text:
Search Sports Card Radio
- Details
- Created on Sunday, 17 March 2013 18:55
Day #1 At The Industry Summit
Sunday March 17, 2012
Sunday is a day where many people are still flying in or traveling to the Las Vegas Industry Summit. But here are some of the highlights on the schedule:
Noon - 2:30pm is the Retailer Annual Meeting
That's about it! - Lots More Happens On Monday - Wednesday
|Photos From Day 1 At The 2013 Industry Summit
Sports Card Radio
|Brande Roderick
|Orleans Conference Rooms
|Osama Bin Laden Card
|Mojobreak Booth
|Videos From The Summit
2013 Benchwarmers Summit Exclusive Box With Brian Gray - Mojo Break
| Interesting Tweets
|Follow #LVIS Hashtag Tweeters for up to date tweets through the day
|Day 1 Notes From The Floor:
Retail Networking Topics - These topics were discussed among retailers on the opening day of the 2013 Las Vegas Industry Summit. Below are the questions that were asked:
|Audio From 2013 Industry Summit
|Sports Card Show Interview With Ryan @SportsCardNews
- Sunday March 17, 203 -
More Links & 2013 Industry Summit Infomation To Come When It Becomes Available
- Details
- Created on Tuesday, 01 January 2013 20:11
|Dear Sports Card Makers of all Shapes and Sizes:
These issues need to be addressed. If I do not see progress toward these fronts I will personally raise these questions at the 2013 Las Vegas Industry Summit, the 2013 National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago and on your favorite social media venue of choice. I have spent the better part of my life involved in the sports card industry. In the glory years of the 1990's I sorted cards in the back of a bustling California card store. In the early 2000s I was a "pajama retailer" - selling boxes on eBay of 1996-97 Finest Basketball and 2003-04 NBA products to make extra money while in college. In 2008 I went broke with my brother running our own card shop for two years. Down and out in 2008 my brother started Sports Card Radio while I went to work managing a medial office....... In late 2009 I "retired" and began working on Sports Card Radio and a number of other sites my brother created. In 2012 over 1.3 million people visited Sports Card Radio making it one of the most viewed sports card sites on the internet. All of the work on the site is done by either myself or my brother Colin. We've turned down countless requests for advertising in an effort to keep the information bias free. We didn't create this site to sell ads or make friends with card companies. We created this site for collectors and their interests.
I've seen card companies, and more importantly, customers of sports cards dwindle from those early 1990's glory years. Which isn't necessarily a negative thing. Those years in the 1990's were unsustainable from a business perspective, and was a bubble that was bound to pop. In 2013 people still love collecting cards. It's just more niche and specialized. I love people who geek out about sports cards. I'm a fellow sports card geek who happens to also like aggregating information for people to enjoy for years to come. A blessed sports card geek in a way. Because I certainly have the time to travel to Vegas, travel to Chicago, travel anywhere I need to in 2013 to make sure these issues at the very least get addressed.
1) Do NOT address customer service issues with "Well this is not my department...."
|From what I can gather Anne made a purchase on ShopTopps and ended up being shipped the wrong item. She originally posted on Topps Facebook on December 6th, 2012 to no response. She posted again on December 19th which got this reply from the administrator of the Topps Facebook. She also stated that she had been repeatedly calling customer support on the phone to no response. The item she ordered was going to be a Christmas present.
Don't do this:
- If you are the administrator of a company Facebook page, and post under the company name, then customer service is your department. Point blank period. Post under your own name if you want to say things like "this is a completely different department." Do not post under the company name and say that to a paying customer. That should be common sense.
|2) You need to give people a choice when you can't redeem redemption cards
|Open just about any product now and collectors will have a good shot at pulling a redemption card. There is also a decent chance that the card company will not be able to fulfill that card. More often then not, redemptions are for autographed cards. Sometimes, companies cannot get the athlete to sign their cards and that might be totally out of the card manufactures control. Athletes can be lazy (about signing cards) or hard to track down. Collectors by and large (have come to) understand that.
But here is what card manufactures don't understand. Don't just dig through a box, find a "Beckett valued" equivalent card and send that as a replacement for an un-fulfilled redemption. That's a joke. You realize that people live and die by some of these cards? They wait and wait for the card of their favorite player to come redeemed in the mail. When you can't come through for your customer, bend over backwards for them, or don't put the damn redemption cards in packs. Give them choices when you can't redeem a card. Don't disappoint them by you arbitrarily picking a replacement for them. They didn't win that redemption card in a contest. They bought that card with their own hard earned money. Now card companies you need to earn your money. The way you deal with redemption cards you can't fulfill is a joke. Fix it.
As a side note - the other issue is the cards having an expiration date all together. I've heard this question get raised many a times at many different venues and never gotten a great answer. I'll see what I can do in 2013 to get a clear picture.
|3) Stop letting product hit retail (Target/WalMart) before hobby shops get it
This issue is what helped me go broke back in 2008 running a card shop. I remember people telling me about finding 2006 Topps Allen & Ginter at retail 2 weeks before I could get it. Now you see it happen all the time, mostly with Topps products. Any retail heavy product, Topps Series 1, Bowman, Topps Update, etc can be found at place like WalMart before hobby shops get their boxes. It's a slap in the face to those shop owners. Because they get their customers wondering why "you don't have it but Target does."
|I get how Target and WalMart pushes out product. I was a manager at Target. Time sensitive material like Video Games, Music CD's, DVD's, were stored in this locked environment until release day. You can't do that with baseball cards. It's just too expensive and Topps, Panini and Upper Deck don't really care. But your dealers do. Ship the Target/Walmart crap out after the Hobby stuff. You can do that. You can control what gets shipped when.
|4) You got to do something about these sticker autographs
They look weak. And..... in 150 years will that sticker autograph still be attached to the card? How strong is the glue you know what I'm saying? I know that is the furthest thing from your mind. But geeky dorks like me actually think about how these cards will be perceived long after I'm gone. The reason for the stickers is obvious. It cuts costs and allows you guys to crank out the required sets per sport. But they are potentially worthless cards, literally, if the glue ever wears out on those sticker applied autographs.
|You don't want to make on-card autographs. It's too much work. Way too much work. Every damn card needs to be approved by the league. Cards need to be printed in advance and it's real easy to just go to that file with 1,000 Ryan Broyles stickers with autographs on them. It's easier for the athlete as well. He/She just signs a bunch of stickers and is paid and done.
But when is crap just crap? When has a sticker autographed card looked nice? Talk to the people who have your license. The NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL. Plead with them. Tell them you are making products just to compete and crank out 18 sets a year per sport. Tell them you need on-card autographs. Have that conversation. See what they can do. Can they be of any help?
5) Treat people with respect and reach out to dealers not on social media
Seems obvious. But just do a quick glance at company Facebook and Twitter (gloss over all the free swag being given away) and look at some of the customer complaints. Many go un-answered. I've seen numerous, what I'd characterize as rude, comments by company employees on Twitter. Search sports card forums like Blowout Cards and Freedom Cardboard for "Customer Service" and read for yourself how some long time collectors get treated.
I have a tremendous amount of time to monitor these issues to see if they are getting addressed.
- Details
- Created on Thursday, 27 December 2012 01:46
|2013 Canada National Hockey Card Day
When: Saturday February 9, 2013
What: Free 5 Card Upper Deck Pack
Canada Only! Participating Certified Diamond Dealers Only!
*The Gretzky/Lemieux #16 card is free with purchase at the shop.
|Despite the ongoing NHL Lockout, Upper Deck will sponsor and promote a 2013 National Hockey Card Day. These packs will be available at Certified Diamond Dealer Hobby Stores in Canada. Packs will not be available at mainstream retail stores, only sports card specific hobby shops. You can walk into any of the shops and get one free pack. If you make a purchase you get card #16 Wayne Gretzky/Mario Lemieux.
The 2013 cards will feature the players in Team Canada uniforms and not the NHL gear (because of the lockout). Select packs will have autographs randomly inserted. Each pack has 5 cards.
Dealers can get bundles of 100 packs from their local distributor. The packs are not meant to be sold and are to be given away. Only Upper Deck Certified Diamond Dealers in Canada are eligible for the promotion. You can browse a few of the Canadian diamond dealers on the Upper Deck website.
- Details
- Created on Monday, 08 October 2012 02:03
|It all began when brothers Benito and Giuseppe Panini were in Italy running a newspaper distribution business and in 1960 bought a bunch of soccer player stickers (called figurines) from someone in Italy who couldn't find a way to sell them. The brothers re-packaged them and in one year sold 3 million packs and a business was born. In 1961 15 million packs were sold. In 1962 29 million were sold. Today, old soccer stickers from that era are treasured and valued like vintage baseball cards.
Panini is a massive company and only a small percentage of their bankroll is tied up into the production of American sports cards. But it doesn't take much money to wipe out competitors Upper Deck and Topps in the U.S. space. It started in 2009 when Panini entered the U.S. market and flexed it's muscle. Upper Deck and Topps were making NBA basketball cards in 2008-09 and were in the running to have their licenses renewed by the NBA. But Panini is a billion dollar business and swooped in to land an exclusive. You can believe it all came down to money. Topps is a conservative spending company and they were looking to reduce their licenses even if it meant losing a segment of the American market. Upper Deck was just beginning to go through some legal and financial trouble but they didn't have as much cash to blow as Panini did anyways. Upper Deck is a private company but did disclose at it's peak they were a $200 million a year business. Not bad but a far cry from the $1 billion Panini can rake in. The fact that Panini has a strong overseas brand name probably didn't hurt in landing the NBA deal either. Globally, the NBA might be the most popular sport in the world behind Soccer. And while it's hard for people in the United States to grasp, worldwide, Panini is a bigger brand and has more resources then either stateside card competitors Topps and Upper Deck.
