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Joe Student
If you don't enjoy the things I write about — entertainment, nightlife, music, booze, gadgets, sports, Playboy models and more —you're probably dead. I enjoy when you read what I write. (And, yes, it's my real name. Stop asking.)
The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks each won their respective conference's championship game on Sunday to advance to Super Bowl 49 in Arizona on Feb. 1 Here's a recap of the day's action:
World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner threw five scoreless innings of relief, and Michael Morse drove in the game-winning run with a bloop single as the San Francisco Giants beat the Royals, 3-2, in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series in Kansas City on Wednesday night.
Angels outfielder Mike Trout drove in two runs with two extra-base hits, and the American League beat the National League, 5-3, in the 2014 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Target Field in Minneapolis on Tuesday night.
Mario Götze scored the game-winning goal in extra time, and Germany beat Argentina, 1-0, to win the 2014 FIFA World Cup final at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Sunday afternoon.
Belgium scored twice in extra time and eliminated the United States, 2-1, in the first round of knockout play at the 2014 FIFA World Cup at Salvador, Brazil on Tuesday.
Silvestre Varela scored on the last kick of the ball in the 95th minute, and Portugal tied the United States, 2-2, in the teams' second match of 2014 FIFA World Cup play at Manaus, Brazil on Sunday.
Florida, Dayton, Arizona and Wisconsin each won their respective 2014 NCAA men's basketball tournament regional semifinals on Thursday night. Here's a recap of the action:
After four exciting days of college basketball, the 68-team field of the 2014 NCAA men's basketball tournament has been reduced to just 16 schools. Here are five things we learned from the tournament's first weekend:
The 2014 NCAA men's basketball tournament field of 68 has been set. Here's a preview of what to expect in each region:
The 2014 Winter Olympics came to a close on Sunday with the host nation on top of the medal standings. Here's a recap of the final weekend of the Sochi Games:
The U.S. men's hockey team remained undefeated, and The Netherlands claimed the overall medal lead at the Winter Olympics. Here's a recap of this weekend's action in Sochi.
Americans won another gold in snowboarding, and Canadian and U.S. women renewed their hockey rivalry. Here's a recap of Wednesday's action in Sochi:
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More naughty bunny news: Slate's Dana Stevens interviews (halfway through her column) a spokeswoman for "Postcards from Buster," the PBS kid's cartoon show which the new education secretary, Margaret Spellings, has denounced because one episode includes a character with two mothers and focuses on Vermont "maple sugaring." That's where one woman swallows — oh, wait. Apparently, it's something to do with pine trees. Nothing naughty. Still, those trees could be gay. Better hide your kids. (Adults only: Stevens cites an old C-Span interview in which Spellings seemed unconcerned with "untraditional" families. Could the Spellings attack actually be a media maneuver? Y'know — showcase the snobbery of lesbian-lovin', maple-sugarin', non-Vermont-hatin' liberal media? Nah. That'd be cynical. It's easier to just buy journalists off, a steamy, intimate technique that henceforth shall be known as "maple sugaring.")
Maple Sugar Me, Baby

subset: commoncrawl


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Jan 18, 2011 9:51 AM
Throw a curve-ball into your basics collection with the Marching Band Cardi ($34). Charcoal is still the new black, and bandleader detailing with brass buttons? Still military hot, hot, hot. We'd do without that goofy hat though.
is it just me or is this the same model? http://www.forever21.com/product.asp?catalog_name=FOREVER21&category_name=whatsnew_all&product_id=2079953694&Page=1
Shoot! The link is faulty, but I bet it's the same girl. You know, those models get around. If you see another pic of that look-a-like send it our away. Recognizing models is one of my favorite games!
If you've got a product or service that you'd like to promote on Outblush, click here to find out about our advertising opportunities.
Outblush is a blog for girls who love to shop. Our staff digs up the best clothes, home stuff, beauty items, and more. New items are posted every day — bookmark us and check out:


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Feb 1, 2012 9:26 AM
On Valentine's Day, or any day, make yourself a cup of something warm and sweet and set it on this Gizmine Heart USB Cup Warmer ($13). It will keep warm for hours. Just don't spill your tasty beverage on your keyboard. That would really ruin the moment.
If you've got a product or service that you'd like to promote on Outblush, click here to find out about our advertising opportunities.
Outblush is a blog for girls who love to shop. Our staff digs up the best clothes, home stuff, beauty items, and more. New items are posted every day — bookmark us and check out:


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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post7310801657505669625..comments2016-06-29T21:00:05.951-04:00Comments on Gurney Journey: Monet, Sargent, and "Impressionism"James Gurneyhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-81909703323090473392013-06-02T14:56:50.461-04:002013-06-02T14:56:50.461-04:00The term "Impressionism" had become too ...The term "Impressionism" had become too politically loaded too quickly, I suppose. It started out as a derogatory epithet in an article, coined about a particular painting (yes, it was a Monet), and journalists quickly popularized it, associating it with the whole group of rebels-against-against-the-French-Academy of the moment. I suspect the term became muddled since its very birth, and some artists got lumped in who were never even close to Monet's method at that time, like Edouard Manet who had still been exploring Spanish school of painting and causing scandals with non-academic subject matter, not loose and colorful painting.

I think quite a few of these artists were learning from Monet, but almost none of them really grasped his visceral method. It's certainly not easy to grasp! But what he did (perhaps inadvertently) cause was the change in the way the artists looked at color and light.

I find it ironic, though, that this half-observational, half-extreme, paradoxically romantic and naturalistic at the same time, approach to painting, had apparently been single-handedly invented fifty years before, by Turner.

Turner was more in love with sunsets, than with sunlight and fog (like Monet). Turner's palette was different, too; Monet favored light, airy, vibrant colors while Turner's were more fiery and earthy - he was one of the very few painters who could use black and make it work as a color. Still, I see great similarity in the way they approached the picture.

They have the same energetic, superpositional painting that throws out nearly everything but the visceral, perceptional light. They even show the same way to shift and enliven the hue by daubing pure contrasting color here and there, though it is easier to notice in Monet whose texture is rougher. So it's a little odd that the Impressionists seem to have ignored Turner altogether - hard to tell whether due to some French sort of "not invented here" syndrome or because of relative obscurity.Eugene Arenhaushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-53482786231563234862013-06-02T08:07:00.116-04:002013-06-02T08:07:00.116-04:00The thought that occurred to me while reading this...The thought that occurred to me while reading this post is that grown men were quibbling about something which is in a sense child's play.....paint and colors. And here we adults are more than a century later still fascinated with it. Trying to understand more full the truth and beauty of it as it pertains to fine art. It's an exhilarating thought. The whole discussion also begs the question: How have we, the heirs of this Impressionism, this idea of being attentive to the image as it "really" appears on our retinas, How have we done in furthering it's use and understanding? I'd say some have done quite well but the phenomena is known to such a small segment of society, the visual artists, that it seems somewhat esoteric.Simonehttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-19536361058633553062013-06-02T04:25:00.571-04:002013-06-02T04:25:00.571-04:00Thanks. This is priceless. I will be reading it ...Thanks. This is priceless. I will be reading it again and again. What is especially interesting is that it was Sargent, and not Monet, who had the more specific sense of what the word meant. This may be because he was able to see it from the outside, as it were, having come from a related, but different, painterly orientation.

I am also astigmatic, so much so that contact lenses are not much use to me, and I sometimes paint without glasses on to get the "impression." So, that's the other interesting thing: Sargent calls Monet "the astigmatic," as if Monet's inventon was specifically the result of a defect of his visual apparatus. There's a book I read several years ago on the subject of how defective vision has influenced painters: "The World Through Blunted Sight" by Patrick Trevor Roper, and now I want to read it again to see what, if anything, he he has to say about Monet and Impressionism.Craig Banholzerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-73486142641773942982013-06-01T18:52:21.702-04:002013-06-01T18:52:21.702-04:00Thank you for this post! It is a subject of inter...Thank you for this post! It is a subject of interest in the atelier I study at and I just attempted yesterday to obtain a good translation from the French of the last quote by Monet you included. ! thank you!
--a student of the Boston School in NH.Sandra Galdahttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-80641767745782149802013-06-01T17:17:24.559-04:002013-06-01T17:17:24.559-04:00Wow, I'm very glad you posted this. This is mo...Wow, I'm very glad you posted this. This is more depth than I've seen impressionism explained with. It gives me a little more respect for it and makes me want to go back and reexamine a few paintings that might not have caught my eye the first time around. I like the explanation about light on the retina as well as the inclusion of dim or low light paintings. It also makes me wonder what they would have thought about some of the night-time/low-light paintings paintings that Frederic Remington did (such as this wolf painting).

http://thingswelikebyjoelanddaniel.blogspot.com/2011/04/frederic-remington.htmlHenry Frankhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-76234384036298481672013-06-01T16:41:00.892-04:002013-06-01T16:41:00.892-04:00Very Interesting! I've seen a couple of good ...Very Interesting! I've seen a couple of good retellings of the Impressionism story in the last couple of years, and this bit seems to have been forgotten!

Impressionism- Revenge of the Nice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lasn54lPsE

The Impressionists- Painting and Revolution:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz6dpn_bbc-the-impressionists-painting-and-revolution-1of4-gang-of-four-pdtv-xvid-ac3-mvgroup-org_creation#.UapcGkDVB8EMark Henghttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-61076937213122114122013-06-01T16:25:52.227-04:002013-06-01T16:25:52.227-04:00Someone who had visited Cezanne in his atelier had...Someone who had visited Cezanne in his atelier had written:

"Cezanne very well knew about the uniqueness of Monet's colorist-eye. Recalling the way he knew how to color the shade, the parts receiving the sky's reflection without any direct sunlight, he said:
"The sky's blue, isn't it? And this, this Monet found out.""
Richhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-35477876168027858842013-06-01T14:58:57.749-04:002013-06-01T14:58:57.749-04:00Interesting, and just in time for a blog post I wa...Interesting, and just in time for a blog post I was writing.

