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|Kaedrin Weblog
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Link Dump
As usual, just some interesting stuff I've seen on the internets lately:
Posted by Mark on November 30, 2011 at 08:09 PM .: link :.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Reading Snapshot
It's a meme! About books! Here goes:
Posted by Mark on November 27, 2011 at 01:35 PM .: link :.
Friday, November 25, 2011
The Silent Return of Friday is List Day
So I just plum forgot to write something on Wednesday. In all fairness, there was a holiday and I had other things going on that day, but really what happened was that the cluck struck 1 am before I remembered that I normally post something on Wednesdays. This might be the first time in 6 or 7 years that this has happened. I must be getting forgetful in my old age. Anyway, I decided to resurrect the Friday is List Day style post to make up for my earlier negligence. This was a quasi-meme started by my friend Roy several years ago. He has since stopped blogging and quite frankly, I never partook in the Friday is List Day thing in a regular fashion anyway. So I wouldn't expect any more of these in the near future, but hey, enjoy it while you can:
Random 10:
Or maybe a not so random (though still semi-random) list of recent musical listening:
Well, perhaps not exactly silent. One of the great strengths of film is that it is a visual medium and a lot of information can be communicated simply by the framing and movement onscreen. The introduction of sound in the 1920s and 30s has lead to an atrophying of visual storytelling, as we usually end up with long strings of dialogue and exposition (and, gasp, voiceover!) that could just as easily be accomplished visually. Sound itself isn't a problem, but I'm coming to find a lot of movies that I hate (and even some that I generally like) are sullied by poor (and unnecessary) dialogue. Simply removing half of the dialogue would be a big improvement. So in the below movies (which will never get made), imagine that it would have lots of sound, just not any real dialogue (or, at least, very minimal dialogue).
Actually a tough list to put together, but I'm trying to choose beers that are unique and interesting, yet widely available (while I'd love to recommend obscure, hard-to-find wonders like Devine Rebel or Sierra Nevada ExPortation, that's not really the point - it's unlikely you'll be able to find those, and I know it's frustrating to see folks recommend stuff like that). So here goes:
Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I won't forget to post on Sunday.
Posted by Mark on November 25, 2011 at 02:13 PM .: link :.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Adventures in Brewing - Beer #6: Bottling
The Christmas beer was in the fermenter for two weeks, so it was bottling time. Fermentation started quickly, lots of bubbles in the airlock for about 4 days, after which, things trailed off quickly. The biggest question with this brew was the spices and damn, this smelled great. The cloves were probably the most prominent of the spices, but it seemed well matched to the rest of the beer. That being said, I wanted to get some more cinnamon out of this, so I chucked a few cinnamon sticks in the bottling bucket to give it some extra... cinnamonity? And the finished product did indeed seem to display a little more cinnamonitivity. My guess is that the spiciness will fade in time, so this will probably be nice and complex by Christmas.
Final gravity was 1.014, which was a hair lower than expected, but that's a pleasant surprise. If my calculations are correct, this will bring the beer to around 6% ABV, which was my exact target. I gave it a taste, and it seems pretty good. I don't really have a feel for how non-carbonated beer will taste once it's carbonated, but this seems right. Nice spiciness, good body, seems like it will be good stuff. The appearance is a very pretty dark amber color.
Not sure what's next. I'm saving the dubbel for the summer and since it's winter, I'd like to make something that requires lower fermentation temperatures. An IPA (single hopped Simcoe?) or maybe a British ESB of some kind (my nutty idea is to get me some bergamot oil and make an Earl Grey British ale, maybe even using some tea in the initial steeping phase.) Funnily enough, a lot of Christmas beers say that they get better with age, so I might even want to make next year's Christmas beer now, and age it. Or something. I was also thinking that it might be time to get a secondary fermenter, which would allow all sorts of fun stuff like dry hopping and oak aging (and bourbon oak aging!)
(Cross Posted on Kaedrin Beer Blog)
Posted by Mark on November 20, 2011 at 08:21 PM .: link :.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Weird Movie Synopsis of the Week
Last time on Weird Movie of the Week, we saw a tale of Elephant vengeance. Against Nazis. This time, courtesy of my friend Dave, we've got a touching story of bovine mutation:
"In this unsettling chiller, a genetic experiment intended to boost bovine fertility goes awry when one of the cows spawns lethal mutant offspring."Short, but sweet. Does it surprise anyone that this is a film that is available on Netflix streaming? I thought not.
According to Dave, this movie is actually much more well-made than the premise might lead one to believe. I guess we'll just have to see about that, won't we? The movie is called Isolation, and IMDB has rated as a rather hefty (for this kinda movie) 5.9 rating from 2500+ users.
Posted by Mark on November 16, 2011 at 08:21 PM .: link :.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Neal Stephenson wasn't particularly successful early in his career. I imagine having trouble for a few years is rather common amongst successful authors, and obviously Stephenson has gone on to establish himself as a big name, especially in the nerdy science fiction community. But, as he snarkily wrote in his author bio on my copy of Snow Crash:
His first novel, The Big U, was published in 1984 and vanished without a trace. His second novel, Zodiac: the Eco-thriller, came out in 1988 and quickly developed a cult following among water-pollution-control engineers. It was also enjoyed, though rarely bought, by many radical environmentalists.While writing Snow Crash, Stephenson started looking into other options. Because who would want to read a book where a hacker/pizza delivery boy/cyber-ninja researches Sumerian mythology and linguistics theory? In an old interview, he comments on his career thusly:
I was writing Snow Crash about the same time my uncle, George Jewsbury, and I started talking about doing collaborations. The rationale behind that was, clearly, I may be able to limp along indefinitely, writing these little books that get bought by 5,000 people, but really it would be smart to try to get some kind of serious career going. We had heard somewhere that Tom Clancy had made like $17 million in a year. So we thought, 'Let's give this a try.' The whole idea was that 'Stephen Bury' would be a successful thriller writer and subsidize my pathetic career under the name Neal Stephenson. It ended up going the other way. I would guess most of the people who have bought the Stephen Bury books have done so because they know I've written them. It just goes to show there's no point in trying to plan your career.Indeed! I actually rather enjoyed the Stephen Bury books, and they actually presage Reamde in their thriller genre roots. But Stephenson has gone on to write impenetrable books that have become quite popular amongst a certain type of geek (i.e. me). Unfortunately, this presents something of a problem. Long time readers of this blog know that I'm a huge fan of Stephenson, but in reality, I've never actually met a person that really loves his books (the online world is another story). This makes it quite difficult to recommend my favorite novels to other people, because I generally know they're not going to like it (I generally settle on Snow Crash as a recommendation, but there are things about that book that often don't go over well with normal folks). In particular, Cryptonomicon (which is my favorite novel) seems to polarize readers. Shamus describes the phenomenon best:
In fact, I have yet to introduce anyone to the book and have them like it. I'm slowly coming to the realization that Cryptonomicon is not a book for normal people. Flaws aside, there are wonderful parts to this book. The problem is, you have to really love math, history, and programming to derive enjoyment from them. You have to be odd in just the right way to love the book. Otherwise the thing is a bunch of wanking.Similarly, The Baroque Cycle (basically a 2700 page prequel to Cryptonomicon) is not a series for normal people. The subjects are similar, but weighted differently. Much less programming, and much more history and monetary theory. Anathem probably appeals to folks who love Philosophy and/or Quantum Physics, with some linguistics thrown in for fun. The common factor with all of this is that Stephenson's books aren't particularly accessible to mainstream audiences. Thus it's hard to find a way to introduce people to his work.
Enter Reamde, Stephenson's latest and most accessible novel. Well, accessible for folks who don't mind reading 1000+ page novels. Ironically, this accessibility seems to have garnered the only real complaints about the book. Which isn't to say that people don't like the book. Reviews seem to be overwhelmingly positive, but the one thing that comes up again and again is that it's "just a thriller." It is not a novel that plumbs the depths of technology or philosophy, nor does it wrestle with big questions the way a lot of Stephenson's other works do. For my part, I finished it a few weeks ago and find myself thinking about it often. This isn't to say that I think there's something profound going on beneath the surface, but who knows? Maybe a second reading will unearth something more. But then, I don't really need it to be a profound life-changing book. It's a page-turning thriller written with wit and humor, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.
Stephenson's fans will certainly not be bored. Despite the fact that many seem to enjoy the inaccessibility of his earlier novels, I do think there are plenty of Stephensonian digressions that will keep fans interested. Take, for instance, "The Apostropocalypse", wherein one of our main characters explains how two writers he hired to provide background material for his video game argued over the semiotics of fantasy naming conventions. The video game itself is rather cleverly designed, and Stephenson spends a lot of time describing its mechanics, allowing him to delve into geography, monetary theory and the practice of gold farming in MMORPGs. Stephenson even addresses how this game came to compete with World of Warcraft by catering to the Chinese market. Later in the novel, there's an interesting digression into how great circle routes work. These are things that Stephenson excels at, and there's certainly a lot to chew on here. He's taken standard genre tropes and overlaid his own style, ultimately elevating this book from much of its competition.
