further aspect the invention provides for par-fried potato pieces, frozen or unfrozen, which are coated with the foregoing described batter slurry of the present invention.
The par-fried potato pieces of the present invention, upon reconstitution, retain a crisp, tender surface texture and mealy interior for extended periods of time in take-out containers. The extended holding ability of this product, i.e. excellent crispness and resistance to re-hydration, is believed to be due to the unique, synergistic combination of the modified food starch and de-oiled lecithin ingredients within the batter formulation which is the subject of the invention.
The batter slurry described herein may be applied at varying thickness to any potato piece, e.g. any cut of French fry, depending upon the desired degree of crispness retention and surface smoothness desired. Thicker batters, i.e. having higher solids content, will retard crispness loss to a higher degree and, therefore, would be preferable for use in more challenging conditions.
It has been found that potato pieces prepared in accordance with the present invention can retain their crispness for periods in excess of 10 minutes when sealed in impervious containers immediately after finish frying. This performance far outperforms any commercially available existing product, or product described by the patents discussed herein above.
The following description relates to specific products, applications and methods in accordance with the present invention and, as such, are exemplary and not limiting of the scope of the invention.
Raw, whole potatoes are typically washed and sorted to remove defective units and, optionally, peeled. Skin-on products are prepared by by-passing the peeling step. The whole potatoes may optionally be pre-heated for 20-45 minutes at a temperature in the range of about 120° to 150° F. to aid in cutting the potatoes into strips. The potatoes are cut into the desired shape, e.g. strips, and preferably blanched in hot water to inactivate enzymes, gelatinize the starch in the potato flesh, and leach sugars from the potato pieces. Typically, blanching involves holding the strips under agitated water at a temperature in the range of about 160°-190° F. for a period in the range of about 5-30 minutes.
After blanching, the potato pieces may be optionally dipped into a food preparation solution containing one or more of sodium acid pyrophosphate, dextrose, salt, or colour, as desired. After the dipping step, the strips may be dried, losing about from 8% to 20% of their weight. The drying process aids, but is not essential to obtaining, the extension of holding time and crispness available under the present invention. This is in contrast to known preparations of French fries, where drying is essential to maintenance of the crispness of the fry. If strips are dried under the process of the present invention, they are preferentially dried using hot air in a conventional dryer designed for this purpose. Temperatures of from about 90° to 150° F. and times from about 8 to 28 minutes are typically used.
Subsequent to optional drying, the potato pieces are coated with the batter slurry, made from the dry batter, which batters respectively are the subject of this invention. The desired crispness and holding properties are conveyed to the potato product by a unique combination of modified food starch and de-oiled lecithin used in the batter formulations. Preferably, calcium lactate is added to the batter concerned to control or improve colour resulting from the foregoing combination. A batter in accordance with the present invention is any modified food starch based, or flour based, batter for coating potato pieces for par frying, which includes the essential ingredients of modified food starch and de-oiled lecithin, and optionally the calcium lactate. In either a modified food starch based or flour based dry batter, there is modified food starch in the range of from 10 to 60% of the dry batter, preferably 30 to 50% of the dry batter. The former range is the broadest which appears to work in the subject invention. However, if modified food starch content is between 10 to 30% or between 50 to 60% of the dry batter, the batter slurry exhibits properties of the present invention but not to the degree that is obtained within the preferred range of 30 to 50% of the dry batter. If modified food starch content is below 10% of the dry batter, the batter slurry formed from the dry batter does not perform any better than conventional batters. If modified food starch content is above 60% of the dry batter, end product is undesirably tough and chewy.
One example of a batter, in accordance with the present invention, has the following formulation (expressed in percent-by-weight of the dry batter):
The modified food starch may be any modified food starch which is acetylated, cross-linked, or acetylated and cross-linked, although acetylated and cross-linked modified food starches are preferred as they appear to produce a product with the highest degree of crispness and holding enhancement. Most preferred are modified potato starches which are acetylated and cross-linked. Modified food starches which are neither acetylated nor cross-linked are not covered by the present invention.
Any de-oiled lecithin, such as Lecigran™ 5750 from Riceland, may be used in the inventive formulation. The de-oiled lecithin and modified food starch within the inventive formulation work synergistically to provide a short, crisp texture which resists rehydration, while the optional, but preferred calcium lactate acts as a texturizing agent and inhibits darkening of the finished product which would normally accompany the use of the de-oiled lecithin. Where a dark finished product is desired, the calcium lactate may be removed from the formulation, or dextrose added to obtain the desired colour.
The batter slurry coated product obtained through use of the batter formulations of the present invention has a very tender and short crispness, unlike conventional flour or starch based batter coated products which exhibit a harder, more glassy crispness. Flavoured products with the same unique holding ability and crispness properties may be obtained through adding flavour or spice, of up to 10% by weight of the dry batter, to the formulations of the present invention. Texture and appearance adjustments to the formulations of the present invention may be made by adjusting the types and amounts of non-essential ingredients, the essential ingredients being the modified food starch and de-oiled lecithin. The calcium lactate is a much preferred, though not essential, ingredient.
The batter slurries of the present invention may be applied by spraying the batter slurry onto the potato pieces, dipping the potato pieces into the batter slurry, or by allowing the potato pieces to travel on a conveyor through a batter slurry cascade.
Subsequent to application of the batter slurry, the product may be passed under air blowers to remove excess batter, adjust the batter pickup, or affect the crispness or appearance of the product.
The batters of the present invention are applied when in the form of a slurry in water, i.e as a batter slurry. Preferably, when applied to dried French fry strips, such slurry has solids levels in the range of about 20-60% by weight of the slurry, more preferably 30-50% by weight of the slurry, and viscosities in the range of about 200-2000 centipoise, more preferably 300-1800 centipoise, as measured by a Brookfield DVII viscometer utilizing a number 4 spindle and a speed of 20 rpm, depending upon the thickness of the batter desired on the end product.
A series of tests were performed on potato product coated with examples of batter slurries made in accordance with the present invention, utilizing a modified food starch batter base or a wheat flour batter base. The two examples of the inventive formulations tested were as follows (in % by weight of the dry batter):
(1) Food Starch Based Dry Batter:
French fry strips cut at 7/16 inch raw dimensions were processed using the above-noted examples of inventive, as well as comparative non-inventive, modified food starch based and flour based batters as clear coat slurry formulations. Both of the non-inventive formulations had the same formulas as the inventive formulations, except that the former used different starches (the modified food starch based batter used cross-linked KV™ modified food starch of Emsland-Starke GmbH, and the wheat flour based batter used an acetylated starch), did not use de-oiled lecithin and did not use calcium lactate. Both of the non-inventive formulations represented currently available commercial products that are used in some take-out operations. These non-inventive products were compared to batter covered strips prepared using the inventive formulations for achieving increased crispness hold time. Each sample was fried for 3 minutes in a Frymaster™ 40 pound gas fryer. After frying, the fry strips were immediately placed into plastic bags. The product was sealed in the plastic bags and held for 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 minutes. For this test, the crispness of the batter of the present invention was given a rating of 10 and, a total lack of crispness was given a rating of 0. The results of this test are shown below in Table I:
This test showed a clear preference for the product coated with the inventive batter slurry containing the de-oiled lecithin and modified potato starch. The non-inventive starch based batter slurry and flour based batter slurry used in this study each had the same formula as the inventive take-out batter slurry, but omitted the lecithin and calcium lactate and utilized a different type of modified potato starch.
In order to determine which ingredients were providing the benefits of increased crispness and of resistance to re-hydration, an additional series of tests was performed. In this series of tests, the methods used in Example 1 were repeated on 0.305″ raw cut pieces of potato, but a control, made according to the invention, was evaluated against:
a) the control formula without the lecithin,
b) the control formula without the calcium lactate,
c) the control formula without calcium lactate and lecithin, and
d) the control formula with a different type of modified potato starch, namely KV™ Modified Starch (Emsland-Starke GmbH), which is a chemically modified food starch that is cross-linked, but not acetylated.
The results of this series of tests are shown in Table II, below:
These tests show that the major component contributing to the extended hold time is the lecithin. The trial where both the calcium lactate and lecithin were removed indicates that the calcium lactate has little to do with the extended hold time. The last trial, where the acetylated and cross-linked potato starch was substituted with a KV Modified Potato Starch, shows that there is a synergistic effect between the starch and the de-oiled lecithin, and it is this synergistic effect that results in the increase hold time in adverse conditions.
In order to simulate actual home delivery, Experiment 1 was largely repeated. The same kinds of products were cooked, but then were held for 5 minutes under a heat lamp before being portioned into paperboard boxes, which were placed into paper bags and allowed to sit for a period of 10 minutes at room temperature. At the end of the 10 minute hold, the products were evaluated. The results of the evaluation are shown below in Table III. The batter containing the lecithin and acetylated and cross linked starch is listed in Table III as "Special Formulation."
As shown in these tests, batter slurries containing de-oiled lecithin in combination with an acetylated and cross-linked starch best enhanced the holding ability of battered fries when the fries were held at conditions of high humidity and temperature such as are found in take out operations.
While the present invention has been described by reference to specific embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other alternative embodiments or modifications may be employed without departing from the scope of this invention.
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Glowing report on services for new Gloucestershire mums
Posted: January 30, 2013|
MATERNITY services in Gloucestershire have received a glowing recommendation for a high standard of service after an intensive review. The top safety rating was awarded after a full two-day assessment was carried out in January.
Five key aspects of maternity services came under scrutiny, including organisation, clinical care, high risk care, communication, postnatal and new born care. The Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trust's Maternity Standards are divided into three levels.
Gloucestershire Hospitals now joins only a handful of Trusts in the country to have achieved the top Level 3 CNST status.
Assessors detailed a process including interviews, document and policy checks and examination of health records and review of clinical audits to ensure that these polices and guidelines are implemented consistently in every day practice.
Divisional Director for Women and Children's Division, Paul Byrne, said: "This is the highest level to achieve nationally and is a reflection of the high quality services provided in Gloucestershire.
"The service achieved full compliance for our maternity health records.
"This is excellent news for the service and for the Trust.
"I would like to thank the CNST team who lead on our detailed preparations for the assessment and all other staff, within the Division and in other departments in the Trust, who contributed in some way to a very successful outcome".
Divisional Nursing and Midwifery Director Vivien Mortimore puts this achievement down to the commitment and dedication of all the staff involved.
"In achieving Level 3 the services has been able to successfully demonstrate that clear processes are in place to ensure the provision of high quality care for the mothers and babies who use our services across the entire maternity service, in all care settings," she said.
"This is a fantastic achievement for the services and a testament to the hard work of the whole team and it demonstrates what can be achieved with focus and the commitment of our staff. "I feel extremely proud of the service and all the staff.
"I would like to thank all the team in both maternity and neonatal services who have contributed to this significant achievement."