I see that I am not alone here. I have extreme astigmatism and I often wondered how this affected my painting and my rapport to colours.

I'm a big Monet fan, maybe there's a reason why?

PS: to Katana, my optician said it was pointless to try and correct such extreme astigmatism, I think my glasses do correct it a bit but mostly they correct my myopia.
The headaches could come either from too big a correction (to be confirmed by a specialist) or just because you don't wear them constantly, the brain has to always adjust from one to the other? dragonladychhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-67825441690980708662013-06-01T12:35:43.315-04:002013-06-01T12:35:43.315-04:00Great post, James. This also made me think of rec...Great post, James.
This also made me think of recent news stories about people who are tetrachromats and can see more colors than the rest of us.
SEE:
http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jul-aug/06-humans-with-super-human-vision#.Uaog-bQsoZM

There are also some online color acuity tests that anybody can take for free, though I am a little suspicious of the real accuracy of these tests because of the variability of people's home computer monitors and testing conditions. Here's one:
SEE:
http://www.color-blindness.com/farnsworth-munsell-100-hue-color-vision-test/ Walt Mortonhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-90788121456454014442013-06-01T12:00:23.461-04:002013-06-01T12:00:23.461-04:00Sounds like his approach was more inquisitive, and...Sounds like his approach was more inquisitive, and almost scientific. Well now I'm headed outside to squint and see if I get any weird colors playing across my vision. As always, thanks for sharing.Keith Parkerhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-2999230124118604245.post-25982374838429138052013-06-01T11:50:01.615-04:002013-06-01T11:50:01.615-04:00I HAVE AN ASTIGMATISM TOO!!! So exciting. It reall...I HAVE AN ASTIGMATISM TOO!!! So exciting. It really is useful for seeing the lights/darks without getting caught up by detail, even though the constant wearing of glasses except when I am a passengar in a car, gives me a daily headache. I would love more tips on how to make the most of my poor eyesight. When I was young, my mom took me to meet another friend of hers - an artist who was going blind. The difference between her photorealistic paintings done with her glasses and her high saturation abstraction still lifes was striking and I remember it to this day. I would LOVE to hear more about how eyesight affects what we see.Katana Leigh DuFourhttp://email@example.com


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While reading an article over at The Inqurier as you do, I couldn't work out if I was being fooled by The INQ Wit, or, if this was actually happening. Well it seems Microsoft are working on their very own portable toliet which will feature six channel audio surround sound, a plasma display, and a (waterproof) wireless keyboard. The following quote is worth a million dollars.
There's even advertising potential in such a water closet (or http://www.c as MS is calling them). Redmond is looking for advertisers who want to put their URLs on toilet paper. Problem is, given what toilet paper is typically used for, will the average advertiser want their product associated with such behavior? Its not as if the user is going to carry the URL home (at least we hope not).More information @ The Inqurier


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Forecast discussion: A weak disturbance passing into the Northeast U.S. brought a few showers during the early morning in Providence, before seeing cloudy skies by the late morning. Here in Pawtucket, some sunshine made its way out before sunset. As we head into this evening, the disturbance may create an isolated shower, before we see drier air move in during Saturday morning.
As we progress through Saturday, drier air from Canada will begin to filter down into Southern New England. This will be due to a high pressure system passing Newfoundland this evening. The high will slowly move to the east, which will allow for winds to slowly turn from the east and to the southwest. This will help bring in some very tropical air from the Southeast, which is bringing dangerous high temperatures to that part of the country.
Now, we will not see a heat wave, but temperatures will finally get above 80 degrees, starting by Monday. As most of Rhode Island's kids head back to school Tuesday and Wednesday, it will be sunny and very warm. By Thursday, we will begin to see some increasing clouds during Thursday evening. This will be due to a cold front approaching from the west. The forecast calls for showers starting around midnight, and going through the day on Friday. But, the front will move offshore by Friday evening, giving us drier air for the following weekend. However, temperatures will cool to seasonable conditions for the last full week of August.
Meanwhile, the tropics may become active as early as this evening. There is an 80% chance the system moving north of Puerto Rico will become a tropical system within 48 hours. Favorable environmental conditions will improve as the system reaches east of the Bahamas on Saturday. The spaghetti models are showing the track for the system to curve away from the United States by early next week. I will continue to watch the system, and give you the latest information tomorrow night.
72 hour forecast:
Tonight: Cloudy with isolated showers from time to time. We will see a low of 62.
Saturday: Mostly cloudy skies with partial sunshine by the afternoon. We will see a high of 75 with northeast winds of 9-12 mph.
Saturday night: Partly cloudy with a low of 59. Winds will come from the north-northeast at 4-7 mph.
Sunday: Mostly sunny with a high of 77.
Sunday night: Clear skies with a low of 59.
Monday: Mostly sunny with the humidity slowly rising. We will see a high of 81.
Monday night: Partly cloudy with a low of 60.
Extended Forecast:
Tuesday: Mostly sunny. Highs 82-85, lows 61-64.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny. Highs 83-86, lows 63-66.
Thursday: Mostly sunny with increasing clouds during the evening. Highs 81-84, lows 62-65.
Friday: Showers starting around midnight, but ending around 9 p.m. Highs 78-81, lows 58-61.


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Bruno Rasich
2001: One of four Flames to start in all 18 games?finished third on the team in scoring with 14 points, notching three goals and a team-high eight assists?earned All-Horizon League First Team recognition?assisted on a pair of goals in UIC?s 4-0 shutout of Memphis on Sept. 9?tallied a goal and an assist, for three points, on three separate occasions ? at Wisconsin (10/3), versus Butler (10/17) and at UW-Milwaukee (11/3)?was 2-for-2 on the year on penalty kicks?was fourth on the team in shots with 26.
2000: As a sophomore, he played in 22 games while earning the starting nod in 13 outings?offensively, he tallied two goals and three assists for seven points?earned MCC All-Tournament honors after netting one goal and a pair of assists during the post-season action?had his first goal of the year and UIC?s third of the game in the Flames? 4-3 win at Loyola?second score of the year came against UW-Green Bay in the championship game of the MCC Tournament.
1999: Finished the season as UIC?s highest scoring rookie with two goals and three assists for seven points?played in all 21 games while starting against Cal Poly, Fresno State, Northern Illinois and Western Michigan?earned a spot on the MCC All-Newcomer Team?added goals in back-to-back wins over Michigan State and Valparaiso?had two assists in UIC?s MCC Tournament quarterfinal win over Cleveland State.
Prep/Personal: As a senior, he led the Indians with 19 goals and seven assists for a team-high 45 points?also topped the squad with seven game-winning goals while he had four games with two goals and a pair of games with three goals and two assists?in his junior season, he again led the team in goals (17), assists (8) and points (42)?turned in a pair of hat tricks during the year and had one game in which he buried four goals?he earned Central Suburban South All-Conference recognition, all-sectional and team MVP accolades as both a junior and senior?registered six goals and 16 assists for 28 points as a sophomore and as a three-year starter on the varsity squad he tallied 115 career points?was a member of the honor roll for seven semesters and a scholar athlete as a senior?a member of the Chicago Magic Sockers State Cup Championship team in 1996, 1997 and 1998?born August 16, 1981?son of Milan and Miriana Rasich?majoring in biology.


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The Minnesota Wild had the New York Islanders on the ropes, but failed to put the worst team in the Metropolitan Division away Sunday at the Xcel Energy Center.
The Wild (20-16-5) jumped out to a 3-0 on goals by Ryan Suter, Jonas Brodin and Nino Niederreiter. However, the game completely turned around after the got their third goal. By the three minute mark of the second period, the Wild had a 20-10 edge in shots on goal. Then something just flipped.
"I really don't know," Koivu said. "There is no explanation. This just can't happen."
Suter beat Islanders goaltender Kevin Poulin after a rebound bounced to him in the slot three minutes and 22 seconds into the game. Jonas Brodin scored 39 into the second period with wrist shot in the slot through a screen by Niederreiter. Niederreiter then scored his goal two minutes and 20 seconds later.
Then the turnaround came. The Islanders starting pecking away at the Wild beginning with a goal by John Taveras near the midway mark and Cal Clutterbuck cut the deficit to one with one minute and two seconds remaining in the middle frame.
"At the end of the second period there," Islanders defenseman Thomas Hickey said. "We had some really good zone time. You could just feel it in the building that the tide was turning. We were coming and we're going to get a good chance to win it."
The Islanders (12-21-7) entered the game losers of nine of their last 12 games, including a 2-1 home loss to the New Jersey Devils Saturday. They were flat in the opening period and were fortunate to be within a goal at the first intermission.
"We weren't very good (in the first period)," Cal Clutterbuck said. "They had a stranglehold on the game there for a little while. It probably could have been more than 1-0 after the first period."
After the Islanders took their first lead of the game at the 12:13 mark of the third period, the Wild answered when Justin Fontaine pulled a loose puck away from Islanders goaltender Kevin Poulin and shot it over him. The Islanders lead lasted just one minute and 32 seconds.
Kyle Okposo scored his second goal of the game just 27 seconds after Fontaine scored for the game-winning goal.
The Wild return to action Tuesday against the St. Louis Blues at the Xcel Energy Center.
Three Stars
No. 3 - Nino Niederreiter. The Wild forward scored a goal and added an assist.
No. 2 - Thomas Hickey. The Islanders defenseman had one goal and two assists.
No. 1 - Kyle Okposo. The Islanders forward had two goals and one assist.
New York……0 2 3 - 5
Minnesota…..1 2 1 - 4
First Period - 1, Minnesota, Suter 1 (Rupp, Mitchell), 3:22. Penalties - McDonald, NYI, major (fighting), 12:35; Mitchell, MIN, major (fighting), 12:35; Ness, NYI (hooking), 18:10.
Second Period - 2, Minnesota, Brodin 7 (Koivu, Niederreiter), :39. 3, Minnesota, Niederreiter 7 (Koivu), 2:59. 4, New York, Taveras 14 (Vanek, Okposo), 8:45. 5, New York, Clutterbuck 5 (Hickey, Nelson),18:58. Penalties - Ballard, MIN (hooking), 5:11; Clutterbuck, NYI (tripping), 8:59; Granlund, MIN (holding), 15:49.
Third Period - 6, New York, Hickey 2 (McDonald, Strome), 6:30. 7, New York, Okposo 13 (Hickey, MacDonald), 12:13. 8, Minnesota, Fontaine 8 (Cooke, Scandella), 13:45. 9, New York, Okposo 14 (Vanek), 14:12. Penalties - Cizikas, NYI (cross checking), 2:31; de Haan, NYI (holding), 15:02; Brodziak, MIN (hooking), 17:29.
Shots on goal - New York 8-12-11 31. Minnesota 16-7-14 37.
Goalies - New York, Poulin (33-37). Minnesota, Harding (26-31). Referees - Gord Dwyer, Dan O'Halloran. Linesmen - Ryan Galloway, Brian Mach.


