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About Me
Being a great daddy :-)
Hej! I'm Alo. Born in Cadiz (Southern Spain), I currently live in Stockholm with my girlfriend, Elin (who is from Sweden) and my little son, Iker. :-)
Somebody once defined us as a glamorous couple, but we think we are just the opposite ;-)
We are quite relaxed and easy-going. Love meeting new people and leveraging every single minute that this life is offering us.
We like exercising and being out. We also enjoy spending time with our friends. We don't have TV, car or some other things that many other people consider fundamental. Life is about enjoying its small pleasures (a walk, a conversation, a hug, a smile)... keeping it as simple as possible.
- No matter where you go, people treat you the way you treat them
- Sustained happiness comes not from what we GET, but from what we GIVE
- Money, influence and position are NOTHING compared with brains, principles, energy and perseverance
- Every moment in front of another human being is an opportunity to express your highest values and best self
- Stay courageous in a world that discourages you from being exceptional
- Be excellent even when you least feel like it
Why I'm on Couchsurfing
- Introduced a lot of new people to CS.
- Hosted a bunch of people -both in Spain and Sweden- since late 2005 (see references below).
- Surfin´. So far we've done it in Denmark, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Africa, Botswana, Turkey and Sri Lanka.
- Meeting new people -mostly through groups- at home or when travelling. Done that already in Syria, Sweden, Lebanon, Angola, India, Singapore, Tunisia, Congo, Taiwan and Brazil.
I adore this project. Every single CS experience I've had so far has been absolutely POSITIVE.
I've been hosting people and surfing other couches before I knew about the existence of this social experiment.
- SPORTS (specially triathlon, skiing and MTB)
- Hiking
- PHOTOGRAPHY (http://www.flickr.com/photos/alocai)
- Dancing
- NATURE and adventures
- Challenges
- Discovering new stuff
- Ironman (the triathlon, not the superhero)
- Good food
- Chess
- Technology & sustainability
Music, Movies, and Books
Book: The catcher in the rye; High Adventure; The white tiger
Movie: Life is beautiful, Nueve reinas
Music: Pretty much, everything...
One Amazing Thing I've Done
Hitch hacked ~2000km along Australia, dived in the Great Barrier Reef or in the Red Sea, explored the jungles of Panama, gazed Northern Lights in Lapland, walked along frozen lakes in Finland, watched the midnight sun in North Cape, walked in the Sahara desert, crossed borders with a bike (or backwards, with a car), ran along Conakry, finished Ironman triathlon, got into the Great Pyramid of Giza, upgraded the worst VS of the World in Nigeria, listened to lions' roars at night in the Okavango Delta, watched lionesses eating a wildebeest, kissed Nia, contemplated Dubai from the tallest building in the World, survived cycling +1000km in Turkey and +2000km in India, summitted the 6962m of Mt. Aconcagua (Elin), trekked to Everest Base Camp, watched a breathtaking snow avalanche on Nuptse, completed "Ganges Expedition 2011", gave a speech about "Motivation and Goals Achievement", finished a triathlon after dislocating my shoulder during the swimming, saw Elin giving birth to Iker, ...
Teach, Learn, Share
Teach: some things related to engineering, photography or sports.
Learn: that's what we like the most.
Share: everything's to be shared!
What I Can Share with Hosts
- Food made with plenty of love
- Quite a few movies and documentaries (in a huge HD definition screen) :-p
- Three different chess boards
- 4 Bikes
- Clothing
- Whatever needed...
Countries I've Visited
Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Congo, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guinea, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Lithuania, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Panama, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russian Federation, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam
Countries I've Lived In
Finland, Spain, Sweden


text: I've Been asking and asking for this well just once lol but dh since he's a carpenter and also does car autopostery and interior he insisted on making one himself along with baskets, inner linners for baskets, ect. when ever he got the spare time, well I waitted and waitted and continued to patiently wait ... When all of a sudden he goes hey let's go to the store! I got alil offensive and said I just came from SAMs club and did all the grocery shopping, we don't need anything else lol and he says comeon let's go, so I lazily get dressed all 5 kids n myself hop in the SUV and he says where do u buy your diapers? I got alil guilty lol although it's my money I'm buying my fluff with n I go what? Where do u buy my diapers???!! Are u going to buy me more ?? lol and he says no I mean where's that thing u wanted me to buy so u can organize your diapers lol I go ohh target :D and he takes me there!! I was going to just but the frame without any baskets but dh insisted on 6 baskets he even picked em out ;))

subset: commoncrawl


text: 24 September 2009 archive See all show photos AS A remix of Smells Like Teen Spirit played out the last girls in the Just Cavalli show this afternoon, it was generally agreed that the famously lothario designer couldn't have picked a better sound track. Stunningly beautiful girls were dishevelled to the point of not belonging in the Milanese sunshine - instead they should have been swaying with half-closed eyes in a mosh pit with Courtney Love in the good old days - or at least that's where they looked like they'd come from: all dark, expertly smudged eye make-up and rough-dried blonde, expertly messed up hair. The first girl appeared in a long pink chiffon tiered dress that was falling off her to reveal sheer, deliberately ill fitting jersey underclothes. She had "I've just been touched by Cavalli" scrawled across her front and "heal the world, make it a Cavalli place" on her back. Cavalli's known for his humour but the theme of the show combined with the implications of the slogan were pretty dark. More chiffon dresses of green and sunbleached pink-bleeding-into-black, swung airily around the girls over mis-matching T-shirts with rolled up sleeves or sequinned under layers for added grunge glamour. Shredded denim and snakeskin jeans were teamed with pointed satin bras that came either under or over matching chiffon vests, while the free-for-all silhouette was drawn tightly in for bodycon mini dresses with studded seams. Later on, dresses of lace panels featured long fringing and hung open over sexy fitted underwear, as if the young ravers had come into money but couldn't bring themselves to give up the grunge entirely - and for the morning after there were moth-eaten black knits over tight leather trousers. When Cavalli finds a theme, he takes it all the way and for all its trashy connotations, this show had an arresting nature - these were good girls gone bad and you couldn't help but slightly want to step into their world for a while, just as long as you could step safely out again. SEE THE JUST CAVALLI SHOW ARCHIVE Dolly Jones Continue reading Back to top


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An 84-year-old Vancouver woman was accosted in her home Thursday morning by two or more men who broke her front door and forced her into a closet.
Home invasion robberies are rare in Clark County. This one occurred before daylight in the city's Northcrest neighborhood. The woman had been asleep in her home in the 5700 block of Montana Lane when she heard the doorbell ring several times, according to the Vancouver Police Department. When she went to answer, she found intruders had already forced their way into her home.
They ordered her into a closet and told her to be quiet. If she followed their orders, they said they wouldn't hurt her, according to the police. She complied.
After they left, she exited the closet and called 911 at 6:32 a.m. Police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said the woman had been in the closet for only a short while before calling.
Detectives from the Vancouver Police Department interviewed the woman and some neighbors in the hope of piecing together what happened. They also canvassed the neighborhood looking for suspects but were provided scant details by the homeowner.
"We're hoping there were neighbors who were up at the time (of the crime)," Kapp said. "Now that they're hearing about this, it might jog their memory."
The police department is not releasing information about what was stolen or its value, Kapp said.
At this point, police say there were at least two intruders and may have been more. Police don't have a description of the suspects or their vehicle, Kapp said. They are asking that anybody who thinks they have information about either to contact the police department's anonymous tip line.
The woman told police she did not know the men. But she recalls receiving a phone call Wednesday from someone allegedly representing an alarm company and asking her if she had an alarm system in her home.
Many of the neighborhood's front yards include signs indicating the houses are protected by home security devices.
The break-in came as a shock to some neighbors, who awoke Thursday to five police cruisers swarming their streets.
"It seems pretty bizarre," mused Herb Cook, who lives on the same street where the home invasion occurred. "This is the calmest neighborhood you could possibly enjoy."
Neighbors said they hadn't seen or heard any commotion during the early-morning hours.
Despite the shocking and seemingly random nature of the crime, some neighbors said they'd seen signs that their quiet streets were being targeted for crime.
Over the summer, Northcrest Community Church was tagged by graffiti multiple times. The faint outline of a tag remains visible under a coat of white paint on the church's storage shed.
"It's a quiet neighborhood," neighbor Stephen Cottle said, "but it's not like we don't have indications that things aren't right."
Anyone who has received a similar call from someone claiming to represent an alarm company or anyone who has information about the robbery on Montana Lane are asked to call the Vancouver Police Department Tip Line at 360-487-7399 (reference case number V13-14709).


text: I can not access the Solution Center, I have the following message: "No HP devices have been detected. The HP Solution Center will close." I can not access the scan.I have a Photosmart All-in-one 2570 connected in a network. I have 3 computers, a vista, a seven RC1 under Windows, and Windows XP. The solution center works perfectly under Windows XP, but more in the other two. By the printer works cons of the 3 computers it is present on the network.


text: Nickelodeon Suites Resort, the only resort of its kind in the world, is celebrating the end of summer with a hot last minute deal for guests. Now through October 1st, 2015 guests get a special last minute deal with rates starting at $129, and higher for Labor Day Weekend. This incredible offer must be booked between now and September 30th.


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3mm Spacer?
Can I run a 3mm spacer in the rear of the 07 st without having to extend the studs?
If you have 3mm or more of stud past the threaded portion of the lug nut.
Upto 5mm is generally ok. Subject to what emsvitil said
|All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:59 AM.


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Jillian Michaels RecipesSee more Jillian Michaels content
- Jillian Michaels' Guacamole
Indulge in the healthy fat from avocadoes for great skin!
- Jillian Michaels' Frittata with Spinach, Potatoes, Peppers, and Feta
A healthy and fluffy egg dish for breakfast or dinner.
- Jillian Michaels' Ham and Apple on Grilled Country Bread
A healthier grilled cheese recipe from the Master Your Metabolism Cookbook.
- Jillian's Reuben
Jillian Michaels proves that comfort foods can be light and delicious.
- Fancy Fish Sticks
Jillian Michaels' own twist on a family favorite.
- Curried Baby Carrots
Jillian Michaels adds some spice to those old carrots.
- Jillian Michaels Cranberry Diet Drink
The Biggest Loser trainer's own concoction to stay hydrated.