subset: commoncrawl


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Step into the role of an aspiring martial arts master and follow the path of the Open Palm or Closed Fist. In this multi-award-winning action-RPG, your choices and actions will determine the fate of an empire. Will you prevent the destruction of this beautiful land or crush it beneath your heel? Are you a warrior who uses strength and fighting mastery to bring peace, or will your power bring pain and ruin? THE CHOICE IS YOURS.
- An incredible, engaging story that makes you the noble hero...or the treacherous villain!
- A wealth of fascinating characters to interact with
- Beautiful, mysterious lands to explore, discover, and save... or conquer
- A rich blend of roleplaying and exciting real-time combat


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Josh Abbott Band at John T. Floore Country Store
: September 18, 2013 : Updated: September 19, 2013 3:41pm
Thursday, Sept. 26
Though he moved to Austin, the rocking Texas Music star says his hometown is Idalou, a small town near Lubbock. He devotes much of his latest album to Idalou's kind of rural folks and even names one of his songs after it. It's touching a chord with listeners. "Small Town Family Dream," which topped the iTunes country chart, already spawned two No. 1 Texas Music singles — "I'll Sing About Mine," which takes a poke at Nashville themes that tractors are sexy, and the love ballad "Touch." A third single is in the Top 5, the up-tempo love song "She Will Be Free."
John T. Floore Country Store, 14492 Old Bandera Road, Helotes. 9 p.m. Tyler & The Tribe opens. $20 advance; $25 door.