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chitrangda singh in desi boyz
4 chitrangda singh in desi boyz Articles
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The Desi Boyz actor turns 36 today Today is a day of celebration for Chitrangda Singh. It's her birthday! The gorgeous actor turns 36 years old… Read Article ▶
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Comfortable with her dusky skin, Desi Boyz actor Chitrangda Singh feels that the fair-fixation in India is slowly fading away Chirangda Sigh's skin… Read Article ▶
Chitrangda on 'FHM' cover: We're not impressed!4 years ago 0
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Where was Chitrangda Singh in 'Desi Boyz'?5 years ago 0
Did you have high expectations from the Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi gal's first commercial film? Were you disappointed after watching Desi Boyz? You are… Read Article ▶


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The Corn Crib (map it)
1000 W Raab Rd
Normal, IL 61761
Year Opened: 2010
Capacity: 7,000
There are no tickets available at this time.
Official Review by Chris Patton, Stadium Journey Regional Correspondent
Opened on June 1st, 2010, The Corn Crib is home to the Normal CornBelters of the independent Frontier League. The facility is located on Raab Road in north Normal, Illinois. The CornBelters share the stadium with Heartland Community College's baseball and soccer teams. The stadium name is a result of an agreement between the CornBelters and the Illinois Corn Marketing Board.
The Corn Crib features box seats between the dugouts, four sections of reserved bleacher seating with backs and ample lawn behind the outfield wall. Behind Normal's bullpen down the right field line is the Grieder Landscaping Patio at the Park. Down the left field line is the Kid Zone, featuring inflatables, face painting, and picnic tables.
Normal plays in the Frontier League's West Division. The team's first manager was Hal Lanier, who managed the Houston Astros from 1986-88. The biggest name to ever play for the team is likely Ozney Guillen, son of Ozzie.
The FANFARE scale is our metric device for rating each stadium experience. It covers the following:
Each area is rated from 0 to 5 stars with 5 being the best. The overall composite score is the "FANFARE Score".
My most recent Corn Crib experience was at the first game of a doubleheader caused by rain. The game I attended started at 4 PM on a Tuesday, with the regularly scheduled game to be played afterwards. For the first game, only the main concession stands behind home plate were open. Near the end of the first game, all the concession stands and food and drink carts began to open and serve the arriving crowd.
The Corn Crib features a $7 cheesesteak or a pulled pork sandwich or burger topped with pulled pork for $6. Chicken tenders cost $5.50. Hot dogs, corn dogs, burgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, and Italian sausages range from $4 to $6. Two different types of nachos sell for $4 and $6.50.
To wash down your food, bottled water is $3 and bottles of Coke products are $3.50. Sixteen oz. cans of Miller products are $6, while drafts of Miller, Leinenkugel's, and Redd's range from $6 to $8. If you're visiting the Leinenkugel Lodge stand down the first base line, you will need cash. All the main food and drink stands take debit and credit cards.
There is also a stand featuring roasted ears of corn. This is a must have if you're going to a CornBelters game.
A neat touch is that the players enter the field of play walking through a couple rows of corn, in homage to "Field of Dreams." The clubhouses are beyond the left field wall. Between the wall and the clubhouse door are planted rows of corn in the outfield berm and an aisle for the players to walk down to the field.
Along with the box seats and bleachers are a few rocking chairs that you can buy tickets for and watch the game like you are sitting on your front porch. Unfortunately, the seating section and concourse are wide open, so if it rains, you won't be protected.
The ballpark has a capacity of 7,000 and an artificial turf surface, with the warning track as the only dirt on the field. The scoreboard and video board beyond right field are just too far away from the fans, making it hard for many to see.
The Corn Crib and Heartland Community College are at the northern edge of Normal. The area around the ballpark has developed in the last few years, but this is definitely not a downtown park.
Head south from the park and you will pass through the campus of Illinois State University. Uptown Normal (don't call it downtown, they hate that) has become a hot spot. This area is a solid bet to find something outside of ballpark fare to eat or drink.
Pub II in Normal has been a campus favorite since 1974. If you've ever met an Illinois State alum, chances are they will mention the cheese balls. Pub II was once named as one of Playboy's 100 Best College Bars and they have been proudly touting that fact ever since.
Just a block south is Lunker's. Established in 1999, if you go to Lunker's and don't get a gigantic fish sandwich, you've done something wrong. They have all sorts of beer specials as well, but they are known for their fish.
Like their stadium, the CornBelters are only five years old, but they have not been able to attract a huge following. Crowds depend on the weather or whether there is a promotion. While my most recent visit was during the week when many people were still working, I have been to games in Normal on the weekend and the crowds were larger, but not overly focused on the game. That doesn't just happen in Normal, though. Many people attend MLB games and treat the park as a food court and are constantly in and out.
The Corn Crib has a large parking lot where it will cost you $2 to leave your car. The stadium is set off from any neighborhoods, so there is really no other option than paying. The main entry gate is behind the outfield fences and a decent walk away from the seats. Handicapped parking is available right outside the gate behind home plate.
The concourse features several bathrooms, which are spacious and clean. The Corn Crib boasts that they have the "World's Greatest Restroom." While I can't personally give you a rating, as it happens to be the women's restroom, I can tell you that all accounts are that it may be the best restroom in baseball.
Tickets range from $36 for the Scout Seats, which feature all-you-can-eat food and drink, to $6 for lawn seating. Rocking chair seating is $17, while box seats are $12 and bleacher seats are $8. Due to their proximity, the CornBelters are often compared to the Peoria Chiefs. Box seats are more expensive in Normal, while their lawn seating is cheaper. It seems like the lawn tickets are a great deal, while anything else seems like it might be a stretch.
The CornBelters are definitely committed to the corn theme around the ballpark. The team's mascot, Corny, makes his way all around The Corn Crib. The stairs leading from the main gate to the concourse level are decorated with decals featuring pictures of corn plants.
One of the great things about a CornBelters game is that the younger fans get a chance to step on the field. Every game features a promotion where kids can line up and chase a local bank's mascot across the field from first to third base. There is also a dirt patch behind the visitor's bullpen where kids can play catch and not block too many views of the field.
The Corn Crib is still shiny and new, but by building it to be utilized for so many different purposes, it loses some of its intimacy for baseball. However, it is worth checking out if you're in the area.
Yes, the all turf field is quite a shock to the senses when you first see it. One of the primary rea
Yes, the all turf field is quite a shock to the senses when you first see it. One of the primary reasons for the turf is that both the Cornbelters and Heartland Community College (adjacent to the Corn Crib) will both be using the field. In addition to Heartland's baseball team, both the men's and women's soccer team will also use the facility, so I'm guessing that might have been a bit more than grass could handle.
by jackwarr | Aug 18, 2010 08:01 AM
I certainly understand that it may have been a necessity, but that does not change the disappointmen
I certainly understand that it may have been a necessity, but that does not change the disappointment of seeing baseball played on "monofilament polyethylene blend fibers tufted into a polypropylene backing" (yes, I got that from Wikipedia).
by paul | Aug 18, 2010 09:24 AM
Rocking chairs ?
I noticed rocking chairs in one of the photos (second level, behind home plate). That's only the second stadium where I've seen rocking chairs (Corpus Christi was the other one). Were those seats available to the common fan or were those in â??suite level' seats only?
by megminard | Dec 19, 2010 01:16 PM
RE: Rocking chairs ?
The rocking chair seats are available for fans to buy for individual games at just $16 per seat ($15 if purchased in advance). They do offer a great view of the action. I didn't sit in one so I can't attest to the comfort, but they looked pretty cozy...
by paul | Dec 20, 2010 06:25 AM
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Member Review by paul
One component of a successful minor league experience is ensuring that the organization is tied into the local community, and that the stadium experience is a microcosm of that community.
In Central Illinois, an area known for its agriculture, and especially its corn production, a new team has emerged in the Frontier League. They are called the Normal CornBelters and they play their home games in The Corn Crib. Their mascot is an ear of corn, and his name is Corny. Well, they definitely have their theme down.
102 N Linden St
Normal, IL 61761
(309) 452-0699
126 E Beaufort St
Normal, IL 61761
(309) 807-4301
107 E. Beaufort St
Normal, IL 61761
(309) 808-1597
1 Normal Plaza
Normal, IL 61702
(309) 452-8709
203 Susan Dr
Normal, IL 61704
(309) 862-4100
(309) 452-0699
(309) 807-4301
(309) 808-1597
Stadium Journey
SJ Community


