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Pride Of The Yankees : Sheff's All About The Money
Clearly, Gary held the hammer in this exchange. How can the fledgling YES Network become a success without his star power on promos, interviews and the like?
Clearly, Gary held the hammer in this exchange. How can the fledgling YES Network become a success without his star power on promos, interviews and the like?
To paraphrase my good friend Reggie, for the GM of a major league baseball club to have this much time to respond to nonsense internet chatter isn't a good sign for the business.
Or maybe he's just capable of engaging in give and take in a public forum.
ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney interviews San Diego GM Kevin Towers in the latest issue of the glossy ; the Padres exec comes clean about the extent of his knowledge of the late Ken Caminiti's steriod use. Though this isn't as flashy a headline as Bonds, Giambi or Sheffield's grand jury testimony, it oughta be. We already know that Caminiti was juiced. But for the first time, a management figure pretty much confirms one of Jose Canseco's main points — baseball knew were the power surge was coming from, and did nothing to stop it.
"I feel somewhat guilty, because I felt like I knew," Towers says, watching the Padres take batting practice from the balcony outside his spring-training office in suburban Phoenix. "I still don't know for sure, but Cammy came out and said that he used steroids, and I suspected. Selfishly, the guy was putting up numbers, and I didn't do anything about it. That's just the truth."
Baseball needs a lot of honesty right now. It needs a lot of people to ask themselves questions and answer honestly, as Towers is.
"The truth is, we're in a competitive business," Towers says, "and these guys were putting up big numbers and helping your ballclub win games. You tended to turn your head on things. And it really wakes you up when someone you admire as a person is no longer around. You can't help but think, could I have done something differently four or five years ago that might have changed what happened to him?
"I hate to be the one voice for the other 29 GMs, but I'd have to imagine that all of them, at one point or other, had reason to think that a player on their ballclub was probably using, based on body changes and things that happened over the winter."
The Padres were a baseball laughingstock after their 1993 fire sale, and before the 1995 season, they traded for Caminiti in an 11-player deal. Tony Gwynn was the face of the team, but Caminiti gave them an identity, playing hard every day, diving in the dirt at third base and throwing out runners while sitting on his backside.
He played sick, he played hurt, he was the MVP in 1996, and the Padres won a division championship, revitalizing a dormant franchise. And he was on steroids.
"We went through a real difficult time in 1994, with the strike," Towers says. "Then some amazing things happened. Home runs were up. Fans were flocking to ballparks, lining up to watch batting practice. But we all realized that there were things going on within the game that were affecting the integrity of the game. I think we all knew it, but we didn't say anything about it."
(Kevin letting the young Matt Bush know that San Diego will not tolerate any further lawbreaking)
Towers believes money was not Caminiti's motivation for taking steroids. Rather, he thinks Caminiti only wanted to find a way to play every day, through a 90 percent tear of his throwing shoulder, through injuries that plagued him. Steroids helped him recover from day to day. But during the 1998 season, Caminiti's last with the team, Towers saw the relentless and powerful third baseman crumble, sometimes falling down during his swing.
"He could hardly stay on his feet," Towers says. "It just got to the point where his body couldn't handle it anymore. He was broke physically, and broke mentally.
"I feel as GM I probably get to know these guys better than my own family. And as a young GM, what Cammy did not only for the organization, but for my career … If he's not there, not only am I not wearing a ring, who knows if I'm still a general manager? Those were three of the best years we ever had."
Towers was stunned by Caminiti's regression. "I thought, wow, here's a player I care about, like he's part of my family. I knew he had a problem. But I never did anything about it, because selfishly, it helped the organization and helped me."
The Boston Herald's Steve Bulpett on the choices facing Gary Payton.
Gary Payton should be placed on waivers today by Atlanta and, assuming he clears, the point guard is leaning toward a return to the Celtics.
"We've reached an agreement with the Hawks, and things should be in place no later than early (today)," said Payton's agent, Aaron Goodwin. "It's just going to be a matter of getting the paperwork approved by the league."
The unlikelihood that Payton will be claimed off waivers is based on the fact a team would have to be more than $5.4 million under the salary cap or have an exception that size to take on the veteran.
Payton then will be free to sign where he wishes, and Goodwin said yesterday he has had some interesting calls from teams which reportedly include Miami and Phoenix.
"Quite honestly, Gary's out with his family and his mom, and I haven't talked to him much," Goodwin said. "I think he's leaning toward coming back to the Celtics. I think he likes what's going on in Boston. I still have to talk to him about things, but I think that's where he wants to end up. But you never know with Gary."
Meanwhile, the Celtics don't appear to be counting on anything with Payton just yet. There still is interest in bringing back Kenny Anderson, who was waived by the Hawks to make room for their new players. Anderson said he will sign with either the Clippers or Celts.
From the Chicago Sun Times' Doug Padilla.
No longer able to hold his tongue, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen sounded off on Magglio Ordonez on Sunday morning after another round of comments critical of Sox management.
In a story in Sunday's Chicago Sun-Times, Ordonez praised his new owner with the Detroit Tigers, Mike Ilitch, and in the next breath said he doesn't understand why his former owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, won't pay the money to keep his best players.
Enough was enough for Guillen, who has grown tired of reading and hearing about Ordonez's shots at the Sox.
"This is bull [bleep]," Guillen told the Sun-Times, pointing to a copy of Ordonez's quotes. "This is girl [stuff]. Every time there are a couple of [reporters] over there with a piece of paper and a pencil in his hand, is he going to talk about the White Sox? Come on, just move on. Just play your game and forget about the White Sox."
Guillen is most bothered by the fact that Ordonez is making himself out to be the victim when he was offered three separate contracts by the Sox last season, including at least one after he went down for the season with a knee injury.
He also was irked that Ordonez has implied the Sox aren't interested in winning and that Ordonez says the Sox tried to exaggerate his injury to make him less attractive to other suitors.
"Don't come around and make this thing look like crap when you're not right, when you know you're lying," Guillen said. "Don't lie. You can say whatever you want: I want to make some money, I hate Kenny Williams, I hate Jerry Reinsdorf, I hope they die — whatever you want to say. But don't come out every day and say things to make sure you look good with the fans.
"[Don't] say that they [Williams and Reinsdorf] are horse [bleep] and I'm not. Because now the fans and the media, they will hear what I have to say, and they know I won't bull-[bleep] them."
"I'd rather see the player say, 'Listen, I wanted out of there because I wanted more money,"' Guillen said. "I respect that. When Alex Rodriguez said he wanted out of there because 'I want to win,' Seattle won 100 games with him [actually 91 in 2000] and they won 116 without him [in 2001]. If you want to win, that's a winning team. You left because of the money, and Magglio left because of the money.
"You're going to tell me all the cities he could go to, there is a better city than Chicago? He was a legend here with the White Sox. A lot of people wanted him to finish his career here with the White Sox, and count Ozzie Guillen in that group."
The soon to be fatherless Craig Harris.
(before and after)
This particular deathwatch is so much easier to endure if instead of watching CNN 24-7, we just rely on someone's else's sage observations.
(The Kid & Straw congratulate Air America's Al Franken upon being first in line to purchase 2005 Mets ducats)
Mets tickets are on sale and the Daily News' Mike Lupica talks to young men who think that's a big deal.
Victor Vazquez, 21 years old, from the College of Staten Island, was maybe five spots from the front of the line. He was dressed in a blue North Face ski parka and matching ski pants and looked as if he was ready for cross-country skiing if the snow forecast for today came early. He was with his buddy, another Staten Island kid named Mike Candela, a junior. The car they came in, a red Pontiac Sunfire, was right there, a choice spot, primo they said, directly in front of the Mets' store.
They had come on Saturday night. They thought the line would be shorter on 42nd Street than out at Shea Stadium. Vazquez would hold the spot when Candela would go for coffee, or food. They would take turns getting warm in the Sunfire.
"We always root for the Mets," Victor Vazquez said, "even when we stink. But now we feel like the owners have shown us that they give a damn again."
"You want to know when we started talking about making the trip into town, pulling the all-nighter?" Candela said. "When they got Pedro. Even before Beltran. Pedro showed us, right off the bat, things were gonna be different with Omar (Minaya) in charge."
"Hey," Vazquez said, "we stayed out all night the year they signed (Roberto) Alomar and (Roger) Cedeño, so it's not like we think we got a sure thing here."
And someone stayed out all night the years the Mets acquired Bret Saberhagen, Eddie Murray, Vince Coleman, Bobby Bonilla and George Foster before that. Maybe even the year the Mets signed Mike Cameron. I don't wanna puke on the parade or anything, but this is still a team with no middle relief, problems in RF, LF and behind the plate. And the Queens version of depth = Gerald Williams and Andres Gallaraga at camp.
Jon Heyman's best friendster, David Sloane, continues to rub it in. The agent for Marlins 1B Carlos Delgado seems all to eager to burn all bridges, toll roads and highways to Mets GM Omar Minaya, writes Newday's David Lennon.
The Mets convinced Carlos Beltran and Pedro Martinez, the two most coveted free agents, to take their money this winter. But it is the one that got away, Carlos Delgado, who won't go away.
Delgado's agent, David Sloane, apparently is not satisfied that his client snubbed the Mets to sign a similar four-year, $52-million contract with the Marlins. Why else would Sloane send out an e-mail of a Toronto Sun story that traces a timeline of Delgado's path to Florida and portrays Al Leiter as a Mets detractor?
According to Sloane's account in the story, Leiter was a key figure in Delgado's meeting with Marlins officials Jan. 15 at Joe's Stone Crab in Miami, when he reportedly conjured a nightmare scenario of playing in New York.
Leiter is quoted as saying, "Who better to discourage him from going to New York?" He then describes what happens when things go poorly in the media capital of the world. "It just chip, chip, chip, chips away at your resolve, cracking away your protective toughness," he said. "Every bad game it's like, 'Are you worried? … The manager says this … Are you worried?' You begin to doubt yourself. That's why slumps in New York are so elongated.
"Then the guys on [talk radio] get on you, move it up another notch, and everyone driving to the game listens. You get to the park and your home fans are booing you and after the game you say something stupid."
Mets officials were surprised that Leiter might have been the secret weapon for the Marlins in winning the Delgado sweepstakes, and Leiter denied that he specifically ripped his former team during the negotiations.