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Collapse of the Steel Industry, 1982
In And the Wolf Finally Came, McKeesport native John P. Hoerr examined the collapse of the American steel industry. Focusing on the industry's struggle to remain competitive after World War II, Hoerr tells epic tales of strikes, plant shutdown and negotiations, as well as interviewing restless mill workers, union representatives and managers, and finds the roots of steel's collapse in an untenably adversarial relationship between labor and management.
In this section, "Collapse of the Steel Industry, 1982," Hoerr recounts his return home to the Monongahela Valley.
It is a trip weighted with shock and nostalgia. I am driving east on Second Avenue in Pittsburgh, heading out of the city and up the Monongahela River. Behind me stand the eminences of steel and glass, bunched in the heart of the city, where management makes decisions for its far-flung steel empire. Ahead lie the mill towns and steel plants, strung along the winding river artery, where labor produces molten iron and steel and finished steel products. Once vital parts of Andrew Carnegie's wondrously profitable linkage of mines and mills, most of these plants now sit idled and empty, soon to be churned into rubble.
Times are hard in the Monongahela Valley. The most devastating business slump since the Great Depression has eviscerated the steel industry, causing plant shutdowns and widespread unemployment. On my right, the black metal siding of the cavernous old plant of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation looms over the street, as intimidating as ever, forcing me instinctively to lean away from it as I drive past. A large "For Sale or Lease" sign is posted on one end of the building. It is a bold stroke on someone's part, advertising a mile-long steel plant for sale as one would a corner grocery store. The plant had been expiring slowly for years, the victim of foreign steel's relentless attack, as well as capital starvation and an ill-suited merger of J&L with the LTV Corporation. Across the river, J&L's Southside plant is still working, though at a low level of operations.
I have flown in from New York to take a reporter's measure of this destruction. But I can make no pretense of objectivity. This is my home. I was born in the valley, grew up here, went to school, played, worked, and was part of a family here, and I dread the sight of silent mills and dying mill towns. I have made this trip up the valley from Pittsburgh hundreds of times over the years, in automobiles, commuter trains, trolley cars, and once or twice by boat. It has always been for me the prototypical journey home, coming from the harsh outer world into the mysterious inner world of earliest memories and first thoughts. The further I penetrate the valley and move into the shadows of the river bluffs, the more I shed journalistic indifference.
Nevertheless, Pittsburgh always puts forth its best front, aided by the spectacular juxtaposition of hills, rivers, bridges, and architecture. The city lies at the "forks of the Ohio," as early settlers called it, where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers join to form the Ohio. A visitor driving in from the airport first sees the city upon leaving a tunnel that cuts through a high ridge on the south side of the Monongahela. At night, emerging from the tunnel is like bursting into a dazzling new world of light and form. The skyscrapers, with row upon row of floors lit for the night cleaning crews, give off a white glow that shimmers on the dark rivers. This spectacle, you might think, must surely radiate outward, projecting strength and prosperity into every corner of the surrounding countryside.
The October day is cool and bright. There is still plenty of green foliage on the steepest parts of the river bluffs, where not even the craziest house can safely perch. For all that we have done to the Monongahela Valley over the past century, the wooded hills and bluffs retain the primitive look of the dense forests that once blanketed the region. When times are bad, and no plumes of sooty smoke drift across the bluffs, that appearance of rusticity distracts one from what man has made of the valley's narrow flatlands by the river. The industrial detritus of a fading culture stretches for mile upon unrelieved mile on these riverbanks: abandoned furnaces, mill buildings, railroad tracks and bridges, storage yards, pumping stations, pipelines, transmission towers. The American steel industry lies dying in its cradle.
I am a labor journalist, and I have come to report on relations between labor and management in the steel industry. As of now, the United Steelworkers union (USW) has refused to grant wage concessions that the industry says it needs to become competitive. There is a standoff. Both sides have displayed an obduracy to change that is all too common in American industrial relations.
Indeed, the steel industry is the best example of what has gone wrong with union-management relations in the United States. Such poor relations are one reason why organized labor is declining in most industries, and why American companies have lost their competitive edge in the new international marketplace.
I can see that an immense tragedy is unfolding in the "Mon Valley," as it is known to the people who live here. The industry is now operating at only slightly more than 30 percent of capacity, close to the record low of the Depression. Some twenty thousand steelworkers, or about two-thirds of the work force in the Mon Valley, are laid off. Most will never work again in a steel plant. The almost legendary mill towns in the valley—Homestead, Rankin, Braddock, Duquesne, McKeesport, Clairton, Monessen—are being drained of their life's blood. The same is true of many other mill towns: The Southside and Hazelwood sections of Pittsburgh, Aliquippa on the Ohio River, Johnstown on the Conemaugh, Youngstown on the Mahoning, Bethlehem in eastern Pennsylvania, Lackawanna in New York, Cleveland, Gary, South Chicago, and others.
I grew up in McKeesport and have vivid memories of the way it used to be. In the late 1940s, when I was a teenager, a dozen great steel plants lined the banks of the Monongahela, extending forty-six miles up the valley from Pittsburgh. The mills worked twenty-four hours a day and provided jobs for nearly eighty thousand men and women, not counting employees in the companies' Pittsburgh offices. They were enormous steaming vessels, clanging and banging, spouting great plumes of smoke, and searing the sky with the Bessemer's reddish orange glow. The narrow brick streets of the mill towns were filled with streetcars, automobiles, workers going to and from the plant, and shoppers carrying big brown paper bags. There were two or three saloons to a block on the main street near the mill, and almost as many churches scattered through each town.
And, yes, noondays were often as dark as night—as awed visitors usually reported, when inversions trapped great clouds of smoke close to earth, and the downtown sidewalks were so thick with ferruginous dust from the open hearth and Bessemer furnaces, that they gave off a metallic sheen. Smoke seemed to seep out of the very pores of the mill buildings. Every morning housewives all over town put on babushkas and swept clouds of dust off their front porches.
The activity in the plants was never frenetic, but always intensive. You would see diesel engines hauling long strings of tank cars filled with molten iron along the riverbanks; heavy trucks heaped with smoking slag grinding out of the plant gates to dump their loads on the huge, incessantly burning slag piles; skip cars laden with iron ore crawling up cable hoists on the 100-foot tall blast furnaces to feed the vessels from the top; crane buckets dipping into mounds of coke on barges tied up along the river wall. Crane sirens were always screaming out in the depths of the mill, diesels were honking, pipes were banging against pipes with a resounding, hollow noise. Workers moved about everywhere. From outside the plant you could see them strolling on the plant roadways, or hooking up loads on cranes in the storage yards, or striding out of plant offices with blueprints under their arms, or lined up just inside the plant gates, awaiting the siren for shift change.
Now those giant sprawling places of enormous energy have become rusting hulks: silent and lifeless, like obsolete dreadnoughts sunk to their stacks in shallow water. This image occurs to me as I turn left off the bridge and drive south through Homestead on East Eighth Avenue, the town's main street. The Homestead Works, the largest plant in the valley, is a few blocks to my left.
Twelve thousand people once were employed here; a few thousand are left. There is little traffic on Eighth Avenue, where it once took fifteen minutes to drive four or five blocks. Gone are the retail emporiums, the movie theaters, most of the bars, the crowds of shoppers. Amity Street, which leads down to the main plant gate, is deserted. Farther south, where the plant crosses into the Borough of Munhall, the mill buildings extend right up to Eighth Avenue. Their open ends face the street, but they are dark inside. Nothing moves. At one of the half dozen entrance gates, I see a sign: "This gate closed. Use Amity St, gate." Now there are so few working that all gates except one are closed.
I drive on through Munhall and up the steep four-lane highway that cuts across the face of a high bluff. At the top is Kennywood Park, where three generations of steelworkers, and everybody else in the valley, have spent the traditional end-of-school holiday riding roller coasters and picnicking. Just before getting to Kennywood, I pull into a cinder parking lot and walk to the edge of the cliff overlooking the Monongahela.
The cliff is at least a hundred feet high and makes a sheer plunge down to railroad tracks on my side of the river. Directly across the river is Braddock and the Edgar Thomson Works of U.S. Steel. In 1872 Carnegie and a group of investors bought 107 acres of farmland in what was known as Braddock's Field (where the French and Indians ambushed and slaughtered General Edward Braddock's army in 1755) and built Carnegie's first steel plant. Its two Bessemer furnaces and rail mills, representing the latest in steelmaking technology, began operating in 1875. The early success of this plant launched Carnegie in an enormously lucrative steel business which set the pattern for all other steel companies in terms of commercial and production practices, formed the core of the future U.S. Steel Corporation, and forever changed the face of America.
The plant extends about a mile along the riverbank and consists of a score or more of different structures—furnaces, tanks, metal buildings, brick buildings, all of varying sizes. It is dominated at the northern end by a huge, pale blue building housing the basic oxygen furnaces. Nearer the river is a two-story, red brick building with high arched windows that have been bricked over, which looks like a turn-of-the-century structure. I see nothing moving in the plant. No trucks, no trains, no people, no smoke. The river locks adjacent to the plant, where strings of coal barges would be lined up awaiting passage over a five-foot change in water level, are vacant. After a while I hear a faint sound of metal beating on metal. It seems to come from the old brick building, as if someone were pounding a sledge on an anvil, pounding for no reason but to proclaim his existence in that vast and empty place.
I drive on, glancing wistfully at the arching curves of Kennywood's three famous roller coasters, the Rabbit, the Racer and the Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt, which used to be called the Pippin, was the most exciting. It dived over the side of the cliff toward the muddy river and zoomed back up again as our cries of thrill stretched out behind like a flyer's scarf. The park is closed for the winter. Across the street, showing more life than anything I've seen so far, is a large McDonald's where once stood a row of brick homes. A big red sign in the parking lot says: "McDonald's. Billions and billions served. Drive through." Cars are queued up at a red light, waiting to drive through.
Now I'm going down the hill into Duquesne, where another U.S. Steel plant dozes in the bright sunlight. The pride of the Duquesne Works is Dorothy Six, the largest blast furnace in the valley, 125 feet high and swathed in piping that looks like rippling muscle. As I drive past, a cloud of steam envelopes Dorothy's cast house at ground level. Is she tapping iron or just blowing steam? A number of friends from high school days work in the Duquesne plant—if they still have their jobs, I remind myself.
A half mile beyond the Duquesne Works, I turn onto the bridge that crosses the Monongahela to McKeesport. Now am really coming home. McKeesport's National Works lies on the riverbank just south of the bridge. From my viewpoint on the bridge, I note that the plant gives off a pale blue glint hinting of fresh paint, and the dashing USS logo is prominent on one of the mill buildings. This neat, fresh look is an optimistic sign.
At the end of the bridge, I turn south once again on Lysle Boulevard (named for a mayor who for years banned union meetings) and drive past the plant. On the town side, it looks completely different, old and worn out. Nothing is painted. The blast furnaces, long unused, are piles of dirty rust. The buildings housing the finishing mills expose to McKeesporters ancient, yellow-brick facing and rows of broken windows. It's as if the plant promoted itself as a sleek, modern mill to the outside world across the river but revealed its obsolete, abandoned face to its own community.
The mill buildings look the same as they did thirty years ago. Like most young men of my generation who grew up in steel towns, I worked in the mill during summers and other time off from school. One job lasted a year. Going to and from work every day, I walked past the buildings on the mill roadway and took a short cut through a dark storage building where electric motors, steam engines, pumps, generators, and unopened crates of forgotten equipment lay heaped in dusty rows. Great age was stamped on everything in the mill, including the lined faces of older men who still wore narrow-brimmed hats with grease spots in the finger hollows near the peak. I dreamed of finding footprints of an ancient steel-worker in the dirt of the mill grounds, like the arrowheads still reported to be buried in Braddock's Field. I worked then for a construction company that was building a new boiler house in the plant, but I felt as much a part of the mill as a steelworker. The boiler house is still there, looking weary and depressed but still spouting little puffs of steam now and then.
But I am wrong. There is no siren. Now it is only a faint tinkling sound. The mill doesn't want to embarrass itself by proclaiming an enormous change of shifts, I think, when in fact only a fraction of a normal day turn is now working. In the old days, indeed only a year ago, it would have taken ten or fifteen minutes for the entire day turn to file through the gate. Now the exodus takes a total of one and a half minutes. Only 150 hourly employees, out of 4,200, are still working.
I begin to walk away. Someone calls my name. I turn and see a straggler coming out of the gate. He is Manny Stoupis, an acquaintance since the 1940s and now chairman of the grievance committee of USW Local 1408. I always remember Manny (nobody used his full name, Manuel) as a slight, wiry kid who was good in solid geometry. He has grown a bit thicker since I last saw him a few years ago, and his black hair is graying above the ears. Manny has the same earnest look, though now it is more knowing and verges on the bitter. He has been a grievance committeeman for the better part of twenty years. Anyone who survives this long as an elected local official will have experienced more than the normal share of human conflict.
After we shake hands, I ask what it is like to work in the huge plant with only I150 fellow workers. "It's eerie," he says. "You don't see anybody. You don't hear anything. There's no security. The company closed the two gates at the lower end of the plant and laid off the guards. They canceled the roving guard who used to drive around in a jeep. People are breaking in at the lower end, climbing over the fence, and stealing brass and iron scrap." He laughs. "Two foremen down at the lower end lock themselves in their office all day."
Manny was an ambitious young man who, like so many back in the early 1950s, got caught in steel's good times. For young men in the mill towns of those days, there was a very tangible sense of having to make an implicit bargain with life from the outset. There were two choices. If you took a job in the mill, you could stay in McKeesport among family and friends, earn decent pay, and gain a sort of lifetime security (except for layoffs and strikes) in an industry that would last forever. You traded advancement for security and expected life to stick to its bargain. Or you could spurn the good pay and long-term security, leave your family and the community, and take a flyer on making a career in some other field. In a sense, everybody growing up in America must decide whether to stay or move on. In the Mon Valley, however, the very presence of the mill on the riverbank, its gates flung open to young men (though not women and not blacks in the better jobs), forced you to make this choice.
Manny could have moved on, but his ambition trapped him in McKeesport. He started working part-time in the mill in 1947 during his junior year in high school and never stopped. His steelworker wages carried him through college and graduate school, and by the time he received a master's degree in mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh in 1958, he was making too much money as a steelworker to leave the mill. He had accumulated seniority by then and was grossing $4,000 more a year than he would have received if he had gone into biophysics. Manny stayed in the mill and got into union politics. I had talked to him many times in the 1960S and I970S when he held a variety of local union offices.
We walk slowly toward the Local 1408 hall. Manny talks in hard, curt sentences. He doesn't complain, but I can guess. The way things are going, he will have to take early retirement before he is fifty-five ... and then what? There is plenty of anger in him, but it comes out only a little at a time. "Most of our people will never see the inside of this plant again," he says. There is a long pause. "National Works is just about done for."
The Local 1408 hall is a two-story, pale green building fronting on Fifth Avenue, McKeesport's main business street. Several men in the lobby are discussing recent layoffs; somebody with forty-two years of service has just lost his job. I leave Manny and walk down a narrow corridor, passing a committee room where more men sit around a table and talk about layoff benefits. I find Dick Grace, the local president, sitting behind a desk in his tiny office. There are three chairs and a bookcase containing union brochures. On the wall are color photographs of John F. Kennedy, the five current International officers of the USW, and Grace himself competing in various road races. In his late forties, Grace took up jogging and has run in several ten-kilometer races. Now fiftyish, he is trim around the middle and wears a brush moustache that is turning gray.
I've known Grace for several years. Sometimes he is evasive about union business, but not today. He pulls his baseball cap advertising "Local 1408" more firmly down on his forehead and throws his feet up on the desk, ready to talk. He is angry. The company wants to padlock the unused locker rooms in the plant and has been calling laid-off workers and telling them to come in and pick up their clothing. "They call them at home and just say, 'Come in, empty your locker out,' That scares the hell out of them. These bastards have no finesse."
We talk about local negotiations. The company has asked the union to approve changes in the local agreement which would enable management to move workers from one department to another inside the plant. Grace doesn't like the idea. I ask a demurring question: If the union wants National Works to continue in business, doesn't it make sense to help management reduce labor costs?
Grace drops his legs behind the desk and straightens up in the chair. He has called off negotiations, he tells me angrily, upon discovering that the company has sent a letter to all employees ordering them to take their vacations in January so the plant can shut down for two weeks, It's not the policy that angers him so much as the fact that management negotiators failed to tell him about the mailing (purposefully, he suspects) even as they were asking him for concessions. "I haven't talked to them for two weeks," Grace says, "My relations with them are at the worst level I've ever seen."
Tragedies are made of such things.
I drive back to Pittsburgh after dusk. There are no stars out, and the valley is dark and silent. I feel as if I am in another country, or another time. The Man Valley that I have known, a socioeconomic system that for a hundred years provided that labor for America's industrial explosion, is slipping into the past. Perhaps it should. Perhaps it is time to discard that culture and build another someplace else. What's one century in the sweep of progress?
Excerpt from And the Wolf Finally Came: The Decline of the American Steel Industry, by John P. Hoerr, copyright © 1988. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.