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*now closed*
Winner: #6, Little Ella Lu
So what have you been up to this week?
I love all the headbands she has! My daughters would love these!
briana.richardson at yahoo.com
I like the Pink Silk Homemade Flower surrounded by french netting and feathers bearrabbitbear [at} hotmail {dot} com
Thank you so much for a wonderful party Rachel, have a great weekend!
xoxo, Tanya
Thank you so much for your party, Rachel! Have a great weekend!
The Pink Shabby Chic Homemade Lace Headband with Crystal Center is lovely.
I liked her facebook page. email@example.com
Thanks so much for featuring my pumpkin spice no bake cookies ... love the party!!
Love the cream silk headband for my little girl! She has great photos of her products.
I love the pink silk homemade flower headband....my 5 year old granddaughter would be thrilled to have it! Nice site to visit... Thanks!
OH MY. I do not have any girls, but lots of nieces, and the Pink Shabby Chic Homemade Lace Headband with Crystal Center makes my womb ache for a girl. SO CUTE.
Sorry, my email is BrooklynBerry at gmail.com too
I love the cream silk headband!
Rach, Thanks so much for hosting.
Debi @ Adorned From Above
I would get Pink Shabby Chic Homemade Lace Headband with Crystal Center.
The Red Ribbon + pearl is totally sweet.
allisonallsop at gmail dot com
I love the white polka dot shabby chic headband! cute headbands! :)
thanks, Rachel!
I liked her shop on FB! :)
I like the pink silk headband with the flower and the white tulle-ish stuff kind of nesting it. So cute.
oh, and I liked on FB
was I supposed to make 2 comments for 2 entries? don't know, but that is probably bc I'm not very good at following directions. email@example.com
and to answer your question, I've been sewing a tree skirt and making one of those felt trees for the kids to take ornaments on and off at their whim.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/113911184/black-shabby-chic-handmade-headband-with probably this. thanks for the chance!
Thanks so much again for hosting! I brought a hand painted "12 Days of Christmas" pillow (Target knock-off! Woohoo!). Linking back to ya'.
Thanks again! ☺
Thanks so much again for hosting! I brought a hand painted "12 Days of Christmas" pillow (Target knock-off! Woohoo!). Linking back to ya'.
Thanks again! ☺
Her headbands are so sweet! I think I would choose the bright flower headband, probably attached to an alligator clip instead of a headband, though. My daughter has a hard time keeping headbands on!
pink shabby chic headband - too cute!
LIKE on facebook!
I love the felt bow!! firstname.lastname@example.com
I love her on fb firstname.lastname@example.com
I like the pink shabby chic headband.
I like June Louise Boutique on fb.
Thanks soooo much for the feature Rachel!! xoxo


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Burger Showdown – Best Burger in Tampa Bay
This Friday, May 4th is the first Burger Showdown in Downtown Tampa at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park from 6:30-9:30PM. Restaurants will battle to decide who has the best burger in Tampa Bay. The event is a benefit fundraiser for The Tampa Riverwalk. There will be live music at this great event as well. Restaurants competing include Burger 21, Square 1 Burgers, Stacked Burgers, Lee Roy Selmon's, BGR, Ashley Street Grille, Danny's All-American Diner, Green Iguana, Datz, Marriot, Aramark, and Chili's. I get hungry just looking at that list. Tickets are $35 in advance, and $55 at the gate. You can buy tickets here: http://burgershowdown.org/tickets.html
More information on the event: http://burgershowdown.org/
Category: Food Events


