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The holistic approach to veterinary care has different meanings for different
people. Essentially it means just what the name indicates - looking at "the
whole" and not the individual parts. Holistic practitioners consider the
whole of a companion animal's being and how every discrete part works in
relation to every other part. Fundamental to this mindset is that everything
is interrelated and nothing occurs in isolation.
Furthermore, holistic veterinarians don't only focus on physical aspects,
they also consider the emotional, mental and spiritual elements. Holistic
health boils down to balance; imbalance leads to dis-ease. It's important
to remember that physical signs of illness may often be the last to appear,
and that mental and emotional imbalance can lead to disease, too.
In the
United States, veterinary medicine is usually divided into conventional
and holistic medicine. In the conventional tradition, veterinarians focus
almost solely on the physical evidence. Holistic medicine, which originated
from ancient cultures (such as, Asian, Indian, African and Native American
Indians) takes into consideration the mental and spiritual aspects, as well.
In the treatment of their patients, holistic practitioners often use herbs,
vitamins, minerals, homeopathy, energy medicine and other alternative methods.
I believe in an integrative approach, taking the best of all forms of medicine
and combining them to produce a modern holistic approach.
In addition to
the internal workings of a companion animal's body, holistic health explores
the influence of external factors for their direct or indirect impacts on
the body. In the case of companion animals, this includes their shelter,
social interactions, levels of exercise and mental stimulation, diet, vaccination
history, and any potential exposures to toxins.
A cornerstone of the holistic
approach is nutrition, because the quality and type of foods consumed will
play a significant role in overall health, on all levels. For example, studies
show that an adequate intake of B complex vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids
(like those found in fish oil) can help to promote emotional and mental
health, for companion animals and humans.
A vital component of holistic
care is taking a preventive stance - promoting wellness and balance to prevent
illness in all its forms. Maintaining an excellent diet, stimulating the
mind for emotional and mental well-being, and exercising appropriately for
your pet's age and body type are all critical to the holistic approach to
leading a balanced life. I advocate these practices beginning as early as
possible, so you won't have to come see a veterinarian for imbalance and
illness later in life. If their furry little bodies are in balance, and
thus in good health, then the risk of disease is reduced, as is the need
for pharmaceuticals.
While conventional medicine is highly valuable, sometimes
it doesn't tell the whole story. Fortunately, increasing numbers of conventional
veterinarians are adopting a more integrative approach. Wellness programs
and educational outlets (like this blog) are empowering pet parents to make
informed decisions about their health and the health of their beloved companion
The bottom line is that it is possible for you to develop and adopt
a preventive care plan for your furry family members. In most cases, I recommend
that pet parents work with both a conventional and a holistic veterinarian
to foster a balanced life for their companion animals.
In the coming months,
I'll be sharing some of my favorite holistic tips for companion animal care.
Look for future posts on this blog to help your whole family achieve a new
level of balance, and wellness.
Thank you for all you do to make the world a better place for companion
Dr. Jane
Related posts
April 24. 2011 17:16
Our dogs are such a big part of our lives. We want them to stay happy, healthy and balanced! Looking forward to reading more of your posts.
May 5. 2011 10:51
Dr Jane, please write an article on selenium--why it's needed in dog food and the differences between the various forms. Please also talk about why it's not in cat food. Thanks for all the great information your articles provide!
Rebecca J Forrest
November 17. 2011 21:31
Dr. Jane I have a 5 year Old Basset Hound. She is constantly with skin disorders especially under the two front arm pits. Recently diagnosed with yeast in the right ear. Is there anyway to tell if my basset hound is allergic to certain foods. She gets no table food and is fed twice a day 1/2 cup of life abbundance. I suspect it could be chicken because sometimes my wife will give her cooked chicken skin. The next day she has Diarrhea? For the skin irritations dr. gave cortisone shot. For the urinery infection which I did not mention he gave her Baytril. Any way to test for food allergies except trial & error? Thank you Dr. Jane
Kerry Englander
December 7. 2013 06:28
Terrific work! This is the kind of information that is supposed to be shared around the web. Disgrace on the search engines for not positioning this post higher! Thank you =)
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To earlier generations, natural science museums were often in staid buildings featuring fossils in rows of glass cases, perhaps a petrified tree trunk and a stuffed moose.
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is not that kind of museum.
The $185 million facility, which opens Saturday to the general public, is five floors and 180,000 square feet designed to simultaneously dazzle and educate.
Walls light up as visitors pass, stairs chime with each footstep and models of water molecules bob overhead in the lobby. Children can race against a video projection of a cheetah, try to maintain their balance during a simulated earthquake and stand in the vortex of a man-made tornado.
The building includes a 3-D theater, video games for building fictional predators, and a dinosaur hall dominated by the Alamosaurus, one of the largest assembled dinosaur skeletons in the world.
And for visitors of a certain age, there is still a petrified tree trunk and a stuffed moose.
"We have taxidermal animals like the old museums did, but the difference is that the moose is in the dinosaur hall, and it's next to a video game," said Nicole Small, the museum's CEO.
As with the rest of the museum, the placement of a contemporary moose with an exhibition of horned dinosaurs has an educational purpose — in this case, to demonstrate that protective adaptations such as horns have existed for eons, even if their appearance has evolved.
That desire to teach is even incorporated into the museum's physical structure.
The surrounding landscaping, for example, depicts five Texas floral zones. Museum ceilings expose the building's ducts and wiring. The escalators and elevators are clad in glass, so their workings are visible.
"That idea was made from the first conversation I had on the museum," said its architect Thom Mayne. "You could say the building itself is the biggest exhibit of all."
'Meaningful exhibit'
The museum opens just weeks after Klyde Warren Park, its high-profile neighbor a few blocks east on Woodall Rodgers Freeway. It caps a year that featured the openings of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, the Dallas City Performance Hall and Belo Garden — all big-ticket amenities that supporters hope will draw people to downtown and nearby neighborhoods.
Though museum officials decline to estimate annual attendance, a million visitors is considered a conservative guess. The Houston Museum of Natural Science, which Perot Museum officials cite as an inspiration, is among the most popular museums in the country, with more than 2 million visits a year.
At $15 per adult ticket, Perot Museum visitors will help fund a $15 million annual budget, supporting a staff of up to 250 full- and part-time employees. Additional revenue will come from memberships and from the facility's cafe, gift shop, theater, traveling exhibits and special events.
Small is mindful of the importance of the bottom line.
"No margin, no mission," she said.
Museum leaders emphasize that their goal is to be more than just a popular attraction. They want to raise education standards in the region, particularly in math and science.
Ross Perot, who with his wife, Margot, lent their name to the museum, said the region's business community, no less than its schoolchildren, stands to benefit.
The integrated circuit, he noted, was invented in Dallas by Jack Kilby, an electrical engineer at Texas Instruments.
"Most of the great things created like that came from this country. Now these days, I'm afraid, we're off the scale," he said. "The solution is to get a really educated population, and that will create that many more jobs."
The museum's designers said they needed to achieve a balance to accomplish that goal.
"You have to be smart on how you engage," said Dan Kohl, the museum's vice president for creativity and innovation. "It has to be a meaningful exhibit. It can't be kids just running through a room pushing buttons."
As he tweaked the exhibits in preparation for the opening, Kohl wondered aloud if one of the museum's pieces of artwork — Wooden Mirror by Daniel Rozin — could serve an educational purpose.
He looked behind the piece, which consists of hundreds of wood chips that create a sort of moving shadow as visitors pass by, and wondered if it shouldn't be moved farther from the wall.
"I'm a big fan of mystery, but I'd like people to see how the mechanism behind it works," he said.
Perot steps in
Like many cultural institutions in Dallas, the Perot Museum traces its origins to the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Fair Park, according to Marjorie Schwarzer, who is considered one of the nation's leading museum historians.
"This was a classic trajectory of museums," said Schwarzer, visiting scholar at the University of San Francisco's museum study program. "Many were started after expositions or world fairs, when cities were left with all this wonderful stuff and didn't know what to do with it."
With the attention brought by the state centennial, she added, "Dallas tried to project itself as a cultural center, and that included having a science museum."
In 2006, three local institutions with related missions — the Dallas Children's Museum, The Science Place and the Dallas Museum of Natural History — merged, clearing the way for the formation of a much more significant institution.
David Corrigan, who has served intermittently on the natural history museum's board since 1983, said it quickly became obvious that a museum with any ambition would have to move out of Fair Park for a number of reasons.
There was no room for expansion there. The building that housed the combined museums had historical protection, which limited possible renovation. And the surrounding land was, after all, the site of the annual state fair.
A new museum would be expensive. Potential donors, Corrigan said, were reluctant to invest money in Fair Park.
Fundraising initially proved difficult. The money was raised in the teeth of a severe recession and at the same time that potential donors were receiving requests from supporters of the future AT&T Performing Arts Center.
But Carolyn Rathjen, a Perot daughter and now chairwoman of the museum board, said she was intrigued when museum supporters approached her family seeking support.
"Dad's an engineer and Mom's a teacher, so this is a perfect marriage of their interests," Rathjen said. "Dallas has been their home since 1957. It's been wonderful to our family, and we knew we wanted to honor their legacy in a significant way."
Such high-profile support gave the effort credibility, as did bringing on board Forrest Hoglund, who had a proven track record as a fundraiser, Corrigan said.
By the end of 2011, all $185 million had been raised from private donors — a year before the museum's scheduled opening.