"I don't know if I said exactly that, but it sounds like that actually happens to players from time to time," Leiter said yesterday in an e-mail exchange. "I wasn't ripping New York. I was telling him how sometimes it is more difficult to get out of slumps and it is when a player slumps that he is most vulnerable."
Mets general manager Omar Minaya dismissed the notion that Delgado was scared away by Leiter. "When you create a winning environment, people want to come there," Minaya said. "It also comes down to dollars and cents, and trust. I always ask the player if he feels like he could handle New York, and even if he says yes, I can tell by looking in his eyes if he really feels that way."
Ed Whitson could not be reached for comment.
The New York Times' Charles Nobles on the big league aspirations of journeyman OF Kerry Robinson.
Thee speedy outfielder Kerry Robinson has never had a chance to start extensively since becoming a major leaguer in 1998. Robinson, a free-agent acquisition by the Mets, is looking at another long-shot situation this season. Cliff Floyd, Carlos Beltran and Mike Cameron are expected to be the starters when healthy.
Yet Robinson, 31, does not lack confidence. As a player who relies far more on swiftness than power, he likens himself to Juan Pierre, a center fielder for the Florida Marlins. In his five-year career, Pierre has hit .312 with 210 stolen bases and 424 runs scored, helping the Marlins win the 2003 World Series.
The speed and effectiveness of Pierre, hitting leadoff, and the Marlins' No. 2 hitter, Luis Castillo, has led other teams, including the Mets, to seek speed at the top of the lineup. The Mets are doing that with José Reyes, Kazuo Matsui and Beltran.
"I think of myself as Juan Pierre if he never got a chance to start," Robinson said Sunday, before rain cut the Mets' practice short. "If I could play every day, I think over the course of a season I could really do some damage."
Robinson has played in 445 major league games, yet has never started more than 31 in a season. He played in 80 games for San Diego last season, but had just 92 at-bats. He did hit .293, stealing 11 bases and scoring 20 runs.
Omar Minaya, the Mets' general manager, persuaded Robinson to sign in December. Robinson liked hearing Minaya talk about the Mets' building for a brighter future, but that was just before Beltran signed a $119 million contract, locking down the last starting outfield job.
Robinson shrugged when asked about that Sunday. He said he had some idea it might happen. He seems not to mind competing to be the Mets' fifth and final outfielder. Eric Valent, who hit .267 with 13 home runs in 130 games last season, appears to have the inside track to be the fourth outfielder. Robinson, a left-handed batter, will compete for the fifth spot with Gerald Williams and Ron Calloway, other players with major league pedigrees.
It seems as though the Braves will beat Tim Hudson's March 1 deadline and sign the former A's star to an extension. The Sporting News' Ken Rosenthal, no doubt offended that his reportage is reduced to mere bullet points in this setting, wrote earlier today :
The Braves are close to signing right-hander Tim Hudson to a four-year extension worth approximately $48 million with a vesting option for a fifth year.
Hudson (above), 29, likely would have commanded at least five years and $75 million as a free agent after this season, but his desire to play 75 miles from his home in Auburn, Ala., is proving the overriding factor in negotiations. The signing of Hudson would enable the Braves to keep their five current starters together through at least 2006 while allowing top prospect Kyle Davies to complete his development at his own pace.
From the same UK channel that brought us "Banzai" and "So Graham Norton" comes the reality show that will hopefully snuff out the genre. From the Sunday Herald's Damien Love.
Earlier this year, in an anonymous building in east London, Channel 4 set up its latest reality show house. This one did not require a hot tub or chickens, but the spirit of the original, Orwellian, Big Brother hovered around it. No-one was voted out, but three of its seven voluntary inhabitants left before the 48-hour shoot was over.
In that time, the volunteers, all men, were, to varying degrees, lightly tortured: stripped, slapped, subjected to extremes of temperature, screamed at, touched, blindfolded, shackled, forced to soil themselves, deprived of food, disoriented, isolated, intimidated, humiliated, threatened, deprived of sleep, and then put through it all again.
The first to leave was taken out after 10 hours, suffering stress and hypothermia. The last, one of the first to vomit, finally asked to be let out because he couldn™t take what was being done to him anymore. Earlier, he had become so distracted he™d failed to notice his handcuffs had cut off the blood to his hands. Interviewed later, he seemed shocked numb.
What to make of The Guantanamo Guidebook? This one-off, which recreates inside a Hackney warehouse procedures used at the US prison camp in Cuba, where œenemy combatants have been detained without charge since 2002, is the centrepiece of Channel 4™s week-long Torture strand.
The season explores a post-9/11 acceptance of, even appetite for, torture " or, to use the Newspeak euphemism, œenhanced interrogation techniques " within the US and UK administrations. An acceptance this has led to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, and to the situation where Britain will happily use information extracted from captives in Uzbekistan, whose intelligence agencies (according to Craig Murray, our former ambassador to that country) boil their prisoners alive.
You must remember that these techniques are only the mildest of those actually employed; that these volunteers can leave at any time. Then, for it to work, you must imagine this is not the case. It teeters between documentary experiment, and some hardcore reality revival of Endurance, the famous Japanese gameshow, whose contestants won for being able to stand having their nipples burned the longest. It is easy to imagine someone watching thinking, œI could handle that. Indeed, the original adverts for volunteers asked prospective entrants how œhard they were. It unwittingly runs the risk of introducing the idea that light torture might not be so bad. But it is grim, genuinely unsettling watching, and maybe constructive. If all The Guantanamo Guidebook manages is to force us to glimpse the tip of the iceberg, then wonder more about what enormities lie beneath, it™s worthwhile.
The New York Post's Marc Berman suggests one possible reason Isiah Thomas is so eager to load up on draft picks
Knicks president Isiah Thomas talked with great enthusiasm Thursday night after the trade deadline about using his four first-round picks across the next two drafts on four young players.
But there is a possibility of using one of those first-rounders on one old coach " namely, Hall-of-Famer Larry Brown.
The Knicks can never admit it publicly because they'd be tampering, but two league sources said Thomas knows he is now in much better position to make a deal for a head coach " not just Brown " who might be under contract elsewhere.
Before Thursday, the Knicks were in no position to land Brown. It's been widely speculated that the Knicks would have to fork over their first-round pick along with cash this June if they wanted to get Brown from under his Piston contract, which runs another three years.
Problem is, the Knicks are forbidden from trading their own first-round pick under NBA rules. A team mat not deal its own first-round pick in two successive years. The Knicks shipped their 2004 first-rounder to Phoenix in the Stephon Marbury deal.
Now Isiah is well-stocked with picks that he can use to deal with Detroit or another club. When Pat Riley was freed from breaking the Knicks' contract to join Miami in 1995, the Heat gave the Knicks a first-rounder and $1 million. The Pistons might look greedy to ask for more than the late first-rounder the Knicks acquired from San Antonio Thursday, a second-rounder and $3 million in cash.
I popped into a W12 Safeway on Friday afternoon and cast a quick glance (as I often do) at the poster listing recalled products. Usually, said food stuffs will number no more than 4 or 5 in length and the overall threat to public health is minimal.
So imagine my shock and awe to see some 6 dozen products on the Safeway recall list. What the fuck happened? Or more to the point, could there been something of interest in the UK papers besides Mourniho-baiting or Prince Charles marrying a horse?
As it turns out, my ignorance is no excuse, though a quick glance at the Safeway poster might've saved me a trip to casualty.
ESPN.com on threats against baseball's Salmon Rushdie, Jose Canseco.
Jose Canseco's book "Juiced" is generating more than its share of controversy. It's also provoking death threats.
The Chicago Tribune reported Saturday than an e-mail death threat submitted through Canseco's Web site forced Canseco to halt his book-signing tour.
Canseco's attorney Robert Saunooke told the paper the FBI is investigating the threat and has identified the sender of the e-mail with help from AOL.
"We are not taking the threat lightly," Saunooke told the paper. "It's not that I believe Jose is in immediate danger. He's a black belt in three different kinds of karate, so he can take care of himself.
No truth to the rumor that the offending e-mail came from the address "firstname.lastname@example.com".
The New York Post's Michael Morrisey on the disappointing news that George Steinbrenner's first erruption of 2005 wasn't caused by A-Rod, Larry Lucchino or David Wells, but rather by superagent Arn Tellum.
(News Corp., mindful of sensitive readers)
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who has evaded reporters and sidestepped controversy this month, expressed his extreme displeasure with the way Arn Tellem has handled Giambi by using one choice four-letter word.
"[Bleep] the agent," Steinbrenner told reporters from a Legends Field elevator. "He's no good."
he Boss is ticked that Tellem has advised Giambi against using the word "steroids" in any of his conversations about BALCO. If the embattled Yankees slugger does make an official admission, the Bombers would have better legal standing to void the remaining $82 million on his contract.
Sources said they believe Steinbrenner also is fuming because he thinks Tellem leaked the story about how the word "steroids" was dropped from Giambi's contract.
The Boss is apoplectic that Tellem attempted to spin that particular story to make the Yankees look like willing co-conspirators, when in reality the club replaced the phrase with broader language that still protected them against steroid use, sources say.
Thus, George M. Steinbrenner momentarily became George F. Steinbrenner, or George Carlin. Steinbrenner, who stunned reporters with his matter-of-fact F-bomb, came down to the Yankees clubhouse a few minutes later and apologized.
"I just don't like the guy," he said. "I'm not happy with him."
Other Yankees said they think Tellem is acting professionally on behalf of his client and have no problem with that.
"Well, the court told Jason that he could say anything he wanted to," Steinbrenner said. "And then Arn Tellem says, 'No, he doesn't. He doesn't say anything.' "
Tellem countered that court officials told Giambi he might be a federal witness in the future and was led to believe he shouldn't talk about his grand jury testimony.
Asked if Giambi would've come off better during his New York press conference if he had explained what he had apologized for, the Boss responded, "I don't know what he was apologizing for. You'll have to ask him."
Steinbrenner said he wasn't angry with Giambi and gave him a big hug on the field at the end of yesterday's workout.
"This is all news to me," a sweaty Giambi told reporters at his locker afterward.
Newsday's Jon Heyman, as you'd expect, doesn't have much sympathy for the Boss.
Giambi batted an anemic .208 last season after reportedly testifying he was a regular steroid user, so it's surprising The Boss held back this long. By now he must know he would have been better off investing in a mutual fund of WorldCom, Enron and that personal favorite of his, Krispy Kreme Donuts.
