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Ask a dozen entertainment journalists what's the best way to get a good interview and they will give you a dozen different answers. But the single most important thing for me to remember is make sure you talk less than the person that you're interviewing. Typically they don't want your opinion about why a character did this or the filmmaker did that, and they almost never want to know what you thought of the movie as a whole, unless that reaction was 100 percent positive. So when I sat down to transcribe my interview with writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn, whose latest film Valhalla Rising was released in Los Angeles this week, I was discouraged to discover that I seemed to spend at least as much time talking as listening.
Thankfully, we were able to have a long and in-depth discussion of his work and his career, starting with Valhalla but soon moving on to his upcoming projects and the process of developing each film in the context of his previous ones. Not unlike his latest film, Refn is a model of still confidence, measurement and thought that makes his point clearly and compellingly. And even if I occasionally offered more explanation or opinion than was necessary, I was pleased that the only reason our interaction wasn't a good interview was because it was in fact a great conversation.
Cinematical: When I watched Valhalla Rising last night and the thing that kind of immediately jumped out to me as I was watching it was the sort of religious undertones of the story. Just to get started, and not to throw down too big a gauntlet, but do you see this movie as sort of a nihilist movie? Do you see it as something that's deeply religious? How did you sort of conceive this story in the context of the religious themes that are at least vaguely explored in the movie?
Nicolas Winding Refn: I think this film is about faith, essentially, and that's what's beyond religion. I think that one of the things that One Eye does as a creation is that he brings people with religion to their understanding of what religion is to them. And then in the film, when they're climbing the mountain, which is very symbolic, I guess, the priest confesses to One Eye why he, why he wanted to go to Jerusalem in the first place. Because the way that it would work was that if you had sins, it would be absorbed if you died in battle. He had gone to Jerusalem because he was not there when his sons died in battle, so he would die with his sin and he thought that if he went there, that would be absorbed.
So, it goes beyond religion and it's about faith, essentially. There is part of the movie which is about religion, especially about the general and him wanting to use God as a reason to conquer, which is nothing new to this country. But it is apparent when you bring religion up, there is a sense of fanaticism. But it doesn't mean that it's in any way bad, but it's part of evolution when, you know, the film takes place in the 1100's, when Christianity was spreading through the north and paganism was, you know, through all the fringes of the earth. Because Christianity was order and they had never, you know, pagans were never missionaries, they never forced themselves on others in terms of religion. And when Christianity came, there came a kind of order, but the way they would, you know, covert was either through war or through buying, they would buy people, or they would fuse religions. You know, like Christianity, it teaches a soul is a warrior who died in battle to the Vikings, because it fused with what they had, you know? So, you know, in that sense, it became very important to the whole element of it.
Cinematical: How did you want to sort of invest the film with those themes? You have a very interesting dynamic that holds the film together which is this idea of not only people having faith, but then sort of questioning it. One Eye is sort of a blank slate, and then you have the pagans and the Christians. But throughout the film, these sort of events occur, like, for example, like them finding fresh water, and different things like that could support a non-religious interpretation of those events. Was that something that you wanted sort of just to exist in the storytelling? Or how did that sort of get integrated into the film?
Refn: Well, you can kind of say through the movie, One Eye travels in four steps. You know, he starts as a myth, when he's basically enslaved, [and] the only thing they know about him is that he doesn't belong to anybody for more than five years. And when he escapes from being an animal, you know, primal, he becomes a warrior. And then he becomes god, because everyone believes that what he does is of some godly belief. He [becomes] a substitute, you know, they make him a god, because he does things that for them live up to that interpretation, but for him, it could be just he found fresh water because they accidentally sail into a river from the ocean, which would be accurate. But for them, they were at a time which superstition was very high because Christianity and paganism were being embedded into each other. To jell with people that are one side, either religion, are highly superstitious. And then he becomes man at the end, One Eye, when he sacrifices himself. And of course, that draws parallels to a certain person in our history (laughs). But it's inevitable because he becomes man. You know, he starts off as a creature and he becomes man at the end.
Cinematical: As a filmmaker, is it easier or more difficult to create a character where he is a blank slate, where he is primarily defined through the interpretation of his behavior by other characters? I know you've worked with Mads before, but, did you have to encourage him to resist the impulse to go, "I'm going to create a back story for him." Or was it easy to come in, to have this character from the outset, who had nothing sort of written on him except for obviously his physicality and then sort of imbue him with substance through the storytelling?
Refn: Well, it's a very good question because this film takes me and Mads' relationship to new heights. It's a good thing we know each other very well and we've worked together because it was very much about trust, in terms that when Mads realized that he had no voice, only one eye, and now he had past or present because he was more like a monolith that mirrors everyone else, to write that was kind of challenging because you're used to having the protagonist lead the story. But here, the protagonist's journey is the undercurrent of the film, but what draws the movie physically forward was the people around him. So just writing that was a real exercise of how do you substitute the main thrust of the film to something else and yet still sustain every scene around One Eye?
From an actor's point of view, I took everything away from him that he could ever use, so for him, it was a great search of how do you play this because, when you take a voice away from an actor, they use their body, of course, but with anything else, you can very quickly overact physically. But when you are no longer human, anything that was human behavior didn't work. So we had to go beyond human behavior and then that, I think, was of course, a very interesting kind of arena for me and him to be stuck in, especially in Scotland.
Cinematical: How did you sort of determine the structure of the film in the story and then how difficult or easy was it to sort of discover the rhythm of the storytelling? Because it's sort of non-verbal and it is directed by some of the supporting characters more so than what you would consider to be the leading man. For example, how easy was it to know, well, we need five or six scenes on the boat, and then to know exactly what pieces of information you needed for each one of them? And then how difficult was it to figure out how long you could go in terms of exploring that environment without sort of exasperating the audience?
Refn: Well, I think the challenge first lied in the fact that the whole movie was almost thought of us that, "God, wouldn't it be great to do one of those movies that you would show in the '70's at midnight?" You know, a drug film, not where you take drugs and watch the movie, but where the movie becomes the drug. And coming from Bronson, which was all about speed and ferocious behavior, to something that's completely the opposite was good because it forced me to do something completely different.
The way to describe it was that if you were to look at the stars at night and lie down, it's a very painful experience, it was almost agitation because you were just lying down and looking up at the sky. Sure, you relax for 10, 20 minutes, but then it starts to get very physical, annoying, tension almost. But if you go beyond that stage, almost into meditation and you concentrate what's beyond the stars, which, because stars are scientific, you can get to that, with a spacecraft, eventually, certainly you can do that even in the movies and in fiction. But what's interesting is the black void beyond it. And the only thing you can, the way you travel there is, is actually, even though it's outwards, you travel inwards. So it's about slowing your heart rate to the extent where it becomes about movement and the movie takes you and you can't take the movie. You can try to control that movie, which we're used to, because we're used to controlling our lives, but you'll be very disappointed. But if you are to let yourself go, it's certainly meant to be traveling into outer space.
In terms of rhythm, I shot the whole movie intentionally in slow motion. So originally the whole film was shot in slow motion, but when I put that together, it became too much, it became too apparent for the rhythm to be slow. So I speeded everything up again to the original pace, because I felt that I was making it too clean, too predictable. And then I watched Stalker, a couple weeks before I started shooting, and that certainly cemented how I wanted to make the movie.
Cinematical: You mention Stalker, but my colleague joked that if Bronson was your Kubrick movie, this was your Malick movie. Do you think consciously about integrating or interpolating your influences into your films, or do you tend to sort of try to keep your vision as a filmmaker pretty separate from the things that you either like or that people might assume would be an influence for a film?