Soft opening
The opening crowd on Saturday will not be the museum's first visitors. For weeks, museum officials have given sneak peeks to scores of schoolchildren, donors, charter members and VIPs.
The intention was to work out any bugs.
"We've learned from other museums," Small said. "One of them — I won't mention names — went right up to the opening when they weren't even done with construction. There were problems."
The soft opening was intended to see how the museum functioned under the press of actual visitors, and how its electronic exhibits stood up to wear and tear from 12-year-olds.
"The first school group that came through, the bus driver couldn't find the entrance," Small recalled. "We learned from that. The next time, we had someone out there directing them in."
Tony Fiorillo, the museum's curator of earth science, led a tour for his personal focus group, his 10-year-old daughter, Olivia.
"I took her through the dinosaur hall. She was simply awed, and afterwards she said, 'Dad, you have a cool museum,'" he said.
The reaction was much the same, if less elegantly expressed, at a meeting last month in North Carolina of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, he said. There, museum officials made a presentation on the Alamosaurus to the gathered scientists.
"Even though we were concentrating pretty much on just the neck vertebrae, they were drooling," he said. "I tell people that this hall is going to be 14,000 square feet of cool."

subset: commoncrawl


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Men's Jordan VIII Archive Sleeveless T-Shirt
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Product Description
This alluring piece marries the fine engineering of Eisch breathable glassware with sophisticated modern style. Wine connoisseurs will appreciate both the beauty and utility of the sleek and contemporary Eisch crystal Duck Decanter. Utilizing Eisch's No Drop Effect, you'll eliminate ugly red wine stains. Eisch's trademarked No Drop Effect keeps wine from dripping outside the decanter, while its easy-pour design ensures proper aeration. Its unique design is easy to handle and ensures the maximum contact between the wine and atmospheric oxygen allowing it to fully develop its ideal aroma and bouquet letting you savor each flavorful sip. A smooth bulb shape reminiscent of a graceful duck and a glass handle lend intrigue to any table. Hand wash only. Holds 50 oz.


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Huskies show heart in hard-fought upset of No. 17 Irish
By Ed Daigneault Republican-American
Not a subscriber? You can purchase a single-day subscription for only $0.75 to read this and access all of our content and our E-Edition. CLICK HERE purchase a single day subscription.
Become an electronic subscriber to the Republican-American for only $8 a month. CLICK HERE.


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I would be amazed if a three-day campaign made a decisive difference," "[W]e did not do, in my view, enough damage to degrade it [Iraq's programs for weapons of mass destruction] for six months. It doesn't make any significant difference because in six months to a year they will be back to where they are and we cannot keep repeating these attacks. [. . .] At the end of the day what will be decisive is what the situation in the Middle East will be two to three years from now. If Saddam is still there, if he's rearming, if the sanctions are lifted, we will have lost, no matter what spin we put on it(in response to the Clinton Administrations missle attacks on Iraq in 1998)
Henry Kissinger (1923 -)
Contributed by: Lion
...Just Keeping the Shit to Shoe level...
Bill Maher
Source: Real Time with Bill Maher
Contributed by: Josef
Copyright © 2016 Gaiam, Inc.


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Tall Tripod Sprinkler Cart
Unlike the models you'd commonly find in hardware and box stores, this heavy-duty steel sprinkler cart is built to last. Sprinkler cart has a 3/4" GHT but also includes a 1/2" adapter to fit either 1/2" or 3/4" impact sprinkler heads. Powder-coated frame and galvanized Schedule 40 plumbing mean tough, long-lasting construction. Rolls on 14" solid pneumatic spoke wheels for easy transport to different watering locations. Sprinkler cart height can be adjusted from 55" to 81-1/2"H. USA made.


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Snowboarding: Flaunt It 2013 gets Loony
New Hampshire's 14 year old Nora Healey caught the eyes of the judges early on and solidified her win with a run consisting of frontside 540's and solid rail riding. Healey will be joining the four other Flaunt It tour slopestyle winners in Sierra-at-Tahoe for the final stop of the series in two weeks, where riders will compete for a $10,000 cash purse. Loon Mountain's Mary Rand took second and Maggie Leon from Killington placed third.
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How it works
1. Read the daily writing prompt.
2. Push "Play" on the timer on the right side of the screen.
3. Spend 60 seconds or less writing a response to the daily prompt.
You may respond in the "Comments" section of each post, if your response is family-friendly. Or you can write in your own journal or blog. If you respond in a public blog post, post the link in the comments and share it with us. Also feel free to use the "Comments" section for informal discussion about the responses that are posted.
Today, take a minute to write!
Questions? Check out this link for The One-Minute Writer Q&A, including comment guidelines and copyright information.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Friday Fiction: Hook
Friday Fiction is your opportunity to write a short (short, short, short) story. Many participants use more than one minute for Friday Fiction prompts, and I don't generally take the length of the post into account when I name a Friday winner.
Click on the "Friday Fiction" tag beneath the post to see more examples of Friday Fiction writings.
If you respond to this prompt on your blog or website, be sure to visit the Weekly Mister Linky so others can easily click on your link!
4 comments:
- lisa from insignificant at best said...
He stood outside his house waiting, until she walked up and hooked her arm through his. She smiled at him and off they went, to elementary school. Just him and the girl he referred to as his "hooker".
*Just found you through SAM at My Write Side. What a cool idea! Thanks for the prompt!*
- January 27, 2012 at 12:10 PM
I'm not a big fan of the way academics use the word "hook". One says, "Emphasize the potential connection to education, it'll be a hook to interest people in your experiments." "How about we adjust the introduction to mention that explaining can sometimes make learning worse, so the surprising finding can hook readers...". It sounds innocuous enough from the mouth of a stately professor, but "hook" has an underlying viciousness. Hapless fish are hooked and ripped out of the ocean, away from a merry existence "under de sea!", as Sebastian so cheerfully put it. Am I secretly at war with my audience? Hooking also involves forcing the "hookee" to act against their will. Perhaps pitching my results in a compelling way is exploiting the average person's tender weakness for true scientific progress, in order to drag them in the direction I want, just as a fisherman uses bait to convert a fish to his own causes – filling his belly.
- January 27, 2012 at 4:32 PM
- anneschilde said...
"Your story is missing an attention grabber," Mr. Larson criticized. "You want to start with something that makes the reader want more. It's like baiting a fish." He curled his finger and used it to pull his cheek away from his face for emphasis.
Annie scowled at the big capital D on her paper. "You gave me a D just because you didn't like the way I started my story?"
"It's hard to give you a better grade on something I'm not going to read."
- January 27, 2012 at 5:39 PM
- buddhafulkat.com said...
The top of the bamboo pole jerked. Huk tightened his grip and reeled in the line, entering a game of tug of war.
Focused, he lost track of time and didn't notice his boat moving along the river.
His catch tugged, encouraging him to keep pulling. Without warning, the line lurched with so much force Huk nearly fell in.
Looking up, he noticed his surroundings had changed. It was an unfamiliar part of the Mekong, miles from where he started.
A glimpse of a shadow twice as long as his boat made him drop his pole. Dread washed over him.
- January 31, 2012 at 1:24 AM


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Get rid of mountain-sized goose bumps with Castelli's Thermoflex Arm Warmers.
Turn your short-sleeve bike shirts into chilly-weather jerseys with the Castelli Thermoflex Arm Warmers. The soft fleece fabric covers your arms and wicks moisture, while elastic at the ends keeps the Thermoflex Warmers from sliding down. Castelli's scorpion logo adds pinchy detail.
- Soft Thermoflex fleece
- Moisture wicking
- Elastic cuffs
Tech Specs
View more Arm Warmers
Size chart
|Rider Weight
|99.2 - 132.3lbs
(45 - 60kg)
|132.3 - 154.3lbs
(60 - 70kg)
|154.3 - 176.4lbs
(70 - 80kg)
|Short Size
- Short Size:
- Take your typically cycling short or bib sizing for comparison.
Reviews & Community
Happier arms
- Familiarity: I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions
- Fit: Runs large
These arm warmers are awesome! They do run long on the arm but don't seem to crunched up when you slide them up a bit. The gripper is awesome, and doesn't seem like it falls down at all.
Mind the gap
- Familiarity: I've used it once or twice and have initial impressions
- Fit: True to size
- Size Bought: Medium
Only used these a couple of times but they are a major upgrade from the cheap ones I had previously. First and foremost, they do their job in keeping your arms warm AND they are comfortable. They stay in place and best of all they go up far enough so you don't have to deal with that unsightly gap between your jersey sleeves and your arm warmers, thus signaling to other cyclists that you either a) don't have euro cycling fashion sense b) you are a noob and/or c) you just don't care. Either way, they stay in place, keep you covered, and most importantly keep you warm. I will echo other reviewers in that they seem to run slightly long but I would much prefer too long to too short. I wish there was a better size chart, so for what it is worth my arm length is 48 cm (shoulder to wrist) and bicep is about 28cm in circumference. I went with the medium which fits well.
Great Buy
- Familiarity: I've used it several times
- Fit: True to size
I got the small (5'4" and 115lbs female) and they fit perfectly. They do run a touch on the long side, which I personally like. They are great at blocking out a lot of the wind as well as keeping the arms warm. They don't slide down, either. Love them!
Great addition to the kit...
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
- Fit: Runs large
Not much you can say about an arm warmer that does it's job, which these definitely do. They may seem a touch thin, but they are very effective; though they tend to run a bit long. I bought a pair of XL's based on some reviews, but they were way too long; I'm 6', w/ average length arms, I guess - not a knuckle dragger. So I exchanged them for the L, and while they are still just a pinch too long, it's not enough to warrant a return, and risking the mediums being too short. They fit snug and seem not to want to creep down at all. Plus, red is rad.