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Saturday, May 28, 2011
Summer Tips: Water Safety
The long Memorial Day weekend is the traditional start of the summer season. Families travel to the beach and to lakes, rivers, and ponds for what is also the start of the swimming and boating season.
Living near water as we do, water safety is an important part of our family life. Our children learned early that they were never, ever allowed in the water without an adult present. They learned to swim early, too. Still, I shudder to remember the occasions I saw Virgil wandering down to the water alone, and the one time before he learned to swim that he ran right into the water and kept going. He was fully submerged — but still moving forward — when Jim plucked him from the water.
The most dangerous water our children were on when they were little, however, was the reservoir where their grandfather spends his summers. We're often there in large family groups. People mill about on the dock and along the shore; beer flows freely. After Ursula was born, one of the other moms took me aside and explained that I should never lose sight of her at those lake gatherings. No one else is going to watch her for you, she warned, and reminded me that her middle child had tumbled off the crowded dock without a sound. She dove in and rescued him — but if she hadn't been watching, she told me, he would have drowned, less than five feet from his family.
I was reminded of her chilling story recently while reading a national study of drowning incidents involving children. Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional death among children ages 1 to 4 years and children 10 to 14 years, and the third cause of death for children under one. Nine out of 10 of those children drowned in the presence of a parent or caregiver — an incredible number to me, until I learned that children drown quickly and silently, without the thrashing and calls for help we're used to seeing in the movies. Not surprisingly, drowning deaths spike between May and August.
So please, this summer, follow these guidelines for water safety:
• Actively supervise children in and around open bodies of water, giving them your undivided attention. Adults who were present when a child drowned were often distracted: on the phone, in conversation, reading. Consider appointing a designated "water watcher," taking turns with other adults. In big gatherings, hand off a card, whistle, or other item between water watchers to avoid gaps in supervision.
• Enroll your child in swimming lessons after age 4, considered the earliest age children can retain information about water safety. Teach children how to tread water, float, and stay by the shore in open water. But don't assume that swimming lessons "drown-proof" a child.
• Teach children that swimming in open water is not the same as swimming in a pool: They need to be aware of uneven ground below water, river currents, ocean undertow, and changing weather.
• Teach children to get out of the water as soon as they hear thunder or see lightning. Explain that lightning is electricity, and that electricity and water are a dangerous combination.
• Learn infant and child CPR and keep a phone nearby in case of an emergency. Immediately giving CPR to a drowning victim reduces the risk of brain damage and can mean the difference between life and death.
• Do not let children operate personal watercraft such as jet skis. These are intended for adults and require special training.
• Invest in proper-fitting, Coast Guard-approved flotation devices and use them whenever a child is on a boat, near water, or participating in water sports. A life jacket should fit snugly and not allow the child's chin or ears to slip through the neck opening. For younger children, choose a life jacket with a strap between the legs and head support. The collar keeps a child's head up and face out of the water.
I dwell on this scary side of swimming, because the other side of swimming is so joyful for us, as I expect it is for many other families. Sliding into cool, clean water is absolutely one of our favorite things to do out of doors — and not just to escape summer heat. We do it for splashing and exercise and doing flips underwater, for jumping off ledges into swimming holes, for playing king of the raft, for simply floating and looking up at the sky. Armed with these safety guidelines, I'll be making some adjustments to our time in the water, though. I want it to remain a joyous part of our lives.
Learn more
- CDC guidelines on home and recreational water safety
- 5 Truths about Water Safety (SafeKids USA)
"Great Kids, Great Outdoors" is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
A Birds'-Eye View of Spring
"Are you my mother?" That was the question asked by one of our kids' favorite characters, in the book of the same name by P.D. Eastman. The Beginning Reader book was first published in 1960, long enough ago to have been one of my favorite picture books as a kid, too.
The main character is a baby bird who hatches while his mother is away from the nest looking for food. After falling from his nest, the scrawny little fellow sets off in search of a mother he's never seen, asking a kitten, hen, dog, cat, even a big piece of earth-moving equipment along the way, "Are you my mother?"
This morning, we discovered how much that baby and the mother he finds by story's end were drawn from real life.
A few weeks ago, we noticed a fat mama robin dipping in under the roof of our back porch, carrying bits of dry grass and twigs in her beak. We watched her from the window by our kitchen sink, and saw that she was building a nest on the curling top of our toboggan, which we'd set upright against the wall but hadn't yet put away for the season.
At first she fluttered off the nest every time one of us stepped up to the window. But she seemed to decide that she could live with our occasional presence, as well as the occasional kitchen light shining out on her in the darkness. Despite such a wet spring, her nest stayed dry under the porch's roof.
Over the past weeks, we've grown accustomed to seeing her sitting atop the nest. We've been struck by the likeness between the image out our window and P.D. Eastman's drawings: the same maternal plumpness, the uncanny exactness of her posture, the beak slightly lifted. (Though our mother bird wears her red prominently on her breast, not in a red kerchief tied under her beak.)
Jim looked out from the sink early this morning and saw something new: papa bird standing on the side of the nest, an earthworm dangling from his beak. Father passed the worm to mother, who bent over and lowered it just as the tiny open beak of a chick popped up to meet it. As the baby bobbed up and down more insistently, Jim saw its head, still dark and wet — plus spiky feathers on top and a scrawny neck that, honest-to-god, was the spitting image of Eastman's baby bird.
It was easy to get the kids up when we told them the first robin had hatched. We couldn't watch his ungainly movements without laughing. Now three small chicks crowd their nest and keep their parents busy feeding them.
P.D. Eastman, clearly, had been a close observer of this particular rite of spring. We're grateful to have had the chance, too.
Learn more
- Learn more about the P.D. Eastman book, Are You My Mother?
- Watch a YouTube video reading of the book.
- Watch a YouTube video of robins feeding their hatchlings.
"Great Kids, Great Outdoors" is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
3 takes on 50 Dangerous Things
"Let kids play with fire, and other rules for good parenting," read the title on a rave book review of 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do) by Gever Tulley and Julie Speigler, published this month by Penguin under the New American Library imprint. "I'm a parent who lets my children play with fire," I thought, and requested a review copy. This week, Ursula, Virgil, and I went through the book, separately and together, and talked about it. We had different reactions.
Virgil saw the cover of the book, set off by drawings of a kid throwing a spear, a slingshot, and a fire inside a stone ring, and immediately said, "Cool!" He liked everything inside the book, too: the "you can do this" descriptions of 50 different, "dangerous" activities; the arch sense of humor (yellow triangles illustrate a range of possible risks, including dismemberment and amputation, for each activity — perfect for a third-grader); the pledge inside the front cover that starts with the words, "I, __________, will demonstrate that danger can be conquered with skill and determination."
At a certain point during his turn with the book, he asked me for some scrap paper, to mark the pages of the activities he wanted to try. When he handed the book back to me, it was stuffed with page markers.
Ursula, on the other hand, thought the book didn't live up to its title. "If it was really '50 dangerous things,'" she complained, "it would have things like climbing mountains or flying planes or shooting a gun." At age 12, she's old enough to be skeptical of marketing claims. She pointed out to Virgil that they've already done more than 30 of the book's 50 activities, and that most of the things in the book — like hammering nails (Dangerous Activity #6) and making a rope swing (Activity #44) — aren't really dangerous if you do them right.
She shrugged her shoulders when I asked if she'd use the book. After thinking about it some more, she decided that it wasn't written with her in mind — although she admitted that she hadn't thought about licking a battery (Activity #1) before, and now she might.
Even if she was turned off by the book's title, Ursula did catch, I thought, one of the book's main themes. In their "Introduction for Grown-ups," Tulley and Spiegler explain that they want to encourage "competence": "the child who grows up in the woods will always be more comfortable there than the child who reads about wood lore in a book, just as the child who actually squashes a penny on a railroad track will have a deeper, more concrete understanding of the physics involved than the one who watches a video of it." They designed their activities to get kids to try stuff, explore and experiment.
Some of those experiments extend interestingly into human relationships, to what we risk or gain in how we treat each other. Reading the description for Activity #36 — Poison Your Friends — I remembered the "milk shakes" that my brothers and I used to make for each other (actually concoctions of the vilest stuff we could find in the kitchen, whipped up to look like vanilla or chocolate shakes), and our efforts to get each other to take a sip. The "poison" in Activity #36 is salt, 3 or 4 tablespoons' worth added to a cookie recipe. But the lesson worked just as well for fake milk shakes: "Tricking your friends into biting into a salty cookie might be easy the first time," Tulley and Spiegler write. "Getting them to do it the second time may take some planning." In case the point wasn't clear, they add, "Every time you trick your friend, they will trust you a little less." I liked that one of the book's "dangerous things" was actually a lesson in trust.
I was bothered, however, by the view of parents that emerges from the book. Tulley and Speigler write as if we all are too afraid to let our children explore or take risks, and too quick to bring lawsuits when accidents do happen. Maybe the two authors are spending time with a very different group of parents (they make no mention of children of their own), but I distrusted their understanding of the balancing act attempted by most parents of my acquaintance. Being a parent means protecting your children and allowing them to develop skills and confidence to live full lives on their own, at the same time. At times, the book reads as if it's written by kids who've grown up just enough to think they know better than their parents, but not enough to know what it means to be a parent.
If I bristle at how 50 Dangerous Things portrays parents, I like just about everything else in the book. It's pitched to exactly the right frequency for a curious kid. I have crossed a couple of activities off Virgil's list — no throwing bananas or oranges out of the window of a moving car (Activity #15), not in this family, and no blowing up things in our microwave (Activity #14), unless he's prepared to buy a new one — and told him that his life will be much more dangerous if he doesn't clean up after every kitchen-floor experiment. Last night, he and Ursula took apart an old Sony Walkman of Jim's (Activity #34, Deconstruct an Appliance). They worked together to figure out how to open the case, shared the screwdrivers and the wire cutters, and showed me their progress. Virgil was glad to hear that the book is ours to keep. He wants to keep track on the book's "Field Notes" pages.
Learn more
- Read the Atlantic magazine review, "Let kids play with fire, and other rules for good parenting."
- Learn more about 50 Dangerous Things and the Tinkering School.
- Listen to the TEDTalk, Gever Tulley's "5 Dangerous Things," that led to the expanded list and the book.
"Great Kids, Great Outdoors" is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Junior Naturalist: Beavers
Nature's engineers are back on our pond. Unlike the two-legged kind, they don't set up orange cones around their work sites — but we've learned to recognize the signs of their activity all the same. One is the growing pile of saplings, freshly trimmed of their bark, on top of the beaver lodge at the water's edge. We've also seen their logging roads — muddy ruts running down to the water from stands of poplar, maple, birch, and alder.
John Kulish, in Bobcats Before Breakfast, calls beavers "Mother Nature's Corps of Engineers," and even offers a tongue-in-cheek course guide for the "technical school" that all young beavers attend. Kulish's courses include "Introductory Tree Identification, Advanced Selective Cutting, The Natural Philosophy of Water Pressures and Currents, Scientific Erosion Control, Tunnel- and Canal-building," and more. Young beavers stay with their parents a full two years, partly to attend what might as well be called their community college of logging, dam-building, lodge construction, and winter food management.
At this time of year, these fur-covered civil engineers work the third shift, from nightfall to daybreak. Using nothing more than their four large front teeth, called incisors, and their powerful jaws, beavers can cut down trees 4 feet in diameter. They eat the bark of the trees and use the remaining wood in their lodges and dams.
We haven't seen any signs that our neighboring beaver community has grown, but kits may have been born in the lodge earlier this spring. If so, they may already be taking nighttime swims with their mom, their heads just nosing up above the surface of the water and their signature V-shaped wakes trailing behind them. If we're lucky, we may surprise a beaver on its regular rounds and hear one of the loudest sounds in nature, the slap of a beaver's broad tail on water.
If you have a wooden canoe paddle, you can replicate that sound by holding the paddle blade high and letting it fall flat against the water. The paddles that make the best sound are the ones with rounded, tear-drop blades — the kind they call "beavertails."
Other beaver facts:
- The beaver is the largest North American rodent, at about three feet in body length and another foot for its tail. Beavers in northern New England commonly weigh 30 to 70 pounds, but can grow to be more than 100 pounds.
- A beaver has two pairs of eyelids. An inner, transparent pair acts like a scuba diver's goggles, protecting the beaver's eyes while it's underwater.
- It's estimated that 60 million beaver gnawed at North American forests before the Mayflower landed. Beaver pelts became the currency of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The trade went so well that the new colony was debt-free by 1640.
- When the New Hampshire state legislature voted in 1905 to give beavers protected status, they had been hunted so intensively that none could be found. The large rodents were reintroduced several decades later, and the population has since re-established itself across the state.
Learn more
- National Geographic facts about beavers.
- David Attenborough narrates this BBC video of beavers building a lodge.
- Although sadly no longer in print, John Kulish's book, Bobcats Before Breakfast, is worth borrowing from a library or finding used for interested readers ages 9 and up.
"Great Kids, Great Outdoors" is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Growing up Jane Goodall
When Ursula was seven years old, she decided that she wanted to be Jane Goodall. Her second-grade class had learned about Goodall's groundbreaking work as a naturalist in Africa, and Ursula's imagination was fired by the idea of living among chimpanzees in the dense forests of Tanzania. In fact, she liked the thought of that life so much that she made it clear that she didn't want to grow up to study animals or have a career like Jane Goodall — she wanted to be Jane Goodall.
Ursula reminded me of this recently when we were talking about work she'd like to do when she's older. Now that she's almost a teenager, that list has expanded. But it continues to include jobs in the outdoors and field work — like the work of her first role model.
So when I saw a review of two children's books about Jane Goodall in Sunday's New York Times Book Review, I stopped to read. The picture books — Me … Jane, by Patrick McDonnell, the creator of the comic strip "Mutts"; and The Watcher, by Jeanette Winter — help young children learn how someone grows up to be Jane Goodall.
Both books follow the standard life of the young naturalist. Young Jane spent her childhood largely outdoors and in the company of animals both domestic (horses, chickens, dogs) and wild (turtles, even earthworms). She was, as the title of Winter's book makes clear, a patient observer of her world. A telling incident that appears in both books has five-year-old Jane sitting for hours in a chicken coop, determined to understand exactly how eggs come from chickens.
Goodall was also strongly influenced by several books: The Story of Dr. Doolittle by Hugh Lofting, which delighted her with its descriptions of a man who talked to the animals; and Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, which offered a vision of an African paradise, and a man who learned to live among the wild apes. Goodall gave Tarzan's given name, Greystoke, to the first chimpanzee who befriended her in the early years of her research at what became the Gombe Stream National Park.
It's possible that the new books will serve similar purposes for young girls and boys who are drawn to the natural world. The pictures will be appreciated by very young children, the stories and larger themes by readers in the elementary grades. I won't be surprised if Ursula enjoys these books, too. I think she'll feel a kinship with the young girl who grew up to become Jane Goodall — and perhaps will gain new understanding about her own dreams.
Learn more
- The Jane Goodall Institute describes ongoing research at Gombe.
- The JGI website also includes information about Goodall's Roots and Shoots program for young people, now in its 20th year. The New England regional office lists more than 250 affiliated schools, museums, and programs in Massachusetts alone.
- Read reviews of Me…Jane and The Watcher in The New York Times Book Review.
- Watch a video interview with Jane Goodall about the new children's books.
"Great Kids, Great Outdoors" is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Make your own summer camp
If you fly Southwest Airlines this month, take a look at the in-flight magazine in your seat-back. The photo on the cover is of our pond, and the story inside is about a two-week theater camp that we've run out of our house the past three summers. I didn't write the article — Jim did — but as he worked on it, we both realized that we'd discovered (or rediscovered, more like) a working parents' guide to creating your own summer camp.
We live on a property that happened to be run as a summer camp for most of the twentieth century, but we weren't interested in continuing that history when we bought it. Then we had children, and work to get done, and what started out as an idea for shared babysitting unexpectedly turned into a lakeside theater camp.
Here's the funny thing we learned, though, as Jim wrote: "The lake isn't important and the theater isn't important." What was important was that we found two teenagers — Ian and Eben — who loved theater and loved teaching it to kids. They could have taught art or music, or simply organized summer activities, and the kids would have loved it, because Ian and Eben made it fun. It didn't hurt, either, that the last hour of every day was good old-fashioned running around outside fun.
This year our theater camp will run at full capacity, 16 kids each week. That's all our house and Ian and Eben can handle. Thankfully, the kids spend the last hour of each day running around outside. Last year, when the number of parents and relatives coming to watch the Friday performances outgrew our barn, we moved the shows to the town hall.
Other camp start-up guides might begin with instructions to hire an attorney, develop a business plan, and form a board of directors. We did none of that — and found that starting our own summer camp wasn't all that hard. In just a few years, the camp has become its own small community, and part of a larger one, as well.
Here are some things we learned along the way:
- Find a teenager. More specifically, find a teen or young adult who's great with kids and who has a talent to share. That could be a babysitter, a nanny, or an older child. (You or another parent might also take on this role, but we suspect that kids like our camp precisely because it isn't run by adults.) You can also find talented young actors, artists, and musicians through local schools or community arts groups.
- Have a grown-up off-stage. Ian and Eben, our theater-camp guys, are both responsible, but we felt more comfortable also having at least one adult present at all times. We think other families were more willing to send their children to our camp because, as writers who work at home, we were often there. Other parents helped when we couldn't be present.
- Start small. We had six kids the first year — our two, plus Ian's younger brother, his niece, and two neighbors. We asked families to pay $20 a day. That first camp was successful, but if it hadn't been, no one would have been out much money or effort.
- It's not a business. In terms of our overall organization, what we're doing may not even rise to the level of a babysitting coop. All the money that comes in goes to pay Ian and Eben, minus what we spend on food. We already know the families that join us, so we share a high degree of trust. Early on, we didn't even think about things like liability insurance, though you may want to.
- Ask for help. We started the camp with the idea that it would free up time for us to work. It took us a couple of years to admit that we weren't getting enough done and to start asking other parents to help us out. We encourage you to ask others to pitch in from the beginning, whether it's to shop for food or to move furniture back into place when camp is over.
- Look at the big picture. We've definitely complicated our lives by running a theater camp. But our children have been able to spend part of their summers "at home," which they like, and to share the experience with friends, which they really like. We've been able to help two talented young men gain work experience, and some money, to boot. And we've had the pleasure of building something special together with other families.
Learn more
- Read "Camp DIY" (Spirit magazine, May 2011).
"Great Kids, Great Outdoors" is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Dos and Dont's of Bicycle Safety for Children and Families
May, the merry month of flowers and warm days and lengthening daylight, is National Bike Month. With summer just around the corner, it's a great time to think about bike safety for children.
Tom Ebersold leads about 30 bike trips a year for AMC's Connecticut Chapter, several of them geared for families with children. He also helped run a cycling camp for children in New York. Ebersold offers the following bike safety tips, along with supporting information from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the advocacy group Safe Kids.
Fit the bicycle to the child. Children should be able to sit on the seat of a bicycle, with hands on the handlebars, and place the balls of both feet on the ground. "A bicycle that is too large for the child is unsafe," Ebersold says. He recommends erring on the side of buying too small a bike—it's easy to raise the seat, or even buy a longer seat post.
Use an age-appropriate brake system. First bicycles for young children should be equipped with foot brakes. In young children, hand muscles and coordination aren't developed enough to control hand brakes. Older children should be taught how to use hand brakes. Ebersold says, "Some beginners are afraid to use the front brake because they're afraid of locking the front wheel and getting thrown over the handlebars. But if the child uses just the back brake, the bike doesn't stop well and the back wheel can skid out."
Wear a helmet. Wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85 percent, according to research by Safe Kids USA. "Too often I see kids riding without helmets," Ebersold says—"and even when they are wearing helmets, they're rarely wearing them properly." Kids, he's noticed, tend to tip the helmets back on the head, which means the forehead is exposed and unprotected. "A properly worn helmet needs to sit level on the head," he says. "The straps should be snug enough that if the child opens his mouth, the helmet straps pull down on the head."
Parental role modeling makes a big difference in whether children wear bike helmets. In another Safe Kids study, 90 percent of children who didn't wear bike helmets had parents who never wore bike helmets. Children whose parents always wore helmets and also set clear expectations for helmet use, not surprisingly, were far more likely to wear helmets—and to influence their friends to wear them, too.
Young adolescents may require additional reinforcement for wearing helmets. It can be helpful to remind them that increasing skills mean increasing risks.
Different helmets fit differently, so it's important to bring a child along to the store when purchasing a helmet. Bike shop employees should help fit the helmet. They can also help reinforce the importance of wearing the helmet each time the child is on a bicycle.
Practice bike skills with children. Ebersold suggests practicing bike skills with children on a wide, quiet street or in a parking lot. "While rail trails, for instance, are a natural draw for families," he says, "they may not be as safe as they appear. A heavily congested trail can be difficult to navigate, in part because children are impulsive and will do unpredictable things like making abrupt U-turns." Kids should have lots of space around them when first practicing their skills.
Follow the rules of the road. "Bicycles follow the same rules of the road as cars," Ebersold reminds us. "Ride on the right side of the road and NEVER against traffic." The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reports that almost a quarter of bicycle-car collisions occurred while bicyclists were riding against traffic. Children shouldn't ride in streets until they're able to use a simplified hand-signal system, right arm for a right turn and left arm for a left turn. According to AAP, accidents involving older children often occur when riders fail to signal their intentions to motorists.
Keep in mind that our streets, even in residential areas, have more cars on them, and people are driving faster and more distractedly on them, than when today's parents were children.
Don't let children ride at night. Riding a bicycle at night requires special skills and special equipment. Children are also not developmentally able to assess the risks involved with nighttime riding. AAP urges parents never to allow children to ride at dusk or after dark.
Match safety practices and information to the child's development. Young children just learning to ride tricycles and bicycles need constant supervision. Research has shown that in middle childhood and early adolescence, children's skill levels and risk-taking behavior increase, but crucial other skills that help them avoid injury lag behind. At early ages, eye-hand coordination is not yet fully developed, and children don't recognize obstacles as quickly as adults do, or avoid those obstacles as quickly. (Young riders tend to avoid obstacles in two discrete steps—recognizing the obstacle and then executing avoidance action—while older teens and adults integrate the two steps.) Young riders also lack the ability to scan visually crowded space, as in a street with parked cars, moving traffic, and pedestrians. Needless to say, this is an important skill to have as a cyclist.
Riding bicycles around the neighborhood or all over town is a time-honored activity of American childhood. By following just a few basic procedures, it can be a safe one, as well.
Learn more
- The Bike League is the official site for National Bike Month.
- Safe Kids USA research reports and a bicycle safety guide are available online.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics has compiled an injury-prevention fact sheet, "Bicycle Safety: Myths and Facts."
"Great Kids, Great Outdoors" is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Celebrating Mother's Day in (Outdoor) Style
Before I was actually a mother, Mother's Day was one of my favorite days of the year. In the Pacific Northwest, where I lived then, I spent the second Sundays in May hiking up post-eruption Mt. St. Helens in a party dress with a group of similarly dressed friends, skis stuck into our packs. When we pointed our tips downhill, the dresses that billowed out behind us made the long ski runs even better. If I thought about the Mother's Day connection during those years, it was to decide that dressing up to ski a mountain named after a woman was a perfect way to celebrate the day.
The tradition we've developed here is a bit less, well, dressy. But it is a tradition: Every Mother's Day, we go for a family hike. Our hikes are often short and nearby and certainly don't involve volcanoes. In fact, they don't even involve party dresses. I don't mind, though: I still feel the joy of being outside together, whether we're looking for trout lilies on the way up Mt. Cardigan or trying out a new trail farther afield.
That said, I haven't let go of the box with my party favorites — the neon pink pajamas, the strapless black dress that looked great over long underwear, the black-and-white polka dot tutu. I think there's a good chance that I'll ski Mt. St. Helens in one of those dresses again, maybe even with my family by my side. In fact, I recently heard that hundreds of people now ski Mt. St. Helens in party dresses each Mother's Day.
It's not too late to join the AMC family-friendly hikes listed below. Or make your own outdoor celebration. However you spend this day that celebrates mothers, it's worth remembering that our living planet is sometimes called Gaia, for the Greek goddess of the earth. Her more approachable English name, of course, is Mother Earth.
Maybe I'll get those party dresses down after all.
Family Fun Fest at Noble View Outdoor Center. Russell, Mass. Friday, May 6, to Sunday, May 8. This is the fourth or fifth year that the Worcester Chapter has organized a three-day weekend for all AMC families. The weekend includes hikes, outdoor games, campfires, s'mores, movies and popcorn, and potluck meals. Lodging on Friday and Saturday nights is in newly renovated cottages. A few spaces still remain.
Mother's Day Welcome Weekend & Sunday Buffet Brunch. Highland Center at Crawford Notch, New Hampshire. Friday, May 6, to Sunday, May 8. This three-day weekend focused on Mother's Day includes daily hikes, interpretive programs, kid's crafts, a Mother's Day buffet — even massage sessions!
Cardigan Lodge hikes and summit climb. Mt. Cardigan, New Hampshire. Saturday, May 7. The New Hampshire Chapter is hosting a day of family activities at Cardigan Lodge. Families can choose between an easy morning hike down the Lower Manning Trail toward Welton Falls; a moderate afternoon hike of no more than five mile for families up Orange Mountain or Cardigan Mountain; and a summit climb of Mt. Cardigan that is appropriate for children ages 7 and up with some hiking experience.
Nickerson State Park. Brewster, Mass. Sunday, May 8. An afternoon Mother's Day walk around Cape Cod ponds and woodland trails.
Follow the links for more details. Remember that these hikes and activities require prior registration and may involve other fees.
Photo: Kathy Phibbs, founding mother of the Mt. St. Helens ski party. Credit Rachel da Silva.
"Great Kids, Great Outdoors" is an AMC Outdoors blog, written by Kristen Laine.
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The First Step
On behalf of the apiGrove team, welcome!
We are very excited to introduce you to apiGrove. It is the product of a lot of hard work and careful thought about how to approach API management, and we sincerely hope it helps your organization achieve its business goals.
While we are proud of apiGrove, we know no software product is ever truly complete. There is always more work to be done, more improvements to be made, more capabilities to be added. One of the reasons we decided to open source apiGrove is that we wanted to obtain the kind of direct feedback and improvement that is only possible with an open sourced project. We are committed to building a robust community of users and developers, so we can all create the best possible API management tools.
The cornerstone of any community is effective communication. Please do not hesitate to tell us what you think of apiGrove, ask questions, and engage with other users and developers. Use the Forum, let us know in the GitHub issue tracker when you encounter bugs, and sign up for the email list to keep abreast of changes.
Thank you for giving apiGrove a look. We hope you will be happy with what you find and that you will be excited about joining the project.
Laura Merling
SVP Application Enablement