The basics of the plot itself are rather straightforward. Richard Forthrast is one of our primary characters. He was a draft-dodger who figured out a way to cross the Canadian border undetected, parlayed that knowledge into marijuana smuggling, then turned legit serial entrepreneur. His latest venture is a fantasy MMORPG video game called T'Rain, and it's become quite successful. He's hired his niece, Zula Forthrast, to work for his company. As circumstances would have it, Zula ends up getting kidnapped by Russian mobsters who are afflicted with a virus from the game (this virus has locked up the mobsters' monetary livelyhood). Pissed off to no ends, these Russian mobsters want Zula to help find the virus writers (no doubt Chinese kids) so that revenge can be exacted. Along the way, we run into a lively cast of characters, including a group of Jihadis (who eventually become the main villains of the novel), a Hungarian hacker, a Chinese mountain-girl, the Chinese kid who wrote the virus, an MI6 agent, and, of course, a badass Russian security consultant. The terrorists want to kill lots of people, and most of the other folks want to stop them. Typical thriller stuff, I guess, but done with more nuance than you'd normally expect.
As characters go, the Forthrast clan, Iowa natives, will strike most Stephenson fans as being familiar. Not quite Waterhouses (from Cryptonomicon/Baroque Cycle), but Richard certainly leans in that direction. The Forthrasts also bear a resemblance to the family clan in The Cobweb. Sokolov, the Russian security consultant, is more of a Shaftoe kinda guy. This isn't to say that the novel is completely derivative of Stephenson's earlier novels - there are plenty of wholly new characters, and I generally enjoyed most of them. Depth seems to be reserved more for the Forthrasts, Richard and Zula, while the others are more surface-level affairs, but they're generally a likable bunch. And they're all pretty damn competent too. Indeed, most of the time, they're downright Sherlockian. Take this quick sequence, in which Sokolov deduces what's happening from very little information:
Sokolov retrieved his spare clip and other goods from the wreckage now strewn around the conference table, but paused on his way out of the suite to shine his flashlight over the dead man's face. He was ethnic Chinese.Thought processes like these are peppered throughout the book, and our intrepid heros and nefarious villains are all pretty damn good at this form of deduction.
The book does start off a bit on the slower side, and you're not really sure where it's going until about 50 pages in, when things kick into high gear and don't really let up for about 600 or so pages, and even then, there is only a brief respite as various characters are maneuvered to the ultimate showdown. And there are a lot of concurrent storylines being maintained here, much moreso than Stephenson's recent work. He may not have been shooting for profundity when writing this novel, but he sure amped up the complexity, to the point where calling it "just a thriller" doesn't do it much justice. I'm not a particularly accomplished thriller reader, but I from what I have read, this is far more complex and adroit than I would have expected. And it's funny too.
She picked up her phone, navigated to the "Recent Calls" list, and punched in Richard Forthrast's number.And then there's this bit, from perhaps the funniest chapter in the book:
How could your cover be blown in Canada? Why even bother going dark there? How could you tell?After which we get to witness a hysterical chain of emails with two spys basically berating one another while getting actual espionage work done. Great stuff.
There were perhaps a couple of times where the MMORPG side of the story seemed a bit incongruous, like maybe Stephenson was writing about it for its own sake rather than advancing the story, but he manages to tie it all together by the end. Stephenson sometimes gets dinged by folks for his digressions and his endings, but this is a tight novel, and the ending is an epic gunfight ranging over a hundred pages (or maybe even more). There's even a chapter of wrapping things up. Another minor complaint is that Stephenson seemed to go to extreme lengths to get his characters romantically paired up. Actually, I didn't really mind it, but at the same time, I did find it a bit odd in at least a couple of cases (Alex mentioned that it may be a preemptive strike against fan fiction authors who would pair the characters up, but if that's the case, then I actually kinda hate it. I think it's really just that Stephenson likes his characters and wants to see them together...)
Ultimately, it's a fantastic novel and I loved it. This should not surprise you, as I tend to love all of his novels, but as a longtime fan of Stephenson, it is really nice to be able to point to a book that anyone could read and enjoy without being scared away by weird SF tropes, mathematics, obscure history, detailed monetary theory, existential philosophy, the creation of a new vocabulary that is similar, but not quite the same as ours, etc... There's enough Stephensonian digressions into obscure topics that it will give a new reader a nice introduction to Stephenson without drowning them, and I appreciate that because while I love Snow Crash (the book I used to recommend as a place to start with Stephenson), it's got a few things that seem to turn off "normal" people. As for the accessibility issue, I don't really get that as a complaint. No, the book hasn't changed my life, but few do, and I don't think all art needs to be like that. Indeed, artists often overreach when they try to shoehorn "profound" into a story that doesn't need it. And this story doesn't. What it needs is action and thrills and laughs, which are present in abundance. It's an excellent book, and a good introduction to Stephenson. For those who aren't scared of long books, that is...
Update: Otakun comments with some interesting MMORPG perspectives.
Posted by Mark on November 13, 2011 at 01:33 PM .: link :.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Link Dump
Usually I feel bad about doing these so often, but I haven't done one for almost two months and I don't have much time tonight, so here are some links to interesting stuff:
Posted by Mark on November 09, 2011 at 09:47 PM .: link :.
Sunday, November 06, 2011
Adventures in Brewing - Beer #6: Spiced Christmas Ale
I really wanted to start this beer earlier, but due to a variety of factors1, I didn't get to this until now. All I really knew is that I wanted a winter warmery type of beer, which is pretty damn vague. My local homebrew shop owner was very helpful, despite my lack of preparation here. We discussed a bit, talked about Anchor's Christmas Ale (which, granted, changes every year), and eventually settled on a dark red ale with my choice of spices added at the end of the boil. I'm actually pretty happy with the recipe - it sounds really good. Now to find out if it will taste good!
Beer #6: Spiced Christmas Ale
November 5, 2011
1 lb. Crystal 40 (specialty grain)
2 oz. Roasted Barley (specialty grain)
3.3 lb. Golden Light LME
3 lb. Amber DME
1 lb. Golden Light DME
1 oz. Northern Brewer (Bittering @ 8.6% AA)
1 oz. Hallertau Hops (Flavor)
1 tsp Irish Moss
1 tsp Bitter Orange Peel
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Coriander
2 Cinnamon Sticks
3 Whole Cloves
Wyeast 1056 - American Ale Yeast
Nothing super unusual here, though there are only two hop additions. The reason for this is that the aroma will be derived from spices rather than hops. Speaking of spices, I have no idea what I'm doing. Everything I've ever read about spices indicates that it's very easy to overdo things. So I'm deliberately attempting to keep it down2. Looking around at some other recipes, I see people adding about 0.5 oz. (or more) of spices to beers, which works out to 3 tsp. I'm trying to do less than that (though it's difficult to tell with cinnamon sticks/whole cloves, but I'm using slightly less than most recipes I've seen), which will hopefully leave me with some spicy goodness without overwhelming the beer.
Not wanting to go in completely blind, I tried making a couple cups of spice tea (i.e. hot water and spice) using two different spice mixtures. I completely overdid the Nutmeg, which overpowered the other spices, so I cut that down in the recipe. But otherwise, it smelled pretty great. Of course, this doesn't even come close to approximating the final product I'm hoping for, but it seemed like a useful exercise. Alright, enough preamble, let's get this party started!
Steeped the specialty grains in 150° F - 160° F water for around 20 minutes, drained, sparged with another half gallon of water, and put the lid on to bring the wort to a boil. Once there, added the 3 pounds of Amber DME, stirred like crazy for a while, brought it back to a boil and added the bittering hops. Here starts the clock. 30 minutes into the boil, added the rest of the DME and LME. This brought the boil to a standstill, so I took some extra time to get it back to boiling (which took 5-10 minutes). After another 10 minutes, I added the flavor hops. 5 more minutes, added the irish moss. With about 3 minutes left, I started adding the various spices, removing from heat just when I was finishing with the spices.
Moved the pot to the ice bath to cool it off, brought it down to about 90° F, strained the wort (removing most of the spice and hops) into the fermenter, topped off with about 2.5 gallons of water, mixed it up real good, and took a sample and hydrometer reading. The wort was still about 75° F, so I had to wait a bit to get the temperature down (I moved it out of the kitchen, which was pretty hot at this point, and it cooled off after about 25 minutes so that it was in the high 60s). Not sure if the extra time sitting out in the open will be good for it, but it was definitely too hot to finish. I pitched the yeast, put the top on the bucket and installed the airlock. The temperature in my closet is in the mid 60s, which is perfect for this. Done.
Original Gravity: 1.060. Assuming 75% attenuation, that should bring me down to 1.015 and about a 5.9% ABV. I'm actually hoping for slightly higher attenuation (and thus a dryer beer with slightly higher ABV), but either way, this should be pretty good.
So I'm looking at two weeks in the fermenter, then bottling, and at least 2-3 weeks bottle conditioning. This will bring me to early/mid December, which is just in time for some Holiday celebration. Indeed, it should be peaking right around Christmas and New Years (though it may peak later).
I don't think I overdid it with the spices. I could clearly smell them in the finished product, but it didn't seem overpowering. I guess we'll see what happens after the fermentation. My guess is that it will become even less potent after the yeast has its way with the wort. Worst case scenario, if the spices aren't coming through, I'll throw a cinnamon stick in the bottling bucket to give it some extra oomph. But from what people say about these kinds of spices, I should be fine.
So there we have it. Not sure what's next. I've wanted to make a Belgian dubbel since I started (about a year ago), but winter is not the time for that. I should really make something that requires lower fermentation temperatures. I'm thinking perhaps an Simcoe single-hop IPA (or mixed hop IPA).
1 - And by variety of factors, I mean that I was lazy.
2 - But then I found that I had some leftover bitter orange peel from my saison, so I added a tsp of that too. I still think I'm under most other recipes when it comes to spices...
(Cross Posted on Kaedrin Beer Blog)
Posted by Mark on November 06, 2011 at 12:15 PM .: link :.
Wednesday, November 02, 2011
6WH: Week 6.5 - Speed Round and The Big Day
It's hard to believe that Halloween has already come and gone. These 6 weeks of horror movie watching seem to go faster every year (and hitting up Fantastic Fest probably accelerated things this year as well). Well, as usual, I haven't written up all of the movies I've seen this Halloween season; perhaps it didn't fit with a given week's theme, or perhaps I just didn't have much to say about it. Whatever the case, I typically do a quick roundup of them all during the last week of the marathon, so here goes:
Posted by Mark on November 02, 2011 at 06:28 PM .: link :.
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Copyright © 1999 - 2012 by Mark Ciocco.