Panini entered the NHL market in 2010 and produces licensed hockey cards along with Upper Deck. In 2011 Panini obtained a Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) license. Not to be confused with Topps' exclusive MLBP (Properties) license. Topps can show images of players in uniform, include team names & logos on cards, etc - Panini cannot. There have been rumblings that Panini may get a Properties license..... perhaps soon. The MLB baseball card market is the largest in the United States when compared to the NBA and NFL, despite the latter two being more popular with fans as a sport and on television. If Panini was flashing cash to the NBA, NFL, and NHL you can bet they will try and get in front of MLB Properties decision makers and try and write a big check. It's up to the MLBP if Panini will ever be able to produce licensed MLB cards that are so popular in the U.S. market.
If true that Panini can generate revenues in the $1 billion annually from some of the businesses listed below, then money spent in the U.S. sports card market is a drop in the bucket for the company. In fact, there is probably a long term plan in place where the Panini Group doesn't expect to see a huge return on American sports cards. Meaning they are willing to shell out cash to obtain licenses and grow their presence in the U.S. without worrying about the bottom line of the balance sheet.
It may very well be that Panini doesn't "make money" on their NBA, NHL or NFL cards. But Panini's goal is most certainly long term profits and not a short term money grab. Panini's main sources of revenue happen outside the United States. Prior to 2009 collectors of sports cards may have been unfamiliar with Panini, but you can see why they have been able to win licensing battles against the weaker U.S. sports card players. Panini has resources that Topps and Upper Deck don't and that can woo any licensing exec with the leagues. For many years U.S. card companies had been going broke and now a knight from Italy shows up with checkbook in hand! The tone was set when the NBA kicked Topps and Upper Deck out, when both expressed interest in continuing making basketball cards. In just three short years Panini is now considered the second largest producer of sports cards. That's how weak the market was when Panini came to the U.S. and expect them to continue to take market share in the category.
How Panini Rakes in $1 Billion Worldwide:
The company has built it's brand around the globe thanks in large part due to their massive production of collectible stickers. Panini dominates this niche by obtaining licenses and marketing the stickers usually to a younger audience. They've produced stickers for just about everything under the sun. Including popular kids movies Cars, Brave, Ice Age and Spider-Man.
Their sports stickers might be familiar to American card collectors. In recent years they have produced sticker collections for NBA, NFL, NHL, various soccer versions including FIFA World Cup, UEFA, Manchester United and more. According to Panini Group, collectibles and specifically stickers have provided the company an opportunity to grow. This is probably a high margin business. It doesn't cost very much to produce the stickers Panini makes.
Trading Cards
A focus for American collectors, but this is just a small subset of the Panini's overall business. In 2009 the Panini Group decided to take their piles of cash and enter the United States market. USA collectors recognize the Panini Group subsidy Panini America as the face of the state side card company. Panini blew competitors Upper Deck and Topps out of the NBA basketball card market to land their first US sports license. But the big acquisition to help aide in establishing operations in the U.S. was the purchase of Donruss Playoff in March 2009. Donruss was a well known U.S. sports card brand that had successful titles including Elite, Contenders, Certified, Threads, National Treasures and more. Panini immediately took over the NFL license that Donruss had. The sale of Donruss came at a needed time for both companies. Donruss had lost it's MLB license in 2006, severely reducing it's revenue potential and Panini needed a brand, and talent (employees) who understood the U.S. sports card market. Panini also took talent from rival card company Upper Deck. Several employees left California based U.D. when they were going through legal and financial troubles.
Panini has entered the U.S. market and spent money. They spend more to market their products then competitors Upper Deck and Topps. At key trade shows like the NSCC and the Las Vegas Industry Summit the corporate booth Panini has usually doubles the size of Topps & Upper Deck (Topps recently has not had a corporate booth at the Vegas Summit). Topps is an established American brand that was purchased off the open stock market in 2007 by Madison Dearborn Partners and Tornante. Since the sale it appears Dearborn and Tornante were seeking to capitalize off the $30 million in estimated profits that come out of the business annually. Topps does not have to market it's products very much because of it's iconic brand status and they have no reason to innovate a space they have dominated since the 1950's in the United States. Upper Deck is considered an industry innovator since it was founded in 1989, but they have fallen on hard times and were hurt the most by the economic downturn in the U.S. that started in 2008. Upper Deck can no longer market their products like in years past and have lost out on some key U.S. sports licenses (NBA, MLB, NFL).
Distribution Business
Panini does big business in Europe. So they have a distribution center where they can get product into 500,000 stores in Europe within 72 hours. They not only distribute their own collectible products through this channel but they will distribute other companies books, comics, pre-paid phone cards, toys, soccer merchandise and many other items through this channel. This means money in the bank for Panini. They run popular online soccer merchandise store "FootCenter" through this channel. Panini also has a distribution center in Italy, dubbed PAN, where essentially the same business goes on. Panini is able to get their products into the hands of customers very easily because they own their own distribution network. They also can earn revenue by distributing other companies products. Sounds like a great business if they can dial in their operating costs.
Panini Digital
This is software that analyzes the movements a player will make during a soccer match. This data is then sold and used by soccer teams, media groups, video game companies and other interested parties. Much like statistical information in Baseball, having advanced metrics to determine the value of a player is key in a sport like soccer when there is not much scoring or other simple statistics being recorded.
Behind collectibles, this is the Panini Group's biggest business. It's also it's fastest growing. Over 4,000 comics, magazines and books are published each year by Panini. They publish primarily publications related to kids and their interests, establishing Panini as one of the leading publishers of youth oriented products in Europe. Huge revenue stream. Buying a popular Marvel, DC, or Vertigo comic in Europe? It probably came through their publishing and distribution network. This business pumps huge money into Panini's bank accounts.
The Future of Panini Group
Things appear to be going well. They have a strong footprint in Europe and other parts of the world. This isn't a sports card business. That's just a small piece of the pie. But they have cash other U.S. sports card competitors don't. Panini will easily be able to win over leagues that hold the key to licensing with their balance sheets that show a killer worldwide operation of businesses. Panini won't innovate the sports card world like Upper Deck did in 1989. But their presence is much needed to help stabilize an industry that has seen countless companies big and small go broke.
It takes a lot of money to enter the U.S. sports card market. Licensing with the big pro sports leagues doesn't come cheap and they like to see you have a multi-million dollar bank account....... even after you cut that check to them. Panini is a dominant player in the licensing game. Some recent licensing deals include: Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, and Disney. Those don't come cheap. The fact that Panini is not reliant on sports cards to make or break their budget is a collector's dream. Even if you don't enjoy their products, I'd advise being patient and give them a chance. At any moment, these Italian billionaires could just go back home, milk Europe, milk South America, milk the portions of their business that have unlocked unspeakable amount of riches for them over the years. They don't need American sports cards to make money. It's literally a drop in the bucket for them.
Here is a question. What is your favorite sports team? What would you rather have, the owner of that team to have so much money that he will spend whatever it takes to try and win? Or an owner who looks for loose change under seats after games? We know the answer. Panini may not be on the same spending level as Mark Cuban or Jerry Buss, but they have the biggest wallet in the sports card game at the moment. Dearborn and Tornante's Topps have a huge collective wallet as well, but just don't have any reason to spend it to grow their sports card business. In fact, Topps has failed and lost millions when trying to innovate and grow the business. Dearborn is a leading private equity firm and has ownership stakes in dozens of companies but they are not related to sports or even collectibles (Metro PCS for example). Panini has reason to spend cash though. Panini has reason to try and grow their business. They are just breaking into the U.S. sports card market and want to make it a lasting business. It will take many years to see if that will happen.
{module 65}


text:
Underground Skyscraper is a Self-Sufficient Desert City
Start Slideshow
- Above Below SkyscraperAs we deplete our natural resources, we are left with huge gaping holes in the ground - scars from our open-pit mining exploits. Matthew Fromboluti of Washington University in St. Louis has a plan to heal those scars with an underground skyscraper that fills the hole and creates a self-sustaining community in its place. His proposal, Above Below, is proposed to infill the 900-foot deep and nearly 300-acre wide crater left by the former Lavender Pit Mine outside of Bisbee, Arizona.1
- Above Below SkyscraperAfter all of the resources are taken from the ground in the area, the result a gigantic hole in the ground and a scar on the landscape.2
- Above Below SkyscraperMatthew Fromboluti of Washington University in St. Louis proposes to fill those massive holes with underground skyscrapers that are covered with a earthen dome with skylights to let sun in and help control the climate.3
- Above Below SkyscraperThe cone-shaped skyscraper is inverted in the hole and held in place with structural supports stuck into the sides of the mine as well as at the very bottom.4
- Above Below SkyscraperThe top of the skyscraper is covered with a dome full of skylights to help control the climate and let daylight in. The self-sufficient community is connected to the nearby town via a light rail system.5
- Above Below SkyscraperThe skyscraper contains various areas for living, working, recreation, and growing platforms. The entire structure is suspended via walkways and cables.6
- Above Below SkyscraperCommercial areas are located near the top and living quarters are lower down below. Large intake tubes located near the bottom suck in cool air and exhaust it out the top.7
- Above Below SkyscraperGrowing terraces are located vertically along the skyscraper and take advantage of sunlight filtering in from the skylights.8
- Above Below SkyscraperNatural ventilation is employed to suck air in from outside then down through intakes at the bottom. Hot air is forced out of the top through the solar chimney.9
- Above Below SkyscraperWind turbines and solar catchers take renewable resources and produce renewable energy.10

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Six years ago I put out a call for benefactors to fund a research and writing project to help me cancel my student debt. I said I'd do whatever my donors asked for. You unanimously said: the historicity of Jesus. For that project I raised $20,000, with the generous help of Atheists United (which made it possible for each offer of support to be a deductible charitable donation). It led to the production of Proving History: Bayes's Theorem and the Quest for the Historical Jesus. And now the project has reached it's completion, with the publication of On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt (that link will be updated when it becomes available on Amazon).