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We were writing an article on Super Bowl snacks when Bob the Rescue Cat sat on the keyboard. Then Miss Kitty the Rescue Kitten snagged the mouse. The message was clear: It was time to include Puppy Bowl and Kitty Bowl parties and snacks in the mix. (Thanks, Bob, you can get up now).
From cheese pizza (Miss Kitty loves those little string cheese strands) to peanut butter (Bob's friend Fido loves licking it off his nose), here are our champion snacks for people and pets:
- Baby carrots and apple slices: Both are good for dog's teeth as well as people's waistlines. Be sure to core and remove seeds from the apple slices.
- Salsa: Great for dunking raw veggies (but keep the dip away from Fido).
- Plain cheese pizza topped with extra veggies: Too much cheese isn't good for cats (sorry, Bob). But you can try a little bit of cheese and even offer kitty broccoli (although Bob views it more as a toy than a treat).
- Organic bird seed: Do you have a pet bird? Remember to provide tweet-worthy treats.
However, beware. Some foods are toxic to our furry friends. U.S. News and World Report released these foods as highly dangerous. So if you serve them at that party, keep these treats out of the kitty and puppy end zone:
- chocolate
- sugarless gum
- alcohol
- grapes/raisins
- Macademia nuts
- onions and garlic
- caffeine
- meat and chicken bones
And finally: Even the most well-behaved cat can become cranky for lack of attention during a long TV session. Our tried-and-true cat toys to keep Bob and Miss Kitty joyfully pouncing and purring:
- GoCat Da Bird Pull Apart Rod and Bird Cat Feather Toys (click for details)
- Go Cat Cat Catcher Teaser Wand with Mouse Cat Toy (click for more information): Bob loves this toy so much that I had to buy two, because he hid one of them in the official Kitty Bermuda Triangle of Lost Toys.
- Got a cat who scratches the furniture or loves to chase balls? Get a two-in-one deal with Bergan Turbo Scratcher Cat Toy (click for details). Bob and Miss Kitty like to push the ball around and around and never get bored.