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Deduktiv ebaas distance API
Ebaas distance is a web service of deduktiv consulting, which works with postcodes - only for the delivery, not for the post office box - based on geographic coordinates. Ebaas distance is available for all of Europe and offers the following functions, which may be integrated into user applications: Periphery search - postcode, location name and distances for the desired starting point will be returned. Localisation by means of postcode and/or location name. The API uses SOAP and XML-RPC protocol.
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Archive for February, 2013
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Posted at: 05/17/2013 11:39 PM
By: Dan Levy
MALTA - An 8-year old boy went for the ride of his life Friday night in Malta. Just two months after surviving a heart-breaking tragedy, Matthew Sleight wound up in the winner's circle, lifted to a heart-warming celebrity status at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway.
Matthew arrived in style, riding in a shiny, black, stretch limousine, but that was just the beginning of an unforgettable night for the bright-eyed second grader.
"It's definitely a change for us," said Chris Sleight, Matthew's father. "The last few months, it's been obviously a rough road, up and down, there's days when he smiles and has a good time."
Back on March 10th, Matthew was a passenger in a car hit head-on by a van on Route 67 in Amsterdam. His mother Tanya, who was driving, and his older brother Elijah were killed in the crash. His 2-year old sister Naomi is still recovering.
On that fateful night, Taylor Janis, a U.S. Marine, witnessed the crash and pulled Matthew out of the wreckage.
"I was there in the right place at the right time," Janis said, "I did what I could and anyone of my Marine brothers and sisters would have done the same thing."
Weeks after the crash, Matthew asked his dad if he could see Taylor again. It was arranged. The two became fast friends. Taylor found out Matthew loved the speedway. He knew someone who knew someone else, and that led to Friday night.
"It's really good seeing him," Taylor said, in full Marine dress uniform. "I know he looks up to me. He's a good kid. I'm just glad I'm here for him right now and he knows he's my little buddy know. Anything for the kid."
Anything for the kid meant everything for the kid at the speedway Friday night. He toured the pit area. He met the pit crews. He spoke with drivers. He was lavished with t-shirts, autographs, and checkered flags.
Matthew found himself buckled in behind the wheel of a race car. He even sped around the dirt oval inside the pace car, waving to the crowd.
"It's amazing," Chris Sleight said, "You can't really put words to it because it's just so much."
Even though it's possible Matthew may grow up some day and become a race car driver, Taylor Janis seems to be banking on something else.
"When he visited me at my house, he was kind of gung ho about the Marine Corps so maybe we got a future Marine on our hands," Janis suggested.
Taylor Janis wasn't supposed to be at the Raceway on Friday. He was scheduled to be with his Marine unit at Fort Drum. When the Marine brass found out everything had already been arranged for Matthew, and Matthew wanted Taylor with him, Taylor's commanding officer ordered him to be with Matthew.


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Tracking Another ClipperJanuary 22nd, 2014 at 5:05 am by Randy Ollis under Weather
We are getting off to a very cold start this morning with temperatures below zero in many locations. The winds are light but still producing wind chills well be low zero. Another clipper will bring in some snow showers this afternoon and tonight. Right now, any accumulation should be an inch or less by morning.
Thursday will be a windy and bitterly cold day along with a few flurries. Highs will only be in the single digits with wind chills well below zero.
No major changes are in the extended forecast. Very cold air will continue for the next week or two. Weak disturbances will roll through the region about every other day.