To all my donors: Thank you so much for helping fund my research and writing of both books. This will finally bring to completion a years long project. And now, it's done! The publisher has informed me that On the Historicity of Jesus has been printed and will begin shipping in a few weeks. It may appear on Amazon within a month. So if you don't want to wait a month or two more, you can buy (pre-order) direct from the publisher and get your copy within a few weeks I expect (although see my caveats about that here), otherwise you can wait for it to become available on Amazon, to see if Amazon offers a better deal.
To all my donors who did not receive my email earlier this week: Many of you did not respond to my last progress report, in which I asked about relief from my final obligations owing to the high cost of stock from an academic publisher. If you donated at a level high enough to earn a promise of free copies, please email me right away and let me know if you still want to receive your free copies, and if you want only one or two (or more, if you were owed more), and what address I should send them to (and whether they should be signed). The less you ask for, of course, the less I suffer financially. Because, this being an academic press, the wholesale author price even for softcover (which is certainly all I can afford) is enormous ($24.50…that's not the list price, that's what I have to pay). So I would greatly appreciate a reduced request. Some donors were incredibly kind enough to waive their free copies altogether. That was a great help. Note that I will also only be receiving my own stock a month from now. So if you are claiming free copies, they might not arrive to your address until the end of August.
Whatever you decide, thank you again for all your support. These books would not have been written but for it. This is what private patronage can accomplish, in an age when academics is largely controlled by universities.


text:
College Hockey:19 College Players Invited to World Junior Team Camp
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The roster for this year's United States National Junior Team Evaluation Camp features 19 players who played college hockey in the 1999-2000 season, USA Hockey announced on Wednesday.
Of the 44 players invited to compete for the team that will represent the United States in the 2000 USA Hockey Summer Challenge, nine are from the WCHA, five are from Hockey East and five are from the CCHA.
The U.S. roster features 24 NHL draft picks and nine members of the 2000 U.S. National Junior Team that took fourth place at last year's World Junior Championship. Most notable on that list is Rick DiPietro, the former Boston University goaltender who was the top pick in the June NHL draft after opting-in.
Other players from Hockey East: forward Jon DiSalvatore, Providence; forward Pat Foley, New Hampshire; defenseman Ron Hainsey, Mass.-Lowell; and forward John Sabo, Boston University.
Players from the WCHA: forward Joe Cullen, Colorado College; forward Jon Francisco, Minn.-Duluth; forward Dan Welch, Minnesota; defenseman Matt DeMarchi, Minnesota; defenseman Brian Fahey, Wisconsin; defenseman Paul Martin, Minnesota; defenseman Ben Tharpe, Minnesota; forward Jeff Taffe, Minnesota; and forward Brad Winchester, Wisconsin.
Players from the CCHA: forward John Wroblewski, Notre Dame; defenseman Evan Nielsen, Notre Dame; forward Connor Dunlop, Notre Dame; forward Andy Hilbert, Michigan; and forward Brett Nowak, Notre Dame.
The camp takes place Aug. 2-5 at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. The Summer Challenge, which features under-20 select teams from Finland, Switzerland and the United States, is Aug. 7-12 in Lake Placid.
The camp attendees are also prospective players for the team that will compete in the World Junior Championship, Dec. 26, 2000-Jan. 5, 2001, in Russia.
The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the "Flag" link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.
Please also keep "woofing," taunting, and otherwise unsportsmanlike behavior to a minimum. Your posts will more than likely be deleted, and worse yet, you reflect badly on yourself, your favorite team and your conference.


text:
By Dr. Cameron Chai
The research team has generated electron vortex beams, which are electron beams with orbital angular momentum that are capable of probing atomic magnetism more efficiently than light. Electron vortex beams on comparison with traditional electron beams enhance the sensitivity and resolution of imaging, which is vital in detecting the structure of biological specimens like proteins. They also find applications in manipulating nano-scale objects such as molecules and atoms.
Electron vortex beams have an associated magnetic field due to the presence of moving charged particles in the electron vortex, making them suitable for imaging nanoscale structure of magnetic materials. The research team has developed a holographic mask design for producing an electron vortex beam and now intends to utilize this design to augment the imaging functionalities of the electron microscope located in its York-JEOL nanocenter.
Yuan commented that the use of vortex beams, with its screw-like rotating wave front resembling tornados, in electron microscopy will transform the analysis of magnetic nanostructures and develop novel applications such as edge contrast detection and nanoparticle trapping and manipulation.
Babiker informed that optical vortex beams produced by light photon beams have been a subject matter for the last two decades. They find use in several novel applications, especially in fine scale manipulation of nano-objects and individual molecules in optical spanners and optical tweezers.
The research study is a part of the work by Sophia Lloyd, a second year PhD student. The study findings have been reported in Physical Review Letters.
Source: http://www.york.ac.uk
Do you have a review, update or anything you would like to add to this news story?
Cancel reply to comment
AZoM.com provides this information service in accordance
with these terms and conditions.


text:
Made In Chelsea Series Four: Episode One Sneak Peek!
Made In Chelsea's Francis Boulle and Jamie Laing… topless… with six packs. Does it really get any better than that?
Channel 4 has given us a sneaky peek of what we can expect from episode one of Made In Chelsea's fourth series. And it is HOT.
This revealing snap was posted to the show's Facebook page last night with the caption: "This picture is VERY important to episode 1 and not gratuitous in any way…"
That's OK… we weren't at ALL dribbling over Jamie's six-pack. We're checking out this picture purely for research purposes, you understand.
The boys' real-life flatmate Oliver Proudlock is missing from the picture (sob). We'll just have to tune in to Made In Chelsea on Monday (15th October) to see if we can spot him.
p.s LOVE the pink shorts, Francis… RM
You might also be interested in…


text:
(revealing, truthful, not strictly chronological, often colloquial)
by Richard T. Nolan (written during August of 2007)
Reference letters and newspaper stories do contribute to a portrait of one's career, but as with most people, myself included, "behind the scenes" incidents and factors should be included for the sake of the broader picture. I endured several negative experiences, all of which were nuisances, none lethal. One would not gather that reality from my CV items. A CV can give the appearance that everything flowed smoothly.
How well I recall the generous "he walks on water" introductions to some groups for whom I was providing a workshop or a special address! How badly I would feel when a student having difficulty would comment that because I was always an honor student (so not true!) I couldn't possibly understand his/her academic struggles! With a brief bit of humor, I would try to get behind that image at the opening of an address/workshop; on a few occasions I shared my undergraduate transcript with a downcast student – who would be both shocked and then hopeful. This "Behind The Scenes" autobiographical report is an attempt to provide balance to my CV – in which I do take great satisfaction; career achievements have been important to me (but always secondary to my home life).
During my fulltime 1964-65 NYU studies, which included courses in religious counseling, I entered weekly private and group therapy at the American Foundation of Religion and Psychiatry, now the Blanton-Peale Institute (www.blantonpeale.org). With heart and mind I learned a great deal that was both personally and professionally useful. The focus of the therapy (just after a mess at the Cathedral Choir School) was on the ways I related to people in the workplace and perhaps elsewhere.
One significant and helpful insight from the psychotherapy was to ask myself when in a conflict or other unpleasant situation, "How might I be contributing to this difficulty?" My introversion (often appearing as aloofness), independence (frequently seeming too autonomous), persistence (a determination to carry through, not just stubbornness), and outspokenness (sometimes unwisely) can come into play individually or in combination. I suspect that, while not causes of the unpleasant events reported below, they could have been factors. Other possible variables are inherent in my Myers-Briggs personality temperament. (Do see www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/intj.htm.) The extent to which any of these events could have been tempered or prevented, if I had been aware of my unhelpful input, would be purely speculative on my part.
Chapter One in Soul Mates .... (www.nolan-pingpank.com/soulmates/chapter_one.htm) mentions some of the internal troubles I experienced in my youth. Studies at Boston Latin School (1950-54) were tough. Barely age 17, I graduated at the bottom of my class – after last minute cramming with a dozen or so others for a physics re-examination that paid off. Typically, two-thirds of those who began their courses in the 9th grade flunked out before graduation; those who started in the 7th grade performed much better. Graduating at the bottom of one's class at this school was still an honor. I was particularly elated, when a former, distinguished BLS Head Master (three years behind me in school) "confessed" to an alumni group meeting in Palm Beach that he had graduated at the bottom of his class! That was so good to hear. I was in good company!
The postgraduate year (1954-55) at Tabor Academy was a good one, though unremarkable academically. The following summer I returned on the summer program (non-teaching) staff. Mom and Dad were so wise in providing that breathing space for me before college. (See the Tabor 1955 and 1963 supportive letters at www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/misc_rnolan.htm) There were no difficulties at Tabor.
However, I was in a fog as I started out at Trinity College (1955-59). (See www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/trin-eval.htm.) Despite the steady improvements, in the final semester of my senior year I had a bizarre experience in a private tutorial in the education department. My professor, a relatively new faculty member, asked his two senior colleagues (one being the department chair) to join him for my oral final examination, which I expected to be a breeze. However, his colleagues had been misinformed about the course content, and I was asked question after question beyond the scope of the course. I was so befuddled and unassertive that I just sat stupefied without raising any objections. Confident that my professor would somehow take care of it, I was shocked to learn that afternoon that I was summarily flunked. The next day I asked for a re-exam or extra work or whatever, but he said that it was a done deal. Oddly, in other courses I had the other two examiners as teachers and had done well. I have never been able to figure out why things developed as they did – with no recourse. I did learn, however, not to trust an evaluator (or whomever) when a situation progresses badly; acquiescence is no virtue.