Yankees execs can't be sure whether Giambi's finished. With the effects of the steroids presumably wearing off, there's no telling what he'll be. No matter what he is, he isn't worth the $82 million coming to him. What's worse, they're pretty sure they're stuck with him.
Steinbrenner is blaming the wrong party for this mess, anyway. If he doesn't like Giambi's deal, he needs to grab a mirror.
Steinbrenner is the one who insisted on Giambi. The Yankees could have brought back Tino Martinez on a two- or three-year deal, kept their chemistry intact and spent the extra loot elsewhere. But Steinbrenner is fascinated by the long ball. He was in love.
Steinbrenner and his executives messed up. They showed bad taste and poor judgment by signing a player everyone strongly suspected of being on steroids even if they didn't absolutely know it. They had to know he was a player who liked to get out, and stay out, past midnight.
Yankees people haven't completely given up challenging the contract, but their current strategy appears to involve waiting for Giambi to slip up and say the wrong thing. That's a longshot.
While Giambi is anything but cautious in the way he lives his life, he is oh so careful not to make any admission that could jeopardize the $82 million. If you think reporters were frustrated by Giambi's murky apology, that's nothing compared to how Steinbrenner feels.
"The court told Jason he could say anything he wanted to. Then Arn Tellem says no, he doesn't. He doesn't say anything," Steinbrenner said.
"I just don't like the guy," Steinbrenner said about Tellem.
It's hard to love someone who's taken you to the cleaners. And made you stay.
(utility man Jose McEwing, happy to welcome teammates of all ethnic backgrounds to spring training)
The Daily News' Adam Rubin gets Omar Minaya's views on public reaction to the changing makeup of the New York Mets.
Omar Minaya had dramatically altered the face of the Mets in one winter, from Al Leiter and John Franco to Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran. As he did, the whispers began throughout New York, about the ethnicity of Minaya's imports.
"Los Mets," became a phrase uttered often, albeit quietly, or anonymously on fan message boards, though it was even used in the clubhouse this spring.
Minaya, the Mets' Dominican-born general manager, finds the phrase objectionable.
"People who make those comments have a racial bent to their thinking," Minaya says. "When you hear that, you ask yourself, 'Do they make those comments when the staffs are all another race?' But look, when you are doing something that has never been done before, people are going to make comments. A lot of times it's part of being a minority."
The rapidness of the Mets' transformation, coupled with the profile of the players involved in this winter's retooling – Leiter, Franco, Mike Stanton and Vance Wilson out; Martinez, Beltran, Felix Heredia, Miguel Cairo and Andres Galarraga in – may give a false impression of the Mets clubhouse diversity relative to other clubs. An analysis of baseball's 40-man rosters shows the Mets rank tied for 10th of 30 teams in percentage of players born in Latin America (27.5%) – though it's worth noting that the team Minaya formerly led, the Expos-turned-Nationals, tied with the Dodgers for highest percentage at 37.5.
Throw in the non-roster invitees at Mets camp this year – of which 11 of 27 are Latin American-born – and one player labels the number of Hispanic players in the clubhouse as "very, very high."
If the Mets fielded 25 players from Mars who could do the job, that would be fine with me.
Just another quiet week for Jose Mourinho ; knocked out of the FA Cup last weekend by Newcastle, dealt a serious blow to his Champions League hopes on Wednesday at the hands of Barcelona, Sunday saw Chelsea win the least coveted piece of silverwear on offer, getting out of jail via Steven Gerrard's own goal in the 78th minute. Mourinho wasn't around for the surprise equalizer, nor Chelsea's extra time victory, having been sent off before intermission for gesturing towards Liverpool supporters.
You can hear the shy, retiring Mourinho's explanation here. (Real Player required).
Is Mourinho losing his cool at the first signs of pressure, or does everyone with a notepad just hate the former Barca translator cause he's so handsome? Either way, Manchester United's 2-1 win over Portsmouth yesterday narrowed Chelsea's lead atop the Premeireship to a mere 6 points.
From the Associated Press :
TAMPA, Fla. – A former minor-league teammate of Jason Giambi said in a to-be-released issue of GQ that Giambi felt pressure from the Athletics to become a home-run hitter.
Terance Frazier, described as Giambi's closest friend and confidant at Class A Modesto, Calif., told the magazine: "He was getting pressure from the organization. He said they were telling him he needed to hit home runs. He was getting frustrated."
According to a San Francisco Chronicle story late last year, Giambi admitted to a federal grand jury investigating BALCO that he used performance-enhancing steroids and human growth hormone for at least three seasons. Giambi refuses to answer direct questions about his steroid use, but he says he told the truth to the grand jury.
Sandy Alderson, who was the Oakland general manager at the time, could not be reached for comment.
And of course, Giambi's experience was unique to young players stationed at what is generally considered to be a power position (unless you're Jason Philips or Dave Magadan) — no other first baseman in the history of minor or major league baseball has been told that he needs to hit more home runs. In light of this staggering revelation, Giambi's drug indiscretions are not only excuseable, but I hope he considers suing the A's, Major League Baseball and the China Club, all for contributing to a hostile work environment.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Joe Strauss on the enigmatic Rich Ankiel, still trying to recapture the form he flashed a half decade ago.
By the first week of April the Cardinals hope to anoint Ankiel as part of their staff – either as the surrogate for rehabilitating starting pitcher Matt Morris or as a long reliever.
"He's out of options. You've got to assume he's going to be on your ballclub," Duncan said. "The way I'm looking at it is, how's he going to pitch, what's he going to do? When I watch Rick pitch I'm trying to envision how he's going to be part of our staff. I'm not thinking about anything else."
"Everybody has a responsibility, and Rick is going to have a responsibility. There isn't anything special about his responsibility. He's got one-eleventh or one-twelfth of it," assessed manager Tony La Russa, referring to the question of whether he takes 11 or 12 pitchers into the season.
Ankiel (above), now 25, threw 40 pitches to four hitters. Five were hit but only two left the cage. Only Gonzalez's opposite-field swing on a too-high offering would have fallen for a hit.
A breaking pitch hit third baseman Scott Seabol in the foot but left no bruise.
"He looked good," Duncan said, estimating that the lefthander's mechanics looked to be in proper alignment for all but five pitches – an acceptable ratio in his first exposure against hitters this spring. "He got a little flat on a couple but otherwise it looked very solid."
"Everything he threw was good," said catcher Yadier Molina. "It's exciting."
Ankiel's career has been stop and start since October 2000. Command problems, elbow issues and ligament replacement surgery have derailed a pitcher who teased the Cardinals with 11 wins before turning 22.
Returning last summer from surgery in July 2003, Ankiel worked 23 2/3 innings among Tennessee, Memphis and St. Louis.
He made five appearances for the Cardinals, doing nothing to quell anticipation for his return.
"I was excited to see him," La Russa said. "He pitched just a few times, but watching his bullpen sessions, he showed what he's capable of because he was pitching. He put a little on, took a little off, moving it around, showing two or three fastballs, a couple different breaking balls and a good change. That's something to get excited about."
What Duncan once lambasted as a media-induced "freak show" has dissipated. The only remaining obstacle is for Ankiel to become more comfortable throwing to bases.
Duncan sees improvement in the changeup that almost disappeared the past several seasons. The curveball is still knee-buckling. The fastball still climbs into the mid-90s.
Therre is no remaining margin for delay. Ankiel has no remaining options, meaning he must first clear waivers for the Cardinals to send him to the minors.
His breakout 2000 season and remaining potential make that virtually impossible.
"I'm excited, but who has a crystal ball?" La Russa asked. "He pitched a lot last year, his arm got sore; he's just got to stay healthy. We'll
As a postscript to yesterday's tale of the eBay winner who wanted to rename the FleetCenter, "Derek Jeter's Range At Short Isn't That Bad Center", the following is from ESPN's Darren Rovell.
There will be no Derek Jeter Center after all.
On Tuesday, New York attorney Kerry Konrad won the right in an eBay auction to name Boston's FleetCenter for a day. For his $2,325, Konrad wanted to honor the New York Yankees shortstop.
But, on Friday, FleetCenter officials rejected the name, which Konrad hoped would add to the 25-year rivalry he has had with his former college classmates who are Boston Red Sox fans.
"We decided that all the names had to be rated G, and this name was determined to be obscene and vulgar," said Richard A. Krezwick, president and chief executive of the FleetCenter, which has auctioned off daily naming rights to about a dozen companies since its contract with the bank was terminated. "We were afraid of the volume of phone calls bogging down our switchboard, the number of e-mails clogging our portal and the potential graffiti on the side of our building."
When reached at his office, Konrad said he was not disappointed.
"I had no idea that this joke would get so much attention in the first place," Konrad said. "It was a joke. I've already had my laugh. But I could have made it much worse, like the A-Rod Center, Bucky Dent Center, the Aaron Boone Center, or the 'Only 25 More [championships] To Go' Center."
To be fair, the Red Sox are only 20 championships behind the Yankees' major league record 26.
Instead, on March 1, the building will be named the Jimmy Fund Center. Jerry Rappaport Jr., Konrad's ex-college roommate and Red Sox fan, added $6,275 to Konrad's bid — to reach $8,600 in total to signify the 86-year Boston Red Sox curse that was broken in 2004. The money will go to The Jimmy Fund, which supports the fight against cancer through Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
(Jimmy Key, thrilled to have an empty building in downtown Boston named after him, if only for a day)
Andy Breckman of WFMU's "7 Second Delay" suggests pretending you're retarded when the telemarketers ring.
I've found that pretending I'm turned on usually ends the call rather quickly — even faster if I'm not pretending.
As hinted at yesterday, Gary Payton is not expected to report to Atlanta following yesterday's Antoine Walker trade. The veteran point guard has requested a buyout of his contract, according to the Boston Herald's Mark Murphy.
Payton may return to the Celtics under a new free agent deal.
Atlanta, according to multiple sources, has agreed to buy Payton out of what's left on the final year of his contract.
Though agent Aaron Goodwin declined comment last night, his client is already believed to be receiving inquiries from several teams in anticipation of the buyout.
Though Miami has reportedly expressed interest, the Celtics are still considered a favorite to keep Payton in green, based on the starting role they can offer him. With Dwyane Wade now in a shooting guard role, and Damon Jones also commanding major backcourt minutes, the Heat may not have the same opportunity for Payton.
The 36-year-old point guard, reportedly in Los Angeles visiting his family last night, was unavailable for comment.