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|27 results - showing 1 - 10
|1 2 3
An Aussie Year Hot
An Aussie Year celebrates 12 months in the lives of Australian children. Author Tania McCartney has chosen to focus on five adorable characters; Ned, Zoe, Lily, Kirra and Matilda. All from different areas and backgrounds, the five children provide wonderful depth to this depiction of Australia.
Aboriginal people had names for all the wonderful Australian animals thousands of years before the Europeans arrived. Topsy Turvy charts the confusion and delight as the Europeans discovered each wonderful Australian animal.
Bakir and Bi Hot
This is the first picture book I've come across which is set firmly in the Torres Strait Islands, and boy is it a good one! Bakir and Bi is an intriguing story from publishers Magabala Books. Immersed in the Torres Strait Islands, it has much to offer its older readers in terms of language, knowledge, culture and a fascinating story.
The Fair Dinkum War from the talented David Cox captures the experience of Word War II from the eyes of a young child.
'a story of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people existing in support of each other.' Gorgeously vibrant, large and filled with gentle narrative, Remembering Lionsville is a glimpse into the childhood of one of Australia's most prolific childrens' illustrators, Bronwyn Bancroft.
This is a gorgeous collection of beautiful readers aimed carefully at those who are just branching out on the exciting journey of reading books for the very first time.
Pennies for Hitler challenges perceptions and prejudice looking at the events of WW2 from the perspective of Georg, part Jewish with English heritage, living in Germany and being swept up by the impact of the Fuhrer.
My Home Broome Hot
Broome, home to the Yawuru people, is the subject of the talented Bronwyn Houston's latest collaboration.
Crow Country Hot
Kate Constable's latest novel encompasses time-slip adventures and Australian Indigenous history with the over riding theme of doing the right thing, and correcting mistakes.
Bungawitta Hot
Emily Rodda has penned a bright page turner of a chapter book which is perfect for older primary school children. Telling a delightful tale of a community joining forces to save their town, Bungawitta is an uplifting story full of humorous snippets from some quirky characters.
|27 results - showing 1 - 10
|1 2 3