Refn: I would say that we all steal, and the ones who say they don't are lying, because that's what you do. Everyone stole. Seriously, it's part of evolution, the video arts form is to take something that's there and create the next thing that's your own. I would say that there's much more Tarkovsky than there is intently than Terrence Malick. But it all depends what people want to read into it. Sometimes people read into something because it has to remind you of something else in order for them to relate to it. And you can read and see parallels to anything if you look at something. Sometimes it's more difficult to look at it individually, by itself. But at the same time, Valhalla Rising is very much a movie that's a fusion of what I grew up with. Anything that I grew up with, watching, from Snake Plissken in Escape From New York to Tarkovsky to spaghetti westerns that I've always liked. It was the same thing.
Cinematical: Audiences are obviously going to draw their own conclusions about your work. But do you want them to understand the movie the way that you intended, or are you more liberal about allowing viewers their interpretation of it?
Refn: I am totally more interested in what other people think than what I think. It is more exciting to me, other people's opinions than to preach my own. I don't make political movies, or at least I don't set out to make political films. I don't have an agenda that I want to get across. There may be some, you know, philosophical arenas that I think are interesting to talk about, but I am more interested in what you think than what I think.
Cinematical: I understand that you were working on this to some extent, even before you did Bronson. But it seems like given how successful that film was at sort of penetrating the American market and really getting some critical notice, that this will seem like an even sharper contrast to those people who were fans of that film. But do you feel like this serves as a suitable companion piece in the sense that the combination maybe of these two sort of articulates the directions that you want to go in your career?
Refn: I think that I don't like to be boxed and I don't like to be controlled. So after I'd done the Pusher trilogy, which was my first major awareness in this country, everybody thought that that's what [my ambition] was. And when I did Bronson, everybody said, "Well, okay, that's what it is." And so, when you go into Valhalla it was a natural evolution, just personally going from one film to the other - it was easy to be so diverse - and then the obvious element would be to go and do a film in Hollywood. So if people think they're getting one thing, I will always try to give them something else. And it comes maybe from a fear of repeating myself, or a fear of doing the obvious. Not that that's particularly bad, but I'm more interested in the game sometimes.
This is very much a film that I made because that's how I thought it should be, and I will make another movie and that will be different from that. And then I will hopefully make another one that will be even more different from that. Whether that's good or bad, I don't think about it like that. I think more that being able to do what I would like to do, is probably the most pleasurable part of it.
Cinematical: Well, then would it be fair to say that you think more creatively than strategically in terms of where your career can go in terms of what opportunities that you have? Or do you have to consider that to some extent, or that no matter what your creativity is telling you to do, something might not be the best decision at this point in your career?
Refn: I think the only thing that strategically continues in the back of my mind, which is a valuable lesson that I learned on Fear X, the first movie produced in this country that I made, was don't ever make a movie that's too expensive for it to make its money back. And that's basically how I look upon it. I've been lucky enough to do the films I want to make, I've always just made sure that they were made with a budget range, which meant everybody walked away happy. And of course, whatever I do, I keep that in the back of my head, because money is power and the ones who don't think that, will very quickly learn that it is.
Cinematical: Well, what sort of, you know, creative energy did working on something, going from Bronson to Valhalla Rising, what sort of momentum does that give you when you move on to do something like Only God Forgives, which seems to have elements of both of those movies, but obviously is going in a different sort of direction thematically.
Refn: Well, it's what I call, it's my fantasy movies. It's the movie that I write, produce, and direct, and control as almost, it's what I need to make in order to go out and have affairs with Hollywood. You know, it's what I can always return to and the pleasure is still pure because it's an outpour of everything that's inside of me without having to think strategically always.
So I will always walk in Europe and out of Europe, but I'm also enjoying it right now in Los Angeles. I mean, talk to me in five months and I'll maybe tell you something completely different. I hope I don't! I hope I don't. But, you never know in this industry. And, you know, even though I'm here and enjoying it, I'm also looking forward going to Bangkok. But having that very happy situation maybe also elevates what I make out here, because when you're not dependent on something, you sometimes tend to do more bolder choices. Do you know what I mean?
Cinematical: You mean you feel empowered to take more risks?
Refn: Yeah. Because, you know, we're always afraid in this industry, what if you can't get your next movie made? So I've always made films with the notion, well, if this is going to be my last movie, at least I was able to make it the way I wanted to. Up to this date, I've been able to survive like that, but I've also, you know, said, you need to find a formula that makes you do that possibility. And so the desire to come here and do films is satisfying, but it also helps because I have what I have as well. I have something that I'm doing right after that I'm looking forward to. But it goes, also gives me the energy to want to make the best possible movie I can out here.
Cinematical: Well, how far along are you on Only God Forgives? Do you have a cast secured at this point or are you still in sort of the conceptualization stage?
Refn: Only God Forgives is written and it started, early pre-production about five weeks ago in Bangkok and now I'm in Los Angeles preparing Drive with Ryan Gosling that starts shooting September 20th and I will basically doing Drive and Only God Forgives back to back like I did Bronson and Valhalla Rising. And I like that. I guess the best way for me to describe that process is like having sex with two girls at the same time. It's double the fun but double the work. But you can only be fun, it's just more fun than you can possibly have.
Cinematical: One of the things about Bronson that is so amazing is that Tom Hardy had been around for more than ten years working, but it was the way that he was directed and the opportunity he had in that movie that expanded his opportunities as an actor. Have you found that helping him indirectly availed you of these, of different opportunities? Or that there is maybe pressure for you now to do for someone what you did for Tom in that movie?
Refn: I think a lot of people, you know, especially out here in Los Angeles, have a tendency to look at something and then ask you to do the same - which is understandable. Actually, the only thing that's the case with Ryan Gosling is he's certainly a very capable person with his own abilities. But I'm sure that there is a [sense that] when you see something that other people like, you want to be part of what they do next. I think that is a natural evolution. If [someone were to say, "Do for me what you did for Tom Hardy," I would say, "I can't do that, because you're not Tom Hardy. I can do something else for you, but that means you have to put your trust in me." And essentially that's really what it comes down to. And, you know, people that are willing to do that are, of course, people that are very capable of what they do, and understand the potential of what it comes down to.
You know, I've discovered a lot of people like the results, what they see, but they don't necessarily like how you get there. And that usually is what drives people who come up to me and say, "I want you to do my next film, I really want to work with you," and when I line up the conditions of "Okay, well, this is how we should do it," that's when you really get to see people crouch in fear. And then when we get the agents and managers involved, it gets really, really, revealing about are they sincere.
Cinematical: When I talked to you for Bronson, you talked about working on the Jekyll and Hyde movie and I know in past interviews you had discussions about wanting to do stuff like Wonder Woman. Is there a danger in talking about projects that you want to do before they reach some level of confirmation? Or does that sort of put a certain kind of energy out in the universe, or however you want to describe it, that gives you further impetus for them to come to fruition?
Refn: I think it can depend on who you are and then what you do and what you want to do with it. Certainly to Wonder Woman came out of someone just asking me what I would like to do, or there was something I really wanted to do and being very nice, well brought up Scandinavian, I answered, and it got on tape or something and six seconds later it was all over the internet. And you can't stop that and you shouldn't try to. I mean, if I don't get to make the movie, I'll make something else that has the same basic idea why I wanted to make Wonder Woman. But it would be great to make it, I certainly feel that I could make it very well. But it was more about just doing it and not really so much about what's going to happen. And if it does great, if it doesn't, you know, I've got a lot of stuff on my, slate to get downloaded.
Cinematical: Well, I really appreciate getting the chance to talk to you. Thank you so much for your time.
Refn: Well, I'll talk to you next one. Don't forget to ask me in five months what I thought it was like working in Hollywood.
categories Interviews, Features, Movies, New Releases, Cinematical


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OSHA News Release - (Archived) Table of Contents
OSHA Trade Release
U.S. Department of Labor
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
Office of Communications
Washington, D.C.