In what sounds like it was the lamest WFAN promo-stunt since Don Imus began dragging sick kids to his ranch in an atempt to become Michael Jackson with jowls, the NY Daily News' Bob Raissman attended the FAN's NHL "funeral".
The Rosenberg and Benigno show might have been delivered to WFAN dead on arrival, but yesterday the casket was not reserved for sports talk radio's version of the Bowery Boys.
The box was meant for an organization as twisted as any of Sidiot's "comedy" stylings. An organization as irrational as some of Benigno's old midnight monologues.
The National Hockey League.
That's who this mock funeral was for. That's why so many people in the small crowd were smiling. A joke is supposed to be funny. And there is no bigger punch line in sports than the NHL.
Gary Bettman's league is nothing more than a resource for Letterman and Leno.
This did not dawn on Benigno. He was a few minutes away from being able to dump on Bettman and Bob Goodenow, two humorless bureaucrats, but seemed reluctant to seize the opportunity. Deep in conversation with FAN GM Lee Davis, Benigno said something about facing "an embarrassing" moment. Davis put his arm around Benigno. The talkie just dragged on a cigarette and threw it to the ground.
Perhaps Benigno was embarrassed over the size of the turnout. Forty. Tops. Maybe less. Math ain't my thing.
There was a mixture of FAN employees, a few true fans, and some curious bystanders who wandered out of the restaurant.
Sidiot stood at the podium looking down at the casket, which contained a pillow and a couple of hockey sweaters. Someone asked if he was cold.
"If I stand here 20 more minutes I may be in there," said Rosenberg, pointing to the casket.
Sidiot's detractors could only hope.
Someone read a hockey poem (fortunately it was short) before Benigno took over the microphone.
"I'd like to thank everybody that showed up here today," Benigno said. "I question your intelligence.
"… It's tough for a Rangers fan. It's another year where we won't make the playoffs, but nobody else will, either."
Adding more ice to the atomosphere, Benigno segued into a somber spiel. Another dissertation on the salary cap would not bring any heat to this soiree.
Rosenberg broke the ice. He said the lost season has left fans with many important questions.
"The most pressing of all is: What's Carol Alt going to do now?" Rosenberg asked.
Another question offered by Sidiot? "Is a former haberdasher turned prostitute now a hat trick?"
Rosenberg obviously consulted with spiritual scholars to find the most appropriate line to close out his eulogy.
"So, to the NHL, puck you. And oh yeah, Potvin sucks."
How darn moving.
From Peter Vescey in Friday's NY Post :
On a day it might've been easier for the NBA to relocate franchises rather than move the multitude of traded players, Isiah Thomas almost did exactly the opposite of what he's been saying over the last couple weeks he wouldn't do.
There's nothing more damning than spouting a conflicting philosophy.
Once again the Knicks have exchanged two bad players with undesirable contracts – plus their one and only pro center – for a pair of fringe starters with longer and higher salaries.
In the opaque opinion of the team's patronizing president, anybody who can't see the above deals are perfectly reasonable deserves to be demeaned.
In his murky mind Thomas believes he's justified swapping Nazr Mohammed ($5.5M) and Jamison Brewer to the Spurs for Malik Rose ($6M, $6.55M, $7.1M, $7.64M) as well as Moochie Norris ($4.2M) and Vin Baker ($3.85M) to the Rockets for Maurice Taylor (above) ($9.1M and $9.7M).
Why? Because the Knicks got two first-round picks pre-owned by Phoenix and San Antonio as part of the package.
According to Thomas' shadowy genius, their mutual irrelevancy is worth more than competing with a halfway competent center. His lame logic is biting and sweeping:
"Who did I have playing center for me now?" Thomas submarined.
"Come on, Mohammed was that bad?" I replied.
"No, not that bad," Thomas qualified. "But everyone in the Eastern Conference is playing without a pure center except the Heat [Shaq], the Cavaliers [Zydrunas Ilgauskas] and now the Bulls [Eddy Curry]."
Like, whoa! I could've sworn I heard Thomas repeatedly defend the Keith Van Horn-Tim Thomas transaction back when by claiming his sole motive for making it was to get Mohammed in the three-way deal.
In Thomas' jumbled judgment he thinks compiling immaterial draft picks (two No. 1s this June and two the year after, he gleefully notes) is vital to rebuilding.
"Look how many quality players were drafted low in the first round and early in the second," he stresses. "We drafted [traded for, actually] Jamaal Tinsley at No. 27 at Indiana and my other choice was Gilbert Arenas [taken No. 31 by the Warriors].
Fine, we all know the league's elite talent scouts make their fair share of mistakes every draft. Josh Howard went No. 29, Tony Parker went No. 28, while Auburn's Marquis Daniels went undrafted, for crying out tears despite winning player of the year in the Southeastern Conference.
Rashard Lewis (No. 32), Manu Ginobili (No. 57) and Arenas are ideal examples of players who were criminally overlooked. But just because Thomas uncovered Trevor Ariza at No. 43 last June it doesn't mean he's assured of a superior being (on the scale of the above three reigning All-Stars) slipping through the cracks, nor has he proved he can identify it if it's there for the plucking.
In this salary-cap restrictive age, I don't care how much a team is on the books for luxury tax; hindsight and some sideline experience has taught me it's unnecessary to tear a team apart in order to rebuild it a championship contender/conqueror.


text: Moktada al-Sadr's "beard reaches up his cheeks and a dark widow's peak points down from beneath his own black turban. He glowers, projecting mistrust, even when he briefly smiles." That's an interesting description, appropriately wicked and uncommonly revealing for an article about politics. It's also one we'll almost never see applied by The New York Times (here by Craig S. Smith) to any leader who hasn't established himself as either A) at war with the U.S.; or B) a has-been. Sadr is certainly the former. He may or may not be the latter, but you can't tell from Smith's report. Smith cites three sources in his Week in Review piece — a Sadr flack, an elite Iraqi Sadr opponent, and David L. Phillips, of the Council on Foreign Relations. The Revealer is against the practice of stacking talking heads in any story (yes, the grotesque imagery is intended), but all the more so when the subject is the leader of a populist movement. Sadr's strength does not come from Iraqi elites. And it probably will never be fully-calculated by the Council on Foreign Relations, which maintains offices on E. 68th St. in Manhattan and Massachusetts Ave. in Washington. But the Times reserves interviews with the masses for stories that need "color," and this piece is meant to be a work of serious analysis — immune, apparently, from the very opinions of those who make Sadr worthy of ink in the paper.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
10 Unique Wedding Customs ~ 5 – 1
Ever wonder why brides in western cultures where white? Have you ever thought about beating the grooms feet with a fish? Or have you ever wondered why some cultures smash expensive dishes at the wedding.
Thanks again to "How Stuff Works" for this fun article on unique wedding customs. Yesterday we presented 10-6 today we are happy to bring you 5-1. Enjoy.
5: Stuffing an Apron with Cash
Polish weddings tend to be lively affairs with food and dancing. The last dance, however, is the most notable. Known as the Bridal Dance, this Polish tradition involves all the wedding guests, the bride, dancing, money and an apron.
Before the newlyweds leave the reception, a female friend or family member of the bride puts on an apron while the new Mrs. briefly dances with each of the guests. However, spins with the bride aren't free, as each guest is expected to place money in the apron. The father of the bride is usually the first to dance and deposit cash, and the groom is the last, but his donation is more than a few spare bills — it's his entire wallet! After the groom drops his wallet, he carries his bride off, and the reception is officially over [source: Polish American Cultural Center].
4: Smashing Dishes
In another case of wedding-related smashing and stomping, German nuptials often feature a Polterabend, which is a party where dishes and cookery are destroyed. And yes, it's as fun as it sounds.
Polterabends typically start with extravagant feasts and finish with the entire wedding party making as much noise as humanly possible. Dishes are smashed, and pots are clashed. Whips are often brought out and cracked to hasten the departure of any nearby evil spirits.
The origin of the tradition is unknown, but it's thought that the cacophonous sounds caused by the smashing of the cookery represent the inevitable future disturbances that the couple will face throughout their married lives. By breaking the dishes beforehand, the community is preparing the couple for the obstacles ahead and simultaneously wising them luck [source: Monger].
3: Blackening the Bride
Now onto a tradition that really stinks. No, really. The point of blackening the bride is to create the grossest concoction possible. A mixture of any combination of dairy, sausages, vegetables, eggs, fish and feathers is poured on the bride-to-be sometime before her big day. After she has been thoroughly befouled, she's paraded through the streets of her town.
This hilarious but decidedly unclean tradition isn't just a ladies-only affair. Grooms are also often subjected to the blackening, in which case the sticky, stinky couple is paraded around town together. Friends, family members and well-wishers follow behind the couple's filthy procession, making as much noise as possible so that no one will miss seeing the pair [source: Sartain].
2: Beating the Groom's Feet
Most men look forward to the conclusion of their weddings, but in South Korea, the groom has to endure a beating before he can retire with his bride. But don't worry too much; it's only a beating of his feet — called a bastinado or falaka — and though it can be painful, it's over quickly and is intended to be more funny than cruel.
The foot beating takes place after the wedding ceremony and is its own ritual. The groomsmen or family members remove the groom's shoes and socks and use a rope or sash to tie his feet together. They then lift his legs off the ground and take turns beating the soles of his feet with a stick, cane or fish.
Yes, a fish — usually a cod or a dried yellow corvina. The purpose of this tradition is to test the groom's strength and knowledge, as he's often asked questions and quizzed during the ordeal. Beating the soles of a man's feet with a dead fish probably isn't going to make him any smarter, but it's a fun tradition that holds an important place in Korean wedding culture [source: Korea].
1: Brides Wearing White
It may seem perfectly normal, but when you think about it, Western brides' white garb is strange. Indian brides, for example, traditionally wear red saris, while brides in Africa don a multitude of vibrant colors and designs. What's even more shocking is that not so long ago, Western brides had more color options for their wedding wear. It wasn't until Queen Victoria donned a white gown in 1840 for her marriage to Prince Albert that brides began losing their taste for color. Queen Victoria's garb was extremely controversial in its day, as white was a color associated with mourning [source: Flock].
But how times change. Within a decade of the Queen's nuptials, white was the only color brides wanted to wear [source: Flock]. Today, any other hue is taboo (at least for first-time brides), and Queen Victoria's rebellious choice is now arguably the most recognized wedding standard in the Western world.