subset: commoncrawl


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7 Reasons to Consider USPS Flat Rate Shipping
The United States Postal Service offers a number of flat rate boxes that may help online stores reduce shipping costs while improving shoppers' buying experience.
Shipping can be a significant challenge for online retailers. There are packaging materials to purchase, and carriers' fees and fuel surcharges to contend with. What's more, merchants must face large competitors who have negotiated special shipping rates or who have the financial wherewithal to lose money on some orders in order to increase market share.
For example, online and catalog retailer L.L. Bean recently announced free shipping on every purchase no minimums and no end date. L.L. Bean's move toward always-free shipping may well be a new trend. Here is the video from L.L. Bean's president, announcing the free shipping.
Zappos likewise offers frees upgrades and free return shipping on all orders, and Overstock gives new shoppers free shipping. When you cannot pass shipping charges onto customers, those charges can slash margins and leave very little room for profit.
The Advantage of Flat Rate Shipping
Among the various carriers available to North American online merchants, the USPS offers some of the most attractive options, especially with its aforementioned flat rate and prepaid flat rate boxes and envelopes.
Here are seven reasons to consider these services.
- Free boxes. USPS flat rate boxes are free. Merchants can simply order them free of charge and start shipping. The retailer will still need to purchase packing peanuts or similar cushioning material, but not having to pay as much as $1 per box can be a huge savings.
- Known costs. Although shipping calculators are very accurate, there are times when the actual shipping rate for a package exceeds what the merchant expected. Flat rate boxes, by their very nature, have a known cost.
- Priority delivery. The USPS flat rate boxes are Priority Mail, meaning that a package will normally be delivered in two or three days. Priority Mail packages also get special handling in the USPS system.
- No surcharges. The USPS does not add fuel, residential, or Saturday delivery surcharges to any shipment. In an era of rapidly rising gasoline prices, this is an excellent deal, especially when you consider that some carriers are charging fuel fees in excess of 13 percent.
- More addresses. The USPS delivers to more U.S. addresses than any other carrier. The service can ship to post office boxes, too. What's more, the USPS, including its flat rate boxes and envelopes, is the only way to ship to U.S. government addresses, such as military APO, FPO, or DPO.
- Greater security. Only the USPS is authorized to place packages in mailboxes. Plus, unlike some carriers that simply leave packages on the porch, the USPS will try to redeliver larger packages. Not abandoning packages may help prevent some kinds of purchase fraud or theft.
- Law enforcement protection. Flat rate USPS shipments are protected by U.S. federal law enforcement agencies, which may again contribute to lower fraud and theft rates.
USPS Flat Rate Shipping Prices
There are 11 different prices and packages that can be shipped via U.S. Priority Mail for a flat rate.
- 12 ½" by 9 ½" Envelope — $4.95
- 12 ½" by 9 ½" Padded Envelope — $4.95
- 15″ by 9 ½" Legal-sized Envelope — $4.95
- 10″ by 7″ Gift Card-sized Envelope — $4.95
- 10″ by 6″ Small Envelope — $4.95
- 10″ by 5″ Window Envelope — $4.95
- 8 5/8″ by 5 3/8″ by 1 5/8″ Small Box — $5.20
- 11″ by 8 ½" by 5 ½" Medium Box — $10.95
- 13 5/8″ by 11 7/8″ by 3 3/8″ Medium Box — $10.95
- 12″ by 12″ by 5 ½ Large Box — $14.95
- 12″ by 12″ by 5 ½ Large APO/FPO/DPO Box — $12.95
Example Rates: USPS Versus UPS
With the USPS flat rate boxes, "if it fits, it ships," (up to 70 pounds), making the service especially good for dense or heavy products. As an example of just what this might mean, TheChive website blogged about flat rate shipping early this month. The blog post's author shipped nearly 60 pounds of pennies in a flat rate box. The package arrived on time and in great shape for the flat rate price, a similar package shipped on another carrier would have been several times more expensive.
Below are several price comparisons, looking at USPS flat rate shipping versus United Parcel Service (UPS).
In the first comparison, I looked at shipping rates for 1, 3, and 5 pound packages that fit in the 8 5/8″ by 5 3/8″ by 1 5/8″ small flat rate box versus an identical package shipped via UPS. In the examples, the packages are shipped from Caldwell, Idaho to New York, Orlando, Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, and Las Vegas. The UPS rate quotes are based on delivery to a residential address and include the company's current 7.5 percent fuel surcharge on ground packages and 13 percent fuel surcharge on air packages. This fuel surcharge will rise to 8.5 percent and 15 percent respectively on May 2, 2011. Also, it is important to note that these are the UPS' published rates directly from its website. UPS is known to give frequent shippers some discounts. But those discounts are not published and vary greatly based on geographic location and the merchant's negotiation skills.
Finally, remember that USPS flat rate boxes and UPS 2nd Day Air boxes are free to the merchant. For UPS ground shipments, the merchant will need to purchase a box at an additional cost, perhaps adding 50 cents or $1 to the merchants shipping investment.
In each example comparison above, if you could fit the item into the flat rate box, it would ship for much less. Also, compared to UPS ground shipments, the flat rate box should arrive more quickly most of the time.
In this next set of price comparisons, I looked at shipping a 5, 10, and 15 pound package in a USPS large flat rate box versus shipping the identical page via UPS. I used the same zip codes as above, aimed at residential deliveries. As above, the UPS rates listed here include fuel surcharges and were taken directly from the UPS website at the time of writing.
Although, UPS was much more competitive against the USPS flat rate box with these larger packages, flat rate boxes still offered the best value most often.
There are some exceptions, for extremely light but large items — imagine a pillow for example — flat rate boxes are usually not the best choice. For example, here is a comparison of the 1-pound large flat rate box and the identical item shipped via UPS.
Summing Up
In a competitive market where the trend is to offer free shipping to every customer regardless of order size, using USPS flat rate boxes can help merchants preserve margins. USPS flat rate boxes are also typically faster than ground shipping, potentially improving the shopper's experience.
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Comments ( 23 )
Great, thorough article. This is a question that comes up a lot with online retailers. I would also add that regular priority mail can also be less expensive than the flat rate option so don't just assume flat rate is always the better USPS Priority option. Tracking visibility is a concern for some retailers as the USPS does not provide as detailed tracking capabilities as FedEx and UPS offer. Many 3rd party fulfillment operations will offers a greater discount off of UPS/ FedEx shipping rates so if you are working with a 3rd party, the point at which the USPS is a more expensive option often happens a bit quicker than what is illustrated in the analysis.
The flat rate padded 9 x 12 envelope rocks. Since there's a jump in the flat rate price with a medium-sized box, this padded envelope is a great alternative that has already saved me a lot of money, especially when the package is over a pound.
The only sour grapes with this padded envelope is you can only order 15 at a time from usps online.
I can 2nd what kkowal mentioned. It's important to always compare regular priority mail to the cost of the flat rate option. About 60% of the time I've found that regular priority mail is cheaper than the flat rate option.
Thanks for the excellent and detailed article. Another benefit of the USPS Priority Mail is for international shipping. It is MUCH cheaper than other carriers and might be worth another article covering that aspect of their service.
Something that I don't think the article mentioned is the new Regional Rate boxes. Since the beginning of the year, these have saved us quite a bit in shipping (along with the padded flat rate envelopes). USPS is definitely the most affordable shipping option for our business. I would love to be able to offer free shipping to my customers but we're not quite there yet.
We use the USPS Flat Rate Priority service almost exclusively. We mostly sell a very dense product – popcorn kernels (the postal carriers ask if we're shipping wet sand!) – at a relatively low cost and the other carriers are not an option. (Ever get hit with a "rural delivery surcharge"?!)
We subsidize to some degree the cost of shipping on nearly every order, but free shipping isn't an option when the total sale may only be $15 and it only fits in a medium flat rate box costing more than $10 to ship. The move to so-called "free shipping" is going to take a toll on smaller online retailers who don't have the volume to negotiate ridiculous discounts with UPS and Fedex like Amazon, Zappos, or LL Bean can. What is wrong with charging what it costs to ship?
I still come across plenty of online sellers charging handling fees and exorbitant shipping fees which is what caused the shipping backlash in the first place. But I'm not sure what started the thought that one should get stuff delivered to one's house for free. If you want to buy something, you take time, you drive to the store and spend gas, etc. What is wrong with paying what it costs to get that product delivered to your doorstep?
As far as the padded envelopes, if you call 1-800-610-8734, you can order in quantities of 100. there is also a prepaid version which we're experimenting with. The first time I ordered (plain flat rate envelopes) they sent a sheet that listed the tracking codes of each envelope, then I ordered again and got flat rate envelopes with stamps! So no way to track! Not what I had in mind at all! Figured I'd wait until after the holidays to sort out.
As the article suggests, USPS flat rating shipping can often save merchants quite a bit of money. Many merchants, like those using open source software platforms like Magento, are faced with the problem of accurately determining if their products fit into a given flat rate container at the time of checkout. The challenge is determining if the cart items actually fit into the given max weight and dimensions of the flat rate container.
To get around this, some stores use flat rate or table rates to approximate the shipping costs on certain items they know will fit into a flat rate box, however, this can sometimes result in gross miscalculations, e.g., if a customer orders too many of a product or has a cart with a mix of products.
A more reliable and accurate solution is to use the actual USPS rates from their API in conjunction with a "bin packing" solution. A store utilizing bin packing will be able to accurately determine if an order will fit into a particular shipping box or container. The downside is that bin packing can be pretty complicated, and most ecommerce platforms we have examined do not have this functionality built-in.
But if you are willing to shell out the time and money to have a solution developed, or find a pre-packaged solution like the Magento Flat Rate Box extension (www.magentoflatrate.com), you could realize the kind of savings outlined in this article.
I've been doing ecommerce for over two years now. BEWARE of the USPS! I've lost hundreds of dollars of product and my reputation as a business has been tainted by USPS's failure to deliver packages. Please note that extra add-on's like insurance or signature confirmation will not allow to receive a refund back to the seller if you've used the priority mail option and USPS has failed to deliver your package even if it delivery confirmation says it's been delivered. Only the Express mail option provides a tracking number and ability to file a claim. The USPS has not been able to deliver Express packages either. Beware. UPS and FedEx cost more but in the long run it is better for your reputation as a business in providing efficient service and includes a tracking number with every shipment which USPS does not except for Express packages only.
ok, so if I buy a box. I don't have to pay to ship like the weight of the box. Buy a box put things in it mail it. Is that correct?
Many times for me, the 2-3 days is more like 4-5, and there is no recourse. Nice that the box is included and that you have tracking, but there are no guarantees on time.
I am harrassed by some USPS employees who are under the impression that Flat rate means the envelope should also be flat. However their advertising says, "If it fits it ships."
I am located in Stockton CA and I think the employees here need education on doing their own job to match their advertising.
I watched a clerk showing a customer the other day that the envelope she was trying to ship couldn't be "machined" basically refusing to let her ship it at the price she wanted to ship it at and for what I saw it looked like it fit in the slot.
its a shame there is no flat rate anymore. at least at 85364.
My experience is that FedEx charges a lot less than the flat rate boxes at USPS for the same size and the people on the counter a much more polite than the gentlemen in USPS. I can see this guy goes postal.
Yes USPS offers A variety of sizes of envelopes and boxes that are a flat rate. I recently had a problem with my local post office with a flat rate envelope that was mailed to me. My sister from Oregon sent me a birthday gift in a 15 x 9.5 flat rate envelope. She sent this directly from her local post office in Portland Oregon. The package was examined thoroughly by the Postal Service she had wrapped it but some extra clear tape for security she paid the fee they excepted the package and it was shipped to New York. This package went to my local post office in Highland NY 12528. Doing the tracking process my sister found out that it was said that it was delivered to my mailbox or outside of my mailbox. This never happened. The Highland post office took it upon themselves to re-examine this envelope and decided that what was ever in the envelope was too large even though it only weighed 2 pounds. The envelope sealed and was not ripping at the sides. My local post office sent me a postcard saying that I owed nine dollars and some change in additional fees for this package. Remember this package was examined the Oregon post office and excepted as a flat rate parcel, it was paid for in full, and passed through numerous other post offices. I went to my post office paid the fee and told my sister what it happened. When she called they told her that they thought it look like it had a football in there and that it was only meant for letters. My sister then talk to the postmaster and was told that basically she believed her people and that she should try to get her money back from the Oregon post office. Have you ever heard of such a thing? I am currently looking for ways to pursue this issue.
Sandra Mark
PS : I have not yet unwrapped my present and have taken several pictures and case it was necessary for proof of size and that the package closed.
Instead of using USPS flat rate boxes, can I use regular box ( brown box) to ship with Priority Mail Flat Rate postage ?
Larry, the prices on this page are outdated. They have changed several times since.
I appreciate the amount of time spent on this information but I do not agree. I have been shipping online for over 23 years. Your prices are outdated. I ship items in a recycled box the same size as the medium size box. (no box cost) ship priority 1-3 day and depending on what state it goes to I pay from 5.30 (lowest I ever pd) to 9.97 (highest ever pd) I get insurance free up to 50.00 (same as flat rate box) and I get tracking and can follow online. If its lost or delayed, I call the post office and the have very detailed info on you package and can locate it quickly. My package is protected by the federal government the same as ALL mail is since mail tampering is a felony. I save from 5.00 to 8.00 shipping this way in my own box rather than medium flat rate. You can ship up to 70 LBS this way. I have shipped larger than the large flat rate using the same method for far less than the large flat rate price.
Nice. You can save even more on top of this by printing your label at: http://shippingsidekick.com/index.php/pages/getrates
Their rates are actually lower than USPS.com
All my competitors ship 30 and 40lb boxes and advertise for free shipping. How can they do that at less than 20 bucks
Does the usps priority deliver on Saturdays and Sunday's?


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Millions in federal stimulus dollars aimed at improving water quality are unlikely to flow into the Santa Clarita Valley, according to a local water official.
The Castaic Lake Water Agency applied for $36 million in federal stimulus money through the California Department of Public Health for its Rio Vista Water Treatment plant, said Dan Masnada, general manager for the water agency. The water agency provides state water to four retailers in the Santa Clarita Valley.
The water agency sent an application seeking funding for the plant in February, said Jim Leserman, water agency senior engineer. In May, the agency learned that the plant upgrade project ranked 1,971st on the stimulus package priority list for state Department of Public Health projects, he said.
"It's unlikely we will come off the priority list to the funded-project list," Leserman added.
The Rio Vista Treatment Plant is being expanded to increase its treatment capacity from 30 million gallons to 60 million gallons. The stimulus package emphasized so-called shovel-ready projects, Masnada said.
A shovel-ready project is one that is ready for construction.
Upgrading the Rio Vista Treatment Plant is the most shovel-ready project at the Water Agency, Masnada said.
The $45 million upgrade is necessary to meet increasing demand.
"You can have all the water in the world, but if you can't treat it and deliver the water to the customers, it doesn't matter," Masnada said.
The Water Agency isn't alone in missing the boat on stimulus funds. "No one got any money locally," Masnada said.
In fact, only one water utility in Los Angeles County, the L.A Department of Water and Power, will receive money from the stimulus package, Leserman said.
The application from the state water utilities went out in February and the priority list of the project was published in May, Leserman said.
Masnada said that part of the reason that the Water Agency likely won't receive stimulus funding may lie in the fact that the agency's ability to increase rates means that it is able to raise funds for projects.
Also, Masnada said, there was considerable competition for stimulus money.
"There are a lot of agencies who went after these funds," he said.