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Long Division: The Perils of Income Inequality
Penalver, Eduardo M., Commonweal
American thinkers have long perceived a connection between robust democracy and a relatively egalitarian distribution of wealth. For all their differences, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson agreed that property begets power, and both expressed anxiety about excesses of the former unbalancing the latter. In 1785, Jefferson wrote that the consequences of "enormous inequality" were so pernicious that "legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property." Over a century later, Teddy Roosevelt urged the government to take on "a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power." "The really big fortune," he said, "by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means."
For several decades now, such worries about the corrosive impact of inequality have been largely absent from our politics--even as economic inequality in the United States has increased dramatically, reaching levels not seen since the height of the Gilded Age. Studies on the eve of the 2008 financial collapse showed the top one percent of American households earning over a fifth of the nation's total income, twice as much as thirty years earlier--and the top one-tenth of one percent taking home six times as much as before. In terms of income distribution, the United States now more closely resembles the highly stratified societies of Latin America than the egalitarian countries of Western Europe.
There is no consensus about why this has happened. Some economists point to structural changes in the economy, such as the rise of the information sector and growth in global trade, while others blame tax policy and the decline of labor unions. There is also disagreement about how, or indeed whether, to respond. For most of his first term, President Barack Obama largely ignored the issue, while on the political right the mere expression of concern about inequality elicited howls of "class warfare" or "socialism." Some conservatives have argued that we should focus on what the poor are actually able to consume and not worrv so much about the pattern of wealth distribution. The Heritage Foundation's Robert Rector has observed that since the late 1970s, even as economic inequality steadily increased, the number of poor American households with air conditioning has nearly doubled. This improving standard of living, he suggests, and not relative inequality, is the proper focus of our economic analyses and policies.
But there are reasons to be worried about economic inequality even if the poor can buy appliances. Excessive inequality can distort the political process in ways that undermine democratic institutions. Using data drawn from Senate voting records, Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels has shown that senators arc far more responsive to the priorities of their wealthy constituents than to those of the middle class and poor. "The views of constituents in the upper third of the income distribution received about 50 percent more weight than those in the middle third," he writes, "while the views of constituents in the bottom third of the income distribution received no weight at all in the voting decisions of their senators." Bartels's Princeton colleague Marty Gilens has used different data to reach very similar conclusions. "When Americans with different income levels differ in their policy preferences," he argued in a 2005 article, "actual policy outcomes strongly reflect the preferences of the most affluent." Gilens says that "the most obvious source of influence over policy that distinguishes high-income Americans is money and the willingness to donate to parties, candidates, and interest organizations." In shorty the battle to be heard--unlike the market for air conditioning--is dominated by those with an advantage in purchasing (i.e., donating) power. …


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All Posts
Mindful Relaxation Minutes
Published: February 1st, 2016
Join us for Mindful Relaxation Minutes – The Department of Psychiatry is pleased to announce the start of "Mindful Relaxation Minutes", a weekly thirty-minute opportunity to rejuvenate. We will learn […]
Resident of the Month for May 2016
Published: May 27th, 2016
Congratulations to our Resident of the Month for May 2016!
Join us for our Addiction Medicine CME Lecture June 8th at Noon with William Greene, MD
Published: April 26th, 2016
2016 Undergraduate Research Forum
Published: April 18th, 2016
First place went to Michael Lattanzi for his poster "Modulation of Repetitive Behaviors Through Pharmacological Manipulation of the Indirect Basal Ganglia Pathway." Lattanzi works with Department of Psychiatry Faculty member […]
Join us for the Inaugural Richard C. Christensen, MD, Lecture & Advocacy Day on April 22nd
Published: April 17th, 2016
2016 Florida Psychiatric Society Meeting and Resident Retreat
Published: April 11th, 2016
The Florida Psychiatric Society (FPS) held its Spring CME meeting April 8th – 10th at the Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort, Bonnet Creek in Orlando, FL. The University of Florida, Department […]
Fourth Annual Stop the Stigma Event
Published: April 9th, 2016
An event aimed at reducing the stigma against mental illness through education. The Fourth Annual Stop the Stigma! event was held at Veteran's Memorial Park over the weekend. The Department […]
Join us at 12 Noon on Friday, April 8th for Psychiatry Grand Rounds
Published: April 4th, 2016
Applying the Integrated Care Approach: Practical Skills for the Consulting Psychiatrist
Published: April 3rd, 2016
Doctors voice opinions about syringe exchange
Published: March 30th, 2016
WCJB-TV20 – Hear Dr. Scott Teitlbaum's thoughts on the state's new pilot program allowing drug addicts to switch out their old needles for clean ones.
Drs. Leal & Ong to receive membership into the Gold Humanism Honor Society
Published: March 29th, 2016
Department of Psychiatry residents Camilo Leal, MD and Christopher Ong, MD have been nominated by residents and selected by the committee to receive membership into the Gold Humanism Honor Society […]


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Banks Rally Amid Wait for Rescue
Four-Week Losing Streak for Stocks Comes to an End
Stocks surged Friday on expectations that Washington could soon unveil solutions for the troubled financial sector and despite a dismal reading on the jobs market.
Markets Data Center
Track indexes and hot stocks, with rollover charting and headlines. Plus, bonds, commodities, forex and more. Highlights:
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.7%, or 217.52 points, at 8280.59, and at its intraday high was up more than 3%. Twenty-nine of 30 components rose, and the index snapped a four-week losing streak. The S&P 500 jumped 2.7% to 868.60. Its financial sector gained 7.5%, outpacing its other sectors. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 2.9% to 1591.71.
"The enthusiasm came from the idea that [Washington] is getting its brain around the bank funding, and that the stimulus bill is moving forward," said Gordon Charlop, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities. "Every day that we hold, and these problems don't undermine the markets, is a day closer to finding some workable solutions. What we're seeing is a bear-market bounce."
Many short sellers scurried to cover positions Friday, traders said, as anticipation built for the reveal of details on Washington's policy measures. The Senate could vote later Friday on the stimulus package, according to comments made by Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.). Early Friday afternoon, Pres. Barack Obama called the delay thus far in passing recovery legislation "inexcusable and irresponsible."
Financial stocks had been highly volatile over the course of the week. Bank of America BAC 1.77 % rose 27% Friday. It had plunged Wednesday, and early Thursday, it hit intraday lows not seen since 1984 -- yet it closed higher on the day. Friday, CEO Ken Lewis dismissed fears that the bank would be nationalized on CNBC, spurring gains, and echoing similar remarks from Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), made earlier in the week.
Other banks surged Friday as well. Citigroup C 2.18 % gained 11% and Wells Fargo WFC 2.84 % gained 18%. Some smaller, regional banks gained even more ground. SunTrust Banks STI 2.18 % gained 16% and Regions Financial RF 1.87 % added 48%. "We need the financials to firm," said Jeffrey Frankel, president of Stuart Frankel & Co. "Once you get rid of that fear factor, investors feel more confident."
The stock market managed to stage its rally despite horrid jobs data from the Labor Department, which showed nonfarm payrolls down by 598,000 in January and an unemployment rate of 7.6%. But the market had expected awful numbers, said Warren Meyers, managing partner at W.J. Dowd Inc., and as bad as the numbers looked, they "weren't as bad as the whisper numbers," he said.
"Once that number was behind us, the focus turned back down to Washington," said James Maguire Jr., a vice president with Christopher J. Forbes LLC.
On the other hand, Treasury securities sold off as jobs data underscored the need for a massive economic stimulus. The benchmark 10-year Treasury fell 23/32, sending its yield up to 2.98%, its highest yield since Nov. 26, 2008. Worries about ballooning supply have stalked Treasurys all week. The U.S. Treasury said it would sell $67 billion in new securities and that the seven-year note would return for the first time since 1993.
The stock market's run higher, despite the jobs data, could also be an indicator that stocks are near a bottom, said Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab. "When the market fails to fall apart on bad news, it tells me the market is trying to bottom, and maybe there's no news out there that could drive it lower," he said.
Hopes for the stimulus package, which will likely include investment in heavy construction and infrastructure, helped the commodities and industrial sectors. Caterpillar CAT 2.04 % rose 5.3%. United States Steel X 4.06 % rose 10% and steel-and-grain shipper Genco Shipping & Trading GNK 2.00 % added 8.7%.
"These industrials tend to have more predictable earnings and, plus, I think this infrastructure [investment] plan has some legs," said Randy Bateman, chief investment officer at Huntington Funds.
The front-month crude futures contract declined $1.00 to settle at $40.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after moving in a range from low to high of nearly four dollars. Crude was down 3.6% for the week, its second down week in a row.
The euro gained Friday against the dollar, buying $1.2926, but the buck is up a little more than 8% on the euro so far this year. The greenback gained against the yen, ending at 92.0132, but is down 1.4% on the year.
—Kejal Vyas contributed to this article
Write to Annelena Lobb at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Bells and whistles are always welcome on multi-effects processors, and the TC Electronic M3000 has them to spare. But it's the unit's extensive feature set that moves it to the front of the pack, with onboard 24-bit A/D and D/A converters, dual processors that can be routed almost any way imaginable, and comprehensive digital I/O (including two channels of ADAT Optical). For many users, though, the M3000's most desirable feature will be the realism of its reverbs: "the most natural-sounding digital reverb I have ever heard," exulted our hard-to-please reviewer. That's great news for those of us who record our tracks in an acoustically dead space not much bigger than a walk-in closet!
Responsible for this new level of verisimilitude is TC's Virtual Space Simulation (VSS) reverb algorithm. Although the M3000 includes reverb algorithms from the M2000 and M5000 (nothing to scoff at there!), the VSS patches are what put this unit ahead of the game. Each utilizes from 40 to 100 early reflections to define a room's "personality," followed by high-fidelity reverb tails up to 20 seconds long. Not surprisingly, the early reflections and reverb tails can be independently modified via numerous parameters; indeed, there's precious little on the M3000 that can't be modified!
The M3000 provides plenty of patch memory, too, with 250 single and 50 combined presets in ROM and the same number in RAM. It also accepts PC Cards, providing an additional 2 MB of program storage per card. Other effects include delay, pitch shifter, EQ, expander, compressor, chorus/flange, tremolo/pan, phaser, and de-esser. Several unique features get a thumbs-up, too. The helpful Recall Wizard yields a menu of suggested patches based on what you enter for application, type of source material, and size of acoustic space. Dynamic Morphing is a creative tool that lets you morph gracefully between effects based on input level. Other useful features include dithering (8-bit through 22-bit resolution) and the ability to recognize external word clock from 32 to 48 kHz. (The unit's internal clock can also be used as the master clock.)
If all that power suggests to you an unwieldy tangle of controls, think again. In fact, the M3000's user interface is a cinch to navigate, thanks to dedicated buttons laid out in logically organized columns and a single Adjust wheel for scrolling through parameters. Patches are easy to edit by accessing first-layer edit functions or the voluminous Expert mode. If you're looking to acquire a comprehensive multi-effects unit with the latest and greatest in reverb simulation, and you could make use of some premium digital converters, the TC Electronic M3000 is a many-trick pony worth taking for a ride.
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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal authorities say an Oregon Christmas tree farm has settled a harassment and discrimination suit and will pay $110,000.
Investigators said the case illustrated the difficulties of a "minority within a minority," in this case the indigenous Mixtec population of southern Mexico who are subjected to discrimination in their homeland.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said two men working for Holiday Specialtrees of Woodburn told of a supervisor and other workers exposing themselves to the two and making sexual and derogatory comments to them, including deriding them for speaking their native language.
In a statement Tuesday the agency said the tree farm denied the allegations but agreed to the settlement, which included the payment to the two men and taking steps to combat harassment and discrimination in the workplace.