For Immediate Release
OSHA Trade Release
Thursday, May 8, 2003
Contact: Layne Lathram
Phone: (202) 693-1999
Newest Draft Guidelines on OSHA's Website
WASHINGTON -- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced today that the 2nd set of draft industry-specific ergonomics guidelines -- Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders: Guidelines for Retail Grocery Stores -- is available for public comment at /SLTC/ergonomics (select "guidelines"). The draft guidelines will be published in the May 9, 2003 Federal Register.
"In developing these guidelines, OSHA reviewed existing ergonomic practices and programs in the retail grocery industry, and visited grocery stores to observe programs in action," said John L. Henshaw, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. "The agency also considered the available scientific data, and conducted one-on-one meetings with stakeholder groups to gather the best information available on successful practices, programs and processes in the retail grocery store industry."
The draft guidelines consist of an introduction and two main sections. The introduction provides an overview of musculoskeletal disorders in retail grocery stores and explains the role of ergonomics in reducing these injuries. The first section describes how to develop and implement a strategy for analyzing the workplace, implementing ergonomic solutions, training employees, addressing injury reports, and evaluating progress. The second section gives examples of solutions that may be used by retail grocery stores to control exposure to ergonomic risk factors in their workplaces, including recommendations geared to specific departments like stocking, bakery, produce, meat, and checkout, bagging and carryout. The draft guidelines conclude with a list of helpful references and resources.
"Many grocery stores have implemented injury prevention efforts," continued Henshaw. "The grocery store industry has reduced occupational injuries by a third over the last 10 years, from 12.5 per 100 full-time workers in 1992 to 8.1 in 2001. But workers are still injured in this industry, and we hope these guidelines will help employers reduce the injury and illness rate still further."
The guidelines are intended to provide practical solutions for reducing ergonomic-related injuries and illnesses in retail grocery stores. They do not address warehouses, convenience stores, or business operations that may be located within grocery stores, such as banks, post offices or coffee shops, although they may be useful to employers and workers in those workplaces. They will not be used for enforcement purposes. OSHA is also working on guidelines for the poultry processing and shipyard industries, and will make drafts available for comment.
Interested parties must submit written comments on the draft retail grocery store ergonomics guidelines to the OSHA Docket Office by July 8, 2003. After the conclusion of the comment period, there will be a stakeholder meeting in the Washington, DC metropolitan area to discuss the draft guidelines. Individuals are required to submit their intent to participate in this one-day stakeholder meeting by July 8, 2003. Location and date will be announced at a later date. Copies of the guidelines can be downloaded from the OSHA Webpage and also are available by calling OSHA toll-free at (800) 321-OSHA (6742) or faxing a request to (202) 693-2498. Additional information on submitting comments is available by calling the OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-2350 (TTY (877) 889-5627), or in the May 9, 2003 Federal Register.
U.S. Labor Department news releases are accessible on the Internet at www.dol.gov. The information in this release will be made available in alternative format upon request (large print, Braille, audio tape or disc) from the COAST office. Please specify which news release when placing your request. Call 202-693-7773 or TTY 202-693-7755.
|OSHA News Release - (Archived) Table of Contents

subset: commoncrawl


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With Volkswagen's takeover of Porsche, Volkswagen Group's product plans have been shuffled around with arguments about which brand will develop what products. One product development fight that Volkswagen and Audi have now officially denied is over electric vehicles.
Reports earlier this week added to the chaos of Volkswagen's takeover of Porsche, with rumors that Audi and Volkswagen were fighting over electric vehicle development. The reports said that Audi was working on developing electric vehicles against parent Volkswagen's wishes. Although the gigantic group has fought about a number of product plans, including the Porsche baby Boxster, Audi R4, and VW BlueSport, Audi is fully cooperating with VW.
The electric vehicle in question is the A1 E-tron Audi unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show last year. It featured an electric drivetrain with a single-rotary, gasoline engine that worked as a range-extender. Audi reportedly began developing the car for production without VW's approval.
While the concept was dubbed "a near-series production vehicle," no firm production plans, or even production-development plans are in place. Audi is evaluating putting the vehicle into production by conducting field tests beginning in the middle of this year.
If the A1 E-tron does go into production, it will do so alongside Audi's planned E-tron sports cars — previewed by the E-tron and E-tron Detroit Show Car — set for introduction in 2012. The E-tron sports car has been approved by parent VW as has Audi's plan for five-percent of its vehicles to be electric by 2020. Volkswagen also has its own plans to put an electric vehicle on the road by 2014.
Source: Automotive News Europe (Subscription required)


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Yes, this Wooden Monolith is Actually a Gaming PC
Posh wood and aluminium DIY build. Not for sale.
Posh wood and aluminium DIY build. Not for sale.
If you're prepared to be a little adventurous, Linux has plenty of great features that will save you time and make working a little less dull.
May also serve them more relevant advertising for chemicals and weapons.
And on Friday the Very Competent Coding Caterpillar fixed one bug while introducing 20 more.
There's a special tool that you're going to need, and here's how to use it.
Free tools and apps are widely available to help you recover your deleted data no matter what platform you're using. Here's what you need to know.
We first saw Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card a few weeks ago, and now it's on sale for a pretty reasonable price. £399 to be exact. Read More >>
Core blimey.
In short, most of the downsides to using an SSD aren't as bad as they used to be.
Lorenz device broken by Colossus just for fun now.
The Switch V 10 and Switch One 10 bring hybrid computing to budgeting pockets.
The GTX 1080 serves as a great bellweather for what will be a very important year in graphics technology.
If true, it does beg the question of why now? Beyond, at least, Apple needing a new feature to slap on a new poster.
There's more to this card than its raw performance data. Here's what's going on under the hood of Nvidia's big, bold attempt at cornering 4K and VR gaming in 2016.
his TED-Ed video breaks down the surprisingly human-like properties of computer RAM, or random access memory.
How can you blame them—the virtual TA managed to answer many of their questions with 97 per cent certainty.


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Black Friday kicked off at Washington Square (well, at least parts of it) at midnight. Just six some hours later, and nearly everything appears to be open from Macy's to the Vans and Lego store. Oh, and you can't forget the pretzel kiosk.
If you're still looking for some good holiday deals, you might want to think about heading out soon.
"I wanted something that no one else had," said (Chase) Hanchett, a 22-year-old senior from the Salt Lake area who is studying communications/ marketing.
He cut the rear roof off to open the bus up, removed some of the seats, and refurnished it — sort of.
"There's one really bad couch. It was free on the side of the road," said Hanchett, who painted the bus blue and orange the day before the first home game.
Hanchett gets up at 4:40 a.m. on game days to park in front of the stadium. All comers are welcome on the bus, which is pulled over frequently by police.
"I've been pulled over hundreds of times just so they can look at it. They think it's pretty fun," Hanchett said.
The bus runs on propane; it gets about 12 miles to the gallon. It doesn't travel to away games, but Hanchett does.
He travels by car with about a dozen current and former students.
"Last year, we went to almost all the away games," Hanchett said.


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Originally Posted by gen3sf
The image refers to the return of efforts to draft a Canadian copyright law that more closely resembles the laws in the Unted States. This issue first was raised 3 years ago and it being driven by US entertainment industry lobbyists. The bill, C-61, was not pursued after huge protests were mounted by both the public and business interests in Canada.
As you might have expected, the US entertainment industry did not stop lobbying key


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Featured Golf News
Golf Channel-type Network Underway in Australia
The PGA of Australia and Network Ten has announced that domestic and international golf will be broadcast into millions of homes across Australia over the next five years. The agreement will combine marquee golf tournaments from Australia, Asia and the U.S. on a single network.