Reliable and warm
- Familiarity: I've put it through the wringer
These are great warmers. Not too expensive and easy to get on and off. Just make sure to get the right size they do run on the smaller side. My cycling club uses these castelli's and i love them. I would recommend buying these.
Fit picture
I have thin arms and am 69" tall with arms of regular length--this is how the smalls fit on me. The warmers are stretchy, so you should actually be able to wear your regular size with these unless you've either been lifting weights or enlarging your arms with peanut butter cups.
I bought these in red--normally people go for black, but you can see that red should work pretty well with a lot of different kit. (In fact, completely mismatched kit in my case :D).
Good warmers for chilly days
Wore these on a cool (low 50s), damp, and very windy ride and my arms felt comfortable--they neither got too hot through a hard effort nor did they get chilled. Simply perfect. I have long sleeved jerseys but the arm warmers extend the use of my short sleeved jerseys deeper into the year.
I normally wear mediums in Castelli but I have the usual cyclist's noodle arms and so bought these in a small and am glad I did. The warmer stayed put on my arm--no tugging or adjusting on the ride was required at all. The gripper was not too tight. They are oh-so-slightly longer than I needed, so the small can fit someone who is average height.
I'm wondering how these fit. I'm a skinny...
I'm wondering how these fit. I'm a skinny dude. 5' 11" 150#. Most medium size warmers (like Pearl Izumi)I've tried on are too large in the bicep. I'm thinking Castelli warmers might fit since their jerseys always fit small. Any input?
Castelli usually fits about a size smaller than Pearl Izumi. I have to ask, though: what's stopping you from getting a small in the Pearl?
If I remember right, the small Pearl Izumi was too tight in the lower arm and good in the bicep. I need something that is more evenly proportioned. I have a friend who has some medium Assos warmers that fit me perfectly but they are really expensive and hard to find. I figured since Castelli seems to be sized for thinner riders, they might fit me better than other brands.
Any thoughts?
I Usually buy one size smaller in the arm warmers then my bib/jersey size. I wear a L in Castelli bibs and jerseys but for arm warmers, leg warmers, and vest I wear a size down which is a medium.
Do you have to get a size larger tahn...
Do you have to get a size larger tahn normal..like the jerseys and shorts?
The warmers are sized more on Arm size that jersey size so if you have muscular American arms you will need to size up if you have skinny climbers arms the sizes will be accurate. Good luck
Castelli Thermoflex Arm Warmer
i think it is fabulous that you took the time to find a girl to pose with you.
Great look and durable, but . . .
Castelli stuff is always pretty fashionable and durable - I love the look of these with the Castelli logo on the wrists and they've worn very well, however a large is extremely snug on my muscular but not huge arms. I'm 6"3" and a lean 175 pounds. They are snug enough that the seams have left marks in my skin for hours after I've removed them and they've even caused some nerve interference in my left bicep. Who knows, maybe I'm just getting old.
I like um
Nothing earth shattering about a pair of arm warmers, but they fit nice because of the bend in their design. Worn them once and they worked fine on a 50 degree morning.
Is this product sold as a pair?
Is this product sold as a pair?
I can only imagine yes, I have yet to see arm warmers sold in single units.


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Rawlings PPWB Player Preferred Wheeled Baseball/Softball Bag Navy: 420d rip stop nylon/600d polyester shell Holds 4 bats Holds helmet with facemask Two metal fence clops Ventilated shoe pocket Detachable helmet pocket for easy customization Easy roll inline wheels Padded shoulder strap Inside valuables pocketColors: Black, Maroon, Navy, Purple, Royal, Scarlet Size:L 35" x W 10.5" x H 11.5" Please Note - UPS ships this bag as an oversized package. Oversized shipping rates apply.. Price: $40.95
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This month, Portland-based band Great Wilderness releases its sophomore EP. The self-titled, six-track album features the band's original folk-rock with a little fuzz, two-part harmonies, some in-your-face jams and psychedelic sounds, according to vocalist and guitarist Emily Overstreet, a native Southern Oregonian.
"We started out more acoustic folk, but in the last couple years, we've taken on a more traditional, folk-rock sound," she says. "We're working on not being a buzz band from Portland and, instead, doing more classic-sounding stuff (think Fleetwood Mac and Heart), stuff that all demographics can enjoy."
Honesty and healing are reccurring themes in the songs, written by Overstreet and fellow frontwoman, vocalist and guitarist Jamie McMullen.
The rest of the band includes electric guitarist Jon Balsley, drummer Joshua Kennedy and bassist Corey Dieckman.
As part of an October West Coast tour, Great Wilderness, minus Dieckman, will perform at 9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, at Caldera Tap House, 31 Water St., Ashland. Portland bassist Jeremy Hadley will fill in for Dieckman, and local folk trio Kites & Crows will open the show. The cover is $5.
The new EP is available for download on iTunes and CDBaby.
Location, ST | website.com


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Three recent problems with packages in the last stable release of Debian GNU/Linux ("Lenny"), brought me face-to-face with what is still a major obstacle for acceptance of free software on the desktop: contempt for the values of the people who use it. Despite all the accusations of unfair trade practices or other excuses, this remains as one solid reason why free software is still perceived as "geeks only" territory. If we want to progress further, we've got to improve our attitudes.
Even in a room of hardcore hackers, it's safe to say that we are all "end users" of software more often than we are developers of it -- just as we are all more often readers than writers of prose. Likewise, just as it saves more time in the end to write clearly and proof-read your work, it serves us all better to put "end user needs" ahead of developer values.
Yet, there is no question that adversarial attitudes arise between users and developers of software: they are in a sense, working against each other, tugging the product into two nearly opposite directions.
This is understandable. It's just human nature. But we must overcome it if we hope to be truly competitive with the folks who call the end users "customers." Because while proprietary companies may have started to sell out customers to other stake-holders (one of the main reasons people abandon proprietary software), they got those customers in the first place by treating them right and placing their values first.
So, if we want to make the world a better place by getting the free software system to displace the proprietary software system, we've got to find a way to serve those customers better, not just wait for the proprietary system to get even more intolerable.
Commitment to customer dissatisfaction
So what exactly happened to make me frustrated enough to write this? Well, this year I upgraded my main Debian system from "Etch" to "Lenny". Of course, I did this to take advantage of new and improved packages (and they are there -- much of this experience was positive). Sadly, this upgrade also broke a lot of stuff.
I didn't contact these developers and I'm not going to name names (of course I can't avoid mentioning the package names), because there's really no point -- I know and you know that these attitudes are endemic throughout our whole community, so it'd be unfair to single-out these three people. I know there's not much point in trying to talk these particular packagers around to my way of thinking, because I've already read the transcripts of others on the same quixotic mission. No dice. Clearly these particular folks are committed to their decisions, no matter how bad I think they were.
Perhaps most frustrating of all, I cannot solve these problems by simply switching to an end-user focused distribution like Ubuntu, because two of these three problems are broken there too (unsurprisingly, since the problems are hard to find).
Fix By Deletion: ttf-thryomanes
I spend a lot of my time on graphical design and artwork. I've designed logos and website graphics for my own company and a number of small free software projects as well as flyers and other advertising materials. Most of this, I like to do in Inkscape or other vector graphics applications, because they really excel at this kind of work: you can scale the results, edit the text as needed, and so on.
However, vector graphic documents fundamentally follow "link semantics", which means that, like an HTML page, they depend on other files being there to interpret their appearance. Images are an obvious problem, and managing them is often a challenge. But the most common trouble spot is fonts.
Choosing a font is a personal artistic decision. It's very particular. You can't just substitute "FreeMono" for "Courier" and expect your layout to stay sane or balanced. These fonts have subtle differences in letterforms and spacing, and yet these are a very tame example. Pick any fancy "display font", and you can bet it's one of a kind.
I wanted to be sure to use standard, free software fonts in my artwork, because I felt this was the surest way to make certain I wouldn't lose them or have to switch at some point. Sadly, I made the wrong choice in picking "ttf-thryomanes." This font was apparently primarily intended to fill a gap in Unicode language support, but I used it because I liked the letterforms. They were just a little "off" from the standard forms (possibly an accident in retrospect), but this produced the effect I wanted in the drawings I was making.
Between "Etch" and "Lenny", however, this font package was dropped. Of course, I wanted to know why. My first assumption is that it must have been consolidated into another package, and I would just have to install that one.
But no. It turns out that Thryomanes had some kind of bug listed against it because some of the characters (evidently ones I never used) did not display properly. No one had gotten around to actually fixing this problem in the font itself, so the package maintainer decided to "fix" it by removing the package from Debian entirely. He excused this by noting that another font "Deja Vu" included the Unicode code points that Thryomanes had apparently been intended to cover.
Which (from my point of view anyway) is totally missing the point! "Deja Vu" is a different font! Even if they looked identical (which they don't), there's no mechanism in place to substitute the "Deja Vu" font for the "Thryomanes" font in existing documents.
It is now virtually impossible to find and there is certainly no easy way to install the package in the "Lenny" distribution that I can find.
Without the font, all of the previous drawings that I made using "Thryomanes" are basically "broken." I can't simply re-render them on my Debian "Lenny" distribution system. I might be able to re-design for another font, but I shouldn't have to do that!