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Here are the Whole Foods deals for the week of December 19 – 24. Remember….
- Some stores allow you to stack manufacturer coupons with store coupons.
- Buy a case and get a 10% discount.
- Bring your bags for 10 cents off your order per bag.
- Prices and deals will sometimes vary by store.
Check out the current Whole Foods Printable Coupons. Sales, coupon policies and available items will vary by store. Please call your store to confirm and/or check your local ad.
Meat Deals
- Bulk Pork Breakfast Sausage $4.99/lb (Save $1)
- Local Bone-in Spiral Ham $3.99/lb (Save $1)
- Wild East Coast Shrimp $12.99/lb (Save $3)
Grocery Deals
- Cinzano "Deco" Asti Spumante 750ml $12.99 (Save $1)
- Greek Gods Plain & Honey Yogurt 24oz 2/$7 (Save $2.38)
- Herve Mons Camembert $7.99 (Save $2)
- Holiday Cupcakes 6pk $5.99 (Save $1)
- Kettle Brand Krinkle Cut Potato Chips 13oz 2/$7 (Save $2.98)
- Maple Glazed Acorn Squash $3.99/lb (Save $2)
- Martinelli's Organic Sparkling Cider 25.4oz 2/$7 (Save $1.78)
- Nature's Path Hot Oatmeal 14oz 2/$6 (Save $2.78)
- Rao's Marinara Sauce 32oz $5.99 (Save $3)
- Root's Hummus 12oz 2/$6 (Save $0.78)
- Stem and Leaf Satsumas $1.99/lb (Save $0.50)
- TruJoy Organic Candy Canes 5oz 2/$7 (Save $0.98)
New Coupon Deals
Emeril's Organic Vegetable Stock 32oz $4.39
–$1/2 Emeril's Food Products
=$3.89 each after coupon wyb 2
Terra Holiday Sweet Potato Chips 6oz 2/$4 (Save $3.38)
–$1/1 any Terra Chips bag 5 oz or larger
= $1 each after coupon
Continuing Coupon Deals
365 Everyday Value® Bread Crumbs: Plain, Italian, Whole Wheat or Panko 8-15oz $2.69
-$0.75/1 365 Everyday Value® Bread Crumbs: Plain, Italian, Whole Wheat or Panko 8-15oz (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$1.94 each after coupon
365 Everyday Value® Organic Expeller Pressed Virgin Coconut Oil 16oz $5.99
–$1/1 365 Everyday Value® Organic Expeller Pressed Virgin Coconut Oil 16oz (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$4.99 each after coupon
365 Everyday Value Organic Soup 17.3oz $2.69
–$1/1 ONE (1) 17.3 fl oz 365 Everyday Value® Organic Soup: Tomato Basil, Minestrone, Rustic Vegetable, Chicken Noodle, Lentil or Southwestern Black Bean (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$1.69 each after coupon
Alter Eco Organic Fair Trade Rice 16oz $5.69
–$1/1 Alter Eco Rice
=$4.69 each after coupon
Annie Chun's Maifun Brown Rice Noodles 8oz $3.69
–$0.50/1 Annie Chun's Product $1.50/1 Annie's Rising Crust Pizza, increase value to $2.50 by sharing
=as low as $1.19 each after highest value coupon
Annie's Organic Rising Crust Pizza $9.99
–$1.50/1 Annie's Rising Crust Pizza, increase value to $2.50 by sharing
=as low as $7.49 each after coupon
Applegate Hot Dogs $4.99
–$1/1 AppleGate Product
=$3.99 each after coupon
Arrowhead Mills Organic Oat Flour 24oz $4.49
–$1/1 Arrowhead Mills Baking Product
=$3.49 each after coupon
Babyganics Foamin' Fun Foaming Shampoo and Body Wash Lavender 3.3oz $4.99
–$1/1 BabyGanics All Purpose Cleaner, Foaming Dish & Bottle Soap, Foaming Shampoo, Daily Lotion
=$3.99 each after coupon
Babyganics Loads of Love 3X Concentrated Laundry Detergent 64oz $19.99
–$3/1 BabyGanics Loads of Love 3x Concentrated Laundry Detergent Fragrance Free OR Lavender, 64 oz
=$16.99 each after coupon
Bear Naked Fit Almond Crunch 12oz $6.79
–$0.70/1 Bear Naked Cereal
=$6.09 each after coupon
Brown Cow Yogurt 6oz $0.99
–$1/3 Brown Cow Yogurt 6-oz Cups or 1- 24-oz Cup of Brown Cow Cream Top Greek Yogurt (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$0.66 each after coupon wyb 3
Celestial Seasonings Tea $3.59
–$0.75/1 Celestial Seasonings Tea (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
-$1/1 Celestial Seasoning Tea Bags 10/07/2012 SS Insert (exp 01/07/2013)
-$0.75/1 Celestial Seasoning Tea Bags 11/04/2012 SS Insert (exp 02/04/2013)
–$1/2 Celestial Seasonings SleepyTime Tea
=as low as $1.84 each after coupons
Changing Seas Smoked Salmon 8oz $9.99
–$1/1 Changing Seas Smoked Salmon 8oz (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$8.99 each after coupon
DeBoles Pasta 16oz 2/$6
–$1/2 DeBoles Pasta Items (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$1/2 DeBoles Products
=$2.00 each after coupon wyb 2
Earth Balance Mindful Mayo 16oz $4.69
–$1/1 Earth Balance MindfulMayo (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$3.69 each after coupon
Earth Balance Peanut Butter 16oz $6.49
–$1/1 Earth Balance Nut Butter
=$5.49 each after coupon
Earth Balance Soymilk $3.29
–$0.75/1 Earth Balance Soymilk (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$0.75/1 Earth Balance Soymilk
=$1.79 each after coupons
Earthbound Farm Organic Baby Spinach $2.49
–$0.75/1 Earthbound Farm Organic Product
=$1.74 each after coupon
Ella's Kitchen Organic Baby Food 3oz $2.19
–$1/1 Ella's Kitchen 100% Organic Product
=$1.19 each after coupon
Fig Food Company Condensed Split Pea Soup 11.4oz $3.09
–$1/2 Fig Food Soups
=$2.59 each after coupon wyb 2
Florida Crystals Organic Cane Sugar 2lbs. $5.69
–$0.55/1 Florida Crystals Natural or Organic Sugar Product
=$5.14 each after coupon
Garden of Eatin Tortilla Chips 8oz $3.89
–$1/1 Garden of Eatin Tortilla Chips, 6 oz+
–$1/1 Garden of Eatin Tortilla Chips (IE), 6 oz+
=$2.89 each after coupon
Garden of Life RAW Organic Protein 22oz $41.15
–$3/1 Garden of Life RAW Protein Powder
=$38.15 each after coupon
Garden of Life Vitamin Code 120ct + 30 free = 150ct Women's $34.99
–$5/1 Garden of Life Vitamin Code 120 ct. or 240 ct. (excludes Vitamin Code Liquid, Vitamin Code Kids or Single Nutrient Formulas) (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$3/1 Garden of Life The Vitamin Code Multi-Vitamin
=$26.99 each after coupons
Gluten Free Pantry All-Purpose Flour 16oz $4.79
–$1/1 Glutino or Gluten Free Pantry Item
=$3.79 each after coupon
Green and Black's Organic Chocolate 3.5oz $3.59
–$1/1 Green and Black's Organic Chocolate Bar, 3.5 oz+
=$2.59 each after coupon
Happy Baby HappyTot Organic Superfood Pouch 4.22oz $2.09
–$0.50/1 One HappyFamily Product
=$1.59 each after coupon
Hodson Mill Soy Flour 24oz $3.89
–$1/1 Hodgson Mill Flour or Cormeal, 5 lb
=$2.89 each after coupon
Horizon Organic Half Gallon $4.49
–$1/2 Horizon Milk Half Gallons
–$1/2 Horizon Organic Milk Half Gallons, Void in CO, ME, MO, ND and where regulated
=$3.99 each after coupon wyb 2
Hyland's Baby Tiny Cold Tablets (125 ct) or Cough Syrup (4oz) $9.99
–$1/1 Hyland's Baby Tiny Cold Tablets or Cough Syrup, PDF
=$8.99 each after coupon
Immaculate Baking Crescent Rolls $2.49
–$1/2 Immaculate Baking Products
=$1.99 each after coupon wyb 2
Jason Satin Body Wash Unscented 16oz $11.95
–$3/1 Jason Body Wash
=$8.95 each after coupon
Kiss My Face Bath and Shower Gel 16oz $8.99
–$1/1 Kiss My Face Bath & Shower Gel 16oz and larger (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$7.99 each after coupon
Kiss My Face Potent and Pure Facial Care Starter Kit $14.99
–$3/1 Kiss My Face Potent and Pure Product
=$11.99 each after coupon
Kit's Organic Fruit & Nut Bar $1.69
–$0.50/1 Kit's Organic Fruit & Nut Bar (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–B1G1 Kit's Organic Fruit & Nut Bar
–B1G1 Kits Organic Fruit + Nut Bar, up to $1.60
=$0.60 each after coupons wyb 2
Kyolic Liquid + 60 caps $18.49
–$2/1 Kyolic, Kyo-Green, Kyo-Dophilus or Moducare Product (excludes individual packets)(Whole Foods Coupon)
=$16.49 each after coupon
Lifeway Kefir 32oz $3.49
–$1/2 Lifeway Lowfat Kefirs 32oz (excluding organic) (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$1/2 Lifeway Kefir Bottles, 32 oz
–$1/2 Lifeway Kefir 32oz
=$2.49 each after coupons wyb 2
Lundberg Jubilee Blend Rice $2.97
–$0.75/1 Lundberg Family Farms Rice, 32 oz bag
–$0.50/1 Lundberg Rice Varieties, 2 lb
=as low as $2.22 each after coupon
Mary's Gone Crackers Organic Cookies 5.5oz $5.39
–$1.50/2 Organic Mary's Gone Crackers Products
=$4.64 each after coupon wyb 2
McCann's Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal 16oz $5.49
–$1/1 McCann's Irish Oatmeal Product
=$4.49 each after coupon
McCormick Organic Spices and Herbs $5.47
–$0.50/2 McCormick Spices, Herbs, Extracts, or Food Color
=$5.22 each after coupon wyb 2
Nature's Own Oatmeal Toasters $3.29
–$0.75/1 Nature's Own New Oatmeal Toasters (IE)
=$2.54 each after coupon
Nature's Path Granola Bar or Hot Oatmeal $4.39
–$1.50/2 Nature's Path Granola Bar or Hot Oatmeal Item (Mix n' Match) (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$3.64 each after coupon wyb 2
Nature's Path Love Crunch Granola $4.99
–$0.75/1 Nature's Path Love Crunch Granola (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$1/1 Nature's Path Love Crunch Granola
=$3.24 each after coupons
Naturtint Hair Color $17.99
–$1/1 Naturtint Product (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$1/1 Naturtint Product
–$1/1 Naturtint Product
=$15.99 each after coupons
New Morning (Erewhon) Organic Graham Crackers 14.4oz $5.99
–$1/1 Erewhon Organic Graham Crackers
=$4.99 each after coupon
Newman's Own Organics Balsamic Vinegar of Modena 17oz $8.79
–$0.75/1 Newman's Own Organics Balsalmic Vinegar, PDF
=$8.04 each after coupon
Newman's Own Organics Fig Newmans 10oz $5.09
–$0.50/1 Newman's Own Organics Fig Newtons, PDF
=$4.59 each after coupon
Newman's Own Organics Licorice Twists 5oz $2.99
–$0.50/1 Newman's Own Organics Licorice, PDF
=$2.49 each after coupon
Oregon Chai Latte Mix or Tea Concentrate $4.99
–$1/1 Oregon Chai Product
=$3.99 each after coupon
Organic Valley Dairy Creamer 16oz $2.29
–$1/1 Organic Valley 16-oz Dairy Creamer, Hazelnut or French Vanilla (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$1.29 each after coupon
Pacific Soup Starters Organic 32oz $3.99
–$1/1 Pacific Soup Starters (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$2.99 each after coupon
Plantlife Aromatherapy Herbal Soap 4oz $5.00
–$1/1 Plantlife Product
=$4.00 each after coupon
R.W. Knudsen Celebratory Beverages $3.99
–$0.75/1 R.W. Knudsen Celebratory Product
=$3.24 each after coupon
Rainbow Light Certified Organic Prenatal Multi 120ct $24.99
–$4/1 Rainbow Light Certified Organics Product (Whole Foods Coupon)
= $20.99 each after coupon
Rudi's Organic Bread $4.99
–$0.75/1 Rudi's Organic Bread (IE)
=$4.24 each after coupon
Sambazon Organic Juice 10.5oz $2.99
–$1/1 Sambazon Product (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$1/1 Sambazon Organic Juice or Smoothie, 10.5 oz
–$1/1 Sambazon Product
=$0.99 each after coupons
Seventh Generation Natural Fabric Softener 32oz $7.19
–$1/1 Seventh Generation Laundry Additive Product, any
=$6.19 each after coupon
Seventh Generation Natural Laundry Detergent Packs 30 pk $9.99
–$3/1 Seventh Generation Natural Laundry Detergent Packs
=$6.99 each after coupon
So Delicious Dairy Free Yogurt 6oz $1.79
–$1/2 So Delicious Dairy Free Products (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$0.55/1 So Delicious Dairy Free Product (IE)
=$1.02 each after coupons wyb 2
Spectrum Walnut Oil 16oz or Organic Sesame Oil 8oz $6.99
–$2/1 Spectrum Culinary Oil (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$4.99 each after coupon
SunSpire Organic 42% Organic Cacao Chips $3.99
–$1/1 SunSpire or Dream Baking Item (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$1/1 Sunspire Baking Chocolate
=$1.99 each after coupon
Tazo Filterbag Teas $4.49
–$1/1 Tazo Filterbag or Latte Concentrate (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$3.49 each after coupon
Traditional Medicinals Organic Chamomile Tea 16 bags $4.49
–$0.75/1 Traditional Medicinals Herbal Tea
=$3.74 each after coupon
Udo's Choice Oil Blend 3.6.9, 17oz $27.99
–$2/1 Udo's Choice Oil Blend 3.6.9, 17oz (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$25.99 each after coupon
Uncle Matt's Orange Juice 59oz $5.99 AND Nature's Path Love Crunch Granola $4.99
–$1.50 off Uncle Matt's Organic Juice when you buy any ONE (1) Nature's Path Love Crunch Granola (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$1/1 Uncle Matts Juice, 59 oz
–$0.50/1 Uncle Matt's Organic Juice
–$1/1 Nature's Path Love Crunch Granola
=as low as $7.48 for BOTH items
Wasa Crispbread $3.29
–$1/2 Wasa Products
=$2.79 each after coupon wyb 2
Westsoy Organic Plus Plain Soymilk 32oz $3.29
–$1/1 Westsoy Beverage
=$2.29 each after coupon
Whole Foods Market 80% Organic Triple Milled Soap 8oz $3.99
–$1/1 8-oz Whole Foods Market™ 80% Organic Triple Milled Soap: Lemon Verbena, Lavender, Grapefruit Mint, Cucumber Lime, Honey Almond or Vetiver Cedar (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$2.99 each after coupon
Whole Foods Market Full Size Seeduction Bread $4.49
–$1/1 Full Size Whole Foods® Market Seeduction® Bread (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$3.49 each after coupon
Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Honey 16oz $10.59
–$1/1 Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Fair Trade Honey
=$9.59 each after coupon
Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Stevia 75 packets $8.99
–$0.75/1 Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Stevia or Wholesome Sweeteners Zero (Whole Foods Coupon)
=$8.24 eacha after coupon
Zevia Natural Soda 6pk $5.99
–$1/1 Zevia Natural Soda, 6 pack any flavor (Whole Foods Coupon) AND
–$1.50/1 Zevia Zero Calorie Soda, 6 pk, any flavor NEW COUPON!
-$2/1 Zevia Soda 11/04/2012 SS Insert (exp 12/31/2012)
–$1/1 Zevia Zero Calorie Soda, 6 pk
=as low as $2.99 each after coupons
Let us know if you find any other great deals at Whole Foods! See more Natural and Organic Grocery Stores.