The deal will see at least 12 live tournaments per year broadcast on Network Ten's new 24-hour sports channel ONE, along with supporting coverage of selected events on TEN. In addition, exclusive highlights packages of another 10 events annually will also be broadcast on ONE.
The partnership tees off this weekend with highlights of the Subaru Victorian Open followed next weekend by highlights of the Cellarbrations Victorian PGA Championship. Exclusive coverage of the Moonah Classic and Australia's oldest professional tournament, the Australian PGA Championship, headline the domestic events.
The deal also includes live coverage of the Michael Hill New Zealand Open, the HSBC New Zealand PGA Championship, the three World Golf Championship events - the Accenture MatchPlay Championship, CA Championship and Bridgestone Invitational - as well as the Omega Mission Hills World Cup.
Four key Asian events including the Singapore Open, Indian Open, Thailand Open and the season-ending Volvo Masters of Asia complete the international component. The deal adds to the network's existing portfolio of golf tournaments, including the year's opening two major championships, the Masters and U.S. Open, as well as the Johnnie Walker Classic and the ANZ Ladies Masters.
For more information, visit www.pga.org.au.
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Monthly Archives: April 2011
For Parents: The Church
This semester's Life Teen meetings have focused on the Catholic Church: who she is, what she does, where she came from, and where she's going. Of all the topics we have covered so far, this topic of the Church is the one where parents have stepped forward and said that they wish they could attend. Parents are curious and thirsty for knowledge about this area of our faith. This article will share with parents some main ideas of this Life Teen semester on the nature of the Church.
The Church is not merely a manmade institution. Yes, mankind plays a huge part in what the Church is, but at the end of the day, like the Bible itself, the Church is something of two worlds; both of God and man all at once. It is the aspect of the Church which is from God that guarantees the teachings of the Church to be perfect and free from all error.
The teaching authority of the Catholic Church is called the 'Magisterium.' The Church's teachings are guaranteed by the Holy Spirit, particularly when the Church declares dogmas. We may experience trouble understanding certain dogmas, but this is not the same as having doubt. For example, I may not understand how a ten-ton metal Alaska Airline jet plane can fly in the sky, but I have no doubt that it does so. Similarly, a man could say, "I don't understand how Mary could have been assumed into Heaven body and soul at the end of her earthly life," but this is not the same as him saying, "I doubt that Mary was assumed into Heaven…" Difficulties are not the same as doubts. The Church has always been the home of scholars and great thinkers. The Church wants us to think and to ask questions. However, we also humbly admit our own limited knowledge, and we recognize that the teachings of the Church are from God, and so even if we cannot understand a particular Church teaching, we always remain humble and submit our minds to it.
No one has ever come back to tell us who was in Heaven, but the Catholic Church teaches that Heaven is at least a possibility for everyone in the world, even if they were born on a desert island and never saw a Bible or a baptismal font. The sin of Adam and Eve closed Heaven to all humankind. Jesus' death on the cross opened up the way to Heaven so that we could again get there, but His Crucifixion still does not remove the drama of life and the work we have to do on our own. If everyone were guaranteed to go to Heaven, then the significance of all our choices we make each day would be lost. All the drama and importance of our decisions would be taken from us. We would have no reason to hope for Heaven if we were absolutely assured of going there.
By way of example, if a child has peeked into the basement and sees the new bicycle he is getting for his birthday, then he no longer has to hope he is getting a bike. Instead he would know. This is because the experience of hoping for something depends on not knowing the answer for sure. Therefore, part of being a Catholic is not knowing for sure how it will all turn out.
Consider that the Catholic Church has never officially declared a single person to be in Hell. When the Church canonizes saints, this is, among other things, a declaration that the sainted person is definitely in Heaven, but the opposite, a declaration that someone is in hell, has never taken place in the 2,000 year history of the Catholic Church. She always leaves room for hope. Our journey in this life is one of hope. We do not know the outcome for sure, but deep inside we are hopeful and trusting in God's mercy. This idea of hoping and trusting in God's mercy, much more than some kind of total assurance, describes the authentic Catholic stance towards our view of how to await the Final Judgment.
What we do know is this: as Catholics we are traveling the road to Heaven in a nice limousine. No matter how hard certain days seem, if we are practicing Catholics who obey the Church's teachings and receive the Sacraments regularly, then we are greatly assisted on our way to Heaven. The advantages of being Catholic are so great that they can never be put into words. The graces of the Sacraments and the Truth of Catholic teaching give Catholics great advantages. Many saints have used the image of this world being a dimly lit path. By their analogies, the dogmas and doctrines of the Catholic Church would be the brightest lights and the strongest handrails on the path through this world.
The image I provided of a limousine is a metaphor, and no metaphor is perfect. Please take this idea of the Sacraments and teachings of the Church being a limousine carrying us to Heaven with a pinch of salt. Nothing about the limousine should imply that it's easy to be Catholic. For some Catholics, such as Mother Theresa, or suffering souls, their 'limousine' looks quite odd from the standpoint of the world. Yet it is a limousine all the same because the Catholic Church gives souls great advantages and so much security on the way to Heaven. Who was more firmly on the road to Heaven than Mother Theresa? Or Pope John Paul? Or St. Francis of Assissi? Or any of countless other saints and blesseds? It is good to be in their company, as Catholics ourselves. GK Chesterton pointed out that many religions have good men, but only the Catholic Church produces actual saints, century after century.
Catholic By Grace
It was 1979. Bruce Jenner had won the gold medal almost three years earlier, and now he had everyone running. He smiled for the Wheaties cereal box and promoted the concept of jog-a-thons as a fundraiser idea. I was the class treasurer that year. Junior prom was two years away, and the fundraiser sounded like a good way to generate some cash so we would be able to put on a prom for the seniors that would really wow them.
So, we sent away for a jog-a-thon kit and passed out forms. The whole class was going to participate, and we begged family and friends to pledge a couple of bucks for every mile we successfully completed. Our class moderator, Mr. Canterbury, set aside a three-mile route through our home town and marked off the area with orange cones. The traffic was diverted in order to keep the runners safe. Sixty kids showed up in shorts and tennis shoes, ready to run, jog or walk. Three miles into it, I was done.
Some managed to run five or ten miles, repeating the three-mile route over and over again.
Darrin Ripley decided it was a good day to run his first marathon. We were in awe of him.
The folks who had made a per-mile pledge were not as thrilled with Darrin. Five dollars per mile adds up, especially when a freshman boy is trying to prove something to a bunch of freshmen girls – or maybe just trying to prove something to himself.
On Monday morning, the students turned in their earnings. I counted out the money. Darrin's supporters had paid up. They probably swallowed hard as they did it, but Iowans know how to keep a promise.
I think it must be like that for some parents when their son or daughter discerns a call to religious life. The promise to raise one's children in the faith suddenly has a higher price than expected. It makes eight years of parish religion classes or twelve years of Catholic education seem like a small sacrifice in comparison.
Some parents probably swallow hard as they dig deeply into their souls and promise to give their full support to a child who has discerned a call to the priesthood or religious life.
But I also think that there are some parents like Darrin's dad. Mr. Ripley didn't blink an eye when Darrin said that he'd run over twenty-six miles. Mr. Ripley was a coach – and he probably understood his son more in that moment than he ever had.
He probably smiled when he wrote that check to his son's class at Riceville Community High School. Darrin turned the money in promptly that Monday morning, and we were in awe once again. The newspaper photographer came out to take our picture. I got to be in the picture because I was the treasurer. Darrin got to be in the picture because nobody else had even come close to running as far as he had. We'd won an award from Bruce Jenner and Wheaties. Our class of sixty students had come in third in the nation for Jog-a-thons that year.