To me as an end-user, this sounds like amputating an arm to cure a hangnail. Clearly, the package maintainer does not share my values in a good desktop system.
It occurred to me, of course, to check and see if the problem is in Ubuntu, which is supposed to be more user-focused, but sadly, yes it is.
Oh You Don't Need That: defoma
The best thing I could think of is to manually install the Thryomanes TTF font outside of the Debian package system. Trying to do that is how I discovered the second gaff.
As an unpackaged font, Thryomanes join about a hundred or so fonts that I had stored on my hard drive but hadn't gotten around to installing into the new distribution. So I decided it was time to tackle that.
I was a bit foggy on how to do it, since it's been a couple of years since I've had to do this, so I looked up the documentation. In order to use TTF fonts, you need to provide the Debian font manager (called "Defoma") with "hint" files which essentially just index metadata for the files.
There is a laborious process by which you could write these hint files by hand, and I suspect that the packaged fonts are handled that way. However, there is a simple way to do it which I had used before, which is to run a program (called "defoma-hints") on the original TTF files, which contain all of the really essential metadata in their headers. This program would simply read out the data and produce suitable font hinting files for Defoma.
Great! I love it when Debian has this stuff all figured out for me.
Except it's broken.
It turns out that the
defoma-hints program relies on an older Perl module for interfacing with the FreeType library which the Debian maintainers in their infinite wisdom have decided is "obsolete." Never mind that a critical piece of Debian infrastructure relies on it.
defoma-hints is still there, but the library it relies on isn't. Again, it's not possible to install this through the package system, as far as I can tell.
Reading the bug reports for this package is even more disturbing. This is bug #285653, reported in 2004 and unresolved as of this writing, although the maintainer is currently busy ignoring a recently submitted patch, see Bug #514635.
Of course there is no bug report for the missing libft-perl package, because it was removed, which seems to be the fastest way to quash criticism in the Debian bug-tracking system, which forgets all commentary on packages that are removed (including such things as why they shouldn't have been).
My fonts are still broken. I even tried to see if I could run the program on an older machine and then port the file, but so far this hasn't worked.
Eventually, I will get this fixed, even if I have to write the hints files by hand or install libft-perl from source code. But I think it's clear that I am already way beyond the limits of the "typical desktop end user."
Or "fonts=fail" as my teenage son would put it.
Utter Contempt for End Usability: wacom-tools
Moving along to another graphics-related problem, I recently acquired a Wacom graphics tablet. I bought a Wacom brand-name product because I understood that the Linux-Wacom driver is very solid and supports everything I would expect to be able to do with the tablet. It even has a GUI configuration wizard to help you get it installed as an X input device with the proper settings for your particular tablet.
This is probably true. However, I am fairly disgusted with the Debian package maintainer's attitude about this package.
It should be very, very simple. Just plug it in, start the configuration app, change the settings, and (possibly) copy them into the appropriate X configuration file.
The package maintainer however, recommends using a command line utility called "xsetwacom" instead. This can do most of what the graphical tool does, but not quite all, and it is not a terribly intuitive or simple program to use.
Now remember: Wacom tablet users are, by and large, artists. There are artists who are also programmers or system administrators, but not many. There aren't many user groups for whom a graphical interface is more important. Since this is an infrequently-used program, however, it's unlikely that they care what language it is implemented in.
Yet, the package maintainer is willing to deny their needs because of an aesthetic displeasure with the programming language being used to develop it!
He proposed (in 2005) that a better solution would be to write a new tool which didn't rely on TCL:
Work is underway on a couple of fronts for a gui interface that doesn't involve getting all covered in tcl.
Apparently he never got around to it, because it's still not there. When a later poster challenged this in 2009, the maintainer got very defensive and flamed him in the bug tracking system. He still did nothing about the problem, and the package is still incomplete.
In brief, what the maintainer sees as a trivial waste of his time is a critical matter for end users.
Luckily for Ubuntu users, this package seems to have been fixed in Ubuntu, by simply including the missing program.
Who is Debian For?
Of course some people will simply respond that Debian isn't really meant to be an end-user distribution. Does this justify such contempt for end-user needs?
I don't think so. Because even though Debian itself isn't really intended to support end-users, it is the base upon which distributions of different types are made. Problems in Debian get mirrored into end-user systems, and unless the maintainers of the end distribution are very careful, these sort of bugs will simply fall right through into their final product.
defoma bug is at least listed as "important", and therefore might be noticed, though it's pretty shocking that it's been left unresolved for years.
wacom-tools bug is much more insidious, since it is listed as merely a "wishlist" item, which means it isn't really considered a "bug" at all. Likewise, the
ttf-thryomanes package is non-existent, gone with virtually no trace, so it's certainly not going to show up in a casual survey of bugs to fix.
Values mismatch
The real problem is that there is a fundamental mismatch between what the users and maintainers value. As in the
wacom-tools case, the original developers have done their part by providing the necessary tool. But the packager has obstinately refused to include it. What can be done?
There are some formal complaint processes within Debian, but is this problem really severe enough to drive users to that point? More likely, the distribution is riddled with small holes like these which bother particular niches of users enough to irritate and even drive them away, but not enough to go through the process of getting the problem fixed.
Most users would rather just "vote with their feet" by moving to another distribution or operating-system. In fact, problems like this are often cited when people give up on free software entirely and switch back to a Macintosh or Windows system.
The problem is that for "end users", the whole point of the computer is to handle headaches like fonts and graphics and so on so that they can do their "real work" -- which is documents like word-processing or artistic graphics. They don't really care what happens "under the hood" as long as it works. For them, the penalty of losing access to those inner workings doesn't seem so important.
Meanwhile, for the developers and packagers who spend their professional lives tinkering with computers, such real world uses of computers are almost like an unintentional side-effect of their work. They create a beautiful and fun piece of software, and "oh, by the way" you can also get it to do real work. This is not an unnatural attitude for an amateur, but it is precisely unprofessional.
We could accept that label, of course. We could just concede that the community development model doesn't work and that software for real use in the real world should be handled by professionals who demand payment for each copy of software delivered.
If you're reading this magazine though, it's a pretty safe bet that you don't want to admit that kind of defeat.
How can we fix it?
I don't have a clear or coordinated answer for this, but I will suggest a few ideas. I think first of all, the problem has to be seen as a kind of "market failure." The market for free software binary packages is not free enough because there are points of friction and anti-competitive factors associated not with the writing of software, but with the packaging of software.
What we're facing here is "Deb Hell" -- the Debian counterpart to the more poetically-named "DLL Hell" of Windows. The reason the packager has so much power over us is that it is difficult to replace the package with a new one, maintained outside of the system. The official Debian package has the (unfair?) advantage that it is tested against the current Debian distribution.
It would be to the benefit of end users (and ultimately of the Debian distribution itself), if this friction could somehow be removed and fair competition be restored to the delivery of packages.
One thing that is not the solution is to start pointing the finger at packagers and demanding that they do as we please. Clearly, the packagers of the three packages I complained about above do have their own, possibly valid, reasons for doing things the way they have done. This is a disagreement of values, not some fundamental "ethical" issue. Demanding "better regulation" of people who are, after all, volunteers would be pointless and counter-productive. What I should be able to do is simply "take my business elsewhere" on an individual package basis, without having to dump the whole distribution.
The problem is that as things stand, there aren't enough "elsewheres" to take it.
The software store analogy
I've said before that a GNU/Linux distribution is not just an operating system -- instead it is more analogous to the complete inventory of a software retailer. It consists of thousands of packages, originally produced by different suppliers, placed under one roof for the customer to pick and choose what they want.
However, there is one important difference. In the software retailer, each package is published and marketed by an entity whose incentive is directly based on customer (read "end user") satisfaction.
In the Debian case, though, the publishing and marketing (read "packaging") of the packages is maintained "in house" by Debian developers who have little affiliation with the original developer and often are concerned only with a small subset of users (in the worst case, only with their own personal needs).
This is essentially because we aren't paying them.
With distributions like Ubuntu, there is the opportunity to fix some problems by simply paying packagers to do a better, more user-focused job. But the amount of money available is somewhat limited because of the generally lower profitability of free software production. Ubuntu has to save money by relying heavily on the mostly-volunteer work of the Debian base distribution.
As a result, most of the problems in Debian are also problems in Ubuntu. This situation is analogous to "shareware" marketers in retail stores -- they produce an essentially generic product which relies heavily on the original developers' work, with little investment in packaging and presentation, because they simply can't afford to invest more and maintain the low price that customers expect from shareware.
One solution might be to make the Debian package tools a little more like an online shopping experience: with customer ratings and reviews, not just bug reports. This might give some feedback, both to people selecting packages, and to packagers looking for packages to improve upon in Debian-derivative distributions.
Another approach might be to bring competition into the Debian distribution itself by allowing multiple teams to produce competing versions of packages for the same upstream product. Possibly some of the packaging distributions could be made available through switches incorporated into the package tools. This would be a much more radical design change, but it could improve a lot of design-tradeoff issues with a distribution that is trying to serve a lot of diverse users with diverse needs.
One way to reduce the combinatorial explosion of package dependencies would be to break Debian up into a set of coarse blocks, possibly based on language/programming-environment subsystems. For example, it might make sense to de-couple the release cycle for all Python or Java packages from the main release schedule. Then, rather than having to wait for all of Debian to catch up, the Python Sub-Distribution could be released, allowing for more up-to-date packages and fewer headaches for upstream developers. This might make the packaging problem simpler, and lead to more third-party packages (and thus competition).