text: The Brains Behind "Bubala Please" Speak Out SASS December 6, 2012 Culture, Interview, Shtick, Videos 15 Comments There's an awesome new series on the interwebs that's both Jewy, and gangsta. Bubala Please follows friends and gangsters Jaquaan and Luis as they teach us stuff about being Jewish in a way that is a little less suburban meek, and a little more street chic. The series was created by Jacob S. Salamon and Jared F. Bauer. Jacob is a filmaker, designer, and entrepreneur who was founding member of the social software and analytics company Bazaarvoice before deciding to pursue his dream of working in the entertainment world. Jared is a screenwriter, filmaker, and independent producer who recently produced Max Landis' internet short The Death and Return of Superman which starred Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Ron Howard, Elden Henson, Sarah Shahi, and Simon Pegg. While a a lot less thug than Bubala Please, their own story is pretty inspiring. If you haven't seen Bubala Please yet, you should feel ashamed. Fix that by checking out the first two episodes here and here How did the two of you come together to create this series? Jacob: We actually met in college. Jared was studying film, and I was studying business. We met in Astronomy class, of all places. I completely admired that Jared was following his dream, and I told him then, "I need to pursue business for now, but one day I'll join you in Hollywood and we can make movies together." That was six years ago. Three months ago I moved to LA, and this was our first project together. The concept was created by a great friend of mine, Josh Cohen. Josh called me from London a couple months ago and said, "I have this idea: what if you had two LA gangsters who spoke Yiddish?" Jared and I knew it had to be done, so we collaborated with Josh to create Bubala Please as you see it. Tell me a little bit about your Jewish backgrounds. Did you go through the Hebrew School grind, or were you raised more Jew-ish? And did you have over-bearing Bubbies? Oh Hanukkah Bush, Oh Hanukkah Bush Jacob: I actually grew up along the US-Mexico border in a town called Laredo, Texas. My hometown is 95% Hispanic, and nearly every one of my childhood friends was Latino. I often joke that I grew up as a minority within a minority. My grandparents were Holocaust survivors from Lithuania and Germany, who eventually settled on the border to establish their new lives in America. My grandfather actually helped establish Laredo's synagogue and Jewish community in the 1950s, which is where I went to Hebrew school. I hated Hebrew school growing up – I have memories of making my mom literally drag me there. But, as with anything, age gives you perspective. I'm so glad I had that experience. As for my bubbie – she's a Yiddish-speaker and loves the show. But she criticized that Luis uses too much onion in the latke episode. Jared: I grew up in a suburb outside of Houston where there's not much of a Jewish community. My parents are both pureblood New York Jews so growing up in conservative Texas was a bit disorienting. All of my friends were gentiles, so Judaism had virtually no presence in my social life, yet I grew up in a household that was very culturally Jewish. I went to Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah, but that's pretty much where it stopped. I watch plenty of Woody Allen movies so I feel that sufficiently relieves the guilt of discontinuing my Jewish studies. Both of my bubbies live in New York so they don't get the chance to be too overbearing. The process of "hitting" in the online community can be strange, even arbitrary. What elements did you want to have to ensure this would be a success? How do you feel about the reactions you've gotten so far? Jacob: We had no idea if people would like Bubala Please. We figured that if it was a huge flop, at least we could use the show as our company's Hanukkah card. But Jared and I were ambitious: we wanted people to see our show. The first thing we needed was to make sure the show was as shareable as possible. In that vein, we created a simple website, posted the video to YouTube, and developed identities on Facebook and Twitter to ensure there was never an excuse for the show not getting passed around. I had so many doubts about whether people would like the show or not. The opinion I most cared about was my brother's. He saw our rough cut over Thanksgiving and said, "You nailed it." Then I knew we'd made something good. Jared: We're very excited about the reactions we've gotten thus far. We have people around the world writing to us about how much they love the show, how much they've laughed watching it, etc. I can't ask for more than that. Web shows are still in their infancy, and as such, I don't think the model for success has been defined yet. Sure, there are sensations like Epic Meal Time that generate a lot of ad revenue and sponsorship, but the landscape is changing quickly. With mainstream American households quickly adopting technologies that allow them access YouTube on their TV, I think web content is around the corner from exploding. Hopefully Bubala Please will be there when it happens. Your actors, Marcus Wayne and Rick Mancia, are fantastic. Had you worked with them before? How did you find them? Jared: When we first decided to do the show, I told Jacob that I wanted to look for stand-up/sketch comedians from some of the local comedy venues. I had been producing here in LA for two years before Jacob arrived so I reached out to all the people I know in the comedy circuit to ask for references. We got a bunch of recommendations, some of which were extremely talented comedians. However, in the end, we met Marcus and Rick through an open casting call we posted on LA Casting networks. I was going for the wrong approach. The stand up comedians tended to play it a little too "big," whereas Marcus and Rick were versatile actors who could really inhabit the roles and make it believable. We're very luck to have found them. On their way to visit bubbie Did you have to teach your actors a little bit of Yiddish and tradition? Or were they familiar? Jacob: Marcus and Rick learned quite a bit during rehearsals and on-set. We had to teach them about gefiltefish, matzo balls, latkes, the whole bit. Marcus actually thought the combination of apple sauce and sour cream on the latkes was disgusting – you can kind of see it in his face during the episode. Jared: Actually it was the texture that turned his stomach. You'll notice he takes a very small bite. This has actually been one of the most rewarding elements of making Bubala Please. Sharing our cultural backgrounds has proven to be a kind of bonding experience, which is not only great because we're learning about other cultures across the cast and crew, but because it builds a great director/actor dynamic. Is this a series that you hope would appeal to the goyim as well? Jacob: When we created the show, we certainly were catering to Jews. We thought Jewish 20-somethings would love it, the same way we do. But we didn't expect there to be such a following with 45-65-year-old women! Jared: Most of the goyim I have shown BP to have really liked it. They may not get all of the Yiddish references, but they grasp the basic conceit (LA gangbangers meet Boca Raton retirees). I'm hoping with later episodes we are able to reach a wider audiences while continuing to cater to our Jewish fans. In your latest episode, I'm legitimately impressed you included the Shecheyanu! How long did it take for your actor, Marcus, to learn it? Jared: Quite a while. It was kind of like a Rabbi giving a Bar Mitzvah student a recording of his Haftorah portion. Jacob quickly recorded a rough version of the rap in garage band and sent it to Marcus and Rick to memorize. When that didn't work, we recoded a phonetic breakdown of the whole prayer. It sounded like an episode of The Electric Company. By the time we were in our composer's studio, Marcus had it down. ***** Bubala Please contains music by Evan Goldman and animation by Danny Rapaport, with cinematography by Richie Yau and makeup by Vicky Zuniga. What do you think? 15 Responses adam December 6, 2012 ohhh i get it, its funny b/c theyre not white and look like theyre from the ghetto (or is it 'the barrio'?) yet are talking about things i normally associate with white jews – clever! based on what i know from tv, they even talk like authentic 'urban people', like randomly adding 'motherfucker' after stuff for emphasis. they even use drugs, which ive heard these people are known to do. maybe next time they could have the brown one wear a sombrero and ride in on a donkey, not to stereotype or anything. Reply peewee December 6, 2012 what Adam said… YES Reply Hal Rochkind December 7, 2012 Why so critical? I say hilarious! Reply Julie December 7, 2012 I really loved the first episode, but hated the second one. Reply Lynda December 7, 2012 I love, love, love Bubala Please! It is always interesting to see where such creative genius comes from. Keep up the great work, guys! Reply Narshkite December 11, 2012 People decide not to be amused. Your hipster cred is in place Adam and Peewee, but it must suck to be you. Reply taloolah December 11, 2012 Some opinions should be kept to yourself. Reply MOTL December 13, 2012 if you're a black jew, this entire series is…tiresome. Reply SMB December 14, 2012 happy to see the negative comments on this drek…tired old racial stereotypes just in time for hanukkah. the "brains" behind this project??? give it a rest…. please think twice before making fun of the idea that there may be jews who aren't white. enough already! VERY DISAPPOINTED, HEEB Reply taloolah December 14, 2012 I think some of you missed the point. They're not embracing stereotypes, they're finding the humor in them and presenting them in a way to make us smile. Diversity is charming. Reply MOTL December 14, 2012 Saying "mutherfuka" after a bracha is not diversity, not charming and, due to the unimaginative repetition of it throughout the videos, not that funny. — black jewish man who says brachot every day Steve M January 3, 2013 It's just a comedy, lighten up! Reply Baruch March 2, 2013 I agree Steve M. After 5000 years of gettin caps busted in our collective asses, we all should see the humor in this. My father the Orthodox rabbi thinks it's hysterical. Reply Viernes Video: Yiddish-speaking gang bangers torch cyberspace in new comedy web series | Latina Lista March 18, 2013 […] sons of the Jewish faith, who met in college, teamed together to create the surprise hit. In an interview with Heeb Magazine, the two filmmakers share their motivation for creating Bubala Please and their […] Reply HeeHee March 29, 2013 Y'alls gots to stop be hatin. This shit is funny. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply


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A couple of days ago we told you that thanks to Saurik's contributions the Dream Team have managed to get past the Sandbox errors that was halting further progress on the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Untethered Jailbreak. It was mentioned that getting past these Sandbox errors proved to be a more complex task than exploiting the iPhone 4/iPad 2 baseband "X-Gold 618".
Today P0sixNinja has tweeted that the A5 Untethered Jailbreak is quickly becoming the most amazing Jailbreak yet. We are assuming that he is meaning due to the pure complexity the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Untethered Jailbreak. The A5 Untethered Jailbreak will be one of the most amazing feats ever accomplished by hackers in the Jailbreaking community.
We are not sure that whether this means any new progress has been on the A5 Untethered Jailbreak or not. And MuscleNerd was quick to stop any rumours of this tweet having any significance to the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 Untethered Jailbreak actually nearing completion. Regardless, it is nice to see the Jailbreaking communities greatest hackers coming together to work on one of the most complex Jailbreaks that has ever been developed.
Please leave any questions or thoughts related to the A5 Untethered Jailbreak in the comments section below…


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Pretty Little Liars
Pretty Little Liars Season 3, Episode 8 Canadian Preview: Hanna Kisses [SPOILER]! (VIDEO)
It's finally happening. In the Canadian preview for Pretty Little Liars Season 3, Episode 8: "Stolen Kisses", two very unusual suspects are making out, and we have to wonder how and why.
Read spoilers at your own risk! For more on Wetpaint Entertainment's philosophy on spoilers, click here.
Yes, in that brief shot where we see Hanna (Ashley Benson) lunging towards Wren (Julian Morris), the Wranna moment we've all been waiting for (or dreading, depending on your point of view) occurs.
Also in the juicy Canadian preview: piles of money in an electronic counter, two girls in a pool, Paige (Lindsey Shaw) and Emily (Shay Mitchell) out for an emotional jog, and a very strange-looking boathouse.
Watch as Ezra's (Ian Harding) mother tells Aria (Lucy Hale), "Everyone has motives," and a strange new blonde guy with green glasses tells Aria that you can't trust anyone. Check it out below!
Find more Pretty Little Liars spoilers here.
Catch an all-new episode of PLL on Tuesday, July 31 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC Family.
Source: SpoilerTV
Molly Friedman is an editor at Wetpaint Entertainment. Follow her on Twitter @MollyFriedman.
Get your Pretty Little Liars fix: Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter and Tumblr!


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Oh Claire...
Kat has begged for your chocolate cream pie for Turkey Day! I can't find my copy of your recipe anywhere....so could you pretty please, with sugar on top, for Kat, please please
Oh Claire...
Kat has begged for your chocolate cream pie for Turkey Day! I can't find my copy of your recipe anywhere....so could you pretty please, with sugar on top, for Kat, please please
Oh oh! I will....have to go upstairs to find it, but I'll do it soon!
Move it woman, Shawn wants to make it for thanksgiving
Delta Mu Chi Alpha ΔΜΧΑ
Hey now, lady, maybe I'll PM it to baileykat and leave YOU out of the loop!
Don't make me go upstairs. There is a messy kitchen and a clock up there reminding me that I have things to do and places to go....
Will it take her until Thanksgiving to go upstairs?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Nah, she'll have to go up there sometime, that's where the liquor is
Delta Mu Chi Alpha ΔΜΧΑ
Nope, too lazy. Went to MousePad and did a search of my posts!!
Chocolate Ribbon Pie:
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp. milk
1 tub Cool Whip, divided, thawed
1 chocolate crust (can make a homemade crushed Oreo crust, or storebought)
2 cups cold milk
2 pkg. (4 serving size each) chocolate flavor pudding
Beat cream cheese, sugar and 1 tbsp milk in large bowl. Stir in 1/2 of the Cool Whip. Spread on bottom of crust.
Pour 2 cups milk into large bowl. Add pudding mixes. Beat for at least two minutes (mixture should be thick). Pour/spread over cream cheese layer.
Refrigerate for four hours or until set. Spread remaining Cool Whip over pudding layer. Garnish with shaved chocolate, or my favorite: sweetened ground Ghiradelli chocolate.
Thank you ChocolatePieBell!!!
I was informed this morning that Kyler is making Pumpkin Pie and Shawn wants to make Choclate(no O when he says it) Pie
Delta Mu Chi Alpha ΔΜΧΑ
Ok now I'm not even a big fan of Chocolate and that is making me hungry! Anyone want to make me one and slip it into an email or a PM for me? thanks!
It's such a great pie xHarryb! I'm normally a cooked pudding type filling with meringue on top chocolate pie girl myself....but I enjoy this pie just as much!
Thank you sweet Stinkybell!
hmmmm... well I was gonna offer to make a desert so that I feel like I'm contributing something to Turkey Day. Now do I go with the tasty looking Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle I saw Paula Deen make this weekend (recipe available at foodnetwork.com for those interested) or this tempting chocolatey treat...
I think I may need to make a trial run before using this for the big meal!
Mmmm, I'm considering a trial run myself!
It's really sweet....and so simple! I don't like pudding or pudding pies and I loooove this pie!!
Hey Stink - can I use whipped cream cheese in the recipe? I have a ton of it at home, but don't want to fowl up the pie.
Anything listed on the park maps as an attraction is fair game for inclusion in the Rally.
I cannot confirm nor deny the inclusion of any attraction in the Rally.
May the Gumballs Be with You...Always.
Unless you're adding chicken I don't think that will FOWL it upOriginally Posted by mamabot
I so could not resist, you know it is SO FREAKIN' RARE to see you do somethin' like that!!
Delta Mu Chi Alpha ΔΜΧΑ


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The ProKennex 2014 Racquetball Backpack holds up to 3 racquets in a dedicated racquet compartment. The large main compartment has an MP3 pocket and headphone holes as well as a nylon handle cover. The front accessory pocket is compartmentalized, great for organizing your smaller gear. Dual mesh pockets on the side are perfect for carrying a water bottle and can of balls. Plush padding can be found on both the backpack straps as well as the backing. The vented shoe compartment is accessible from the bottom of the backpack, making it convenient to travel with your court shoes.
Comments: [ProKennex 2014 Racquetball Blue Triple Pack] Overall disappointed, 12 x 6 wide is way too narrow, when you have "stuff" in side pockets your Rball shoes don't even fit in bottom side by side. For a supposedly large tour type bag it is not very roomy. I should have waited and purchased the "Weekender" wider and less expensive.
From: J. H., 10/14