Although some of the wedding customs featured in this article might initially seem strange, don't judge them too harshly. For all we know, our grandchildren will slip rings on each other's toes after having their feet smacked with fish and call it tradition.
Photo By Swensen Photography
Thanks for checking out these unique wedding customs. If you know of any or if your wedding included or will include some unique traditions or customs we would love to hear from you.
- Becher, Mordechai. "The Jewish Wedding Ceremony." Ohr. 2011 (Aug. 19, 2011) http://ohr.edu/1087
- British Monarchy, the Official Website of. "Victoria." 2011. (Aug. 19, 2011) http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensoftheUnitedKingdom/TheHanoverians/Victoria.aspx
- Flock, Elizabeth. "Queen Victoria was the first to get married in white." Washington Post. Apr. 29, 2011. (Aug. 17, 2011) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/royal-wedding-watch/post/queen-victoria-was-the-first-to-get-married-in-white/2011/04/29/AFIYPmDF_blog.html
- Korea Tourism Organization. "To the Scene of a Korean Wedding!" Apr. 13, 2004. (Aug. 17, 2011)
- Kunz, George Frederick PhD. "Rings for the Finger." Farlang. 2007. (Aug. 17, 2011)
- Lee, Eun-Joo, Duk-Soo Park and Jaehoon Yeon. "Integrated Korean: Advanced, Volume 1." University of Hawaii Press. Google Books. 2004. (Aug. 17, 2011)
- Monger, George P. "Marriage Customs of the World: From Henna to Honeymoons." ABC-CLIO. Google Books. 2004. (Aug. 19, 2011) http://books.google.com/books?id=o8JlWxBYs40C&lpg=PA214&ots=g-Ly11FGmt&dq=German%20Polterabend&pg=PA214#v=onepage&q=German%20Polterabend&f=false
- Moravian Weddings. "Czech Wedding Traditions." 2009. (Aug. 19, 2011) http://www.moravianweddings.com/pages/about_moravia/6.aspx
- Phuket News. "Big List: Weird Weddings." 2011. (Aug. 19, 2011) http://www.thephuketnews.com/wp-post.php?id=24969
- Polish American Cultural Center. "Polish Wedding Traditions." (Aug. 19, 2011) http://www.polishamericancenter.org/PolishWeddingTraditionsInstructionBooklet.pdf
- Sartain, Sheree. "Hen-night with a difference: 'Blackening' the Bride." Women's Views on News. 2011. (Aug. 17, 2011) http://www.womensviewsonnews.org/2011/08/hen-night-with-a-difference-blackening-the-bride/
- Shulman, Shlomo. "Guide to the Jewish Wedding." Aish. 2010 (Aug. 19, 2011) http://www.aish.com/jl/l/m/48969841.html
- Star Tribune. "Yesterday's News: Charivari, or: You may all kiss the bride." 2011. (Aug. 16, 2011) http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/104307309.html
- Regencia, Ted. "Thousands gather to celebrate Chicago's Polish heritage." English.news.cn. May 08, 2011. (Aug. 20, 2011) http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-05/08/c_13864287.htm
- White Prague Wedding Agency. "Czech Wedding Traditions." 2005. (Aug. 17, 2011) http://www.destination-wedding.cz/clanky/49/czech_traditions.html


text:
8 Oct 20:30 2011
ANNOUNCE: Parsec 3.1.2
Antoine Latter <aslatter <at> gmail.com>
Parsec is a monadic combinator library that is well-documented, simple to use, and produces good error messages. This is a minor point release over Parsec 3.1.1. The changes in this release are: From Roman Cheplyaka: - 'lookAhead' no longer counts as 'consuming input', even when it succeeds. - Fixes for 'try' related to error position reporting - Fix for merging error messages Other changes: - Fix reserved name recognition for case-insensitive languages - Add instances for 'Stream Text' (both lazy Text and strict Text), allowing Char parsers to run on the Text type. Link on Hackage: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/parsec-3.1.2 Notes: The new instances are orphaned in their own new modules, so there shouldn't be conflicts for projects defining their own orphan instances. Thanks to: Roman Cheplyaka for development, Andrew U. Frank for a bug report. Antoine


text:
Alice Illness
Always use secure-HTTP / Secure HTTP / Permanent Link
Patchouli Knowledge was tense. She flew among the high bookshelves of the Magic Library Voile, frowning.
"What is it, Miss Patchouli?" asked Koakuma, flying up to her with a stack of books.
"The black-white witch," muttered Patchouli. "It's been a bit longer than usual since her last ... visitation, hasn't it?"
Koakuma's head-wings twitched. "I see," she said, uneasily. "Maybe Alice got her to stop burglarizing places?"
"Hmph." Patchouli glanced around, as if expecting a figure on a broomstick to suddenly burst in through a window at any minute. "It's the uncertainty that's getting to me," she said.
"It's a semi-rare disease called Magician's Flu," said Eirin, "which is a bit of a misnomer, since it's actually caused by a kind of magically-infused bacteria, not a virus."
"Huh?" said Marisa, frowning in mild confusion as she sat next to Alice's bed.
Eirin paused, as she remembered her audience. "Don't worry about it, then," she said. "It only affects magician-youkai, though if you become a youkai you'll be immune, since you've been exposed to it now as a human. Symptoms include mild nausea, extreme exhaustion, coughing, and mood swings which in extreme cases border on mental instability."
"Well can ya help her?" said Marisa. Alice let out a soft whimper.
"Oh, of course," said Eirin, turning to the patient. "I've got a medicine that works wonders. You'll just need Marisa to take care of you for a few days."
"Great," murmured Alice, smiling weakly up at her. "Thank you."
"Not a problem," said Eirin, smiling back. "You just relax, only get out of bed when you have to, drink lots of fluids, don't eat anything particularly intense ..." She glanced to Marisa, and sharply said, "And no sex."
Alice giggled, blushing. Marisa sputtered indignantly. "Wha — the hell you think I — If she's that sick why would I —"
Eirin nodded. "Good," she said, giving a thin-lipped smile. "Be sure to contact me if anything gets better — or worse. I'm going to go get the medicine."
That night, Marisa had a dream. It was a dream of her own devising, made using an upgraded version of a sleep spell she and Alice had made. This variant allowed two people to share a lucid dream, connecting them telepathically. Marisa was standing on a cloud, in the middle of a starry night sky. Gensokyo stretched far below her. At least, she assumed that's what Gensokyo looked like from far above. The details of were somewhat distorted and blurry when she didn't look directly at them.
She regarded herself in front of a mirror (which was there the instant she wanted one); her clothes flickered between various outfits, mostly variations on her usual dress, although at one point she was dressed like a shinigami.
Alice appeared, sitting nearby. "Marisa?" she said after a moment.
Marisa turned, her outfit switching back to normal. "Oh, heya, Alice!" she said cheerfully. "Good thing I caught ya before ya fell asleep, I haven't worked out how to set up 'shared lucid dreams' if yer already asleep."
Alice smiled and nodded. Abruptly, she was standing next to Marisa, hugging her lightly. "What was up with that ... Komachi outfit you had on before?"
"Huh? Oh. Heh." Marisa grinned sheepishly. "Cuz I was gonna say I wanted ta snuggle you to death."
Alice giggled. "Marisa," she said, "that's really terrible, even for you."
"Yeah, I know, right?" said Marisa, hugging Alice close and running a hand through her hair. "'s why I decided not ta —"
Alice suddenly froze. The air around them suddenly looked chilly. "Huh? What's wrong?" said Marisa.
"I ... c-can't actually f-feel your touch ..." said Alice.
"Aw damn," said Marisa, frowning. "Yeah, that's the thing about dreams. This one of those mood-swings?"
"Sorry," whimpered Alice, looking like she was about to panic.
Marisa thought fast. "All right, I'm comin' over," she said. "Take it easy, I'll be there in a jiffy!"
"M-Marisa!" said Alice, clinging to her, as if willing herself to be able to feel her touch.
"Five minutes, tops!" said Marisa, hitting the emergency shutoff for the dream-spell.
Alice jerked awake. "Marisa!" she cried out. She jumped out of bed, reflexively setting off a burst of magic that was strong enough to rattle the windows, also shoving her dresser a few feet over to one side. A part of her knew this was foolish, but adrenaline and panic were running through her as she ran towards the door ...
Patchouli sat hunkered in a corner of the library, all defenses on alert, Spell Cards at the ready.
"Mistress, you really should get to bed," said Koakuma.
"I can't!" panted Patchouli hoarsely. "Marisa could attack any minute!"
"I doubt she will tonight," said Koakuma carefully.
"She's just waiting for me to lower my guard!" Patchouli moaned, and gave a cough.
"Maybe," Koakuma said diplomatically, "but I doubt she'll try to attack tonight, since it's a full moon."
"Perhaps," said Patchouli, and then she began coughing harder.
Koakuma sighed, sliding her arm under Patchouli's shoulders to carry her to bed.
Marisa magically dressed herself, then hopped on her broom, shot out of her bedroom window, ignored a fairy floating nearby, and yelped as it nearly perforated her with a danmaku-pattern which rivalled the kinds she usually threw out.
Marisa glanced at the moon, which was full. "Oh right," she said, taking off her hat and slipping out her mini-hakkero. "Full moon. Fairies raised to Extra-Stage mode by moonbeams. Love Sign 「Master Spark」!"
The fairy giggled, and then let out a yelp as Marisa's mini-hakkero blasted it away with a large beam of light.
"And here comes the horde," she muttered, as more fairies flew up, attracted by the noise. "Jeez, don't you guys ever learn? Wait, what'm I sayin', dyin's just an inconvenience for a few minutes to ya, you got no reason to learn."
She flew towards Alice's house at top speed, dodging the bullets launched by the fairies to the best of her abilities. "Aw, hell," she muttered, as ten of them flew towards her from different directions. She attached a small device to the front of her mini-hakkero. "Love Sign 「Non-Directional Laser」!" Four blasts of light swung around in an arc, scything through the fairies and sending them sprawling in all directions.
She heard a scream from the direction of Alice's house. She turned, and the fairies who could see her face shrank back. "Right, then," she snarled, and took off tearing through the night sky. The fairies scattered.
Alice was floating near the roof of her house in her nightgown, trying to fight off a pair of fairies that were more elaborately-dressed than others. Amid the haze of her fury, Marisa recalled that they were named Luna Child and Star Sappire. Alice was obviously having a hard time of it, because her sickness was starting to overcome her adrenaline. "M-Marisa! Help!" she yelled. There were already rips in her nightgown.