There are already a number of "unofficial" Debian package repositories on the net. One approach would be to try to give these packages a more "first class citizen" status. Making another online retailer analogy, perhaps these could be presented in the Debian package system much like Amazon's "Marketplace" retailers are -- as choices beyond the one choice provided by the main retailer. This has been a big success for Amazon, and many improvements have been made to put such retailers on a more even footing. Something like this might have a positive impact on package competition in Debian, especially combined with some of the other ideas above.
At that point, I will leave off. I don't think I've suggested "the" solution to the problem, but I hope that I have made it clear that there is something to be solved and that there is (probably) a free, community-oriented way to solve it.
I agree with most of your article. The way that the Debian package management infrastructure is set up, it is easier to remove a package than fix a bug.
A deleted package should still have its bug reports available in the Debian bug tracker.
Also, adding a package [back] into Debian via the WNPP metapackage option of reportbug needs to be improved.
I tried to get ttf-thryomanes from http://snapshot.debian.net - direct download links work but the /etc/apt/sources.list entries fails, so I've emailed the site administrator.
Couldn't you get ttf-thryomanes from Etch?
Not that you should have to do so, but couldn't you grab the "ttf-thryomanes" package from an earlier Debian release (e.g., Etch), and install it in Lenny--just by double-clicking the file? That's certainly what I would try under Ubuntu; it may or may not work, but I would certainly consider it worth a try.
Try to be more thoughtful in your wording
Just a suggestion: accusing hard-working volunteers of contempt for their users is probably not the best way to encourage them to listen to whatever useful points you might have to make...
Wrong distro, bad attitude
So you're an 'artist'? Sorry, that doesn't let you off the hook. You still have the responsibility to choose your own tools. Wisely.
First of all, you are terribly uninformed about free software development, and linux distros in general. You'd be much better off with Ubuntu than Debian. I guess you sort of realize that. So quit whingeing about it, and install Ubuntu. But first, do a little online research and find out exactly what hardware is supported, before you go out and buy something that just isn't going to work. Because that would be your mistake, and your problem. Incidentally Debian is an excellent distro, and I find the sidux version to be even more excellent -- but not for ignorant n00bs. No offense, by the way.
What you experienced I have also experienced on non-free software. Specifically, very, very expensive products from Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and dozens of others. Software I like got orphaned. Including fonts. So? Nobody is forcing upgrades on you. If you like an old tool, keep it (and if necessary, the supporting environment, including old hardware and OS versions) around. They'll (probably) keep going for years. If not, deal with it. You are creative, right? Move on. Incidentally, there are tools for converting ttf fonts to other formats. You do backup your fonts and other linked files, right... ?
You feel that Debian (and by extension, other FOSS developers) have "contempt for 'end user' values". But this is very, very wrong. FOSS developers are donating their time and energy to provide something for free, to the community. End of story. You have no claim on their time, or priorities. Accept their gift. Or not. Give back, if you can.
A lot of things in Gnu/Linux OS seem difficult at first. But ask yourself: how much time did it take you to get proficient at Windows and/or Mac OS? Me, it took years. Learning all the obscure little helper apps, what tool works best for what particular job, what breaks, what the work around might be. Gnu/Linux is like that, too. Some of the best Gnu/Linux tools are developer tools, not graphic design tools. Big surprise, eh?
Still, it's come a long way. I still rely on Photoshop for some stuff that the GIMP just doesn't cover. Ditto Illustrator/Inkscape. But I rarely boot into Windows or Mac anymore, maybe just once or twice a week (ok I sometimes cheat and run Windows in VirtualBox).
I take it that comment was meant as an ironic spoof?
Team up - enjoy being active
When working with the stable release, you get to learn about changes when they are a fact. I presume that working with the testing release (Squeeze now) would help you a lot to shorten the feedback loop between yourself and the developers who upload new versions of packages all the time. You can always downgrade to earlier packages should something not work for a few days, but most is already caught in sid (unstable) before it reaches testing.
My hunch is that you would have much more enjoyed working with the maintainer of the package to prevent your experience. There are several ways to contribute.
a) Install the package popularity-contest
It will inform the maintainer that there are folks out there who are actually using the package he/she maintains. This is something uttermost instrumental in the decision process to possibly dump the package.
b) Join/start user-centric mailing lists
With you knowing so much about fonts, probably much more than the vast majority of Debian/Ubuntu developers, it would be just nice to have you listening on mailing lists on which such issues would then be discussed early
c) Co-maintain or maintain packages
From how I read your article, you may possibly need some technical assistance at first, but I don't see why you could not help with the packaging yourself. You won't become the Über-geek, but you don't need to be one to help with packaging. Debian wants you the way you are - but more integrated.
Please investigate if there is someone on a local Linux user group to help or say hello on the debian-mentors mailing list, see http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/new-maintainer.html
d) Write
* rants like this one :)
* instructions to those still using commercial products
* instructions to developers about free software that is still needed
e) Help the eye candy of Free Software - which you said you'd already be doing.
I appreciate the sentiment, but...
Those are all valid points. Responding to some of them (out of order):
In point of fact, I have created Debian packages before. I ran into problems with policy and the upstream package's archaic design and licensing, though, so none have so far been admissible to Debian's archive. At some point, I'm sure I will attempt it again with a less crotchety software package -- perhaps one of my own.
I also do run a number of testing or unstable packages at need. Sadly, I can tell you from experience that "You can always downgrade to earlier packages should something not work for a few days" is often untrue (there are quite a few ways to hose your system when packages are out of synch, and APT does not like downgrades). Running such a system on a work-critical desktop workstation is not a very good idea. I've had to do a complete re-install on more than one occasion because of such problems. Not something you want to do on a deadline.
Actually, I don't run
popularity-contest. Call it paranoia, if you like, but even conceding that, it doesn't really measure the relevant metrics here. Satisfaction with the state of a given package is not highly correlated to how many people have it installed or even how frequently they use it.
"Working with the maintainer of the package" is unpromising in each of these cases, as the article describes. That is precisely the point of choosing these particular problems. This is not a matter of reporting a bug or of providing a patch. Each of these has a simple solution that the packager has rejected.
That's because they have a very different idea about what the "right" thing to do is. These are not failures of understanding, they are disagreements. I know that, because I've already read the bug reports.
The interesting problem is that with the way Debian is set up, that's the end of the story. Once the packager kills the idea, it just doesn't get done. Solving that problem is the focus of my post. Unfortunately I don't have a nice, canned, well-defined answer to how to do it. Just some brainstorming ideas.
Here's what I meant about "simple solutions":
ttf-thryomanesshould've been kept despite the rendering bug. It's better to have the font with the bug than to lose it entirely.
libft-perlshould not have been removed, because
defoma, a critical infrastructure package needed it. Once the patch is applied to move
defoma-hintsto a new library, it can be removed, but not before.
wacom-toolsshould have included the configuration tool, despite the packager's objection to the TCL dependency. TCL could've been listed as a "recommended" or "suggested" package rather than a "required" package for those who don't want to get "all covered in TCL." Once a replacement tool is created, then the package can migrate to that, not before.
None of these decisions would've required any real patches, they're just configuration choices in creating the packages. This isn't a matter of insufficient labor. It's a matter of someone specifically blocking these actions because they disagree with them.
We're talking about subjective value judgments here, not objective "bugs."
The answer to that is not more bug reports (that's just repeating the same action expecting different results). The answer is a system that creates more responsiveness to user needs and/or more choice in what packages to install. That does involve a labor issue (how to make those competing packages), which would need to be solved by either decreasing the difficulty of making packages or increasing the incentives for doing it.
All challenging problems, but worth thinking about if we want a better, more usable system.
You don't ultimately need "main" and one possible workaround
I wished your experiences would have been more positive. Are you aware of
http://wiki.debian.org/Fonts and http://pkg-fonts.alioth.debian.org/ ? You should find some audience (and hopefully also answers) for your problems there.
Concerning the font that was kicked out of main, it could have been kept alive in the non-free section, for which packages don't need to adhere to the DFSG and -policy. Alternatively, if the missing functionality could be interpreted as "not yet finished", the experimental section may be handy.
When your own packages have not found acceptance by a DD for being sponsored, then you can still have your own repository - it is just a directory on some FTP or HTTP server. With that you can provide a reliable (you control it) set of packages and a homogeneous environment for all your five accounts/machines.
Once your problem is solved, you might not care, but you might also be interested to find more users of your own packages and your own repository, this way then possibly finding packages of yours to be adopted and further enhanced for maintenance for the main distribution. You would then present yourself as an end-user friendly, since run by end users, addition to Debian.
I know this to sound much like the typical DIY kind of reply to complaints to Open Source. And it does not necessarily make much of a difference to a general neglect of the user base that your thread is about. To run popularity-contest (which at least informs the maintainer about the number of installations effected by a removal of the package from the archive) and/or to join close-to-professional-interest Debian-specific mailing lists to exchange thoughts, experiences and expectations is something that should help preventing most of what you described - from what I experienced.
Defoma sounds like a real mess and I'm not a Debianite but have you tried just putting the thryomanes .ttf file(s) in your ~/.fonts/ directory? That's how easy fontconfig managed font (ttf,otf...) installation is supposed to be these days (and invariably is IME).
No I haven't tried that exactly
On a Debian system, system-wide fonts are stored under
/usr/share/fonts, which is what I've been working with. I have additional fonts under
/usr/local/share/fonts, which is where I want to keep fonts that aren't maintained by the package system.