On the side, the college president told me that he had been made aware of what had occurred and that there would eventually be justice. I should be patient – even though I could not graduate with my class! A summer course elsewhere (with an "A") put me on the graduation list for the next spring's commencement! I was unaware of any sort of justice emerging. Yet, within a couple of years I learned that my tutorial professor was not reappointed to the faculty, the education major was eliminated, and the department chairperson "left" for a position elsewhere. Justice – of sorts! Another learning: "justice" does not necessarily mean correcting an injustice in ways one might expect or want!
Nonetheless, Trinity was an excellent experience, and most importantly my family life with Bob took root there. Especially from Dr. Cherbonnier I learned so much that was both scholarly and applicable to life. Over the years this was shared with Bob. He and I are now McCook Fellows; our eventual bequest will cover all or most of the expenses for one deserving student annually.
Berkeley Divinity (1959-60) was gracious enough to admit me as a fulltime student without the actual Trinity degree in hand. However, one year there was sufficient. (Please read the paragraph at www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/BerkeleyDivinitySchool.htm) A mismatch for me.
No problems as a student at Hartford Seminary (1960-62). The school was most supportive as I worked my way through school financially by means of my post at the nearby Watkinson School.
My position at the Watkinson School (my first job involving income tax!) went along very well, until I informed the Headmaster in the late winter (c. February) of 1962 that I would not be returning for the next school year. I thought that this would give him plenty of time to recruit my replacement. He seemed to understand that the opportunity to associate with Manhattan's Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine by way of its Choir School was compelling. Able to complete my Hartford Seminary divinity degree with a course at Union Theological Seminary (1962-63) and perhaps continue somewhere else toward a doctorate would be an attractive option for most young people as career paths are under way.
The Headmaster had been very supportive as I worked part-time during my first academic year and fulltime my second - while studying fulltime at nearby Hartford Seminary. I was able to finance my tuition and, as a part of my compensation, was provided room and board. This was an excellent arrangement – though far more strenuous than I had anticipated. Bob and I spent time together as much as we could. (He was living at home, teaching fulltime, and studying toward his master's degree.) [Do note that prior to mid-February the Headmaster wrote a good reference letter to Headmaster Alec Wyton at the Cathedral Choir School at www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/misc_rnolan.htm - "Cathedral Choir School (1962)".]
However, "L.J." (his first two initials – the Headmaster's benign nickname)) was so caught up in the school personally that he held a feeling of resentment or betrayal toward departing faculty members. I cannot recall what the minor, precipitating incident was (my frequent absence as a seminarian from daily chapel not required for faculty?), but early in May he told the assistant headmaster to inform me that I could not store my belongings in my room, which was not to be used anyway until my late August move to New York – as we had agreed during our discussion of my plans. I had to store everything at my expense while I was in the 3-month Clinical Pastoral Training program in Middletown – about a 45-minute drive south. It seemed awfully petty to me, but that is what I had to do – at a time when my funds were very short. (Perhaps he finally discovered that when I was - rarely - a substitute organist at the pretty horrible 5 p.m. chapel services he led so pretentiously, as a prelude I would often play my own "Bach-like" improvisations on the Mickey Mouse theme song – admittedly very unwise and juvenile on my part.)
Years later "L.J." faced a contract non-renewal and was sent into an unasked for early retirement by the Board of Trustees. However, I recently read in a Watkinson publication that of late he revisited the campus for the first time in decades. Hopefully this is a sign of reconciliation of some sort.
The two years at Watkinson were otherwise very good! In addition to serving as an introduction to teaching and dormitory responsibilities, there were many fine times – especially daily after supper in the modest faculty lounge – where we could rehash the day and generally socialize. I even served as an MC of a school dance. Me! How out of character! The Headmaster did not seem amused; he was a stuffy Episcopalian who no doubt thought that an Episcopal seminarian should always be somber. (third photo at www.nolan-pingpank.com/bob_rich/photos2.htm) Additionally, as mentioned above, the job allowed me to pay the tuition for, and almost complete, seminary studies – where I was exposed to some truly fine scholars then on the faculty.
In recent years Bob and I have been modest, annual contributors to the school. The current Headmaster has been a dinner guest in our home, and we connect whenever a Watkinson event is held in Southeast Florida.
I had been hired for the fulltime mathematics post at the 40-student Choir School by the Headmaster and internationally distinguished organist Alec Wyton. It was very disappointing to arrive and be greeted by a newly appointed Head who was assisted by an incredibly uptight principal - whose equally edgy wife taught Latin fulltime. The new Headmaster's spouse quickly earned the reputation of being an insufferable, status-seeking, loud, affected, gauche creature in her 50s - whose only identity was based on her husband's title "Headmaster." On one pre-Christmas occasion when I was walking with the Bishop from the cathedral to the Choir School, he commented with a wince, "I suppose THAT woman will be there! What's her name?" Just about everybody found her only barely tolerable.
A layman during my first school year, I was ordained a deacon (in Massachusetts, my home diocese) the following summer (June, 1963). At the outset of the second year I realized that continuing to live in a 2-room suite with my windowless bedroom built into a dormitory filled with twenty 5th and 6th grade boys and also sharing their group shower/lav facilities (although I had a lockable toilet!) contributed to a vocational mismatch. Additionally, single, resident faculty had to leave the building during the school's summer vacation – even though the Headmaster, principal, housemother, and assistant organist resided in their quarters year round!
Unlike other school faculty, my life was not the Choir School, and this was a cause for some collegial resentment. I clearly had a life beyond theirs. In addition, I had been admitted to an NYU doctoral program (at that point part-time) – which was an indicator that the duration of my teaching commitment would be limited.
Bob and I had many weekends together, school vacations, and the eagerly anticipated summer months. During term time he would visit in my 2-room suite – which was not an irregularity among the three single, male faculty members and one male assistant organist (three gay and one severely befuddled). Otherwise, I busied myself with school responsibilities, some liturgical cathedral involvements, my studies, and occasionally assisting in neighboring churches. (During one summer month of 1963, I had my first parish experience as a newly ordained deacon. Bob, as well as my parents, visited. See www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/pdfs/David-Arnold.pdf.)
The Headmaster was hospitalized when the 1963 fall term began and was thereafter confined to his apartment. No one spoke about the nature of his illness. The principal carried on as best he could, but the school was chaotic. Even the food quality plummeted – for example, bacon was served almost raw with what looked like mildew stuck to most slices. This was part of my compensation! So that scarce candidates for my math post could be located and interviewed, by November I submitted my resignation to the principal, effective with the school year's conclusion in June (1964). Afterwards "the wife" glowered at me every time she saw me – which, assuming stress resulting from her husband's illness, I set aside any noticeable, reciprocal expressions.
In mid-March I was summoned to the Headmaster's bedside. In a medicated stupor, he told me that one of his former students just had to withdraw from Princeton, and he was giving him my job immediately. I would have to move out by the weekend. He also "assured" me that I was on the way to a very good parish post (which is what I was interviewing for - beginning with the conclusion of the coming summer with Bob and teaching at the University of Miami's summer session). I did not have the heart to contest his decision in that conversation.
A touching moment was his comment that he did not think he was "going to come out of this thing." As I have it, he was never informed that he had terminal cancer, nor was the faculty told. When I mentioned the comment to the cathedral clergyman who was chaplain to the Choir School, he was astonished. With a degree of impatience, he said, "You're the first one he has said anything like that to." I have never been able to figure out why. It certainly did not help my collegiality with the inner circle.
The dismissal was a shock. I sought counsel from the cathedral Dean – who was serving without distinction (in the wake of headliner James A. Pike) and had been recruited from a society church. He made it clear to me that he would not intervene in Choir School matters under any circumstances (although the school was a cathedral unit), especially with an ailing Headmaster. He declared that this unhappy incident would be quickly forgotten and that my résumé would list my service as 1962-1964. He informed me that I could live in the top floor walk-up of Cathedral House – right over the Deanery – with a private entrance, use one of the bedrooms (among several), and have use of the lav, lovely parlor, and phone. Furthermore, I could live there and be paid through May (instead of June). With no conferences or others living there, I had the whole floor to myself. Needless to say, Bob was astonished at this development – and more appreciative than ever of his secular employment.
That left June with nowhere to live before we left for the University of Miami. For that period of time I lived at the very conservative "Biblical Seminary" on New York's East Side and worked 4 to 11 p.m. as its telephone operator and receptionist. A job is a job, and I found this one by contacting every appropriate resource I could think of! (Bob was able to stay there, too, when he could come to NYC.)
After the Dean proved professionally impotent, as far as I was concerned, I went to the Bishop of New York, who said that this was a cathedral matter, and he had no way to intervene. Technically, this was true. (Many years later I ran into him at a Connecticut event, and he leaped toward me with outstretched hand. It was brief and pleasant.)
On to the lay Chairman of the school's Board of Trustees – by correspondence – with a request that I be given a letter that would serve to explain my abrupt departure! What they did not know was that I was terrified that years down the road someone might start a rumor that I had been dismissed, because of an inappropriate, even criminal, relationship with a Choir School boy – or something else of equal harm to my reputation. I cannot recall his specific response, but there was to be no letter other than dates of appointment, title, and the like.