Luna Child was singing randomly, her eyes somewhat glazed over. "And then the sky was all covered in twinkly stars and the puppets were dancing in time to the fuzzy white —"
Star Sapphire turned towards Marisa. "Uh, Luna! Witch!" she said, nervously tugging Luna's sleeve. She didn't derive her power directly from the moon, and so she wasn't affected as much — certainly not mentally.
Marisa loomed towards them, growling, her mini-hakkero raised. Her eyes seemed to glow red.
"... with a milkshake and oh look it's another big target and Lu-u-na Child has startled the witch!" sang Luna Child, grinning manically.
"That witch is not happy!" said Star Sapphire.
"Fairyabouttaget hitbya Magicannon 「Final Spark」 says what? da ze," snarled Marisa at top speed in English.
"What?" said Luna Child, firing a single danmaku-bullet towards Alice, following a random twirly pattern. Star Sapphire smacked her forehead.
Marisa screamed, her mini-hakkero firing a gigantic blast of light that was easily as large as a house.
When the glow faded, the fairies had completely disappeared. Alice stood before her and off to one side, looking slightly singed, and her nightgown was in tatters; she'd been almost caught in the blast.
"Oh, damn, you okay, Alice?" said Marisa, flying over and hugging her close. "C'mon, let's get inside."
"'s okay," mumbled Alice, hugging herself in close. "You ... saved me ... ugh ..." She looked like she was about to be sick.
Marisa nodded, turning towards the house. "Right, let's —" She had just enough time to notice that Luna Child's bullet had not disappeared, but was in fact still floating around randomly, before it hit Alice. There was a loud thunderclap, a multicolored blast of light almost knocking Marisa back, and Alice lay unconscious in her arms.
"D'oh," said Marisa, frowning towards the house. She aimed her broom downward twoards Alice's front door.
Shortly thereafter, Luna Child and Star Sapphire materialized directly below where they'd been when Marisa had blasted them, lying on the ground and whimpering softly.
Sunny Milk, the third member of their trio who wasn't affected by the moonbeams at all, crept up to them. "Don't piss off the witch!" she hissed.
At some point, Alice felt Marisa put their sleep-spell on her again, set to a good solid nine hours.
When she woke up, sunlight was filtering in through the curtains, and also through a spell Marisa had devised which rendered the windows opaque to cameras and tengus.
Alice sighed, feeling rather queasy. That had been stupid of her. This illness must have affected her mind worse than she'd thought. Well, at least presumably Marisa was going to keep a much closer watch over her now.
The next thing she noticed was that her hands were positioned slightly up past her head. Odd position to wake up in, she thought as she shifted her —
— tried to shift her position.
Wait, what? She looked up at her wrists, which had been tied to the bedposts. She looked down at herself; she felt her bare skin against the bedsheets, and saw similar ropes tied to the posts at the foot of the bed, going under the sheets. She also realized that she couldn't control her dolls, or even get more than a vague status update on them. She went through them in turn: idle ... idle ... idle ... trying to repair clothes(?) ... idle ... in use? Several of them were under someone else's control, outside the house.
Alice was perfectly capable of being loud, sharp, and fiery when she was annoyed. This had happened all the time with Marisa before they'd properly sorted out their feelings for each other. However, pure unadulterated rage had a different effect. She felt ... serene. Calm. It was as if her rage had given her a sort of external peace. However, this was the peace found in the eye of a hurricane. Pure wrath was sitting at the edge of her consciousness, giving the vague impression of holding something explosive the size of the moon above her head, about to throw it at the ground in front of her.
She heard the front door open, accompanied by various sounds of bumping and swearing, as if Marisa was carrying something heavy around. Alice mentally followed the sounds as they went upstairs, up the hall, and approached the room. The door opened, and Marisa staggered in, carrying in her dresser with the help of several of Alice's dolls.
"Rgghhh ... Oh, g'mornin', Alice!" she said with forced cheerfulness, and then yelped as the dresser nearly fell on her foot. "Right," she muttered.
Alice looked at Marisa with the expression of a master who now realizes he should have known in advance that an order to his stupid servant to "get the door" would be taken literally. "Marisa, I would advise you to make the explanation you are about to give ... phenomenally good," she said. She wondered if Marisa was going to say she hadn't been expecting Alice to be awake, and how many times she should smash her face into the ground if she had.
"Oh, well, I'm moving' in, ze," said Marisa cheerfully, pushing the dresser over to the wall next to Alice's. The dolls settled down on it. "I figured, we're at about that point in our relationship, and it'd make it easier ta take care of ya without havin' to worry about flyin' across the Forest inna full moon, right?"
"Well," said Alice, with what she felt was a disproportionate amount of patience, "and I should point out that I'm saying this by way of giving you the benefit of what miniscule doubt exists, I was referring more to the fact that I appear to be naked here, for one thing ..."
"Well, hey, yer nightie was pretty much kaput," said Marisa. "I set some o' your dolls up on 'repair clothes' mode, an' they're still floatin' around it lookin' like they dunno where to start." She was trying to force down a grin.
Alice considered this. "All right then, much better question," she said. "Why have you tied me down and made me unable to access my dolls?"
Marisa was obviously trying to hold back laughter. "Well, I didn't want ya to freak out again and try to fly away while I was asleep," she said cheerfully.
Alice decided to bring her previous suspicion to the forefront. "And ... were you hoping to arrive here before I woke up?"
Marisa was starting to crack up now. "Y-yeah, I wanted to see the look on yer face when y-ya woke up, d-da ze ..."
I think I'm about to have another mood swing, thought Alice, and then started giggling as well. Which made Marisa chuckle, which made Alice chuckle, which made Marisa give a stronger laugh, and pretty soon they were both laughing out loud, Marisa leaning heavily against the bed.
"Okay, uh, yeah." Marisa clapped her hands; the ropes disappeared, and Alice found herself regaining control over the dolls.
She sat up and hugged Marisa. "Mmm ... I love you, Marisa," she murmured.
"Heh, love ya too." Marisa hugged her back. "You aren't mad or anything?"
Alice grinned. "Oh, you know," she said. "I can't stay mad at you, y'know?"
"Ah, cool," said Marisa, grinning nervously. "You really mean that?"
"Nah," said Alice sweetly.
Marisa turned, and found herself facing a doll swinging a frying pan down at her head.
Patchouli whimpered, laying weakly in her bed. "Marisa ... coming ..." she stuttered.
"There's no sign that she's anywhere near here, Mistress," said Koakuma, putting a hot water bottle on Patchouli's head. "She's either decided not to attack the library for a while —"
"No!" exclaimed Patchouli, sitting up straight. "Such a thing is entirely unlike her! She'd ... argh ..." She coughed loudly, collapsing back against the bed.
"... or she's found something that would keep her busy," Koakuma continued, putting the hot water bottle back on her head. "Miss Patchouli, you really need to sleep."
"Can't sleep," muttered Patchouli. "Witches will eat me ... ooh ..."
"Y ... yeah," said Koakuma, frowning. "I think you're feeling, um, more sick than usual ... Here." She cast Marisa and Alice's anti-insomnia spell.
"Do not ... want — ohhh ..." muttered Patchouli, coughing as she switched the spell off. "Can't use magic ... from her ..."
Koakuma sighed. This was obviously going to be a difficult couple of days.
Eirin walked into the room. "How's she doing?"
"Worse," said Koakuma.
"No! Stay back!" moaned Patchouli. "You're obviously ... Marisa in disguise ... mukyu ..."
Eirin rolled her eyes. "Well," she said, "my test results indicate that she's contracted a semi-rare disease called Magician's Flu ..."
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12 Comments (auto-closed)
Symptoms include mild nausea, extreme exhaustion, coughing, and mood swings which in extreme cases border on mental instability
Hmm, or as it is known in the outside world, puberty.
hehehe X3 I can't say I like one part since everything is evenly so good.
you really have a great way of telling tales; I could easily imagine every scene playing smoothly. The witch part was for some reason imagined with some L4D thrown in it >>;;;
Loved both conclusions, it's so adorable and hilarious. Once I get my drawing mojo back, I really want to illustrate some of your stuff.
Oh, and finally, one of these days you'll have to put those bits in chronological order. I was wondering why Marisa would need to go to Alice until I realized this was before Perfect Square
Just what kind of 'dere' is Patchouli having towards Marisa? I wanna know! And good thing Alice is not a tsunbitch even in the disease!
Kimiko Muffin
@Dan-Heron: Yeah, you can pretty much assume everything is before Perfect Square. And yeah, the L4D bits were deliberate, up to and including "Here comes the horde" right before it. ;)
@Cassie: That'd be "just plain nuts." I just don't do "tsundere" here. I've determined from trying to write Ends and Beginnings specifically for shipping that I'm not very good at it. I suppose I just don't grok the concept or the appeal, oh well.
Kimiko Muffin
Hmm. Now that you mention that, Random Encounter, it seems one could deduce that another effect of the illness is that it increases their existing emotions (Alice's "want Marisa", Patchouli's paranoia) to the point of absurd unreason (Alice tries to go tearing off after Marisa, Patchouli becomes a paranoid wreck) ... Maybe I should add that to Eirin's description.
The Left 4 Dead reference was INCREDIBLY obvious...
Incidentally, what system do you have it for?
They're in their early 20's in my stories :P
Oh, ok. *Hat-tip to the Trope-savvy tsundere-wangst-avoiding Muffin*
I just thought it was funny that "Magician's Flu" had no symptoms that were actually, you know, magical. Like, uh, I dunno, sneezing unicorns. (Which would be pretty weird for a disease. I mean, how would you know you were sick unless there some unicorns around to start sneezing whenever you get close? And come to think of it, does unicorn snot have any useful magical properties? Unicorn blood, sure, unicorn horn, obviously, probably unicorn bones too, but what about the snot? Are there unicorn-hunting aboriginals who "use every last piece of the animal"? How does one harvest unicorn snot? With a giant hankey? And where the hell was I going with this?)
Symptoms! Right. Symptoms that basically match every adolescent's high school experience. Mild nausea - Check! Extreme exhaustion - Check! Coughing - Uhh, secondary infection, everyone's had a sick day or three, so... Check! Mood swings which in extreme cases border on mental instability, Check! Check! Check! Gotta love them hormones.
Kimiko Muffin
@Roggamer22: PC.