I don't particularly like to do per-user installations of anything, since we have five accounts and generally prefer them to all be able to use newly installed software.
Even if what you suggest works, though, it represents a significant design failing, since
defoma is still the documented font manager in Debian. If there's a work-around or if font management itself has become obsolete, then that should be noted in the package descriptions, bug-listings, or in Debian policy documents. I have run into situations like that before (in fact, it's probably the most common failing in free software community projects -- to fail to note when a system has become obsolete).
I don't think that's actually the situation here, though. It appears that Defoma is still a needed system.
However, let me re-emphasize that I'm not asking for tech-support. I know I will solve my problem. What I find interesting about this is what it says about the state of the Debian distribution.
This is a particular kind of problem that we can't just "legislate away". You can't write a policy document that says "packagers will value end user concerns" and expect that to have any effect. The reality is that people ("honest people in good faith") will disagree on what a statement like that even means.
More management, better management, or regulation is not the answer. Nagging these particular packagers is not the answer either. They already know that their decisions are not satisfying to all users (the reports have already been filed by other people). They've been actively choosing to ignore that feedback -- presumably for reasons they think are valid. That's what's significant about these three problems -- they aren't "bugs" in the usual sense. They are disagreements.
The only thing that is going to be effective is to have a larger, more accessible pool of competing packages and to have meaningful metrics that will offer guidance to users and incentive to packagers (as a group, not necessarily individually) to make their packages stand up better to user expectations.
In other words, it needs to be more like a "free market".
This would take some serious engineering to change. Debian has already done a lot of engineering to make their package system good (IMHO, the best yet). But I think this exposes some ways in which it isn't yet all it could be.
More irrelevant tech. support ;-)
Sorry - I should've said that /usr/local/share/fonts is also one of the directories a standard fontconfig system looks at (q.v. /etc/fonts/fonts.conf). What I said about just dropping font files into ~/.fonts applies just as well to it too.
Anyway, I entirely agree with the general thrust of your article. I was a happy Debian user myself a long time ago and recently I'd been (warily) considering a migration back to a less flexible but more easily managed binary based distro (either Debian or Ubuntu). Then the Mono storm hit and some of the Debian and Ubuntu people managed to bring those distros into disrepute as far as I'm concerned (I took an interest because of the software patent angle but I was shocked at the Dunning-Krugeresque ignorance and arrogance I saw). As desktop GNU/Linux has become more popular in recent years it seems to me there has been something of a decline in *nixy technical quality and character and an undermining of FS values - at least in some quarters. Just gratefully let your distro's package manager "unzip" the latest "freeware" into your "folders" folks and don't even think about criticising it. ;-)
Hard balance to maintain
There's a hard balance to maintain between making things easy for newbies and making a political stand against proprietary closed-source software inclusions.
On the one hand, we'd like to maintain some kind of incentive to get drivers released under free licenses, but on the other, we don't want to force users to choose between a 100% open system that doesn't work for them and a 100% closed one that does (you already know what most of them are going to pick, given only those options).
Having a 90% free system around is a good thing, IMHO. On the other hand, you don't want to claim that that system is really 100% free, and you do want there to be some motivation to get that last 10% freed (or replaced).
Everything after that is a value judgment and therefore highly subjective.
When discussing distributions' choices, we do have to draw some kind of line between our own opinions about those values, and the wide range of valid choices that we might not agree with (which is a lot larger). That's where "tolerance" comes in, and without it, there's no "freedom" for us to be defending.
In the article, I've tried to express both my own (extreme) frustration with the choices of three package maintainers and also my tolerance for their point of view. What I want is to have easier ways of getting a better range of choices so that I (and other people with other values) can get what I (or they) want.
Oh and BTW, I do appreciate the suggestions on my fonts problem. I will remember what you've said when I start working on it. I just don't want to dilute the conversation with my own technical problems.
You're right
The problem isn't the developers, it's the users. See if you can find 3 examples of constructive criticism and debate about any mainstream FOSS package on the net that isn't a flamewar and the debate is between two (or more) knowledgeable individuals - rather than between someone with a point and a zealot (like dsmith who posted above). Out of all the people I've issued this challenge to, not one has succeeded.
Obviously the developers don't listen to the users - the community self-censors any criticism so they largely don't ever hear about anything that's wrong. It's really sad in that a 'community based development' project actively stifles any user feedback that isn't empty praise.
The users of most commercial software packages give more feedback than the users of FOSS. It's no longer 'community produced' but 'oligarchy produced'. It's just nobody's really noticed yet.
Not quite so bad as all that
The main feedback that developers receive is through the bug tracking system. If you only look at mailing lists or forums, you're not seeing that.
This system works pretty well as long as the "bugs" are fairly objective.
These three problems are interesting precisely because they are subjective and so there is much more opportunity for disagreement.
Free software users on mailing lists and forums are so used to trying to fix individual tech support questions that they try to turn the discussion that way when quality issues are brought up. It's probably not fair to be too hard on them for that habit, since in the original context it is often constructive.
Accountability in Free software
It disturbs me that you refuse to take responsibility for the consequences of your own, uninformed choices.
Why? Because I am a graphic designer. It just embarrasses me, I guess.
At the risk of repeating myself, you have wrongly framed the discussion around YOUR needs and YOUR expectations.
No FOSS developer will take you or your concerns seriously, until you lose the 'tude.
You say you don't want to "dilute the conversation with [your] own technical problems". But your column is all about your technial problems, specifically your lack of technical understanding. It won't take much to overcome this, but it will take work, and time. Your effort, your time.
Until you grasp this essential point, there is no way forward for you.
If you are unwilling to make this commitment, go back to proprietory software.
Let me respond to these in reverse order...
If you are unwilling to make this commitment, go back to proprietory software.
The essence of this statement is that you don't think the community process can serve end-users. I mentioned this point of view, and it's certainly a valid perspective from the evidence available.
However, I'm not willing to concede such defeat so easily. I think it can be done, and that is the essence of the article.
It won't take much to overcome this, but it will take work, and time. Your effort, your time.
These are relative terms. I estimate three work days or 24 hrs total labor. If maintaining computers were my job that would be nothing, but if graphic arts were my job it would be excessive lost time. For me, of course, both are part of my job and I agree with you that as things stand this is "par for the course."
For a true end-user, however, it is not good enough. That is one solid technical reason why neither Debian nor distributions based on it are a credible market threat to proprietary systems. Many people believe that there are no such technical reasons, which is why I raised this point.
It's unclear to me whether you are aware of this debate or what your opinion might be on it.
But your column is all about your technical problems, specifically your lack of technical understanding.
Incorrect. There are technical problems, but I already know several possible ways to fix them. Each of them is fairly laborious and beyond the limits of a stereotypical "end user."
For me it's an irritation, but it's also an opportunity to observe and comment on a problem that interferes with end user adoption of free software (which is an important editorial focus for Free Software Magazine).
You say you don't want to "dilute the conversation with [your] own technical problems".
Precisely, since I already know solutions for my own problems. The interesting question is what this means for end users who lack my technical expertise (or willingness).
No FOSS developer will take you or your concerns seriously, until you lose the 'tude.
This is essentially in agreement with my statement that contempt for end user values is endemic to our community.
However, I think you might be overstating the case -- I've met plenty of developers and packagers who think end usability is important.
At the risk of repeating myself, you have wrongly framed the discussion around YOUR needs and YOUR expectations.
Being focused on your own needs and expectations is essentially the definition of an "end user." That doesn't define me, but it is the (hypothetical) perspective I have focused on in this article.
Your statement implies that you think that contempt for end users is the correct response. With respect, I disagree.
Why? Because I am a graphic designer. It just embarrasses me, I guess.
Perhaps I shouldn't touch this emotional point, but it seems clear to me that you are reacting to a stereotype you've projected onto me rather than what I actually wrote.
It disturbs me that you refuse to take responsibility for the consequences of your own, uninformed choices.
What exactly do you think I was "uninformed" about? Not only do I take responsibility for my own troubles, I have the community mindset to try to apply what I have learned to solving (or at least understanding) the systemic problems that precipitated those troubles.
Unlike you, I do not simply give up and take it as read that the way things are is the best they will ever be. I believe that a constantly improving community process will eventually produce a system that is better for end users than any proprietary system.
But it won't happen if we stick our head in the sand, complain about "n00bs," and try to defend against all critical commentary.
There are several problems
There are several problems here:
Users expecting free software distros to be perfect. This is not the case and never will be.
Almost all free software projects having a lack of developer/translator/artist/etc resources.
Developer priority changes coming together with bus factor issues to cause loss of features.
Some users not even considering the possibility of empowering themselves with the technical skills needed to control their computing experience to their satisfaction, and then complaining when volunteers have not done the work for them.
The challenge here is to create a culture where users care about the projects they use, regularly check for possible future issues upstream and with their distribution and do what is needed to keep those projects alive.
Also, I think there is also a lack of communication channels between developers for specific packages and the users of those packages. Basically the only communication with users of my packages I know of is to mail upstream fora or contact folks who have reported bugs.
Also, I'm hoping to get rid of defoma for squeeze:
Package competition
I do not think the answer would be found in having competitive packages with potentially different configurations in the same distribution. The process of creating and vetting a package through Debian is hard enough just for one instance or variant :). Also, packages relate.
This in fact is something that can (and already DOES) happen through the existence of different and alternate distributions, that are to various levels Debian "based", but with different or alternate or some may feel better choices of packages offered. If a specific distro makes what are perceived as "poor" choices for users, there are others that can and do have the opportunity to make better choices. That forms a market.