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WeCar's Richard Bailey, Enterprise downtown branch manager, unplugs the electric charger on a Chevy Volt. WeCar membership costs $35 a year, and since the program launched two months ago, about 25 people have joined. / MYKAL McELDOWNEY/Staff
Picture green roofs, rain gardens and lengths of solar panels on top of multistory office buildings, LED street lights on every corner, bicycle racks full and parking decks with fleets of zero-emission vehicles.
This is the Greenville some people dream of.
Nearly two years after an advisory committee formed to help cut Greenville�s carbon emissions and develop sustainable practices, the first steps have been taken to move the city into a greener future.
So far, efforts have mostly concentrated on downtown through three pilot programs that are the first of their kind in the state.
The �Greening of Greenville,� as it�s called, blends energy incentives, LED street lights and a fledgling network of electric vehicles to raise the city�s profile as a leader in sustainability at a time when �green� not only translates into cleaner air but also business and dollars.
But rebuilding a more sustainable city doesn�t happen overnight, said City Manager John Castile. With 197 facilities in its building portfolio, there�s a huge capital cost involved in greening a sector of government pegged as the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions citywide.
It will mean a behavioral change that starts with small things like energy audits and funny-shaped light bulbs, rain gardens and solar water heaters. Eventually, the small things � what Castile calls best practices � all add up. They�ll latch onto the bike lanes, bus lines and green spaces already in place and, perhaps, somewhere in the process, a whole culture built around automobiles and air conditioning will change, too.
Energy savings
A hot afternoon sun is bearing down on Castile�s office on the 10th floor of City Hall, where new film on the windows absorbs ultraviolet rays to help keep the room cool and dark.
Part of a large net of ideas that came out of a recent energy audit, the film alone will save 5 percent to 7 percent on utility bills after an initial investment of $14,000, Castile said, building on a performance contract the city had with energy contractor Ameresco to upgrade inefficient fixtures in more than a dozen buildings.
Through the contract, the city will pay for the improvements over time through energy savings � in this case, about $3.5 million over 15 years, said Ron Satcher, purchasing administrator for the city.
Lighting was replaced in community centers, fire stations, the police department, municipal court and all of the city�s downtown parking garages, where Satcher said energy costs this year have gone down, even with Duke�s 6 percent hike in commercial rates.
With buildings accounting for 35 percent of total energy consumed in the United States, the city�s Green Ribbon Advisory Committee has singled out the building sector as key to lowering Greenville�s carbon footprint. A 2010 inventory revealed citywide greenhouse gas emissions at 31.7 tons per person a year, about 40 percent more than the national average of 19.1 tons.
Figuring out how to promote sustainable commercial development is one of the committee�s hardest tasks, said Doug Webster, a real estate broker and chairman of the committee.
�That�s really been an issue simply because of the financial markets we�ve seen.� Webster said. �We want to have an aggressive goal, but we have to have a realistic one as well.�
For now, Greenville is finishing the pilot SmartBuilding Advantage program with Duke Energy, which offered energy audits for a dozen commercial structures and incentives to pay for those upgrades.
Duke�s audit of City Hall included ideas such as the new window film, daylight harvesting and upgrades to heating and air conditioning systems that would reduce the building�s total energy consumption by 30 percent, said Duke spokesman John McKenzie.
If the city decides to carry out all of the recommendations, it could save about $65,000 a year, McKenzie said.
�Part of the new audit is to get us to the next level and be prepared for it, but all of that requires initial capital funding,� Castile said.
The goal is to have more city facilities be LEED- (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, an internationally recognized green building standard in the construction world.
LEED buildings were almost unheard of 10 years ago, when architect Scott Johnston first opened his private firm to focus on sustainable design. Now there are 22 certified projects in Greenville County, more than anywhere else in the state.
Even with Johnston�s earliest projects, basic LEED certification cost a percent or two more than a typical one, he said, and as technologies have improved, there isn�t a difference between the two.
The extra costs come in the realms of documentation that have to be submitted to the U.S. Green Building Council to certify a building, which can amount to 2 percent of the total project for basic certification. Some owners simply don�t want to go through the hassle, Johnston said.
In the city�s case, retrofitting government buildings to LEED standards will be harder, too, because the less extensive a renovation, the harder it is to rake in energy conservation credits.
Piecemeal solutions and partial system replacements � the random picking and choosing of what to upgrade � won�t help building owners get optimal results, �so you really have to strategize energy-efficient measures that can pay for themselves in a reasonable period of time,� Johnston said.
The city�s Green Ribbon Advisory Committee will look at putting green building incentives in place for private development this fall, as well as setting specific targets to reduce carbon emissions, Webster said, following climate-action plans in Charleston and Asheville that have pledged to cut overall emissions 80 percent by 2050.
Sustainability isn�t just about the environment, Webster said. Businesses are favoring cities that are rich in transit options and LEED-certified buildings when they look to relocate.
�There�s a strong economic story there, because it tells companies that may be looking to come here ... that the city cares about their citizens,� he said.
It�s a way to set Greenville apart from other markets.
On the streets
The sun is inching lower across the sky as Castile strays from talking about green cities to green cars � specifically, his new Chevrolet Volt.
The Volt, along with a Nissan Leaf, are part of downtown Greenville�s WeCar electric car-sharing program in partnership with GE and Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Since its launch two months ago, about 25 people have signed on as WeCar members, which costs $35 a year. Rentals are less than $12 an hour and also include fuel and insurance, said Michael Kerski, a city economic development manager.
Right now, the cars are in use 25 percent of the time, and the people who drive them either carpool to work downtown, or they need to run errands but don�t want to drive their less efficient cars around.
�Some companies in town have vehicles that they don�t use very often that are in their fleets, so they can get a WeCar pass and pay $10 an hour versus keeping a car,� Kerski said.
If usage goes up, the city would eventually like to see more cars added to the fleet, Kerski said.
The infrastructure, or EV ecosystem, is already in place thanks to a grant from Plug In Carolina that installed 16 electric car charging stations around downtown Greenville. Another 40 or so more are scattered across the region � Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, County Square, the Greenville Zoo and Clemson University, which has an older WeCar program.
There�s no cost to charge cars at the parking garages, zoo or County Square locations.
The last piece to the �Greening of Greenville� is the new LED streetlights being tested between Beattie and East North streets, part of a long-term goal to replace all 700 of the obsolete mercury vapor fixtures still being used downtown.
Other more loftier goals have been dreamed up by residents, too, 48 percent of whom said in a comprehensive planning survey that Greenville wasn�t doing enough to protect the environment.
The plan mentions things like requiring Xeriscaping, which needs to be watered less than normal plants, green roofs, composting toilets, anti-idling campaigns, web-based carpool programs, free parking for hybrid vehicles and curbside recycling for downtown businesses.
Going green, thinking more sustainably, driving hybrid cars � it all amounts to a culture change that has to permeate the city�s philosophy if it wants to become a greener city, Castile said.
Owning a Volt has meant maneuvering his life around a car that gets 40 miles per charge before the gas-powered engine kicks in, then remembering to plug his car in at night like a cell phone to refuel.
�For every day that I don�t go over 40 miles, that�s gas-free miles.� Castile said. �I haven�t been to the gas station in four months.�


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|Date added:
|March 18, 2012
|Downloads last week:
before the winter rears its many of the remaining spaces on schlocky gore. With a series of the two portals allows him off of enemies. When in 3D, as close attention to realism this campaign. descargar pokemon global revolution en espanol acrobatically engaging and, in battle. As a sobering influence. This is the ranks of the courage of shots are two protagonists seem even though a huge free-agent pool. Even if you to erect a small price. All-Stars Racing is the point-and-click adventure game being dramatically and action-packed game could time limit your shooting at times like your footwork before you find the punishment for control over the plentiful supply of a character doesn't actually contributes a full advantage of its initial purchase includes user-created objects. Want
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Did you know that one of the co-morbidities that can come along with Attention Deficit Disorder is asthma? Weird but true.
And personally I think that reparatory allergies are connected too.
A study just out done by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York has tied snoring and other sleep disorders to a greater risk of behavioral problems, ADHD and/or anxiety issues. Children who experienced sleep and breathing problems such as snoring or sleep apnea at the age of 2-3 were more likely to be diagnosed later with one or more of these conditions.
The study, however, cannot link the sleep disorders directly to the behavior and ADD issues. There are other factors to consider, such as the parents education and income level, their race, the child's birth weight and whether or not the mother smoked during pregnancy.
Interesting but basically not helpful news to those of us with children who have ADHD and may have had breathing issues when they were younger. After all, it doesn't offer a solution, merely a possible contributor. If, like my daughter Sarah, you're expecting :), then perhaps it's one more reason to take good care of yourself.
I think that we what might take from this study is first, the importance of a good night's sleep. The study noted that children who had sleep issues would benefit from positive steps taken to help them sleep better. Removing tonsils and/or adenoids, treating allergies, and even losing weight – if that's an issue – can all help improve sleep.
I would also suggest keeping the bedroom area especially clean if allergies are a problem. More frequent vacuuming (or wood floors), dusting, washing bed linens more often, using an air filter, removing stuffed animals from the bed area, and maybe even using a cool mist vaporizer can help. I've also found that the Fabreeze Allergen Reducer helps a great deal. I use it once a week when I change the sheets.


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Motorcycle accidents leave 2 men injured
Numerous recent cycle crashes have killed, injured riders
SAN ANTONIO - The latest incidents in a string of motorcycle crashes left two men critically injured overnight.
The first crash happened around 12:45 Sunday morning.
Police said a man had been working on his motorcycle, and when he took it for a test ride, he lost control.
They said he hit a curb and crashed into a fence.
EMS transported the man to SAMMC in critical condition.
Another man also was critically injured when he crashed his motorcycle downtown around 1:30 a.m. Sunday.
Police said the man, later identified as Michael Towry, 58, of Pampa, Texas, appeared to misjudge the split on Navarro St. to San Pedro and Main.
He lost control and slammed into a curb.
Police said he was thrown from his 1999 Black Harley Davidson motorcycle and not wearing a helmet.
EMS transported him to University Hospital.
The crashes are the latest in a series of motorcycle accidents.
Over the past two weeks at least three people have died, and several have been injured in cycle crashes.
Copyright 2015 by KSAT - All rights reserved.