text:
by Jake Mitchell
Credit Suisse has retained its "neutral" rating on
Newcrest Mining
, after Australia's biggest gold miner announced that managing director Greg Robinson would be replaced by Sandeep Biswas.
Credit Suisse has retained its "neutral" rating on
Mr Biswas is a chemical engineer without experience in gold and less experience in finance and markets than Mr Robinson.
Credit Suisse says Mr Biswas' operational strengths confirm that mergers and acquisitions are off the agenda for Newcrest in the near term.
The company's chairman Don Mercer will retire in December.
The Australian Financial Review


text:
Hottest Glee Girls
- 1
Dianna Elise Agron is an American actress, singer, dancer and director. Other ventures include directing a music video, and producing, writing and directing an unreleased short film A Fuchsia Elephant. Agron made her television debut appearing as Jessica Grant in CSI: NY in 2006. From 2006 to 2007, ...more
- 2
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow is an American actress, singer, and food writer. Paltrow gained early notice for her work in films such as the psychological thriller Seven, opposite Brad Pitt and the period drama Emma, opposite Ewan McGregor. Following starring roles in the romantic comedy-drama Sliding Doors and ...more
- 3
Idina Menzel is an American actress and singer. She rose to prominence when she originated the role of Maureen Johnson in the Broadway musical Rent, a role which she reprised for the 2005 feature film adaptation of the musical. She received a Tony Award nomination in 1996 for her performance in Rent. In ...more
- 4
Jamia Suzette "Jayma" Mays is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing Emma Pillsbury on the Fox musical series Glee, her recurring role as Charlie Andrews on the NBC sci-fi serial Heroes, and for starring in the films Paul Blart: Mall Cop and The Smurfs. From October 2013 until November ...more
- 5
Lea Michele Sarfati, known professionally as Lea Michele, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, dancer, and author, best known for her performance as Rachel Berry on the Fox television series Glee. Michele's portrayal of Rachel has received much critical praise, earning her two Golden Globe Award ...more
- 6
Heather Elizabeth Morris is an American actress, dancer, singer and model, known for her role as the cheerleader Brittany S. Pierce in the musical comedy series Glee.more
- 7
Naya Rivera Dorsey is an American actress and singer, known for playing Santana Lopez on Fox's musical comedy-drama television series Glee. She also played the role of Hillary Winston on The Royal Family at the age of 4, for which she received a Young Artist Award nomination. Her first solo single ...more
- 8
Kristin Dawn Chenoweth is an American actress and singer, with credits in musical theatre, film and television. In 1999, she won a Tony Award for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Broadway. In 2003, she received wide notice for originating the role of Glinda in the ...more
- 9
Amber Patrice Riley is an American actress, singer-songwriter, and philanthropist, best known for her portrayal of Mercedes Jones on the Fox television series Glee. She is also known for winning season 17 of Dancing with the Stars.more
- 10
Jane Marie Lynch is an American actress, singer, and comedian. She gained fame in Christopher Guest's improv mockumentary pictures such as Best in Show. Lynch's television cameos include an appearance in the Nickelodeon situation comedy iCarly and the Showtime dark comedy series Weeds. Lynch had a ...more
- 11
Charmaine Clarice Relucio Pempengco, popularly known by the mononym Charice, is a Filipina singer who rose to popularity through YouTube. Dubbed by Oprah Winfrey as "the most talented girl in the world", she released her first international studio album Charice in 2010. The album entered the Billboard ...more
- 12
Jenna Noelle Ushkowitz is an American stage and television actress, singer and writer. She is known for her performances in Broadway musicals and for her role as Tina Cohen-Chang on Glee. She has also written a memoir titled Choosing Glee.more
- 13
Vanessa Brittany Lengies is a Canadian actress, dancer and singer best known for starring in the drama American Dreams as Roxanne Bojarski. She recently appeared as Nurse Kelly Epson on the TNT medical drama HawthoRNe, and has appeared in the recurring role of Sugar Motta in the third and fourth seasons ...more
- 14
Jessalyn Gilsig has an extensive list of theater credits to her name. A graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Gilsig received her theatrical training at the American Repertory Theatre's Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University. Among the American Repertory Theatre ...more
- 15
Eve Jihan Jeffers-Cooper is an American hip hop recording artist and actress from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is also the inaugural winner of the Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration in 2002, for the song "Let Me Blow Ya Mind", with American singer Gwen Stefani. Eve was number 48 on VH1's ...more
- 16
Linnethia "Nene" Leakes is married to Gregg Leakes. She also has two children, a 11 year old boy named Brentt and another 20 year old boy, Brice, from a previous relationship. She is the founder of the Twisted Hearts Foundation that addresses domestic violence against women. She had a book published, ...more