Nor are all cases one where there is a choice of including or substituting X for Y. Instead, often there are complex inter-relationships that derive choices of what packages to include and with which options they should be built with. One example is where you have completely alternate desktop design decisions represented effectively as split and variant distributions, such as for example Ubuntu and Kubuntu.
fine and coarse
I think you're probably right that competing at the Debian package level is too difficult. Essentially, the packages are too fine -- with dependencies, there are just too many different possible combinations.
On the other hand, I think competing at the distribution level is simply too coarse. On the one hand, you get "general purpose" distributions like Ubuntu, and on the other, you get specialized ones like "Puppy" (small footprint) or "64 Studio" (audio production).
But what if I have a combination of specific needs? Do I have to install a multi-boot system just so I can switch between being (say) an artist (multimedia distribution) and a machinist (a CNC configuration). Or do I have to settle for an inferior general purpose distribution that can't do either one well?
Maybe it would be better if there were some intermediate level of complexity -- incomplete distributions or collections of packages that serve specific niche users.
As for the conflicts that might occur, it might be desirable to include some kind of virtualization that would allow packages to run in different library dependency environments (perhaps by manipulating paths or even using "fake root" environments). Alternatively, greater use of static-linking might be made as needed to resolve conflicts.


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The Ruger Service Six Series: Wheelgun Muscle, 70s style
Starting in the late 1960s, Sturm, Ruger began work on a modern double-action revolver. The gun he imagined was a large frame design and purpose built for the law enforcement and security market.
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John Buckman has announced that Amarok, the popular KDE music player, now includes an integrated store for his company Magnatune, one of the largest netlabels offering DRM-free, CC-licensed music, and a fair deal for their musicians.
This is an inspired move by all parties involved - as well as making it easier than ever before for music fans to access Magnatune's catalogue, it provides newcomers to GNU/Linux with an alternative to the functionality that they have come to expect from Apple's DRM-encumbered iTunes service. In addition, Amarok and Magnatune have the advantage of of providing all the practical benefits of free software, un-DRM'd open formats and liberal licensing.
If that wasn't enough to make the Magnatune store a very attractive proposition, 10% of the price of each sale from the Amarok Magnatune store will go straight back to the Amarok project, providing an attractive way to support one of the most exciting free software projects around.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
They should still leave a
They should still leave a version of it without that. I don't want that crap cluttering ym music player.
what do you mean
what do you mean "cluttering"? It is in a separate tab, which you can disable from the "Manage Tabs" menu if you don't like it.
IMO it is a really great addition to Amarok, I just bought an album from Magnatune to support it.
well, as it is free software...
...you could always create a Magnatune-less fork of the project! ;o)
quite true, but we don't
quite true, but we don't need pointless forks. We need developers who understand that some people want a music PLAYER not a music STORE that plays music. So, have an option and all will be cool and no needless forks. Forks have their place (the GCC problems), but it's better to try and get it resolved first.
Music Player?
Uhh, it seems to me that Amarok has been much more than a music player for a very very very long time.
Re: cluttering
You can right-click on the vertical tab and uncheck Magnatune store if you like, but a better option would be to have it like a plugin of course...
It's simple to remove it
It's realy simple to remove the music store from the Amarok interface. So whats the big deal?
I think the Amarok team did a very good job intigrating it. Well Done! I also think it's nice of Magnatune to let you chose the format you want. MP3, Ogg, Flac or even Wav.
You don't have to look at it
you can easily hide the tab so you never see it.
Now all Magnatune needs is a decent music catalogue. How about an Amarok interface with evil iTunes? There is already an application called Sharp Musique which will allow you to interface with the iTunes music store, just integrate that into Amarok. Probably a lot of red tape involved. Big problem I run into trying to convert MS devotees to Linux is the infamous question, "Will I be able to use iTunes on it?" Then I switch into my Amarok sales pitch which doesn't go very far.
Magnatune a direct Alternative to iTunes?? I think not...
Until Magnatune can get some mainstream artists into it's catalog, I wouldn't be calling it an alternative to iTunes. At the moment the best I think it can be called is a complement to iTunes. It seems like a good place to go and get some great music from minor artists (which I personally plan to check out) and their catalog seem quite large for a startup which is impressive. However, in the previous poster's Amarok sales pitch, this is probably one of the reason's why his/her pitch dies so fast.
Unfortunately, not all people are willing to spend the extra time in the "unknown" to find things (be it solutions to problems, or music they like), as I find most Open-Source users to be. Most iTunes users I know go to iTunes for a couple reasons: first it has most of the mainstream artists available (and they are simply not into indie bands unless they have been played on the local radio stations) and secondly, it is far easier for them to pay a bit to iTunes to get a good digital copy of something, rather than rip it themselves (or "borrow" a copy off limewire or whatever).
Don't get me wrong, I think Magnatunes is a great idea, and I for one will be taking a close look at it. But then, again, I am an open-source user and love to find new indie artists, etc. Perhaps Magnatunes integration with Last.fm would be a smart move as well, since there seem to be a lot of people on there that have a wide variety of musical tastes.
MagnaTune isn't a music player
You're barking up the wrong tree. Amarok's a "media manager" or whatever you want to call it.
Unrelated note: The post says, "This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License." I don't know if this means the blog post or what, but Magnatunes music is apparently under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/). See http://magnatune.com/info/license


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Longtime Siskiyou County resident Patricia Jean Dickhart peacefully passed away on Sept. 10, 2012 among family and friends at Madrone Hospice in Yreka. She was 75 years old.
was born on Aug. 30, 1937 to Loren and Violet Gribble. Pat was loved by her late husband Jim "Jimbo" Dickhart, who passed away in 2006. Pat and Jimbo enjoyed the outdoors: camping, fishing, Rving and gardening. Pat also loved quilting.
Pat is survived by her three children Brenda, Brian and Brett Kleinkoph, all of Yreka; her sister Loreen Carr of Grants Pass; and four grandchildren.
No services are scheduled. Memorial contributions may be made to Madrone Hospice, 255 Collier Circle, Yreka, CA 96097. Online condolences may be made at www.girdnerfuneralchapel.com. Girdner Funeral Chapel is in charge of arrangements.
Location, ST | website.com


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im gonna be a junior too. i run like high 18's low 19's.
i'm going to be a senior (girl) and run mid to high 21's
I try the best I can; some days I really don't feel like running; other days I'm ready to kill someone if I don't run.
Hey, I'm from Vermont too.... where are you from?
I'm usually somewhere between 1830 and 1930... with a few exceptions on each end
low 20's and was dropping every run until i screwed up my knee again
Wow!!! Compared to ya'll, I'm a turtle, 34:33 is my best 5K time. Runner88, I was born in 88 also, but I just graduated. Hit me up on either of my messengers and maybe we can talk. Who knows, maybe you can give me tips on how to better my 5K time.
I'm in my final year of high school but just started running this year. My latest 5k PB is 20:04 (first split of a 10k, which I positive splitted by two minutes lol).
I've only did 1/2 XC Seseaon in High school and I#m back home (was a foreign exchange student) my best time was 29:22 in seseaon now I'm at 28:20 for 5k and 53:09 for 10k. And I#m thinking about runing a Half Marathon in October.
BTW: How far came your teams last year? Mike made to Semi-State (Indiana) but we got last.....
Im going to be a senior girl and il be 17 by the time XC starts again.
My best time so far has been 19:14 for a 5k but looking to shave ALOT of time off. I pinpointed what I did wrong for training last summer and during the season (racing every weekend in the summer and runing every workout hard) and am going to correct that so I can take about 30sec off.
I do today what you won't, so I can do tomorrow what you can't.
MyProfile[/URL" target="_blank">
21:00 last time I ran one, which was a while ago, I assume I can break 20:00 by now, I'm going to be a sophmore in High School.
This thread is pretty pointless unless people post their gender as well. A 19:45 is great for a girl...not so much for a guy.
Dammit I gave in and made a profile.[/URL" target="_blank">
Twigger I noticed you have pretty solid times, you thought about where you might want to go to school at?
Originally posted by WRunner124:
Twigger I noticed you have pretty solid times, you thought about where you might want to go to school at?
Thanks! Umm right now I have a list of potential schools ranging from D1 to D3 and NAIA... basically keeping all option open lol they include Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Simon Fraiser University, Ohio University, Northeastern University (although thats a dream school) and then a few others. My coach is helping me put together a resume type thing to send off to the college coaches.
BTW i saw on your profile that your from Dallas. What high school did you go to? I moved from Lewisville about a year ago.
I do today what you won't, so I can do tomorrow what you can't.
MyProfile[/URL" target="_blank">
Male, going to be junior in HS
Last year, my best time in XC for a 5k was 19:10 or something in the low 19's. This summer I ran in a small 5k race that I also did last summer and got a 20:08. Last year in the race I got a 21:30. I also ran the race this year the day after my 8mile run, so I wasn't in top shape. I've easily tripled my summer running just this far since last year. I'm hoping to get down to low 18's or high 17's by end of the XC season.
It all depends on the courses. You cant compare times. My best 5K is a 16:56. But my average cross country is like 18:00. My slowest being 18:45 because it was pure hills. There is nearly a 2 minute gap there. It shows how different courses can drastically change your times. Im going to be a sophmore.
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About the Book
"Julie Anne Long reinvents the historical romance for modern readers, delivering intense, passionate characters and high adventure. Her writing glows."
—Amanda Quick
"You will LOVE the Pennyroyal Green series."