At this point I was being interviewed in Short Hills. (Math teachers were in such demand that Bob could and would relocate wherever I might land.) The initial interviews went extremely well, and then it soured. I telephoned the curate (gay, I sensed) and asked what had happened. Most guardedly, he told me to look to my references. I replied that this made no sense. Then he unloaded: the cathedral Dean had told the rector that I had been dismissed from the Choir School and that he would not discuss the situation further.
I sailed into Cathedral House and, without asking, charged into the Dean's cavernous office with my voice quivering with anger, "What are you doing to me?!" I stood – awaiting a satisfactory answer. He babbled a bit and said clearly that he was not about to talk with anyone outside the cathedral about anything that might make the cathedral look bad! Despite my fury, I held my tongue and found satisfaction in thinking everything that I wanted to say to him. At least I had a roof over my head and did not want to jeopardize that arrangement by sounding off to a man who was self-disclosing to me as an incredibly weak and ethically wanting human being.
In June I went "outside the box" – to the National Education Association (I was a member) in downtown Manhattan – which reinforced the unfortunate reality that the integrity of private schools depends entirely upon the uprightness of a given Headmaster (or CEO)(at no charge)); he concurred that I had to have something in writing, because of my legitimate concern with possible, destructive, rumor mongering – even in the distant future. Perhaps he sensed that I was gay; I do not know. In any case, I needed help clearly unavailable from the Church. Here is the letter – made public here for the first time – I have never had to haul it out.
Reading between the lines in 2007, I suspect that some of the folks interviewed commented ad hominem on "my introversion (often appearing as aloofness), independence (frequently seeming too autonomous), persistence (determination to carry through, not just stubbornness), and outspokenness (sometimes unwisely)" ... and the possible variables inherent in my Myers-Briggs personality temperament. [from the third introductory paragraph at this essay's opening] The choir school setting at that time was mutually incompatible; of that, there was no doubt. Had Alec Wyton been the Headmaster, nothing of this sort would have occurred, although I still would have moved on; the age level of the students was just not in tune with my interests and capabilities. Additionally, living quarters for single faculty were not suitable for professional adults.
Mr. Van Houten would have recognized relevant personality factors, which is not the same as a teacher's breach of contract – and certainly not moral turpitude. If my traits had been job threatening, there should have been some sort of official notation – or at least conveyed to me in some form, even a "shape up or ship out." That never happened, nor was there any cause for it. This type of event is not unique to church employment.
A vacationing, thoughtful, senior, cathedral clergyman wrote a two-page, pastoral letter to me on July 8th – in response to my note asking for his sense of what had taken place. A very "in the box" priest, he was admittedly taken aback by my request for a cover letter from the School's Board Chairman and especially the National Education Association. Apparently this was considered impertinently aggressive and was just not done in such a hierarchical organization. Nonetheless, he remarked, "The school was like a headless hen this year, as you well know, and I think that it is probably a mistake to reconstruct the situation, even if it could now be done. My advice to you since your departure, which I agree was unnecessarily precipitous and badly done, has consistently been to regard the whole affair as a matter of gross incompatibility. ... Most people cannot know how bad things were at the Choir School, and it is unfortunate that you became a part of the disintegration – but it is a fact." (Because of some other very personal remarks about people and places, I would be very uncomfortable reproducing his entire letter here; at this writing in 2007, I believe that he is still alive.)
All things considered, I realized then at age 27 that I would never again work fulltime for any parish or agency of any church. Now at 70 and having had a good look (over 40+ years of ordained ministries) at others' fulltime, church-based ministry, I suspect that I am indeed incompatible with much of the pitiful, inner workings and acceptable styles of collegiality in many church entities. I find no embarrassment in this whatsoever!
However, my part-time ministries at St. Paul's (14 years as vicar - Bantam, CT), Christ Church Cathedral (6 years, Hartford, where I remain a retired honorary canon), and currently at St. Andrew's (Lake Worth, FL) have worked out beautifully.
The Choir School experience taught me early in my career to obtain reference letters along the way to convey a truthful record about my work. I have consistently recommended to younger people – especially gay men - to do the same. Today, if one were maligned or poorly treated, the Courts might be a proper appeal – although Courts are reluctant to rule on church employment issues. Candidly, I do not trust the Church as an employer – unless one is a rector (with virtually no accountability). (See www.philosophy-religion.org\criticism\accountability.htm)
To this day, I have not forgiven the Dean for his cowardice, regardless of his prominence – which does not impress me whatsoever. There was never anything approaching an apology or statement of regret from him. Nor does the injustice foisted on me so callously simmer within my spirit. Those emotions were all neutralized decades ago. [I was not his sole victim; the distinguished Canon Howard Johnson, testifying at General Convention (in a state other than N.Y.) about his "Global Odyssey" around the Anglican Communion was asked to report further to a significant Convention committee – at a time that conflicted with his routine assignment to lead a weekday Evening Prayer Service at the cathedral. He asked the Dean if someone else could lead that marginally attended Service, but true to his often-petty form, the Dean declined, and Howard had to drop his significant testimony and return to New York.] The Dean was my first, and not my last, experience of a priest who was a walking tragedy in his personal and vocational life – once one could perceive the full picture – yet a cleric who went up the ecclesiastical ladder with fancy though unremarkably filled positions.
With the few I have shared this event privately, I have inevitably been asked, "Do you think it all boils down to their perception that you are gay, that they realized that you and Bob were more than college friends?" To that, I readily answered "no." For heaven's sake, the Bishop was (discreetly) gay; the assistant organist was obviously gay; I was but one of a few other gay cathedral employees. "Don't ask, don't tell" was the absolute then – and, to my knowledge, no impropriety was alleged about my behavior – ever. People at the cathedral pretended that "it" did not exist – unless someone cared to gossip a bit or if an immoral event became contentiously public.
How wonderful it was when Canon Edward N. West invited me to return to preach at the cathedral for a 1984 Sunday Evensong. Later, in 1991, I was invited to vest for the Service celebrating the school's 90th birthday; at the reception I chatted with some grown-up, former students, and dear Alec Wyton. My last visit was the 2005 public celebration and blessing of Bob and my 50th anniversary. The current Dean, Jim Kowalski, is a good, collegial friend.
My two cathedral years were not all bad, by any means. Apart from enabling me to study at Union and NYU, I was cured of habitually bowing down before status church settings or titled clergy. Their fallibilities were exposed graphically. At one point during my difficulty Alec Wyton said to me, "Never forget – the people make a place; a place does not make the people." I have never forgotten his wise words. (Mr. Wyton's generosity was such that, when during an evening I was touring my parents around the locked cathedral, they were treated to a private, 15-minute organ recital! I was deeply touched.)
Even the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in all its grandeur was dependent upon the qualities of the people who are its lay and ordained ministers at any given time. Also the same year Suffragan Bishop Stuart Wetmore commented to me, "God help anyone who tries to make this their spiritual home." That is how foul things were. I believe that the cathedral has made a full recovery from that terrible period! Certainly I have. Bob and I are members of the cathedral's "Society of Regents."
After a few more interviews during the late spring of 1964, I decided to spend the coming academic year as a fulltime NYU doctoral student. I was able to raise the needed money via scholarships from the Episcopal Church and State of New York – along with student loans and some church work here and there. I would not take any funds from my parents.
By the way, two parish interviews were revealing and enough to endure. One Westchester County rector made it clear that one of my most important duties would be to drive the parish bus each afternoon to transport affluent students from their well off homes to church activities; the parents had come to expect this service. During the interview hardly anything was mentioned about worship, religious education, or pastoral care! He seemed to want desperately a subservient errand boy. Forget it! Subsequently, the rector of Westport informed me that as a "single man" I would not need the house normally provided with the position; instead, the parish would rent a one-bedroom or studio apartment for me; for sure, that would reduce my overall compensation as compared with a married priest's employment. Neither church would provide a written contract or clearly defined expectations in writing. A handshake would do. I was not about to be a rector's on- call stooge. Forget it! N.Y.U. was the way to go fulltime for the 1964-1965 school year!
In the early spring of 1965 I was admitted to a master's program (M.A. in Religion) at Yale Divinity School and lined up a fulltime position at Cheshire Academy (Cheshire, CT) as associate chaplain and instructor in math and religion (required weekly classes for Episcopal boarding students). A non-sectarian, independent school, Cheshire had been founded in 1794 as the Episcopal Academy. My interview at a New York hotel with Headmaster Arthur Sheriff had gone very well. He was a great old man, very concerned with students who were underachievers. My first year (1965-66) went splendidly, too. He eagerly hired Bob for the following school year (1966-67).
My Yale program was secondary to the Cheshire position. On the "why Yale?" section of the application, I wrote, with tongue in cheek, that I would be teaching fulltime nearby in Cheshire and that I really did not require the program, given my Ph.D. studies at NYU. I further indicated (something like) that a Yale degree would add a first-rate addition to my CV and I would be exposed to more top scholars.
I was truly surprised when I was admitted: with advanced standing because of my Hartford divinity degree – and I was allowed to enroll part-time to complete the program over two years. Further, I paid $50 per month (for ten months each year) to cover my whole $1000 tuition for the entire program! During my studies, I was allowed to take Yale's German language exam for its doctorate; NYU then transferred the language certification into my program there. I hope that Yale and NYU are still as accommodating for all students! (By the way, the Yale and NYU programs went smoothly right to their conclusions.)
At the beginning of that second Cheshire year, Mr. Sheriff (who had been headmaster for decades) was retired by the Board of Trustees, and they brought in a non-educator administrator of some sort from the New York Port Authority; he was to overhaul the school's overall efficiency.