And we gave the seniors one fantastic prom the year we were juniors.
In reality, though, the people who made good on their promise to pay had something to do with it. No matter how much we ran that day, we needed the support of those who signed our pledge cards.
And there's a lesson in that as well. The faithful pray that God will send Mother Church more vocations to the priesthood and religious life. We make a pledge to support them, encourage them, and respect them for giving themselves so fully to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Moms and Dads, it's time to encourage our children to follow God completely, even if the price is high. Even if the marathon ends with the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
It's time for the faithful to sign their pledge cards and give their support. We do this when we remember to pray for vocations and when we make good on our promise to hold our religious up through prayer. We do this when we make good on our promise to respect them as one standing in the place of Our Lord. In persona Christi.
We aren't investing in a junior prom. No, our celebration trumps all celebrations. We are investing in the future of Mother Church. We are doing all that we can to make sure the Mass is celebrated throughout the world and that the laity has access to the Sacramental life.
This is the eternal celebration. And it is worth every sacrifice.
God, Our Father, send us holy priests and more vocations to religious life – all for the Sacred and Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, all for the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, in union with Saint Joseph. Amen.
Changes in the Roman Missal
If you have been reading recent articles in the Catholic press and especially in The Southeast Alaska Catholic, you are probably aware that changes are coming in the translation of the Roman Missal (sacramentary) that we use at Mass. On Sunday, November 27, 2011, the First Sunday of Advent, we will begin using the new English translation of the Roman Missal.
To begin our preparations for these changes I will be joining Archbishop Roger Schwietz, Anchorage and Bishop Donald Kettler, Fairbanks, as well as by the priests, deacons and lay ministers of our three Alaskan dioceses, to learn in depth about the new English translation, about the changes to the texts we pray at Mass and about how to most effectively prepare our people for them.
I recently received a press release on new catechetical resources that can be used in preparation for the new Roman Missal from my friend Msgr. James Moroney, Executive Director of Vox Clara. (Vox Clara [Clear Voice] is an international committee that was established by the Holy Father in 2002 to oversee the translation of liturgical texts for the universal Church.) In an attached letter by the Chairman of Vox Clara, Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, the cardinal noted:
" …the Church now stands on the verge of implementing a flowing vernacular text suitable to the rhythm of popular prayer which has been translated integrally and in the most exact manner"[Liturgicam Authenticum, no. 20]. Yet, as the Council Fathers [at the Second Vatican Council] presciently reminded us, "it would be futile to entertain any hopes of realizing this unless the pastors themselves, in the first place, become thoroughly imbued with the spirit and power of the liturgy, and undertake to give instruction about it" [Sacrosanctum Concilium no.14]. This is why each one of us, bishops, priests, deacons and lay faithful alike, must devote ourselves to the opportunities for liturgical, spiritual and pastoral renewal provided by the occasion of the publication of this new Missal.
By way of background, the Roman Missal is the book containing the prayers of the Mass that we use for Sunday and weekday Masses throughout the Church year. The original and guiding text of the Missal is in Latin as are all of the liturgical texts and other official documents of the Roman rite of the Catholic Church. After the Second Vatican Council, the Latin texts of the Roman Missal were revised and an initial translation from the Latin was prepared for English speakers around the world. That was almost forty years ago. This new translation has been revised to more accurately and fully reflect the meaning and style of the original Latin.
This process of translation has taken years. The final text, once approved by the bishops, was submitted to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome. In August 2010, Rome sent back the approved text so that the new English translation of the Roman Missal would be available this coming October.
Why is the Church doing this? As the first document of the Second Vatican Council, The Sacred Constitution on the Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium) so eloquently declares: "…the liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the fount from which all her power flows." The entire liturgy and especially the Eucharist are at the very center of the life in Christ that we share together. To grow and deepen in faith with our brothers and sisters throughout the world, we need to be faithful to the wording and style of the original Latin. The universality of our Church adds to the spiritual and theological depth we experience in our Catholic faith.
At the same time, our challenge is to prepare so we can make these changes in a smooth and orderly way. Between now and the beginning of Advent we will be doing catechesis on the Mass in general and on changes in the words that we pray, in particular so that we will be able to make the transition as seamlessly as possible.
Pope Benedict XVI recently said, "Many will find it hard to adjust to unfamiliar texts after nearly forty years of continuous use of the previous translation. The change will need to be introduced with due sensitivity and the opportunity for catechesis that it presents will need to be firmly grasped."
It is my hope that the preparation and catechesis will help alleviate the frustrations that will come with these liturgical changes. I urge you to enter into these changes with an open heart and as an opportunity to deepen your relationship with the Lord in the Eucharist. As we move closer to the First Sunday of Advent, you will hear more from me and your pastors about the changes in the Roman Missal. In the meantime, let us continue to grow in appreciation for the Universal Church and in love with our Eucharistic Lord.
A Church in Need of Healing
Like many of you, I look around and see the people who are hurting and in need of healing. Images in the paper, online, or on the nightly news show the faces of those affected by war, famine, suffering and evil. There is such a need for healing. When looking at the people in the Church, I see the same need – a need for healing in their personal lives, for family members, for their community, and most disconcerting, for the Church.
The Church is wounded. I just returned from Ireland after being on the team for the Apostolic Visitation of Seminaries in Ireland, a process requested by Pope Benedict XVI as a result of the reports of clergy sexual abuse that had taken place there. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York was the appointed visitor and he selected a team of five of us to help him in the process. During my ten days in Ireland, I saw a wounded Church. It was my first trip to Ireland and I had always imagined it as the bedrock of faith. Growing up, I experienced the wonderful gift of the Church in Ireland here in the United States. It seemed as though we always had a number of priests and religious from Ireland living out their religious vocations in the various dioceses and communities in this country. Archbishop Dolan, in his opening remarks to the seminary community of St. Patrick's in Maynooth, said, "It pains us [the visitors from the US] to see the Church in Ireland suffering so much because of the clergy sexual abuse scandals. We have always looked to Ireland as a great source of strength in the faith."
The Church is wounded and weary. These stories continue to come and we wonder when it will end. It is important for us to know the truth, and the truth hurts. It hurts when we are asked about this by non-Catholics and it hurts when we lose confidence in Church officials. But it is important to hold on to the truths of our faith. At the last supper, Christ sat with one who had betrayed him. We, too, have been betrayed by some in the Church, just as Christ was betrayed by Judas, and some in the Church continue to act out of their own selfishness.
It is necessary for us to pray for God's grace, wisdom and healing. Through the Sacraments we are able to know and experience God's grace. As I celebrate the Mass in our parishes and missions, I cherish the ministry of proclaiming God's word and celebrating his presence in the Eucharist and of witnessing the great expressions of faith found in the people of Southeast Alaska. It is by the grace of God that I continue to see people solid in their faith even after the news of scandals breaks.
The wisdom of God is what I pray for most frequently. Coupled with God's grace, I need to know that we are doing God's will and not our own. We all have the tendency to add our own egos and desires into our decision making process, but within the Church, we are called to surrender our will to that of Christ. The Church is the Body of Christ and as members of his Body, we should seek to conform our thoughts, words and actions to that of Christ.
As Christ was wounded at the scourging at the pillar, as he received the crown of thorns, as he carried his cross to Calvary – the Body of Christ, the Church, continues to experience serious wounds as a result of those who have betrayed us – especially through the cases of sexual abuse by those who were to be trusted. Through the rich tradition of our prayers, in particular the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary and the Stations of the Cross, we can come closer to Christ who is with us through these moments, recognizing that he calls us to be one with him. Christ remains the source of our strength and he alone can heal us.