text: A gunman carrying a high powered rifle was apprehended outside Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colorado today, but not before he fired shots that wounded two young students. The man was pursued and taken down by the school's math teacher. The 32-year old gunman has a long criminal history. The event occurred at 3:05 PM just at the time students were boarding buses and leaving for home. Read more at cbs4denver.com.


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Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: August 1, 2008
Publication Date: August 7, 2008
Citation: Ford, J.J. 2008. Genetic variation in testis size and testicular development. In: Proceedings of Midwest Boar Stud Managers Conference, August 7-8, 2008, St. Louis, Missouri. CDROM. Technical Abstract: Breed differences in sperm production have been described in a number of studies with these differences reflecting variation in testicular size (Ford et al., 2006; Smital, 2008). Within a given breed or genetic line of boars, sperm production increases as testicular size increases. Furthermore, the number of Sertoli cells within the testes at puberty establishes adult testicular size (Lunstra et al., 2003). Sertoli cells provide physical and nutritional support for developing germ cells in their early development toward sperm cells. Sertoli cells first become apparent in the testes on day 26 of gestation. Thereafter, these cells continue to increase in number until boars reach puberty after which they undergo final maturation. This maturation process is associated with accumulation of fluids within the tubules, enlargement of tubule diameter and formation of a lumen that subsequently allows transport of sperm through the tubules followed by their eventual exit from the testes into the epididymis. The potential for sperm production and testicular size is established at puberty when Sertoli cells cease to proliferate. Patterns of testicular growth diverge greatly in breeds or crossbred lines of boars that vary in mature testicular size. Meishan and Piau are breeds with somewhat smaller mature body weight and distinctly smaller testicular weight than today's crossbred boars; however, these two breeds differ vastly in their age at puberty. Meishan boars develop expanding seminiferous tubules (> 100 µm in diameter) by 50 days of age while Piau do not achieve this degree of testicular development until 140 days of age. Furthermore, testes of adult Piau boars contain a much greater proportion of seminiferous tubules than Meishan boars. For the three crossbred lines that have been characterized, diameter of seminiferous tubules advanced to 100 µm by 90 days of age in boars of a 4-breed composite, by 105 days in Landrace x Duroc boars and by 120 days in Hampshire x Duroc x Yorkshire boars. These different studies were conducted under well-managed conditions, but management may have had subtle effects on age for the initiation of pubertal development. Also, the number of boars in each age group is small in most of these studies. Nonetheless, these data emphasize that age of puberty and genetic potential for testicular size are not correlated traits. Heritability for testicular size was employed in a study conducted at the University of Nebraska to improved sperm production significantly by 18% in association with a 24% increase in testicular size (Huang and Johnson, 1996). These boars were selected for 11 generations for increased testicular size at 150 days of age. A correlated response was earlier age of puberty in boars of the selected line that was substantiated by earlier enlargement of seminiferous tubules and earlier onset of sperm production (Harder et al., 1995; Rathje et al., 1995). In contrast with this, Meishan crossbred boars that reach puberty early have smaller testes and lower sperm production as adults than boars with later pubertal development (Lunstra et al., 2003). Collectively, these studies emphasize that the relationship of age at puberty and mature testicular size varies with the genotype of the boars that are under investigation. Informative genetic markers for testicular size would provide a means to select boars early in life with the best potential for greater sperm production as adults. A stimulus for this area of research was the observation that plasma concentrations of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) were negatively correlated with testicular size (Ford et al., 1997; Ford et al., 2001). Initial efforts to identify genetic markers utilized Meishan crossbred boars (Rohrer et al., 2001; Sato et al., 2003). Evidence to date indicates the presence of quantitative trait loci (QTL) on swine chromosomes X, 3, and 8 that harbor genes for testicular weight and/or plasma FSH concentrations. Additional information relating to chromosomes 3 and 8 has not advanced since these initial reports. On chromosome X, the thyroxine-binding globulin (TBG) gene resides in the QTL for plasma FSH, and Nonneman et al. (2005) determined that alleles for TBG predicted testicular size. Boars with the TBG allele inherited from the Meishan breed had smaller testes than boars with the TBG allele from a white composite line. However, to date, the Meishan allele for TBG has not been found in breeds of pigs used for commercial swine production. Studies are in progress to identify QTL for testicular size and sperm production in crossbred boars that do not contain the Meishan breed. Worth mentioning is that the Meishan TBG allele is also predictive of greater backfat thickness (Nonneman et al., 2005; Ponsuksili et al., 2005). Comparison of testicular size in Meishan and Piau boars with current day crossbreds draws attention to how easily testicular weight increased as pigs were selected for faster growth rate and leaner carcasses. This supports the observation by Harris (1883) that testicular size changed rapidly when boars were selected for greater body mass and greater fat content. Although data are unavailable, association of fatness with small testicular size is supported by photographs of older breeds of pigs that have not been selected intensively for leanness such as the Iberian and Mangalitza breeds. This ability to modify testicular size rapidly as preference for specific carcass characteristics underwent change substantiates a moderate to high heritability for testicular size. The BX line of pigs at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center is a composite of one-quarter Duroc, Yorkshire, maternal Landrace and terminal Landrace. Considerable variation exists for testicular size of post-pubertal boars in this line creating a resource to investigate non-invasive procedures to use early in life as a means to predict post-pubertal testicular size and sperm production. However, estimation in pubertal boars of testicular size by ultrasound has proved less informative than desired thereby leaving identification of informative QTL as the most promising selection tool to develop for improving sperm production of boars used in commercial swine production.