An Episcopalian, the new headmaster registered a complaint early in the school year with the senior chaplain that my sermon (at required Sunday chapel for Christian boarding students) was at cross-purposes with the school. Nice start with the new boss, and, a metaphor of sorts for the rest of the year! In my sermon I had stated that one should avoid defining oneself basically by one's successes, or lack thereof, in the classroom or the athletic field, but instead, who we are as a unique child of God; this religious self-defining was the context for all of our achievements and failures. I had in mind the many underachievers in the student body – as well as the bright kids and the jocks who strutted around with a superior attitude.
During his inspection of our campus building (while he pompously wore a flowing green, floor length cape), the headmaster informed both Bob and me, who had separate, very comfortable faculty apartments (bedroom, study, living room, kitchenette, bathroom in a fairly new building) that as single men, we did not need so much room and that the next year we would be moved to smaller quarters.
Our compensation included living quarters and meals (the latter only during term periods); such a move would affect the worth of our compensation as well as our quality of life as residents in future dilapidated quarters in an old building. That did it! Bob lined up a job almost overnight (effective with September, 1967) as Math Department Head at Thomaston High, and soon afterwards I was offered a one-year appointment at Hartford Seminary. The Headmaster was outraged at us and the many others who, dissatisfied with his arrogant tyranny, made plans to leave. Local and New Haven newspapers eventually published numerous, ongoing, incisive reports of unrest at the school, and that lack of information control infuriated him all the more. (The New Haven Register does not currently offer online archives for these years.)
Now fully retired, Mr. Sheriff was dejected over the new Headmaster's ruthlessness - which included dismissal of long-term faculty members at ages 60 and 61 not yet eligible for Social Security or other retirement benefits. Mr. Sheriff began to write reference letters for those he expected would leave, myself included. It was all ready when I asked him for such a letter. [Please see the two Cheshire Academy letters at www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/misc_rnolan.htm as well as the Butler and Bowers letters within "Reference Letters with RTN Placement File (1967)"]
The Headmaster was an abject failure and was summarily fired a few years later, but went on to be president of a small, private junior college in Massachusetts.
The two years at Cheshire were otherwise productive and enjoyable. Bob rapidly became a highly respected teacher and mentor while being introduced to the pros and cons of independent school teaching. I was able to complete my Yale program (which enhanced my NYU studies) and squeeze in some adjunct philosophy teaching at the Hartford Branch of the University of Connecticut. Moreover, the actual work and all other relationships at the Academy were fine in every way.
In passing, we are modest annual contributors and attend annual Palm Beach gatherings of alumni and other supporters. The headmaster graciously attended our 50th anniversary Service at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York – which was very touching. (Please see related pictures in photos 12 www.philosophy-religion.org/round_about/index.htm and at www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/cheshire.htm)
My one-year appointment (1967-68) at my divinity school alma mater went well and yielded an unexpected, new position for the second year "Assistant Academic Dean (and Lecturer in Philosophy and Education)." I had studied college and university administration with the former chancellor of New York University, a wonderful course in theory and practice. [See "New York University (1965)" among the supportive letters at www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/misc_rnolan.htm.]
I thought that just perhaps this position was one that I would enjoy indefinitely. Right from the start, more responsibility came my way than had been intended, because the Academic Dean-elect was killed in a car accident shortly before the fall semester began. In his place a committee of three professors acted as Dean for several months, but trusted me to deal with far more than I had expected. Fairly soon, an outstanding, senior faculty member (a distinguished scholar in Islamics) was appointed Academic Dean, and we got along extremely well. He was like an older brother; his wife was especially charming.
Bob was pleased with his new job at the high school, too. We moved into a new 2-family house (as a cover for our relationship) equidistant between his post and mine. Bob had designed the house, and we had it built during the summer of 1967. We lived there until retirement in the early 1990s.
Then came a bolt from the blue! The seminary president called a special faculty meeting and announced that the Board of Trustees had decided to downsize the school – including a 50% reduction in fulltime faculty. No one's job is secure when that happens; even tenure counts for nothing when a fulltime position is reduced or eliminated. I could see that my own job would not be needed in a smaller institution. In any case, I was asked to stay on for the time being.
However, in the late spring of 1969 a college friend encouraged me to teach at the new community college in Waterbury starting fulltime in September – at least until I finished my doctoral dissertation. Here there would be a possibility of tenure; the pay was very good as was the location. The president Dr. Charles B. Kinney, Jr. was a grandfatherly man (very active in his UCC congregation) with a fine professional reputation. He was committed to the role of the liberal arts as a central component to all the college programs, whether vocational or the first two years of a 4-year college curriculum. I knew nothing about community colleges, other than they had no prestige whatsoever, but the position met my most important criterion – its "fit" for supporting my life with Bob in our new home.
The seminary president wanted me to stay on, but the whole situation there looked very iffy. We struck an agreement that I would remain, but add another fulltime job late afternoons and evenings at the community college. Needless to say, the double compensation was attractive, but I was really exhausted after I had met my obligations. As "Special Assistant to the Dean," I reduced my obligations during 1970-71, which concluded my seminary work.
(Please visit www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/misc_rnolan.htm, and among the supportive letters, read the two from Hartford Seminary.) Also, at least glance at the newspaper articles for the 1967-71 period, and you will discover the excessive professional involvements I had willingly undertaken. In retrospect, this pace was unhealthy. I wonder whether it laid the foundation for my 2002 heart attack! J Nevertheless, I recall that the many activities were enjoyable and invigorating. What does not show up in any records is the continuing work on my dissertation! All of this going on – with a partner who was wonderfully encouraging in every way! I would underscore that this was a period without conflicts with any individuals. My disappointment was attributable to the policy requiring transformation of the seminary, consequently, my professional future –which is an example of a negative episode beyond one's control. Looking back, I believe I handled my part well – except for the frenetic pace while juggling the present with the future.
Well before a new campus was built, the faculty came together in the fall of 1969 for the beginning of its third year of classes. [See "Five Named To Posts At College" (Waterbury Republican, 1969) at www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/misc_rnolan.htm.] We taught in a Waterbury public high school for several years. As I recall, our faculty meetings were held at the downtown Y.W.C.A. As mentioned above, in my opinion the president was superb – though combative types were ready to go at him from the start.
At some point in the early years, Dr. Kinney called me to his office to tell me that he had brought me to the college with the hope that on the side I would serve as an unofficial chaplain to the college and, further, that I would soon be willing to take on an administrative position. I very diplomatically put his hopes to rest. Afterwards, I never detected any ill will from him. Quite the opposite, he saw me through ten years to "full professor," encouraged completion of the doctorate by authorizing annual NYU "maintenance" (tuition) payments, authorized every course I proposed to teach throughout the years, valued my textbook writing, funded my twice-yearly, public lecture series in philosophy and religion, fought for my sabbatical, and he permitted my rather extensive adjunct teaching as well as my commitment to the part-time pastorate of St. Paul's Parish. (Please return to the "Miscellaneous Documents" page and take note of the items through his retirement year 1980. In short, Dr. Kinney trusted me to do a good job and bring credit to the college. I was truly sorry to see him retire. He lived on Cape Cod with his wife until his death in 1995 at age 81. Dr. Kinney was honored in 1994 when the community college's main administration building was officially named Dr. Charles B. Kinney Hall.)
The college's next president stayed for only two years (1980-82). I liked her and her leadership style very much. I had no contact with the interim president, a two-year appointment (1982-84) from the Board's Hartford Office. It was during this period that the Dean of Instruction blossomed as a terrorist. Finally, in 1984, a rather aloof president arrived; nearly invisible on campus, but a great politician, he retired in 2007. At the most, he and I exchanged some pleasantries; he kept his distance from most of the faculty. (More below, beginning with the paragraph "Now to the Dean of Instruction.....")
First, back a bit: my initial Mattatuck department chairperson, a well-qualified historian, was absolutely batty! Examples – in no particular order: (1) in a class he vomited into a wastebasket (losing his false teeth in the process), but refused to excuse his class; among belches and gagging, he continued "teaching." (2) He frequently took his chatty wife to class along with his young son, whom he occasionally ordered to urinate in the faculty parking lot. (3) He bragged about holding his son's hand over a stove's burner to scare him when the child misbehaved. More than once he was reported to the State's agency for child abuse, but I cannot remember the outcomes. (4) As an early power play, he called department meetings on the spur of the moment, regardless of faculty schedules, and then have no agenda; he would create some minor issue and dismiss the meeting within 5 minutes. Some faculty members would have to drive an hour to arrive at these non-meetings. (5) When complaints were lodged by his supervisors or faculty or students (he was making borderline sleazy calls to female students at their homes), he played the anti-Semitic card, and he secured a very powerful Hartford lawyer to protect him. (6) He wrote bizarre letters to the editors of various city newspapers that were embarrassing to the college. (7) Apparently daydreaming, he drove his vehicle through the windows of a beauty parlor near the college and later at a store (perhaps a 7-Eleven). (8) For years, as department head, he ordered hundreds of desk copies of all sorts of textbooks, immediately sell them to bookstores, and pocket his profits. After years of his craziness, the Board of Trustees, working with his lawyer, retired him – with a generous retirement package! Although I had no respect for him whatsoever, I cannot call to mind a problem between us – except the comment made about everybody – that I was anti-Semitic. He died several years ago.
An annoyance: I was irked when I was turned down for a promotion – either to assistant or associate professor – which increased one's pay scale. The promotion process was confidential and very competitive (with very few slots for each professorial rank funded annually); applicants rarely knew of the reasons for being turned down. A sympathetic committee member leaked to me that because I was "single," the committee majority felt that I did not need the money. This was not a gay-related issue; it was pure discrimination against people perceived as single. In those days, legal action for such discrimination was unknown. Not only did life go on, but also in the tenth year of my employment, I was advanced, with only three others, to the college's first full professorships.