The healing process will be a long one. In fact, I do not see the end in sight, but I surely do see signs of healing. First of all, the firm faith of the people of God has been an inspiration to me and to the priests of this diocese. We wrote about this in our pastoral letter to you last year (http://www.dioceseofjuneau.org/pastoral-letter). It is encouraging to see this, especially in our young people. Secondly, I continue to see quality men discerning the vocation to priesthood. Many of them step forward recognizing that they are not part of the problems in the Church, but they want to be part of the solution and to help the healing process. Lastly, our focus on Christ will be our only hope. When we take our eyes off Christ, much like St. Peter on the water (Mt. 14:27-32), we begin to falter. Members of this Church have failed us, but our faith in the Lord will save us and heal us.
Celebrating Our Catholic Faith
Last summer I received an invitation to be part of a "Good Leaders, Good Shepherds" workshop for bishops sponsored by the Catholic Leadership Institute. This workshop was established through a grant of some very generous benefactors who saw the need for bishops in the United States to be given an opportunity to grow in their skills as effective leaders within the Church. It seemed easy for me to make the decision to attend this workshop since I knew the key people of this program and, indeed, it proved to be a worthwhile experience. The Catholic Leadership Institute has done a great amount of work in helping leaders within the church.
It always seems to be the case that when I sign up for a workshop and agree to be present at an event, I am filled with remorse as the time approaches, because so many other things seem to creep into my schedule that it makes leaving far more challenging. Nevertheless, I attended the workshop from January 24 – 27. In preparation for this, I was asked to have a number of people evaluate me in my work and ministry as a bishop. After reflecting on who could provide such an evaluation, I decided to have all the priests of the diocese, as well as the entire staff of the diocesan chancery, complete the online evaluation of me. I jokingly said at a staff meeting that I wanted to make appointments with me so that I could help them answer the evaluation questions. While it is not always easy going through valuations, I know that it is important as I strive to provide the best to the diocese through my ministry as its Bishop. One thing that I am aware of is that we are blessed with good priests, deacons, religious and lay people who faithfully serve this Diocese.
The staff of the Diocese have indicated that they get concerned about my return after a trip because I have had time to reflect on the works of the Diocese and have identified more tasks in order to continue its work. In completing this "Good Leaders, Good Shepherds" workshop, I am in a better position to discuss with the staff and our priests what foundational ministries are necessary within the Church of Southeast Alaska and what our three top priorities might be. I look forward to talking to them about their thoughts.
From my perspective, I see that we are called to celebrate our faith – the Sacraments, our lives with others, and our lives within the Church. The Body of Christ has varied descriptions and definitions. The body of Christ has an entire wealth of depth and mystery that speaks to the person of Jesus Christ: the Sacrament that we receive in the Eucharist, the people of God who gather around the table of the Lord, and the very essence of our beloved Catholic Church. As shepherd of the Diocese, I recognize the responsibility to help keep all the work of the Church in Southeast Alaska in line with the Universal Church, the teachings of our Holy Father, renewing ourselves in our baptismal call and dedicated to following Christ the Lord as his disciples.
I do see a lot of things I would like to improve in my ministry and a few things within the Diocese of Juneau. I am aware that these things are not going to occur overnight. Nevertheless, I recognize that we should have our priorities and focus our attention on some specific needs. It's true, I will be coming back from this workshop with some ideas for how to streamline the work of the Diocese. The priests and the staff will be a part of the establishment of any future endeavors we embrace. Along with the deacons, religious, full-time ministers and dedicated faithful parishioners, we seek to bring about a vibrant church in Southeast Alaska. It is my hope that we understand our roles and the great importance of celebrating the Body of Christ – the Sacrament, the people, the Church.


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Comments Thread For: Eddie Hearn: Lee Selby Excites Me, He's a Hidden Gem
Welshman Lee Selby has become the latest boxer to agree a promotional deal with Matchroom Boxing. The British and Commonwealth featherweight champion, who has won all but one of his 15 fights, follows in the footsteps of Matchroom's recent acquisitions Ricky Burns and George Groves.
But despite Selby's lack of recognition outside boxing circles, managing director Eddie Hearn believes he has the potential to be the biggest draw of all three.
"Everyone knows about George and Ricky, but there is something about Lee that really excites me, he's a hidden gem," Hearn said.
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Lee Selby definitely looks one with big potential. He's head and shoulders above the other domestic talent and looks so big and strong at the weight.
When he turned pro he turned pro at the weight above. He's moved down and looks so much better for it.
He's has plenty of talent and ability - he needs to be smarter above his shot selection and think about his D and body position when he throws.
That aside, he's certainly one that at bare minimum should pick up a World Title.
His brother is also a real talent - Andrew Selby, imo, the most naturally gifted fighter in the UK. He's an amateur and you never know if they'll make that transition to the pro's, but he's a Euro Gold and World Silver Medalist (although I thought he won the Gold).
Two brothers that could go on to make plenty of noise in the future!
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I for one would love to see one of those infamous sparring sessions with a heavyweight.
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I for one would love to see one of those infamous sparring sessions with a heavyweight.
Lol - yeah, that's an exaggeration! Probably does but they're obviously holding back plenty. Either that or it's a misquote
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Interview: Efforts on obesity "not enough" to avert crisis - Prof. David Haslam
By Katy Askew | 13 January 2014
The UK government and food industry are making a concerted effort to tackle the mounting obesity crisis - but Professor David Haslam of the National Obesity Forum tells just-food more must be done by all stakeholders to reverse the tide of rising obesity levels.
The problem of obesity represents a massive challenge for the food industry and policy makers globally. The World Health Organization declared obesity an epidemic in 1997. Over the past 30 years, the number of obese adults in the world has doubled and obesity-related diseases currently kill 2.8m adults each year.
In the UK, a 2007 investigation into obesity, the Foresight Report, predicted around 50% of the country's population will be classified as obese by 2050. However, today (13 January), there were fresh warnings that stark prediction could in fact underestimate the scale of the crisis.
Unveiling a report from the National Obesity Forum, the organisation's chair Professor David Haslam suggested the UK should consider itself "lucky" if just half the population were obese by 2050.
If current trends persist, the National Obesity Forum predicts over the next 36 years the majority of people in the UK will be classified as obese. The implications of for the health of the population - and the national purse given the extra stresses that would be placed on the National Health Service - are far-reaching.
However, speaking to just-food this morning, Haslam emphasises all is not lost. "We aren't just trying to be the voice of doom, we are trying to do something about it," he insists. "[Obesity trends] can be changed. It is going to take at least a generation to do... We've got to do something now."
Last week, the National Obesity Forum released the results of a study where it "took over a supermarket". The campaign group used life-sized cut outs of doctors and nurses at point of sale to urge consumers to make healthier purchasing choices.
"Some things can be done instantly and make a difference to the health of the nation. So why aren't they being done? We are trying to show that [efforts like the POS awareness campaign] won't hit sales - they actually result in an increase in sales of certain healthier items," Haslam says.
The results of the trial showed a significant jump in fruit sales - with fresh sales up 20% and frozen sales up 30% - as well as higher sales of products such as fish. The Forum saw no change in vegetable sales, while data has not yet been processed on the impact on sales of products that are high in fat and sugar, Haslam says.
In this way, food retailers can contribute positively to efforts to lower obesity rates, he argues. "Retailers can make it easier to make healthier choices. Consumers want to buy fizzy drinks and retailers will stock these products. But the low-sugar option should be the one that is put at eye level."
From a manufacturing standpoint, the biggest opportunities to lower obesity rates are reformulation and labelling, Haslam says.
"Manufacturers need to focus on reformulation - and a reduction in sugar content - in particular," he suggests.