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Jun 19, 2014 9:56 AM
Do you enjoy snapping photos constantly, but get embarrassed about whipping your camera out every other minute? The Narrative Clip ($229) can subtly take thousands of pictures a day for you. Slip it on to your pocket and it will automatically snap a photo every 30 seconds to thoroughly document your day. Come nighttime, upload them to your computer and keep the memories that are worth archiving. You'll be surprised at how many of the accidental pictures come out better than the shots you actually tried to stage.
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The DC Eagle is playing host this weekend to the 42nd annual Scarlet's Bake Sale, with members of the leather community and allies contributing an array of culinary creations and more to be auctioned off for a variety of noble causes. Money raised from the bake sale, always held the Saturday before Valentine's Day, benefits local charities in the D.C.-Baltimore area.
Originally intended to raise money for children's charities, the focus later steered toward other causes such as Food & Friends; Brother, Help Thyself; Moveable Feast; The Mautner Project; and Whitman-Walker Health. This year's beneficiaries have not yet been named.
Aside from simply raising money, the bake sale also offers a bit of spectacle. Each bake-sale submission is judged, with awards offered in a number of categories, such as best club entry or most outrageous, explains Peter Lloyd, co-owner of The DC Eagle. And the competition gets fiercely creative, he warns, recalling one cake with a miniature, working rollercoaster on it.
"Some of the awards are highly coveted," says Lloyd. "People really go all out."
Starting at 11 a.m. Sunday, participants will be able to drop off their bake-sale entries. Judging begins at 4:30 p.m., followed by the bake-sale auction at 5:30 p.m.
Lloyd specifically credits Ed Moore, Stephen Decker-Moore and Susan MacFarland for successfully organizing and spearheading Scarlet's Bake Sale for the past few years.
This year, in addition to the bake sale and auction, The DC Eagle is expanding the event as part of its pre-Valentine's festivities. Tonight, for example, the bar will host a clothing and gear auction to raise additional money for charity. The items will be worn by male models and auctioned off, piece by piece, according to the Facebook invitation.
The DC Eagle is located at 639 New York Ave. NW. For more information, call 202-347-6025 or visit dceagle.com.
Our daily emails are personally curated by our editors and feature a wide range of news, features, reviews and interviews. Don't miss out on any of our award-winning content -- from news to arts, cars to tech, food to fitness, we've got a bit of it all!
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This Day in Founding Fathers History - Where we bring you important dates in the lives and history of the Founding Generation. In 1856 on this day, violence erupted in Congress when Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina entered the Senate chamber and beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane.….Continue
Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – "The intriguing thing about reading Abel Upshur, or Judge Upshur, as he should be called, is that Upshur proceeds from the point of view that the fatal flaw in our American system -- and he predicts all the events of the 1860s and everything atrocious that has happened afterwards -- was brought about by what most of you think is the saving grace of the American system, which is the U.S. Constitution." Check out today's transcript ….Continue
Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Secretary of State in Kansas, Kris Kobach, has made a statement on Attorney General Eric Holder's letter written to Sam Brownback about Kansas's Second Amendment Protection Act, SB 102. This is a great lesson in constitutionality, kiddies. Pull up a chair, warm your hands around the campfire, and lend an ear. Check out today's transcript for the rest…….Continue
Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – To read this letter here is just to read the most laughable interpretation of the federal constitution -- I say laughable in 18th century terms. Of course today people think that what Eric Holder wrote, [mocking] "Yeah, he can do that." You have guys like Bill O'Reilly running around who will cite the supremacy clause for the silliest things and not even question it. You should question it. The Feds are not supreme and you ….Continue
Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Yesterday we talked to my buddy Mark Kreslins about the attempt to nullify Obamacare in the State of Oklahoma and that it stalled in the Oklahoma Senate because of the protestations of one historically ignorant senator, a gentlemen by the name of Clark Jolley. That's up for debate as to what's going to happen with that. There is another effort in the State of Kansas that is making its way to the desk of Governor Brownback. Che….Continue
Mike Church's daily Pile of Prep, chock full of Libertarian news stories claiming a Libertarian surge is here plus other [r]epublican stories used to perform the Mike Church Show on Sirius/XM Patriot channel 125.….Continue
This Day in Founding Founders History - Where we bring you important dates in the lives and history of the Founding Generation. On this day in 1861, Kansas became the 34th state to join the Union.….Continue
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Wooden Chair for Zoo Auction
I painted & donated this chair to the National Zoo for their silent auction, one small part of their major fundraising event held on 5/19/05. The winning bidder took the chair home for $400. Proceeds from the evening's gala event support the efforts of the Zoo to study & Protect wildlife and wild lands.


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The biggest Pay Per View of the Summer is Sunday night, live on the WWE Network (for 9.9....you get the point). So let's jump into the match predictions! Who Ya Got?!
- Stephanie McMahon vs Brie Bella---
Even Though Steph has made for a fantastic villain, I just don't see her getting her way in this well built match (that had two segments on the go-home episode of Raw). After both women were arressted, one affair, and a lot of slapping, I see Brie Bella
coming out ahead at SummerSlam. My pick--Brie Bella
- Paige vs AJ Lee---
I Love the heel turn of Paige almost as much as I love her. These two should get enough time to put together the best Diva's match of the year. I'm not sure where they will go from here, but this feud has been one of the better feuds in the Diva Division. My heart picks Paige, but I think A.J Lee pulls it out. My Pick--A.J Lee.
- Miz vs Dolph Ziggler---
The Miz will put his Intercontinental title on the line against Dolph Ziggler. The crowds have been getting behind of Ziggler and the I have no idea why they didn't give him the title. The Miz has been irrellevent for years now and if they are going to unify the mid card titles, why waste it with this guy? This is the biggest event of the summer so I think WWE will do right by the WWE Universe. My Pick--Ziggler
- Jack Swagger vs Rusev-Flag Match---
Jack Swagger has never been more over in his career then he has been in this feud. Both of these guys are unique and both should get a push forward. Swagger made Cesaro tap out on the go-home episode of Monday Night Raw and I hope they stop wasting his talent and get him in the main event where he belongs. Now all real Americans reading this stand up, put your hand over your heart and say it in a loud clear voice, We The People! My Pick---Jack Swagger
- Randy Orton vs Roman Reigns---
I hate to say it, but this match just doesn't excite me, and it's not because of Randy Orton (because he is probably the best wrestler of his generation), but because of Roman. I don't think the matches they have been putting him in has been helping, and I have yawned a few times till his 'five moves of doom' set up. He's not electric on the mic by no means, and he is the third best in-ring talent of the Shield members. In the trio, his weaknesses were hidden or compensated by Rollins and Ambrose, but they stick out in plain sight when he is solo. I know he is destined to be a superstar, but I think they need to groom him more. They don't need to do anything with Randy as he is already a future Hall of Famer. With that said, I hope these two put on a great show. My Pick--Roman Reigns to help his climb up.
- Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins---
This could be the match that steals the pay per view. The build has been fantastic, both of these guys have been at eachother a lot but the big payoff match should be huge! I do NOT like the lumberjack match, but that tells us that this feud could be around longer (and I'm okay with that). Dean Ambrose jumping out of the present on Raw was genius. Ambrose is so entertaining, I thought he would be the first of the three tobe WWE Champion (could still happen, but as long as he gets there). Seth Rollins has been great in his role in the Authority (and usually getting the Raw match of the night honors weekly) and I am very interested to see what they do with the briefcase. I'd like to see these two go at it for the briefcase at a PPV. I'm going to guess that Ambrose wins this match but not cleanly. What can go wrong in a lumbermatch you ask? We'll see it Sunday. My Pick--Ambrose
- Chris Jericho vs Bray Wyatt---
The One on One interview with these two was such a great idea (and not because Bray told Michael Cole to leave). These are two of the best going and have exactly what it takes to steal 'Match of the Night'. The clean win Jericho got over Bray last month was confusing, but I don't see these two calling it quits after SummerSlam, and will be anticipating a rubber match (maybe with some title implications). Wyatt needs to have his next year planned out because he is that special of a talent that's been working with the big boys. If Jericho goes on tour soon, hopefully we get an A+ Jericho match that he gives us almost every time a big PPV comes up. My pick--Bray Wyatt
- Brock Lesnar vs John Cena---
I'm not sure if this will be match of the night, but I am really looking forward to this showdown. Both of these guys are powerhouses and could give us a convincing brawl. Say what you want to about John Cena, but he shows up in these big matches. I don't think anything should stop Brock, and I wouldn't want anything to stop Paul Heyman and his promo's. I don't have a problem with part-timer Lesnar winning the title as long as he shows up to PPV's to defend it. The Rock was a part-time champion, so I have no problem with Paul Heyman coming out to cut a promo and then Brock comes the Raw before the PPV to look impressive. My Pick--Winner and NEW Champion--Brock Lesnar
I don't think we'll see any a MITB cash in from Rollins since we saw it last year, but you never know the this event. The goal is to put together the best PPV of the year to compete with WrestleMania and they usually do. This is a great card and I'm very much looking forward to watching the summer classic. And if you have forgotten, you can catch it on the WWE Network for $9.99!