Again, going back a bit - two succeeding department chairpersons were terrific. When the second of these two (the best of all!) decided to return to fulltime teaching and the college had established "divisions," another very well qualified, Ivy League Ph.D. became our Division Head. The college had brought in another misfit (who was retired and escorted from the building in tears - about 2006 in his 70s. Years earlier he had declared to me that work was his essence; I assured him that this was not the case for me. His forced departure must have been traumatic for him).
A major culture clash was inevitable between this Nigerian and virtually everyone in the college. His treatment of women, his arrogant sense of self-importance, and his obsession with his ancestral allegiances and customs were out of place. Until reprimanded, he closed a couple of our meetings with, "Now go in peace to serve the Lord Jesus Christ!" Good grief! We were a state supported institution, three of my colleagues were Jewish, and atheists/agnostics were on hand, too.
Most important was his inability to do his job. For some reason, he could not deal with the necessary charts needed for scheduling the division's course offerings. He would botch the project with courses offered at times unsuitable for students as well as faculty. He hired unqualified Nigerian adjuncts; complaints from faculty members to the administration fell on deaf ears.
While this was happening, at our Hartford Cathedral (about 1990) I was preaching on something related to embedded corruption; I mentioned that I could detect some of this in my own community college, and I felt powerless to fight it. Well, the Lieutenant Governor - who trusted me from prior cathedral contacts - was in the congregation. She arranged for me to meet with the (Episcopal lay) Commissioner of Higher Education. In advance, I sent him a detailed, factual report of my first-hand observations about this Nigerian misfit. When we met, he told me that he appreciated my efforts, but they were not willing to challenge the man. He already had a record of using the race card whenever he was criticized, and he had retained a lawyer who had already threatened the Board. What's more, he was in a "protected class" which in actuality provided him with more invulnerability than tenure! (In retirement, my letter to the Commissioner was apparently trashed with so much else; I wish that I could have reproduced it here.)
At some point I did have a face-to-face clash with him over something I have now forgotten, and he threw around some racial stuff. I let him have it by charging him with being a racist. He shrieked and challenged me. I responded by pointing out how much he uses race as a shelter and as a criterion to benefit his hiring and other practices. The outcome, if any, of this spat has gone from my memory, too.
Witnessing firsthand the misuse of ethnic/racial devices as protections from deserved charges of incompetence plus the cowardice or expediency of some employers who refuse to name the shams that hover around them, I have some strong reservations about the naďveté of many church and other committees focused on these issues. Perhaps by this time the unsophisticated, simplistic purity of good people rightly against racism and ethnic hatefulness has matured. I certainly hope so!
For years the Dean had wanted me to switch from the Division of Social Sciences to the Humanities Division. On this matter I was expedient. I really did not like the styles of the Humanities Department/Division heads until my final Mattatuck years. My social science colleagues and heads wanted me to remain put, because my high course registrations were to the division's advantage in determining budgets and permitting a number of low registering courses. Finally fed up with the peculiar Nigerian, I told the Dean that this would be a good time for me to be switched to Humanities (which at last had a fine chairman), and it happened right away. Throughout the few years remaining until retirement, I worked very happily in that division.
Bob did not have Social Security with his Thomaston High School employment – just the fine State pension. Wisely, he taught math as a Mattatuck adjunct for ten years (1970-80) as required for SS benefits – especially Medicare coverage. The Math Department Head very much wanted Bob to join the faculty fulltime, but he was very well satisfied with his Thomaston position.
Now to the Dean of Instruction – retired at this writing. This guy was most everybody's problem at Mattatuck. Faculty nicknamed his trouble-seeking memos as, pardon the crass label, "snot-grams." At the outset he was an excitable English teacher and rather speedily the first Humanities Department Head. The college quickly became his whole life. Although married with children, many faculty members wondered why. At a staff meeting he, in his usual animated, almost hysterical, style declared that the college was to save the city (Waterbury) and that all college employees should be required to reside within the municipality! Of course, no one took this seriously.
In time, the State of Connecticut required all of its units to engage in collective bargaining. Although at first I was opposed to this as "unprofessional," I was soon convinced that we indeed needed a union to protect us from the manic-depressive moods of this man who was soon appointed as a Dean. Dr. Kinney's only weakness, it seems to me, was in a number of his administrative appointments. He mistook apparent exuberance for competence; he mistook having no life outside the college for professional dedication. Furthermore, the unions were very effective in bargaining for outstanding compensation that rivaled many other institutions of higher education in Connecticut, public and private. We benefited enormously from the State's elevation of public school teachers' salary scales to be among the nation's best.
The Dean perfected combative pettiness to an art form, and he always needed to be in combat with someone! While he wanted to showcase faculty, he did not like professors to outshine him in anything. If one received recognition for anything, within or outside the college, one knew that the Dean would soon seek him/her out to try to create some sort of misery. On one small matter, my department head wrote an appreciative memo to him that I had been acknowledged in the Western Civilization text we used, with our college mentioned, for making a major correction and some other suggestions included in its new edition. Within two days of receiving the memo, I met the Dean in the parking lot. He stopped to tell me solemnly, but smirking, that I would not be teaching any more sections of Western Civilization. How petty can one get?! (And, no, I never did.)
The major blow-up with the Dean is summed up in these newspaper articles at www.nolan-pingpank.com/nolan/misc_rnolan.htm - "When Success Is Stifled" (Hartford Courant, 1983);
"Eating Away at Royalties" (Hartford Courant, 1983); ".... Seeking Teacher's Royalties" (Hartford Courant, 1983); and "Professor Takes Credit ..." (Hartford Courant, 1984). Other articles reported on the matter in the Waterbury Republican and The Chronicle of Higher Education, but currently their online searchable archives do not reach back to 1983 and 1984. I never understood why the interim president did not step in, but I prevailed in all of this - with a new attitude. (A few years later, a member of the Board of Trustees told me at a non-college social event that they knew the Dean was off the wall, but that the president valued the Dean's love of paper pushing – which took that burden off of him. The Board member also said that they knew the Dean was desperate to be president of one of the State's community colleges, but there was absolutely no possibility of that ever happening. To which I asked, "If the Board knows how detrimental he is to the college, why hasn't he been dumped?" The reply – "That's just not the way things are done." A diocesan bishop told me pretty much the same thing about ineffective, even suspiciously behaving, rectors.)
The paragraph accompanying the newspaper clipping "Harvard (1976)" reports an even earlier episode about my presidentially supported, Board-denied sabbatical, which was later remedied.
This Dean-inspired event did it! My new attitude was such that loyalty to the college was all but crushed. Feeling betrayed, I cruised for nearly ten years until retirement, but without sacrificing any quality in my classroom teaching. I founded "The Litchfield Institute" (See www.nolan-pingpank.com/bob_rich/cv_rnolan.htm - reference to the Institute under "Doctoral Dissertation ....... " ) and from that time on, my books and public lectures associated me with the Institute, not the college. Outside the classroom, my professional goal as a professor was to develop a pension package that would enable me to retire at age 55 with the best available retirement package. And, that is exactly what happened. (Do please read www.nolan-pingpank.com/bob_rich/mcc-emeritus.htm for the complimentary granting of emeritus status, as composed primarily by colleagues.) In all of those ten years preparing for retirement I stuck to the letter of the contract.
Despite the nuisances, I have never regretted my long-term position at Mattatuck, now the Naugatuck Valley Community College, which may be visited at www.nvctc.commnet.edu! Notwithstanding two certifiably wacky department heads, and a manic-depressive-like, petty Dean, I thrived in the classroom and in an astonishing number of "outside" positions. My formal evaluations were always excellent. I cannot think of any other institution of higher education that would have permitted me so much independence. And, most importantly, the college was less than a half hour's drive from our home!
As you might suspect, there were some other less memorable, unimportant, off-putting incidents along the way. To some, I might have contributed to their volatility. In any case, when "stuff" happens, each of us must decide how to respond. Sometimes no response is wise. On occasion, a reaction – formal or informal – is appropriate and/or necessary. As is said, though, "Choose your battles wisely." The small stuff can be allowed to linger inconsequentially or evaporate in time. Whatever the case may be, there is nothing inherently "Christian" about willingly surrendering or maintaining silence in all circumstances. Justice for oneself (as one loves oneself and one's neighbor) might require forceful action – with all its risky, positive and negative possibilities.
Finally, A CV does not reveal discouraging or sad, personal incidents. In my case, the deaths of Bob's parents and grandmothers as well as the deaths of my father and my grandmother – along with beloved parishioners – and Mom's Alzheimer's disease and demise at 90 after I retired. A CV does not disclose one's joys and special occasions; for me, they were frequent. (Some of these occurrences are noted in our SOUL MATES .... .) In fact, "CV" is a misnomer. Meaning curriculum vitae (Latin for "the course of life"), it is a summary of one's education, professional history, and job qualifications. As you would expect, one's actual "course of life" includes far more than occupational data!
Enough! I trust that readers of this report/essay will have not only have a more accurate picture of my CV at www.nolan-pingpank.com/bob_rich/cv_rnolan.htm, but also an understanding of all CVs as the bare bones of one aspect of life. The next time you hear (or read) someone's professional life trumpeted (or disparaged), keep in mind that most likely there were bumps along the road and, hopefully a multitude of joyful accomplishments. Furthermore, and most important, the quality of one's personal life is not evident in a CV.


text:
Oregon Medical Fee and Payment Rules, Division 009 - Effective April 1, 2015
and Resources - handouts
At any time during the training, you may select any of the chapters located on the right-side menu. Questions? Contact us at 503-947-7606 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com.
and Resources - handouts
If you would like a certificate for this training, please contact Kara Null.