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In just three weeks, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes's lives have significantly changed.
Following Holmes's bombshell divorce filing on June 28, newly single Cruise, 50, flew to New York City to be by his 6-year-old daughter Suri's side. (Holmes reportedly has sole physical custody of Suri, though Tom gets generous visitation.)
"We're taking a look at the life of the world's biggest movie star, Tom Cruise, and how he's moving on with life as a single dad," PEOPLE senior writer Jennifer Garcia says, of this week's cover story. "When you read this week's PEOPLE magazine, you're also going to get a glimpse into Katie's life, and how she's moving on as a single woman."
"While Tom and Katie haven't spoken yet, both parties realize they are going to have to be in touch for many, many years – and this is, of course, [is] for the sake of their daughter Suri," Garcia says. "This week's issue will detail how these stars are moving on."
For much more on this story, including details on Tom's trusted inner circle, how he's coping and Holmes's new life, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now


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The George Washington University
Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Department (EMSE)
Environmental & Energy Management Program (E&EM)
Fall 2003 (Volume 4, Number 2)
Research Results Cited at
NALGEP Research Summit
Professor Jonathan Deason participated in the "Brownfields Showcase Community Research Summit: A New Era for Community Development," held at the Hilton Hotel and Towers in Washington, D.C. on July 30- August 1, 2003. The Summit was sponsored by the National Association of Local Government Environmental Professionals (NALGEP).
In a plenary presentation at the conference, EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator Benjamin Grumbles cited the results of a recent EPA-sponsored research project on brownfields development entitled "Public Policies and Private Decisions Affecting the Redevelopment of Brownfields: An Analysis of Critical Factors, Relative Weights and Areal Differentials." That project determined, among other things, that about 4.5 acres of undeveloped land would remain undeveloped for each acre of urban property that is redevelopment through the Brownfields Development program.
This same figure was quoted by President George Bush cited a in a January 11, 2002, speech accompanying his signing of H.R. 2869, the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act.
is an organization that brings together local environmental officials
to network and share information on innovative environmental practices, conduct
environmental policy projects, promote environmental training and education,
and communicate the view of local environmental officials on national environmental
issues. Founded in 1993 by a group of local officials, NALGEP is a national
organization representing city and county environmental managers responsible
for environmental compliance and the development and implementation of local
environmental policy.


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NEW YORK — Oddly and painfully timely, Arthur Miller's All My Sons, written in 1947, concerns the struggle between conscience and money. It shows how dangerous the self-interest of businessmen can be - in case we need reminding. Call it corny, self-righteous, overplotted or preachy, the play has withstood critical abuse because it works, and this new, starry production is moving and satisfying, emotionally and theatrically.
Its plot concerns Joe Keller (John Lithgow), a man who sold defective airplane parts to the government, an act that saved his business and killed 21 young pilots. (Imagine All My Sons' impact when it first opened on Broadway, so soon after World War II ended.)


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Starting in this issue, PASS Maths is pleased to present a series of articles about proof and logical reasoning. In this article we give a brief introduction to deductive reasoning and take a look at one of the earliest known examples of mathematical proof.
If boomerangs are really gyroscopes, then what are gyroscopes? In this article, we explore some more of the physics of gyroscopes, and demonstrate some interesting experiments you can do with them.
Whatever is so wonderful about point B that makes all the people at point A want to get there? Robert Hunt sits at point C, and muses on the problem.
In this article, we look at the physics behind the curved flight path of a returning boomerang, and explain that boomerangs are really a kind of gyroscope. We even show you how to bang up a boomerang yourself!


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Menik SW-400 mono-light strobe
This second part of my review is way overdue but it's finally here. In this review I will look at recycle time, light output, power stability and white balance quality and stability.
Cowboystudio 400 Watt Photography Studio Monolight, Studio Strobe Light with 75 W Model Lamp
Since I bought this strobe I have used it quite a bit and must say I do like it, the price was very affordable and as a starter strobe for my home studio it does a great job. It is not the most perfect unit and have it"s flaws but all in all for the price paid and the quality of the unit it would seem very greedy to complain.
In my first review I mentioned that it feels professional with a good build quality. After using it for a while and even dragging it with me to different events that I been shooting I still stand by this, it got some weight to it and does it's job very well and just holding it and working with it gives you the feel of security. It has no cheap plastic toy feel to it, the housing is very well built and it doesn't have one of those slick plastic surfaces that leaves ugly looking finger prints is a big plus.
While working with it in different settings and setups one thing that I come to debate the sensibility of is the flat push buttons on the back especially when the strobe is high up on a light stand and you can't see the back it's near impossible to press the right buttons. The one button especially is the test fire button that I found to be needing to use frequently. Wish it was easier to locate by feel and over time the plastic might break on this button from many thousand presses so I wish this was a regular raised mechanical button instead.
Recycle time
The recycle time at full power is not the best, but consider I'm not doing fashion shoots where extreme rapid fire might be desired the 3 second recycle time is still acceptable. At lowest power setting the recycle time is less then 1 second. I did a series of test fires with the power at different levels and using stop watch to time the recycle time and at full power doing 20 test fires the recycle time was steady and right at 3sec. The same was the case for lowest power setting just right under 1 second.
Conclusion: Under any power setting my feeling is that the recycle time is decent enough for most studio work be it portraits or product photography as long as your not planning a fashion photo shoot rapid style recycling where you might be taking a series of pictures as fast as your camera might let you in burst mode. But then if this is the kind of work your doing you can afford the high end strobes with expensive and fancy battery packs. I found that occasionally when shooting portraits of kids I back down on the power levels slightly to give me a faster recycle time to avoid having shots where the strobe didn't fire.
Power bleed function
The unit has a built in power bleed, the purpose is when you reduce the power levels it will bleed out the stored energy so you don't have to manually fire the unit to get rid of the excess stored up energy that would cause the flash to fire at previous power levels on the first flash. I tested out how this bleed option functioned. Set the flash to full power and let it get ready to fire, but instead of firing of the flash I reduced the power levels to lowest setting. The unit started to immediately indicate it was bleeding out the power, the ready LED started blinking, I had my timer going to time how long it took. After 5 minutes the ready light was still blinking and after 7 minutes I got tired of waiting and hit the test button. I turned the power level up to 40 and about 2 seconds later the ready LED lit up. Alright let's reduce to output to 39, this took a little over 30 seconds. So each step then would take at least 30 seconds, so tried to drop another 5 steps which should take somewhere around 2 min 30sec to 3min 20sec based on this. After about 5 minutes and the ready light still blinking my theory was crushed.
Conclusion: Sure it does bleed out the power when you reduce the power output, but unless you want to go for a break every time you find you want to reduce the power output this feature will do you little good. Just hit the test fire button to release the stored up energy and get back to shooting at the now reduced flash power output.
Power Stability
The hot question is how good is the power levels between flashes? Utilizing my light meter and shooting of numerous test flashes in as rapid succession as the recycle time allowed the output levels where around 1/10th of a stop. I did hand hold the light meter while doing these tests so not extremely accurate but figure accurate enough because if your shooting a portraits the distance between the flash and the model could vary even more between shoots than the slight difference in distance between strobe and the light meter did with me holding it out, hitting the test button, reading the meter value and holding out the meter again and pressing the test button.
Conclusion: Power levels are very stable and I never been able to notice any major fluctuations between shoots when I taken pictures of stationary items.
White Balance
Here I not gone to any extreme to get proper information. I should really use a gray card and shoot a series of pictures and check how far off the white balance really is between flashes and how close to daylight balanced the strobe really is but well I have not done so. But in the shooting I done it seems to be fairly close to 5500 and seems to be fairly stable at 5500.
Conclusion: More accurate testing needed but from what I can tell setting white balance to flash gets you right where you expect to be and at least I have not been able to notice any problems with the white balance.
- Priced right
- Decent amount of light output
- Great looking
- Sturdy, good quality plastic with a nice feel
- Feels like Pro equipment
- Stable power output
- Rubber textured
- Not very fast recycle time
- Weight 8lbs
- AC only
- Setting buttons on the back
Overall Conclusion:
Do I regret spending approximately $150 on this unit. No, not at all. I think I got a bit more strobe than what I paid for but would I pay a lot more for it? I don't think I would be willing to pay much more than what I did. Would I buy a second unit? It depends what purpose I would use it for. As mentioned it's AC only and weights 8lbs so to use it as a hair light on a boom, I think for now I will stick with my Speedlight to handle that duty. But if I felt I needed/wanted a third strobe yes I would buy another one of these. I had to buy a speed ring to allow me to mount my octabox easier to it, and the selection of softboxes with the right kind of speed ring is not out there so this increases the cost of ownership since you have to buy the speed ring separately and it is no fun to try to mount a softbox to the strobe without one. You have to buy the speed ring directly from Cowboy Studios (would be nice if someone would sell it on Amazon and even better if it was a "Prime" item as well. The unit has served me well and even if there are a few things I wish was different (like the test fire button), my feeling is you get a very good strobe for very little money and a great way to get you started using studio strobes for very little money and would allow you to take great pictures. It doesn't come with any reflector, softbox or umbrella so this is something you would have to make sure you get to control and direct the light. Overall definitely worth the money.
Update: As been pointed out to me this strobe uses standard Bowen light modifier attachments. Knowing this saved me a lot of money by not having to purchase separate attachment ring and get the right thing from the start. In addition been able to get some beauty dishes and no longer feel locked into getting the light modifiers offered only from Cowboy studios for this strobe. Yay… Plus now if I want to get another strobe of different brand/size all I really need it to support is Bowen mounting and all my light modifiers can be used with this new one as well. My wish is for a strobe that supports both AC and DC.
Update 2: I recently purchased another strobe that can be used either AC or DC. It's a 600WS strobe, price VERY reasonable, included a battery pack and a 6″ beauty dish for not much more than this strobe. Look for review of this strobe coming in the future.
Update 3: No longer using Nikon CLS, found some wireless remote flash triggers at a VERY reasonable price that works beautifully. Price for 4 triggers (can act as remote shutter triggers not only flash triggers) is almost the same as a single Pocket Wizard III. The PWIII is overkill when used with a strobe like the one in this review so don't need all those extra bells and whistles it offers, now if I had a lot of Speedlights (I own just a single SB-900) a PWIII or something highend like that would be benefitial but at current point I don't see the need for it so rather save my money for now.