text:
Associated Press Release
OCALA, Fla. (AP) -- The state attorney's office in Marion County says no homicide charges will be filed against an Ocala teenager who shot and killed a 40-year-old man.
The Ocala Star-Banner (http://bit.ly/13jojIN ) reports prosecutors said Tuesday that the shooting was justified under Florida's "stand your ground" law.
Authorities say the 17-year-old shot Julius Jerome Jacobs in the head on July 5. Prosecutors say Jacobs got out of his vehicle after a verbal confrontation with the teen as they walked along a road in Ocala. He came toward the teen and two other teens with a big stick.
He will face charges that include carrying a concealed firearm and possession of a firearm by a minor.
The newspaper reports the Jacobs family is unhappy with the decision.
Information from: Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner, http://www.starbanner.com/


text:
Scott delays pardon decision for Florida soldier
Published: Friday, June 3, 2011 at 10:19 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, June 3, 2011 at 10:19 a.m.
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott has delayed a decision on a pardon being sought by a Florida soldier serving in Afghanistan who had been convicted of driving with a suspended license.
Scott granted only one of 28 other pardons that he considered Thursday during a meeting of the state Board of Executive Clemency.
The governor's vote is required for any grant of clemency as well as those of two of the three Cabinet members who also serve on the board.
Scott said he wanted more time to consider the pardon sought by Army Sgt. Shawndale Goston of Gainesville because of a subsequent drunken driving arrest in Texas a few days after he returned from Iraq.
The governor wanted staffers to check out possible mitigating circumstances for the drunken driving arrest.
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.