Haslam believes that as consumer palates become accustomed to lower sugar options, uptake of reduced sugar food and drink will grow. "It is like salt. The salt reduction campaign has been a big success. You soon get used to not eating sugar. Ask anyone who has stopped taking sugar in their tea, if you are given it by accident, you want to spit it at the wall."
The food industry should step up its efforts around health and wellness and Haslam favours a voluntary multi-stakeholder approach. However, if this fails to produce sufficient results, Haslam argues regulation should be considered.
"I hope our report from last week [on POS campaigning] will mean [the Government] doesn't have to introduce regulations... But if nothing happens then yes, there should be regulations about the sugar content of food... There is a lot of talk about the 'fat tax' but sugar is also a major issue."
At present, the UK government's efforts are focused on a voluntary industry code - the Responsibility Deal - and the Change4Life initiative. However, Haslam does not believe the programme is substantial enough - with funding being a major issue.
"The government get it. They get the problem. We don't want to be seen as government-bashing. But not enough is invested in Change4Life - and a [larger] expenditure now will save billions in the years to come."
Other areas where "small changes" can make a difference to the obesity crisis include efforts around school meals and alterations to the built environment, such as encouraging the use of escalators instead of stairs.
Haslam's message to the food sector would seem to be coming through loud and clear. The health campaigner, like many in the field, would prefer a voluntary approach. But, with time running out and a generation already lost to obesity, if the industry does not step-up its efforts pressure for the government to legislate on the matter is likely to mount.
Click here to view our news coverage of the National Obesity Forum's report.
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text: This print shows a court ballet performed before Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, in Vlasislav Hall, Prague Castle in 1617. Spending vast sums on such lavish, ephemeral spectacles was quite usual in 16th and 17th century Europe. Their purpose was often to impress visiting dignitaries and present a positive image of a ruler and his court. They included vast processions, dances, sung episodes and acted interludes, all sumptuously costumed with elaborate coaches and chariots and stage effects. From these spectacles evolved ballet and opera. In this production, the dancers form geometric patterns on the floor of the theatre before what we would now think of as the proscenium arch, which is 'designed' as a rocky archway. It helps to give the perspective illusion to the scenery behind it, as well as helping to mask the ropes, pulleys and counterweights that worked the cloud machine and the god descending in his chariot.


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2009 Fattoria di Felsina Berardenga Chianti Classico Riserva Rancia
Producer: Fattoria di Felsina
Style: Red Wine
Grape Type: Sangiovese
Origin: Italy
Region: Tuscany
92? Points | Stephen Tanzer's IWC - July/August 2012
Dark ruby-red. Concentrated aromas of red berries, earth, aromatic herbs and flint. Then rich, suave and full in the mouth, with thick flavors of red and dark fruits, loam and rosemary. The long finish features peppery tannins. This is very impressive but I find it a bit chunkier than most recent versions of Rancia, with less perfume than this high-quality sangiovese usually delivers.


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"The photos of Christina Aguilera being leaked to the press were illegally obtained by a hacker who tapped into Christina's personal stylist's account," according to a statement from the singer's rep. "The photos were taken in the privacy of Ms. Aguilera's home and were used only in a personal exchange between the star and her stylist."
It's unclear when the pictures were taken, but they show the singer wearing nothing but pasties and a few strands of jewel-encrusted fabric draped over her body.
"We are attempting to determine the identity of the hackers and will pursue them aggressively," the statement continues. "Their conduct is reprehensible."
Aguilera, who turns 30 Dec. 18, recently filed for divorce from her husband Jordan Bratman. The couple are parents to a 2 ½-year-old son.
Best in Film Special Smooch! Vote for the greatest movie kiss ever.
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Give Now
After two years of decomposing, the piles of leftover wood chips at Bread & Roses Gardens will soon sprout mushrooms thanks to hungry mycelium.
Morel mushrooms fruit in the spring, signaling a Hoosier tradition of hunting the wooded areas. Traditional Arts Indiana learns more about these elusive fungi.
The catawba grapes we harvested last week are now being turned into wine at the Oliver Winery. And, persimmon desserts are favorites during the fall in Indiana.
Cattail pollen is often used in pancake recipes. We're changing it up a bit with this recipe for muffins.
We're excited to be reporting from the Bloomington Community Farmers Market today. Then we talk about three wild delicacies: ramps, morels and redbuds.
Brian Snider has been hunting morels in southern Indiana for 25 years. He says this year's season started earlier and will end earlier than any in his memory.
It's morel season in many parts of the country, and the rush is on. Get out there and test your luck!
Who needs actual chicken when you have these meaty and flavorful mushrooms!
Didi Emmons didn't always cook with weeds. Thanks to her relationship with a local farmer, she now loves all sorts of feisty, flavorful and nutritious plants.
Fall is a special time of year for foragers like Tracy Branam. These days he's on the hunt for persimmons and walnuts.
What I especially love about this treatment is that the syrup is as sweet as candy and something children will actually enjoy taking.
Urban foraging collects unused or unwanted produce from public places. What about abandoned gardens on foreclosed lots?
On the menu is pork, coleslaw, corn, mushrooms, and much more. Summer grilling doesn't get much more local and seasonal than this!
As promised, last week we gave you tips for how to hunt for ramps, and now we're giving you some recipes for three ways to put ramps to work in your cooking.
In the first of two episodes celebrating summer grilling, we help you prepare grilled duck and peaches with a traditional french side dish of sweet peas.
As promised, last week we gave you tips for how to hunt for ramps, and now we're giving you some recipes for three ways to put ramps to work in your cooking.
As morel hunting season approaches, Earth Eats talks with expert Ron Kerner about how to hunt, identify and prepare morel mushrooms
Spring is an exciting season for foodies, and especially foragers. If you're lucky, you might come across wild leeks - also known as ramps - popping up.
It's that time of year again: Time to harvest wild greens! Earth Eats contributor Amy Jeanroy walks you through harvesting and cooking tasty wild greens.
Chef Orr picks grape leaves from a tree near his home and then transforms them into dolmas with mushroom stuffing.


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Letters to the editor
Partisan media at it again
Again, the leftist reporters of main-street media cloud the facts in their overwhelming desire to protect the Obama administration from "We the People" finding the truth.
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In addition to his scoring output and career-high in rebounds, Graham added three steals, an assist, and a blocked shot. Senior guard A.J. Smith (Cocoa, Fla.) was red-hot shooting 3-for-5 from the field, 2-of-2 from long range and 2-for-2 from the line for 10 points before leaving the game late in the first half with a twisted ankle. He returned briefly mid way through the second, yet did not stay on the floor long.
Stetson led for most of the first half and was up by as many as six points after a Graham layup with 4:12 remaining. As the clock ran down UNF eliminated the deficit and ended up in the locker room with a two point advantage in a low scoring 22-20 game. The Hatters shot 42.1% from the field in the opening period, a figure that dropped to 35.4% by games' end. The Ospreys, conversely, were 7-of-20 for 35.0% in the first half, and improved to 45.0%.
The second half opened with a UNF hoop followed by a Graham jumper and a nifty left handed lay in by Stetson's Liam McInerney (Victoria, Australia) to tie the game 24-24. The Ospreys answered with a layup by Andy Diaz (Miami, Fla.) before single free throws by Joel Naburgs (Victoria, Australia) and Tyshawn Patterson (Orlando, Fla.) on successive possessions tied the game for the sixth, and final time at 26-26.
Without Smith in the lineup for Stetson North Florida took advantage and ran its lead up as high as 11 points with 13:06 remaining. Later a pair of free throws by Patterson at 3:24 brought the Hatters to within four points, yet that was as close as the home team would come. The Ospreys finished with an 8-2 run for the 10-point victory.