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FEAR OF legal liability weighs heavily on the minds of many physicians.1,2 This fear all too often distorts the practice of medicine3 and undermines a sense of professional integrity. Anyone who has participated in ethics committee case consultations or who has rounded with medical teams in intensive care units or on the wards will know how easily the discussion can devolve into a single-minded focus on legality. The fear of liability, and the consequent practice of "defensive medicine" to avoid lawsuits, leads to a paradox. When physicians are overly concerned with the threat of law, do not understand the reasons people sue, and fail to understand the medical malpractice system, they engage in behaviors that, ironically, make themselves more vulnerable to lawsuits. The predominant focus of physicians should instead be on demonstrating the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that result in a patient's or family's maintaining respect for a physician even in the face of a bad outcome. Keeping this focus can be the most effective legal protection.
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Costa Cruise or Costa 'a lot' as indicated on the wed.
We booked the cruise via Thomas Cook who we feel manipulated the fact that Costa Cruise who will allow you to book a cruise & flight even though 'no' flights were available & then contact you three days later to say 'sorry' we don't have any flight - so Thomas Cook then offer to construct a package for you, which you end up paying £400 plus more for!
We flew with both KLM & Air France.
KLM were excellent in terms of service & in flight entertainment as well as meals.
Air France were not; with poor service & in particular poor meals.
We arrived in Dubai on the 5th April & were transferred to the port, arriving around 7.30 am to embark onto the ship (Costa Deliziosa) @ 8.30 am.
At check-in the staff looked bored & provided little in any information on what we were to do or what time we would be boarding the ship - other than give us a 'public health' form to fill in.
They also take away your passports, the reason becomes apparent when you leave the ship - the reason why their keep your passport is that you have to clear your bill (either by credit card or cash) before your passport are returned! This we feel speaks volume of the type of people who run Costa - treating all with distain.
We embarked @ around 9.30 - again without any information regarding the ship or our cabin or cabin keys, which apparently you have to find yourself & the keys are left in-side the open cabin with your luggage!
The ship is lovely - new & very clean. We had a cabin on the '8th' deck which was had very little engine noise - but the lower cabins may not be the same.
The cabins have no robes or bathroom condiments such as shampoo, conditioner etc.
The meals were average & the drinks were very expensive, as were the excursions.
The 'Wed' site indicates that a daily charge of €7/14 per day is charged as a service charge or tip for the cabin boy, cook, cleaners etc, which adds around £110.00 per couple per week to your bill BUT what they don't tell you is that in addition every purchase on the ship i.e. drinks etc. also a service charge applied of a further 15%. We worked out that for the week we paid around £180.00 in mandatory 'tips' to Costa, we would have preferred to give this to the staff direct but the customer service desk were less than interested in our comments.
The excursions are very expensive, charging around £50.00 per person (£200.00 for a family of four) to go to the beach @ certain ports - the taxi (for four) charges around £20 to £30.
On the visit to Bahrain; Costa fails to tell you that the day you dock (Friday) is a holiday in Bahrain & all the shops are closed! Their only tell you once you have paid for the excursion & then refuse a refund when you complain - we spent 15 min's in Bahrain - nothing was open; no Malls etc!
You need to keep an eye on the daily activities & meal times as Costa will change them without notice so when you go to lunch @ 13.30 you will find they have changed the opening times from 13.00 to noon, closing @ 13.00!
Disembarkment is a farce, people leave the ship over a three day period, with them milling around the ship with bags, sitting & sleeping as you are trying to enjoy the rest of your holiday.
The instructions as boarding are none existent, we sent 10 min's on the process of leaving the ship & 20 min's been told how to fill in the satisfaction survey form, been manipulated to tick the correct boxes by the crew!!
If you leave the ship @ 10.30 you will be told to leave your cabin @ 6.00 / 6.30 in the morning!
We enjoyed the cruise in spite of Costa 'Lot'.


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You've been convicted of murder. You didn't do it. After you've rotted in prison for weeks, months, years (in one case 33 years), one day a judge taps his gavel, looks you in the eyes and says, in essence, "Oops. Never mind. Our mistake! You're free to go." Go where? To do what?
Since 1973, 102 men and women sent to death row and later exonerated—often through DNA evidence—have faced those questions. Some returned to families that never gave up the fight; others had to rebuild their lives from scratch. None will forget the day they won back their freedom. "Sometimes you have dreams that are never realized," says Ray Krone, wrongly convicted of the rape and murder of a Phoenix bartender. "This one was."
Peter Limone
After three decades in jail for a crime he didn't commit, he returns to a wife who waited
Convicted For the'65 murder of a Boston man
imprisoned 33 years
Exonerated His lawyer found old FBI reports about a key witness who lied about Limone's involvement in the murder
He was always there for them, a father for his family, and then one day he wasn't. Bar manager Peter Limone was supposed to meet his wife, Olympia, for an open house at their son's elementary school in Arlington, Mass., on Oct. 27, 1967—their 10th wedding anniversary. He never showed up, and later that day his brother told Olympia why: Limone had been indicted for murder. "It didn't penetrate," says Olympia, now 66. "But he didn't come home that night."
Peter Limone didn't come home for 33 years. A Mafia hit man turned FBI informant fingered him and three other men for the 1965 murder of gangster Edward Deegan, shot six times in a Chelsea, Mass., alley. Limone, who had a minor criminal record but did not know the informant or the other suspects, surrendered to cops, sure no jurors would buy the word of a killer. But 12 did, and a judge called for the electric chair. "State of shock," says Limone, 68, of his reaction. "I remember being driven to prison and going right to death row. You just say to yourself, 'What the hell am I doing here?' "
At Walpole Prison, 20 miles southwest of Boston, Limone spent 23Vi hours a day in a cell. His wife visited twice a week, his four children only four times a year. Though heartbroken, "I always put on a show of being okay," he says. "I figured if it's hard for me, it must be harder for them." After an appeal failed, the years slowly rolled by. In 1972 the U.S. Supreme Court found the death penalty unconstitutional, and his sentence was changed to life in prison. Says his son Paul, 42, a restaurant manager and construction worker: "Our biggest fear was that Dad would die in there."
Indeed, two of the three men convicted alongside Limone did die behind bars. In 2000 John Cavicchi, a lawyer for one of those men, took on Limone's case and uncovered old FBI reports that proved he had not been involved in the murder and that the Feds had known about his wrongful conviction—part of an apparent pattern of corruption among Boston FBI agents. "It was a bad case, just treachery all around," says Cavicchi, who worked for free. On Jan. 5, 2001, a judge set aside Limone's conviction.
Just like that, he was free. He opened a bottle of scotch his sister gave him before his ordeal, and old friends applauded when he accompanied Olympia to mass. Still, he says, "I feel bitter." In bed at night, "you're waiting for the whistle for count. It took a long time to get used to things." Limone is suing the FBI and others for $375 million. Mostly, though, he is savoring what he once had lost. "My wife, my kids, they are the reason I never gave up," says Limone. "Being with family, that's the best part of life."
Gary Gauger
Falsely convicted of the unthinkable: killing his own mother and father
Convicted For murder of his parents
Imprisoned 3 years and 4 months
Exonerated After his conviction was reversed, two strangers were found guilty
Of all the wonders of his new life, Gary Gauger most relishes simply walking out the front door. "I appreciate being able to go in and out when I want to. he says. "It's so hard to get through a door in prison."
Gauger, 50, spent 3½ years in jails, wrongly convicted of murdering his parents in 1993. At the time he was a divorced father of three, living with his father, Morris, 74, and mother, Ruth, 70, on their Richmond, Ill., farm. It wasn't until a day after their April 8 murder that Gauger, opening a storage-room door, discovered his father's body. When police arrived and found his mother as well, they took Gauger into custody. "My world turned upside down," says Gauger. "They were dead, and I had no idea why. I was just numb."
Prosecutors used that apparent lack of emotion against Gauger at his trial, successfully winning a death-penalty conviction. "They weren't looking for the truth," says his twin sister, Ginger. She rallied to his aid, seeking the help of Chicago lawyer Larry Marshall, who specializes in fighting wrongful convictions. Within months Marshall persuaded the judge to reduce Gauger's sentence to life in prison. A year and a half later, Marshall persuaded an appeals court to overturn the conviction by arguing Gauger's lack of emotion didn't justify his initial arrest. In 1996 the real killers emerged: Two motorcycle-gang members were later convicted of killing the Gaugers during a burglary.
Now remarried, Gauger occasionally gives talks to anti-death-penalty and wrongful-conviction groups as well as student and civic organizations. But mostly he focuses on running the family farm. Says Gauger, still haunted by his ordeal: "You can't put this out of your head. It will always be with me."
Ray Krone
Leaps in DNA technology deliver a mailman from death row despair
Convicted For rape and murder of a Phoenix bartender
Imprisoned 10 years
Exonerated DNA evidence cleared him and fingered another man behind bars
A casual phone call saved Ray Krone's life. In 1993 Krone's second cousin Jim Rix learned from his mom that he had a relative on death row. "I was surprised," remembers Rix, now 59, who owns a software-design firm in Zephyr Cove, Nev. "I wrote Ray a letter and introduced myself."
Krone, a Phoenix postman, had been convicted of the 1991 rape and murder of bartender Kim Ancona, 36; initially Rix simply assumed his cousin was guilty. From Krone he learned that much rested on testimony from an expert witness who said Krone's teeth matched bite marks on the victim. When Rix asked another expert to look at the evidence, "he seriously doubted the bite marks," Rix says. For his part, "I started to get excited," recalls Krone, 45. "Somebody cared about me."
The cousins' odyssey would last more than eight years. In 1996 Krone was tried and found guilty again, despite presenting 10 DNA and bite-mark experts who testified he could not have committed the crime. The family invested around $200,000 to help fund appeals. Krone's mother, Carolyn, 64, mortgaged her home. "We knew the truth was out there," she says.
In the end time helped. In 2002 advances in DNA technology showed that blood on the clothes allegedly came from Kenneth Phillips, who was already behind bars for attempted child molestation and is now facing trial for murder. On April 8 Krone walked out of the prison at Yuma. Although he plans to sue the Phoenix police—Arizona does not compensate people wrongfully convicted of a crime—nothing, he says, can make up for his time behind bars. Meanwhile he has become a public speaker, testifying before the Senate and elsewhere about death penalty reform. "I don't know why the Lord put me in there for 10 years," he says, "but I think the public will be willing to listen."
Roberto Miranda
Victimized by the system, he finally gets good counsel
Convicted For killing a Las Vegas hotel worker
Imprisoned 14 years
Exonerated New public defender and investigator located witnesses whose testimony convinced a judge to throw out his onviction
I have all my anger in a black box and I don't touch it," says Roberto Miranda, 59, a burly Cuban emigre who spent 14 years on Nevada's death row for the 1981 murder of a Las Vegas hotel worker. He was freed in 1996 when an appeals judge decided that the inexperienced public defender who had represented him, Thomas W. Rigsby, had severely bungled the case. "Roberto Miranda received essentially no defense," says Tom Casler, an investigator for the public defender's office in Nevada whose legwork played a key role in the successful appeal. "There was no investigation, and investigation is crucial in a case that carries the death penalty." (Rigsby declines to comment on the case.)
Miranda's troubles began in 1981. That's when Manuel Rodriguez Torres, a 30-year-old Mexican who worked at the Stardust Hotel, was found stabbed to death in the kitchen of his Las Vegas apartment, which appeared to have been burgled. Based largely on the testimony of a fellow Cuban emigre with whom he had been feuding, Miranda—a car detailer who came to the U.S. from Cuba during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift—was arrested and convicted after a 15-day trial. His lawyer failed to call several witnesses Miranda had suggested in his defense, including a key one. (Most of these same individuals were tracked down years later by Casler and would testify on Miranda's behalf.) Furthermore, says Miranda, "Rigsby told me to plead guilty." But he refused. "I would not plead guilty to something I never did," he says.
Currently unemployed, Miranda, who has no family in this country, combs help-wanted ads and attends church twice a week. "I can't blame America; America didn't do this to me," he says. "A judge and a lousy lawyer did. The judge is dead now, and I am alive," he adds. "There is a God."
Free at Last
Pam Lambert
updated 12/02/2002 AT 01:00 AM EST
•originally published 12/02/2002 AT 01:00 AM EST