text:
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text:
Static Pages:
I've been wondering for the last couple weeks whether to bother writing anything resembling a review of The Force Awakens. Now that I'm typing this, I'm still wondering that. Because, really, there's not a lot of point to it. The film made something like a hundred million bucks in presales alone, and there's not likely to be an empty seat anywhere in a cinema through the end of the year. And, more generally, what I think of a film—good or bad—is unlikely to impress anyone; if I disliked this thing, I'm not gonna talk you out of seeing it; if I liked it, that won't change your mind about avoiding it.
So, instead, I'm thinking more about other reviews. The real ones, to some extent, from people who actually get paid to have some idea what they're talking about; but also the blathers from junkjournalists and worse which have been flooding the 'net for a couple days now.
If for some reason you care what I thought of the film: I liked it; at least, I don't regret having seen it. But that's not what I want to focus on here.
I'd rather focus on something larger.
One thing I've said all along, even while waiting for the prequels to come out back in the nineties, is that I haven't got a favourite StarWars film. To me, the question is kinda inane; it's like asking which segment of a television show was the best, and going with the bit after the second commercial break. StarWars is a saga, however awkwardly beginning in 1999, looping through 1977, and currently sitting in 2015; I don't see the saga as a collection of parts, some of which can be ignored. Or, I very much see it that way, but the ignorable bits are cartoons like Ewoks and Droids and The Star Wars Holiday Abortion. But the seven episodic films are chapters in a single, sagatastic story.
Also, I'm not that huge a fan. Not really. I could probably be accused of looking like one: to date, I've seen all seven films on opening night; I even saw the SpEd rereleases in 1997 and that 3D update of The Phantom Menace at the first showing. And I've got toys enviable by actual fans [I've got a Snaggletooth figure I got for $1.50 in 1978 sitting on my desk right now] throughout the house. But none of that took any real effort; I've also got all the TransFormers toys from 1984, because getting them was as easy as walking into Service Merchandise with some cash.
So, I've got what could be called an objective view of StarWars. I get that it's a thing; I'm okay with it being a thing; but I've got no emotional stake in any of it.
StarWars is a saga. Likely a trilogy of trilogies. Starting with the one in the middle. And starting in the seventies. And I think that's more important than people tend to realise.
For those of you—likely the majority—who missed the seventies: good. The seventies were terrible. And that's relevant. Because they really weren't good. Ever seen a sofa from the seventies? People—adults, even—wore suits made out of the same material. With lapels the size of aircraft carriers. People had that stupid hair which was somehow short everywhere but the sides: follicular saddlebags covering their ears like confused skullets. No one knows why. America had run itself irrevocably into debt fighting a sitcom of a war to show the USSR that Uncle Sam would never surrender, and everyone was a cynic. The president had just resigned, having got caught looking too closely at McGovern's team before landsliding him into history regardless. Everything was horrible.
Then, from outta nowhere, StarWars suddenly happened.
StarWars, in 1977, was not a good film. It just wasn't. It was a mess. It had a damsel in distress who grabbed a gun and started killing people; she couldn't even work out whether she was English or American. It had stilted dialogue running into invisible walls of silence: people abandoning sentences as if they were being interrupted, though they weren't. It was a convoluted disaster cramming in dogfights and car chases and ninjas and gunfights and pirates and half of The Wizard of Oz.
If StarWars were released today, the way it was released in 1977, it would flunk. That is to say that, if StarWars hadn't happened in 1977, and hadn't shaped the modern world, and the world had just advanced toward its current state without it, it would flunk today.
At the time, it worked. It worked because it was optimistic. It was a promise of better things at a time when Annie Hall got Best Picture. Think about that for a minute: StarWars was unleashed upon a world in which Woody Allen's various neuroses were so close to the public pulse that someone gave him an Oscar.
StarWars was like nothing that had come before. Which of course is a lie. Because it was like 2001 and DarkStar had produced an offspring. It was like StarTrek had been entertaining. It was escapism, at a time when the world needed it.
Then, things got stranger.
First, the film just didn't go away. It came out in May, got bigger in June, and bigger still in July; it was still hanging on in October after it was too cold to watch it at the drive in. It just kept happening.
Second, the merch began to leak out. Even before it existed. Kids got cardboard backdrops for the actionfigures they'd be able to get their hands on in 1978. Plastic landspeeders. Bedsheets. Princess Leia's head as the cap on a bottle of shampoo. It went viral.
Third, the format wars occurred. JVC's substandard but opensource VHS went up against Sony's sonytastic BetaMax. And StarWars was one of the few films available for $14.99 at Target. If you were one of the one percent in possession of a VideoCassetteRecorder, you could watch StarWars eleven times a day. Ten if your machine rewound things slowly. And less if you stopped to sleep.
Fourth, there was a sequel. In 1980, the saga continued. And, this time, it wasn't a film made with dumpsterdived battleship models and sticks wrapped in reflective tape. Empire was made for eighteen million dollars, back when that was a lot of money; at the time, a Corvette was twenty thousand bucks. Lucas handed the writing off to Larry Kasdan and the directing to Irvin Kershner; Gary Kurtz was still producing the whole thing. Few people would deny that Empire was better than StarWars.
But, again, I don't personally look at it that way. I look at it as chapters in a saga. And, to the extent that Empire was better, it had the advantage of building off of an established origin story. StarWars was lesser a film in part due to its smaller budget and lesser technology; but, also, it burned a lot of time introducing characters who were worldfamous by the time Empire was released. That's something to keep in mind for later….
In 1983, Return of the Jedi came out—but not before Han Solo had moonlit off to play Indiana Jones and Rick Deckard. At the time, half the appeal of Jedi was the promise that Harrison Ford was returning after all, despite rumours that Solo's story had ended in carbonite.
The rest—the immediate rest, anyway—is history: Jedi ended the trilogy, despite implications that Episodes I through III and probably VII through XI should exist. The three films showed up on HBO in gloriously fuzzy 4:3 Pan&Suck for all to record to BASF. And it all stalled out for a while.
It never exactly went away, of course. There were still the toys. In 1995, a huge campaign advertised VHS copies in 2.35:1 coming soon to a Blockbuster near you. In 1997, the SpEds occurred, fixing a lot of problems and inexplicably letting Greedo shoot at the wall. But that was almost okay, because there was the implication that Lucas was working toward continuing the saga.
Remember—or at least understand—that, from 1983 through 1997, people had been clamouring for the first three episodes. People had fanficked about them. Rumours had slithered about: Han Solo had once worked with Boba Fett, but a job went wrong and blah, blah, blah. The jedi had maintained order for a thousand generations in a more civilised age. Somewhere, Lucas had the entire Journal of the Whills, and he was under some sort of legal obligation to film it all. The fanbase ordered him to make the prequels. I know: you want him to have made these things and forced you to watch them; but I was there, and you're lying.
In 1999, The Phantom Menace was released. And it…had its flaws. The name, for example, was stupid. But then, A New Hope was a little stupid too.
You wanna know why The Menacing Phantom wasn't good? It's a simple reason, and it's not one anyone ever really seems to notice. It's not that JarJar Binks was in it; not really: he was no derpier than the ewoks, or the jawas, or Yoda. It's not that Vader was retconned into Adam Rich and allowed to screech yippie. It's not even that DarthMaul was a total breach of promise who said three things and then died.
It's that it started from zero.
There's no backstory to that film. There's nothing in history to reference. StarWars was interesting, in 1977, partly because there were stories of the olden times, before the empire, when the galaxy had been a different place. There was the optimism that, if the rebels ultimately won, the galaxy might return to more civilised an era. So, when Menace starts out with Darkman and Renton quibbling over whether to live in the moment or be mindful of the future, because Yoda said something about it a few days ago, that's not a backstory. That's not a reference to a sprawling history of whoknowswhat leading across millennia up to this point. The flaw in Menace was that it had nothing to point to in its past, and it tainted the mythic past of StarWars by attempting to film it.
Menace flunked because it was something of a command performance, ordered by the geekery, while being not what the geekery wanted, though the geekery can't articulate what they wanted instead.
Seriously. What in hell did you think the prequels could possibly have been? Did you even think the concept through? Did you really imagine that the Skywalker Saga would devote a lot of time to Solo in his teens? Did you really want to see Boba Fett learning to ride a bike? I really can't imagine how you thought that the prequels could be anything other than what they were: the disinteresting setup to the state of affairs current in the original film.
Menace is followed by Clones, which gets us into a big lightsabre battle without managing to become terribly exciting; Clones leads to Sith, which probably has more interesting bits than any other StarWars episode to date, but which also has some profoundly stupid stuff in it. That opening battle in Low Coruscant Orbit? Epic. That inept arrest of Palpatine leading to a handful of dead jedi masters? Little weak.
And, so ends the saga again. For a while. Six films, technically watchable in whatever order. A bit clunky, since we know about Vader's kids a couple films before his kids do. A bit awkward to watch Yoda go from an ugly muppet to a polygonal muppet to a less ugly muppet, and from wise to cackly to wise again. A bit spoilery to know all about Boba Fett a couple films before he's shockingly the guy who divines how to track Solo to Bespin. There really is no Good Viewing Order; too many things make too many other things redundant or worse.
So, that's StarWars to date: six films which got a little heavy into retconning and redundancing and coming up with ways to sell shampoo.
Then, Disney got involved.
Actually, that's not really a problem. At least, it's not really the problem.
That Disney had final cut on Force is fairly obvious. It just really felt like a Disney thing. I'm not sure it's a bad thing; I'm just pretty sure it's a Disney thing.
I'm just gonna say a couple things real quick.
One: Force is the seventh film in the saga. Whether it's better or worse than any of all the others is ultimately irrelevant.
Two: Overall, I liked it.
Three may need some subsections.
From the first minute of the film—and here, you might guess, we get into some spoilers—everything just seemed…rushed. Not like To Hell with Preproduction; Let's Make This Happen rushed. Like…it just all happened. Look: stuff; now it's dead; here's more stuff; nevermind because there's new stuff; just kidding—there's other stuff to move on to.
Max von Sydow was kinda in this film. You know Max: Ming the Merciless? From Flash Gordon? The priest in The Exorcist? Brewmeister Smith in Strange Brew? Yeah. So, he's got the first line in the film. And roughly two more after that. Then: we're walking. No more Max; Max is done now.
I've got no massive opinion about Max. He's a good actor; he's not above fluff like Strange Brew and DreamScape [and, let's be real: The Exorcist]. But, when I heard that he was gonna be in this thing, where this thing began as a shameless spoof of Flash Gordon, where he was Ming a couple years later when the spoof ironically triggered interest in the original: I kinda got the sense that he might, you know, be in this thing. And, while I don't doubt that there'll be seventeen spinoff novels and a breakfast cereal devoted to Lor San Tekka, Max remains for the moment the Snaggletooth Actionfigure of 2016: you get it because you'll try to figure out where he was in the film as you're rewatching it fifteen million times next year.
But, Force isn't Lor San Tekka's story. Probably. Because it's all about Poe Dameron. Who is not Poe, Cameron, from ConAir. Probably.
But it's not about Dameron, because it's about Beach2Ball2 who…yeah: it's a 'droid carrying the secret data file thing that…it's Artoo. Again. From 1977. The 'droid everyone's looking for.
And that's okay. We've established that this is a galaxy with lightsabres and superluminal travel and levitation and precisely zero WiFi; you can't just EMail stuff to people—you can only stash it in a robot and hope the thing doesn't get too lost.
So, now the story is about FU78ALL the rolling—nevermind: it's about FN2187 the stormtrooper with a conscience and the the uncharacteristic ability to to hit what he's shooting at. Oh, and also Dameron again. So that's all coming togeth—
Cut to this chick scavenging bits out of a felled stardestroyer to trade for McFly's Own Rehydrated Muffins, who—
FU78ALL's back. And it meets MuffinChick. And she speaks Android. So they rap a little about how they've got secret histories and stuff.
And Finn2187 crashes with Poe on Nottattooine and Muffin doesn't sell FU78ALL for muffins and she meets Finn and the Notempire chase them and they steal a YT1300 because Muffin knows how to fly the thing and they escape for a couple of seconds until they're captured by the YT1300's occasional owner.
And, if you know what a YT1300 is: A) seek help; B) you'll know that we've now encountered Han Solo. Who…somehow? Lost the Falcon? To Notlandocalrissian? I'm sure it was explained; I'm sure the words were in English; I still have no idea what that was all about. Just that, somehow, the Millennium Falcon had been stolen by MuffinSource Notwatto. For a while.
But, it all works out: Solo's got his ship back, on his new ship, full of cthulhumonsters, which he was smuggling, because the rebellion stopped being fascinating after it won in 1983, and because family issues, because his kid was something of a jedi who went bad because Luke tried to train him, and you heard this story from Kenobi in the twentieth century.
And…let's back away from the specifics for a moment. Where Menace tried to start from nowhere, and be a standalone story leading toward StarWars: Force tries to mirror every damned thing we've ever seen in the saga. And that, I think, is the flaw in this film. StarWars was an origin story, and it was okay; Empire was a sequel to an origin story, and it was better; Menace was an origin story without a point, which didn't really address a lot of origins in any useful way; Force is a sequel to a long history of origin stories which is itself so lacking in origin stories that it wants to borrow from the ones preceding it.
And that's what really bugs me. Because Max went away. Remember Max? Guy with the first line in the film? Who said a couple more things? And then nothing more? As rushed as the first few minutes felt, I'd rather go back and give that whole thing more time than watch established characters expositioning out how they made all the same mistakes again over the last three decades. It just seems unfocussed. It just seems like there was a runtime prescribed, and it wasn't used all that wisely. It's not that hearing about another powerful young potential jedi being mistrained and falling to the darkside is a waste of time; it's that it's just odd that this is the point in the film where we decided to slow down and throw any detail at all into an anecdote.
It just seems like everything leading up to getting into the Falcon was a hassle to film. Like the mood onset was: Once we're in the Falcon, this is gonna be cool; so let's get the setup allowing it to happen over with as quickly as possible.
And I might mind the structure less if the film didn't dive headfirst into the Terminator Syndrome. You may have seen me rant about this before. It's that stupid thing where, in every Terminator Sequel, every stupid oneliner from the original [and only good] film has got to be recycled. That happens here. Finn leans on the 3D checkerboard videogame Probably Called Something Like QZXZZXQY and the little guys holograph themselves on and lawl. This is after Solo finds Muffin and Finn hiding in this sorta false floor that Solo probably, like, uses for smuggling or something. And it's before Solo suggests throwing Phasma into a trash compactor. We get it: you saw the older films; now stop it.
To be fair, the film never really drags. It never really has a buncha people sitting around and talking about boring things. It gets close a couple of times, but always shifts over to something more kinetic. Maybe too kinetic. Rey [Muffin] finding the lightsabre in the basement of the notcreaturecantina teleported the film into a series of UltronThorHallucinationPools I might like to rewind a few times to figure out what the hell I just saw. I'm not sure whether that's better than Clones doing its StarTrek impersonation by having the various separatists pledge to join the…separatists…by separatisting…separately.
Meanwhile, there are the badguys. Lots of them. Kylo Ren is the new Darth Stimpy. And he gets threaty at Grand Moff Hux, who may be equally subordinate to Emperor Voldemort the giant holograph [who I hope to hell will be revealed in later films to be the size of the fear daemon in Buffy]. And there's Phasma Fett the shiny chicktrooper who's only the giant from Game of Thrones because she's tall and sounds the same; she never takes off her helmet, and may have less screentime than Max von Tekka had. I'd think that the Resistance née Rebellion could win this whole new war by stepping back and letting the bureaucracy of baddies collapse under its own emptycaloric weight.
Or they could do the other thing, where they know all about the Starkiller née Suncrusher née DeathStar née Other DeathStar née Deathticle despite that being not actually the secret data Beach2Ball2 is carrying around [that's more a snippet of a Captain Jack Disney Map which would lead to Luke Skywalker née Starkiller if only some other robot had the rest of the secret data], and launch an XWingy trenchrun assault manoeuvre and…you've seen StarWars.
I'm okay with Force mirroring events we've already seen. In a lot of cases—and this might well be one of them—half the point of a story is how similar it might be to another story. I'm even okay with Solo acknowledging that the Starkiller is really just a bigger, badder Deathticle. It's oddly selfaware for a StarWars film; but this is a saga that's never strived to stick to its own rules [*cough*midichlorians*cough*] and there's no good reason to hope it'll start now.
What becomes awkward here is entirely editorial. Remember when Marquand danced between the Deathticle attack in Jedi, and Skywalker fighting Vader, and Ewoks fighting Teddy Ruxpin, and it all just kinda flowed? Or when Kershner slid back and forth between Vader and Skywalker fighting in Empire and Calrissian and Chewie shooting at Fett? Or even when Lucas cut back and forth between the Deathticle in space and the base on the ground in StarWars. None of it ever quite seemed like a hard cut. There was always something of a rhythm to it. But, here, as we cut from the XWings out in space to Darth Snape in the forest to…however much was going on at once, it all just kinda seemed like each setting had a prespecified timelimit and we just cut away to the other thing at the strike of now.
Of course, there's also the other bit. The thing everyone's angry about. The thing where Solo confronted the kid. But I'm okay with that for a large number of reasons.
One: When Biggs died in StarWars, no one cared. No one cared after he got dropped back into the hangar before the battle to reminisce with Skywalker; no one cared when the unused footage of people calling Skywalker 'Wormie' surfaced. Biggs wasn't ever important enough a character to elicit the sort of reaction Lucas was going for. Solo was.
Two: It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Pretty sure none of them is still alive.
Three: It's fiction. Learn the difference. Save ten percent of your income on religion.
Four: There's gonna be an Episode VIII, and I'll just bet that some of the stuff we saw in VII is gonna kinda shape it. Wait and see what the results really are.
So, four reasons. That's a large number. Probably.
Well, and Five: The guy's seventy-three years old. I recently learned that, when McSame was that old, he was guaranteed to die a year into his term and inflict President Palin upon the world. That McSame isn't dead wrecks my point [and theirs, to far larger a degree], but Ford is what we call old. Even if Solo lived for ever and ever, there aren't a lot of places for his story to go. Except for where it went. Which is likely to lead to other stuff. See Four, above.
So, that's all outta the way. We can blow up Planet Deathticle now. Muffin and Finn can escape. Ren can…probably escape. Phasma…who knows. But: boom. And there was much rejoice. And we figure out that this Artoo Unit that's been sleeping for thirty years might have parts of a map in it; so the parts go together, and Chewie takes Muffin off to meet…this:
So, yeah: there may be a sequel on its way….
But, specifics aside, and whatever nitpicks, and eyerolling at the Terminator Syndrome, and hasty jumpcuts, and pacing issues, and underexplored characters who looked more interesting than the people we got stuck with for two and half hours: it was a StarWars film, and part of the saga, and the beginning of a third trilogy.
So, I liked it. At least, I don't regret having seen it. I just never expected it to be more than it was. I never expected that of the prequels. I never even expected it of the sequels, back in the eighties. StarWars was a thing that happened, and it led to a couple sequels, a few prequels, and shampoo bottles, and now this. It's just a story, and it's still being told.
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12 Books to Creep Yourself Out With
A non-expert's suggestions for books that are fun to read/reread whenever you want the chills.
✝✝ 1 ✝✝
Steven Millhauser, We Others: New & Selected Stories
This is one of my favorite books, as lucid and eerie as a diorama; as Jonathan Lethem says, Millhauser's style is "coolly feverish, drawing equally on Nabokovian rapture, Borgesian enigma and the plain-spoken white-picket-fence wistfulness of Sherwood Anderson." We Others covers a lot of territory—futurist nightmare, teenage romance with a Bataille-esque hint of sexual horror, Victorian inventors, Escherian funhouses, small-town disappearances and mysteries—but throughout, it's consistently enchanted, and remarkably kind. Here's a bit from the titular ghost story:
We do not like to speak, we others. We inhabit silence as we inhabit darkness—naturally. Even among ourselves, what takes place is a species of silent speech—but more of that later. At the moment I felt a dreary need to answer her. "What I want," I said, and stopped. It was the first time I'd heard myself speak. I heard what sounded like a voice at a great distance—a faint, thin, rippling voice, a voice blown by the wind.
"It's all right," she then said. "Everything's going to be all right." And i was grateful to her for those words, for she had felt my trouble; and I was angry at her for those words, for nothing was ever going to be all right.
✝✝ 2 ✝✝
Louis Sachar, Sideways Stories from Wayside School
Sometimes I think that no better books have ever been written than the Wayside School books, which depict that blandly cruel Brechtian funhouse of an institution, in which kids fall out of windows, are punished by being turned into apples, and wind up in basements, interrogated by bald men and asked to choose between "freedom" or "safety." All three books consist of 30 loosely linked stories that operate on the same insane logic: the 19th chapter is always about the 19th floor (a nightmarish limbo controlled by Mrs. Zarves, who may not exist), the 17th chapter runs backwards, and Mrs. Jewls silently racks up names on the DISCIPLINE list.
✝✝ 3 ✝✝
Kelly Link, Magic For Beginners
Kelly Link is so good at slipstream, genre-adjacent fiction that remains wholly "literary" in its tight and delicate attention to shape, structure and style. This collection contains "Stone Animals," the story that first turned me onto her after I read it in 2005's extraordinarily good Best American Short Stories; it's about a couple who moves from the city to a country dreamhouse and then begins, slowly, to dissociate. They detach at odd moments, swim through time. One by one, their possessions seem to become "haunted," and then so do they, and then there's something really off with the fauna:
Liz and she are drinking paint. "Have some more paint," Catherine says. "Do you want sugar?"
"Yes, lots," Liz says. "What color are you going to paint the rabbits?"
Catherine passes her the sugar. She hasn't even thought about the rabbits, except which rabbits does Liz mean, the stone rabbits or the real rabbits? How do you make them hold still?
At the end, from Catherine's husband:
His wife is going to have a baby any day now. His daughter will stop walking in her sleep. His son isn't haunted. The moon shines down and paints the world a color he's never seen before. Oh, Catherine, wait till you see this. Shining lawn, shining rabbits, shining world. The rabbits are out on the lawn. They've been waiting for him, all this time, they've been waiting.
✝✝ 4 ✝✝
Kevin Brockmeier, The Brief History of the Dead
This is a book about a limitless, shifting shadow-city for the dead, where ten billion people try to enact an eerily normal society (they open bakeries, work in banks, announce prayers from their mosques, drive taxis while constantly redrawing their maps). Slowly we realize that the city's actually for the dead who are still remembered on Earth, and that some mysterious global epidemic is making the city's demographics shift accordingly. ("The entire population of a small Pacific island appeared in the city on a bright windy afternoon, congregated on the top level of a parking garage, and were gone by the end of the day.") Brockmeier's got this plain, phenomenally visual style:
The girl who liked to stand beneath the poplar tree in the park said that she had died into an ocean the color of dried cherries. For a while, the water had carried her weight, she said, and she lay on her back turning in meaningless circles, singing the choruses of the pop songs she remembered. But then there was a drum of thunder, and the clouds split open, and the ball bearings began to pelt down around her—tens of thousands of them. She had swallowed as many as she could, she said, stroking the cracked trunk of the poplar tree. She didn't know why. She filled like a lead sack and sank slowly through the layers of the ocean. Shoals of fish brushed past her, their blue and yellow scales the brightest thing in the water. And all around her she heard that sound, the one that everybody heard, the regular pulsing of a giant heart.
That's from Brief History's first chapter, which was published at the New Yorker and is available in full here.
✝✝ 5 ✝✝
Megan Abbott, Dare Me
Cheerleader noir! Of these recommendations, this one's the page-turner; it's a murder mystery with a Sleigh Bells/Lana Del Rey aesthetic and a series of twists that genuinely surprised me (admittedly, not the sharpest reader) at the end. From the first chapter, in which the cheerleaders meet their magnetic, mysterious new coach:
There I am, Addy Hanlon, sixteen years old, hair like a long taffy pull and skin tight as a rubber band. I am on the gym floor, my girl Beth beside me, our cherried smiles and spray-tanned legs, ponytails bobbing in sync. Look at how my eyes shutter open and closed.
[…] Did she look at us that first week and see past the glossed hair and shiny legs, our glittered brow bones and girl bravado? See past all that to everything beneath, all our miseries, the way we all hated ourselves but much more everyone else? Could she see past all of that to something else, something quivering and real, something poised to be transformed, turned out, made? See that she could make us, stick our hands in our glitter-gritted insides and build us into magnificent teen gladiators?
✝✝ 6 ✝✝
Lois Duncan, Stranger With My Face
Lois Duncan's daughter was murdered in real life, in 1989 (edited to say more accurately that this was after she'd already published dozens of books about girls in danger: I Know What You Did Last Summer, Daughters of Eve and Summer of Fear were all written in the '70s), and the book Who Killed My Daughter? is the nonfiction recounting of Duncan's attempt to solve the case, which still remains a mystery.
Eight years before the murder, Duncan wrote Stranger With My Face, which is the creepiest one of hers that I ever read: this one's about a girl named Laurie who finds out she's got a doppelganger, who turns out to be her twin Lia, a revelation that forces Laurie's mom to admit that she was adopted, and that the other twin, even as an infant, was repellently cold. It turns out that Lia's in a mental hospital for murder, using telepathy (or "astral projection") to hurt the people around Laurie, and eventually possessing Laurie's body herself. And if this description doesn't make you shiver, try the cover.
✝✝ 7 ✝✝
J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
The cold horror of hegemony, totally absent of quick thrills! But Coetzee's pale, disturbing allegory makes power seem even more terrible. "Nothing is worse than what we can imagine," says the magistrate, our protagonist in this strange, atemporal universe, suffused with a sort of monochrome realism, a bit of Beckett and a structure of bones and blood.
One thought alone preoccupies the submerged mind of Empire: how not to end, how not to die, how to prolong its era. By day it pursues its enemies. It is cunning and ruthless, it sends its bloodhounds everywhere. By night it feeds on images of disaster: the sack of cities, the rape of populations, pyramids of bones, acres of desolation.
✝✝ 8 ✝✝
Franz Kafka, Complete Stories
No one can make you feel crazy quite like Kafka, who writes with that dizzying brutality, that all-encompassing alienation. From "The Penal Colony," a story about an elaborate execution device that leads the condemned from torture to ecstasy to death:
The script can't be a simple one; it's not supposed to kill a man straight off, but only after an interval of, on an average, twelve hours… Can you follow it? The harrow is beginning to write; when it finishes the first draft of the inscription on the man's back, the layer of cotton wool begins to roll and slowly turns the body over, to give the Harrow fresh space for writing… But how quiet he grows at just about the sixth hour! Enlightenment comes to the most dull-witted. It begins around the eyes. From there it radiates. Nothing more happens than that the man begins to understand the inscription… You have seen how difficult it is to decipher the script with one's eyes, but our man deciphers it with his wounds.
✝✝ 9 ✝✝
Madeleine L'Engle, The Young Unicorns
This may be my favorite L'Engle. Loosely an Austin family story, this one's got blind pianist prodigy Emily Gregory as a protagonist, a gang called the Alphabats, a genie, an evil bishop, and an underworld beneath the ominous Cathedral of St. John the Divine (where L'Engle herself was writer-in-residence for years). In the tunnels under the city, the boys in the Alphabats line up to have lasers shot into their brains (an invention of Dr. Austin's gone wrong) and feel like they're in heaven; Emily tries to get to the bottom of it, but she's blind, and it's dark, and everyone's always got another secret. L'Engle's perennial dark undercurrent just blooms into something really singular here; it's a New York City story, with something perverse and redeemable lurking on every corner.
✝✝ 10 ✝✝
Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories
Feminist, revisionist, deeply sensual Gothic fairytale fiction: what's not to love? Carter, as she says, draws the "latent content from the traditional stories and use[s] it as the beginnings of new stories," and her language is rich and glittering and wild. From the end of "In the Company of Wolves," Carter's story after Little Red Riding Hood:
Every wolf in the world now howled a prothalamion outside the window as she freely gave the kiss she owed him.
What big teeth you have!
She saw how his jaw began to slaver and the room was full of the clamor of the forest's Liebestod but the wise child never flinched, even when he answered:
All the better to eat you with.
The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody's meat. She laughed at him full in the face, she ripped off his shirt for him and flung it into the fire, in the fiery wake of her own discarded clothing. The flames danced like dead souls on Walpurgisnacht and the old bones under the bed set up a terrible clattering but she did not pay them any heed.
✝✝ 11 ✝✝
Ovid, Metamorphoses (Rolfe Humphries translation)
A strange pick, totally, but this book is full of strangeness, and cruelty that's mythic and indivisible. In the first few pages, Apollo, "too young a god to waste his time in coaxing," chases the nymph Daphne:
Love makes me follow,
Unhappy fellow that I am, and fearful
You may fall down, perhaps, or have the briars
Make scratches on those lovely legs, unworthy
To be hurt so, and I would be the reason.
The ground is rough here. Run a little slower,
And I will run, I promise, a little slower.
Or wait a minute: be a little curious
Just who it is you charm. I am no shepherd,
No mountain-dweller, I am not a ploughboy,
Uncouth and stinking of cattle. You foolish girl,
You don't know who it is you run away from,
That must be why you run.
That, right there, is creepy. And then there is of course the constant grotesquerie of Ovid's transformations, which are permanent in a very non-Halloween way; Daphne, of course, turns into a tree, with her hair as leaves, her arms as branches, "everything gone except her grace."
✝✝ 12 ✝✝
Roald Dahl, Roald Dahl's Book of Ghost Stories
Roald Dahl had a lot of darkness underpinning his whimsy; this shows up to varying degrees in his non-Wonka children's books (how mournful was Danny? How barely reined in, The BFG?) and even more in his adult short stories (see "Man From the South," the tale of a party trick involving amputation). Dahl didn't write this collection, we should note, and the 14 ghost stories he compiled here (Edith Wharton's is great, and so is Robert Aickman's "Ringing the Changes") are more subtle than you might expect from the editor's history. But I read this book ten years ago and still think about it, and here's a bit from an A.M. Burrage story in it, called "Playmates":
"Children!" he whispered. "Children!"
He closed his eyes and stretched out his hands. Still they were shy and held aloof, but he fancied that they came a little nearer.
"Don't be afraid," he whispered. "I'm only a very lonely man. Be near me after Monica is gone."
He paused, waiting. Then as he turned away he was aware of little caressing hands upon his arm. He looked around at once, but the time had not yet come for him to see. He saw only the barred window, the shadows on either wall, and the flag of moonlight.
So, my fellow witches, what have I missed? Any recommendations?
Photo via Josh Hawley/flickr