text:
This year we asked you, our FindLaw.com audience, in what format do you most like to read your legal information. And the number one response to our survey: in a downloadable PDF.
FindLaw.com users like the freedom of downloading legal information to have as a resource on their computers or printed out. We heard you and heeded your request. In April we launched the first wave of FindLaw legal guides for download.
We are now up to 17 new guides – and counting. And true to your survey answers, FindLaw users are downloading more and more of PDF guides each month.
We launched the content in April with titles like "The FindLaw Guide to Getting Child Support Payments," "The FindLaw Guide to Chapter 7 Bankruptcy" and a host of others.
As you can see, these FindLaw guides focus on everyday legal issues that many of us experience.
Now, after four months on FindLaw.com, there has been 91% growth in PDF downloads, month over month. And with more legal guides coming online each month, there will be even more opportunities to download a helpful guide.
It's easy to see why the legal guides have become increasingly popular. After all, when a legal issue comes along it can be daunting. Many American's first step is to go online for help.
Each guide features basic background information and links back to FindLaw's Learn About the Law and other sections of the site for more details. They also feature help understanding when you should seek advice from a lawyer and assistance with finding a qualified local attorney.
And who better to provide you with free legal guides than FindLaw.com — the leading and largest online resource for legal information. With more than 5 million visitors each month, FindLaw is your home to learn more about basic legal issues or even more complex ones. You'll find thousands of helpful articles, DIY forms, blogs, news and much more.
So be sure to head over to our collection of legal guides and download the one you need today.
— Werner Colangelo, Audience Manager
with Adam Ramirez, FindLaw Audience Team


text:
"Criminal Minds" is about to air its 200th episode and it looks like it will be a big one. After the 199th episode, JJ was abducted after work, and in the 200th episode, the team will work to save one of their own. According to TV Line on Jan. 22, Paget Brewster will return to the show for at least the one episode, reprising her role as Prentiss.
According to showrunner Erica Messer, Prentiss will both appear in flashbacks and will also return to help her former teammates since the abduction of JJ is such an important event.
Messer said that Hotch will call in reinforcements, which is how they brought back Prentiss for this special event. Of course, Prentiss left the team and has been working in London in a position of power with Interpol. With Prentiss back, it will be like old times for fans of "Criminal Minds," with the exception being that it is JJ that has been abducted and needs saved.
According to Messer, JJ will be playing the part that guest stars on the show normally play, held captive and in dire straits. Fans remember in the sixth season when JJ left the team and took a job with the State Department. Well, this abductor is someone that she met when she was on assignment at that time.
This means that fans can finally learn what she was doing when away on assignment in that episode through flashbacks. This is also where Prentiss' flashback scenes occurs. Messer admitted that the episode looks amazing, and compared it to a movie in its production quality.
The "Criminal Minds" 200th episode will air in February.
Suggested Links
- 'The Mentalist' rumors: Lisbon to gain a new boyfriend
- 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' possibly adding Faye Resnick to cast
- One Direction member attacked by critics for liking 'Duck Dynasty'
- Top 4 major Oscar snubs for the 2014 Academy Awards
- 'Once Upon A Time' spoilers: 3 characters who could die this season


text:
Don't let it get away!
Keep track of the stocks that matter to you.
Help yourself with the Fool's FREE and easy new watchlist service today.
Analog and mixed-signal chip designer Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ: CRUS ) announced today it acquired embedded firmware voice processing technology leader Acoustic Technologies, which employs 30 people who have since been hired by Cirrus Logic. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
Welcoming the Acoustic team to the chip designer, Cirrus Logic President and CEO Jason Rhode said, "We expect the combination of sophisticated voice-processing algorithms and Cirrus Logic's market leading audio hardware to provide a very compelling value proposition for our customers."
Acoustics technology includes noise reduction, echo cancelation, and voice enhancement. Based in Austin, Texas, Cirrus Logic designs highly optimized products for a variety of audio and energy-related applications that are used in smartphones, tablets, and other electronic devices.


text:
the latest news
OLBH Named a Most Wired Hospital; One of Only Three Such Hospitals in Kentucky
OLBH has been recognized as one of the nation's Most Wired hospitals, according to the results of the 2012 Most Wired Survey released today in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. OLBH was one of only three hospitals in Kentucky to receive Most Wired distinction.
OLBH and other Most Wired hospitals are leveraging the adoption and use of health information technology (IT) to improve performance in a number of areas, according to Health Care's Most Wired 2012 Survey. OLBH was recognized for its use of information technology to address and enhance patient safety and quality of care, public health, administrative processes and workforce decisions.
"We have recently made an enormous investment and commitment to electronic health records with a system known as ConnectCare," Larry Fields, M.D., said. "ConnectCare, along with our other technologies such as computerized medical image review, has allowed us to earn this distinction." Fields and John Darnell, M.D., served as co-chairs of the ConnectCare Physician Advisory Workgroup during the planning and implementation of the hospital's electronic medical records system.
"Technology has been at the forefront of what healthcare reform in this country will ultimately be about," Kevin Halter, OLBH CEO, said. "We feel ConnectCare and all we have invested in technology here at OLBH have prepared us for 'meaningful use' and other measures by which all hospitals will be judged after reform has occurred. Safety, quality and ingenuity have combined here at OLBH into a highly efficient, cutting edge technology system that serves our patients and improves their care. I want to thank our medical staff, employees, and especially those in our Information Services area who work tirelessly to keep OLBH a leader in the health technology field."
Among the key findings of the 2012 Most Wired survey:
• Ninety-three percent of Most Wired hospitals employ intrusion detection systems to protect patient privacy and security of patient data, in comparison to seventy-seven percent of the total responders.
• Seventy-four percent of Most Wired hospitals and fifty-seven percent of all surveyed hospitals use automated patient flow systems.
• Ninety percent of Most Wired hospitals and seventy three percent of all surveyed use performance improvement scorecards to help reduce inefficiencies.
• One hundred percent of Most Wired hospitals check drug interactions and drug allergies when medications are ordered as a major step in reducing medication errors
"As shown by these survey results, hospitals continue to demonstrate how IT not only can be used to improve patient care and safety but it is also a means to improve efficiency," said Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the AHA. "Hospitals receiving Most Wired recognition are truly representative of our nation's hospitals and systems – rural and urban, small and large, teaching and non-teaching, and critical access hospitals geographically dispersed."Health Care's Most Wired Survey, conducted between Jan. 15 and March 15, asked hospitals and health systems nationwide to answer questions regarding their IT initiatives. Respondents completed 662 surveys, representing 1,570 hospitals, or roughly 27 percent of all U.S. hospitals. The July H&HN cover story detailing results is available at www.hhnmag.com. For more information on OLBH, www.facebook.com/ourladyofbellefonte
About the Most Wired Survey
The 2012 Most Wired Survey is conducted in cooperation with McKesson Corporation, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), and the American Hospital Association.


text: ATI Testing offers adaptive and comprehensive learning systems for preparing students to pass high level exams. Let ATI Testing help you to pass the final step of your program. Practice… and proctored assessments are available. Consider a nurse manager certificate program.Prior to finalizing your purchase at ATI Testing, search for ATI Testing coupons at Tjoos.com. By adding an ATITesting coupon code to your shopping cart, you will save money. There are many ATI Testing coupon codes and ATITesting promo codes free to use to save immediately. Select your favorite ATI Testing promotion and receive an ATI Testing discount.


text:
More Americans Say Snowden is a Patriot, Not a Traitor
But most don't know.
Following the poll earlier this week that found Americans weren't too bothered by the NSA spying on them, a new survey from Reuters sought to learn how the populace at large feels about the "traitor vs. hero" debate over Edward Snowden. The answer once more: Meh. Though 31 percent see him as a "patriot" compared to 23 percent who say he's a traitor, 46 percent say they don't know. Snowden says he's neither, and as posited earlier, it's a bullshit choice. Those 46 percent are onto something.


text:
Bonham Hough
Played two seasons at UT-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, under head coach Manny Mantrana ... IN 2009 he made 50 starts for the Broncos in the outfield and ended the season with a .314 batting average in 194 at-bats ... compiled 61 hits and that included 18 doubles and six home run ... drove in 39 runs and walked 24 times ... IN 2008 ... In his first season with the Broncs, Hough notched a .274 batting average in 56 games played ... drove in 42 runs while plating 208 appearances ... collected 45 runs, 57 hits, eight doubles and six homeruns...stole 15 bags out of 18 attempts ... posted a .399 slugging percentage, a .371 on-base percentage and a .979 fielding percentage...earned a starting spot in 55 of his 56 games played ... went a perfect 1-for-1 against Jackson State (Feb. 29) while bringing in three runs ... ranks second in the record books with seven at-bats in a single game ... in a double-header against Jackson State (Mar. 1 - Game Two), Hough went 2-for-7 driving in two runs along with collecting two runs and two hits ... in a 10-8 victory over Notre Dame at the Notre Dame Classic, was 3-for-4 while driving in two runs and recorded one double ... was 2-for-6 against Texas Southern (Apr. 11) in game one of a double-header while driving in three runs along with two hits and three runs ... recorded one of his six homeruns against Texas Southern (Apr. 11) ... in another contest against Texas Southern (Apr. 13), Hough drove in three runs on a 2-for-5 plate appearance along with two hits, two runs and one homerun ... on a road trip to Texas State (Apr. 15), went 4-for-5 while driving in two runs along with two runs ... in an Apr. 20 contest against Prairie View, Hough was 2-for-3 at the plate while driving in three runs and collected two runs ... received Academic All-Independent honors.