"They did a great job taking away our #1 option tonight", said Stetson Head Coach Derek Waugh. "I thought we played great in the first half, but we didn't have an answer in the second. This was a must-win game for us and we didn't get it done."
For the Hatters Patterson contributed eight points, while Olivier Dupiton added four on some athletic moves to the hoop, and Mark Lohuis seemed to return to form when he buried a pair of smooth jumpers in the first half. Brad Haugabrook (Newark, N.J.) led the Ospreys with 16 points followed by Jerron Granberry (Miami, Fla.) with 15.
Next up for the Hatters is a road trip to play ETSU Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and Campbell on Saturday at 3:15 p.m. Hatters fans can catch the action by tuning into A-Sun TV which is available at www.atlanticsun.org.


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3 ways to usher in 2013 on TV
1 Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. Clark's gone but his New Year's Eve telecast lives on (on WJET). East Coast guests include Psy doing "Gangnam Style," plus Taylor Swift, Neon Trees and Carly Rae Jepson. West Coast: Justin Bieber, Jason Aldean, the Wanted, Flo Rida and more. A two-hour special on Clark precedes "Eve" at 8 p.m.
2 MTV'S Club NYE 2013. MTV also sets up in Times Square; won't it be crowded? Performers include the embattled Ke$ha (radio stations are dropping "Die Young"), Sean Kingston, Ne-Yo, Rita Ora and Conor Maynard. Both Snooki and JWoww from "Jersey Shore" will be there; so will Jeff Dye ("Money From Strangers.") 11 p.m.
3 Live from Lincoln Center. There's more to life than pop music. The New York Philharmonic celebrates the late Marvin Hamlisch at its New Year's Eve gala with Joshua Bell, Michael Feinstein, Josh Groban, Ra�l Esparza, Maria Friedman, Megan Hilty, Kelli O'Hara and Frederica von Stade. Showtime is 10:30 p.m. on WQLN.


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Carlson, Robert H.
NEW YORK—The advent of molecular profiling is the future of thoracic oncology and incorporating novel therapies into combined modality treatment is the future for locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), according to a talk here at the Perspectives in Thoracic Oncology meeting.
"The new molecular targeted agents, such as are being tested in the RTOG 1306/Alliance 31101 trial, are going to define how we move forward in this field," said Anne S. Tsao, MD, Associate Professor and Director of the Thoracic Chemo-Radiation Program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Until then the field is open, she said, as some novel agents that had seemed hopeful have not done well in clinical trials. "We know systemic therapy can give a clear survival benefit in stage III disease—particularly when you can downstage these patients—but distant relapse still remains a significant cause of death in stage III patients. If we could just improve our systemic treatment, I think we could see a vastly improved outcome.
Individualizing combined-modality therapy is the aim of the new stage III RTOG 1306/Alliance 31101 for unresectable stage III NSCLC trial, with treatment based on the EM4-ALK biomarker. Tsao called discovery of the EML4-ALK fusion gene one of the biggest developments in the treatment of advanced NSCLC.
That gene—echinoderm microtubule associated protein-like 4-anaplastic lymphoid kinase—is found primarily in adenocarcinoma patients who are never- or light-former smokers, who have tumors that overexpress EGFR and wild type KRAS wild type, and are younger.
Treatment includes erlotinib induction for patients with EGFR overexpression, and crizotinib induction for those with ALK translocation. Patients in each arm of the study are then treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy.
Tsao said targeted therapy and chemoradiotherapy may prove to be most appropriate for patients determined by molecular profiling to have this negative prognostic factor. "This trial may change our standard of care for these patients. Given that we are molecularly targeting so many more of our patients and developing targeted agents for them, this may be our future."
Other avenues, though, have not been as promising, she noted:
* Maintenance gefitinib, following the SWOG 9504 regimen, is not appropriate and may be harmful in unselected stage-III NSCLC patients;
* Pemetrexed-based therapy should not be given in squamous cell carcinoma;
* Bevacizumab plus chemoradiotherapy led to high rates of morbidity in SWOG 0533; and
* Results of RTOG 0617 are awaited to define a role for cetuximab.
Cetuximab, the IgG1 chimerized antibody to EGFR that blocks binding of EGF/TGF-alpha to EGFR, potentiates apoptosis, inhibits cell cycle progression, decreases production of angiogenic factors, and inhibits invasion and metastasis. Cetuximab is currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for head and neck cancer with radiation, and also colorectal cancer.
For lung cancer, she noted, the results with cetuximab were positive in the Phase II RTOG 0324 trial, which treated 84 patients with cetuximab before and after paclitaxel-carboplatin-cetuximab and radiotherapy, followed by paclitaxel-carboplatin-cetuximab.
With a median follow-up of 21.6 months, the objective response rate was 62 percent, with a 29 percent rate of complete response. Progressive disease occurred in 11 percent of patients (Blumenschein et al: JCO 2011; 29: 2312-2318). Median overall survival was approximately 23 months.
And based on RTOG 0324, the large Phase III RTOG 0617 study of 419 patients was planned, with 237 patients receiving cetuximab (Bradley et al: ASCO 2013, Abstract 7501). Tsao said this is the trial that it is hoped will be used as the basis for the drug receiving approval for stage III NSCLC.
"Unfortunately, though," she said, "there was no difference in the rate of distant metastases with cetuximab and no significant benefit in overall or progression-free survival." Furthermore, there was higher overall grade 3-5 toxicity among patients who received cetuximab vs. those who did not, as well as higher non-hematologic grade 3-5 toxicities.
However it may be that patients with EGFR immunohistochemistry H-scores of 200 or greater had more benefit with cetuximab, she said, and further investigation should be made.
Another trial of cetuximab added it to pemetrexed, Tsao continued. As reported at the 2009 ASCO Annual Meeting, the CALGB 30407 trial tested the combination of carboplatin-pemetrexed vs. carboplatin-pemetrexed-cetuximab in patients with squamous cell carcinoma or NSCLC (Govindan et al, Abstract 7505).
"Cetuximab didn't add much," she said. The median failure-free survival was 13 months for patients receiving carboplatin-pemetrexed vs. 12 months for those in the carboplatin-pemetrexed-cetuximab group, and overall response rates were 28 and 34 percent, respectively. There was a statistically significant advantage in patients with NSCLC vs. squamous cell carcinoma. "We think squamous cell carcinoma has an intrinsic mechanism of resistance to pemetrexed," she said.
Use of cetuximab in combination with chemotherapy and radiation for locoregionally advanced NSCLC remains investigational, but identification of a predictive biomarker would be beneficial, she added. Meanwhile, cetuximab is not likely to be widely used in stage III NSCLC.
Gefitinib was another agent with disappointing results in NSCLC. SWOG 0023, with patients with unresected IIIA or IIIB NSCLC, showed that gefitinib maintenance therapy after concurrent chemoradiation (cisplatin, etoposide, and 61 Gy radiotherapy) and docetaxel consolidation therapy improved neither progression-free or overall survival compared with placebo. "In fact, it is possible that gefitinib may have a detrimental effect," Tsao said, adding, though, that this remains under investigation.
But, long-term survival results were shown to be impressive with maintenance gefitinib in the SWOG 9504 trial for patients with stage IIIB NSCLC—"Certain subsets of stage IIIB can have a survival range of 20 to 37 percent," she said. "Confirmatory randomized trials are needed, but cisplatin/etoposide given concurrently with radiation followed by docetaxel for three cycles is an appropriate regimen to use in stage IIIB NSCLC."
Finally, she said, AE-941, a standardized cartilage extract from dogfish shark, has not been shown to be beneficial in lung carcinoma, even though preclinical data had given support for its having antiangiogenic and antitumor activity.
© 2014 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
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Pamela Tarapchak
Online ISSN: 1548-4688
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