text:
Pat McCrory's gubernatorial campaign failed to report two helicopter flights valued at $3,300 taken in the waning days of his unsuccessful bid.
The manager for McCrory's campaign said Tuesday the October 2008 flights were uncovered as the State Board of Elections wrote candidates for governor since 2004 asking for more information about their air travel.
Manager Jack Hawke said the campaign filed an amended report dated last week to report the flight expenses. He said one flight invoice never reached the campaign. There was never an invoice issued for the second flight.
State Democratic Party executive director Andrew Whalen said McCrory's refiling raises more questions beyond allegations he discussed at a news conference earlier Tuesday focusing on one of the flights.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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Without warning the ground begins to shake. Buildings topple, crushing or burying those inside; gas and water mains fracture and erupt; the telephone system, overwhelmed by panicked calls, collapses. Down in the park on the shore of the Sea of Marmara people taking a stroll in the spring air have but a moment to register the tsunami about to overwhelm them. By the end of the day 35,000 people are dead and 200,000 injured, and some 80,000 buildings lie in ruins. Others, like the great Blue Mosque, survive but with marks that will serve as a reminder for decades to come of the great earthquake of 2017 - the one everyone knew was coming but did little to prepare for.
It may never be like this - it may never happen - or it could be worse. Man may have sent probes to the furthest reaches of the Solar System and gazed towards the edge of the visible universe but he is still woefully ill-informed about the caprices of his own planet. Some of the most ill-informed people are in most danger, those whose homes straddle the faultlines, fractures in the earth's crust caused by the grinding of tectonic plates. Like the North Anatolian Fault, at its nearest 10 miles from Istanbul.
The attitude of people living alongside these fissures varies greatly, from fear to fatalism to simple ignorance of their presence. It was with this in mind that Tamsin Davies and her sister Serena, together with their friend Adam Whitaker, decided to explore the faultlines of Europe, from Iceland to Italy and Greece, and then eastwards into Turkey. The Faultine Living Expedition is backed jointly by the Royal Geographical Society and Land Rover. Each year the bodies choose one proposal for an expedition to a remote corner of the world to examine societies that live, literally and fuguratively, on the edge. Landrover provides the expedition vehicle and £10,000 under its Go Beyond The Everyday sponsorship scheme.
"If you look at a faultline map there are hundreds of them, and any one can produce an earthquake," says Serena, a documentary maker. "And we don't know enough about them. A headline we read the other day summed it up: 'Scientists can't predict earthquakes but toads might be able to'."
The Daily Telegraph caught up with the expedition in Izmit, a town to the east of Istanbul devastated by an earthquake in August 1999. Some 18,000 people died in that quake, a product of the same fault that may one day spell disaster for Istanbul. Serif Baris, a professor of geophysics who keeps an eye on the North Anatolian Fault, explains: "In 1999, after the earthquake, it was predicted that the chance of another, measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale, hitting Istanbul within 30 years was 65 per cent. And now ten years have gone by."
The casualty figures quoted in the scenario for 2017, along with the number of buildings destroyed, are those expected by Professor Baris.
"Most people know the risk but when you ask if they are prepared less than 20 per cent would say they are ready. In Japan they train their children for earthquakes in kindergarten. In Turkey there is often a kind of fatalism. Some people think buildings are so badly built that they will collapse and they will die anyway, so why bother with training drills."
The reactions of earthquake survivors vary greatly, from relief at one's survival to guilt for not helping others, and fear that it will happen again.
The team interviewed one man caught in the 1999 quake who could not get over the fact that in his rush to escape what appeared to be his toppling home he had abandoned his wife and children. Then there was Mehmet Koc, a 36 year-old belt maker. He lived in Avcilar, one of the districts of Istanbul hit by the 1999 quake.
"I was unable to sleep for 2 years after that day," he said. "I couldn't have a proper sleep for that time.
"I go on, I survive. I'm afraid of the second one – not now as afraid as I was. I would say it is a normal fear."
Nuran Altiparmak, 45, a shop assistant from Istanbul, lost her hair, so great was her trauma.
"It ruined my psychology," she said. "Still I receive psychological treatment. The nerves in my legs are damaged. My husband lost his job and we lost money. We almost divorced because of the stress. So many things - not only psychological.
"My heart beats so fast when I think about a second earthquake because there are so many wounds. I don't' know how to put it into words."
The expedition began in Iceland, a dynamic landscape sculpted by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the legacy of its position astride the fault separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. There are benefits to faultline status. A quarter of that country's total power needs are provided by geothermal energy, and 87 per cent of its domestic heating.
Iceland, though, is a sparsely-populated place. In Italy the team saw how a once prosperous, densely-populated area can be laid low for years by movements in faults that have remained ignored for centuries.
Last year, the town of L'Aquila in central Italy was hit by a 6.3 earthquake which killed 308 people, injured some 1,500 and left 65,000 people homeless. The town, built on an old lake bed which amplifies seismic waves, was last struck by an earthquake in 1706, three years after a more powerful quake killed some 5,000 people. Despite its history, there was general ignorance in the town of the dangers.
"People in these zones often fail to understand the risks," says Serena. "There is a barrier between them and the information they need. There is the attitude that, 'We had our earthquake a hundred years ago so we're fine now. Among the older generation, particularly, there is also a fatalistic approach."
The centre of L'Aquila is still a no-go area.
"It is a beautiful medieval centre that is completely dead," says Adam. "The buildings have not collapsed but they are uninhabitable because no-one knows how unsafe they are."
L'Aquila is where the toads come in. Days before the quake struck, zoologists studying a colony of toads some 50 miles from the epicenter observed that 96 per cent of the males suddenly got up and left. Human predictive skills are some way off. The devastating earthquake in Haiti in January of this year has been attributed to a previously undiscovered fault.
Even here, in seismically sleepy Britain, we should not be too complacent. The British Geological Survey warned recently that the earthquake threat to London is greater than generally appreciated. Not the devastating quakes of abroad but tremors capable of inflicting real damage and some deaths.
A quake of Magnitude 5 or above occurs every century or so in Britain. In April 1580, a tremor centred on the Dover Strait damaged a large number of buildings in London and killed two people.
"The same earthquake happening tomorrow will impact far more people than was the case in the 16th Century," explained Roger Musson of the BGS. "The size of London in terms of population is about 50 times more today. So if two people were killed in London in 1580, you can imagine for yourself what sort of scaling up that could mean for a contemporary earthquake of the same size."
The threat to Tehran, the expedition's next destination, is rather more pressing – about the same as that facing Istanbul. There is talk there of one day moving the capital to a less dangerous location.
On the whole, though, humanity tends to adopt a fatalistic attitude to the occasionally lethal temper tantrums of its home planet.
Interviewed by the Faultine team, Soffia Sigurdardottir, a member of the search and rescue team in the town of Selfoss, southern Iceland, explained: "This is normal life. You make these precautions, and when a strong earthquake comes you wait for 10 seconds; and if you're still alive, you're still alive."