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IMO Environment Committee Focuses on GHG
26 March 2010: The Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) held its 60th session from 22-26 March 2010, in London, UK, and focused on the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from international shipping.
Despite progress made on this issue at the meeting, the MEPC concluded that more work needs to be done before it completes its consideration of the proposed mandatory application of technical and operational measures designed to regulate and reduce GHGs emissions from international shipping. The Committee decided to establish the following groups: an intersessional Working Group to build on the significant progress that had been made during the meeting on technical and operational measures to increase the energy efficiency of ships; and an Expert Group on market-based measures to undertake a feasibility study and impact assessment of the various proposals submitted for a market-based instrument for international maritime transport.
Both Groups are to report to the MEPC at its 61st session. Furthermore, participants agreed on draft text on mandatory requirements for the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) for new vessels and on the Ship Energy Efficiency Management Plan (SEEMP) for all ships in operation, but underlined that issues concerning ship size, target dates and reduction rate in relation to the EEDI requirements all required finalization.
In his closing remarks to the meeting, IMO Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos stated that "Global issues demand global solutions. Let the world learn from the lessons of Copenhagen so that the same mistakes are not repeated in Cancun. At the same time, let us build on the undeniable successes Copenhagen has scored, by providing a forum for Heads of State and Government to listen to and understand each other's problems, concerns, worries and sensitivities and, thus, pave the way for a more successful next round of consultations." [IMO Press Release]


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Arlington Oakridge Gallery
Arlington Oakridge HS
Photo: Courtesy photo
Arlington Oakridge field hockey player Kelly Silvestri (left) works around a defender for The Kinkaid School (Photo by Chris Marcellus).
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text: An international panel that audited Swiss banks for dormant Holocaust-era accounts is disbanding. Late last year, the Volcker Commission issued a report recommending that Swiss banking officials publish more than 25,000 accounts that may be connected to Holocaust victims. The Swiss officials, however, have not followed through on that recommendation or on several others made by the panel.


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Ordering Information
Bakelite Salt and Pepper Shakers
This pair of
Bakelite salt and pepper shakers
was fabricated in the desirable red with black mottling. Together they form a cylinder. The salt has a white shaker top and the pepper a black shaker top.
(Stock number 002sp829)
Back to Index
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©1999 IAACF Ltd.


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HS league power rankings released
Sac-Joaquin Section has calculated strengths of local leagues
The Sac-Joaquin Section released league power rankings for high school basketball teams on Wednesday.
Boys basketball leagues with the highest power rankings include the Delta River League, Sierra Foothill League and Delta Valley Conference.
Girls basketball leagues that rank the highest are the Delta River League, Metropolitan League and Sierra Foothill League.
Power rankings are calculated by multiplying its league winning percentage to determine 70 percent of the power rating, which determines who makes the playoffs.
Click here to get a more detailed formula for power rating and to see where each league is ranked.
Copyright 2013 by HighSchoolPlaybook.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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She's hardly a household name. Were it not for Jon Woodhouse's enthusiastic write-up last week and a little YouTubing of her greatest hit, I wouldn't even know who Freda Payne is.
But the background research got me to the 2012 Maui Invitational Music Festival's Tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. in McCoy Studio Theater at the MACC last Thursday. Presented by Maui's nonprofit Arts Education for Children, it featured a gospel choir preshow, a tasty opening set by Cheryl Renee and Clay Mortensen, a stirring delivery of MLK's "I Had a Dream" speech by Bryant Neal, nice emceeing by Kathy Collins, fine backup musicianship from Brian Cuomo and friends and then, Freda.
The artist is best known for that one huge hit, "Band of Gold." Considering that it was a huge hit in the disco era, you can do the math.
Article Photos
Freda Payne
But trying to guess her age turned into an exercise in seeing's-not-believing when she voluptuously took the stage in her clinging gown and her silky hair and started doing her slinky struts and girly dance moves.
While her youthful presence seemed more goddesslike than diva-ish, the surprise was her voice. "Band of Gold" turned out to be the aberration in a career owing more to Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Lena Horne than to fleeting mirror-ball fads.
Paying tribute to legendary jazz vocalists, she was almost their match, scatting like Ella, coaxing all the emotion from Lena's ballads, turning standards like "The Lady is a Tramp" or "They Can't Take That Away From Me" into perfect martinis in an elegant rooftop nightclub above the lights of Manhattan.
The fact that the Ella Fitzgerald voice comes in more of a Tina Turner package was an added bonus. Freda Payne could do a Victoria's Secrets calendar all by herself. The months and years pass, new models come and go, but her brand of sexy is forever.
A gospel singer in the audience best summed up the show when she called out, You go, Freda!"
This mix of feminine talent, beauty and confidence is the kind of thing that transforms men to boys, leaving us awed, if not speechless, in her wake.
It's the kind of phenomenon that can produce howling at the moon or the banging of heads against walls which is why we have the Super Bowl every year, so guys can all do it collectively.
It's been a yearly custom to take note of the Super Bowl in this column, not so much as a mega-entertainment event-although it certainly is that -but more as annual snapshots of American culture.
In other words, the ads.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Doritos and Bud Light cover all the essential food groups, dogs are far smarter than the typical American male, and all the conversation in the room ceases whenever a Go Daddy.com ad comes on, even if no one knows to this day what Go Daddy.com is.
This was the year the ads went to film school. There was the Pepsi epic about Sir Elton John's medieval court. Audis took a starring role in the "Twilight" series as vampire slayers. The end of Prohibition assumed the dimensions of a Ken Burns documentary for Budweiser. Ferris Bueller's day off turned into more of a midlife thing, for Honda. And we learned that Chevy pickups are engineered to withstand the apocalypse, or the movie equivalent.
There's also the Super Bowl tradition of making this year's ads be about last year's ads - embodied in Volkswagen's embrace of all things Darth Vader to sell their cars. A new wrinkle this year was two-for-one spots, as when the commercial for General Electric turbines worked in a plug for Budweiser, or that Chevy truck that survived the end of the world had a box of Twinkies in the passenger seat.
The evolution of the Super Bowl from being about football to a celebration of ads for their own sake might signal an economy regaining its health, and its swagger. Clint Eastwood hinted at this in a "Halftime for America" spot for Chrysler that generated all sorts of Monday morning armchair quarterbacking in political quarters.
But does anyone else experience a pang of paranoia at seeing actual movies - our favorite form of storytelling - replaced by these micro-epics, brilliant little jolts of mind control in the name of knee-jerk consumerism?
Guess not, especially since everyone seems not only willing but anxious to pay the price for them.
And as for Madonna's halftime extravaganza they should have let Freda Payne do it.
* Contact Rick Chatenever at firstname.lastname@example.com