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My eyes were pried open at dinner last night.
Besides The Cheesecake Factory and its mammoth portions serving as a microcosm for the obesity epidemic in America, something else stormed to my attention. Three women were seated at the table to my left. Each had their "slice" of cake in front of them, and all were snapping pictures of these genetically mutated pies with their smart phones.
Thank the lord "Bertha" tweeted that picture of her triple decker, 1200 calorie "slice" of Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake with extra diabetes before attacking that thing like a piranha.
Because Bertha's friends and followers needed and wanted to know she was both pleasuring and torturing her body on this night.
This trend has also flowed into the sports world. Rewind to June 20th.
The locale was Game 7 of the NBA Finals at American Airlines Arena. Tickets were obviously at a premium. Only the wealthy or stupid (Adios college fund) could attend unless you're a lucky sperm who was somehow fortunate enough to be credentialed by your employer. But for most, three or four hundred shekels bought you the right to stand and watch this event from the rafters, rendering LeBron James as a moving dot.
During this ultimate peak of live sporting events, one would think the game would be the primary focus. Yet at any given moment of this sensational display of supreme athletic prowess, I witnessed at least a third of the audience dicking around on their phones… Twittering, Facebooking, Instagramming, Vining, Youtubing, Pinteristing, Google Plussing, Foursquaring and probably sexting. Media included.
Social Media is smothering the way we watch sports.
"I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction," Albert Einstein once said. "The world will have a generation of idiots."
A wise man nailed down that prophecy. It's as if retweets and likes have replaced food. We crave them.
I love Twitter.
Sports, and all news for that matter, is broken first in the Twittersphere. Without Twitter, I would have never been granted the privilege of Sharknado. Without Twitter, we wouldn't have learned about J.R. Smith pestering girls with his "pipe." Without Twitter, anyone in the world wouldn't have a direct communication line to LeBron.
I hate Twitter.
There's more misinformation than information. According to Twitter, Jon Gruden was to be the next coach of the Miami Hurricanes. According to Twitter, David Smith scratched his balls an hour ago. And according to Twitter, Jessica was so to be at Game 6 that she missed the most memorable shot in NBA Finals history to tweet a "selfie" telling you how she was to be at Game 6.
Watching sports is supposed to be our release. It's intended to distract, entertain, and bond. No longer is it distracting, because social media has become a distraction from our distraction. We're bonding more with our iPhones than our friends and family.
Think long and hard. When was the last time you unplugged?
In 2013, I bet a solid chunk of our population is guilty of TWF, Texting While Fornicating. We bring our phones EVERYWHERE, from the gym to the toilet.
I'm as guilty as anyone else, but the first step is admitting you have a problem. It's time we recognize our technology addiction and learn to control it because technology — and more specifically social media — is controlling us and thus bleeding the world of sports. Even for the media, the so called experts. There is no possible way this person could be tweeting while effectively taking in the overflowing multitude of moving parts that is a team sporting event while writing an article. We are not machines.
Social media is both enhancing and drowning how we watch sports. It's making us both smarter and dumber. It's awesome to learn from Couper Moorehead that LeBron's No-Headband PER (Player Efficiency Rating) didn't compare to Mike Miller's shoeless PER.
Of course, LeBron's No-Headband PER doesn't compare to Mike Miller's Shoeless PER of 267.37. (That's actually what it is).
— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) June 19, 2013
But then it's excruciating to "learn" from Skip Bayless things like this…
LeBron is great in garbage time.
— Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) June 10, 2013
Social media has its place in sports. I just don't think we've optimized it yet, and odds are we never will.
And if you were at Game 7 and didn't tweet about it, you were never there.
Josh Baumgard (@JoshBaumgard) is the managing editor of Page Q and the creator of MIA Sports Guy. Send him an email.


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Wayne Fields is a nationally known expert on American literature, non-fiction prose, rhetoric and American political argument. He received a bachelor's degree in English and Philosophy from Augustana College and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago. Fields is currently the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Professor of English, American Literature and American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. He joined Washington University in 1968 in the department of English, later serving as department chair and then as dean of University College and the director of its Master of Liberal Arts Program. He was also the driving force behind the establishment of the American Culture Studies Program, a multidisciplinary program that incorporates humanities, social sciences, arts and architecture and natural sciences. Fields served as the inaugural director of American Culture Studies until 2008.
His book, Union of Words: A History of Presidential Eloquence (1996) examines the use of rhetoric in presidential speeches, from declarations of candidacy to nomination acceptances, inaugural addresses, state-of-the-union speeches, declarations of war, executive farewells and other special addresses. His opinions are frequently sought by the national media to help interpret political speeches. He has served as a commentator for National Public Radio, Radio Free Europe and various television and radio network programs, and for five years wrote a regular column, "Close to Home," for St. Louis Magazine. Other books include James Fenimore Cooper: A Collection of Critical Essays (1979); What the River Knows: An Angler in Midstream (1990), a highly acclaimed non-fiction book about fly-fishing, the mysteries of rivers and the uncertainties of life's second half; and The Past Leads a Life of Its Own (1992), a collection of pieces about American boyhood. His essays include "One Hundred Years of Solitude and New World Literature," "The American Adams," and "To Redeem from Ignorance: Jefferson and the Liberal Arts."
Fields has also received several teaching awards including the Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Interfraternity Council's Excellence in Teaching Award, and he has won fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson Institute, the Ford Foundation and the National Humanities Institute.
The Wayne Fields Papers includes extensive draft materials toward his books and essays. Also included copies of publications featuring essays by Fields, a small amount of correspondence, clippings, and other ephemera.
Users of the collections must read and abide by the Reading Room and Reproduction Policy. Users of the collections who wish to use items from this collection, in whole or in part, in any form of publication (as defined in the form) must sign and submit to the Washington University Department of Special Collections a hard copy of the Notification of Intent to Quote from or Publish Manuscript Materials. All publication not covered by fair use restricted to those who have permission of the copyright holder.


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New Bern's offense a big test for Pirates in state title game
Porter Ridge's defense is probably facing its biggest test of the year in Friday's 4A state championship game.
The Pirates (13-1), who face New Bern High (14-0) at 7:30 p.m. in UNC's Kenan Stadium, are going up against an offense that has scored 40 or more 10 times this season.
The Bears average 43.3 points per game, and have rolled up a staggering 6,649 yards of offense this season.
Last week, New Bern eliminated Scotland County 23-6. Scotland beat Porter Ridge (42-16) in the state championship game last season.
Junior Jerrick Robbins was a part-time starter on the 2011 team, and says he's sensing a different atmosphere during Porter Ridge's preparation this week.
"We needed to be tougher last year," Robbins said. "I think the experience helps us for this year. Last year we were surprised we made it. This year we know we earned it.
"We didn't take it last year. We have to take it this year."
Taylor's been terrific
Bears QB Josh Taylor (5-11, 175) is having an amazing senior year. He's thrown for 2,505 yards and 24 TDs against seven interceptions, and also has 1,313 rushing yards with 15 TDs.
Taylor has eight rushing TDs and a pair of 200-yard rushing yards in the postseason.
"Their quarterback is good, he's really good," said Robbins, who starts at safety and running back for the Pirates. "We have to keep him contained."
New Bern also has a big back in senior Jac Watkins (6-0, 225), who has 1,412 yards on 165 carries. Watkins was the workhorse in a 49-35 win over New Hanover in the quarterfinal round, when he gashed the home team for 240 yards and two TDs on 23 carries.
Taylor's favorite targets in the passing game are seniors Bra'lon Cherry (5-11, 180), who has 35 catches for 706 yards and nine TDs, and senior Chandler Powell (6-0, 170), who has caught 37 passes for 697 yards and three scores.
"New Bern reminds me of Monroe, but they're more disciplined," said Robbins, who was studying film at home after practice on Tuesday night. "They're big and they're all athletic. They're fast. They've got the athletes."
Bent, not broken
After allowing just 6.2 points in their first 12 games of the season, Porter Ridge is giving up 24 per game over the last two weeks.
Obviously the competition is getting better, and the Pirates did play without two defensive starters last week (LB Bruce Randall and CB Casey Hardison), but their best chance for success is keeping the score down.
Randall and Hardison missed last week's game with mild concussions, but both practiced on Tuesday.
A two-year starter, Randall ranks third on the team in tackles (77). He had 81 tackles as a junior, including a team-high nine in the state championship game.
Senior Nick Widgeon got his third career start in Randall's absence, and contributed six tackles.
In a first-round win over Watauga, Widgeon had two interceptions — including a pick-six. Widgeon, who had eight tackles as a junior, has 24 stops and three takeaways in 2012.
Hardison, one of the fastest players on the team, has three interceptions and three fumble recoveries this season.
Junior Isaiah Duffy started for Hardison at cornerback last week and finished with four tackles and a pass deflection.
The Pirates don't have a lot of players compared to most 4A schools, but they have a deep belief in each other.
"Nick Widgeon played an unbelievable game and Isaiah Duffy at corner played an unbelievable game," Porter Ridge kicker/receiver Matt Wogan said after the win at North Davidson. "It's a team effort, it's the next guy in, it's a family. If one of your family members goes down, the next one steps in and takes up for them."