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text: Dry needling was performed on my ankle to help correct hypopigmentation with electric machine by a trained, licensed esthetician with nursing degree. The reddened areas are actual scar tissue with needle marks. I was very diligent about aftercare. This is the best picture I have. The skin is shiny in appearance. This was performed on October 18th, 2012.


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|ORCHESTRA : Concertino for Piano; Adventures in a Perambulator; Skyscrapers; Birthday of the Infanta; Song of Faith (with chorus) ; Little Dancer and Little Indian.
|CHAMBER MUSIC : Sonata for Violin and Piano; String Quartet.
|Pieces for piano, songs, etc.
About John Alden Carpenter:
Howard J. T. Our American Music; Seldes Gilbert. Seven Lively Arts.
Harvard Musical Review 4:3January 1915; Modern Music 9:8November-December 1931; Musical Quarterly 16:443October 1930.
Important recordings of music by John Alden Carpenter:
VICTOR: Adventures in a Perambulator; Song of Faith; Skyscrapers (Shilkret).
CHICAGO PHONOGRAPH SOCIETY: Water Colors.
ALFREDO CASELLA, one of the leaders of the so-called "Young Italian" school of composers, was born in Turin on July 25, 1883, to a family of musicians. His father was an excellent 'cellist and a professor at the Liceo Musicale at Turin; his mother was an accomplished pianist. In this musical environment, Alfredo awakened to musical expression at a young age. At four, he was already studying the piano under the guidance of his mother, and at idle moments he would be found in front of the piano piecing together shreds of original songs. Music, however, was not the only interest in the boy's life. From the very first he evinced an enormous interest in, and aptitude for, chemistry and electricity, so much so that Galileo Ferraris, a friend of the family, insisted that the boy take up an arduous study of science. For a while, the boy wavered between two loves--science and music --and it seemed a question as to which he would pursue as a life career. It was at the advice of Martucci, the famous Italian composer, that Alfredo was finally turned towards music. In 1896, as a result of Martucci's counsel, Alfredo was sent to Paris to study at the Conservatory. He made rapid progress in his studies and, as a pupil of Fauré, took prizes in piano-playing and composition. After leaving the Conservatory, Casella taught music for several years, finally accepting a position as professor at the Liceo Santa Cecilia in Rome at the outbreak of the War.
It was not until the end of the War that Casella identified himself as one of the leaders of the contemporary musical movement in Italy. This movement included all of the gifted young Italian composers, such as Pizzetti, Malipiero, Tommasini, and Respighi, who differed, in their music, from their more celebrated countrymen like Puccini____________________


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Sometimes, when accessing documents from within programs on Windows, you have this popup:
How can I change the locations that appear on the left side of this popup?
(I say sometimes because other times you have a slightly different popup with more easily customisable options displayed as a list.)
(I'm running Win8 (hence windows-8, but I realise the solution may be cross-compatible, so I've also tagged windows.)