@SoF: I dunno, the whole point was that it only affects youkai-magicians, and I kinda went with "generic illness symptoms." I'd imagine that youkai, on the whole, don't usually get many illnesses .... except in Patchouli's case, but she's basically the only example we've ever seen. In short, it is magical in cause, not in effect.


text:
The other concerts confirmed include the Punch Brothers on July 6, Dierks Bentley on July 24, Kix Brooks on July 31 and Muscle Shoals Live and Lisa Fischer on Aug. 3.
The season will continue on Aug. 16 with Five For Fighting, while Trampled by Turtles will perform on Aug. 19 and the Nashville Café will arrive on Aug. 23.
Closing the series will be Vince Gill and the Time Jumpers on Aug. 30.
All concerts are slated to be held rain or shine at Deer Valley Resort's Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater.
An additional concert will be announced soon, said Teri Orr, the executive director for the Park City Institute.
"That concert will be on July 3, but the act hasn't been confirmed, yet," Orr told The Park Record.
Orr said some of the confirmed shows — the Bacon Brothers, the Punch Brothers and Vince Gill and the Time Jumpers— are coming back due to popular demand.
"We've scheduled the Bacon Brothers a couple of times, but they only played indoors," Orr said. "So this will be the first time they'll play outside and I think it will be such a fun way to start the season."
The Punch Brothers features mandolinist Chris Thile, who is known for his work in the Grammy Award-winning trio Nickel Creek, a group that the Park City Institute has scheduled in one form or another, Orr said.
"We had Nickel Creek in when they first started out," she said. "After they broke up in 2007, we brought in Chris with the Punch Brothers and we also scheduled [his former Nickel Creek bandmates] Sara Watkins and her brother Sean together both in the summer and the winter.
"We had the opportunity to schedule the Punch Brothers this summer and we were eager to have Chris back," she said. "It's been about six years since he's been with us."
Orr is happy Vince Gill is returning to Park City as well.
"This is the last show of the season, and this is a group that Vince has been a part of for a while," she said. "Usually he doesn't allow himself to be billed separately, but we had him come in several years ago and people had asked us to bring him back and I had to find a way in a different format to do that."
Last year, Park City Institute brought in Muscle Shoals Live, which is comprised of artists who appeared in the 2013 Sundance Film Festival documentaries "Muscle Shoals" and "20 Feet from Stardom."
"We had never repeated an act one summer after the other, but we had so many people of every age group and demographic plead with us to bring this show back," Orr said. "We thought we would freshen the show up by picking some of the other singers from '20 Feet from Stardom' and Lisa Fisher has been on every Rolling Stones tour since 1989."
Another musician who has been involved with film is Five for Fighting.
The group's main singer and songwriter, John Ondrasik, wrote all the music for the 2007 film, "August Rush."
"One of our donors asked if we have thought about bringing in Five for Fighting," Orr said. "I thought that would be a good fit for us and that we could afford him."
In addition to the Punch Brothers and Vince Gill, there is an abundance of folk and country shows scheduled for this season.
"It's always about how best we can put together dates that we have available with who is on tour," she said. "Also, last summer, we didn't present much country and we heard about it.
"So we tried to make certain we booked country artists this year," Orr said with a laugh. "But then we got carried away."
Orr said Dierks Bentley just happened to accept her bid.
"I found a day at Deer Valley happened to open up and called Nashville and it [worked] out perfectly," she said. "He accepted my offer, which is modest by the standards he deserved."
Kix Brooks, formerly of the Country Music Award-winning Brooks and Dunn, has always been a singer and songwriter, and focusing more on that for the past 18 months, Orr said.
When Trampled by Turtles performs, it will be joined by Elephant Revival and Hooray for the Riff Raff.
"These guys are a young and upcoming 'newgrass' band who was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon the other night," Orr said. "And the Nashville Café is like the Muscle Shoals show. I thought it would be fun to put together a show based on the TV series 'Nashville.'"
Tickets go on sale to Park City Institute members on Wednesday, April 9, and are available for purchase by the general public on Wednesday, April 16.
Lawn and reserved tickets as well as summer season punch cards are available at The Mega Genius Supply Store and IQ HQ, 435 Swede Alley. Tickets can also be purchased by calling 435-655-3114 or visiting www.ecclescenter.org .
Prices are as follows:
Tickets will also be available at Deer Valley Signature & Etc. stores, The King's English Bookshop in Salt Lake City and the Hugo Coffee Shop inside Park City's Visitor Center at Kimball Junction. Discounted tickets are available for children under age 16 as well as senior citizens ages 62 and older.
For more information, visit www.ecclescenter.org .


text:
"You look beautiful," he said to me, beaming, as if he took some credit for 'the vision' he saw before him. "Just like you looked when you sang for me." I smiled up at my oncologist from the examining table, sitting in my paper gown with my full head of short hair. I was nearing the end of more than a year of treatment for breast cancer: biopsies, chemo, major surgery, radiation and regular infusions of an antibody to prevent recurrence. I had not spent the year feeling beautiful.
Four years ago, I was asked to sing for my future doctor at a gala being given in his honor. In addition to being a psychologist by day, someone on the gala committee knew I loved to write and perform song parodies. I would be the surprise entertainment at this black-tie affair to honor a man who not only saved many lives, but also, was philanthropic and caring at the saintly level. While gathering information about Dr. N. to create my song, I learned he was funny and a snappy dresser, and generally adored and revered. I thought to myself, "I don't know this man, but god forbid I ever need him in my life, he'll never forget me." So, dressed in my finest, listening to tearful testimonials from patients, and watching him receive an original Peter Maxx painting of him and his wife, I dared to sing for this oncology superstar. I think he loved it.
Last January, sitting in my radiologist's office following a very unsuccessful mammogram, I knew Dr. N. and I were going to become very well acquainted on a whole new level. It was time to cash in my song parody card.
As an adolescent, I was never enamored of teen idols. I did not hang up posters of Davy Jones or write fan mail to Donny Osmond. My very practical self used to think, "I will never meet this person. He will never know I exist. Why bother?" I cast my sights on the talented but attainable. In my early 20s, I fell in love with and married an artist, a writer and an eventual successful fund raiser, my very own "idol" all rolled into one handsome human being.
But, as much as my husband was going to be able to stand by my side during this ordeal, there was little he was going to be able to do to make me better. I wanted the best. I wanted an oncology superstar.
Scared to death last February, I sat on the examining table, again in the paper gown, and waited for Dr. N to enter the room. "You look familiar," he said as it dawned on him who I was. He proceeded to examine me and lay out my course of treatment over the next two hours. I was his last patient of the day. Overwhelmed and completely daunted at the end of our visit, I asked, "Am I going to live?" "Absolutely," was his confident reply.
Thus truly began our relationship. I felt like I put my life completely in his hands, and, ever the good student, I wanted to please him and succeed. I needed to do everything he said.
As a psychologist for the last 25 years, I am very well aware of the concept of transference. This is the unconscious redirection of feelings from one person (typically a family member from childhood) to another. A positive transference can often help the treatment. Similarly, a good fit is necessary between therapist and client for treatment to proceed in a healthy direction. Clients who come to see me don't want to think about the client who is coming in for the next appointment or the one who walked out of my office before they came in. They want to feel they are the most important and the only focus of my attention. I am not sure who Dr. N. represented from my past, but I do know we worked well together. And, somehow, he made me feel special. I was realistic enough to know he probably made everyone feel that way. But, still, I was the one who sang for him … before anything was at stake.
My first week on chemo I developed an infection, likely the result of one too many breast biopsies and a plummeting white blood cell count preventing my complete healing. I showed up in Dr. N's office in significant discomfort with a low-grade fever and promptly burst into tears, the first tears I really shed since my diagnosis. After a brief exam, he was on the phone with the hospital, booking a room. I was to bypass the bureaucracy of admission, go straight to my hospital bed and have IV antibiotics administered as soon as possible. Again, I looked into his eyes and asked, "Am I going to be O.K.?" He looked me square in the face and said, "That's why we're doing this. We don't mess around." But he didn't use the word mess. Then I asked, "How did I get a room so fast?" With a straight face he replied, "Somebody died this morning. They just cleaned the room. I thought it would have good karma." It took me a few minutes to realize he was kidding, but I did stop crying.
While in the hospital, Dr. N ordered me gourmet dinners from food services. He sent a patient to visit me because she was at the end of her treatment, and he knew we'd hit it off. He asked me to sing for the oncology floor. While wearing a mask and sporting an IV, I told him I was not Rachel from Glee, and I couldn't just break into song in the halls. Yet, I promised him that as soon as I recovered, I would sing for whomever he wanted.
Wherever I went for a scan or a blood test, the nurses and techs would ask who my oncologist was. When I would say Dr. N., they would ooh and ahh and tell me he was the best and how lucky I was to be his patient. I felt I was connected to medical royalty and wanted to be a worthy subject.
At each monthly check-up, Dr. N would regale me with crazy jokes and stories, almost helping me forget why I was there. He was a font of esoteric information. One visit he went into the history of the coelacanth, a living fossil sea creature found in Madagascar. On another occasion he waxed on about Thomas Jefferson. He told me about a book he thought I would like and impulsively went to his computer and ordered it for me. He would promptly respond to my every email about my numerous complaints of aches or nausea or sore throats, one time meeting me early in the morning at the hospital to see if I needed an antibiotic. I felt like Michael Jackson with my very own private doctor; yet, mine was going to make sure I was going to live.
And then I was replaced. For several visits in a row, Dr. N. told me about another woman, much younger than I, who had my type of breast cancer, but worse, who ran 5 and 10Ks during treatment to raise money for breast cancer, who chauffeured another cancer patient to treatment and who generously donated to his cancer foundation. Oh, and she was also a "doll." All I wanted to ask was, "Does she sing?"
The truth was I had finished my chemo, my cancer was in remission, and Dr. N. had many patients yet to cure. Our relationship did not need to continue as it had. While in the middle of treatment, I remembered asking Dr. N. if I would need to see him for the rest of my life. At the time, I was asking, wondering if as a cancer survivor one needed to always be in the care of an oncologist. Since he is older than I, he replied no; he assumed I would live longer than he.
Just as the intimacy of a therapy relationship eventually comes to an end as a client progresses through treatment, so too does the oncologist/patient relationship come to its natural conclusion when the patient is lucky enough to live. How could I feel sad about this? The fact was everyone made me feel special in the past year, although not everyone was responsible for curing me.