—Julia Quinn
A notorious lady learns just how wicked a good man can be in the latest installment of RITA Award nominee Julie Anne Long's emotionally charged Pennyroyal Green series. A Notorious Countess Confesses is absolutely unputdownable historical romance for fans of Karen Hawkins and Sabrina Jeffries; another gem in the bestselling series set in Regency England and centered on a long-standing feud between members of two wealthy Sussex families, the Eversea and Redmond clans. The breathtaking romantic adventures of a former courtesan-turned-noblewoman, A Notorious Countess Confesses stokes the Pennyroyal fires hotter than ever before, providing readers with all the passion, scandal, and true love they could possibly hope for.
She rose to spectacular heights . . .
From Covent Garden to courtesan to countess, beautiful, fearless, shamelessly ambitious Evie Duggan has riveted London in every role she plays. But the ton never could forgive her scandalous—if shockingly short—marriage, and when her star plummets amid gleefully vicious gossip, the countess escapes to the only legacy left to her: a manor house in Pennyroyal Green.
He never expected to fall so hard . . .
He has the face of a fallen angel and a smolder the devil would envy, but Vicar Adam Sylvaine walks a precarious line: resisting temptation . . . and the wild Eversea blood in his veins. Adam's strength is tested when scandal, aka the countess, moves to Sussex. But when a woman who fiercely guards her heart and a man entrusted with the souls of an entire town surrender to a forbidden desire, will the sweetest sin lead them to heaven . . . or make outcasts of them forever?
Educator and Librarian Resources
Product Details
- Imprint: Avon
- On Sale: 10/30/2012
- Trimsize: 4.188 in (w) x 6.75 in (h) x 0.96 in (d)
- Pages: 384
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- BISAC1: FICTION / Romance / Historical / General


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GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Alex Smith parlayed what he called "a great rhythm" into a near-perfect passing display Monday night for the victorious 49ers.
Smith completed 18 of 19 passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns as the first-place 49ers crushed the free-falling Arizona Cardinals 24-3.
"I threw accurate footballs tonight, and the guys on the outside made me look good," Smith said.
The only thing standing between Smith and perfection was a short pass dropped by Delanie Walker. Smith admitted culpability for throwing that second-quarter pass behind Walker, who later made an acrobatic sideline catch on a tipped pass.
Although Smith's 94.7 completion rate was the best in history for a minimum of 15 attempts, the NFL record book requires 20 attempts -- one more than Smith had.
Coach Jim Harbaugh couldn't recall seeing a better line than Smith's, and Harbaugh conjured up a unique way to dismiss previous reports that Smith had lost confidence.
"It's just a lot of gobble, gobble, turkey from jive turkey gobblers," Harbaugh said. "That paints a pretty good picture."
Smith quipped about his confidence: "It was in my closet. I found it."
The 49ers (6-2) find themselves with a two-game lead in the NFC West heading into next weekend's bye.
Arizona (4-4), after opening the season with four wins, was looking to stop its skid and also make a statement against the reigning division champs.
"It was a big test for us," said Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt, "and everybody saw how it went."
Michael Crabtree caught two touchdown passes before Randy Moss scored on a 47-yard catch-and-run. Those points, and the Cardinals' futility, ensured that the 49ers wouldn't cave as they did in last December's visit to Arizona, when they blew a 19-7 lead in an eventual 21-19 defeat.
For the fourth time in five games, the 49ers didn't allow a touchdown, and it took a gang tackle on Larry Fitzgerald's fourth-down catch to stop him at the 1-yard line in the final minute.
Linebacker Patrick Willis, safety Dashon Goldson and cornerbacks Chris Culliver and Perrish Cox all combined to tackle Fitzgerald on that 6-yard catch. Watching with admiration from the sideline was Aldon Smith, who had two sacks earlier in the fourth quarter.
"That (tackle) says what we're all about," Aldon Smith said. "Even though we knew we had the win, everybody was just making an effort to not let that play get on the scoreboard. That's amazing."
Also impressive was the 49ers' matching a franchise single-game record by allowing only 7 rushing yards.
The 49ers defense made a slew of tackles for loss, and its shutout bid didn't end until the final minute of the third quarter, when Jay Feely kicked a 28-yard field goal.
That field goal only riled up the 49ers defense more. On the Cardinals' next series, safety Goldson leveled receiver Early Doucet to break up a pass across the middle, a hit that Harbaugh said would have made Vince Lombardi proud. Ahmad Brooks and Aldon Smith produced back-to-back sacks on the next two snaps.
But nothing could overshadow Alex Smith's bounce-back night. He passed for a season-low 140 yards last game against the Seattle Seahawks, and he had three passes intercepted in an Oct. 14 loss to the New York Giants.
"Honestly I had no idea, which is a good thing," Smith said of his completion percentage. "I wasn't worried about incompletions or anything like that."
All three of Smith's touchdown passes came on third-down plays. Smith finished with a 157.1 passer rating (158.3 is perfect). Now in his eighth season, Smith isn't concerned about winning over his skeptics.
"If you had asked me that a few years ago, maybe. But at this point I don't really care," Smith said. "I am only concerned about winning, and the guys in the locker room know what I am about."
Smith matched his single-game career high when he threw his third touchdown pass, although Moss did most of the work on it as he dashed 47 yards for the third-quarter touchdown and a 24-0 lead.
Crabtree and Moss entered the game with only one touchdown apiece. Moss' score marked his 155th career touchdown, and 18th in 19 career "Monday Night Football" games.
Crabtree staked the 49ers to a 7-0 lead when he beat Patrick Peterson at the goal line to snag Smith's 3-yard pass on third-and-goal. Crabtree produced a 9-yard touchdown reception to put the 49ers ahead 17-0 with 1:41 left in the first half.
"Great play by Michael," Harbaugh said of the first touchdown. "And a great throw by Alex. A really strong-hand catch by Michael, and Alex lasered it in there."
It was a strong performance by Crabtree, who caught five passes for 72 yards while tangling with Arizona's star cornerback Peterson. Crabtree said he drew no extra motivation from that matchup, but he did take special pride in becoming a red-zone target on that first touchdown.
"I've been working so hard with (Smith) at practice to be a threat in the red zone," Crabtree said, "and he trusted me today.
I'm out there playing," he said of the matchup with Peterson. "I don't see no names."
For more on the 49ers, see Cam Inman's Hot Read blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/49ers. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/CamInman.


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[Editorial Note: Like the "spectral glow of a dying fire," Basil Bert Stratton's recollections of his education in two of Linn County's one-room schoolhouses persisted vividly well into the 'October' of his life. Because he recorded them in a journal, those memories outlived their author. When Basil Stratton died last April at the age of 94, his daughter, Bonnie Seabolt, inherited that journal and has graciously shared its contents. What follows are some of its entries.]
In spite of the best intentions...
After a false start earlier that spring, Basil recalls that he was allowed to begin his schooling at Duncan School in the fall of 1924. The earliest existing Duncan School class roster that includes Basil is from 1926 when Nellie Plaster was the teacher of 22 students. Duncan Schoolhouse, which was originally built in 1865, was located five miles north of Meadville on Route 139. It stood there 'in good repair' until 2007, largely as a result of its latest caretakers' (i.e., the ladies of the Busy Bee Club) efforts. The last classes at Duncan School were held there in 1941. Testifying to the adage that we most regret those things that never came to any good end, Basil recalls his classmates' efforts to include a float in the annual parade that kicked off the Shafter Fair. The year was 1924:
[Our] teacher, Mr. Clifford Turner, ran a tight ship...Mr. Turner was a lifelong resident of the Shafter neighborhood, so had without a doubt taken part...in the yearly get-together known as the Shafter Fair. School districts of a rather large area of the west quarter of the County would let the kids build a float on a hay wagon and enter [it] in the parade on the opening day...A wagon was brought to the schoolyard, and on a Thursday, the whole student body spent the day decorating [it with] red, white and blue cloth and yellow and orange crepe paper...It was really beautiful and ready to be pulled the next morning by [a] team [of horses] to Shafter...Well, you guessed it; by morning, it was raining and continued to rain the God's blessed day! I can see the wagon yet: yellow and green making blue that ran down over the wheels and tongue, and the orange color just making a mess of everything...So ended our entry into the great Shafter Fair.
Basil recalled another local fair in Brookfield he attended that he got to enjoy until he got back home late that night in 1925. He also remembers his first circus which also took place in Brookfield...
I remember going to the Brookfield County Fair one time, about the time I was in the first grade...Mom had put up some lunch but had not cooked any meat, so they had picked up some lunch meat at the store. My! My! That was sure something; I had not ever tasted store-bought meat before...It sure was good. Guess everybody else thought so too. However, by the time we got home that night, Mom was sick, I mean sick! Dad called the doctor; he got there about bedtime and came back the next morning. I found out later that she had ptomaine poisoning...In one of the other of these two years [1924-25], the circus came to Brookfield...We walked out to the area where the Brookfield Water Treatment Plant now stands and watched them put up the tent and unload the animals, saw those elephants pull those great big poles right up under that tent, and beautiful horses pulling huge wagons around. Truly magnificent!...Ate lunch at the car again—no store-bought meat as I remember...After we ate we walked a block west to Main Street to watch the parade...Even more beautiful horses than I had seen up at the tent, more elephants too, and the steam calliope!! Such beautiful music. Could hear it a long time before it came in sight. It was beautiful too: red, yellow and black stripes, curlicues and spirals.
Location, ST | website.com