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City of Scappoose
Request for Proposal:
Website redesign, development
and implementation services
The City of Scappoose invites proposals for contracted Web site services. Proposals are due to City Hall by 4:00 p.m. on February 08, 2013. The City seeks services encompassing redesign of the current website, development of additional features, implementation and ongoing maintenance. For a copy of the RFP package, contact Finance Administrator Jill Herr at (503) 543-7146 or e-mail email@example.com.
Publish 01/23, 01/30/2013. SCS1019


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Horizon Recycling Center - Barbers Point, HI - Phone: (808) 682-0900
Garbage Removal, in Barbers Point, is the detection and discarding of unused and unnecessary stuff. Disposal or removal of rubbish is not only an important aspect of house cleaning, but also a society at large. It is important to keep the area we live in, clean and dirt-free, so that we have a healthy environment. Garbage, like food and household waste, are a major component of municipal waste which creates health, sanitation and environment problems. The purpose behind proper garbage removal is to effectively dispose the food scraps and other junks to sewers.
If the waste products are not dumped properly, it could lead to serious health hazards caused due to the contamination of water and oxygen. One of the oldest methods of rubbish disposal, is by burial. Landfills are often established in abandoned or unused areas and if well managed they can be hygienic and relatively inexpensive method of disposing of waste materials. However, poorly managed landfills can create a number of adverse environmental impacts. A common byproduct of landfills is gas, which is produced as the organic waste breaks down. This gas can create odor problems and kill surface vegetation.
Biofuel: Food In, Fuel Out, But Is It The Answer We're looking For?
(Long Island, NY) In today's environmentally-conscious worldview that is being shared by more and more people, alternative fuel sources are the Holy Grail of the "green" movement. There are many new ways to eschew hydrocarbon-laden gasoline when it comes to filling up your vehicle's tank at the pump, and one of the most oft-talked about are biofuels- mainly ethanol and..


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Under The Dome Snow Globe
$33.97(Was $49.95)
The controversial scene that shows a cow being halved by the Dome can now become part of your collection with this Under the Dome snow globe. This exclusive piece showcases the cow and a barn, and the globe looks just like a mini version of the Dome that has secluded the entire town. Get this item from the Under the Dome store section of the CBS Store, and shake it to see beautiful pink stars falling around the barn.
Read MoreLess
More Details
- Dimensions: W: 3.9" H: 4.7" Globe: 4"
Availability: In Stock
Ready to ship in 1-2 Business Days


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MT. MORRIS TWP., Michigan -- The director of the Krapohl Senior Center says her request for $4,000 in senior services millage funds for a San Francisco conference wasn't excessive as some Genesee County officials have claimed.
"Until you get to the conference you really don't even know everything that's available," said Gayle Reed, Krapohl director. "They had 1,200 (educational) sessions so I don't think it was excessive to ask for two people to go."
Reed had initially asked for $4,000 in senior millage funds to help pay the cost for herself and a social work technician to attend the conference but eventually attended alone after a county advisory committee recommended against funding the trip.
The county Board of Commissioners today voted unanimously not to pay any of the cost of the trip.
Reed said most of the cost of her attending the National Aging in America Conference is already covered because she is a state delegate to the National Institute of Seniors. She said she expects the Krapohl Senior Center will cover the remaining $400-$500 in costs.


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Chicken paillarde with cherry sauce and parsley rice, Italian sausage pot stickers and mango lime pie were among the scrumptious and mouthwatering fare that delighted a packed house at the Taste of Home Cooking School Thursday night at the Randolph County Armed Forces Reserve Center.
The culinary extravaganza, sponsored by The Inter-Mountain and Elkins Distributing, featured local vendors and a plethora of prizes in addition to the much-anticipated live cooking show.
Taste of Home Culinary Specialist Cheryl Cohen shared her passion for delicious, quality cuisine at the event, which drew people from all over the region.
Article Photos
The Inter-Mountain photos Matthew Burdette
Taste of Home Culinary Specialist Cheryl Cohen displays the pineapple upside-down cupcakes she made during the culinary show Thursday night at the Randolph County Armed Forces Reserve Center. The event was sponsored by The Inter-Mountain and Elkins Distributing.
Sue Pifer, owner of Elkins Sewing Center, gives lessons during the vendor portion of the Taste of Home Cooking School Thursday at the Randolph County Armed Forces Reserve Center.
Taste of Home Culinary Specialist Cheryl Cohen, left, and local resident and Taste of Home Magazine Field Editor Lori Daniels make plans for the cooking show Thursday afternoon.
Elk Springs Resort manager Betty Wilson talks with Taste of Home attendees about wine sold at the Randolph County retreat prior to the start of the culinary show.
With a dash of humor and a sprinkle of tips, Cohen's show was a hit with the crowd, who relished the many delectable delights prepared by the veteran chef.
"She was amazing," said Lea McBride of Elkins, who attended with her daughter-in-law, Amanda McBride, for what they called a fun girls' night out. "She (Cohen) really makes it worth coming to, with her humor and her personality."
Amanda McBride ended up winning a primitive candles gift basket and pineapple upside-down cupcakes, prepared on stage by Cohen, as door prizes. She said the Cooking School event offered a chance to get out and have a good time.
"It's something different; you don't get a lot of that around here," she said.
Many other attendees won a large selection of door prizes, with everything from specialty baskets designed for foodies and chocolate-lovers, to gift certificates from local businesses and gorgeous flower baskets donated by Rennix Flowers in Valley Bend.
One of the featured prizes was a high-end Husqvarna sewing machine donated by Elkins Sewing Center, while the night's grand prize was a $1,000 shopping spree to Ralph's Furniture & Carpet in Buckhannon. The shopping spree went to Gyvonne Harper of Elkins, who said she had a lovely time and was thrilled at the prospect of checking out new furniture.
Harper hadn't even planned to attend the Taste of Home show until a half hour before festivities kicked off, when her friend, Lara Lawrence of Philippi, called and offered her an extra ticket.
"She sat there all night and said she wouldn't win anything," Lawrence said with a big smile after Harper's name was randomly plucked from a bin by Ralph's owner Joe Cutright. Lawrence managed to walk away with a Taste of Home cookbook.
Another cookbook winner Thursday night was Lorraine Chilgren of Elkins, who attended the event with her friend, Patty Coffman, also of Elkins.
Chilgren said she went to the show last year, and she wanted to come out again.
"We just love food, and we like all these," she said, gesturing toward an issue of Taste of Home magazine. "We're into recipes and cookbooks, and we love passing them around."
Even those who didn't win a prize did not leave empty-handed, as all attendees received a complimentary tote bag filled with sample products, coupons and discount offers from local and national vendors. All showgoers also received copies of Taste of Home and Simply Delicious magazines.
The Inter-Mountain has brought this popular event to central West Virginia since 2011.
During the show, Heather Goodwin Henline, publisher and general manager of The Inter-Mountain, served as the event's emcee and announced all the prizes.
Prior to the cooking show, VIP guests were able to enjoy a tasting event sponsored by Elk Springs Resort and its executive chef, Jerry Strawderman, while all guests were able to imbibe in a special tasting courtesy of Elkins Distributing, which included Budweiser products. Anheuser Busch/Bud Lite Lime is one of the national Taste of Home sponsors, as is the Gallo Family Vineyards, Johnsonville, Mrs. Dash, the Mushroom Council, Ortega and Shop Taste of Home.
The Rail Yard Restaurant and Kissel Stop offered meals prior to the show as well, so attendees could make it a full evening of fun, fare and friendship.
Shopping also was part of the mix, as a range of local businesses took part in a vendor fair from 2 to 6:15 p.m.
One of the vendors taking part was A Domestic Friend, represented by Sharon Ours. She said she gave out lots of samples of pet food, and she was excited to be able to donate two bags of dog food as prizes during the evening.
Another vendor, Third Street Trading Co., offered samples of a range of sweets, including Jelly Belly jelly beans. Owner Hope Anderson said she and her staff had a great time. Anderson rented an official Jelly Belly costume, so guests were able to mingle with Mr. Jelly Belly - who got some help from Anderson's daughter, 5-year-old Lilyana.
"She did help ... and it was good. The Jelly Belly man was a hit," Anderson said.
The event also encouraged guests to make donations to the Catholic Charities food pantry, which proved to be successful again this year, thanks to guests' enormous generosity.
In addition to businesses and local charities participating in the show, representatives from United Way agencies and the Junior Volunteer Fire Department helped out by handing out prizes.
Overall, Cohen said she could tell the crowd had a blast during the popular show.
"I think it went great," she said. "They enjoyed it, and I had a really great time here."