Lately, I rarely need to call or email Dr. N. We only need to visit every three months. With each appointment, I am sure he will be glad to see me as I will look forward to seeing him. He will tell me silly jokes, while examining me and share his latest adventures with trips he's taken or books he's read or patients he's helped. Yet, when I hold my celebration in honor of my recovery I will be asking everyone to donate to his cancer foundation, and I will sing a great song parody. After all, I want him to remember me best.


text:
See the below Weather by the Moon calendar showing what sort of weather will probably follow the Moon's entrance into any of its quarters.
The calendar below is derived from "A Table Foretelling the Weather Through All the Lunations of Each Year, or Forever," which first appeared in The Old Farmer's Almanac in 1834.
It is the result of many years of actual observation and shows what sort of weather will probably follow the Moon's entrance into any of its quarters. For example, the day that the Moon enters its first quarter may be stormy.
Note: This table is shared for its historical interest. It was created by Dr. Herschell for the Boston Courier so it may have regional bias. In addition, it was created 175 years ago. It is not meant to be compared with our annual long-range weather forecasts for The Old Farmer's Almanac; we rely far more on our projections of solar activity.
All the same, it raises the question: Does the Moon affect weather? Is this folklore? Or, is there a relationship between weather and the Moon and Moon phases?
To read this chart, you'll need to reference the year's Moon phases. See our customized Moon Phase Calendar.
Click to expand chart (PDF).


text:
How does one apply for access authorization?
The procedure to apply for access authorization for CGHub is the same as it is for the NCBI Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP). Before you apply, you must have an eRA Commons account:
- eRA Commons (for NIH Extramural principal investigators, grantees, or other extramural investigators). If you do not have a pre-existing eRA Commons account, register here.
Who can apply?
Researchers from outside of NIH need to be identified as Principal Investigators (PIs) in the eRA Commons system. If you are not a PI, when you log in, the system will advise you to contact your local supervisor to apply on your behalf.
NIH Intramural employees can apply if they are registered in the NIH Intramural Database (NIDB) as a PI, PI-eligible, or Lead Investigator. NIH Administrative and Extramural staff can apply if they meet specified criteria. When NIH employees log in, the system will recognize their status and direct them to obtain any necessary approvals and fill out any required forms. For further information, see NIH Feb. 6, 2008 memo on Requesting Access to Data in the NIH GWAS Data Repository.
The Code of Conduct is an agreement that research investigators agree to abide by as Approved Users of data received through dbGaP and CGHub. Failure to abide by any term within this Code of Conduct may result in the revocation of approved access to any or all datasets obtained through CGHub.
Why is access restricted?
NIH is committed to respecting the privacy and intentions of research participants with regard to how data pertaining to their individual information is used. Access to DNA and related types of sequence information via CGHub is therefore intended only for scientific investigators pursuing research questions that are consistent with the informed consent agreements provided by individual research participants. Clinical and other non-sequence-related data for the TCGA cases represented at CGHub has different access restrictions, and is accessed through the TCGA Data Coordinating Center. For both types of data, investigators provided access will be expected to utilize appropriate data security measures.
Who is an authorized user within the data access request system?
Authorized users include the researchers who may request data sets for specific research uses, the Institutional Signing Officials from the PI's home organization who certify and submit such requests, and the NIH staff who review and process requests (e.g., members of the Data Access Committees).
Do you need further help?
CGHub also maintains a help desk to assist investigators, institutional signing officials and NIH staff with authorized access management, and answer any questions related to the application process. Contact CGHub Technical Support with your queries.


text:
Les Jardins de Guerrevieille
Size35 m²
Floor No.
- Kitchen
- Lockable room
- Pets allowed
- Parking available
- Smoking allowed
|83120, France
|Property type
|Property ID
|Acceptance rate
|Response time
|A few hours
|Calendar updated
|Check-in after
|On arrangement
|Check-in before
|On arrangement
|Check-out before
|On arrangement
|Cancellation Policy
|View Details
The acceptance by the Agency Interhome St. Maxime (Fr) was bad. They handed over the keys, they explained where he was the apartment and greetings. Once arrived on the scene could not lock the door from the inside, so we went back to agency to understand the mechanism (around 18.30). Not only that, but at the time of the shower, there was no hot water. So we had to re-contact the Agency and insist that someone came to fix it. Problem solved but the whole thing now at 20.30 in the evening. As for cleaning, better not to express themselves. A coating of grease was present over the entire surface of the sink and the hob. Also, just entered the apartment we had to open the windows to eliminate a huge stink of damp and stifling air (as if the house was not inhabited by months). If all this means good reception, well then you need to better understand the meaning of the term. Too bad because the rest of the location and the location of the apartment are really interesting. Regards AD
L'accoglimento da parte dell'agenzia Interhome di St. Maxime (Fr) è stato pessimo.
Hanno consegnato le chiavi; hanno spiegato dove si trovava l'appartamento e tanti saluti. Una volta giunti sul posto non riuscivamo a chiudere a chiave la porta d'ingresso dall'interno; per cui siamo tornati in Agenzia per capire il meccanismo(18,30 circa). Non solo, ma al momento della doccia, non vi era acqua calda. Per cui abbiamo dovuto contattare nuovamente l'Agenzia ed insistere affinché qualcuno venisse a risolvere il problema. Problema risolto ma il tutto oramai alle 20,30 di sera. Per quel che riguarda la pulizia, meglio non esprimersi. Una patina di unto era presente su tutta la superficie del lavello e del piano cottura. Inoltre, appena entrati nell'appartamento abbiamo dovuto aprire le finestre per eliminare una enorme puzza di umido e di aria irrespirabile (come se la casa non fosse abitata da mesi). Se tutto questo significa buona accoglienza, bè allora bisogna capire meglio il significato del termine. Peccato perché per il resto la località e la posizione dell'appartamento sono davvero interessanti.
Nice clean well equipped apartment. Very friendly hoists. Would recommend to all my friends.
The Oasis is a wonderful and great accomodation. The house is surrounded by Lemon trees and offers a great view to the sea. It is well equipped, clean and very comfortable for Groups/families up to ten. Highly recommanded.
The place shown on the pictures has an open swimming pool. However if you 're in to reading all the small letters in the massive paper work of Inter Home you Will Read That the pool is open from the 15th of June. What à dissapointment for my daughter. Furthermore we had to pay for the bedlinen on top of the cleaning which was counted pro person. And of course because it was cold we had to pay for the heating although in the living room was no heating system, only in the bath and bedroom. The owners were. Ice although when people arrive in the middle of the night due to their flight it would be nice if there would be something to drink. The garden is large and nice decorated so I think in summer when the pool is open it will be a paradise. For myself I think it is deceive that Wimdu puts this booking through a link connecting to another website. In this way you pay a lot more and you don,'t get what is shown on the pictures. I will never book in this manner again because in the end you pay a lot more.
Wonderful place with great hosts. The apartment is spacious and very clean, the beds are big and comfortable, the kitchen is very well equipped and the balcony offers a superb view of Eiger. We will certainly come back again.
nice sunny apartment, close to mountains, ideal for active holidays close to innsbruck and germany.
a bit 90's furnishing but everything clean and usefull.
Thanks a lot
We had a great time. The accommodation was good, room was clean and complete. It had a nice parking garage, a bit small but fine.
It was no problem that we arrived late in the evening (car trouble). The breakfast service was convenient and good. We had a great view of the mountains and we got some great advice about the area from the landlord.
We would recommend this accommodation to everyone who loves nature. But you do have to travel a bit (25min) for the first big supermarket.
Convenient to 3 metro lines; furnished; pictures of small rooms accurate; elevator. Shelves and dishes grimy; very noisy street (major road to airport) during week; no trash cans; smelly towels poorly laundered; some musty smells throughout; no Internet (borrowed from neighbor, though).
First of all, I was a little nervous because I had plenty of doubts and the agency didn't answer me, in that point very bad customer service I can't believe they take like one week to answer a customer email... Anyway one week before our arrival our host finally could contact me and I talked to her. Luckly Montse was a Spanish woman and we could understand each other very good. Despite we had problems in our arrival, she was very kind and understood everything, made everything very easy and was very flexible about the arriving time. She really cared about us, offering herself for any help we could need (finding supermakets, places to eat, and useful information) we are really grateful about that:)
About the house, 10-15 min walk from Piazza San Marco, good location, very close to important places and easy to find (difficult in Venice..) the house is exactly as described in the pictures, one big sofa-bed (very comfortable) one bedroom, the kitchen, bathroom and a small terrace. Despite was a little bit small apartment was very nice, comfortable and charming.
Against: it wasn't very cleaned, some dirty in the corners and under the sofa and furniture. I don't understand why we had to pay 20€ per person for cleaning taxes and other taxes when they left us the apartment not as cleaned as they could...
The oven didn't work (or we didn't know how to turn it on... Neither our host) and half of the stoves didn't work, and the ones who did was very low fire and we took ages to cook and to get the water to boil.
The other think I didn't like (but this isn't problem of the house) is that even is well located, it's pretty far from the train station, like 40 min walking, 1hour if you are taking luggage, so the best thing is to take the vaporetto and its 40 min more or less and 7,50€ each trip. It's not a really big deal but a think to take on count if money is a struggle for you. You'll do it if you are going to Treviso airport.
Anyway, we had a very nice time then, if I go back to Venice, I would repeat for sure! :)
In the apartment, it is calm at night in spite of it's central location and insufficient windows' sound proofing.
Also insufficient is room lighting, shutters of the kitchen cabinet are not arranged well, there is mold in the shower cabin.
But the Fountain Trevi district is an excellent place in Rome, and if you are not very captious you will enjoy this place to stay.
- Quality assured accommodation
- Every host is verified by telephone
- Secure payment via SSL encryption


text:
A delightful childrens book. Bright and friendly characters. A family album to love and read for years. Bold pictures to captivate the childs eye. No text to confuse. Let the pictures tell the story.
I love telling stories with pictures, words. It`s fun and I you can never have enough fun. I try and put ideas into books so people can enjoy them. 2013 will be my first year publishing, I hope you join me on the journey. Let`s see how many books I produce in 12 months!
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BUTTERFLIES CHROME : CONCEPT : ART : DREAM Published April 18, 2013
MONKEY UP A CHERRY TREE Published March 31, 2013
Boh Published January 17, 2013


text:
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